Most language students spend year after year plugging away trying to learn a new language. No matter what the language, it’s expected to take some time to pick it up… and I know this from first-hand experience learning a language “the slow way.”
I sat in language classes and studied grammar books but still arrived in Spain barely speaking the language. I know there’s a faster way.
First, many languages teachers argue that adults should learn the same way as babies do… basically by immersion in the language. So they run language classes all in the target language. I found this approach frustrating and difficult.
Adults are not babies. We don’t need to learn what an apple looks like and the associate it with it’s name. We already have a name for it, all we have to do is associate the word in the target language with our word.
There’s no beating around the bush trying to figure out what the teacher is saying. You associate apple with manzana (Spanish) and move on. With repetition this word will stick in your mind.
I also disagree with the approach to vocabulary building that most classes take. You learn words that you barely use in daily conversation in your own language, let alone will use in the new language. Do I really need to learn how to say chick pea in Spanish? I didn’t even know what it was in English!
Useful words to be would be computer, internet, and website since these are critical for explaining my job. Maybe you’re interested in a sport or another hobby so go out and learn that vocab. The broad strokes of a classroom textbook try to appeal to all and end up teaching no-one.
So when you’re learning your language, thinking about what you currently say and translate it over. You’ll find you pick up your language a million times faster and achieve relatively fluency in a much shorter time.
Posted in: Languages, Learning.
I saw this interesting story about the French jeweler Mauboussin trying to draw in the Japanese to it’s new store in Tokyo. And while free diamonds appeal to me (well, technically to my girlfriend… I’m just interested in the brownie points they’d buy me) I’m writing this post for another reason.
The article mentions how most of the Japanese don’t even know how to say “Mauboussin…” and to be honest neither do I. Which raised the interesting point about brand names in other countries.
As mentioned in the article, would H&M have been as popular if it went by Hennes & Mauritz (it’s Swedish)? While living in Spain I was constantly amazed by some of the big companies arriving that had unpronouncible names for the Spanish. Of course the examples all slip my mind right now!
But I do remember funny examples like the band R.E.M being pronounced as one word, REM, rather than with three seperate letters. Or Fah-si-book for Facebook (which I still use to the constant confusion of my New Zealand friends).
I must say I was laughing my ass off about the Spanish calling the Wii console “wee” until I found out English speakers were calling it “wee” as well. I’m not sure why Nintendo thought branding their system as a toddler going toilet was a good idea but it seemed to work out for them ok *shrug*
Will big business learn anything from these lessons… doubtful. But at least it keeps me (and hopefully you) amused for now.
Posted in: Uncategorized.
A few French people are a little ticked off after they found out the French song to be performed at the Eurovision song contest has only two lines in French. It seems the country isn’t too keen on being represented in English.
And who can blame them? I’d want my country to sing in it’s national language as well. You have 100 million viewers and a chance to display your language and culture…so why not use it?
Plus, French is widely touted as the language of love, so wouldn’t a French song sound better anyway?
Last but not least, Serbia’s Marija Serifovic won last year singing the ballad “Molitva” in her native language. Take a hint French song selecting people…
Posted in: Uncategorized.
It’s no secret that over the last 6 months or so my Spanish learning efforts have been less than impressive. Well did I get punished for that over the weekend!
It’d been ages since I met up with my Spanish friends from down south so I decided to go and pay them a visit. We had dinner and all went out for a night on the town. Good times were had but I barely understood anything.
Now I’m pretty good with the Spanish now and can hold my own in most conversations…but I did not perform well that night. It seemed I got thrown into a whirlpool of Spanish slang and dirty jokes that had my brain aching.
The thing about learning a language is you can usually understand the overall theme but can often get lost on the subtleties. Well jokes and humour are full of subtleties…which makes it very hard for us poor non-native speakers.
The moral of the story is I’m going to have to spend more time with my friends if I really want to improve my Spanish further. So I’m committing to seeing them a lot more now!
But I will be taking aspirin when I do it…
Posted in: Uncategorized.
I saw on digg there was an article where a city board decided it was ok that a shop had a sign stating:
“This is America: WHEN ORDERING ‘PLEASE SPEAK ENGLISH’”
Now without going into how stupid this is or reopening the whole debate on making English the national language of the US, I want to leave people with a thought.
What happens when the almighty ‘English speaking Americans’ come to visit Europe? Now they have to learn how to order from McDonalds in French, Spanish, Italian, German, Slovenian, …
I know thinking is hard, but it doesn’t mean they shouldn’t try it…
Posted in: English, Interesting, Languages, News.
Mainly because I’m not doing it, but also because learning new things is difficult and I like to whine!
Too many times have I said I’ll start posting regularly again and it just hasn’t happened. So I won’t promise anything until you see some results. Between you and me, I did come back to post more but every time I came back to hundreds of spam comments to moderate it was a little hard.
Because I had to click on every “teen webcam sex” link just to make sure it wasn’t a real comment. Turns out, none were, but better safe than sorry!
My dedication to learning Spanish has waned a bit over the last 7 months. I started a business that drained time, and I got an American girlfriend that stopped me needing to meet Spanish girls in bars. With my main motivation gone, what was I to do?
But the urge is creeping up on me again. I have 2 Spanish flatmates, and 2 other American flatmates that are studying Spanish far too much. This makes me feel inadequate and stirs desires of learning inside me.
Or I’m just hungry…
Since I don’t want you to go away empty handed, here’s a link to help those more motivated than me. Learn Spanish by podcast with the wonderful Ben and Marina.
That is all, class dismissed.
Posted in: Learning, Spanish.
One of my rules for learning Spanish is to always live with Spanish speakers. This has been a good rule and resulted in a lot of the improvement. While I’ve stumbled off the optimum language learning path by having an English speaking girlfriend, things are about to get much worse.
Currently I live with 2 Polish girls and 1 Italian guy. It’s not too bad as they all speak Spanish to various extents and I am actually practicing again. The only downside is when my girlfriend is around the conversation turns to English. Her loss and as long as it doesn’t stop my learning then I don’t mind.
The problem with our current flat is the two girls are living in the lounge, the lounge that is the only way to get to the kitchen as well. So despite us all being lovely people, it’s a pain in the ass to live that way.
So I just found a new flat today but it’s run by TtMadrid, a TEFL school that I help out (btw, excellent TEFL course in Spain). So we’ll have new bright eyed and bushy tailed TEFL students each month…who won’t speak Spanish.
Am I ever going to master this language? Will I ever speak Spanish again? Will Batman and Robin rescue the cat from the tree? Stay tuned to find out!
Posted in: Learning, Spanish.
I’ve recently became involved in a project for language teachers in Spain. It’s a website that helps teachers find English teaching work in Spain, with an initial focus on Madrid. The websites been around for a while but I’m helping to promote it and make it more popular.
Our vision is to create an easy-to-use system for academies and language learners to find teachers. Eventually it’ll have loads of new features and we hope language teachers and academies from around the world will start using it.
Anyway, check it out and let me know what you think. We’re about to start promoting so fingers crossed!
Posted in: Uncategorized.
I came across an article today called “why we don’t like English classes.” Apart from initially amusing me, I found I agreed with a lot of the points in the article. I like to think I’m one of the teachers that are ‘different’, so I thought I’d share a little of my philosophy.
Ok, so as the previous post recommends, look for a partner that you can speak with in the target language. If that’s not an option, and you can’t move to the target country, you need to recreate these conditions in your own study.
To learn a language, you must speak it. That’s the bottom line. Practice makes perfect, yada yada yada. You also have to listen to it, read it, and write it normally. The trick is to make your study as interesting as possible. It seems obvious but so many teachers and students seem to think language study is boring and teach/learn it that way. It’s simply not the right point of view to learn anything and the results show.
So, watch your goals. Language learning takes time, it’s that simple. Don’t aim to study every day for hours on end, you aren’t in medical school. What you could try is doing 10 minutes of study a day, but by study I mean HAVE FUN! My ’study’ approach for Spanish is to have coffee with my friends and watch the ‘Friends’ series on DVD along with other movies. It’s not hard, it’s not difficult, it’s fun and I enjoy it. Every now and then I wonder about a grammar point so I go and look it up. No stress, no worries.
The moral of the story: if it’s fun, you’re learning. If it’s not, you’re in for some pain. But some people like that…
And if you have a teacher that just likes to put grammar activity after grammar activity in front of you, you might want to suggest to them you’d like a little conversation. Not made up conversation about some artificial topic like global warming. Start a real conversation about your weekend and see where it goes. I believe a good teacher can lead even the lowest level student in conversation for an hour…can yours?
Posted in: English, Interesting, Languages, Learning, Tips.
The hands down best way I’ve learnt Spanish has been though my super secret new technique. Curious? You bet!
Now the best way for my technique to work is to be without a current partner. If you have a partner, this technique may cause you more problems than you’d like. Oops, did I give the secret away…I thought I could get some money for this!
After learning Spanish for about 2 years now, the best improvement I had was when I started dating in Spain. It especially helps to date people that don’t speak your language, then you’re away laughing.
So go out, start talking to people, make friends, make more than friends, and learn a language the fun way!
Posted in: Learning, Spanish, Tips.
