Category: Language learning

Brushing up languages

By Simon

Last week in Scotland I tried to speak Scottish Gaelic as much as possible, and had a number of good conversations. At first though, I was adding quite a lot of Irish Gaelic into the mix, which works sometimes as the two languages are close, but not always. Last year I had a month between my visits to Ireland and Scotland, so had time to get my brain in Scottish Gaelic mode before going to Scotland. This year I only had a week, which wasn’t really enough. By the end of the week in Scotland my Scottish Gaelic was coming back.

Sometimes words that are spelt the same but pronounced differently in the two languages trip me up: for example man is fear, which is [fəuɾˠ] in Irish, and [fɛr] in Scottish Gaelic, which sounds like the Irish word for hay/grass, féar [feːɾˠ], which is feur [fiər/fjɔːrʲ] in Scottish Gaelic – not to be confused with fior (true, genuine, real) [fiər].

Do you need a while to brush up languages you don’t use very often? How do you go about it?

I generally listen and read a lot, and practise speaking to myself. Last year I also wrote something on my other blog every day in the language I was focusing on.

Oideas Gael

By Simon

I’m having a wonderful time in Gleann Cholm Cille learning to play the harp and speaking plenty of Irish. The course is going really well – we started with basic techniques, and have learnt a number of tunes, including some from the Bóroimhe / Brian Boru suite by Michael Rooney.

I’ve videoed our teacher, Oisín Morrison, playing all the pieces we’ve learnt so far, and he’s going to give us some more pieces to learn at home.

People come here from all over the world on holiday and to do courses at Oideas Gael – this week you can do Irish language classes, harp playing, or hill walking – so there are opportunities to speak quite a few languages, including French, German, Swedish, Mandarin, Dutch and Scottish Gaelic. I’ve even learnt a bit of Serbian from a Bosnian woman who is studying Irish here.

Motivation

By Simon

There’s an interesting article in the Guardian I came across today about motivation in language learning.

The article discusses different types of motivation, and concludes that three things that are particularly important in language learning are working memory; associative memory – how well you content new and known information; and your ability to learn implicitly – that is the ability to spot patterns. If you have a good level in these skills, plus a high level of motivation, you are more likely to succeed.

What motivates you to learn languages?

For me it’s a combination of interest in the languages themselves, and in aspects of the cultures associated with them, especially music and literature.

How many languages is enough?

By Simon

I came across an interesting article in The Guardian today about Alexander Arguelles, who says, “I can read about three dozen languages and speak most of them fluently, and I’ve studied many more.” The headline, “Experience: I can speak 50 languages”, is perhaps a slight exaggeration of the kind that’s common in these kinds of articles. The subheading is, ‘I’m often asked what the secret is. The truth is it’s mostly down to endless hours of reading, studying and practising grammar’, which neatly sums up one approach to language learning.

Have you got to the stage where you feel you have taken on enough languages? Or are these always other languages that you’d like to learn one of these days?

Recently I’ve been concentrating mainly on 15 of my languages, and have been trying to maintain and improve my knowledge of them. There are plenty of other languages out there that I’d like to have a go at, but I’ve been resisting the temptations so far.

Gender differences in language learning?

By Simon

An article I read in The Times today suggests that women tend to be less confident than men, particularly in work-related situations. Apparently men tend to over estimate their abilities, while women often under estimate their abilities, and women tend to over-prepare and don’t feel ready for a task unless they are 100% sure of it, while men who are around 60% ready for a task tend to think that’s sufficient, and that they can learn the rest as they go along.

Does this ring true for you?

I wondered if these differences, if there is something in them, might affect the way men and women go about learning and using foreign languages. Are men more prepared to jump in and wing it using whatever language they have, even if it’s not perfect? Are women more inclined to wait until they know a language perfectly, or as near as possible to perfect, before they use with others?

What are your experiences?

Has any research been done on gender differences in language learning?

One language per day

By Simon

Last week I decided to try a slightly different language learning strategy. Rather than trying to immerse myself and learning bits of various languages every day, I am focusing on one language each day. This mainly involves listening to online radio and doing online lessons, and also having conversations with people when I can. At the moment I’m continuing to learn Dutch, learning more Portuguese, Italian, and brushing up my Spanish and Japanese, while trying to keep my other languages ticking over.

So yesterday was Portuguese day, today is Spanish day and I’ll probably focus on Italian tomorrow. So far it’s working quite well.

‘Academic’ style language teaching

By Simon

I’ve noticed that when some people write about language learning, particularly those who encourage you to learn languages on your own, they often make disparaging remarks about the ‘academic’ style of teaching found in language classes. Apparently this style of teaching is boring, dry, focused on grammar and learning vocabulary, and/or has too few opportunities to speak the language you’re learning. I suspect these ideas are based on personal experiences which are generalised to include all languages classes.

My own experiences of language classes are quite different, especially the ones I’ve done in Wales and Ireland for Welsh and Irish, where speaking and listening are the main focus. The classes I took in Chinese and Japanese at university were more focused on reading and writing than speaking and listening, however there were some conversation oppportunities. At secondary school my French and German classes included some speaking practise, especially when I was studying for my A Levels.

What are your own experiences? Are you involved in teaching languages, or studying them? What methods and approaches are used?

Are musicians better language learners?

By Simon

According to an article I read in The Guardian yesterday, research has found that children who learn music, especially before the age of seven, find it easier to learn languages in later life. They also tend to develop larger vocabularies, and are better at grammar and high verbal IQs.

The writer of the piece, Liisa Henriksson-Macaulay from Finland, trawled through many scientific journals and noticed that early musical training “is the only proven method to boost the full intellectual, linguistic and emotional capacity of a child.” Even one hour a week of musical training is sufficient to improve language skills and general IQ. She also cites studies that suggest that singing developed in our ancestors before language, and that language might have developed from singing.

If you had early musical training, do you think it helped with your language learning?

How to Start Learning a New Language

By Simon

Today we have a guest post by Kerstin Hammes of Fluent, the Language Learning Blog.

Books

It’s great to get started with a new hobby, and part of the excitement is always the shopping trip for new kit. This is no different with language learning. It doesn’t matter if you follow a polyglot’s online method or you have joined a class at the local college. The right set of tools will set you up for a great job, and there are a few starting items that no language learner should be without.

Your Notebook

I’ve seen way too many students turn up with loose scraps of paper. Don’t be that kid: New notebooks are practically hobby law. You need to write, it is an important part of your learning styles and will make you a stronger learner.

Even where information has moved online and you can get the greatest courses without a page of print, I still find that paper notebooks are important. Writing things down allows you to organise the thoughts in your own way. It also drills in correct spellings, and builds personalised notes that you can revise very easily.

It’s a good idea to create sections in your notebook for new vocabulary, grammar rules, exercises, tutor sessions and course notes. Project notebooks like this pretty one have the sections built into them, so they are my best recommendation.

Your Dictionary

No matter if you prefer looking words up online or on paper, your dictionary should always be on hand. There is no quicker way of getting past a block or understanding a song/film quote in your target language.

Good dictionaries I’ve used in the past have been Pons (in the UK they work with Collins) and Oxford Hachette ones, but whichever brand you choose you should make sure that the index makes sense to you. A good dictionary must tell you the word type, gender, pronunciation and give an indication of how to use the word.

Many dictionaries give you the bonus of a good grammar and verb section, saving you money on separate verb tables or grammar books.

An audio device, ideally with a sound recorder

Language is about saying things, so make sure you learn speaking as well as writing, reading and listening. This isn’t really new: You know that textbooks and learning sets have come with helpful recordings since the times of vinyl. Today, podcasts and audiobooks are particularly useful and allow you to practice language learning on the go.

Once you’ve made sure you can hear the language, get talking too! Record yourself for personal feedback and share the recordings with your tutor. It is easy to record yourself on most smartphones. When I worked on my European Day of Languages video, I found surprising amounts of kind people who would correct small batches of pronunciation when I sent them an audio file – all on Facebook and Twitter!

The Course

If you are beginner, choose your preferred method. Don’t worry too much about what you choose, but at the same time buy the tools, not the whole toolshed (in other words, pace yourself).

The most popular options are group classes, private tutors, software kits and teach yourself books. I’m a tutor who has worked with many complete beginners, and have found that combining the personal lessons with real life examples and a textbook makes the learning fun and interesting for everyone. Why not do online shopping in German, for example?

Personally, I’m not a good off-screen learner and so I tend not to invest in Rosetta Stone etc., and I also prefer finding a tutor or attending group lessons just so I can keep a bit of structure in my life!

Your Attitude

Finally, there is the attitude of course. All new things are exciting for the first month or so (well, except for Weight Watchers probably). But what really matters is that you decide to commit and stick with your journey over a longer period of time. Goal setting can really help here: Don’t read too much online about what other people can do in 3 months. They don’t have your life, your job, your family or your schedule. If you think you can do more, then do it. 3 words a day, 10 minutes a day or an hour every day can all work.

Make the goals dependent on your own achievements, such as “write 20 sentences”. Avoid vague expressions like “I want to be fluent” or “I want to talk to a native speaker”, because fluency is difficult to measure and native speakers can have bad days. Language learning is for life, so you are in this for the long haul, you can take the scenic route or the motorway, and you progress in the way that suits you.

Kerstin edits and runs Fluent, the Language Learning Blog. She speaks 5 languages, teaches German and English and also offers classes in Blogging and Online Marketing in Northern England.

SpeakTalkChat: Linking Language Enthusiasts and Learners

By Simon

Today we have a guest post by Aodhán Ó Duagáin (Aidan Duggan) of www.SpeaktalkChat.com

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SpeakTalkChat is a language platform that allows users to link based on shared languages and shared interests. Our goal is to link us together based on shared interests to chat through our shared languages. Our philosophy is that much progress in our languages is achieved by language peers chatting together about the things in life that we have in common. It is our belief that shared interests are one of the things that provide the glue of our conversations.

Our philosophy drives our functionality which includes immediate/scheduled videochat, user search, internal messaging system and groups/forums/threads. STC is available on PC and mobile. We currently have 33 languages available at three levels of fluency (fluent, intermediate and beginner) and there are a 101 interests to choose from (you can choose as many as you like).

We are very interested in hearing people’s feedback about www.SpeakTalkChat.com. Feedback to date has been very positive especially in relation to our philosophy. However it is clear that we don’t do language learning in terms of grammar, exercise, games and so on. We feel there are other places to find these.

We decided to focus on what we feel is one of the core things to languages which is chatting with people with whom we have shared interests. We sometimes call STC a ‘social chatting media’ because of our focus on socialising and chatting together.

We have an interest in minority languages and you’ll see a number of these available in the profile section. You’ll also see that the site can be viewed entirely in English or Welsh or Irish. We hope to have the site available entirely in many other languages over the next while and as you can guess we’re always looking for interested translators.

We have a wide variety of interests to choose from. Some would come under hobbies like painting or gardening but we’ve also included ‘heavier’ interests like climate change and human rights. We’ve done this because we also hope that STC can be a platform for discussing some of these pressing issues.

Many thanks for taking the time to read this post and any feedback, comments or suggestions are very welcome.

Aodhán Ó Duagáin (Aidan Duggan)