Category: Language learning

Is Russian losing ground?

By Simon

Since the break up of the Soveit Union, Russian has been losing ground in many of the former Soviet Republics, according to an article I found the other day. The “Year of the Russian Language”, which was officially opened in Paris in August, is an effort to address this trend by promoting the Russian language and culture outside Russia.

Belarus, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, and Uzbekistan are the only former Soviet Republics where Russian is still has official status, alongside their own languages. Even in these countries Russian remains a contentious issue and there have been calls to make Belarusian to sole official language in Belarus. In Turkmenistan many Russian schools have been closed, and in Uzbekistan the number of Russian speakers has decreased significantly.

In the Czech Republic and Slovakia, English has replaced Russian as the most widely taught foreign language. The same is possibly true in other countries in Eastern Europe, though it has gained ground in Poland recently.

Esperanto in Ukraine

By Simon

According to a report I came across today, the Ukrainian Department of Education has recommended that Esperanto be taught in all schools in Ukraine. It is currently taught as an optional subject in some schools, but the Minister of Education believes that “Esperanto can help to make Ukraine the centre of Europe”.

A Ukrainian teacher of Esperanto interviewed for the report claims that you can learn Esperanto in just 7 days if you know no other foreign languages, or 3-5 days if you know a couple of European languages.

If you know Esperanto, how long did it take you to learn it?

Laŭ raporto, kiun mi trovis hodiaŭ, la Edukado Fako de Ukrainio estas rekomendinta, ke Esperanto instruiĝis en ĉiuj lernejoj en Ukrainio. Nuntempe ĝi estas instruiĝis nedevige en kelkaj lernejoj, sed la Edukada Ministro kredas, ke “Esperanto povas helpi fari Ukrainion la centron de Eŭropo”.

Ukrainia Esperanto-instruisto intervjuita por la raporto pretendas, ke vi povas lerni Esperanton dum nur 7 tagoj, se vi ne konas aliajn fremdlingvjon, aŭ 3-5 tagoj, se vi konas kelkajn Eŭropajn lingvojn.

Si vi konas Esperanton, kiom daŭris vian studojn?

Books books books

By Simon

Whenever I pass a bookshop or library, I feel a strong urge to go in a have a browse. I often end up in the language section and find myself thinking that such and such a language course would really help me with my Spanish/Russian/Japanese/etc, or that I can’t live without a particular dictionary, grammar book or phrasebook. I usually manage to resist actually buying anything, at least I have done for the past few years.

I used to be almost incapable of going into a bookshop without buying something. These days I tend to borrow books from the library instead. It saves a lot of money, and I never know quite what I’ll find there, which is kind of exciting in some ways.

Sometimes I buy a language course, dictionary or other language learning book on an impulse, thinking that it might come in handy one day. I get round to reading most of them eventually, though some have been perched on my shelves for years without me taking more than a cursory glance through them, if that.

I often spend too much time looking for the perfect language course/book/website rather than actually studying.

Speaking with a foreign accent

By Simon

I came across an interesting post today over on David Crystal’s blog about foreign accents. He believes that as long as other people can understand what you say in a foreign language, it doesn’t really matter if you speak it with a non-native accent. In fact your accent conveys your identity. He states that “it is very rare indeed for someone to develop a phonetic ability to the extent that their foreign origins are totally masked”, and that the only people who would really need to do so are spies.

It is indeed very difficult to speak a foreign language with completely native pronunciation and intonation, unless you acquire it at a young age. Having a training in phonetics certainly helps, as does prolonged immersion in the language. It also helps if you’re a good mimic.

I do my best to acquire as near a native accent as possible in the languages I’m learning, and my accent tends to improve if I spend a lot of time speaking those languages with native speakers. When people ask me which part of their country I’m from, or assume I’m from a neighbouring country where the same language is spoken, I know I’m one the right track.

Do you think it matters if you have a ‘foreign’ accent when speaking another language?

Rapid Language Learning

By Simon

Today I came across an interesting article entitled Rapid Language Learning, in which Konstantin Ryabitsev from Russia gives details of how he managed to learning enough French to pass TEF (Test d’Evaluation de Français). At the time he wrote the piece (2004), he was in the process of immigrating to Canada, where they favour applicants with knowledge of both English and French. He already spoke English, so decided to learn French as well, as he was planning to move to Montreal, where he now lives.

At first he tried to learn to read French using a French translation of Harry Potter and the Prizoner of Azkaban, but soon found that too difficult because he wasn’t familiar with French grammar. So he got hold of a copy of Schaum’s Outline of French Grammar and after about four months of working his way through that, he was able to read the Harry Potter book, then managed to tackled Le Comte de Monte-Cristo.

After that, he started working on his understanding, speaking and writing skills, using flash cards and associations to learn vocabulary and practising listening and speaking while walking to and from work. He also watched TV programmes that had been dubbed into French, French TV programmes and films, and also tried listening to audiobooks, but didn’t find that very helpful.

You can find out more about his methods in the article. I find such stories interesting. The methods he used wouldn’t necessarily work as well for other people, but he does have some good suggestions.

Balingua

By Simon

Recently I was offered a free trial of a new online language course called Balingua, the author of which promises that you can learn a language quickly and well using the techniques he has developed. Apparently you can acquire basic oral proficiency in a new language in 30 hours, and the course “relies on the specific cognitive processes used in language learning and not on the grammatical or lexical traits of a language.”

The languages currently available with Balingua are English, Chinese, French, Spanish, Dutch, German, Japanese, Lithuanian, Portuguese and Brazilian Portuguese. The only languages on this list I haven’t studied yet are Dutch and Lithuanian, and I was thinking of learning some Dutch.

At the moment, however, I’m trying to improve/maintain my knowledge of ten languages, and am focusing particularly on Welsh and Irish. Perhaps it’s not the best time for me to start learning yet another language, much as I’d like to. So I’ve decided not to take up the free trial.

Would any of you like to have a go at this revolutionary new language learning method?

If you would, please send me an email to the usual address and let me know which language you’d like to study by Friday of this week. If I receive more than one email, I’ll put your names into a hat then draw one out.

The lucky winner will get a free trial course in their chosen language. All they need to do is blog about the course, and give any feedback they have to Balingua.

This is your captain speaking

By Simon

According to an article I found today, from next March pilots who fly overseas will be required to pass an English language competency test, The Test of English for Aviation. The article suggests that this test will present quite a challange for the many Chinese pilots who speak little or no English.

Some Chinese airlines, China Southern Airlines, are requiring their pilots to take English classes for six days each month.

Apparently there is also a shortage of examiners who speak both English and Mandarin, and who are familiar with civil aviation.

Word of the day – treiglad

By Simon

Today’s word, treiglad (pl. treigladau) is the Welsh word for mutation, the process of changing the initial consonants of words – something we were practising in class today. This is a characteristic of all the Celtic languages and takes quite a bit of getting used to.

The most common mutation in Welsh is the soft mutation or treiglad meddal, which changes t to d, p to b, c to g, and so on. It’s quite hard to keep track of all the occasions when this mutation is needed, but I think I’m getting better at it. I haven’t tried to memorise all the rules because there are so many of them. Instead I notice where mutations are used in the Welsh texts I read and when I hear Welsh spoken. This gives me a good feel for when to use them.

If you practise reading and listening to a language as much as possible, you get a lot of exposure to grammatical patterns like mutations. This helps you to develop instincts for the grammar and seems to me to be the best way to learn it. I think this method works better than trying to memorise all the grammatical rules first. Once you have developed a feel for how a language works, then learning the rules might be helpful and certainly will be easier.

Practical Chinese Reader

By Simon

The other day I found some useful sites: one that contains all from the lessons and other material from Practical Chinese Reader with sound files; another which includes tests from that same textbook; and an online version of the New Practical Chinese Reader (Books 1, 2 and 3).

In my first year at university, the textbook I used was the Practical Chinese Reader, which is quite a good introduction to spoken and written Chinese. A big box of character flashcards is also available to accompany the course and I had them stuck all over my walls at one stage. The textbook follows the adventures of Gǔbō (古波) and Pàlánkǎ (帕兰卡), who are from an unnamed Eastern European country and who go to China to study Chinese. It was first published during the communist era when that sort of thing was more common.

I think using stories in language courses can be quite helpful – it makes them more interesting and can motivate you to continue studying so that you can find out what happens. What do you think?

One idea I have is to write a story which starts in English, then gradually introduces words and phrases in another language until by the end, it’s entirely in the second language. The Power Glide language courses do something like this that they call a ‘diglot weave’.

Radio ga ga

By Simon

I find listening to radio programmes in the languages I’m studying is a good way to tune my ears to the languages, and to learn new vocabulary and grammar. With some languages I only have a vague idea what the radio people are talking about, if I really concentrate. With others, particularly Welsh, I’ve got to the stage where I can understand the majority of what I hear and actually learn new and interesting things from the programmes I listen to. It’s taken many years of regular listening to get to this stage. My Irish and Scottish Gaelic haven’t quite got there yet, but I haven’t been listening to them for as long.

If the language you’re studying isn’t spoken where you live, radio listening provides a sort of virtual immersion. It doesn’t give you opportunities to actually speak and interact with native speakers though, unless you join in radio phone-ins.