Monday, September 29, 2008

Digital Recorder Time

I recently bought a handheld digital recorder. I have wanted one for a long time for recording things (I am a musician as well as a language enthusiast) so I went ahead and got it. What mostly prompted me to finally get it was a Dutch-speaking coworker. I only work with her once a month or so, and I can never remember the nuances of the Dutch pronunciation when she teaches me something (and it's always something a little odd - something you won't see in books and published courses!) I also thought how handy it would be in the EPCOT World Showcase that I wrote about a few days ago.

I have heard of people really building up nice libraries of recordings. I have to learn how to get the best quality sound out of it and then I have to remember to take it with me wherever I go. You never know when you could meet up with a native speaker to record!

Friday, September 26, 2008

Livemocha Updates

Livemocha has been updating their site. In addition to adding features, they have added support for learners of two more languages - Arabic and Korean. They already had an impressive list of languages. In addition to the usual English, French, Spanish, German and Italian, they also have resources for learners of Portuguese, Japanese, Mandarin, Russian and even Hindi and Icelandic!

Tuesday, September 23, 2008

300 Pages on language Learning Advisor

I've passed a milestone I wondered if I would ever see. Language-Learning-Advisor.com now has over 300 pages of material.

A large part of the recent growth has been the participation of visitors, and for that I am very grateful. Thanks to everyone who has added their reviews and opinions to the site. The feedback that I get demonstrates that visitors highly value the opinions of other language learners and their experiences. I will continue to add ways for visitors to contribute.

I have no shortage of potential new material or ideas to add to the site. Enough for 300 pages more. There are dozens (even hundreds!) of languages that deserve their own pages that I have planned, new visitor contribution pages, reviews, featured resources and language learning tools, and even a podcast series!

What I lack is time. I would like to make the site (and my other online ventures) my full-time job, but that isn't possible right now. I just have to make-do with the limited time I have, maintain the site, and add new material as best I can. I hope I have helped language learners in some way achieve their goals a little easier or faster and I hope I can continue to do that in the future.

Thanks again to everyone who listens to my ranting!

Sunday, September 21, 2008

Languages in EPCOT

I want to talk about something I did earlier in the summer that I failed to mention. My girlfriend and I went to Disneys EPCOT Center on my birthday in May this year. We had both been there before and wanted to go back. We needed a day to get away and my birthday seemed like a good enough excuse.

One part of EPCOT is the World Showcase, and this is the main reason we wanted to go. There is a large lake surrounded by a long pathway. Along this path are various 'countries.' In each country there are a few buildings which house a ride or show, a restaurant or cafe and a gift shop or two. All the gifts and food are representative of each country. It's neat, although it hasn't really changed in the 20 + years since I was there last.

So, in Mexico you enter an Aztec-style pyramid and find vendors selling Mexican goods, little shops with books and knick-knacks and a Mexican restaurant. All while looking at a backdrop of a volcano. And of course, all the employees and cooks are from Mexico.

Aha! Now you see where I'm going. Native speakers! Now, here in the US, finding native speakers of Spanish is not hard. But for someone learning a language, you won't find friendlier and more agreeable fodder on whom to practice than Disney employees!

Now, for the language hobbyist or budding polyglot, this World Showcase can be a lot of extra fun. Imagine getting a breakfast snack in Norway, shopping in Germany and Mexico, lunch in China, some more shopping in Italy and France, dinner in Japan, and then a stroll through the bazaars of Morocco. And you will have friendly and helpful native speakers of each language at each step of the way!

There are a few glaring omissions. No India or Russia. Nothing from South America or Sub-Saharan Africa. But there is a great opportunity to practice even a few phrases of any of these languages. If you ever have the opportunity, check this out.

Thursday, September 18, 2008

Language Communities

There are a growing number of language community sites on the internet. I know I've mentioned Lingq and Livemocha before. Mango Languages is another such site that comes highly recommended.

These 'language community' sites have lots of features for language learners. There are tutorials, lots of audio, podcasts, ways to track your progress as you learn and interactions with teachers and other language learners. Most have plenty of free resources and features, but reserve upgraded features for a fee.

The lines can be very blurry as to what constitutes a 'language community' from a 'language exchange' site or even a tutorial, penpal site or forum. Take a close look at as many sites as possible to get a feel for them and what they offer. Choose one or two that most interest you or you can best fit into your study routine. These sites, when used properly and diligently, can form the core of your study for a long time.

Sunday, September 14, 2008

French Review

The Language Reviews page is growing too big. So, I've begun to spin off review pages for specific languages. I already had enough reviews of French for its own page so the first is the French Reviews page. If you haven't already, why not write a review of the languages that interest you!

Wednesday, September 10, 2008

Language Penpals

I've made a few changes to the Language Penpal Resources page. There were a few defunkt language penpal sites that I've removed and I'm adding several more. Actually, since there are more and more of these resources all of the time, I may be restructuring all of these links onto several pages. I haven't updated this page in a long time and it's overdue. There are some great penpal and language exchange resources on the internet and I hope you are using a couple of them as part of your language learning strategy.

Saturday, September 06, 2008

Standard Cornish Spelling

A few months ago the leaders of the Cornish community finally adopted a standard written form for the Cornish language. It will allow for a few variations but overall it standardizes a language that up until now had about four different written versions. It will remain in effect and be re-evaluated in 5 years time.

This is a big move forward for the Cornish language. It means the squabbling over spelling differences can be set aside and the community can rally around their common language. They can now have standard street signs, learning materials, newspapers and other publications, etc.

I have found the different spellings difficult and I have been looking forward to this. While researching the new changes I came across this site with news and podcasts in Cornish :

http://www.magakernow.org.uk/

Tuesday, September 02, 2008

Michel Thomas

There is a new book out about Michel Thomas and his language learning method. Read this article about him and the book. http://www.guardian.co.uk/education/2008/sep/02/languages.schools

His method is interesting. He essentially breaks down a language and then teaches how to construct sentences with its components. By using a lot of 'pattern recognition' the student quickly applies what is learned. He also uses a lot of cognates with English in order to help the student get into the language a bit.

His published audio method gets some flak for a few reasons. One, his audio course is just himself sitting down with two students and teaching them with his method as we listen in and participate as a third student. Some people criticize this technique as slowing things down (as we listen to the other student fumble on something we have no trouble with, for example) or wasting time better suited to focusing on the listener.

Another complaint is the fact that he himself is not a native speaker of any of the languages he teaches. Therefore, his accent (Polish, I believe) muddies up our pronunciation. We are learning a Polish accented French or Spanish!

I think that, like any other language method, I would recommend using a Michel Thomas course supplemented with another course (or two) that would nullify those problems. I think his course can be a very effective way to learn how to be functional in a language.

Michel Thomas himself only made courses for French, Spanish, Italian and German. Recently however, courses have been made using his techniques for Russian, Arabic and Chinese. I would hope that more languages would be coming. I would love to have Swedish or Dutch but I won't hold my breath!

See this BBC video on his fascinating life and teaching method. http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=XQ3xvL22hLE

Monday, September 01, 2008

Not Learning Foreign Languages

I keep hearing people actually defending not learning a language besides English. This is a common American trait. The only decent argument I have heard so far in favor of Americans not learning foreign languages went thus : the Dutch (for example) need to learn several languages in order to survive. But at what cost? They are not learning math and science and computers to the degree that Americans are. In that way we maintain our competitive edge.

Is that argument valid? As I look at statistics from around the world, it seems that America is in poor shape on the education front. It falls far behind European and Asian competitors. Granted, American universities are the best in the world overall, but even that is now vulnerable. Americas obsession with halting illegal immigration (which isn't working), is actually taking a terrible toll on legal immigration, particularly on students who want to go to an American university. Attendance at top non-American universities is rising at record rates. The brain drain to the US may be slowing.

The decline of the US education system actually increases the need for us to learn other languages, in order to compete more effectively in the global market. I recently read an article on a similar subject which referred to an environment of 'anti-intellectualism in America.' That is the problem.

Since when is it cool to be stupid?