Learn Punjabi

I have learned that Punjabi is one of the most spoken languages in the world, 12th in fact. This comes as a surprise to me, but considering the massive population of south Asia, I suppose it shouldn't. Anyway, in my quest to add pages for more non-European languages, I have added one for Punjabi. I was not surprised to discover that there aren't many courses for learning Punjabi, but there are enough to get going for the motivated student, and the internet provides the means to keep it going via language exchanges and communities, chats etc.

Holiday Discounts on Language Products

Holiday gift-giving season is upon us again. The great part about that is the discounts and sales the publishers offer. I remember last year they had some great sales, especially 1-day sales for Black Friday, the day after Thanksgiving and the official start of the holiday shopping season, and Cyber Monday which, I guess, they just made up. Fine with me. The sales (20% off and more) are great if you are looking to buy a software or audio language product for yourself, but they may also make a great gift for the right person. I have updated the Language Product Coupons page with some of these current and upcoming sales. Keep an eye out for more in December.

Where Are Your Keys

I read an article or two on this new language learning method. Some are touting it as revolutionary, so I had to check it out a little. It is called Where Are Your Keys and employs a structured set of basic dialogues. It is clearly engaging for the right group of people, but I don't see how it is revolutionary in any way. I have an old Berlitz French book that employs pretty-much the same techniques. Except for the sign language, that is. Sign language? Yeah, they actually employ sign language as a sort of medium or reinforcement of the spoken language. I find it a little distracting. Maybe I have it wrong (I only viewed a few demo videos for a few minutes) but it's not for me.

National French Week

It is national French Week here in the US. Since I am studying French, I suppose it is important to me, but then again, I'm studying French every day and every week, so I don't think I'll be doing anything different or special. Someday (when I have time, whenever that is) maybe I will do something special.

Why do we have a National French Week in the US? Don't forget that there is a significant population of French speakers in the US. And I don't mean of the visiting variety. Louisiana has a French speaking community in the hundreds of thousands, and there are also a number in New England (near Quebec, of course). It is one of the significant second languages in the US and a very large number of people are of French lineage to some extent (myself included).

Anyway, celebrate the Frenchness and eat lots of croissants. Salut.

Online Language Communities

In my recent article on language communities I wrote about how easy they are to use, how they are often free and how you can get lots of content and access to a great learning community with the same goals as yourself. What I could only touch on in the short article, however, is just how may of these sites there are on the internet. There really are dozens of them, with such a wide variety of features that virtually anyone can find one (or more) that helps them to achieve their language learning goals. I encourage anyone to investigate a few of them for yourself to see if you can fit them into your learning plan. You may find exactly what you need. See a short list of language communities and other sites.

Learning Turkish

Turkish is one of those really interesting languages that can draw you in before you realize it. Exotic and foreign with interesting sounds and strange ways, but lots of fun. Unlike more popular languages like French, German or Chinese, people will not believe that you are learning Turkish. They will ask you "why are you learning Turkish?" and whatever answer you give them will keep them wondering or just incite more suspicious questions. Also unlike those more popular languages, there aren't a whole lot of published products to learn Turkish. But, if you're motivated, that won't slow you down one bit. I recently added a page on learning Turkish.

Learning a Language in School

I recently wrote an article on learning languages in school. The subject is on my mind because I'll be doing exactly that this year. I'm finally going (back) to school to get some kind of degree in languages. I've been studying languages on my own for a number of years, but I thought that since I enjoy it so much I would start to actually put that to use. First, I want the piece of paper (some call a degree or diploma) that says that I know some languages, or have some linguistics experience, (having a website doesn't really count in the academic world). I'm not sure what I'll be doing after that, but I'll be actively adding to the website the whole time.

Top 100 Language Blogs results

The voting is over, the votes are tallied and the Top 100 Language Blogs results have been posted. This blog is not in the list, it wasn't even nominated :( Actually I doubt it even qualifies. There are too many things I would need to do on this blog for it to qualify, and that time is better spent on my site. Anyway, do check out the list, there are so many good resources there, I'm sure you will find several that would benefit you no matter what your particular language interests are!

Review of Daniel Tammets book Born on a Blue Day

I've mentioned Daniel Tammet in a few blog posts before. He is an autistic savant with some extraordinary abilities with language. Although he has recently released a second book, I realized I haven't posted a proper review of his first one! So here is a review of Daniels first book Born on a Blue Day.

In his book How to Learn Any Language, Barry Farber calls Indonesian the easiest language in the world. Nothing resembling real grammar, verbs don't change, to make something plural just say it twice etc. I haven't yet had a chance to wade into Indonesian, but I bet I would find it interesting to learn someday. If Indoesian interests you, I have put up a page for learning Indonesian with some possible resources for you to check out.

Voting for Top 100 Language Blogs

Lexiophiles has announced their nominations for the top 100 language blogs for 2009. There are four different categories - Language Teaching, Language Learning, Language Professionals and Language Technology. You can vote for your favorite language blogs until July 27th.

Livemocha Growing

Livemocha continues to grow. They are up to 3 million members in 220 countries, which shows that language learning is a serious concern for a lot of people around the world. They have added several languages with even more to come.

Interestingly, they have used their own membership to increase the languages available by 'crowdsourcing.' Members can add and verify content in their native languages, thus making more languages available for other learners. It's smart and guarantees that some of the less commonly learned languages will eventually have learning materials available.

For example, they have content to learn Icelandic, Ukrainian and Estonian - three languages that have very little material available for the learner via published courses.

Other languages available to learn with Livemocha include Arabic, Greek, Dutch, Turkish, Polish, Romanian, English, Farsi, Finnish, French, German, Hindi, Italian, Japanese, Korean, Mandarin Chinese, Portuguese, Russian and Spanish.

I'm Starting Up the Newsletter Again!

I have some more time available now, so one thing on the site I'd like to work on is the newsetter. I enjoy doing it, and many people have written to me saying that they enjoy it as well. I went back over my notes from the last time I was working on it and I quickly put together a new issue. In case you missed it, you can sign up for the Language Learning Advisor Newsletter here, and you can also find a link to the backissues.

Czech

Last year, I briefly worked with someone bilingual Czech/English. Of course, I couldn't resist picking up a few words of a new language and getting some insights from a native speaker. Incidentally, I broke out a copy of Pimsleur Czech and listened to the first few lessons to compare what he taught me and to work on my pronunciation. There were a few discrepancies. It is not uncommon to find that Pimsleur (or any other language method) necessarily has to focus on one form of pronunciation or one dialect for a beginning learner of a language. There are often other ways to pronounce something, even as common a word as 'thanks.' Keep this in mind as you learn from various sources - stay flexible, adapt and keep learning.

I've added a new page on learning Czech.

How to Learn Japanese

I love when someone submits a really detailed review or contribution.
One visitor who is learning Japanese, went into considerable detail on the methods he used and what he found was effective. This kind of insight from someone who has 'done it' is very helpful for those who are just starting out. He includes an outline of what materials he used, links to resources and how he put it all together. If you are learning Japanese and are interested, read his guide to learning Japanese here.

BYKI Review

BYKI is a flashcard/vocabulary program by Transparent Language. I've used BYKI for Spanish and Swedish (the two languages I've bought the software for) and also for Cornish and Esperanto (using the editing features of the Deluxe version), but also to study for the PTCE (Pharmacy Technician Certification Exam) for my day job as a Pharmacy Technician.

It's a versatile program that can really help fill in some gaps in your study routine if you use it regularly. Read my recent review of BYKI here.

Spoken Here Review

I've taken an interest in endangered languages for quite some time now. I've started searching out articles and books on the subject. One such book is Spoke Here - Travels Among Threatened Languages by Mark Abley. I actually found this book a few years ago in Candidas World of Books, an excellent language and travel bookstore in Washington DC that unfortunately is now closed.

Although the book had been on my bookshelf for a long time, I found it again and read it recently. I wrote a review of it here.

Recent Rosetta Stone Upgrades to Version 3

According to a press release from Rosetta Stone, they have updated Filipino (Tagalog), Latin, Turkish and Vietnamese to Version 3, which means they will have the same amount of material (levels 1,2 and 3) as more popular languages like Spanish and Mandarin Chinese.

I think this is a big step forward. These languages have very few published multi-media materials to study with, and I think it's great that they are given the same consideration as more popular languages.

There are still a few that haven't been upgraded yet. Thai, Pashto, and Welsh come to mind.

Rosetta Stone Version 3 is now available in 25 languages including: Arabic, Chinese
(Mandarin), Dutch, English (British), English (American), Filipino (Tagalog), French, German, Greek, Hebrew, Hindi, Irish, Italian, Japanese, Korean, Latin, Persian (Farsi), Polish, Portuguese (Brazil), Russian, Spanish (Latin America), Spanish (Spain), Swedish, Turkish and Vietnamese.

Languages on Lost

Lost is one of the hottest shows on TV now, and it's going into its last season next year. One thing I've found interesting about the show is the use of language. Over the course of the show we have seen numerous languages used, from just a sentence or two, right up to significant amounts of dialogue over several episodes.

There have been bits of German, Russian, Spanish and Latin - the 'secret' language of the Others. It was spoken briefly by young Charles Widmore and Juliet (in a typical modern manner of pronunciation) but also by Richard Alpert in a much more convincing tone. (Does this mean that he, Ricardus, is in fact a Roman?)

There was also the use of an African language in Mister Eko flashback scenes in Nigeria. Was it Yoruba? The actor who plays him, Adewale Akinnuoye-Agbaje speaks Yoruba, although I don't recall him speaking any himself.

There has been more use of French (in the episodes with young Rousseau arriving on the island) but even more Korean. If you are learning Korean you must be overjoyed that episodes with Jin, Sun and her family, have included lots of Korean dialogue.

I just like the show, but find its inclusion of language an interesting and fun sidenote.

Assimil Dutch

I just ordered Dutch With Ease from Assimil. I am going to try using professor Alexander Arguelles shadowing technique using this course. I have not used Assimil before, and I have wanted to give the shadowing technique a good try for quite a while.

Although I have some decent materials to work with, I have a limited amount of time. I intend to finish up the Michel Thomas Foundation Dutch course, then use the time in the most intense type of studying I can. I think the most intense thing I could do is Assimil with the shadowing technique.