LanguageWrangler

Top 5 Ways to Learn French

Asia — Thu, 03 May 2012 19:42:35 +0000

We live in a small world, with different cultures interacting almost on daily basis. So it comes as no surprise that more and more people are learning foreign languages to be able to interact with each other.

One of the most popular languages to learn is French. If you are just getting started, you may be asking yourself which are the best ways to learn French? Today, I want to help answer that question.

Online Courses

When it comes to learning another language it is important to pick the right structured learning course. Most language students choose an online course or classroom experience to make sure they are learning the proper syntax and grammar as well as vocabulary.

There are so many online courses and software programs online, that it’s hard to know which is right for you. Just make sure that you take a free trial before spending money on anything. A good course, like Rocket French, will offer a 100% money back guarantee if you aren’t satisfied.

Listening

Another way that you can learn French is through listening. There is so much material available that you can use when it comes to listening to French.

Music by French artists is a great way for to help you get comfortable with French different words and how they are pronounced. Try listening to radio stations that operate in French, you might not understand much at first, but over time your ears will begin to assimilate and recognize different words and phrases.

Reading

Reading is another good way to learn French. Whether you are reading in French or reading about French, the more time you spend looking at and thinking about the words, the quicker you will retain them.

There are many different types of publications that you can read with a dictionary by your side to help you learn through reading. You can also check out French newspapers, magazines, blogs, and comics. French reading resources abound on the Internet.

Speaking

One of the most fun ways to learn French is by getting a friend or language exchange partner. Having conversations with someone that already speaks French fluently will help you to master the pronunciation and accent.

Practice

Practice definitely makes perfect and the best way to get a grasp of a new language is by finding a way to practice a little bit each day. Challenge yourself to try and use the words you have learned, and find ways to include French in your daily life.

These are just few of the many ways to learn French. Ultimately, the best way to learn French is by deciding to never give up!

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5 Myths About Learning Japanese

Seth Coonrod — Mon, 30 Apr 2012 21:19:43 +0000

When I requested to learn Japanese, to fulfill my foreign language credit in high school, my teachers just laughed at me. They said Japanese was too hard to learn, that it would take to long, and offered a different language for me to learn. Since then, I have set out to prove those teachers wrong.

Today I want to explore some common myths and misconceptions about learning Japanese, in the hope of helping anyone else that may be thinking about learning Japanese.

Myth #1- Japanese Is Impossible for English Speakers to Learn

Learning Japanese will be harder for some people than others. Each of us learns differently, some learn better through reading, some prefer audio courses, and some of us choose a combination of reading, writing, and audio using interactive online courses. From the English speaker’s perspective, it will be hard because of the grammar differences. However, pronunciation and conjugation, which are normally the hardest things to deal with in a European language, are easy! What makes it harder is the writing, but nothing is impossible.
Myth #2 – All Japanese Words Sound Like Gibberish

Japanese is not a bunch of gibberish. Indeed, there are very few sounds, and all of them are very manageable. There is only one final consonant, five vowels, and a small number of consonants. These simple sounds make learning Japanese easier. If you have no mouth defects, you should be able to pronounce all Japanese words sufficiently.
Myth #3 – Learning Japanese Takes a Lifetime

Learning a language is a life long commitment. Think about it. Do you really know EVERY English word? That said, if it takes you 10 years to learn Japanese and you’ve been trying hard all that time, you are either being facetious. I heard this one guy that has stayed in Korea for 8 years and sounds just like a native speaker. But, it didn’t take him all those 8 years to get that way. Even without total geographical immersion, it still should not take more than 4 years to become really competent.
Myth #4 – Learning Japanese From Anime Will Make You a Great Japanese Speaker.

Some people think that simply listening to Japanese for hours and hours can immerse you in enough of the Japanese language to make you fluent. However, without speaking, writing and reading in Japanese as well, you are just not going to be fully immersed. You may not even be able to catch the words right without having a script in front of you, especially if you are a beginner.
Myth #5 – Japanese Can Only Be Learned In A Formal Classroom Environment

Wrong! Just like any language, you can learn it on your own. The internet abounds with great resources like imabijapaneselearningcenter.com and Rocket Japanese Language Software. A classroom is a metaphor for any environment that helps facilitate learning. Your car, home, computer, or ipod can be your classroom!

The Key To Learning Any Language, Including Japanese

If you want to learn Japanese, or any other foreign language, for that matter, they key is consistent practice. Whether you choose to learn Japanese, or another language if you don’t practice writing it, speaking it, listening to it, and comprehending it, you’ll never learn it.

Your Turn

What other myths have you heard about learning Japanese? Leave your comment below.

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5 Killer Resources for Learning Japanese

Seth Coonrod — Thu, 26 Apr 2012 10:00:17 +0000

Listing the best resources for learning Japanese is hard, as there are so many great tools available online today. Each resource listed below will be a great addition to your Japanese learning program.

1. IMABI.net

Our site features tons of comprehensive, free, online lessons covering beginner, intermediate, advanced and expert levels. If there is something that you can’t find there, just ask me and I can find it and include it on the site. We are very language student focused.

2. YouTube

Youtube is great to find music, movies, reports, events. It is the ultimate source for audio. Listening to Japanese music, news, recordings, and real people is really the only way you’ll get better at speaking Japanese.

3. Lang8

Lang8 is a place where you can try to write something in the language you’re studying and natives/fluent people will correct you. I can do this, but I will limit your requests to 1 page. These people have nothing better to do then proofread your stuff.

4. Japanese People

You can’t go wrong with practicing with a native speaker, but unless you already know one, it may be hard to just “find someone” to speak with in your area. That’s where Language Exchange programs come in, there are several great ones to choose from.

5. Wikipedia

Wikipedia is great to read articles in Japanese. Be cautious of Gaijin trying to write articles, but most Japanese learners are too afraid to use their Japanese for all to see. There are also plenty of internet resources I have listed at imabi.net that can be used as supplements as well.

Always Be Cautious Before You Spend Money

Be sure to look for research or reviews before you make any buying decision.

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Looking For The Easiest Language To Learn?

Susanna Zaraysky — Tue, 24 Apr 2012 18:14:09 +0000

I am often asked “What’s the easiest language to learn?” as though the simplicity of the language is the reason to learn it. It doesn’t matter how “easy” or “hard” the language is. If you don’t like the learning process or believe in false myths about language learning, you’ll be doomed and you may never truly acquire the language.

Here are some common misconceptions about foreign language learning that may make you rethink what you consider easy or what you may let yourself believe to be excuses for not learning a language.

Misconception #1

If I just use music and media, I can give up studying grammar and vocabulary and quit my language classes.

If you are still a beginner or intermediary student, you absolutely must keep learning grammar and vocabulary, even if you are studying what you think is “the easiest language to learn”. Grammar and vocabulary are the foundations of any language. Using music, TV, radio and film as additions to your language lessons will only reinforce grammar rules and vocabulary lessons.

For example, a Russian student who is just starting to study English listens to Frank Sinatra’s famous song, New York, New York and learns to sing the song or at least memorize the verses.

In class, the teacher is instructing students on how to form negative contractions like the word “doesn’t”. This type of negative contraction does not exist in Russian and it is much easier for the student to recall how to say this correctly because he has the verse, “I want to wake up in a city that doesn’t sleep” from New York, New York in his head.

Music Makes It Easier

It’s much easier to remember words, grammatical formations, phrases, idioms, irregular verbs, etc when one has heard the language sung and can recall words from songs that bring the language to life. Advanced students who just want to improve their listening comprehension and speaking abilities who have a strong foundation in grammar and vocabulary, may find it appropriate and more fun to stop taking classes and making their target language come alive by focusing on songs, TV shows, the news and other media.

Misconception #2

I am a visual learner, so I won’t be able to learn using music and media

Whether you are a visual or oral learner, all language is based on sounds and music. Even if you have to see something in order to understand it and learn it, you have to hear sounds and words to pronounce them correctly.

Eventually, you will have to use your auditory senses to learn a language. You can use TV and movies to learn languages because visual cues can help us understand what people mean when they are speaking.

Music Makes It Fun

By making your language process fun, you will not even have to worry about whether you’re approaching the “easiest language to learn” or not. The easiest language to learn is the one you believe you’ll enjoy!

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Learning French Online Is Easy and Effective

Asia — Sat, 21 Apr 2012 19:43:20 +0000

Admit it! Learning a foreign language can be hard. The difficulty lies not so much with the intricacies of the language itself but with the difficulty in immersing yourself in it.

This is especially true when you don’t have a good enough grasp of the language to dive right into the culture. Hopefully this article will help you reach your goal of learning French online more easily.

Movies: Turn On Those Subtitles

Watching movies and TV with French subtitles, will help you build familiarity with the language. Sites like Netflix carry French media you can watch, you just have to search in the “foreign” category.

Even though you are getting much of the meaning from the subtitles, you will start to recognize words and absorb and understand with them within relevant contexts. Obviously you still need more structured study from a good course but this will help you tremendously in cementing your knowledge.

Audiobooks: Turn Up The Volume

You can also start learning French online with the help of audiobooks. There are audio versions of public domain books available through Librivox. By listening to the audio, with the aid of the text if necessary, you retain the nuances of the French language. You will notice the differences between how you speak and how you write in French, and become more accustomed to the proper pronunciation.

Language Exchange: Start A Conversation

Even though you can start learning French online by studying many of the grammar and basic vocabulary guides available, you will not go far unless you practice speaking it. Passive media is a great way to start but at some point you should look into finding French speakers you can talk with.

One good site you can use to find native French speakers is LanguageExchange.org, which allows you to connect with native speakers from all over the world and have conversations with them via Skype. Also check out Fiverr.com for people selling their services of helping with learning French online through tutoring or conversation practice.

Learning French Online For Free

It’s never been easier To learn a foreign language. Now there are so many online resources available to help you learn French online. Whereas before you had to study boring textbooks and travel to other countries to attempt to master a foreign language. Now you can now do it all from home, right from your own computer. Click here to try a free trial of Rocket French online courses.

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The Big Secret For Fluent French Language Learning

Asia — Sat, 21 Apr 2012 19:40:24 +0000

If you are interested in speaking the French language, learning how your mind works when trying to learn a new language, so that you can work with it instead of against it.

Language is simply a code we use to access memory. That may seem like a weird definition, but think about it for a minute! Language is nothing more than a complex phonetic (spoken sounds) code we use to remember, and help others remember, concrete experiences.

You can teach someone the sounds that make up a word, but if they doesn’t know what those sounds relate to, then he or she doesn’t really know the meaning of the word because it isn’t linked to anything real in his or her memory. It doesn’t trigger any inner experience.

Leveraging Your Memory for French Language Learning

With that in mind it becomes obvious that French language learning requires the you to do three things:

Create strong memory links between the sounds that make up French words and the experiences they relate to – this is learning vocabulary.
Develop the skill, through habit, of how to properly structure French words to convey meaning accurately – this is learning natural grammar as used by native speakers.
Learning the peculiarities of how the spoken language is converted into written format – this is an extension of the first step; reading and writing.

The Way Your Memory Works

When you use different senses together in an intense manner, your brain’s nerve cells (the neurons) literally grow a connection between them.

Like Song Stuck In Your Head

Have you ever noticed how listening to a song you really liked, but haven’t heard in a while can instantly transport you back to the time you used to listen to it?

That is because when you were listening to the song, you were literally hard-wiring your brain to access the memory of that period of your life.

Practical Application Time

This principle can be used to help you in your French language learning. As the mind can’t distinguish between your external senses (what you experience in the world) and your internal senses (what you imagine), all it takes is an effort on your part to vividly imagine the things words relate to during study.

Use Your Imagination To Learn Vocabulary

When using flashcards, don’t just speed through them translating the words from French to English. Instead, try to actually experience their meaning in your imagination. With practice your mental pictures will become more vivid.

Of course, you can and should, use visual language learning aids, such as videos, pictures, or even concrete objects.

The more intense and rich your experience, the easier it will be for your mind to link the sounds that make up the word to their meaning.

Learn French Grammar Naturally By Habit

The second step, learning natural sounding grammar, is a skill. Learning French grammar is different from learning vocabulary as it uses the brain in a completely different way. For learning grammar, you need to make practicing a daily habit.

Have you noticed how, if you play Tetris for a long time, your mind starts to play Tetris on its own every time you close your eyes, and maybe even with them open? That is the way you want to learn French grammar, by using the language (correctly) as often as you can.

Dig Up and Watch Those Foreign Films

This is why movies in French can be a great aid (they also help cement vocabulary!) and why you should seek native speakers to talk to as soon as you have a minimal enough knowledge of French to be able to have a basic conversation.

French language learning does not need to be tedious or difficult. The reading and writing aspect can be learned through books, audiobooks, online French courses, and even by watching French movies with subtitles (so you can read and hear dialogue at the same time).

What Has Helped You?

What have you tried, that helped you learn and retain the most vocabulary and grammar? Please share your experience in the comment section below.

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How to Learn French – 10 Different Ways

Asia — Thu, 19 Apr 2012 19:39:21 +0000

French is a language that is spoken all over the world. It is an official language in about 29 countries. French ranks second among the world’s most frequently taught languages, after English. You might therefore want to know how to learn French.

As with learning any language, learning French takes time, patience and energy. Learning new material and then practicing it are the keys to reaching fluency. However, learning French and practicing it doesn’t have to be a drag. There are lots of fun ways to incorporate both learning and practicing your French.

How To Learn French

If you have a computer, or spend a lot of time on computer, consider buying a learning program, like Rocket French.
Use free online podcast lessons, available all over the internet.
Log in to online translator websites, such as Bonjour, where you type random phrases to get their meaning. However, these kinds of translators can sometimes be wrong, so double check by using your dictionary.
Taking a French class is the other way of learning the language. Check your local community centers, colleges, craigslist, and meetup groups.

How To Practice French

In order to absorb this language as quickly as possible, try to have conversations in French and practice what you have learned wherever and whenever you can.

You can practice with a French speaking student from your local college.
Find a pen pal over the internet to practice with.
Subscribe to a French magazine or newsletter and see how you will learn pretty fast as you continue reading French. Whenever you find a word you don’t know, look them up.
Teach the new French words you have learned to your non-French speaking friends, as a way of practicing.
Watching French movies or listening to French music is also a good way of learning French. This will help improve your listening skills as well as help you improve your accent. As a beginner, you should go for the French movies with English subtitles.
Alliance Française, a non profit organization that is devoted to promoting the French language throughout the world. By joining, you are guaranteed to get all the help you need to learn French, by mingling with other French speakers.

See, now you know how to learn and practice French! If you can spend 30 minutes a day practicing the French you have learned, you will be well on your way to fluency.

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The Number 1 Foreign Language Learning Myth

Susanna Zaraysky — Tue, 17 Apr 2012 17:59:06 +0000

Many times I’ve heard people give the excuse that they are not “good” in foreign languages because they don’t have an “ear” for languages.

Excuses, excuses, excuses.

Let me give you some examples of two half-deaf people and one legally deaf woman who prove this false notion about foreign language learning to be WRONG.

Legally Deaf Since Birth

Katrin, a deaf German friend of mine, learned to speak English because she listened to music. (She can speak and read lips but has very limited hearing.) Even those students who had better hearing than she did in her deaf school in Germany did not learn to speak and pronounce English as well as she did because they did not have any musical training or exposure to music.

Despite her hearing impairment, she played the flute as a child and listened to music. Feeling the sound vibrations impacted Katrin’s ability to sense the rhythm of music and language. The combination of the little that she could hear combined with the vibrations that she could feel from music enabled her to develop good speaking patterns in both German and English.

Watch the video below to see how a deaf German lady learned English via music and how you don’t have to have musical talent to learn a foreign language.

Note: In order to see this video with English or German subtitles, you have to press the CC button in the lower right side of the You Tube box and select English or German subtitles.

Deaf In One Ear

Another friend who is deaf in one ear is in China improving his Chinese. Now Chinese is tough for someone who is partially deaf because it’s a tonal language and you have to pay extra attention to the sound of the language. But he’s doing it.

Partially Deaf

My own mother is partially deaf and speaks English as her second language with an accent that’s not any stronger than that of a typical Russian. As a matter of fact, I know Russians who can hear with both ears, who have a stronger accent in English than she does.

It’s Not About Your Ears

Don’t let your hearing issues keep you away from appreciating and listening to music. You don’t need to have perfect pitch to follow these instructions. I am not a gifted musician and I tend to sing out of key more often than I like.

Humans Are Musical Beings

When we are born, we don’t start speaking automatically. We listen before we speak. When learning languages, we should follow this same pattern and listen to the music of the language before opening our mouths to pronounce words.

Start Listening Today

One ear, two ear or barely functioning ears, it’s not about your ears. Foreign language learning is
about your brain and your intention!

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What’s The Best Language To Learn?

Susanna Zaraysky — Tue, 10 Apr 2012 17:42:32 +0000

If you are thinking about learning a foreign language, you are probably trying to decide which language you want to learn. You may even be asking “What is the best language to learn?”.

However, the question about which is the best language to learn may not be the right one. The real issue is how you use your brain to remember and learn anything, including new languages. People often think that to learn a language, you must have an excellent memory. When actually, the key is in understanding how your memory works.

The Best Language Is The One That Works With Your Memory Systems

Professor Michael Ullman of the neuroscience department at Georgetown University is an expert on how people learn languages. He has published several papers about the role of memory in the acquisition of first and second languages.

Proper Memory Usage Leads to Language Acquisition

His theory says that, procedural memory helps us learn grammar and syntax, and is rooted in the frontal-basal ganglia structure of the brain. Declarative memory is in the temporal lobe of the brain and governs how we remember words, facts and events. The two memory systems work in a see-saw manner, and sometimes compete. When one is in dysfunction, the other may become stronger.

However, when learning a second language, we rely more on declarative memory to learn grammar rules and structure rather just using procedural memory. In other words, when learning another language we are like parrots that copy the sounds we hear from native speakers.

Learning Grammar With Music

Since music engages more areas of the brain than language, listening to and repeating song lyrics can help us learn grammar. Also we tend to remember musical tunes better than memorized lists of words, so the theory about the roles of declarative and procedural memory in language learning holds true.

This doesn’t mean that we are able to completely learn a language without learning grammar and structure, but it shows that listening and repeating sounds serves a real purpose in how we can learn the syntax and structure of a language.

Georgetown Brain Language Lab

If you’d like more in-depth explanations of the declarative/procedural model, you can download his articles here:

A Few Things To Consider

Before you decide which is the best language to learn, consider evaluating how you personally think and remember things. Perhaps you can make changes to the way you study and capture information to improve your language learning experience.

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How to Learn Portuguese Quickly Online

Susanna Zaraysky — Thu, 05 Apr 2012 19:58:52 +0000

There are many free and non-free online resources that solve the dilemma of how to learn Portuguese quickly. Today you’ll get a round-up of those tools!

Hopefully you will discover some new gems, and be reminded of some old classics to help you learn and improve your Portuguese.

BBC Brasil

Yes, the British can help you learn Portuguese quickly!

Watch news videos from the BBC in Brazilian Portuguese on their You Tube channel.
There are Portuguese language learning resources on the BBC Languages page for
Portuguese.

Podcasts

PortuguesePod101.com
Tá Falado: Brazilian Portuguese Pronunciation for Speakers of Spanish. The
podcast and PDF downloads are free.
LingQ Portuguese Podcast with audio conversations and downloadable transcripts.

Videos on You Tube

Street Smart Brazil has fun and short videos explaining Portuguese grammar, pronunciation and Brazilian culture made by Luciana Lage, Portuguese instructor at the University of California at Berkeley.

How to learn Portuguese Quickly With Other Free Programs

According to Learning Portuguese.co.uk, these are the best free resources to learn Portuguese.

Idiot’s Guide to Learning Portuguese – the free pronunciation and grammar course on this site.
Learn Portuguese with Rafa – whilst there is some commercial content, Rafa does nevertheless give away a lot of very useful information for free, and this site is well worth a look. The tone is conversational and easy to follow, and unusually, both European and Brazilian Portuguese is taught.
Basic Portuguese Language Tutorial – mostly vocabulary lists, but also some short grammar lessons. Brazilian and European alternatives are given, but it is not always made clear which is which.
Facebook Daily Portuguese Tips – Bite-size lessons delivered at frequent intervals straight to your Facebook news feed. Emphasis on European Portuguese.
Portuguese Language Guide – Tips and tools for learning Portuguese, with a verb conjugator and language tests to check your progress.
BBC Talk Portuguese – an introduction to basic vocabulary for tourists, covering a mixture of Brazilian and European usage.
Foreign Services Institute – a US-government language course (now in the public domain, and published by Glen D Fellows) for Brazilian Portuguese, including notes about European differences. Consists of a total of 48 units in 2 volumes – typewritten and available as PDF downloads. Accompanying audio files (mp3) are also available for download.
Easy Portuguese – a collection of lessons in Brazilian Portuguese. Audio files available. Lots of adverts though!
Tá Falado – also Brazilian, but with the specific slant of teaching English-speakers who are already familiar with Spanish. Lessons are delivered as podcasts, with PDF transcripts.

How to Learn Portuguese Quickly With The Ten Best Resources

This list consists of both free and paid to learn Portuguese resources as compiled by Hacking Portuguese .

Best audio course for beginners : Pimsleur
Best grammar reference : Modern Portuguese Grammar
Best textbooks : Muito Prazer, Ponto de Encontro, Falar/Ler/Escrever
Best verb reference : 501 Portuguese Verbs
Best online tutoring & conversational practice : StreetSmart Brazil
Best video series : Semántica
Best podcast / best way to improve your pronunciation : Tá Falado
Best ways to learn vocabulary : Anki, Portuguese in 10 Minutes a Day, Frequency Dictionary
Best Portuguese/English dictionaries : Linguee, Infopédia, Larousse
Best Portuguese Learning Blogs

Top Ten Best Portuguese Language Learning Blogs

Semantica blog – intermediate-level tips and new vocabulary (also available on facebook as “Learn Brazilian Portuguese”).
StreetSmart Brazil blog – beginner-level tips, instructional videos, and cultural news (also available on facebook as “StreetSmart Brazil”).
Transparent Language Portuguese blog – excellent blog for intermediate/advanced speakers.
Eyes on Brazil – cultural notes with some language mixed in.
Fun With Brazilian Portuguese – London-based Portuguese teacher Fernando Nonohay’s blog with a huge range of tips, videos, and translated song lyrics.
Sua Língua – a blog in Portuguese written by a Brazilian linguist, exploring the etymologies of various words, grammar and idiosyncrasies of the language.
brazilianportuguese.wordpress.com – though it hasn’t been updated in a few years, Dave Maclure’s blog has some great reviews of books and other tidbits.

What Did I Miss?

Do you have a favorite resource for learning Portuguese Online that wasn’t listed above? If so, please share it in the comments below.

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