The Cunning Linguist - Effective language study

Tip: Have faith

Victoria — Fri, 08 May 2009 13:40:08 +0000

How do you learn a language? The same way you learned to walk... one step at a time. There are no magic shoes (no matter what the shoe shop assistant may tell you). There is no substitute for being brave enough to take a step, achieving a little, soon wobbling and then falling over.

FCO and Accenture papers on China released today

Victoria — Thu, 22 Jan 2009 18:27:00 +0000

"Foreign Secretary David Miliband
in Manchester" by Foreign &
Commonwealth Office

UK Foreign Secretary David Miliband launched a new framework today for the development of our national relationship with China. The report highlights issues such as sustainable development, the environment and China's increasing influence on the global stage. You can read or download the report on the FCO website, or see pictures from the Manchester event on Flickr.

Global management consultancy, technology and outsourcing firm Accenture also released a paper on China today. The market research report follows a Chinese government initiative to achieve accreditation for and develop China's outsourcing and services industry, and has been produced with assistance from the China Council of International Investment Promotion (CCIIP). You can read and download the report from the Accenture website.

Apologies for the recent radio silence; I'm on a really intensive training course at the moment which basically consumes your whole life, 24x7, for a month. Am hoping normal service will be resumed in early February!

We wish you a Merry Christmas, and a Happy New Year!

Victoria — Sat, 20 Dec 2008 14:45:30 +0000

"Christmas Kitty" by Tavallai

The supermarket shelves have been stacked with mince pies for months, the carol muzak is beginning to wear out, and the decorations have been in the mall so long nobody notices them any more. It must be time for Christmas!! Somehow, despite the advanced warning and good intentions, those cards you bought weeks ago are still waiting to be written.

It'd be great to put something clever in them, for your friends from language class or the native speakers you've met through the year. Fear not, my posting-deadline challenged friends! Here is a round-up of key festive phrases in Japanese and Mandarin.

Learn Japanese online with these great websites

Victoria — Thu, 11 Dec 2008 10:21:59 +0000

Koichi

Recently Koichi over at Tofugu listed his top ten online tools for studying Japanese. His list includes some great old favourites, and some fab new sites I had never encountered. There are detailed explanations for why each site is on Koichi's top ten over at his site, as well as a twenty minute (two part) Youtube video presenting screenshots of the features.

A few days ago I also ran across Nihongo Pera Pera, which is a small and perfectly formed website full of guidance for those seeking fluency in Japanese. I really like the site structure, and that so much of what it contains is backed up by direct and personal experience of achieving JLPT2 proficiency.

What are your favourite sites or online tools that aid your Japanese study?

Intelligent analysis; East Asia official reports and journals

Victoria — Wed, 03 Dec 2008 11:44:00 +0000

"Prime Minister Gordon Brown meets
President Hu of China" by Foreign
& Commonwealth Office

On Sunday, the Foreign Affairs Committee published a report entitled "Global Security: Japan and Korea". The report has been produced to address concerns over North Korea's nuclear position, but there is also a great volume of information included about the political and economic climate in Japan and South Korea, as well as international relations between these countries and others. For anyone interested in the region, it's well worth a look. You can browse it online in HTML format, or download the PDF.

Pimsleur Japanese transcript / notes

Victoria — Tue, 25 Nov 2008 19:13:30 +0000

"日本語の試験を勉強する時"
by Wesley Oostvogels.

Since the beginning of October my language study time has been spent typing up Pimsleur notes. With such a backlog, working on them alongside other study was prolonging the exercise. It's been thankless because I'm not learning anything new, but it will definitely be worthwhile. Electronic notes can be added to my Anki deck, and they don't make my lounge messy!

Many times my study has been aided by resources other people have made available on the web. I've always thought that it'd be good one day to put these notes online and “give something back”.

Blog Action Day: Five links for literacy

Victoria — Tue, 14 Oct 2008 23:00:07 +0000

"Sharing Foundation: Khmer literacy
program" by Cambodia4KidsOrg.

Most of the people reading this blog probably already have a high degree of literacy in one major business language, if not two or three. When we spend so much time thinking about learning "second" languages, its easy to forget how fortunate we are that we have one to begin with. One in five people in the UK struggle to read and write - in English!

Finding wealth of spirit through language

Victoria — Sun, 28 Sep 2008 12:58:16 +0000

"Fuel" by Nathan Macan.

Right now, it seems everyone is blogging about financial collapse and the credit crunch. Its what you hear from the moment you wake up to the end of the day. Languages can help us gain value from what may appear to be an unrelentingly gloomy situation.

Automatic Language Growth

Victoria — Sat, 23 Aug 2008 08:23:00 +0000

Recently, Scott over at Journey to Thai has added several posts about his experiences at a school in Bangkok, which uses an immersive approach called "Automatic Language Growth". Via one of his YouTube links of the Bangkok school, I ran across this video of children learning to count in Mandarin using the same method.

It may not be the most effective approach in all situations, but I'm pretty sure most youngsters would find languages more relevant and engaging if they were taught this way in schools. Encouragingly, the National Centre for Languages has published case studies of both immersive language teaching, and Content & Language Integrated Learning (CLIL) on their website. You can watch an interview with one of the teachers involved in a study integrating Geography with an immersive French language environment here.

What are your thoughts about immersive methods, integrated learning, and the traditional approach to language teaching in schools?

日本語は難しいですけど...

Victoria — Tue, 22 Jul 2008 21:06:34 +0000

For years I've wondered what "ですかど" means. Its often used in Japanese conversation, joining phrases or at the end of sentences. Every time it's bugged me, there's been something more immediate demanding my attention (like useful everyday phrases; "nice to meet you", "how's the weather?" or "those aren't my undies!!").

Today I found a recording of an interview on Japanese TV with subtitles (in Japanese ... they often do, don't ask me why!). Low and behold, there it was! All this time I've been spelling it wrong; it sounds like "ですかど" but its actually "ですけど"!

Thankfully Minako-san over at "Nihongo day by day" has written a fantastic explanation of the phrase. Minako's site is a veritable Aladdin's cave of everyday Japanese. Every entry is written in both Japanese and English, so you can even learn your Japanese in Japanese! I hope the site is useful to everyone!

PS. Those phrases, if you need them, are "どうぞ宜しく　お願いします", "天気はどうですか" and "その下着は私のじゃないよ!!".