Learn a Foreign Language

An Outstanding Resource for Learning Chinese

2006-03-19T20:46:00.000-05:00

If you are studying Mandarin Chinese, this is a resource you simply have to check out.

Marilyn Shea is a University of Maine at Farmington psychology professor who fell in love with China when she visited the country for the first time 14 years ago. But the books and tapes then available to self-teach the language left her cold, Shea said.
She discovered that the perfect accents and diction on language tapes sounded nothing like the language she heard on the streets of Beijing.

So she set about creating her own database of English and Chinese words and phrases. Today the database has morphed into the Ting Center at http://hua.umf.maine.edu/Chinese/faq/funaq.html. Launched in 1997, it was one of the first language sites on the Internet. About 70,000 people per month visit the site. Its popularity is probably partly a result of Shea's insights into how people learn new languages, and to a booming interest in China, which has been steadily climbing the ranks as a destination for American students studying abroad.
Shea had no ambitions to create an online language center when she started her project.

"I just got fascinated with the problems of learning this language," she said.
Part of the problem, she said, is that most foreign language curriculums involve recordings of actors speaking slowly in the most correct form of the language.
"But if you just talk among your friends, you hear people who talk fast, slow, slovenly or mumble," she said.

As she says on her Web site, people put just enough energy into their language to get their point across. So they are prone to contracting or omitting words, slurring, grunting and dropping off the ends of sentences.
On her site, five or six people say the same word or phrase in different accents to give visitors a real feel for how they actually will hear the language in everyday conversation.

Shea collects the words and phrases during mostly annual trips back to China, where she has a legion of friends eager to help her come up with the latest phrases and words and lend their voices to the project.

Source: Portland Press Herald/Maine Sunday Telegram

Learning Vocabulary: The Power of Context

2006-03-16T17:11:00.000-05:00

When you were learning to talk, you didn’t consult a dictionary or vocabulary lists. You managed to determine the meaning of a word based on how it was used in sentences and how those sentences applied to what was going on around you. The setting in which words are used, whether in a sentence or in the larger sense is called the context. Once your knowledge of a language reaches a certain threshold, seeing a word in context will often give you the clues you need to figure out what it means. This is how your mind is programmed to learn words.

For someone learning a language other than their own, there are two basic phases to learning vocabulary. The first is assembling a basic foundation of words. In traditional teaching methods this means learning dialogues by rote and using flash cards. Flash cards are a useful tool for building that basic foundation of words.

Once you have enough new foreign words and sentence structures, the second phase involves picking up new words in context. The trick here is to find contexts where you will encounter new words and help reinforce their meanings on your mind. To put it another way, you need to experience your new language in ways that approach the way an ordinary native speaker experiences the language. This will be harder at first, but then gradually, even naturally will improve with time and practice.

Foreign Language Learning in Other Countries

2006-03-11T17:17:00.000-05:00

Americans take a lot of heat from people in other countries because we aren't real prolific when it comes to learning languages other than English. To be fair, humans as a species tend to prioritize their activities according to what they think it needful, even if they don't always make smart decisions that way.

One reason why Americans don’t usually master a second language is because of geography; Canada to the north is mostly English-speaking, and Spanish, although increasingly encountered, remains largely restricted to regions near the Mexican border. Another reason is related to the first; middle schools and high schools don’t put a premium on foreign language study. English is, after all, about as close as there is to a global language of science, commerce, and diplomacy. Other parts of the world take a different view. In Europe, for instance, it is not unusual for students to learn two, three, or even four languages by the time they finish the equivalent of high school. This is because Europe has many language zones packed into a relatively small space. But Americans can draw an important lesson from the European experience; if their students can routinely learn additional languages, so can you!

The world is changing; geographic borders are less and less meaningful in determining who you interact with most often. The sooner Americans understand that in their gut, the sooner we will see more and more of us learning new languages.

Breaking Out of English-Only Land

2006-03-04T21:45:00.000-05:00

Americans are starting to see the need--and the advantages--of learning a second language. This report from the U.S. Department of State web site lists some of many reasons why learning a language is a good idea:

Foreign language study in the United States traditionally has been introduced as an elective at the middle and secondary school levels. But parents increasingly are demanding foreign-language study for their tots in preschool. According to a 2004 article published in Education Week, a newspaper of record for U.S. educators, parents want their children exposed to other cultures and traditions at an early age while maintaining their own ethnic heritages.

Competition for jobs is yet another reason to learn foreign languages. In the same Education Week article, Elizabeth Webb, the program specialist for foreign-language and international education at the state of Georgia's Department of Education, is quoted as saying: "Sooner or later, what I think is going to happen is the realization of how many jobs we are exporting because people abroad speak English very well." The inability of many Americans to speak foreign languages, she said, is becoming "a competitive disadvantage."

Older Americans, too, increasingly are studying -- and successfully learning -- foreign languages. Although some observers believe children have the advantage in mastering a foreign language, other experts disagree.

Joan Rubin and Irene Thomson, authors of How To Be a More Successful Language Learner, wrote: "[T]here is little evidence that children in language classrooms learn foreign languages any better than adults [people over 15] in similar classroom situations."

Adults, they write, have better memories, more efficient ways of organizing information, longer attention spans, better study habits and greater ability to handle complex mental tasks. Children, however, are less afraid of making mistakes and seeming foolish, according to Rubin and Thomson.

Retirees are finding they now have the time to study a language. Many seniors have the financial means to travel to foreign lands and want to be able to order off menus, ask for directions and converse a bit with the locals in their native tongue. Other older Americans, descendants of immigrants, want to renew their ethnic ties and get in touch with the cultural heritage of their family's homeland by learning the language they may have failed to absorb in childhood.

Also spurring the 50-and-older crowd is evidence that learning a foreign language may provide the kind of mental stimulation that staves off mental disabilities such as Alzheimer's disease.

Most important, there are now many more resources for learning new languages, and the methods for teaching them are much more fun. Small children are taught new languages using songs, rhymes, games and television shows. College students can stay in dorms that enforce total language immersion; they practice the language daily in spontaneous and familiar settings without ever getting on a plane.

Affordable computer programs allow students to learn new languages at their own pace. On many of the language-training compact discs, students can record their own voices and compare their pronunciation to that of native speakers. The programs include photos, drills, quizzes and interactive games that make learning a language engaging and enjoyable.

To read the full article, click here.

Finding Native Speakers Near You

2006-03-03T17:29:00.000-05:00

When it comes to learning a foreign language, there really is not substitute for practicing with someone who is a native speaker. When you've reached a certain point, that is. If you're still trying to put together simple sentences and only have a few dozen words in your vocabulary talking to a native speaker can be intimidating for you, and frustrating for both of you. But once you hit a certain point in your studies, talking to a native speaker can reap huge gains in your studies. One hour with a native speaker can be worth ten spent with tapes and twenty trying to use a book. It's also a great way to learn about the body langauge that can be an important (and often neglected) part of a foreign language.

Many larger metropolitan areas have significant ethnic populations. San Francisco’s Chinatown is probably the best known, but many other cities and towns have smaller pockets of immigrants and the communities they fashioned after coming to America. Organizations from advocacy groups to social clubs can be found all over the U.S. Finding one might be a challenge, but often a call to the reference desk of your local public library will help you find what you need. You can also take matters into your own hands and place an ad in the local newspaper looking for a native speakers or speakers of your language with whom you could practice. Universities and college are a good place to find students from other countries who would not only enjoy a chance to help you master their language, they might also appreciate the opportunity to form some ties in a land far from home.

Your Career and Foreign Languages

2006-03-01T13:18:00.000-05:00

As the world becomes more and more interconnected, the need for foreign language skills is becoming more acute than ever. If Americans aren’t careful, they are going to be left behind by those who take the trouble to master new languages. A report by Diane Hirth in the Tallahassee Democrat has this to say about languages and careers:

With globalization on the tip of everyone's tongue, there's also increased interest in becoming bilingual in languages more traditionally attempted by speakers of English, like Spanish and French.

"The business world is changing. It's not just a national market anymore. You need to be bilingual to market yourself to companies," said Raushanah Morgan, 19, a marketing major at Florida A&M University who has studied Spanish.

"This is our dream," said Evelyn Trujillo, a Spanish professor and chairwoman of FAMU's Department of Foreign Languages, of offering more language opportunities to students. FAMU's department is fairly young, offering classes in Spanish, French and Arabic, but the goal is eventually to add languages such as Swahili, Chinese and Japanese. FAMU also is hoping to get legislative funds this year for a foreign-language lab.

Locally, chances to learn languages stretch from German, Latin, French and Spanish at Tallahassee Community College to Arabic, Chinese, French, German, Hebrew, Italian, Japanese, Korean, Portuguese, Russian and Spanish at FSU. The endowed Winthrop-King Institute for Contemporary French and Francophone Studies greatly lifted the scope of language studies at FSU, and offers student scholarships in seven languages.

"My philosophy is it's never too late to learn," Trujillo said.

"If you want to and put in the time, you can learn," agreed Cloonan.

Who Needs a Language Teacher, Anyway?

2006-02-27T19:19:00.000-05:00

A remarkable new computer program being developed at British University in Dubai may replace the traditional teacher for teaching foreign languages, reports the website www.ameinfo.com:

“The experimental program - 'Intelligent Tutor' - is capable of systematically correcting errors for students studying English as a foreign language, and adapting to their preferred style of learning.

Developed by Dr Marina Dodigovic, it could provide an important tool for students of the future looking to develop their language skills and has been hailed as one of the major 'technologies of the future' by experts in artificial intelligence.

Dr. Marina Dodigovic, Assistant Professor of English and TESOL, the American University of Sharjah, will deliver the lecture, employing her wide knowledge of the field of Computer Assisted Language Learning (CALL).

BUiD supports a number of advanced research projects into information technology and its potential impact on education, and professors at the institution are looking forward to the opportunity to discuss the potential outcomes of this developing field.

'Computer Assisted Language Learning is a fascinating area, which educational institutions within the Middle East could make a significant contribution to,' said Dr. Habib Talhami, Head of the Institute of Informatics and Senior Lecturer at the British University in Dubai.

'The contemporary interest in technology research and development, combined with the classical traditions of language training in the Arab world, make it a very fruitful area of investigation,' he added. “

Preparing for Travel

2006-02-26T17:59:00.000-05:00

In today’s issue of the Los Angeles Times, Susan Spano writes:

“The ability to understand and speak a foreign language exponentially improves the travel experience, so linguistic preparation is as important as planning and packing.

Learning a language can be relatively painless, even fun, for people with an aptitude, especially if they studied the language when they were young.

"Prior knowledge does seem to help activate the brain," said Renee Jourdenais, an assistant professor in the Graduate School of Language & Educational Linguistics at the Monterey Institute of International Studies.

Of course, some languages are more difficult than others for native English-speakers to learn, because their writing and sounds differ so widely, Jourdenais said.

At the Defense Language Institute Foreign Language Center in Monterey, Calif., which is dedicated to getting U.S. diplomatic personnel up to speed before a foreign posting, basic French and Spanish courses designed to give students a modest level of proficiency last 25 weeks. Czech and Russian programs run for 47 weeks; beginner Mandarin Chinese and Arabic courses take 63 weeks.

Classroom study tends to be expensive. For relatively brief trips, travelers' needs often can be adequately addressed by the survival dictionaries in most guidebooks that can teach how to say "Hello" and "Goodbye," "Where is?" and "How much?" in the time it takes to fly from Los Angeles to Berlin.

Travelers who have more elaborate goals should seek methods suited to their motivations, said Joan Rubin, co-author of "How To Be a More Successful Language Learner."

"Learning to work in a language is a very demanding task," Rubin said. "For an English-speaker, it will take 700 hours to learn to work in Spanish and double that in Korean, Japanese, Chinese or Arabic."

In other words, the way you prepare for a trip depends on what you want to get out of it.”

What this article doesn’t really get into is the impact you can have by showing that you’ve taken the trouble to learn some of the language where you’re visiting, even if it’s just a few words or phrases. The reaction of the natives will also be in proportion to the obscurity of the language. So learning a few words of Spanish for a trip to Mexico or Puerto Rico will evoke a smile or a polite nod of acknowledgement, The same degree of effort to learn Danish or Japanese or Swahili will set you apart as someone who appreciates the culture, and you will be treated accordingly.

How to Get Stellar SAT Scores

2006-02-25T10:41:00.000-05:00

If you want to ace that SAT, study a foreign language for at least two years. Data collected by the Admission Testing Program of the College Board show a definite positive correlation between Scholastic Aptitude Test (SAT) scores and the study of foreign languages. For example, in one test group students who had taken no foreign language in high school achieved a mean score of 366 on the verbal portion of the SAT, and 409 on the math portion. Students who had taken only one year of a foreign language had slightly higher scores (378 and 416), whereas students with two years of foreign language showed more dramatic increases (417 and 463). Each additional year of language study brought a further rise in scores, with students who had studied a language for five years or more achieving an average of 504 on the verbal and 535 on the math portion of the exam.

Most people aren't surprised to hear that foreign language study helps improve verbal skills. What is really interesting is that it apparently helps with math skills as well. My sense is that this is because language also involves logic, and math skills are taught through the medium of language. Since foreign language study improves your skill in your own language, it will improve your ability to learn pretty much everything else.

Europeans: More Multilingual Than Ever

2006-02-23T07:38:00.000-05:00

Europeans have always been in the forefront of creating a multilingual population, but now they are set to push it to new levels.

According to a special Eurobarometer on Europeans and their languages, the number of EU citizens who can speak at least one foreign language has increased from 47% in 2001 to 56% in 2005. An increasing number of Europeans also find that language skills are useful (83%).

Half of Europeans agree with the EU's political target that everyone in the EU should be able to speak two languages in addition to their mother tongue. However, 44% oppose this objective. Currently, 28% of Europeans say they have mastered two foreign languages. The Luxembourgish (92%), Dutch (75%) and Slovenians (71%) score the highest in this respect.

Around half of Europeans (44%) know only their mother tongue. This is especially the case in in Ireland (66%), the United Kingdom (62%), Italy (59%), Hungary (58%), Portugal (58%) and Spain (56%). 49% of French and 33% of Germans speak only their own language.

English remains the most widely spoken foreign language throughout Europe (38%) of followed by French and German (with 14% speaking each) and Spanish and Russian (6% for each).

(Source: http://www.euractiv.com/)

Learning Languages: Why People Fail

2006-02-22T19:02:00.000-05:00

Remember that high school foreign language class? Remember how difficult it was? Remember any Spanish from it? Probably not too much. This is because too often foreign language classes in high school and college are not taught using a sound teaching method. Another problem is class size. Too many students and you spend most of your time hoping the teacher won’t call on you instead of practicing and working with the language. But perhaps the biggest reason why people fail at learning languages is that they are using learning strategies they acquired as they grew up, but does not make use of the natural ability humans have for learning languages. A conventional grammar breaks down a language and tries to present it in the form of conjugation and declension charts in which students have to memorize forms, prefixes, suffixes, and so forth. Let's face it: most people know next to nothing about comparative grammar. Trying to learn this way does not use the brain’s natural ability to learn a language by listening and responding. Very few people can learn languages from a book, so if you’ve tried that without success, some form of lessons on audio tapes or CDs will probably work better for you. This isn't to say it can't be done. It's just much, much harder unless you're a trained linguist with years of study and experience to draw upon.

I have an awesome collection of grammars and dictionaries at home representing dozens of different languages. But the only ones I've actually used successfully were the ones for dead languages, where I didn't have the option of using an audio lesson on CD. Although I have seen some for Latin, they tend mostly to help you learn phrases that have become part of our language; legal or medical terms and so forth. For instance, when you hear someone on a TV show set in a hospital or ER use the word "Stat!", that is short for statim, which is Latin for "immediately".

Flash Cards Are Your Friends

2006-02-15T17:45:00.000-05:00

During my undergraduate and early graduate years, my shirt pocket nearly always contained a stack of flash cards. Flash cards can turn any “down time” into study time. If you’re standing in line, waiting for a movie to start, or sitting in a waiting room, whip out your cards and expand your vocabulary. Go through the cards in bunches of ten to twenty. Start by looking at the foreign word first and trying to recall the English meaning. When you can do that perfectly, reverse the process and translate from English to the target language until I know all the words in the stack cold. Keep a stack of cards you’ve mastered out where you can see it and watch it grow. Watching your “done” stack mount higher and higher is a great little motivator.

Although you can buy ready-made flash cards in many languages, it's probably best if you make your own. The process of creating the cards, of writing down the words and their meaning can help you internalize them and learn them more quickly. You can also buy blank flash cards, but here's another trick. Go to drug store or office supply store and buy two or three packs of one hundred 4" x 6" index cards, unruled. Then take these to a local copy shop and ask them to cut these cards in half vertically and laterally. This turns one hundred index cards into four hundred cards that are the perfect size for flash cards. Most copy centers or print shops will do the cutting job very inexpensively.

Teach You Kids a Foreign Language at Home

2006-02-12T19:45:00.000-05:00

If you want to teach your children a foreign language as home do some careful advance planning and set some clear goals. Do you want them to just gain basic conversational skills? Maybe you're interested in your kids learning a dead language such as Latin. Or perhaps your kids just want to get reading knowledge so they can follow events in foreign newspapers. Whatever your goals, you will have much more success getting and holding your kid’s attention if you try to tie their new language with other aspects of their learning and particularly special outings. Keep your eyes open for movies, restaurants, ethnic festivals or holidays that will help them see relevance in what they are studying. Kids become world-class learning machines if you can get their interest engaged.

Kids learned their first language from their environment, and you'll have more success if your kids are surrounded with their next language as much as possible. Many bookstores sell vocabulary books with little cut-out labels to put on items around the house that give the name of that item in the new language. Depending on your child’s age, look for children’s books in the new language. Most of all, try to find something that engages something he or she is already interested in. For example, if you have a kid who is learning Spanish and who is also nuts about cars, consider a subscription to a Spanish-language magazine about cars or racing. Foreign language magazines are appearing more and more frequently in larger bookstores and better newsstands, and subscriptions can also be purchased on the Internet.

Love Life Need a Boost? Learn a Language

2006-02-11T11:29:00.000-05:00

There are a lot of good reasons for learning a foreign language, but did you know that knowing a foreign language can help improve your love life? A British survey quoted at the website of Kwintessential Language and Culture Specialists informs us:

A survey of 270 dating agencies found that people who learn or speak a foreign language are also more attractive to the opposite sex. Britons who speak a foreign language were rated more highly because they are easier to match with partners as they are considered to be more intelligent and sexier.

Apparently it makes little difference which language you learn, the fact that you learn a language at all makes you more interesting.

Uncle Sam Wants YOU to Learn Languages

2006-02-10T08:01:00.000-05:00

Anyone who is old enough to remember Sputnik will also remember what a shock it was to the US when the supposedly backward Soviet Union became the first to put a satellite into orbit. It was a colossal embarrassment to the US, and we accelerated our own efforts to catch up. But one truly good thing that came out of that shock was the realization that having a lot of trained scientists, engineers, and technicians was a matter of national security. So, huge sums were made available for elementary and secondary education, and this not only helped us land on the moon eleven years later, that large pool of expertise also helped launch a technological boom we're still enjoying.

In a similar way, the tragic events of 9/11 have made it clear that America can no longer afford the luxury of educating monolingual students. And in an insight similar to the view of education after Sputnik, Inside Higher Education reports that White House is promoting a new plan to spend million more on programs to teach "strategic" languages at the college and university level. From the article:

“Having more Americans who know any foreign language is always a great thing, regardless of what employment sector they are in,” said Juan Cole, professor of history at the University of Michigan and president of the Middle East Studies Association. He predicted that some of those educated by the military in foreign languages would end up in business, in academe, and elsewhere — better off professionally because they will speak Arabic or Chinese or other languages.

I believe that it would be even better if this training could begin in high school; languages like Arabic or Chinese--two of the most often cited strategic languages--are not easy, but they can be mastered. Thomas Edward Lawrence, aka "Lawrence of Arabia" studied Arabic at Oxford where it was fairly common for Arabic students to graduate knowing several dialects of Arabic, and being able to recite long passages from the Qu'ran in Arabic from memory. The question is whether our postsecondary language study programs will be able to get back to that level of excellence in their teaching.

Learning Langauges is a Skill

2006-02-08T10:46:00.000-05:00

It's commonly believed that the ability to learn languages quickly is something you're born with...or not. You either have it or you don't. You read about someone like Captain Sir Richard Burton, the famous Victorian explorer, adventurer, expert swordsman and sometime smut peddler who learned some forty languages and dialects and you think this guy most have been the Mozart of languages.

In fact, the ability to learn foreign languages is not magic, it's a skill. It's something you can learn. If you learn a second language, your third language will be easier. One of my professors was a man who was fluent in over twenty languages. Some of us astonished undergrads once asked him how he had done it. He just shrugged and said, “the first two or three are the hardest.” It’s true, especially if you use a good learning method like the Pimsleur method. Successive languages will be easier and easier. I'm willing to wager that Sir Richard's last two dozen or so languages were far easier to learn than the first few.

The idea that one can learn multiple languages may seem outrageous to Americans, but in many other parts of the world, this is the norm. You can do it, too.

You Don't Have to Be a Kid to Learn a Foreign Language

2006-02-07T12:37:00.000-05:00

You've probably heard that children are better at learning languages than adults are, that they learn faster. You've probably also heard that after a certain age, learning languages becomes harder and harder. Once that "window" closes, learning additional languages is difficult.

Well, guess what? Every one of those "facts" are wrong.

Children do not learn faster than adults; quite the opposite. Think about it. Adults have the advantage of knowing how to read and write, they have life experience that kids are still picking up along with their languages. In fact, adults who use a good language learning method can learn to speak as well in four to six months as a child does in about five years.

People are hard-wired to learn languages and that "wiring" does not go away as you get older. The problem is that people tend to try and learn languages the way they try to learn other things... from books. But you didn't learn your first language that way, you learned by listening and responding. That's how you need to learn your next language, with a system that emphasizes that approach.