Tag Archives: Language

Time to Complain

I am not one who likes to be negative.  When I write I like to put my time in to helping point people in the right direction according to my opinions.  I don’t write negative reviews of products and I don’t make controversial posts to generate a lot of comments.  That’s just not how I roll.

Despite all that, there are just some things that irritate me to no extreme!  And I have chosen to remain silent, because of my desire to stay positive.  Then I realized, it’s not the sources that makes me annoyed, it’s the people who keep going back to these sources.  So I have chosen to go on this rant, not to put anyone person our thought down, but to point out where I think you shouldn’t go.  I wont name any names in this, just concepts I am not a fan of.

Do your homework!

There are those who like to make fantastical claims and of superfast learning.  They go on these missions to learn a language super fast and if you follow their blog or buy their product, then you will figure out these same tricks.   Continue reading

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Filed under Thai

Just do it!

nike-just-do-it2Here I am back in the swing if things. Its crazy. Despite being gone, I am not lacking for ideas and thoughts. It helps to take a step back and write for yourself and not for what you think others want.

A couple of interesting things have happened in the last few days that I thought I would share with you.

How do I get to where you are?

I have mentioned before that I am learning to code and develop workbooks/macros in Excel for work.  A year ago, when I started my current job, I knew very little about this kind of thing.  But I saw a need for it and so I sat down and worked really hard to learn it and a year later, I have become a primary point of contact, not just in my group but for others as well.

The other day, a good friend of mine at work asked me.  “How do I get to where you are now?”  That’s a simple question with a complicated answer.  How do you ask Mozart how to write music or Davinci how to paint.  Ok, maybe those examples are too extreme, I’m not a master at what I do, but the point is the same.  It’s not easy to answer.

I still attempted to answer him.  I gave a few pointers here and there, but ultimately I gave one advice that I felt was better than any of them: Just do it!  I learned more by finding a problem (or making up one) and figuring out how to solve it.

The same is true with language learning.  Stop reading about the best ways to learn and just start learning.  When you get stuck, come back to a language blog or a grammar book, but then get back on the horse and keep doing.  You will get further that way.

Working with Thai

I recently found a job posting for a research analyst in Oregon.  The candidate needs to be strong in both Thai and English.  I don’t know if the job will ultimately be for me, nor do I know if I would even be considered, but I decided to put a resume in so I can learn more about it.  Because of that, I will be emphasizing Thai for at least another month or so.

On that note, I would like to remind you all of the best place to learn Thai:  Women Learn Thai….and some men too!     Thanks again for reading and enjoy your week.

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Filed under How to learn

What happened?

Image form wikimedia

This has been a crazy week!  I have less than a month to get as good at Spanish as I can get, and yet this week went by with hardly any Spanish being learned.  It started great and then next thing I know, I am looking at a week of very little Spanish.  No progress was made and it’s possible I went a little backwards?

How could I let this happen?  To be honest, at first I didn’t know.  Sure, I have been busy, but that has never been an excuse to not do at least something to move my progress forward.  It’s been bothering me all weekend.  And then suddenly, I realized what happened.  I broke one of my oldest rules!

What rule did I break?

The rule was find an opportunity to learn in everything I do!   Continue reading

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Where else to read

Aquellos libros

I am going to let you all in on a little secret.  I am not a professional linguist!  I know you are all surprised to hear that, but it’s true.  In fact, I don’t use ANY of my languages (besides English, of course) professionally nor have I EVER taken a class  in any language.  Everything I know and recommend comes from what I have learned as I have stumbled through the various ways to learn.

I don’t think I am always right, or at least that what I like and do is right for everyone.  There are a lot of view points on how to learn a language as an adult, and you know what?  They are all probably right.  I have heard an interesting quote once that intelligence is the ability to hold two conflicting thoughts in your mind at the same time with out going crazy.  I probably miss quoted it, but you get the point.  It’s important to learn and understand different view points so that you can be a more rounded individual.

Which Blogs I Read

That’s why I like to read the blog post from other successful language learners who may “seem” to be different. Continue reading

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Filed under How to learn, Opinions

You get what you get

Samuel Huntington, First President of the Unit...

Samuel Huntington, First President of the United States (Photo credit: Tony Fischer Photography)

 

Interesting thing to think about happened in the last 24 hours.  In the U.S. Elections, Barack Obama we re-elected as the President of the United States.  Now I don’t intend to write about any of the politics around that, but somehow I was able to connect that moment last night to language learning and in the most round about way, it’s weird.  I guess my brain functions in a weird way or I like to connect the dots differently than others.  Never the less, I still made a connection in the most round about, yet powerful (for me at least) way.  So let me bring you into the inner workings of my mind.

 

Somebody will always be disappointed

 

The thing with elections is that somebody, and in this case close to half the country, will always be disappointed.  If Mitt Romney would have won, it would have been there other half, but even though he didn’t, it doesn’t change that half the country will be disappointed.  If you are on the losing side and the person you voted for doesn’t get elected, what do you do?  The only thing you can do, which is make do with what you have been given.

 

This reminded me of a common phrase used by my children.  My daughter taught it to me, actually, after she learned it from a teacher in school.  The phrase is “You get what you get, and you don’t throw a fit.”  There is power in the simple phrase.  You can not control the cards you are dealt.  You do your best with what you have.  Making a fuss about it, will lead to know where.

 

How does this apply to learning a language?

 

Simple.  In a perfectly ideal world, you will instantly be transported to live and work in the environment which uses the language you want to learn.  At the same time you will have all the free time you need/want to study what and how you want.    Wouldn’t that be great?

 

For most of us, that is not possible. I don’t have the time and/or resources available to push myself into an immersive environment.  I don’t even have time to schedule a Skype call with any regularity.  I mostly have the time I travel to and from work.  So I could complain about my language learning situation as something horrible or I can do as my kids say: “You get what you get and you don’t throw a fit!”

 

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If there isn’t one, then make one

The flag of the neutral international language...

The flag of the neutral international language Esperanto and the movement associated with it. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

I started my Esperanto “vacation” from Spanish this week.  I decided to start from the beginning as if I didn’t know anything, because it’s been so long since I used it that I don’t remember much anyway.  So first thing I did was go to Lernu.net and I downloaded the MP3 files for the Mi estas komencanto course.  I had used the course before and since the course means “I am a beginner” I figured it would be the best one to use in my hour-long drives to and from work.

The thing is that now that I am a better language learner, I am way under satisfied with it.  It’s still a good course and I do recommend it, because it’s the only course that encourages one to speak, which is lacking in most of the courses of Esperanto you find on the internet.  Even though it does encourage speaking, it is not as often as I would like it to be.  I want/need one that encourages, not just how to speak the sentences that are in the course, but how to mix and match and combines the words and phrases in an improvisational way.  Essential that encourages natural speech construction.  Where do I find one? Well…

If there isn’t one, then make one

One might ask, how I can make a course if I am not fluent? Continue reading

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Filed under Esperanto

Fluent Like a Kid

I Am Fluent In Three Languages ...item 1.. For...

Here it is, the leaked post title that came out way to early.  I finally have written what I was thinking about the subject.  I was half tempted not to write anything, I actually got a lot of views to my site and even a comment with that little title.  It seems it may some think, which is what I would hope it would do.

Ultimately I decided to put my thoughts down.  I’m a bit to arrogant not to let my own thoughts come out on the subject.  I do, however, encourage discussion and would like to hear how I am wrong.  My feelings don’t get hurt I promise.  Anyway, enough stalling:

So what do you mean, “Fluent like a kid?”

This may be a different meaning than some would think, but this comes from the perspective of a parent who has been a part of raising 4 wonderful children. Continue reading

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Filed under Motivation, Parenting

What to do with my Red Headed Step-Child

Esperanto Demonstration

Esperanto Demonstration (Photo credit: Lennon Ying-Dah Wong)

 

I have a confession to make. I haven’t been completely honest with everyone.  It wasn’t an out right lie, more like an omission.   It’s not something I omitted with the intention to mislead.  In fact, it was never supposed to be apart of the blog.  Then the blog evolved into more than I thought it ever would be and this omission has stuck out, for me at least, like a sore thumb.  I could have continued on and non would be the wiser, but I just don’t work that way.  So I am opening up and being honest.  What is this huge omission?  Spanish is not the first language I have tried to learn since learning Thai, Esperanto is.

 

Esperanto estas lingvo por la tuta mondo

 

(Esperanto is a language for the whole world.)

 

I found Esperanto on the internet Continue reading

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How to practice input

Cover of "Rules (Newbery Honor Book)"

Cover of Rules (Newbery Honor Book)

Awhile back, I wrote a post about my favorite and best output based courses to learn Spanish.  My intention was to turn around a write another post on the best input courses.  That never happened. Why not?  Well….It’s complicated.

Output based courses and output based practice are very straight forward.  You talk and learn new ways to talk.  There isn’t much more to it than that.  Even when talking about something you don’t know the words for, you learn what words you want to say, so you can go back later and learn them.  Not always easy, but it’s still simple.

Input, however, is not that simple and at the same time easier to get a hold of.  You don’t get to choose what is said, which colloquial expression is used and which accent they say.  You don’t get to choose if they say, sit down or take a seat or what ever other ways there are of saying ‘sit down.’  But there is so much of it free and very cheap that it’s hard to know what to do with it.

How best to practice with Input

With input, you can get what I refer to as the Oreo cookie effect.   Continue reading

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3 months and counting

Language

Language (Photo credit: Jan Marlyn Reesman)

Last post I talked about which languages I’m not learning next year.  This means that there only 3 left that I could be possible learning.  Once again, for full disclosure, I’ve already chosen the language.  I know which one I learning, I just trying to build a little drama around the pick I guess.  On that note, don’t forget to take the poll on which language you think I will learn next.

Also on the right you will notice a big old count down calendar.  Thanks to a comment that was left of my fake post, I realized I had the year in wrong and now it’s counting down properly.  Not only are there 3 languages left, but there are 3 months left.  3 months to get as fluent as I can.  So I have reprioritized myself and set some goals to get me through the next 3 months.

More Speaking off the cuff

I have spent a good deal of my time, inadvertently  practicing my speaking in a very structured manner. Continue reading

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Filed under spanish