Tag Archives: Linguistics

April 22, 2013 · 11:25 pm

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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January 20, 2013 · 9:03 pm

Under Achieve to Succeed

Doing less can give you more

It’s been a crazy week and a half.  I have been getting ready for a very important event at work and a lot of time and energy has been devoted to it.  This has meant that only the most important things in my life have been worked on and everything else has been left.  No, I haven’t updated my status here at the blog, but I have been learning Samoan.  Despite my really busy schedule and preoccupied mind, I learned and perfected my abilities to speak and understand Samoan.

How might you ask I was able to accomplish this?  I under achieved.

How Can One Under Achieve to Succeed?

I know you might be asking yourself some thing like, “How can one succeed if you do less than all you have? ” or “I thought I was supposed to give 110 percent?”   Continue reading →

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December 18, 2012 · 9:11 pm

What a week it has been!!!

Ups and downs of Language learning

Crazy, crazy, busy week.  I’ve been doing projects at work and almost all my time has been devoted to them.  I love the projects, but it has meant a lot of things have been put to lower levels, including this blog.  I’ve missed it a lot.  There is so much good that comes out of this blog. I truly do hope that I can help others learn languages.  I don’t try to give false expectations on what it does and doesn’t take as a language learner, but I hope to give small advice and encouragement.

All that said, this blog helps me more than I think I help others.  It helps me organize my thoughts, set a game plan and be accountable for what I say I am going to do.  I’m not always successful, but I hope this blog helps keep me going even when things get the hardest.

Since it has been almost a week since I have been able to be on to write, I thought I would give a little summary of the ups and downs of my week.  Despite not being able to write, I have had many an opportunity to feel good and bad.  So here they are.

The Ups

Despite my business, I have kept a solid learning routine. Continue reading →

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December 9, 2012 · 5:19 pm

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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December 4, 2012 · 7:46 pm

Tis the Season to be Sick

I've been sick for a couple of weeks now. I we...

 (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

It’s that time of year again.  Time for the spreading of Peace, Joy, and Sickness.  When you have a family of 6 people, then you have 6 different ways for disease to come in and spread among the family.  It’s almost inevitable.  The question isn’t if I will get sick, it’s when.

That is exactly what happened this weekend and is still going on now.  Almost everyone in my family was sick for at least one day this weekend.  Most of us are still a little sick, though the end is near.  Sickness has an interesting way to mess up both your routine and your plans.  I did learn a few things this weekend that helped me stay motivated and learn some more Spanish.

Learn “sick” vocab

Look up and use the words that describe your symptoms. Continue reading →

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November 26, 2012 · 8:35 pm

How to use Rossetta Stone

Rosetta Stone (company)

Anyone who wants to learn a language will probably have heard of Rosetta Stone.  Rosetta stone is one of the most well-known language learning programs, mostly due to all its radio/TV advertising.  It’s funny, when you Google Rosetta Stone, you will probably find more negative reviews than positive.  I think almost every blog about language learning has a ‘Rosetta Stone Sucks’ post in its archive.  I’ve always found that strange.

While I do understand the desire to guide people in the right direction, the almost pure hatred for this product is amazing.  Some will give the impression that the program is absolutely useless and is a complete waste of time.  First of all, no matter who much a program is marketed, if the program is completely useless then people will stop buying it and it will stop being made.  Secondly, there is no such thing as a silver bullet and to expect any language course/software program to get you from nothing to everything is false expectations.

Do I think Rosetta Stone is the perfect software program?  No I don’t.  But if you bought it or some how got a copy of it from somewhere (I’m not going to ask how) then what good does it do to write a post about why it’s useless.  I would rather tell you how to maximize the good parts so that it is useful to you.

How to use Rosetta Stone

*I have only used version 3, but from what I can tell the differences between the Version 3 and the latest are not that drastic that you can’t apply what I recommend here.

Even though it is sold as a program Continue reading →

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November 19, 2012 · 10:28 pm

What to do when you can’t do anything

Jazz musician Miles Davis.

Miles Davis knows a lot about language learning. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

I often talk about the various things I like to do that fit my current situation in life.  I usually practice speaking during my 45 minute commute to and from work.  During work, I listen to Spanish radio and podcasts.  When I am home, I will the use some program that is computer based to supplement what I am learning through those two methods.  It’s a great routine and it has worked great for me.

Some of you may be thinking, “Sounds great for you, but I don’t have all that available.  I don’t have an audio course to use or a podcast to listen to.  I don’t have a software program to help me out.  Even if I did, I don’t have the freedom to do all that at work or on my commute like you do.”  I feel for ya.  We can’t control what life throws at us, but we can make the best of what we have and run with it.   Specifically, I have learned a couple little tricks that require no outside material except your brain.

SYL

In case you don’t know I am a big fan of SYL or Speak Your Language.   Continue reading →

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November 15, 2012 · 10:50 pm

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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October 30, 2012 · 7:03 pm

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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October 17, 2012 · 11:33 pm

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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