http://bloggingonbilingualism.com/category/podcast / (http://tinyurl.com/yz2abww)
"Another link to the Australian radio show Lingua Franca, this podcast shares the story of a James Panichi who moved from Australia to Italy with his family at the age of nine. His comments shed light on the way language and culture affect personality. Moving from Australia to Italy introduced him to his father in a new way. His father had always been there, but his full personality was hidden by his immigrant’s (unschooled) English. When James also spoke Italian fluently after living in Italy, his relationship with his father changed for the better. He also discusses his perspective of bilingualism and biculturalism from his personal experiences as an Italian-Australian.
Listen to the podcast “Daddy, I almost never knew you!” here (http://tinyurl.com/ykf4poh) at the Lingua Franca site.
See previous post for a link to a podcast on Lingua Franca (http://tinyurl.com/yhxk3wy) by a German-Australian on his relationship with is bilingual daughter."
Donnerstag, 31. Dezember 2009
Mittwoch, 30. Dezember 2009
Free Mandarin resources with pinyin, word-for-word translations and mp3s
*Especially useful for beginners in Mandarin*
Though I prefer to use dialogues and not simply sentences for learning, I think this is a great and extensive collection of useful sentences and audio to raise your awareness of the sentence structure of Mandarin, and probably learn quite a few new words of vocabulary as well.
http://www.zhongwenblue.com/
http://www.zhongwengreen.com/
http://www.zhongwenred.com/
You can read about how I started out in Mandarin here
http://davidamartin2sblog.blogspot.com/2009/12/how-i-learned-to-understand-1000-words.html
Though I prefer to use dialogues and not simply sentences for learning, I think this is a great and extensive collection of useful sentences and audio to raise your awareness of the sentence structure of Mandarin, and probably learn quite a few new words of vocabulary as well.
http://www.zhongwenblue.com/
http://www.zhongwengreen.com/
http://www.zhongwenred.com/
You can read about how I started out in Mandarin here
http://davidamartin2sblog.blogspot.com/2009/12/how-i-learned-to-understand-1000-words.html
Dienstag, 29. Dezember 2009
How to Learn to Speak (Czech) Fluently
My thanks go to Jeff Lindqvist at LingQ for turning me onto this site
On it, Anthony Lauder defines what he thinks fluency in a language is, describes his struggle with fluency in Czech, and gives great suggestions as to how fluency can be attained, primarily using what he calls 'connectors'.
Mittwoch, 23. Dezember 2009
Learning Languages Like Children
This is a re-post of one of my recent contributions in this thread http://www.lingq.com/learn/zh/forum/1/5099/ on the LingQ Open Forum
You may have been listening passively for 6 years, but HOW INTENSIVELY? (how many hours per day EVERY DAY)? Students in the ALG program, on average, go to class 3 hours per day every day for a year before they start speaking - that is, they listen very intensively over a relatively short period of time.
I've found that after only 60 hours of listening to Mandarin (an hour a day every day for 2 months), words and phrases are starting to just 'pop' into my head without me even thinking about them. I'm certain that this type of 'thinking' is not detrimental, as the words and phrases just 'rise to the surface' and you're not yet trying to say them out loud. The 'thinking' the article refers to is trying to 'come up with' language (whether it's grammar conjugations or vocabulary) instead of just drawing on the vocabulary base (which INCLUDES grammar) you've acquired from listening.
@ Cantotango
I do believe that words and phrases will come naturally if you listen INTENSIVELY and wait long enough to start speaking. Just ask Steve about his experience with Russian, which I've heard native speakers say he speaks very well - check out his video and the comments here
Notice that, although he has to think about what he wants to say, the words and phrases seem to 'flow out' quite readily, an obvious sign that he did lots of natural listening to the language before starting to speak to any great extent. And, although he may make some mistakes with grammar, remember that native speaker children ALSO make grammar mistakes ('I goed' instead of 'I went' etc. - confer Krashen's Principles and Practice in SLA) and yet they still come out speaking fluently.
I think that, once you reach a certain level of understanding (ALG posits about 80%) after CONSISTENT and INTENSIVE listening, you've already established a solid pronunciation and grammar base, at which point it's just a matter of activating your passive vocabulary (which, once again, INCLUDES grammar like conjugations and endings etc.) while continuing to augment it, which is what Steve says he started doing after about two years of learning Russian.
Finally, consider that adult native speakers also make grammar and pronunciation mistakes and yet we still think of them as 'fluent speakers'.
------------------------------------------------
This is A.J. Hoge's text and recording of an excerpt from ALG's Dr. J. Marvin Brown's article entitled 'Learning Languages Like Children'
http://tinyurl.com/yfwef8l
The original and unabridged article can be found here
http://www.algworld.com/archives.php
http://tinyurl.com/yfwef8l
The original and unabridged article can be found here
http://www.algworld.com/archives.php
Montag, 21. Dezember 2009
Lingro (Ling Grow) language learning tool
Below is a description of the lingro language-learning tool, which I think is a great supplement to LingQ, especially if you're an Anki user. Also check out Ramses' description of the available functionalities here http://www.spanish-only.com/2008/09/lingrocom-dictionary/
Quoted from the lingro website (http://lingro.com/docs/about.html):
| lingro was conceived in August 2005, when Artur decided to practice his Spanish by reading Harry Potter y la piedra filosofal. As a competent but non-expert speaker, he found that looking up new vocabulary took much more time than the reading itself. Frustrated with how slow existing online dictionaries were, he wrote a program to help him translate and learn words in their original context. lingro's mission is to create an on-line environment that allows anyone learning a language to quickly look up and learn the vocabulary most important to them. Whenever we're developing new tools for lingro or planning the next big step, there are two principles we always consider: | |
 | • Knowledge and information essential to human communication and interaction should be free and accessible to everyone. This is why we created the most comprehensive set of free dictionaries available under open licenses so that anyone can contribute, download, redistribute, and modify the dictionaries for their own needs. These licenses guarantee that they will always remain free and useful to society. • To have the best dictionaries, you need to have the best tools. Every tool we create, from games, quizzes, and study tools to in-context word lookup is designed for you, the user. To us, this means that they should be intuitive, fast, easy to use, and hopefully fun. :-) |
Donnerstag, 17. Dezember 2009
Why you think you need grammar
Yet another great post from Ramses at Spanish Only: Learn How to Learn Spanish
I personally don't spend any of my time learning grammar, as listening, reading and learning vocabulary are more interesting and grammar knowledge comes as a result, not as a precursor.
If it's not top-down, get outta town.
Dienstag, 15. Dezember 2009
The Simulganeous (Simultaneous) Method
I just recorded a new item to the LingQ English library entitled 'The Simulganeous Method', which I translated from the original German
The original article was written by Matthias Poehm and can be found here
Here's the English text from the article:
Rhetoric Tip: The Simulganeous Technique
(note: 'Simulganeous' is explained below)
An important basic requisite for rhetoric is vocabulary. The more words you have available, the better you can express yourself.
The German language contains about 400,000 words. In the dictionary Duden there are approximately 120,000 words. Your passive vocabulary - these are all words that you understand, but not necessarily use yourself - comprises between 30,000 and 50,000 words. You know and understand the word 'exalt', for example, but would (probably) not use it yourself. And then there’s your active vocabulary - these are all the words that you say at least once over the course of a year. Your active vocabulary contains between 3 and 5 thousand words: Approximately 1/10 (one-tenth) as much as your passive vocabulary. However, there’s a step lower than that. The 'Bild' newspaper gets by with about 1000 words. On the other hand, that means that you can express just about anything with 1000 words. Konrad Adenauer, for example, is said to have gotten by with a vocabulary of 1000 words.
To expand your active vocabulary, you don’t have to learn new and unknown foreign words, no, it’s enough to 'lift' words from your passive vocabulary into your active vocabulary. So, words that you know anyway but simply do not use. For example, most of you understand the sentence "Since his appearance on 'Who Wants to Be a Millionaire', the teacher has been exalted by his students as being an Einstein of general knowledge".
Although you understand the word 'exalted', you probably wouldn’t use it in this context (you’d be more likely to use the word 'glorified').
I have created a technique that allows you to expand your vocabulary without wasting time. You have a skill you didn’t know about and which you can just switch on.
You are capable of mimicking any speaker, whether on the radio, on television or directly from a CD, with a short delay.
Do it right now simply for fun. Switch on the radio or TV and speak simultaneously along with the speaker. You will succeed right away.
The great benefit of the Simulganeous Technique
I have called this technique the Simulganeous Technique. Simulganeous means: simultaneous, that is, simultaneously listening and mimicking. The GAN in 'GANeous' means: G for the same time (Gleichzeitig), A for actively listening (Aufnehmen), N for mimicking (Nachsprechen).
Wherein lies the great benefit of the Simulganeous Technique?
You expand your vocabulary without any extra time investment. You listen to the radio and television anyway, and I hope you also listen to other audio programs. So go ahead and use this opportunity. Whenever you hear a speaker, just repeat after them. If you also repeat rather than merely listen, your brain recognizes these words as already having been used. You are actively participating. And, for example, if you have already said the word 'exalted' itself 3 times out loud, then the chance that you will do so again will have increased dramatically. Your passive vocabulary is 'activated' bit by bit.
The next advantage: You’re pronunciation will be cleaner. You will automatically mimic the speaker - and they are mostly professionals. After a while you’ll pick up the speech behavior of professional speakers.
You will be able to speak faster. If you use speakers who talk at machine-gun pace as a model, then you will be able to do just the same after a certain period of time.
You will think more quickly. The response time between hearing and speaking will get shorter and shorter. In this way you’ll also shorten your 'rate of access' to the words.
You’ll retain more of that which you mimic 'simulganeously', and you’ll remember it longer.
The Simulganeous Technique and learning foreign languages
And one more thing on top of that: With the Simulganeous Technique you can even considerably improve your foreign language skills. If you have ever listened to a language tutorial on CD-ROM, you know what I mean. From the first syllable you can join in and mimic the whole CD 'simulganeously'. The learning effect is many times higher than if you were to only listen. In this way you learn the language much faster.
What you can also do: Mimic any message in French, English or Italian simulganeously. You do not even have to understand everything. Even if you only understand 50%, you’re already making great progress. The chance that you’ll actually use the words that your parroting is three times higher than if you just listen passively. You not only consume, but you also produce. This engrains itself much better in your memory, dramatically increases your speech flow and enhances your foreign language vocabulary.
Make speaking simulganeously your new hobby. I do it permanently. I have many audio books in English. Sometimes during a three-hour drive I talk simulganeously in English the whole time. Eventually it becomes so automatic that I do it quite unconsciously - it’s a lot of fun - and then I’m so fluent in English that it sounds like I’ve been in America for two weeks.
(Copyright Matthias Pöhm. This article is a permitted copy of the website www.rhetorik-seminar.ch and may only be used with the permission of the author.
The biggest verbal attack collection on the internet: 4’500 verbal attacks, insults and offences with its corresponding clever comeback linesVerbal-Attacks-Library)
Sonntag, 13. Dezember 2009
Screw grammar
This is the name of a great post on my newly-discovered blog of interest
Spanish Only: Learn How to Learn Spanish
Other great posts are
Also check out the Spanish-English Sentence Database here
Note: I recommend that only upper intermediate/advanced students with lots of natural listening and reading experience use SRS systems to accelerate their learning of new phrases (and you should always learn PHRASES and not just words). If you're a beginner/low intermediate learner, just stick to your listening, listening, listening (that's how much listening you should be doing!), reading and saving lingqs at LingQ.
How long does it take to become fluent in a language?
This is a re-post of one of my posts on a recent thread on the LingQ forum (http://tinyurl.com/y8b4ogz):
In language learning, 'hard' is a relative term. It all depends on what linguistic and cultural background you come from. If you're language and/or culture is more similar to that of the language you're learning (http://tinyurl.com/ydlcg7c), you'll learn faster than others, all things being equal. In the same way, if a language you're learning is similar to another language you've already learned, all things beings equal, you'll learn faster. This is simply because your brain 'puts the pieces of the puzzle together' faster than it otherwise would.
***Instead of thinking about Spanish/French/German (FSI Level 1/2 languages) etc. as being 'easy' and Japanese/Chinese/Thai (FSI Level 4 languages) etc. as being 'difficult', think about Japanese/Chinese/Thai etc. as being 'normal' and Spanish/French/German etc. as being 'easier than normal'.***
That's because when you're learning Japanese/Chinese/Thai etc. as an English speaker, you're essentially 'starting from scratch' in terms of having a related grammar and vocabulary base. Almost nothing in your language shares anything in common with these languages, so you're learning as a child would - from nothing.
But in fact, you've STILL got an advantage over a child (and you will consequently learn faster than a child would), because you ALREADY speak another language and know about the world (you already have 'schemata' http://tinyurl.com/ycewufa), which means you have a greater imagination for what someone COULD be saying, and language learning is all about guessing and discovering.
When you're learning Spanish/French/German etc., however, you've already got a headstart/advantage, because grammar and vocabulary in those languages is similar to that of English. So you're able to learn AT A FASTER THAN NORMAL RATE than someone whose native language doesn't share those similarities, and much faster than a child would.
In these threads Steve gives a lot of great advice on the subject:
http://tinyurl.com/ych94ta
http://tinyurl.com/ycb5dfp
Definitely check out the first link 'Language Learning Difficulty for English Speakers' (http://tinyurl.com/5w8k32) in the first thread, but remember that these figures are based on FSI CLASSROOM COURSES, and that with LingQ learning independently you can learn much more efficiently (you spend all your time with interesting input, instead of potentially boring teachers, grammar, and people), and therefore faster.
***Instead of thinking about Spanish/French/German (FSI Level 1/2 languages) etc. as being 'easy' and Japanese/Chinese/Thai (FSI Level 4 languages) etc. as being 'difficult', think about Japanese/Chinese/Thai etc. as being 'normal' and Spanish/French/German etc. as being 'easier than normal'.***
That's because when you're learning Japanese/Chinese/Thai etc. as an English speaker, you're essentially 'starting from scratch' in terms of having a related grammar and vocabulary base. Almost nothing in your language shares anything in common with these languages, so you're learning as a child would - from nothing.
But in fact, you've STILL got an advantage over a child (and you will consequently learn faster than a child would), because you ALREADY speak another language and know about the world (you already have 'schemata' http://tinyurl.com/ycewufa), which means you have a greater imagination for what someone COULD be saying, and language learning is all about guessing and discovering.
When you're learning Spanish/French/German etc., however, you've already got a headstart/advantage, because grammar and vocabulary in those languages is similar to that of English. So you're able to learn AT A FASTER THAN NORMAL RATE than someone whose native language doesn't share those similarities, and much faster than a child would.
In these threads Steve gives a lot of great advice on the subject:
http://tinyurl.com/ych94ta
http://tinyurl.com/ycb5dfp
Definitely check out the first link 'Language Learning Difficulty for English Speakers' (http://tinyurl.com/5w8k32) in the first thread, but remember that these figures are based on FSI CLASSROOM COURSES, and that with LingQ learning independently you can learn much more efficiently (you spend all your time with interesting input, instead of potentially boring teachers, grammar, and people), and therefore faster.
Shout out to red, you know who you are! :)
Freitag, 11. Dezember 2009
Khazumoto's Wisdom: Desires and Decisions - If you want to succeed, be persistent
Thanks to Khazumoto of AJATT for the following wisdom:
"You see, everyone has desire. Everyone wants to be good at something. Everyone wants to know a cool language, everyone wants mad kung-fu skills, computer-hacking skills…you name it. Everyone wants to be able to play a piano concerto with their eyes closed using only their big toe. So, the difference between those who do know a language, do have kung-fu/computer hacking skills — et cetera — and those who don’t must, in fact, be very small, and it is this: Those who have the skills didn’t just want to be good, they decided to be good. Want or decide — one is a wish, the other is a choice. One can get crushed, forgotten and swept away by the hectic business of everyday life; the other is inevitable — it sweeps everything out of its path, it crushes, avoids or otherwise overcomes obstacles. Like commercial breaks or uninvited missionaries, it’s always all up in your face.
So, if you want to be good, then good luck with that. If you’ve decided to be good, then gosh help anyone or anything that gets in your way!
How about you? Do you just want to be fluent in Japanese, or have you decided to be?"
and for turning me on to this related Calvin Coolidge quote:
“Nothing in the world can take the place of Persistence. Talent will not; nothing is more common than unsuccessful men with talent. Genius will not; unrewarded genius is almost a proverb. Education will not; the world is full of educated derelicts. Persistence and determination alone are omnipotent. The slogan ‘Press On’ has solved and always will solve the problems of the human race.”
http://www.alljapaneseallthetime.com/blog/desires-and-decisions (http://tinyurl.com/b8ckoy)
http://www.alljapaneseallthetime.com/blog/you-can-have-do-or-be-anything-but-you-cannot-have-do-or-be-everything (http://tinyurl.com/q7rub3)
Donnerstag, 10. Dezember 2009
Free Chinese/Japanese/Korean TV series and movie streaming w/English subtitles
I happened on this site by way of jjmountain's fantastic Korean blog (http://koreanasitis.wordpress.com/)
http://www.mysoju.com/browse/
http://www.mysoju.com/browse/
It's an amazing collection of free Chinese/Japanese/Korean TV series and movie streaming w/English subtitles.
Mittwoch, 9. Dezember 2009
Why I Prefer the LingQ Method / The Importance of Vocabulary
This is a slightly modified re-post from the LingQ forum (http://tinyurl.com/yhywy68)
This is an interesting excerpt from 'Vocabulary Instruction for Academic Success' by Ahley Bishop, Ruth Helen Yopp and Hallie Kay Yopp:
"*Providing Extensive Experiences with Language
Language learning cannot occur without exposure to language. Research shows that most vocabulary is not directly taught; huge numbers of words are learned incidentally—through experiences with language. Thus, it is crucial that teachers establish language-rich environments.
This means that teachers must offer myriad opportunities for students to hear and engage with spoken language and to read, write, and engage with written language in multiple contexts. Indeed, Johnson (2001, 19) stated that “the best way to help schoolchildren expand their vocabularies … is to provide plentiful, interactive oral language experiences throughout the elementary and middle grades.” Nagy agreed that “experiences with rich oral language are critical for vocabulary growth” and noted that wide reading “is the primary engine that drives vocabulary growth” (2005,29). Thus, one essential aspect of vocabulary instruction is exposure to plentiful language in the classroom."
Obviously we know that teachers are not necessary to 'establish language-rich environments' or 'provide plentiful, interactive oral language experiences' - all you need to do is consistently surround yourself with the language with a system like LingQ and an mp3 player, and regularly use the opportunity to speak with native speakers and use new words and phrases via the LingQ tutor system to promote your active vocabulary.
Dienstag, 8. Dezember 2009
Hugosite.com – Learn English in 365 Lessons
Someone posted this on the LingQ forum a few days ago and I think it's a great resource for English learners:
It's a collection of 365 videos teaching English through situations.
Montag, 7. Dezember 2009
Khazumoto shows off his Nihongo skills
Khazumoto from AJATT speaking mad fluent Japanese:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ejRkuX1RGf4&feature=player_embedded# (http://tinyurl.com/yk56oy9)
Ya, I'd like to achieve that level of fluency in Nihongo...
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ejRkuX1RGf4&feature=player_embedded# (http://tinyurl.com/yk56oy9)
Ya, I'd like to achieve that level of fluency in Nihongo...
Sonntag, 6. Dezember 2009
Making your passive vocabulary active
This is a re-post from a recent thread of mine on the LingQ forum (http://tinyurl.com/yhrebo4):
Many upper intermediate/advanced students have recently expressed their concern to me that they don't feel like they've been making much progress recently, especially as it concerns vocabulary.
In our group discussion 'Language Learning Experience and Methods' from last Thursday we talked about possible methods for breaking through these plateaus, and we came up with some different ideas.
One of my suggestions was for students to keep an 'active vocabulary wishlist' that is, a notebook with words and phrases they've recently learned in their reading and listening that they would like to be able to actively use. Learners can start out with just one new word or phrase per conversation/writing, and gradually increade the number of new ones they try to actively use.
When you use the new word or phrase, you can (a) immediately ask your tutor if you've used the expression correctly, or (b) hope that the tutor will have been paying attention and will correct you in the conversation report if you used the word/phrase incorrectly. Personally, I prefer (a).
The great thing about keeping all these words and phrases in one notebook is that every time you have a conversation you can look back and see all the expressions you've already used, which is a nice indication of your progress, and it's also a good review.
Although I know everyone does not agree with me, I also think Spaced Repetition Listening is a great way for advanced learners to improve, as they don't need as much extensive input as they need to specifically target new words and phrases they would like to make active, and increase the rate at which these words and phrases go from being passive to active, as the 'activeness' of a word or expression depends to a great extent on how frequently you've heard/read it (hearing the words and phrases in meaningful contexts is, of course, much more important to the beginner), just as how often you hear/read a language determines how active it is in your brain, as we found out in our discussion about active versus passive languages you've learned/grown up with.
For more on this subject, confer http://tinyurl.com/yhfj8v7
I look forward to your feedback and new ideas on the subject:)
Many upper intermediate/advanced students have recently expressed their concern to me that they don't feel like they've been making much progress recently, especially as it concerns vocabulary.
In our group discussion 'Language Learning Experience and Methods' from last Thursday we talked about possible methods for breaking through these plateaus, and we came up with some different ideas.
One of my suggestions was for students to keep an 'active vocabulary wishlist' that is, a notebook with words and phrases they've recently learned in their reading and listening that they would like to be able to actively use. Learners can start out with just one new word or phrase per conversation/writing, and gradually increade the number of new ones they try to actively use.
When you use the new word or phrase, you can (a) immediately ask your tutor if you've used the expression correctly, or (b) hope that the tutor will have been paying attention and will correct you in the conversation report if you used the word/phrase incorrectly. Personally, I prefer (a).
The great thing about keeping all these words and phrases in one notebook is that every time you have a conversation you can look back and see all the expressions you've already used, which is a nice indication of your progress, and it's also a good review.
Although I know everyone does not agree with me, I also think Spaced Repetition Listening is a great way for advanced learners to improve, as they don't need as much extensive input as they need to specifically target new words and phrases they would like to make active, and increase the rate at which these words and phrases go from being passive to active, as the 'activeness' of a word or expression depends to a great extent on how frequently you've heard/read it (hearing the words and phrases in meaningful contexts is, of course, much more important to the beginner), just as how often you hear/read a language determines how active it is in your brain, as we found out in our discussion about active versus passive languages you've learned/grown up with.
For more on this subject, confer http://tinyurl.com/yhfj8v7
I look forward to your feedback and new ideas on the subject:)
Samstag, 5. Dezember 2009
100% OF WINNING IS SHOWING UP
The title of this post was borrowed from http://www.alljapaneseallthetime.com/blog/showing-up
This is a re-post from a recent thread in the LingQ Forum http://www.lingq.com/learn/zh/forum/46/4850/
I don't know much about Antimoon, but I did read Steve's post on some of the things that Antimoon recommends and I don't think that Khazumoto's method resembles theirs at all, except for the SRS learning, which I think is helpful (in some form - I prefer Spaced Repetition Listening because it's more natural than flashcards) at an advanced level to target increasingly specific vocabulary and break through plateaus.
Admittedly, up to now I haven't concentrated on one language exclusively, but I have also never achieved near-native level in terms of VOCABULARY in any language that I've studied, although I've attained it in speaking fluency in German. For this reason I'm particularly interested in Khazumoto's experiment and also his idea of 'laddering' languages once you've achieved an advanced level in one of them, that is, learning L3 through L2, L4 thorough L3 etc., as mentions in this facetiously titled post: (http://www.alljapaneseallthetime.com/blog/how-do- i-learn-500-languages-at-once)
As Khazumoto says:
'All your learning of Japanese (or any other language) is, is simply a string of moments in which you learn something and remember it in the next moment when you’re learning the next thing, such that you know more in the next moment than you did in the previous moment. You know more now, than you did one second ago; you know more one second later, than you do now. You know more today than yesterday and more tomorrow than today. That’s it. The key here is the moment. You don’t have to spend ten years, you only have to spend this moment, right here, right now.'
So if we can at least slightly impede the process of forgetting what we've learned by understanding how memory works and taking advantage of that understanding by using something like an SRS, then it will (a) take much less time before we reach a level at which we can understand and appreciate authentic content, (b) accelerate our arrival at a state of critical mass, that is, the point at which you start speaking naturally without having to 'try', and (c) increase the rate at which words pass from being passive to active, as the 'activeness' of a word or expression depends to a great extent on how frequently you've heard/read it (hearing the words and expression, of course, is much more important to the beginner).
In this sense I agree with you completely that consistency is key, and with consistency you WILL reach your goals at some point, even without SRS, and that goes for anything in life that you want to achieve or learn. As Khatzumoto says:
'You don’t have to run tomorrow morning. You just have to have your shoes on and be standing outside... 100% OF WINNING IS SHOWING UP.'
http://www.alljapaneseallthetime.com/blog/comfort-zone-growth-zone-panic-zone
http://www.alljapaneseallthetime.com/blog/showing-up
As long as you put your running shoes on (sign in to LingQ) and walk outside (choose a lesson and have it open on LingQ) every day, you will more than likely learn something. And the more consistently you workout (and have fun), the better the shape and disposition you'll be in:)
This is a re-post from a recent thread in the LingQ Forum http://www.lingq.com/learn/zh/forum/46/4850/
I don't know much about Antimoon, but I did read Steve's post on some of the things that Antimoon recommends and I don't think that Khazumoto's method resembles theirs at all, except for the SRS learning, which I think is helpful (in some form - I prefer Spaced Repetition Listening because it's more natural than flashcards) at an advanced level to target increasingly specific vocabulary and break through plateaus.
Admittedly, up to now I haven't concentrated on one language exclusively, but I have also never achieved near-native level in terms of VOCABULARY in any language that I've studied, although I've attained it in speaking fluency in German. For this reason I'm particularly interested in Khazumoto's experiment and also his idea of 'laddering' languages once you've achieved an advanced level in one of them, that is, learning L3 through L2, L4 thorough L3 etc., as mentions in this facetiously titled post: (http://www.alljapaneseallthetime.com/blog/how-do- i-learn-500-languages-at-once)
As Khazumoto says:
'All your learning of Japanese (or any other language) is, is simply a string of moments in which you learn something and remember it in the next moment when you’re learning the next thing, such that you know more in the next moment than you did in the previous moment. You know more now, than you did one second ago; you know more one second later, than you do now. You know more today than yesterday and more tomorrow than today. That’s it. The key here is the moment. You don’t have to spend ten years, you only have to spend this moment, right here, right now.'
So if we can at least slightly impede the process of forgetting what we've learned by understanding how memory works and taking advantage of that understanding by using something like an SRS, then it will (a) take much less time before we reach a level at which we can understand and appreciate authentic content, (b) accelerate our arrival at a state of critical mass, that is, the point at which you start speaking naturally without having to 'try', and (c) increase the rate at which words pass from being passive to active, as the 'activeness' of a word or expression depends to a great extent on how frequently you've heard/read it (hearing the words and expression, of course, is much more important to the beginner).
In this sense I agree with you completely that consistency is key, and with consistency you WILL reach your goals at some point, even without SRS, and that goes for anything in life that you want to achieve or learn. As Khatzumoto says:
'You don’t have to run tomorrow morning. You just have to have your shoes on and be standing outside... 100% OF WINNING IS SHOWING UP.'
http://www.alljapaneseallthetime.com/blog/comfort-zone-growth-zone-panic-zone
http://www.alljapaneseallthetime.com/blog/showing-up
As long as you put your running shoes on (sign in to LingQ) and walk outside (choose a lesson and have it open on LingQ) every day, you will more than likely learn something. And the more consistently you workout (and have fun), the better the shape and disposition you'll be in:)
Freitag, 4. Dezember 2009
All Japanese All The Time (AJATT) - How to learn Japanese (and any other language) on your own having fun and to fluency
Easily the coolest blog ever on language learning (not only Japanese) besides Steve's, both for its content and for its humor.
http://www.alljapaneseallthetime.com/blog/all-japanese-all-the-time-ajatt-how-to-learn-japanese-on-your-own-having-fun-and-to-fluency
I recommend reading the whole blog, but some of my favorite posts are:
-Cute Girls, Mathematics, Language
http://www.alljapaneseallthetime.com/blog/cute-girls-mathematics-language
-10,000 Hours: Building Listening Comprehension
http://www.alljapaneseallthetime.com/blog/10000-hours-building-listening-comprehension
-Why You Should Keep Listening Even If You Don't Understand
http://www.alljapaneseallthetime.com/blog/why-you-should-keep-listening-even-if-you-dont-understand
http://www.alljapaneseallthetime.com/blog/all-japanese-all-the-time-ajatt-how-to-learn-japanese-on-your-own-having-fun-and-to-fluency
I recommend reading the whole blog, but some of my favorite posts are:
-Cute Girls, Mathematics, Language
http://www.alljapaneseallthetime.com/blog/cute-girls-mathematics-language
-10,000 Hours: Building Listening Comprehension
http://www.alljapaneseallthetime.com/blog/10000-hours-building-listening-comprehension
-Why You Should Keep Listening Even If You Don't Understand
http://www.alljapaneseallthetime.com/blog/why-you-should-keep-listening-even-if-you-dont-understand
Donnerstag, 3. Dezember 2009
How I learned to understand 1000 words of Mandarin in 1 month
The secret has been to work primarily with dialogues, as I think the brain responds best to conversations (given that they're the basis for all communication) starting out at about 1 minute, and getting progressively longer. I describe starting from scratch here
http://davidamartin2sblog.blogspot.com/2009/12/learning-mandarin-from-scratch-2.html
This INTENSIVE and REPETITIVE listening (and re-reading if I had forgotten something) in combination with the EXTENSIVE and REGULAR listening to larger dialogues (I love the LingQ Chinese Podcast, there's so many cool topics) while reading along in English helped me to accustomize myself to the language very quickly.
I also experimented with transliterating the larger dialogues into pinyin and printing them out so that I could read along and create my own vocab lists in the margins/above the words to improve my extensive reading and listening without having to learn the characters, which I think helped me a lot to understand longer passages and expose myself to a lot of new vocabulary in a short period of time.
You can access 31 of the 40 lessons of Zhang Peng Peng's Intensive Spoken Chinese here
http://www.chinese-tools.com/learn/chinese
http://davidamartin2sblog.blogspot.com/2009/12/learning-mandarin-from-scratch-2.html
This INTENSIVE and REPETITIVE listening (and re-reading if I had forgotten something) in combination with the EXTENSIVE and REGULAR listening to larger dialogues (I love the LingQ Chinese Podcast, there's so many cool topics) while reading along in English helped me to accustomize myself to the language very quickly.
I also experimented with transliterating the larger dialogues into pinyin and printing them out so that I could read along and create my own vocab lists in the margins/above the words to improve my extensive reading and listening without having to learn the characters, which I think helped me a lot to understand longer passages and expose myself to a lot of new vocabulary in a short period of time.
You can access 31 of the 40 lessons of Zhang Peng Peng's Intensive Spoken Chinese here
http://www.chinese-tools.com/learn/chinese
Mittwoch, 2. Dezember 2009
Spaced Repetition Listening with Anki
I just figured out that you can upload audio as large as you want onto the front of flashcards in Anki, and you can put the transcript/translation on the back.
That means that you can use Anki to do spaced reviews of your listening (vocabulary in context) - I'm doing this with the extracted dialogues and transcripts from ChinesePOD.com
Anki gives you four options for grading your comprehension/performance:
Again - You'll see the card again soon
Hard - You'll see the card again the next day
Good - You'll see the card again in 3-4 days
Easy - You'll see the card again in 7-9 days
Of course, each time you see a card and choose one of these options, Anki recalculates the interval accordingly, and over time all of these intervals will become longer, eventually to the point where you don't have to review certain items for years.
In the context of listening, this means that the levels would be such that:
Again = 0-25% comprehension -> You'll see the card again soon
Hard = 25-50% comprehension -> You'll see the card again the next day
Good = 50-75% comprehension -> You'll see the card again in 3-4 days
Easy = 75%-100% comprehension -> You'll see the card again in 7-9 days
Obviously these levels are based on your subjective opinion of your rate of comprehension, but I think that if you use Anki in this way with short (max 1-2 minutes) content containing new vocabulary, over time you will see rapid progress and passive to active vocabulary transfer (especially as a beginner).
The 'Who is she?' or 'Eating Out' series on LingQ would be perfect to use with this method if you're just starting out in a language:)
For more advanced learners, this could be used as a supplement to your regular, more extensive listening and reading.
That means that you can use Anki to do spaced reviews of your listening (vocabulary in context) - I'm doing this with the extracted dialogues and transcripts from ChinesePOD.com
Anki gives you four options for grading your comprehension/performance:
Again - You'll see the card again soon
Hard - You'll see the card again the next day
Good - You'll see the card again in 3-4 days
Easy - You'll see the card again in 7-9 days
Of course, each time you see a card and choose one of these options, Anki recalculates the interval accordingly, and over time all of these intervals will become longer, eventually to the point where you don't have to review certain items for years.
In the context of listening, this means that the levels would be such that:
Again = 0-25% comprehension -> You'll see the card again soon
Hard = 25-50% comprehension -> You'll see the card again the next day
Good = 50-75% comprehension -> You'll see the card again in 3-4 days
Easy = 75%-100% comprehension -> You'll see the card again in 7-9 days
Obviously these levels are based on your subjective opinion of your rate of comprehension, but I think that if you use Anki in this way with short (max 1-2 minutes) content containing new vocabulary, over time you will see rapid progress and passive to active vocabulary transfer (especially as a beginner).
The 'Who is she?' or 'Eating Out' series on LingQ would be perfect to use with this method if you're just starting out in a language:)
For more advanced learners, this could be used as a supplement to your regular, more extensive listening and reading.
Using Anki with Smartfm, and eventually with LingQ
Anki is a spaced repetition system (SRS). It helps you remember things by intelligently scheduling flashcards, so that you can learn a lot of information with a minimum amount of effort. Here's an intro video:
http://ichi2.net/anki/screencast1.html
The following was borrowed from http://howtojapan.blogspot.com/2009/03/using-anki-with-smartfm.html
"Where do I get good sentences to use with Anki?"
smart.fm is the answer. It has over 10,000 sentences with a picture and a sound file. It also has it's own online learning system.
Take a look at how to get the smart.fm plugin for Anki here:
http://ichi2.net/anki/wiki/Plugins#Importsmart.fmi tems.2Candgenerallists
Once you've downloaded it, instructions on how to use it are here
http://wiki.github.com/ridisculous/anki-iknow-importer
With the latest Anki release, you can also download using Anki's built in plugin manager. The plugin provides full control over what card types are created.
-------
I've been experimenting with Anki and my LingQs, but so far I can only import them one-by-one. I'm trying to find a way to mass import them into the program. Does anyone have any experience with Anki?
http://ichi2.net/anki/screencast1.html
The following was borrowed from http://howtojapan.blogspot.com/2009/03/using-anki-with-smartfm.html
"Where do I get good sentences to use with Anki?"
smart.fm is the answer. It has over 10,000 sentences with a picture and a sound file. It also has it's own online learning system.
Take a look at how to get the smart.fm plugin for Anki here:
http://ichi2.net/anki/wiki/Plugins#Importsmart.fmi tems.2Candgenerallists
Once you've downloaded it, instructions on how to use it are here
http://wiki.github.com/ridisculous/anki-iknow-importer
With the latest Anki release, you can also download using Anki's built in plugin manager. The plugin provides full control over what card types are created.
-------
I've been experimenting with Anki and my LingQs, but so far I can only import them one-by-one. I'm trying to find a way to mass import them into the program. Does anyone have any experience with Anki?
Yiddish vs. Hebrew
This is from one of my recent posts on the LingQ forum
(http://www.lingq.com/learn/zh/forum/1/4799/)
Yiddish is a Germanic language with Hebrew (Semitic) influence, while Hebrew is simply a Semitic language.
Here is the the Our Father in German:
Alle Menschen sind frei und gleich an Würde und Rechten geboren. Sie sind mit Vernunft und Gewissen begabt und sollen einander im Geist der Brüderlichkeit begegnen.
Here is a transliteration of the Our Father in Yiddish (I capitalized some nouns for comparison):
Yeder Mentsh vert geboyrn fray un glaykh in Koved un Rekht. Yeder vert bashonkn mit Farshtand un Gevisn; yeder zol zikh firn mit a tsveytn in a gemit fun Brudershaft.
And here is a transliteration of the Our Father in Hebrew:
Kol benei ha'adam noldu benei xorin veshavim be'erkam uvizxuyoteihem. Kulam xonenu batevuna uvematspun, lefixax xova 'aleihem linhog ish bere'ehu beruax shel axava.
As you can see, Yiddish and German are quite similar, and if you speak German you can understand even spoken Yiddish quite well. You can listen to the above examples by searching each language here http://www.omniglot.com/
As far as learning them, I imagine there are more resources for Hebrew than for Yiddish; however, Yiddish will be easier for you to learn as it's a Western European language. But, where there's a will, there's way.
Check out these Google searches for Hebrew resources I recently did for a friend:
http://www.google.com/search?rlz=1C1SKPC_en___US35 5&sourceid=chrome&ie=UTF-8&q=learn+hebrew
http://www.google.com/search?rlz=1C1SKPC_en___US35 5&aq=f&sourceid=chrome&ie=UTF-8&q=hebrew
and these two sites I've already checked out and they're quite good:
www.learnhebrewpod.com
http://www.hebrewtoday.com/ntext.asp?psn=16
The same search in Yiddish yields some interesting resources as well.
(http://www.lingq.com/learn/zh/forum/1/4799/)
Yiddish is a Germanic language with Hebrew (Semitic) influence, while Hebrew is simply a Semitic language.
Here is the the Our Father in German:
Alle Menschen sind frei und gleich an Würde und Rechten geboren. Sie sind mit Vernunft und Gewissen begabt und sollen einander im Geist der Brüderlichkeit begegnen.
Here is a transliteration of the Our Father in Yiddish (I capitalized some nouns for comparison):
Yeder Mentsh vert geboyrn fray un glaykh in Koved un Rekht. Yeder vert bashonkn mit Farshtand un Gevisn; yeder zol zikh firn mit a tsveytn in a gemit fun Brudershaft.
And here is a transliteration of the Our Father in Hebrew:
Kol benei ha'adam noldu benei xorin veshavim be'erkam uvizxuyoteihem. Kulam xonenu batevuna uvematspun, lefixax xova 'aleihem linhog ish bere'ehu beruax shel axava.
As you can see, Yiddish and German are quite similar, and if you speak German you can understand even spoken Yiddish quite well. You can listen to the above examples by searching each language here http://www.omniglot.com/
As far as learning them, I imagine there are more resources for Hebrew than for Yiddish; however, Yiddish will be easier for you to learn as it's a Western European language. But, where there's a will, there's way.
Check out these Google searches for Hebrew resources I recently did for a friend:
http://www.google.com/search?rlz=1C1SKPC_en___US35 5&sourceid=chrome&ie=UTF-8&q=learn+hebrew
http://www.google.com/search?rlz=1C1SKPC_en___US35 5&aq=f&sourceid=chrome&ie=UTF-8&q=hebrew
and these two sites I've already checked out and they're quite good:
www.learnhebrewpod.com
http://www.hebrewtoday.com/ntext.asp?psn=16
The same search in Yiddish yields some interesting resources as well.
Dienstag, 1. Dezember 2009
Learning the Mandarin Characters (Hanzi)
Once you've got a good vocabulary base in Mandarin, and preferably not before, you'll want to get started on learning the Hanzi.
I've found the following combination quite good for learning the characters:
1) Tuttle Learning Chinese Characters - gives you picture stories with built in mnemonics for remembering the tones and pronunciations of the 800 most basic characters (HSK Level A), and builds up your character knowledge systematically going from least to most complicated by only introducing characters containing components you've already seen
2) Tuttle Chinese-English Learner's Dictionary - Contains the 4,800 most frequently used Chinese vocabulary items, including the 3000+ words for HSK Level A and B proficiency, and over 4,700 sample sentences with characters and pinyin, and the best thing, all the entries are arranged alphabetically by pinyin in the main dictionary, or can be looked up as in a standard Chinese dictionary. Compound words are broken down into their constituent parts to facilitate learning and understanding.
If you combine these two resources with Skritter's (http://www.skritter.com/about) Spaced Repetition approach to learning how to write the characters, you'll gain the character fluency you're striving for in no time!
Also, smartfm.com has a great program for learning the 2,500 most common characters (http://smart.fm/goals/49389-chinese-characters-level-1-beginner) using the Spaced Repetition Method and memory games, and it's free!
Also, this is a good free site for the 4000 most basic characters, and each entry also contains a flash video of the stroke order:
http://www.learnchineseez.com/read-write/simplifie d/index.php?page=1
I've found the following combination quite good for learning the characters:
1) Tuttle Learning Chinese Characters - gives you picture stories with built in mnemonics for remembering the tones and pronunciations of the 800 most basic characters (HSK Level A), and builds up your character knowledge systematically going from least to most complicated by only introducing characters containing components you've already seen
2) Tuttle Chinese-English Learner's Dictionary - Contains the 4,800 most frequently used Chinese vocabulary items, including the 3000+ words for HSK Level A and B proficiency, and over 4,700 sample sentences with characters and pinyin, and the best thing, all the entries are arranged alphabetically by pinyin in the main dictionary, or can be looked up as in a standard Chinese dictionary. Compound words are broken down into their constituent parts to facilitate learning and understanding.
If you combine these two resources with Skritter's (http://www.skritter.com/about) Spaced Repetition approach to learning how to write the characters, you'll gain the character fluency you're striving for in no time!
Also, smartfm.com has a great program for learning the 2,500 most common characters (http://smart.fm/goals/49389-chinese-characters-level-1-beginner) using the Spaced Repetition Method and memory games, and it's free!
Also, this is a good free site for the 4000 most basic characters, and each entry also contains a flash video of the stroke order:
http://www.learnchineseez.com/read-write/simplifie d/index.php?page=1
Learning Mandarin from scratch 2
This is a continuation of one of my earlier posts from November about starting out from scratch in Mandarin using Zhang PengPeng's 'Intensive Spoken Chinese', which I just found out you can access the first 30 chapters of for FREE at http://www.chinese-tools.com/learn/chinese
The book is simply a collection of 40 short dialogues with pinyin transliterations, wordlists and audio to learn about 1,000 common words in Chinese.
This is simply a reiteration of my earlier post, with an addition at the end:
Following each chapter is also a relevant grammar point, but I just skipped those in my hunger for more vocabulary.
My method was
1) read (the pinyin) and listen without understanding first
2) read and listen and look at the word list on the side of the page to figure out what they are saying
3) read and listen again to see if I understand
4) listen without reading to test my comprehension
This only took about 10 minutes for each dialogue, and I found that I could learn to understand a dialogue with sometimes 30 new vocab words in that time.
Once you can understand without reading, move onto the next lesson and do the same. Try to do a lesson a day. Then it's just a matter of listening to the dialogues every day over the course of a week or so and after that occasionally repeating, and within about a month or less you can understand 1000 words of Chinese (in context).
My method was
1) read (the pinyin) and listen without understanding first
2) read and listen and look at the word list on the side of the page to figure out what they are saying
3) read and listen again to see if I understand
4) listen without reading to test my comprehension
This only took about 10 minutes for each dialogue, and I found that I could learn to understand a dialogue with sometimes 30 new vocab words in that time.
Once you can understand without reading, move onto the next lesson and do the same. Try to do a lesson a day. Then it's just a matter of listening to the dialogues every day over the course of a week or so and after that occasionally repeating, and within about a month or less you can understand 1000 words of Chinese (in context).
To learn even more effectively, use the following approach:
Day 1: Do the four steps above for dialogue 1
Day 2: Do step 4 for dialogue 1, do all four steps for dialogue 2.
Day 3: Do step 4 for dialogues 1 and 2, do all four steps for dialogue 3.
Day 4: Do step 4 for dialogues 1, 2, and 3, do all four steps for dialogue 4.
Day 5: Do step 4 for dialogues 1, 2, 3, and 4, do all four steps for dialogue 5.
Day 6: Do step 4 for dialogues 1, 2, 3, 4, and 5, do all four steps for dialogue 6.
Day 7: Do step 4 for dialogues 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, and 6, do all four steps for dialogue 7.
DAY 8: DO STEP 4 FOR DIALOGUES 2,3,4,5,6, and 7, DO ALL FOUR STEPS FOR DIALOGUE 8.
Day 9: etc.
Continue with this pattern, removing one dialogue and adding one every day, until you've finished all the dialogues. Each dialogue is only a minute long (without the vocabulary review), so you only need a maximum of about 15-20 minutes a day, including each day's new lesson. By the end of the month you will know these dialogues quite well and have a very solid basic knowledge of Chinese, and you will be ready to start out learning on LingQ!
Improving your Mandarin reading and listening without having to learn lots of characters
LingQ is about input, not about memorization. Learning the Chinese characters requires memorization. Therefore, I am striving to attain basic fluency in Chinese before concentrating on the characters, and I'm currently using what I consider to be a pretty innovative method to improve my extensive Chinese reading and listening skills without having to learn the characters:
1) I translitere the LingQ podcasts, which are beyond my current level in Chinese, using PopUpChinese.com (which has the best transliteration software I've found so far, parsing the words correctly 99% of the time) and print the pinyin text on paper with a space between each line.
2) Once I've listened to the text and read along with the rough English translation, I go back and read the text on LingQ and write the definitions of the words I don't know (highlighted in blue and yellow) above the pinyin in the printed paper text - you could also write them on the side.
3) Once I've finished that, I listen to the text again while reading along in pinyin and looking above the unknown words (or on the side of the text) for the definitions.
4) When I can understand the words while reading without looking at the definitions, I just listen, without reading.
I find that this is a great way to improve your listening and reading skills without have to know a lot of characters, as my brain still remember words written in letters better than in the characters. This will also help you to 'pick up on' words in your other listenings and readings.
Besides that, I find it more effective anyway to go back and learn the characters in a context you're already familiar with and for words you already know on LingQ after using this method.
The Popup Chinese pinyinization tool can be found here
or simply by going to the homepage and clicking on 'chinese tools'.
Samstag, 28. November 2009
Free Mandarin Resources
Here is a long list of free resources for learning Mandarin, which I have sifted out of all the other resources I encountered while searching on Google:
http://www.clearchinese.com/learn-chinese/index.htm
http://www.nettvdb.com/CountryTV.asp?ID=45 chinese tv programs
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zNoOdNvdZlg Learn chinese with yang yang
http://www.luomapinyin.com/downloads.html chinese internet vocabulary
http://www.learnchineseez.com/read-write/traditional/index.php learn 4000 characters with animated character strokes
http://www.learnchineseez.com great site for tv and radio links, fsi course etc
http://www.csulb.edu/~txie/ccol/content.htm conversation
http://www.skritter.com/about writing chinese characters, spaced repetition
http://www.chinesegreat.com/CG/funWaysStory.do?processCategory=searchInitFunWaysStory fun english/chinese stories
As you can see, some of them I've already given cursory labels, and I hope to have time soon to go through and label all of them.
Labels or not, they're worth taking a look at, of that I assure you:)
Donnerstag, 26. November 2009
NaturalArabic.com
This site was referred to by Chris in the LingQ Forum
in a recent post. It is very similar to LingQ in that learning also takes place through simply reading and listening, but it has a couple of interesting features which I think any language learner can appreciate. Check out the intro video at
However, despite these cool features, it cannot compete with the INDEPENDENT language learning power of LingQ, namely that on LingQ the LEARNER decides what he or she studies and can import his or her own content, without having to rely on some website to do it, in addition to the fact that you can't save words on this site.
Regardless, I think it's a cool concept, it just needs a bit of work.
In the future when Arabic is offered on LingQ, this might be a good supplementary website from which you could take words and phrases and save them in your LingQ wordlist, for example.
The Key to Good Pronunciation: Exaggeration
This is a re-post of one of my recent contributions (http://www.lingq.com/learn/zh/forum/4/4709/) in the LingQ Forum, with a couple slight additions:
Good pronunciation is very much a question of attitude towards and acceptance of the foreign culture, and it's impeded by fear.
Fear of sounding 'too foreign', of leaving the comfortable boundaries of the sounds and intonation of your native language.
In my opinion, exaggeration is the key to good pronunciation. EXAGGERATE everything you do in the language, based on what you see and hear native speakers doing. Try to look (that is, move your mouth and face) and sound like them, imagine you are them.
All of this, of course, must be preceded by lots of natural exposure to the language, i.e. listening and reading. Remember that Steve didn't speak Russian for two years after he started learning, that is, he gave himself time to assimilate the sounds and intonation of the language before he started speaking.
Steve actually talks about this subject in his interview on Radio Canada
and in this thread on the forum
Once you've heard a lot of English and have become accustomed to hearing and understanding different accents, it's important that you choose one you'd like to imitate and try your best to emulate it. Otherwise you will always have a foreign/international accent (and there's nothing wrong that).
Check out this video (and YouTube channel and blog, in that order) on Language Learning and accents from Hyunwoo Sun, a Korean tutor at Koreanclass101.com and a popular YouTube polyglot
and watch this Chinese cop and the way he imitates a New York accent by exaggerating (and ends up sounding pretty good)
Dienstag, 24. November 2009
Skritter : Learn Chinese and Japanese characters faster and retain them longer
I came upon Skritter, a cool website for learning how to WRITE and remember Chinese and Japanese characters, while searching for free online learning resources for Chinese. Watch the intro video here:
According to the site, Skritter allows you to
- Learn Chinese and Japanese: in your browser, no installation.
- Write your characters: use a mouse, writing tablet, or touchscreen.
- Track your progress using SRS (Spaced Repetition Learning System): so you review only what you need to review.
- Use textbook lists plus over 4200 simplified and traditional characters included.
You can sign up for a free 2-week trial for the Chinese site, after which you have to pay.
The Japanese site currently free, as it is still BETA.
Montag, 23. November 2009
Acappella, my other love
In case anyone's interested, here's a video of my UC Berkeley Acappella group Artists in Resonance (AiR) performing 'Heartbreaker' by Pat Benatar on campus in the Music Department.
I also recommend Under the Bridge, Motown Philly, and Mr. Roboto, where you can see me and Rafi hold down the bass, and Lie Low, where I get a solo in! Oh, and you can skip the intros/skits ;)
We sure had a lot of fun back then.
Sonntag, 22. November 2009
Getting started in Japanese
This post is for everyone who's always wanted to get started learning Japanese but never knew where to start.
The other resources (#'s 2, 3 and 4) are indispensable for learning Hiragana, Katakana and the Kanji, and #5 is for those who intend to study Chinese as well and want an efficient way to learn the 800 most frequent characters (which comprise 75% of written Chinese).
Ok, here's what you do to get started in Japanese:
1) Go to
http://www.humanjapanese.com/download.html
and try out Human Japanese, which, as I said above, is the best introduction to the writing system, grammar and vocabulary of Japanese I've seen.
***2) Download Nihonaid from
www.nihonaid.com
which is a program you download that utilizes mnemonics combined with Spaced Repetition Learning to maximize the rate at which you learn first Hiragana, then Katakana, then the Kanji.
3) Sign up for a free membership at
http://kanji.koohii.com/
where you can learn the Kanji online using James Heisig's system and have access to other learner's mnemonic devices for the characters.
Ok, here's what you do to get started in Japanese:
1) Go to
http://www.humanjapanese.com/download.html
and try out Human Japanese, which, as I said above, is the best introduction to the writing system, grammar and vocabulary of Japanese I've seen.
***2) Download Nihonaid from
www.nihonaid.com
which is a program you download that utilizes mnemonics combined with Spaced Repetition Learning to maximize the rate at which you learn first Hiragana, then Katakana, then the Kanji.
3) Sign up for a free membership at
http://kanji.koohii.com/
where you can learn the Kanji online using James Heisig's system and have access to other learner's mnemonic devices for the characters.
4) Check out the wealth of resources for learning Japanese at
5) (Optional) Invest in
Tuttle Learning Chinese Characters
http://www.amazon.com/Tuttle-Learning-Chinese-Characters-Revolutionary/dp/080483816X)
which will not only help you to remember the meanings of the characters, but will also help you remember the Chinese pronunciations of the characters, as these are built into the mnemonic devices given.
I wish you success in your Japanese studies, and welcome any comments or questions!
Samstag, 21. November 2009
I've posted a video on LingQ's YouTube channel LingQ Plaza
Under the following link you can see the recording of my conversation in Spanish with Albert (Alsuvi)
The conversation went quite long, so I split it up into 4 parts.
I hope you enjoy the video and I welcome any feedback on the video (and on my Spanish!)
Freitag, 20. November 2009
Free Chinese mp3 songs and lyrics
Chinese-tools.com is a great resource in general for Chinese learning, as it has free audio/text lessons (from Zhang Peng Peng's Intensive Spoken Chinese, which I previously posted on), annotated news in Chinese, poetry, writing lesson, idioms and more.
However, one of the coolest things about the site is the wealth of free Chinese songs and their corresponding annotated lyrics from different genres, including Pop, ROck, R & B, Top Hits, and Love Songs:
If you combine these resources with the learning power of LingQ, then you've got a formidable ally in your quest to learn Chinese.
Donnerstag, 19. November 2009
Vera's Diary for Beginners (in English)
Calling all English learners! I just published ten new episodes of Vera's Diary for Beginners in the English library, which can be found under the following link:
There are now a total of 24 lessons in the collection, with a further 19 to be coming soon.
This is a great place to start with lots of good vocabulary for beginners in English, and if you're learning German as well (or you'd like to see the translation), then check out Vera's Diary for Beginners in the LingQ German library.
Comments and suggestions are much appreciated:)
Happy LingQing!
"Seven tips on how to learn languages at LingQ" by Steve Kaufmann
from the LingQ Wiki (http://lingq.pbworks.com/Seven-tips-on-how-to-learn-languages-at-LingQ)
Everyone has their own way of learning languages at LingQ. If you had to advise someone on what YOU consider the most important things to do in order to get the most out of LingQ, ...
Here are my seven points.
1. To get the most out of LingQ you need to listen a lot. Make sure you have a good MP3 player and know how to get your desired content from the LingQ Library onto your MP3 player. Carry your MP3 player with you wherever you go.
2. Create lots of LingQs. As your cursor travels across the text you are reading, when you see a word you do not know, or would like to know better, or would like to be able to use, grab it. If there are user hints, take one. If not, click on New Hint. Do the same for phrases. Make sure you create as many LingQs as possible. 100 a day is not too many!
3. If you have saved a lot of LingQs, you will see them highlighted in yellow on your text, when you read. Treat your reading at LingQ as a powerful way to learn words and phrases and usage patterns, and not just a reading experience. At first you cannot even remember the meaning of the words you saved. After a few months there will be few words or phrases that you do not understand.
4. When reviewing your saved words using Flash Cards, do not expect to learn them all. Just go through them quickly. Do so immediately after you finish reading a text and have pressed "I Know All". Do so again when you receive your email with your LingQs for review. But do so quickly. Do not worry about what you cannot remember. Some words stick and others just won't.
5. Talk to a tutor once a week. It will keep you motivated. If you have a specific problem, or if you really enjoy your discussions with tutors, you can always go for more. However, a once a week commitment makes sure that you stay focused.
6. Write on the Forum in the language you are learning, at least once a week. Use the Post and Submit button, to post your comments and submit them for correction at the same time.
7. Make lots of friends on the Community, the more the better. Find people from your own country, or people studying the same languages as you, or members and tutors who speak those languages. The more friends you have, the more you will be connected to other members of the community. This will sustain your interest and keep you going, and help you achieve your goals.
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You'll find the front page of the Wiki here http://lingq.pbworks.com/
Meertaligheid. Ja of nee? Tweede taal leren
Interessant artikel over kinderen en meertaligheid van WereldExpat.nl:
'Nederlandse ouders in het buitenland twijfelen soms of ze hun kinderen meertalig moeten opvoeden. Is het wel goed voor je kind? Hoeveel talen is mogelijk en hoe doe je dat dan?'
http://static.rnw.nl/migratie/www.wereldexpat.nl/nl/wonen/taal/typischnltv_mariaverhallen-redirected
'Nederlandse ouders in het buitenland twijfelen soms of ze hun kinderen meertalig moeten opvoeden. Is het wel goed voor je kind? Hoeveel talen is mogelijk en hoe doe je dat dan?'
http://static.rnw.nl/migratie/www.wereldexpat.nl/nl/wonen/taal/typischnltv_mariaverhallen-redirected
Dienstag, 17. November 2009
The bilingual brain
This is an excerpt describing the cognitive benefits of bilingualism from an article called The rise of the monoglots that Steve provided a link to on his most recent blog post (http://www.universityaffairs.ca/the-rise-of-the-monoglots.aspx):
The bilingual brain
Speaking two languages is like going to “brain gym,” says Ellen Bialystok, a psychology professor at York University’s faculty of health and a leading researcher on the cognitive benefits of bilingualism.
Dr. Bialystok’s early research on children found that, under certain conditions, bilingual children learn to read faster and score higher on cognitive tests than their monolingual counterparts. Her most recent work, at the other end of the age spectrum, has shown that lifelong bilingualism can delay symptoms of dementia.
“A bilingual person with dementia or Alzheimer’s can maintain better cognitive performance longer because bilingualism gives you a cognitive reserve, like a reserve fuel tank,” she says.
Bilingual individuals also think differently, says Richard Clément, a psychologist and director of the University of Ottawa’s Official Languages and Bilingualism Institute. “They have access to two systems. Not only two semantics systems, or two lexical systems, but actually two ways of thinking.”
This ability gives them “a repertoire of thinking modes” and a better capacity for adaptation, he says. As a result, they are “better adjusted, happier and less stressed” in intercultural situations.
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“To have another language is to possess a second soul.”
-Charlemagne
“Language shapes the way we think, and determines what we can think about.”
-Benjamin Lee Whorf
(both quotes borrowed from http://www.quotesdaddy.com/tag/Language/2)
Wie Sie jede Sprache in 12 Monaten fließend sprechen lernen können
Laut Udo Gollub, Geschäftsführer und Gründer von Sprachenlernen24.
I also recommend the other posts on Mr. Gollubs blog, which can be found on the right-hand side of the page.
Foreign Language Mastery
Linguist Mr. John Fotheringham's website
'dedicated to helping you master one (or perhaps many more!) foreign tongues in the fastest and cheapest way possible',
a must-read for language enthusiasts.
Watching T.V. and movies to improve your English (or any other language)
This was a recent post of mine on one of the LingQ forums:
I personally take great pleasure in watching movies and television series to aid my language learning and to keep myself interested when I don't feel like reading or just listening to audio.
It's also a nice way to really see how people talk and react in quasi real life situations, and especially to associate the meaning of what you hear with what you see, which is the most natural way the brain learns language.
However, as much as I like movies, I recommend using T.V. series more than anything because the episodes are relatively short and you can repeat them. I will usually watch each episode twice, once with subtitles and then once without.
It's also a nice way to really see how people talk and react in quasi real life situations, and especially to associate the meaning of what you hear with what you see, which is the most natural way the brain learns language.
However, as much as I like movies, I recommend using T.V. series more than anything because the episodes are relatively short and you can repeat them. I will usually watch each episode twice, once with subtitles and then once without.
It's also the method that gets you the most bang for your buck, as you can get roughly 18 hours of content for about 30 bucks if you buy the DVDs.
It's not important to understand everything you hear - as long as you understand at least 60% of what you're hearing, your brain is learning.
I personally never use the dictionary except on LingQ when I'm reading, and that's only very quickly just so I can understand the new words in context and then listen lots of times. If a text contains too many unknown words, it becomes boring to look them all up and I'll just read it to get out of it what I can.
It's not important to understand everything you hear - as long as you understand at least 60% of what you're hearing, your brain is learning.
I personally never use the dictionary except on LingQ when I'm reading, and that's only very quickly just so I can understand the new words in context and then listen lots of times. If a text contains too many unknown words, it becomes boring to look them all up and I'll just read it to get out of it what I can.
I'm a highly motivated and very lazy language learner.
If you do look any words up, in your reading or when watching movies, make sure to save them on LingQ so that there's a certain amount of 'accountability' for the learning you've been doing, and so you can see those words in new contexts on LingQ.
Check out this article from Foreign Language Mastery http://l2mastery.com/methods/alg-approach-to-self-study
If you do look any words up, in your reading or when watching movies, make sure to save them on LingQ so that there's a certain amount of 'accountability' for the learning you've been doing, and so you can see those words in new contexts on LingQ.
Check out this article from Foreign Language Mastery http://l2mastery.com/methods/alg-approach-to-self-study
Sonntag, 15. November 2009
Improving your pronunciation
I always recommend that learners record themselves when trying to improve their pronunciation and intonation, especially when they have a lot of fossilized errors (as do most people who spend years in the grammar/translation system of language learning).
I use a rule of 5x5x5, although it could also be 3x3x3 or whatever - I just like 5.
1) Learners record themselves reading an article or a dialogue for which they have the native speaker audio as well. Audio content should not be very long, maybe 1 or 2 minutes maximum.
2) They listen to the content 5 times without reading, paying attention to the pronunciation and especially to the intonation, as intonation is more important for overall comprehensibility (I read this in Ann Cook's American Accent Training Program).
3) They listen to and read the content 5 times, once again paying special attention to the intonation.
4) Repeat step 2
5) They record themselves reading the piece again and then compare themselves to the first recording.
I use a rule of 5x5x5, although it could also be 3x3x3 or whatever - I just like 5.
1) Learners record themselves reading an article or a dialogue for which they have the native speaker audio as well. Audio content should not be very long, maybe 1 or 2 minutes maximum.
2) They listen to the content 5 times without reading, paying attention to the pronunciation and especially to the intonation, as intonation is more important for overall comprehensibility (I read this in Ann Cook's American Accent Training Program).
3) They listen to and read the content 5 times, once again paying special attention to the intonation.
4) Repeat step 2
5) They record themselves reading the piece again and then compare themselves to the first recording.
Do this every day with a different text, and every day listen to the text from the day before to review.
Students who've done this have noticed a definite difference in the quality of their personal reproduction of the content.
Having said all of this, I only recommend that people who have a lot of fossilized errors do it. If you've never spoken much English, just hold off a bit and give yourself time to soak up more of the language naturally so that you may never have to do 'drills' like this.
Students who've done this have noticed a definite difference in the quality of their personal reproduction of the content.
Having said all of this, I only recommend that people who have a lot of fossilized errors do it. If you've never spoken much English, just hold off a bit and give yourself time to soak up more of the language naturally so that you may never have to do 'drills' like this.
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