Language Trainers Blog

I recently wrote about enthusiasts of Na’vi, the constructed language (or conlang) from the recent film Avatar.  Today I read a news story that claimed that over 12,000 people are learning the language in Australia alone*.

This made me wonder about the number of people speaking minority languages around the world.  According to Wikipedia, of the 6-7,000 languages spoken in the world, around half of them have less than 3,000 speakers.  It is anticipated that in the next 50-100 years, sadly, most of these languages will become extinct.

So, in a few short months, Na’vi has overtaken over half of the languages in the world in terms of numbers.  It may not share rich history or large vocabulary, but something has to be said for the achievements of its creators.  While some may say that it’s a pity that people are ‘wasting their time’ on learning a made-up language, I think it’s kind of nice that there are language enthusiasts out there, regardless of the ‘validity’ of the language.

*This is based on usage from a single website, though, so this may be a worldwide number.

From recent personal experience*, I can say that the answer is: sort of.  It’s not unsurprising that a few quiet drinks will lessen the fears of embarrassment, and also give the impression that you are speaking a lot better than you normally do (mistakes are skimmed over and might be forgotten in the morning). Drinking doesn’t make you any better in itself, but it may make practising easier, which will definitely help you out.

As long as you don’t drink until you’re incomprehensible in any language, alcohol can help smooth the way to more free-flowing speech, which can then lead to increased confidence in your own language abilities. You will find that people really don’t mind about pauses and mistakes, and effective communication is much more about trying it out rather than getting one or two sentences perfectly correct.

Of course, if you don’t want to or need to drink, it’s possible to get the same effect without the alcohol.  For some people it may take a big change in mindset, or a constant low-level of embarrassment, but it’s only ever going to be beneficial for you to practice as much as possible.  Don’t worry about what other people think, and just give it a go.

For another viewpoint and some ideas for finding confidence (and better health!) without liquid courage, Benny the Irish polyglot has written a great post about it at Fluent in 3 Months.

*It was my birthday recently, can you blame me?

So it’s that time of year again - when the northern half of the world is cold, and the days are short and often uninspiring.  Nobody can be blamed for being a little bit unmotivated or behind in their studies, but that doesn’t mean that your brain should needs to hibernate.  Take advantage of the cold and depressing weather by staying indoors and learning some new language points, or add a linguistic twist to your favourite winter hobbies.

Here are a few ideas:

• Learn new vocabulary by making word lists based around winter themes (snow sports, winter clothing, cold weather), or things that remind you of warmer times (travel, gardening, swimming).
• Make a translation of one of your favourite winter recipes, or try to use a recipe in your target language. Winter’s a great time for soups and stews, and finding one from another culture is a great way to get in touch with the language.  Not to mention the fact that they usually take a while to cook, so you can use the time in your warm kitchen to look up cooking vocabulary.
• Sit in front of the fire or with a warm blanket and listen to some language podcasts or review old notes.
• Instead of hitting snooze in the morning, flip through a set of flashcards before dragging yourself out of bed.
• Meet with a language partner for a language exchange or practice over a hot cup of tea, coffee, or a hot toddy at the pub.
• Work on that project that you never get around to starting (handicrafts, painting, reorganising your closet), and listen to some language material while you do.

Do you have any other ideas for keeping up with your study in the winter?

Subtitles are a great way to watch foreign films and TV shows and be able to understand them, and using them can help if you need a bit of help with your listening comprehension.  There are a couple of other things you can do with them, besides the standard native language subtitle, though.

Make sure you’re hearing all the words correctly by using subtitles in the same language as the audio.  It will also help if you miss a word here or there, and help towards improving your reading recognition, spelling, and comprehension.  If you are a beginner, or the material is particularly complex, it will help to watch the film a few times using your native language first, and/or pause and review frequently.

Another option, if the film has it, is to listen to it dubbed in your language, with the subtitles in the original language.  This will make sure you understand what is going on, but give you more exposure to the written language.  If you are learning a non-alphabetised language, it will help with your recognition, too.  Obviously, pausing a lot will help here, too.

You can always try watching your favourite shows dubbed or subtitled in your target language, but bear in mind that subtitles (as with many translations) may not be correct.  If something seems a bit wrong to you, it very well might be.  Don’t let this put you off though, as there are a lot of benefits to watching and understanding interesting material.  Note down anything weird or interesting, and show it to your teacher or look it up later.

Have you benefited from watching foreign language material?  How did you do it?

Image: meaduva.

I think most language learners have been in the situation where they realise that the textbook or dialogue they are learning from is not at all relevant to anything they would need to use in real life.  Of course, there are some fantastically-written learning materials out there, but there are also the ones that try to teach obscure terms that most people would never need to know.  I remember a lesson where my teacher taught us the translation for double income no kids families, as well as a term which means a mistress whose rich boss boyfriend pays to raise her bastard baby.  I guess that says something about the culture, though!

So, what can we do about it?  If you’re lucky enough to have a private tutor, you do have some control over what you learn.  Tell your teacher you are interested in learning to say certain things, or have particular conversations.  If you are in a class situation, you can do some study on your own.

One way to work out what’s relevant to you is to think about the interactions you have within a day or a week.  Could you navigate the supermarket, hairdresser, library, subway in your target language?  If not, great!  You’ve just found some new learning material.  Think about what conversations actually take place during your day, and try to translate them.  Note down (or look up) any vocabulary and sentence patterns you still need and bring them up with your teacher in your next class.  Once you’ve got a good translation of the conversation, you can take turns at playing each role.

Next time you’re at the hairdresser (or supermarket, etc), go through the conversations in your head to solidify the language knowledge.  Or, go ahead and try it out loud (if you are in a position to, of course).

Good luck!

Image: eye2eye.

The immensely popular blockbuster Avatar has garnered both rave and scathing reviews, but what it has produced, besides a lot of money at cinemas, is a large group of language devotees, dedicated to learning the constructed language of ‘the people’, Na’vi.

The language was created especially for the film by Paul Frommer, a professor at USC in California.  There are already over three thousand members posting on the forums on the Learn Na’vi site, and that’s just one fan site.  As with other popular created languages (Klingon, from Star Trek, and Elvish, from J. R. R. Tolkien’s books), Na’vi has bloomed within the sci-fi fan community and there is talk of conventions, Na’vi karaoke, and even tattoos in Na’vi.

So with this much enthusiasm, and fans clamouring for more vocabulary and further explanations of language points, why can’t this excitement be replicated by your average language learner?  Of course, this language at present only has about 500 words, and the average learner of Na’vi is probably a little bit more obsessive about their areas of interest than most people.  Still, Na’vi enthusiasts are arranging meetings, and learning the language so they can communicate with each other and express their appreciation of the language and culture on the fictional planet of Pandora.

In this vein, why don’t you see if you can find a local or online interest group for the language you are learning?  If everyone could be as dedicated as a Na’vi-learning film geek, we might all be progressing that little bit faster.

Ed Balls, the Schools Secretary in the UK, has said that every secondary school student should have the opportunity to learn Mandarin, and other ‘up and coming’ languages.

With mandatory language study for seven-to-11-year-olds coming into effect next year, this recommendation will no doubt spread to primary schools.

Even though students will by no means be forced to study Chinese (any language will do), there have been a lot of arguments against attempting to make the language accessible to every student.  For a start, where will these teachers come from?  There are very few students studying Mandarin at present, and most teachers would come from that demographic.  It has been suggested that there would be specialist language centres that students would go to in order to study, but is this a practical solution?  Another major argument is that Chinese is only the predicted most-useful foreign language for kids of this generation (although other recommendations are Russian, Polish, and even Indonesian).  When I was growing up, Japanese was the next big thing, and it wasn’t so long ago that people thought everyone would need to speak Russian. Will Chinese ever be useful to the everyman in the UK?

I think that the focus should be taken of the specific languages being recommended, and put on the fact that kids will need to do second language study.  Although I was quick to drop languages when I was younger, I did enjoy them, and wish I had continued for longer.  If we can instil a love for language learning in the next generations, regardless of the language they choose, it will never be a bad thing.

Which language do you think will be essential in the next 10 or 15 years?

Source: Telegraph.

Something that my language teacher tries to make me do, and something that I also try to emphasise with my students, is actually speaking.  It may sound silly, but many students try to learn strictly from books (and sometimes listening to audio or watching videos).  These methods help with understanding, but what will you do when someone actually wants to have a conversation with you?

Repeating words and sentences in your head may help to a certain degree, but there are a lot of reasons that students should open their mouths.  Even if you fully understand a written sentence, you may not be able to say it fluently.  Especially with languages that have very different sounds to your native one, your body will need to become adjusted to making the sounds and putting them all together.  Even though it might be boring and may feel like it’s not doing anything, rote repetition out loud is great for muscle memory as well as reinforcing the language structure in your brain.  The more times you repeat, the more likely it is that you’ll remember how to say the phrase when the time comes.

One way to track your progress is to record yourself doing your repetitions.  I find the most convenient way to record is through my mp3 player or phone, but most computers have a standard voice recorder, or you could use a dictaphone, or even a tape recorder.  Initially it will feel strange, but don’t worry too much about that.

If you have model recordings available, try to repeat after them, following the intonation and flow of the language as closely as possible.  It won’t take long for you to notice an improvement in the speed and fluency of your speech.  If you are learning with a teacher, you can also send him or her your best recordings, and ask for a few extra pointers.  There are a few community-based language websites (like LiveMocha) available too, where you can upload your recordings and get feedback on them from native speakers.

What’s your favourite recording technique?  How do you use recording for language learning?

*Unintentional pun.

Image: chrischuepp via Flickr Creative Commons.

For the new year, give your acquaintances the gift of pronouncing their names correctly.  It’s a basic courtesy, but it’s not uncommon to come across a name you’ve never heard before, and it’s often uncomfortable to have to ask someone how to pronounce their name (especially if you have communicated by email or other written communication).

Hear Names has a large database of names from all over the world, sorted by language or region.  If you come across an unfamiliar name through the course of your work day, through study, or in a newspaper, look it up on Hear Names, see its origin, and hear a native speaker pronounce it for you.  They even have famous figures’ names for your convenience.  And if you can’t find the name you’re looking for, there is a request feature so you can ask for a recording.

Even if you think you know how to pronounce someone’s name, it might be worth looking it up.  For example, Claudia is pronounced differently in the US from how it is in Germany.  And, of course, don’t be afraid to double-check with the person themselves.  Not everyone uses a standard pronunciation.

Source: Readable Blog

…are they a good idea?

Welcome to a new year!  Most people also consider it a new decade.  Right now is the traditional time for reflection as well as a time to look ahead and make plans for coming months, and even years.  If you have been studying a language for a while, how do you think you are doing so far?  What do you think you might achieve in 2010?

As with any resolution, chances of success dramatically increase if the promises are actually achievable.  Deciding to make a small change that you can continue on a regular basis will be much more realistic than a one-off big event.  In language learning terms, this may mean making sure you look at 10 vocabulary items every day, rather than being a beginner aiming to be able to read Dostoyevsky in his native Russian by the end of the year.  Make small adjustments to your schedule, and eventually what starts out as forced behaviour will become a habit.

Also bear in mind that the vast majority of students go through hills, valleys, and plateaus during the course of their learning.  There will be periods where you feel like you won’t be able to improve your conversational skills past an intermediate level, or when you just can’t understand native speakers in a discussion.  Don’t give up, and keep up your study habits.

Do you plan on making any resolutions this year?  If so, good luck with keeping them!