Language Trainers Blog

So I guess I don’t have my finger on the pulse, because March 4th was National Grammar Day, and I had no idea it was happening until it already had*.  The day, a chance to celebrate grammar and language in general, was started in 2008 by the founder of SPOGG (Society for the Protection of Good Grammar), and hosted by Mignon Fogarty (also known as Grammar Girl, who brings us the brilliant Quick and Dirty Tips).

Check out the National Grammar Day site for ways to celebrate and find out more about grammar and language, including links to some great cartoons, resources, e-cards and t-shirts. Let that grammar slacker in your life know it’s important to you (well, if it is, of course).

From the site, 10 grammar myths exposed:

1. A run-on sentence is a really long sentence.
2. You shouldn’t start a sentence with the word “however.”
3. “Irregardless” is not a word.
4. There is only one way to write the possessive form of a word that ends in “s.”
5. Passive voice is always wrong.
6. “I.e.” and “e.g.” mean the same thing.
7. You use “a” before words that start with consonants and “an” before words that start with vowels.
8. It’s incorrect to answer the question “How are you?” with the statement “I’m good.”
9. You shouldn’t split infinitives.
10. You shouldn’t end a sentence with a preposition.

(Click here for more information about the list above.)

Did you celebrate the occasion? Do you think grammar deserves its own day?

*I think this is a failing of people who start ‘national’ days.  They should really go big and go international. Grammar is important everywhere!

Today was rainy, cold, and I was late for work. I jumped into a taxi to take me a relatively short distance in the hideous traffic, and it actually made my morning. I had a lovely little chat with the taxi driver, especially after he slowed it down a bit when he realised I wasn’t a native speaker.

If you are lucky enough to be living in Asia or any place where taxis are cheap and plentiful, you will have many opportunities to talk to locals in a situation where the alternative is just to look out the window. I have a friend who vastly improved his Thai simply because he had to be stuck in a taxi in a traffic jam in Bangkok for hours every week.

In short, take every opportunity to speak to the people you come across every day.  In my experience, they’re more than happy to converse with you, and you will probably pick up a lot of vocabulary that you definitely wouldn’t in a language class!

Is it easier to learn additional foreign languages if they’re similar to the one(s) you already know?  For example, if you already speak Spanish as a second language, will it help you learn Italian?  In my experience, knowing a similar language already can be both a help and a hindrance.

I grew up around Cantonese, and spoke it to an elementary-sort-of level, and best when I was living in Hong Kong.  Since moving to the mainland, I have been around, and studied, Mandarin instead.  The Cantonese helped in a lot of ways, as the grammar structures are similar, and some of the words were similar or the same.  Unfortunately, knowing that a word is similar to one you already know doesn’t necessarily remind you what the new word is.  Now that my Mandarin level is higher than my Cantonese level, and I have been away from Cantonese speakers, I find it difficult to switch languages.

On a recent trip to Hong Kong, I spent the flight reminding myself of all the ways the languages are different, and all of the phrases I could remember in Cantonese*.  I didn’t do too badly,  but I was far from being able to switch between three languages fluidly.

Do you know more than one foreign language?  What are your methods for preventing getting rusty in a language you don’t use very often?

*Flights are a great opportunity to cram important language terms before arriving in a foreign language location!  Don’t forget to put a phrase book or flashcards in your carry-on bag to look over before you land.

I had quite a strange dream this morning, part of which involved being made to write my signature in a jellylike substance with a knife (I have no idea why - new technology?).  This was difficult and unwieldy and led to something that didn’t match what I had on my ID at all.  I have one of those signatures that no longer looks anything like my name, and often when I’m stopped in the middle of it (someone interrupts me, or my pen stops working), I have no idea what the next part is.  The action has become fluid and unconscious, and now, when I think about it too hard, I don’t know what all the pieces are any more.

This is the kind of thing we should be aiming for in language learning.  Of course, learning vocabulary is a key area to focus on, but when you want to communicate with others, learn whole sentences or meaningful phrases as one single ‘chunk’.  Practice listening to and saying whole sentences, and you will begin to get the feel for how the language flows, and native speakers will be able to understand you much more easily.

Especially in tonal languages (e.g. Thai, Chinese), if you say a few syllables slowly, it will take a long time for people to put them together, even if you got all the tones correct.  A lot of meaning is gained from the combination of sounds, rather than the individual sounds, so learning phrases will get your point across much easier than knowing how to put the individual words together (if - you - get - my - meaning).

If you get used to the sound and structure of whole sentences, it will be much easier for you to then substitute the nouns and verbs and use the same sentence patterns in many different conversations.

Good luck!

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?

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!

I was sent a link to a typing test recently, and because of my competitive nature, decided to try it out.  I was pleasantly surprised by the simple test provided by 10-fast-fingers.com, not only because it was easy to use, but it uses simple, common words, and provides tests in 33 different languages, including such disparate languages as Malaysian, Serbian, and Korean, and even dialects like Galician.  The results tell you how many words you got correct, and incorrect, in 60 seconds, and you can easily post these to your website or favourite social networking site.

Even if you’re terrible at it the first few times, using this test in the language you’re learning can help with word recognition, as well as give you practice using an unfamiliar keyboard layout (e.g. for Turkish), or entirely different character input systems and scripts (e.g. Mandarin or Arabic).

I can type about 6 characters per minute (correctly) in Chinese.  Can you do better?

It may be a last resort to some people, but hand gestures and miming go a long way towards getting your point across.  Looking like a bit of a fool for a few seconds may save you a lot of time spent searching for vocabulary.  And you may not even look so silly; many people are ‘hand talkers’ and use gestures to go along with everyday speech.

Especially when you’re a beginner, and in a foreign country, gesturing and pointing can be a great help when you don’t know specific vocabulary.  I did have a friend who had to mime some unfortunate bodily functions at a hospital once, but hopefully your experience won’t be as traumatic.  If you’re lucky, the person you’re trying to communicate with will provide you with the vocabulary you need (”ah…tomato!”) once they finally understand your meaning.

If you need any other impetus to start moving your hands, this study has shown that gestures, languages and symbols are all processed in the same regions of the brain, and it may be a carry-over from before humans had speech.  So, waving your arms around could be considered more valid than speaking.  Just remember that some gestures aren’t always polite!