Language Trainers Blog

I’ve had a bit of a change in my schedule lately which means that I have a much longer commute than before.  I hate getting up early in the morning, but I’ve been trying to look at the upside - I have more time before and after work to listen to music, catch up on news, watch TV, or, most importantly, work on my language study.  I’ve been flicking through some flashcards on the subway, and also listening to some language podcasts (right now I’m listening to Chinese Lessons by Serge Melnyk and lessons from Popup Chinese).

I’ve never really taken advantage of the speed adjustment on my iPod Touch before, but I was listening to a dialogue the other day that was just that little bit too fast.  I slowed it down to half speed and tried again.  It was a little bit jumpy, but generally worked quite well.  After listening to that specific dialogue a couple of times at half speed, I changed it back to normal and it was fairly comprehensible.  I also made use of the little go back button (I don’t know what it’s actually called) which jumps you back 30 seconds instead of having to try to rewind with the slider.  I still haven’t found a use for the 2x speed, but maybe it would be a slightly more accurate way to cue up the part of the podcast you need.

For intermediate and advanced learners, perhaps this function will allow you to subscribe to podcasts completely in your target language.  There are podcasts about pretty much anything these days, so it is another great way to integrate your language and your interests.  If the speakers go too fast, slow it down for the first couple of listens, and then see if you can understand the regular speed.  Try news programs for a slightly slower pace.

Unfortunately this function doesn’t exist for regular audio files or voice memos (just podcasts) on iPod, so it’s not that useful for your own recordings.  If anyone knows of any apps or other players that can get around this, drop me a note in the comments.

For the most part, the kind of foreign language you learn is practical or theoretical.  The kind of things you’ll need to know to get around a foreign city, write a meeting agenda, or buy fruit at the market.  Getting into complex literature usually takes a pretty high language level, but what about kids’ books?  Surely they’d be much simpler?

High school student Charlie Anderson has written a great piece about reading her first piece of children’s literature entirely in French.  She discusses the very valid point that even when written for kids, literature has a totally different style and language from conversation and formal language.  Even if you know all of the individual words, sometimes the phrasing is confusing, or you may not have any idea what’s going on.

If you are finding yourself stagnating in your learning, or want an extra challenge, pick up a storybook in your target language and see how well you do.  It’s not as easy as it may seem!

Full article: Reading in a foreign language no ‘petit’ task.

(Or, Angelina Jolie does it too.)

I don’t usually keep up with tabloids, but I noticed a story about Angelina Jolie’s love for the Russian language, and had to see what was going on.  She’s had to learn the language for upcoming film Salt, and says that while she struggled with getting the difficult pronunciation right, she loves the sound of the language, as well as loving to speak it.  ”I find it a very interesting sound because it can be so hard and strong and also very sensual and very beautiful,” she said.

While some commenters bring up the sort-of-justified point that she’s only learning lines, not how to actually converse, she did have to do some work to get her pronunciation right.  She mentioned constant practice and work with a vocal coach who would record the lines for her to listen to at home (a method I am a big fan of).  Even if you don’t completely understand what you’re saying, listening and pronunciation drills will help your fluency immensely.  So, while she may not actually speak Russian, she is able to speak in Russian.  Good for her.  I haven’t even tried to decipher the alphabet yet!

Source: Us Magazine.

As I’ve said many times before, one of the best ways to get exposure to a foreign language is by listening to it, a lot.  An even better way is to make sure that the material is relevant to you, something you’re interested in, or something you’ve written yourself.  Not everybody is lucky enough to have a native speaking friend or teacher to record audio for them, though, and that’s where RhinoSpike comes in.

The website provides a free platform for users to both request audio in the language they’re learning, and provide recordings for other language learners.  It’s as simple as pasting in the text that you want read aloud, choosing the language you want it in, and waiting for someone to respond.  You can customise your profile to include the language/s you’re learning and your native language, as well as add images and make friends.  Their interface makes it easy to see both your audio requests and the recordings you’ve done for others, and provides RSS feeds for both audio requests and recordings in whatever languages you choose.  Once your recording requests have been answered, you can download the mp3s, add your text to the lyrics or transcript, and listen to them whenever you want to.

The website strongly encourages people to only record requests for their native language, and even lets you define your accent so other people know what to expect from your recording.  There don’t seem to be a lot of users on the site yet, but they do cover a lot of languages, and it seems like most requests get responded to pretty quickly.  I’ve even done a few myself, but maybe I just like the sound of my own voice.

Give it a try and see what you think.  You can request anything from diary entries to articles, poems to songs.  Someone even requested a recording of the prime numbers from 0 to 2100.  Random.

Link via Language Museum.

…or, by being around other people who are doing.

During my short visit to Milan, I got to have the fun experience of being in a small car with three Italian girls who weren’t 100% sure where they were going. Typically, Italians are exuberant in their speech, and talk a lot with their hands, and these girls were no exception. Although they spoke almost entirely in Italian, I managed to work out quite a few words just by what we were doing. We made a lot of left turns (yes, we got a bit lost), so I learned that sinistra means left. It took me a while to work out that Magenta was a town, not a colour, but I managed. When we finally reached our destination, I had a few more direction terms under my belt. The girls apologised for speaking entirely in Italian, but I didn’t mind at all. I got to learn a few new practical words, and also got to see Italians waving their arms and yelling ‘Papa Giovanni!’ multiple times (no joke – I think it was the name of a road).

I’ve been listening to Italians speak to each other for the last couple of days and I love the ups and downs of the language that are the result of putting the stress on specific syllables in the word. In fact, if you don’t put the stress on the correct part of the word, some people may not understand you at all, even if you do get the actual word right. Most of the time, the stress is on the second to last syllable of the word, even with long words, e.g. cappuccino, panino. There’s also a lot of ‘r’ rolling, which may be hard for some people to get used to. It may be especially difficult for speakers of some Asian languages, which don’t really have ‘r’ sounds in the first place.

I think the best way to make yourself understood is to try to sound as much like a stereotypical Italian as possible. You may think it’s silly, or even offensive, but if you spend some time listening to Italians speak to each other, you will see that they are as expressive as they appear in films and on TV. It may mean making your voice go up and down more often than you’re used to, and speaking with your hands (Italians do this a lot), but it will help. Let your voice and hands go a little, and see if you can pronounce this beautiful language like an enthusiastic native!

I’m on holiday this month, and travelling through six different countries (with six different languages) in less than three weeks can be a bit confusing when it comes to speaking*. I’ve talked before about the things I think it’s necessary to learn when travelling to new places, but I’ve come to the conclusion that you really don’t need much besides hello, thank you, and a smile on your face while you point at things. Of course, a bit more than this is useful, but politeness will get you by, especially if the other person speaks a bit of English too.

I guess this post is just to preface the travel/communication related posts coming up, and to make an excuse for my very irregular posting!

*Thankfully a few of them use Euros so at least the money was slightly simpler.

One of the exercises my teacher likes to do with me is to get me to tell her about my day, or my weekend, or what I want to do in the near future.  It helps me practice speaking and writing (i.e., creating output) about things that are relevant and familiar to me, as well as focusing on useful language and grammar.

Talking about what you did on the weekend helps with past tenses, next week is for future, current habits practice present continuous.  You can use the subjunctive (if… situations) by imagining what you would have done if you had made a different choice or if something else happened (e.g. if I missed the bus this morning, I would have…).

If you don’t have a person to give you feedback, there are plenty of websites where other users will correct your work (e.g. LiveMocha, Lang-8), and you can correct theirs.  Alternatively, you could start a blog of your diary entries and invite readers to give you some advice about improving your writing and/or speaking.  You could also write about your language learning experiences.

What kind of output exercises do you like to do?

In my last post I wrote about native speakers not knowing that language learners are not fluent.  I’ve experienced it many times when I have learned basic phrases in a language to be polite, and then have found myself apologising for not actually being able to speak the language.

So, is it beneficial for beginners to speak with a strong accent?  It gives the listener an instant clue that the speaker is not a native, and they can then (hopefully) modulate their language to suit the speaker’s level.  This saves you from having to explain that you are a student or that you don’t understand.

I’ve spoken to a few people about this, and opinions differ.  Speaking slowly or with a strong accent may benefit the learner in that the listener will modify their speech, but you can’t speak too haltingly, or ‘incorrectly’, or you may not be understood at all.  Most people don’t think that learners should actually try to speak with a strong accent (though some kind of accent is inevitable).

What do you think?

At the beginning of a conversation with a native speaker, it’s not always apparent to them that you are a learner.  If your pronunciation is good, then they may not know from the basic greetings that you won’t understand what they have to say next.  So, if they launch into something that’s too long or too complicated for you to process, ask them to repeat it.

This way, they will probably rephrase or repeat more slowly so you will have more time to process what they said and formulate your answer.  I often have that ‘ohhh’ moment right after I’ve asked people to repeat themselves (I guess my brain just needs that extra couple of seconds to think things through), but by then I can start thinking about how I am going to reply.

Learn a polite way to ask people to repeat what they said (such as the equivalent of pardon?), or even ask them to speak a little more slowly.  People tend to appreciate your effort, and you will get better results than if you try to make them speak in English or another language.  You might even get better service or information!