Language Trainers Blog

Most people think of language as a way to communicate and describe the world around us, but have you ever considered how much our language affects how we see the world?

I read a great article on the Wall Street Journal about just this.  It’s not something that I really think about unless it’s put in front of me, but language really can affect how we interpret the world.

One of the most interesting parts of the article talks about how some cultures (up to a third of languages!) don’t have words like left and right, and instead talk about direction in absolute terms (north, south, etc.).  In these languages, you would talk about things like your east leg, or your northwest arm, depending on which direction you were facing.  If you’re thinking about absolute directions all the time, you are most likely going to be better at finding your way around.  Also fascinating was that for people who speak languages where no blame is given to accidental wrongs (e.g. someone knocking over a glass), it is more difficult to remember who did it.  For example, in English we would say that ‘Jack knocked the glass over’, but in Japanese or Spanish, they would just say that the glass had been knocked over.  I wonder how much this has perpetuated the tendency in English-speaking countries to lay blame on others for things that happen to us.

Does language shape culture, or does the culture we live in affect the language we use?

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.

One thing I’ve always found a bit awkward with friends who are learning English is the part where they ask me to correct their English whenever they make a mistake.  I always feel a bit weird about this, not least because I notice pretty much every mistake anybody makes (especially me).  I have no problem at all answering direct questions, or checking particular pieces of work, but if someone asks me to correct them while they’re speaking, I feel quite uncomfortable.

I’ve come up against this problem from the other side as well, where I both want and don’t want people to directly correct my speaking.  I want to improve, of course, but I also think it interferes with the flow of communication and can change the dynamic in a friendship or working relationship (and if we’re going to be totally honest, I don’t really like being corrected).

For these reasons, I’ve been loathe to ask friends and co-workers to help me with my language studies, either as tutors or language exchange partners.  I prefer to keep my teacher as a separate role from my friends.  I don’t know if it’s just me not wanting to look like an idiot in front of people I know (and am not paying for the privilege), or if I have a valid point.  I think a good way to do it is to wait for a while to notice the regular (and larger) errors, and then mention them, but I wonder how receptive I would be if someone did that to me.  Then again, I wonder how annoyed I would be to independently find out that people hadn’t been correcting huge mistakes in my speaking.

Do you have any particularly positive or negative experiences of getting people besides a teacher to correct your spoken (or written) language?

(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.

One interesting thing I’ve found about Italians is that they speak less English than their western European neighbours (e.g. Switzerland, Austria, Germany). I’m not sure why there isn’t as much focus on English as in other countries, but it may be because Italy, like Spain, already has multiple dialects within the fairly small country (click on the image to see the full size).

Whatever the reason, and they are often a bit self-deprecating about their abilities (even though I really have had no trouble understanding them). I met one guy (an Italian rapper, no less) who spoke self-proclaimed ‘Macaroni English’, which is apparently quite basic English with a very Italian flair. I think he was being too hard on himself, but I loved the phrase nonetheless.

I think Italians often don’t give themselves enough credit for their language skills. What do you think?

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 didn’t know much about Hungarian food before I arrived in Budapest - just that there was goulash and sausages to be eaten in large amounts.  On the way from the airport, my friend briefed me on a few words - hello (szia, pronounced a bit like ’see ya’), thank you (köszi), and a few other words which I forgot embarrassingly quickly.

Once we’d arrived at the markets, I learned quickly that paprika is very important in Hungarian cuisine.  You can even buy it in strings as a souvenir.  Sour cream and sausages are also used a lot, which was good news for me.

After a few meals I got a bit more familiar with the Hungarian words for food items, and quickly worked out which ones I liked (which was basically all of them).  Here are a few:

gulyas - goulash, meat stew or soup
kolbász - spicy sausage
gombóc/Knödel - bread or potato dumpling, often boiled
szendvic - sandwich
torta - cake
palacsintak - thin pancakes, like French crepes, served sweet or savoury

Because all of these things were pretty delicious foods, and/or memorable words, I didn’t have much trouble learning them so I could ask for them again.  If only all words had such motivational properties!

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.