Language Trainers Blog

Language learning can be challenging at the best of times, but what about learning a third language in your second language?

I have quite a few friends and acquaintances who are doing this very thing, and they have my utmost respect.  Living in China, they are learning Chinese in English, even though their native languages are French, German, Spanish, and others.  Some Chinese language teachers speak Japanese, French, and a few other languages, but they the minority (and their English is usually better than the third and fourth languages).

This works out fine if both parties have a good grasp of English, but when they don’t, it can be confusing.  Also, not all concepts exist in all cultures, so sometimes it can be difficult to understand explanations, or express what it is you need to know.

How can this process be made easier?  Well, for beginners, it’s not such a big deal, as a lot of the language is easy to directly translate.  It may take a little longer for the learner to translate through a third party language, and a couple of dictionaries may be necessary, but it is manageable.  For learners at more advanced levels, I would recommend ditching the third language as much as possible.  Try to carry out all explanations in the target language, even if you have to use very simple words and structures.  It will give you more practice as well!

As an added bonus, though, a friend has reported that while she has been learning Chinese in English, her English skills have also improved because of it!

On the major Chinese television network, CCTV, newscasters have been told to stop using commonly-understood English acronyms in their broadcasts.  Instead of using short forms like NBA and WHO, TV presenters have been told they must use the full Chinese translations, which are sometimes very long and might in turn be confusing to viewers.  If newscasters accidentally use the abbreviations, they must use the full translation immediately afterwards to establish what they are talking about.

The reasoning behind this move is that government officials do not want the Chinese language to be infiltrated by English and become some sort of mongrel in a few years.  I’m not sure how likely that is to happen, but it is somewhat reminiscent of the Académie française’s crusade to keep French pure.

I don’t know if this move will help maintain the grand traditions of the Chinese language, but it definitely won’t be saving the CCTV (err, China Central Television) anchors any time.

Source: CNNGo.

Ever wanted to know what your beloved pet budgie was really trying to tell you?  Now, with the help of an Android-compatible phone, you might be able to find out.

Technology giant Google has finally released what animal lovers everywhere have been waiting for - Google Translate for Animals. Using their huge language database and state of the art technology, Google is able to help everyday people understand their pets, and many other animals they might meet.  Google Translate for Animals is now available in cat, dog, bird, rabbit, guinea pig, hamster, tortoise, horse, chicken, sheep, donkey, and pig.  Unfortunately they are only able to translate to English right now, but other human languages are in the pipeline.

If you’re lucky enough to have an Android phone, you can download the application and start talking to the animals right away!

I’ve talked about free translation services recently, but there are a few other types of translations out there, from live interpretation to specialised technical translation.  Arguably the most difficult, though, is translation of artistic writing, such as poetry or fiction.

Often, translators aren’t given that much credit for the jobs that they do, and sometimes people think that it’s a simple task that anyone who speaks two languages could do.  Especially for artistic translators, I have to disagree.  Can anyone who speaks and writes a language become an author or a poet?  Not really.

Edith Grossman, a prominent translator (known for her translations of Love in the Time of Cholera and other works by Gabriel Garcia Marquez, as well as the classic Don Quixote) has recently released Why Translation Matters.  The book addresses the importance of translations that are not only accurate, but still carry the author’s original intended meaning and tone.  any bilingual person can get a translation technically correct, but it takes a special talent to be able to properly interpret and translate a great work.  In some ways I think it’s more difficult than the author’s job.

In any case, it sounds like an interesting read, so hopefully I can get my hands on it sometime soon!

Source: The Huffington Post.

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.

What is your motivation to learn a language?  For some people, it helps to have a concrete goal like successfully understanding a favourite book in its original language.  Some people choose a famous novel or poem or writer to use as their inspiration for continuing their language study.  As good as translators can be these days, they can never capture exactly the original feeling that the author intended, and it’s a wonderful thing to be able to read and understand the majority of an original piece of writing.

Whether you are learning a language for business or personal reasons, it can be really helpful to have a target like this, especially when it is a book or piece of prose you know you will enjoy.  Of course, for professional reasons you may wish to read material related to your own industry, but the comprehension of this is also rewarding.

If you are new to a language, start with achievable goals, like reading children’s stories, newspaper articles, or simple short stories.  Using a Dostoyevsky epic in its original Russian as your first goal might be a bit ambitious, but you could always use it as a long-term aim.  Also bear in mind that reading classical stories in outdated languages might not help you with your conversational vocabulary.

Some websites and publishers also provide side-by-side translations of books and texts, so you can refer to the translated text whenever you come across something you don’t understand.  Remember that to understand something, you don’t have to know every single word.  Even native speakers stumble on vocabulary sometimes.  Look words up when you need to, but don’t let difficult words interrupt your enjoyment of reading.

I came across an interesting discussion thread about people’s ‘books they’d learn a language for’, which includes suggestions about great books in contributors’ own languages.  Which books do you want to read in their original forms, and which would you recommend to learners of your language?  Have you achieved any of your language goals?

Groups of people, especially very different people, can produce interesting and educational experiences.  When people speak different languages, it can be a challenge, or it can be a great learning opportunity.

I’ve been in situations where I have been the primary speaker because I happen to know the most of a foreign language, and also the person who has to have everything translated for her.  I’ve also been in the situation where others think that because I look like I speak the language, I’m the primary speaker, but it’s not the case at all.

I recently came across a great anecdote about trying to find a kitchen utensil in Italy.  The author speaks some Italian, but doesn’t understand that much, which is the opposite of how many people are in a foreign language.  He explains:

The problem, however, was this: I can speak Italian well enough to pose a question without sounding like a complete idiot, but when it comes to getting the answer, I am just that: a complete idiot. In fact, I’ve tried learning several languages in my life and always have the same problem: I can speak okay, but for some reason I have a hard time comprehending when someone speaks back to me. I understand nothing. Most people seem to have the opposite problem when learning a new language. When my wife Jessie and I had lived in Rome a few years earlier, we were an Italian-speaking team: since I spoke better, I’d do all the speaking and pose all the questions. Then, Jessie would listen to the answer, the whole time I’d be watching her bob her head in comprehension, until she’d translate it into English for me so I could respond. It was odd, but it worked.

The full story is both entertaining and well written, and you can find it here: The Language of Can Openers in the Italian Countryside, by David Farley.  Image from Ed Yourdon, under Flickr Creative Commons.

A Chinese student from Sichuan province failed his gaokao (final examinations) essay because it was written in ancient characters, some of which were from thousands of years ago.  From Shanghaiist:

The script, called “甲骨 Jia Gu” (oracle bone script) is from the Bronze Age and is usually found on ox bones or turtle shells. Professors who translated the essay into modern Chinese found that 19-year-old Huang Ling’s character use was largely correct, but his essay was awarded an 8 out of 80 (later lowered to 6).

The student’s score would normally mean that he would not be accepted into university, as Chinese requirements are usually very strict.  However, examiners were impressed by his knowledge, and correct usage, of the so-called Oracle Bone script, and he may be accepted into Sichuan University after all.

Although I applaud his risky performance, I wonder if the results would be as positive if a British student wrote an essay in Middle English, or a French student in Gaulish.  I kind of like to hope so.

I’ve already mentioned the great service that the Simple English version of Wikipedia provides for both learners of English and native speakers who want the layman’s version of things.

Now there’s a website that can show you what you’re missing when you’re reading the simple version, or what you’re not understanding when you’re reading the regular version.  Again, But Slower does the simple but effective job of putting both versions side by side.

It can help you grasp the meaning of the more technical terms in regular Wikipedia articles, or give you a quick overview if you don’t have time to read the full-length versions.  Give it a try!

Link via Lifehacker.

As a quick follow-up to the post I wrote the other day about Twitter: TweetTranslate.com is a web-based tool that allows you to type tweets in your own language, and have them automatically posted or saved in another language.  Though I suppose you really should be trying to translate them yourselves, this is a handy tool for quickly communicating with people who speak another language, or setting up profiles for businesses aimed at international markets.