Reuter’s has covered the new movie called “The Linguists” which just debuted at Sundance and has gotten great reviews. Go check out the Trailer here: http://www.thelinguists.com. The basic premise is a PhD student is travelling the world with a friend trying to experience and record as many dying languages as possible. There are a thousands of languages that will die in the next decade and some only have a few speakers living today. So in an effort to record and document these languages these two adventures set out to find the last speakers of these languages.
Some other blogs that have mentioned the film are:
Language Log
Reuteur’s Article
Try and support this movie and go see it if it’s in your town. If it does well enough it will make it to other cities.
Le Tutor Language services has been offering translation services for 3 years and have many satisfied customers. As we grow as a company we think it is important to focus our efforts and keep them separate so that our customers receive the best service possible. For this reason we have decided to separate our translation services from our language school.
We have created a new website that will offer Translation services including: website translation, marketing and business translation, contract translation and personal document translation services. The new website is: http://www.letranslator.com. In an effort to protect our brand acquired a domain name that had the same theme as our language school’s domain name. Using the French article “le” before tutor and translator.com.
Now our Phoenix, Arizona language school will be able to focus solely on providing the best foreign language experience in Arizona and our Translation services can be the best translation service in Arizona.
2008 will be big year for LeTutor and LeTranslator. We thank all of our customers, teachers and translators who have contributed to our success and plan on working harder and smarter in 2008 so that we can continue to grow and help the community.
Alright if you are travelling to France you are bound to see people giving each other kisses on the cheek. In French it’s called “faire la bise”. When you great someone you or are meeting someone new for the first time you will “faire la bise”. This sounds rather simple but it’s rather complex and the French don’t always know what’s standard practice so don’t feel embarrassed if you get it wrong. So let’s cover the basics.
Faire la bise 101
Who:
Technique: When you faire la bise you do not actually kiss the other persons cheek but simply touch cheeks lightly and kiss the air. It is usually done very fast. Depending on the region you are in determines the # of times you will touch cheeks. The most common is 2 times but can reach as many as 5. See the image below
Men: only faire la bise with women or close male family members like your father or brother. There are exceptions for this like when having reunion with very close friends or emotional situations like a marriage or funeral.
Women: faire la bise with male and female acquaintances.
Cultural Notes: Although for non Europeans it may seem odd to be kissing cheeks with another persons spouse or significant other but it is a perfectly normal and harmless greeting in France and other European countries. However, make sure you don’t linger too long or it may taken the wrong way.
The best thing you can do is just watch what the others are doing and go along. You’ll catch on quickly and don’t feel bad if you mess it up.
Let me know your experiences.
Should we start with a round of 20 questions or should I just tell you. You’d be surprised to know that’s extremely simple. My favorite Language learning tool is Pen and Paper. No matter how much technology advances, for me, nothing replaces pen and paper.
So why pen and paper? Well it’s amazing versatile. It does whatever I need it to do and I don’t have to go buy a specific program or have access to a computer to use it. Pen and paper also connects you with the words you are learning. Although making associations, no matter how wild as long as they make sense to you, are important you still need to be able to relate the words you are learning to say with their authentic visual form. Another reason why I love pen and paper is because they are extremely portable and quick. No PDA to turn on or dig out of my bag just pull out an index card or small notebook and a pen from my pocket, jot down a note and back to what I was doing.
So what do I use pen and paper for? Well like I said before it can be used for whatever your personal language learning needs are. So don’t limit yourself to my list but I will tell you mine as long as you promise not to limit yourself to my needs.
- Learning new words – When I’m out and about I am very observant. I look at every thing around and think of all of the items for which I don’t know the name. For example I’m out walking in the streets and I see a balcony and I don’t know what it means. So I just write down balcony and I will look it up later.
Another way I use this same technique is if I hear a new word and I don’t know what it is. I’ll either ask the person right then, “what does “X” mean?, or I’ll write it down and look it up later.
- Remembering new words – When I’m learning new words I try and use them as quickly as possible as long as it’s a useful word. Sometimes though it takes a couple of times of looking it up before it sticks so instead of hauling out the dictionary I write a brief definition of the word in my notebook and then I just quick reference it while I’m in the act. That way it’s immediate and I can use it right away.
- Make Believe – Although I hate workbooks that make you fill in the blank I love to write my own fake conversations or letters. Possibly even keeping a personal journal in your new foreign language. Warning: The first couple of months maybe complete gibberish until you start making progress but it will give you great experience in making real sentences as if you were having conversation. You can also look back on it and “‘obviously” see your progress.
- Repetition – When I was learning French I was the slowest learner in my group. Although I eventually passed all of my contemporaries in ability it was not an easy thing. I have piles of paper where I have wrote and rewrote the different French conjugations until I had memorized all of them and they were like second nature. I no longer had to think about conjugating and I could actually become fluent in conversation. Fluency is different than accuracy and fluency is achieved when you no longer have to think about what you are saying just like a native. That doesn’t mean you won’t make mistakes ( that’s accuracy ) but you will be able to hold extemporaneous conversations.
If anyone else loves Pen and Paper as a language learning tool or has other favorites feel free to post them in the comments. If you enjoyed this post then subscribe to our RSS or receive email notifications of new blog posts.
Here are a few interesting articles written by some other foreign language bloggers.
The Linguist posts:
Should we ask Why? – Steve makes some good points. Sometimes you have to put aside logic and just accept that something is said or phrased a certain and it means X. Later on you can ask why. I think the best question to ask when learning a foreign language is HOW? How do you pronounce, say or ask X.
What makes a successful language learner? I think that the core of this idea is good but is probably a little more complex.
Stop teaching languages in schools? I think this is more of a controversial post that should be thought out more before just throwing out the idea. I agree that the current education system is not working but can be successful if given a full make over and focuses more on real life experience.
Tomisimo posts:
27 reasons to visit Spain I’m convinced
My Languages posts:
Promoting Languages with Holidays. I think this is a great idea. Cultural events are great ways to introduce people to new languages.
French lessons and French tutoring in Phoenix Arizona
We are listed in Arizona English Lessons Directory at LocalWin.com
Find Language schools in Arizona at LocalWin.com
Summer is ending and that means everyone will have more free time. End summer by starting Spanish lessons or Spanish tutoring for school. We have experienced and native level speaking instructors who will teach you to SPEAK SPANISH.
Phoenix, Arizona and it’s surrounding suburbs: Tempe, Mesa, Chandler, Gilbert, Ahwatukee, Scottsdale, Paradise Valley and Glendale all have very large Spanish speaking populations. In fact 1/3 of all of Phoenix speaks Spanish. So whether you want to learn Spanish to speak with your customers, get a better job, travel to Mexico and South America or because you’ve always wanted to learn the language we can help.
Private Spanish lessons are more effective than generic classes that only make you memorize words. With one on one practice and customized lessons you’ll be speaking much faster than anyone taking a regular Spanish class.
If you are interested in Spanish classes just visit our Lessons page to find out more or Visit our Contact page to request our brochure or to schedule a trial lesson.
Le Tutor Language Services
480-626-5180
aaron@letutor.com
We look forward to teaching you to communicate in Spanish.
We also teach 10 other major languages
I’m sure that those of you who have been studying foreign languages for a little or long while have used a few if not dozens language books. Language dictionaries, lesson books, grammar books and other miscellaneous language products. I’m also pretty sure that you’ve found your most effective language learning experiences have been when you are immersed in the language.
So in an effort to feel like you are immersed in the language you should try and interact with native materials. They don’t have to be grammar books or practice exercises you need to get authentic French, Spanish or Japanese magazines, music or books. Whatever you can get your hands ons. Try Amazon. Alright so why? Well one it makes sense and two I said so. OK so you aren’t convinced.
Here are a few reasons you should be using primarily native materials supplemented by formal books to help refine your language skills.
1. Your brain is SMART: Consciously and Sub consciously your brain knows you aren’t dealing with the real thing and isn’t going to respond as well to materials that are just fluff.
2. Natural Flow: All of these materials don’t flow naturally the way real people would speak or write the language. If you are reading a formal English book you would look at it and think. No one speaks this way. So why would you do the same when learning a foreign language?
3. You benefit: In the end it will be you who benefits. It may take you a little longer because the writing isn’t dumbed down, but you’ll learn real sentence structure, patters and rhythm.
So no matter what language you are learning do a simple search and try and find materials in your language of Interest. French, Spanish, German, Italian, Greek, Japanese, Russian, Japanese, Chinese, Thai, Vietnamese, Tagalog, Hebrew or English. It doesn’t matter. Materials are available and probably a lot cheaper than your books you get from Borders.
Learn Spanish. Learn Spanish guide, all about how to learn spanish and how to speak spanish
Let me first say that yes starting a child’s language education as early as possible is always ideal and the most beneficial. However, parents need to be educated and realistic about the options, priorities and their expectations. Too many parents think that it suffices to enroll their children in a 2 month or twice a week language program that lasts 45 minutes a class and expect their children to magically become fluent. If this is you I’m sorry to break your heart but it’s not going to happen. Unless you child is two and should be in Mensa then you probably have severely unrealistic expectations.
**Before I go any further let me share my list of most important To Do’s for every parent.
Be involved
Be Patient
Be Consistent
Be Proactive
Think Long term
So lets first address some of the common knowledge about kids and learning a foreign language. Yes kids learn very effectively and it helps to start your children at a young age. Why? Before the age of 12-15 kids brains are still creating their network of neurons and that means that instead of installing a new language next to the original they are creating parallel paths in their brains that, to them, all mean the same thing and have no distinct difference. So basically they are native. Now this is also if the kids truly grow up in a bilingual situation. So there has to be a certain level of exposure and commitment to the child’s language education.
Now lets talk about how parents can accomplish this goal and how those without the means to do so can still give their kids a meaningful and effective language education.
So here are the situations where kids can become naturally fluent in a foreign language. * there are always exceptions
- One or more parents is a native speaker and only speaks to the in their language
- Immersion school. The kids attend a foreign language only school where all subjects are taught in the target language.
- Nanny time. If the parents can afford a nanny who is a native speaker of the language the child may not be native but will definitely have the necessary exposure and will do very well.
I know all of those options are very expensive. So for those families without the means or time to dedicate here are some alternative options that will still yield serious and positive results.
- Private lessons. Though expensive they are less expensive than private school or a full time nanny. Kids will get one on one exposure to the language.
- Play groups: Kids will get to learn the language the way they do best. Through play, imitation and subconscious learning.
- Parent Time: Parents can learn the foreign language and in turn teach their children.
- Bootstrapping: Do everything that you can that will expose your child to the language or culture.
- Attend cultural events
- Make friends that speak the language that have kids
- Watch movies or cartoons in the language
- Read them books in the language. Even “See spot run” is better than nothing.
- Call in a favor from that distant relative abroad and send your kid to visit for the summer.
No matter what your child can learn a foreign language. This is a simple article to educate and dispel some of the common myths about childhood language acquisition.
Are you having a hard time finding Spanish study materials online? Well here’s another potential resource for you. http://www.123teachme.com is an online Spanish resource and guide. 123 teach me has paid us to review their site in an unbiased manner and we will not offer anything less than our honest opinion. *see our about page for more details.
123 Teach Me at first glance looks like a simple website, but seem to offer a good variety of language learning resources for their visitors. Here’s a short list of the learning materials and tutorials they provide.
Beginner Spanish
Conversational Spanish
Spanish for Kids
Medical Spanish
Spanish Medical Dictionary
Technical Spanish Lessons
Intermediate Spanish Lessons
Business Spanish
123 Teach Me also provides a list of Spanish language schools in Spanish speaking countries that you can contact if you want to explore learning abroad. What is nice about this section of their website is that they don’t mislead you into thinking they are the school and they don’t seem to take a commission from the school which reduces your costs. It seems to me that the language schools simply pay them a subscription fee to be listed on their website. I think this is a great source for those looking for a language school. They even give details regarding each schools costs, website, amenities, living arrangements and specialties.
I think that even though 123 Teach Me is not an amazing website and could use some more content it does offer some really good resources, learning materials and a solid language school directory for those considering learning Spanish abroad. So check out their website and then give me some feedback.
Learning a foreign language through song is a great technique to improve your listening comprehension and speaking ability. Why you ask? Well from my own experience while living in France I sang often and everytime I learned something new about the language.
1. Slow it Down: Everyone loves a good slow jam. Singing, especially when you have the lyrics to read, helps you by slowing down the speed and allowing you to really hear the words. Normally when listening to native speakers they speak too fast for many beginners to truely pick up the little nuances in their pronuciation and accent. This is really just a different take on the same principle I’ve mentioned before about listening and mimicing.
2. You’re so Dramatic: Normally being a drama queen isn’t appreciated by most but in this situation a little exaggeration goes a long way. Singing allows you to exaggerate your words, pronunciation and accent, without looking like a complete weirdo. Exaggeration allows you to become familar with the often difficult sounds of a foreign language. As you master and gain control over the sounds you will naturally begin to sound more and more like a native speaker. So sing in your car, in a choir or in the shower but make sure you exaggerate.
3. By Association: One of my favorite exercises is to read out loud. Reading out loud allows you to associate the words you normally hear spoken with the a visual image. Also, you get to, again, practice you speaking ability. You are multi-tasking. Singing is another form of reading out loud and allows you to see the words that you normally only hear. Also, because songs are stories you will learn new words and the song will help you to commit them to memory and understand their meaning based on context.
Here are some examples and resources for succesful Sing Study. That has a nice ring to it. If anyone asks it’s mine and I’ve copyrighted the term. : )
Jeremy writes about learning Japanese by singing. This is a great way to learn to speak a foreign language.
Dr. Prevots has posted a useful archive lyrics to many French songs on his website.
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