January 12, 2012
Regardless of what language you’re studying, there are some basic phrases that you will want to learn if you want to start interacting with people who speak it. There’s no way you’ll survive in a non-English speaking foreign country if you can’t string essential phrases together. This guide is meant to steer you towards those specific phrases that you should be digging up in your language software to memorize right now.
Basic greetings. Learn how to say the equivalent of “Hello,” “Good morning,” “Good evening” and “Good afternoon.” Also, find the most common informal greeting in the language — the equivalent of “Hi” for English.
Basic introductions. Learn how to introduce yourself: “My name is… I am from…” That way, you can meet people and let them know quick personal details.
Basic requests. Most important: “Please help me.” Other requests depend on what you plan to do in the country. For instance, I’ve always memorized “Please take me to my hotel” and “Please talk to them for me.”
Getting around. Learn how to ask questions for getting to and from places. Must-learn questions: Where is the airport? Where is the nearest hospital? Where is the police station? Where is the hotel? Where is the nearest toilet?
October 9, 2011
Japan has a fascinating culture and a terribly difficult language to go along with it. To make matters worse, the majority of Japanese will have zero ability to speak or even understand English. If you’re taking a trip to Japan, pressure’s on you to get up to speed or spend the majority of the time frustrated.
Usefulness
Japanese is spoken exclusively in Japan, along with a few small communities of expatriates in some places (like Brazil and Hawaii). Learning it could prove very valuable, though, considering that Japan remains one of the largest economies in the world. It’s also one of the mast fascinating countries to visit, filled with rich natural structures and amazing historical landmarks.
Difficulty
Expect to work extra hard when trying to read and write Japanese. Spoken Japanese will sound daunting at first, especially when you hear native speakers using it among themselves. Once you come to terms with the differences in grammar and build up your vocabulary, it’s actually simpler than a lot of exotic languages.
Grammar and Vocabulary
English and Japanese grammar are along the same levels when it comes to difficulty. They’re widely different, though, and a lot of your early struggles will have to do with learning all the new concepts. Most of the vocabulary will either be Japanese in origin or derived from Chinese, so there’s little chance you’ll recognize a lot of them.
April 28, 2011
Language learning will take some money. You’ll need to pay for lessons and learning materials, after all, apart from needing to have a good chunk of time to spare (which can equate to money, too, depending on who you ask).
Good news is, it need not be frustratingly expensive. If you spend your money wisely, all you’ll have to do is fork out for a few basic things — your hard work will take care of the rest.
- A primary language software. Review what’s available, then find the one that is best suited for your learning style and situation. For the most part, pricing for most full-featured language software are no more than $50 apart, so don’t skip one that you feel is a great fit because another title’s cheaper — good material pays for itself in the long run.
- Other costs. Apart from a primary language program, all other expenses, from books to videos to website subscriptions, can be considered optional. If you must pay for anything else, I recommend a membership to a language club with a chapter in your area. Having people you can practice with can help accelerate learning better than many tools out there, provided you keep up faithfully with your regular lessons.
April 9, 2011
Starting beginner lessons to learn a new language? You’re probably wondering where to start.
If you’re learning a foreign language as a hobby and there’s no pressure for time, you can just follow whatever lesson plan is laid out by the course you’re taking. Doing so will usually help you learn the language in an optimized step-by-step process, as most courses have been refined from hours upon hours of applied testing.
Things are slightly different, however, when you’re learning a language because you need to. Whether it be for an upcoming trip or a job requirement, there’s usually time pressure involved. As such, you need to take a firmer hand in setting priorities for your study materials. If you’re situation, the following guidelines should help:
- Dive immediately into what you need to learn. If you need business French, then don’t bother with survival phrases for travel. Grab yourself a business-focused language software and get cracking on that.
- Play to your strengths. If you can’t stand grammar, then don’t take a grammar-based language course. Choose a language course that plays to your strengths — you’ll get faster results that way.
- Practice the core items you need again and again. Language learning relies heavily on repetition to help things kick in. Do your language software exercises several times over — it helps.
December 28, 2010
One of the most exciting areas in language learning software for me is the arrival of smartphone apps. You probably know them — those small pieces of software that run on a device in your pocket, easily accessible throughout the day.
While apps are limited by their platform (you can’t have anything half as robust as even beginner language software for the PC), well-designed ones can prove very useful as secondary learning tools. Already, I’ve been using a couple of them to aid in my off-the-computer language practice, such as a flash card app, a translation dictionary and a web-based notebook for my notes.
Just this week, I found a fascinating translator app that’s well beyond what I ever imagined I can find in a smartphone. While it’s not all that useful to me (it only has Spanish and English right now), it could very well be down the line, once they’re able to expand their language packs to the languages I frequently need to use.
Why is it so fascinating? The app works this way:
- You launch it on your phone, where it accesses your phone’s camera.
- You point the camera to a signboard with a sign written in Spanish.
- The app will automatically translate it to English and overlay the translation in the original image.
Not only does it translate from one language to another, it also reads the sign all on its own, as well as recreate the whole scene with the new sign in English. It’s ridiculous and leaves me inspired at the amazing things we will probably see from our language software of the future.
November 19, 2010
Finding a tough time making your language lessons stick? Here’s a trick you can do to help: write a summary of each lesson after your foreign language software session.
Summaries are very helpful for a variety of reasons:
- They force you to recall everything you went over in the lesson, an activity that quickly doubles the amount of attention the information receives.
- They give you a chance to filter the significant parts of each session. Not everything taught is equal — some things are usually just more important than others. Summarizing gives you an opportunity to revisit each part for evaluation.
- They help you retell the lesson in your own words. As anyone who’s read a book for class knows, writing ideas in your own words is a great way to solidify committing them to memory.
When you summarize a lesson, you will tend to use two things as reference: whatever you remember from the language lesson and the notes you took. If you’re using a language learning software, you can use that as a third source: when any part of the lesson you’re summarizing is unclear, simply fire the software again and go back to that. It’s one of the advantages of language programs, after all — a benefit you just can’t get from more traditional classroom lectures.
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