February 2, 2012
Some language learners I know do all their studying and practice on weekends. While there’s obvious value in that, I believe it’s an inferior way of studying. A new language is one of those things best acquired if you surround yourself with it on a daily basis — a once or twice a week thing just doesn’t seem ideal.
If you’re serious about your language lessons, we suggest planning a daily study routine. There’s no need to do serious rearranging of your schedule either. A short but daily routine is often all you need to keep the knowledge and skills fresh.
Why? Two things.
- Shorter study periods allow you to stay fresh throughout the whole session, letting you maximize what you can absorb of the material. It also keeps your perspective clear, so you can focus on what matters instead of trudging through things blindly.
- Daily study keeps you sharp. A lot of things can be forgotten in a week. What you learn today, though, is more likely to remain accessible to you tomorrow, giving you more opportunities to really etch in your brain.
Is studying enough? Of course not. If you want to truly learn a new language, you must use it. Actively seek opportunities for interaction with native speakers and fellow learners. If they don’t come, then practice by yourself.
January 31, 2012
Answering “yes” in Spanish is one of the first things you’re likely to learn. All it takes is one word: “si.” In contrast, answering “no” is a little trickier, requiring you to learn a host of negative words and some double negative constructions.
Here are the main words you’ll use to express “no” in Spanish, each one of them appropriate for different questions and situations:
- Nadie (nah-deeh): nobody, no one
- Ninguno (neen-goon-oh): no, none
- Nada (nah-dah): nothing, zero
- Ni… ni (nee): neither… nor
- Tampoco (tahm-poh-koh): not either, neither
- Nunca (noon-kah): never
When using those words in sentences and phrases, here are some things to remember:
- As a rule, you place negative words before the conjugated verb. Follow this and you will be doing it right most of the time (there are exceptions, of course).
- Double negatives (and triple and so on) are common in Spanish. In fact, it’s widely used as a way of giving your negative response more emphasis.
- If you have two verbs in the negative answer, place “ninguno” before the conjugated verb and put another negative word before the other verb.
- You can put the negative word before the infinitive of the verb.
- If you don’t know what you’re doing yet (total beginner), you can just the negative word on its own. There’s a good chance they’ll understand what you mean.
January 29, 2012
Listening to a recorded speech, song or movie in a target language is a great way to better familiarize yourself with a language you’re learning. If it’s not quite producing the results you want, though, you can integrate these activities along with the listening. Chances are, one of them could help alter your results.
- Use transcripts. If the audio you’re listening to has transcripts, read it while listening. Doing so will help you make better sense of what’s being said, especially if you’re still not comfortable figuring out the native accent.
- Slow it down. If the speaking style is a little too fast for you, slow it down. Start it with 3/4 normal speed and slow down further if you still struggle. The words should make better sense when you can listen to them enunciated more deliberately.
- Chop it into bite-sized chunks. Instead of listening to a 10-minute speech, how about cutting the audio up (there are free software that can do this) into 30-second chunks. At the least, the shorter audio should be faster to listen to, allowing you to repeat it multiple times.
- Parrot. Try speaking (or singing, if it’s a song) along. That could you improve not just your listening skills, but proper pronunciation and pacing, too.
January 26, 2012
A lot of language learners I know steer clear of studying grammar. While they do pick up language structures and principles every once in a while, it’s not something they deliberately set out to do. Grammar, after all, can be daunting, confusing and, after a while, downright boring.
There is immense value in studying grammar, though, especially if you’re serious about truly being fluent in a language. While I don’t advocate diving into a grammar book and figuring everything out either, you might want to consider getting one as a reference material for your language learning.
Instead of killing your interest in the language by studying a grammar book in detail (and yes, it is a death sentence), you can use the grammar book as an occasional reference. Say, you encounter a phrase, a sentence or a construction that baffles you — look it up and see what the exact rules are in the language for that situation.
When you first get the grammar, though, read it. We don’t mean poring over it like a textbook back in college. Instead, read it casually, as you would read the newspaper in the morning. Doing so will give you a general, big picture idea of the important elements of the language, all while familiarizing you with the contents of the book. That way, you’ll have a better idea of where to look when you need to reference it later.
January 24, 2012
Do you like gaming on a computer? If you do, you may want to integrate your language learning into it. How? By using a version of the game that’s been translated in your target language.
A lot of newer games, especially those sold online by large publishers (e.g. Steam), are often available in numerous language packs. Whether you’re learning Spanish, Italian, Russian or any other language, there’s a good chance you’ll find several games where a pack for that specific target language is being offered.
What should you expect? In these “translated” games, the menus, user messages and other written components will usually be in the target language, allowing you to brush up on reading and comprehension skills. Of course there’s a downside: that is, I’ve seen very few games where voice acting is dubbed in the target language. Oftentimes, it stays in English, although they do add subtitles in the foreign tongue.
While it’s probably not the most active way to learn, using translated games is a nice passive addition to your other language learning activities. This is especially true if you’re going to spend time gaming anyway — might as well help your language learning efforts while you’re at it.
January 22, 2012
There are many strategies people can use to memorize ten or more new words in a target language per day. My suggestion here is just something I do myself. Try it and see if it’s something that works for you.
- Create a 10-item list of new words in the target language. Make them related. For example, you list ten parts of a car, ten names for kitchen appliances or ten evening salutations. The more closely-related your list is, the easier you can make the connections with each other. Hence, if you remember one word, there’s a good chance you can recall the rest.
- Read through them, memorizing each word and their corresponding translations in your language. Make pictures in your head, use mnemonics or whatever technique you use for memorization.
- Once you feel confident, write a new 10-item list with the translation of each word in your language. As you read through each item, recall what the equivalent in the target language is. Don’t stop until you can name each one consistently.
- As a last step, create another list to test your recall. This time, you list both the word in the foreign language and the translation in English on the same line.
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