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ecaloshay · 3 years

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About Asian Fetishisation

Years ago, when I was studying Japanese at uni, I attended a language exchange club.

There were a bunch of young Japanese men and women of about uni age, a couple of western women and men who were similarly aged, and several significantly older western men.

I had one older man approach me, speaking very slowly and amiably and introducing himself. I responded as I would, English speaker to English speaker, and he said surprised, “You speak English really well!”

Amused but with zero hostility, I replied, “I should hope so. I've only lived here since I was five, and completed my primary, secondary and tertiary education here.”

He looked terribly disappointed and said, “Oh, so you’re local then.”

When I confirmed, without preamble, he immediately turned away from me to seek out a different Asian, and hopefully actually Japanese, female to engage with.

It was a little rude, but otherwise reasonably innocuous, right? The context was a language exchange club, so he really may just have been looking for someone with whom to practice Japanese. Also, some people are really awkward and lack the ability to manage social etiquette which could explain why he just abruptly left.

I laugh about it when I share this as an anecdote because I am an optimist and like to give people the benefit of the doubt. I’m also a cynic, but I would like to have hope because otherwise, what’s the point?

But people socialise at these things. We’re not just there to engage with the other group. The native Japanese speakers make new native Japanese speaking friends, and the Japanese language learners will make other Japanese language learner friends. However, make no mistake, there are most definitely going to be people, usually men[1] who, regardless of their desire to learn Japanese, are there to meet Japanese women[2].

Because ‘yellow fever’ and the fetishisation of Asian women is definitely a thing[3].

We’re meant to be outwardly demure, and submissive. Statistically, more petite. For some, implicitly or explicitly coquettish. We’ll keep house, not talk back, and just do as we’re told. We’re comparatively soft targets[4].

There are also subcategorisations within our ranks. Chinese have a bit more fight in them and some people have the perception that we are gold-diggers. We’re a bit higher maintenance, but some like the challenge. Japanese are more compliant and less demanding. There are other similar stereotypes for other ethnicities, but the more generic stereotypes apply to all because there’s also the matter where they find it hard to distinguish between us anyway.

And that’s not even getting into the sexual context, which is more of a small step than a leap to see where that can head. Many of us have been on the receiving end of a “sucky-sucky love you long time” catcall. Some of the completely legitimate Asian massage parlours I have been to here have signs that state “Please do not ask for happy endings as refusal may offend.”[5]

Where do I get these impressions of the stereotypes? I’m not going to cite papers, but I’m sure there are more than a handful of them. I get them just by existing. From my experiences as an Asian female. From hearing from and reading about what happens to others. From seeing how we are perceived in popular culture and the media.

You can see how fetishisation will happen and how it can turn from ‘simple’ idolisation to something aggressive if someone who believes they are entitled to treat us this way (without our consent) decides to act on their feelings of entitlement, and chooses to retaliate when we reject those advances or contradict the ideals they have of what we are meant to be to them.

Entitlement in this context affects all women. But this is one of the ways it manifests for Asian women.

Also, on a more specifically topical note, motives do not change the outcome, nor are they one-dimensional. If you walk into an Asian massage parlour with a gun and the intent to shoot people, statistically speaking your targets are going to be Asian and female. Even if we’re running with the ‘sexual addiction’ line, it’s still violence against women, most of whom are Asian, with the added layer of toxic fetishisation.

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[1] Not just westerners either.

[2] I wasn’t on the receiving end of more direct encounters there, but I did observe a couple instances of the trademark ‘cocky male trying to hit on an isolated girl by cornering and towering over her’ behaviour. Fortunately the ones I saw were quickly rescued by greater numbers.

[3] I’m not saying this doesn’t occur with other groups, because it does. ‘Spicy’ latinas, casually sexy and sophisticated French women, etc. But I’m speaking specifically about Asians here.

[4] See also ‘Model Minority’.

[5] Refusal may offend. What about ‘Asking may offend’.

#anti-asian racism #anti-asian violence #violence against women #entitlement #misogyny

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nihongolike · 6 years

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How to Start Learning Japanese

Hello everyone! Thank you for 1000 followers. To celebrate, I have put together this post with various resources to start learning Japanese, or continue if you’re stuck! This is a long post, so hold on for the ride.

Step 1: Learning Hiragana and Katakana

You’ll never get anywhere with Japanese if you can’t read it. Reading sentences with romaji can be helpful at the very beginning, but the truth is Japanese is easier to read with kana, and the faster you learn your kana, the better.

Unfortunately, kana is all about rote practice and memorization. You should be learning kana while working on your most basic grammar skills, such as learning to introduce yourself and greetings.

Once you’ve got a little bit of practice in, it’s okay to reference your kana charts once in a while. Your memory will learn them as you use them. It took me a week to learn hiragana, and a month to learn katakana, but I still checked my hiragana sheet occasionally until around the time I finished Genki I, and I still check katakana charts sometimes, and I’ve been studying Japanese for two and a half years!

Here are some resources to get you started:

Hiragana and Katakana Printable Practice Sheets

This website supplies blank practice sheets, or sheets with stroke order information for of the kana. Writing is a great way to memorize new symbols, in general!

Hiragana and Katakana Drag n Drop Game

This game from the Genki self study room diversifies the way you’re studying your kana. It’s great to break up the monotonous aspect of learning to write in Japanese!

RealKana

This website was the main one I used to learn to read in Japanese. You can select any group of kana, from either syllabary for each subject, in any combination, and it also has various fonts to help you recognize kana in different type faces.

Step 2: Get a Textbook

I’ve ripped pdfs of some textbooks to give you access to them. Please let me know if these links go down!

Genki I + Workbook || Genki II + Workbook || Genki Answer Key

While I know not everyone likes Genki, I learned Japanese with Genki and I highly recommend it. Most of the vocabulary in the books is useful, and the grammar lessons provide a mix of casual and formal grammar, both of which you will use if you go to Japan.

An Integrated Approach to Intermediate Japanese + Workbook

While not a direct continuation of Genki, this textbook is continued the spiritual successor of Genki.

Tobira: Gateway to Advanced Japanese

This textbook is targeted towards high-intermediate learners and has excellent reviews.

Step 3: Start Learning Kanji

Kanji may be daunting, but if you really want to learn Japanese you need to start learning Kanji as soon as you know your kana. Most textbooks for beginners offer a kanji section of each chapter, but here are resources to learn kanji.

Kanji Look and Learn + Workbook

This kanji textbook is a companion to Genki. Each chapter offers the same kanji that are given with the corresponding Genki I chapter, plus a few more. It also offers good reading exercises and lots of mnemonics.

The Kodansha Kanji Learner’s Course

I purchased this kanji textbook in print and try to work with it as much as I can. It is an excellent resource, giving mnemonic and historical information about a kanji to help you remember it. This course is specifically designed for second language Japanese learners in the order in which it introduces kanji. Unfortunately, you have to come up with the tools to learn this kanji yourself.

Stroke Order Information

This website will identify the strokes of any kanji that you give to it. I find this stroke order information very useful because sometime stroke order information in textbooks is too small.

Step 4: Select a Dictionary

jisho.org

Most people probably consider jisho.org a classic. It is completely free and available online to anyone, as well as having lots of search tools to help you find what you’re looking for.

Shirabe Jisho

If you have an iOS device, I can’t put into words how highly I recommend downloading this app. Unfortunately, this dictionary is not available to Android users. I hope they do come out with an Android version in the future.

This app is absolutely free, and stores all of its information locally on your device. That means if you don’t have wifi or service, you can still use it! This app came in so convenient when I was in Japan, as I did not have a very good phone plan there.

On top of being a standard dictionary, this app also have a LOT of word lists, various kanji lists, and stroke order information for all Japanese characters. If you are learning Japanese and have an iOS device, Shirabe Jisho is a must have!

Step 5: Practice

Now that you have your references and your curriculum, its time to learn, and learning requires practice. Everyone has different ways to study, but here are some ideas and resources.

StudyBlue and Quizlet

Both of these websites let you make your own custom notecard decks with various ways to study them.

JapaneseClass.jp

This website offers a curricula of kanji and vocabulary to practice. It uses leaderboards and statistics to gameify learning. While I don’t use it everyday, I do log in to practice once in awhile myself.

Duolingo Japanese Course

Duolingo uses various strategies to teach basic grammar and vocabulary that may be effective if you need a more guided approach.

Genki Conjugation Practice

This online resource from Genki grades your conjugations of various grammar forms in Genki I and II.

JLPT Boot Camp

This website offers various resources to help study for the JLPT, a standardized test that evaluates Japanese proficiency.

Online Japanese Tests

This website offers various online tests (also aimed at JLPT preparation) to evaluate your Japanese.

Tae Kim’s Guide to Learning Japanese

While I don’t follow Tae Kim’s course, this website is an amazing resource, and is always useful for a second explanation for a grammar concept you may be struggling with.

NHK Easy News

From NHK, this website offers the news in simple Japanese, with a lot of tools to help you learn.

Step 6: Speak Japanese

This section might be more aptly titled “Use Japanese”. Once you’ve learned grammar and vocabulary and all the rest, it’s time to start using it in novel sentences. Here are some ideas to help you do that.

HelloTalk (App Store, Google Play)

HelloTalk is a language exchange app that is very popular among Japanese people studying English. It offers voice messaging and recording within the app, and has many ways to connect you with different users. It’s not always easy to make friends there, but getting a reliable language partner is always worth the effort.

lang-8

Lang-8 is a language exchange website centered around writing blog posts in your target language and correcting other user’s posts written in your native language. It’s a great way to get feedback on your written Japanese.

Visit Japanese cultural events in your city

If your city has a Japanese Association, they likely organize different cultural events throughout the year. Attend them! It’s a great way to meet other people who are interested in Japan, or Japanese people. Japanese people are very kind, and if you ask politely will likely speak Japanese with you, even a little bit.

Find a study buddy

Even if you’re both just beginners, having a friend who is also learning Japanese is super helpful, and there’s lots of people learning Japanese here on Tumblr, just to start! Likely you guys will be able to help each other cover your weaknesses. Even if you’re making mistakes with no one to correct you, just using what you learn helps your brain store information in long term memory and hold on to it.

I hope these. resources will help you get started if you want to learn Japanese, but are feeling daunted by it. So buckle up and strap in for the ride!

As always, if you have any additional questions, please feel free to message me!

#learn Japanese #study Japanese #Japanese #japaneseblr #langblr #studyblr

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therealpolyglot-blog · 6 years

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How to include learning languages into your University life

Hey! Today I would like to talk about language learning and University. It is really important to me because I’m a student as well. For those who want to know, I’m doing my Master’s in Computational Linguistics and it takes away most of the time. Studying can be really stressful and that’s why we need to find good ways to incorporate language learning into our busy lives. First of all, I want to make two things clear: taking breaks is important and you should see language learning as a balance to your stressful University life. And before I move on to how exactly you can include language learning, I’ll tell you more about why it is so important.

- Take breaks! You are still a full-time student! -

Your exams are near and you almost feel overwhelmed by all the work you have to do and then there is still language learning. You almost have no energy left for all those stuff, that’s the time when you should allow yourself to take a break from language learning. There is no use in feeling overwhelmed because you already face enough stress from your upcoming exam period. So take a break from your language learning and focus on the important stuff: your studies! After all the University stress you can start again to study languages and you will feel refreshed and will have more motivation.

- Language learning is for your balance -

Same with taking breaks, you should also have in mind that language learning should be your balance for your studies. You shouldn’t do too much of it, just enough to have a balance. When I’m too obsessed with learning languages I often find myself abandoning all my work for University, this always leads to so much stress and problems for me. That’s why I recommend, stay focused on your studies but still do some language learning. Just balance it out so both of the things please you.

Photo by Jason Wong on Unsplash

So, after talking about the important stuff that you should always keep in mind when it comes to this situation, here are some ways how you can actually include language learning into your daily life at University.

- Learn a small chunk every day -

Do you feel like making no progress in your target language anymore? Maybe you should try to take smaller steps each day. You could try to only learn a word or a phrase per day, it will help you to make progress every day, and you won’t overwhelm yourself too much.

- You already use it: Social Media! -

That’s how you found us, that’s what we all use to connect with language learning: Social Media! You can use it to follow accounts which post about your target language, you can look for daily words/phrases or you could just search for accounts that provide anything interesting in your target language. Instead of scrolling through Instagram in your native language, you should follow as many accounts as possible in your target. And you can easily learn something while you are on your way to the University (assuming you take the bus or a train).

- Listen to music or a podcast -

Another thing I like to do when I’m on the train is listening to music. I always listen to music, so the best thing for me to keep up with a target language is listening to it. If you are more into podcast this could also be a possibility for you to listen to the language.

Photo by Victoriano Izquierdo on Unsplash

- Use apps in your “dead time” -

And while I listen to music, and when my concentration is allowing it, I open my favorite language learning app and do some lessons. The time in the train is always “dead time” for me, in the morning I’m still too sleepy to think about University stuff and in the evening I’m too tired. Use every bit of “dead time” you have and you’ll still feel like you did something.

-Your daily evening entertainment -

You like to watch a movie or a series in the evening to relax from your stressful day? Try to do it in your target language. It depends on your level, you can either switch completely to the language or keep yourself some comfort with subtitles in your native language. Don’t overwhelm yourself, just entertain yourself with it.

- Make friends -

You can always find new friends who learn or even speak your target language. So, go and find new people. Natives can help you have a conversation every now and then and you can ask them for help. But it also helps a lot to talk with other learners of your target language. They can provide you help in finding new resources, depending on their level, you can practice with them or you both could just keep each other motivated.

- What does your University provide? -

Lastly, I want to talk about what your University can offer you. You are there every day, so why don’t look for a language class? My University offers a lot of language classes, so check out if yours does as well. You can incorporate it into your schedule, meet new people and if you even prefer to learn from a teacher, this is a great opportunity for you.

Everything you want to do depends on you! Don’t find yourself too overwhelmed by all the things you need to do, either it’s for University or for your language goals. Find a balance and test out everything that comes to your mind, I just showed you some ways but there are always personalized ways that can work only for you. Never stop exploring and enjoy your language learning journey! Chrissa

Como incluir el aprendizaje de idiomas en tu vida universitaria

¡Hola! Hoy quiero hablar del aprendizaje de idiomas y la universidad. Es un tema muy importante para mí porque yo soy estudiante, para los interesados, estoy haciendo un Máster en Lingüística Computacional, y eso se lleva la mayor parte de mi tiempo. Estudiar puede ser muy estresante y es por eso que debemos incluir el aprendizaje de idiomas en nuestras horarios. Primero que nada, hay dos cosas que quiero dejar claras; tomar descansos es importante y debes encontrar el balance entre los idiomas y tu vida estudiantil y antes de que explicarte cómo incluir balancear estos dos mundos, quiero contarte más sobre porque esto es importante.

- Descansa, recuerda que eres estudiante a tiempo completo -

Los exámenes están cada vez más cerca, estás agotado/a, y además tienes que estudiar idiomas. A este punto, no tienes suficiente energía para continuar, este es el momento ideal para darle un descanso al aprendizaje de idiomas. No tiene sentido que te sientas estresado/a cuando ya tienes todos estos deberes en tu vida universitaria. Tómate un descanso de los idiomas y toma tus estudios como una prioridad. Después de que pasé el estrés de los exámenes puedes volver a los idiomas con una mentalidad más relajada y con más motivación.

- Los idiomas deben estar balanceados con el resto de tu vida -

Al igual que con los descansos, siempre debes recordar que los idiomas son algo que haces para divertirte, contrastando así, el estrés universitario. No deberías hacerlo demasiado, solo lo suficiente para tener un balance saludable. Cuando me encuentro demasiado obsesionada con los idiomas, me doy cuenta que terminó abandonando mis deberes de estudiante, lo que se convierte en estrés y problemas. Por eso recomiendo enfocarte en tus estudios pero igual dedicarle un poco de tiempo a tus idiomas. Crea un balance que sea eficiente para tí.

Photo by Jason Wong on Unsplash

Ok, después de hablar de las cosas importantes que debes tener en mente cuando te enfrentas a esta situación, aquí te dejo algunas maneras de incluir el aprendizaje de idiomas en tu vida estudiantil.

- Aprende un poco cada día

¿Sientes que ya no progresas en el idiomas que estás aprendiendo? Quizás debas intentar dar un paso a la vez. Podrías intentar aprender una palabra o una frase al día, te ayudará a avanzar poco a poco y no te vas a sobresaturar de información.

- Lo usaras de todas formas: ¡Redes sociales! -

Es como llegaste aquí, es lo que todos usamos para mantenernos conectados con el aprendizaje de idiomas. Puedes seguir cuentas que suban información sobre el idioma que aprendes, como las que tienen la palabra del día, o simplemente cuentas que compartan información relevante a dicho idioma. En vez de ver el Instagram en tu lengua materna intenta seguir la mayor cantidad de cuentas extranjeras posibles. Así puedes aprender fácilmente cuando vas camino a la uni (asumiendo que vas en tren o autobús).

- Escucha música o un podcast -

Otra cosa que me gusta hacer cuando voy en el tren es escuchar música. Una de las mejores maneras de mantenerte en contacto con el idioma es escuchándolo. Si te gustan los podcast esta puede ser una buena oportunidad para practicar un idioma.

Photo by Victoriano Izquierdo on Unsplash

- Utiliza Apps en tu tiempo “tiempo muerto” -

Cuando escucho música y mi concentración me lo permite; utilizo mi App de aprendizaje de idiomas favorita. El tiempo en el tren es “tiempo muerto” para mí, en la mañana tengo mucho sueño como para hacer algo más complicado y en la noche estoy muy cansada. Utiliza el “tiempo muerto” cada vez que puedas y que te sientas con energía de hacer algo.

- El entretenimiento al final de día -

¿Te gusta ver una serie o película al final del día? Intenta hacerlo en el idioma que quieres aprender. Dependiendo del nivel, podrías cambiar completamente al idioma que estés aprendiendo o podrías poner subtítulos en tu lengua materna. Algo que no sea muy difícil, busca entretenerte.

- Haz amigos -

Puedes encontrar nuevos amigos que aprendan o incluso que hablen el idioma de quieres aprender. Los nativos pueden ayudarte a tener conversaciones de vez en cuando y puedes pedirle su ayuda. Pero también es de gran ayuda hablar con otras personas que estén aprendiendo el idioma. Te pueden ayudar a conseguir nuevos recursos acordes a tu nivel, pueden practicar juntos y ayudarse entre sí a mantenerse motivados.

- ¿Qué ofrece tu universidad? -

Por último vamos a hablar de lo que provee tu universidad. Estás ahí todo el día, así que ¿Por qué no atiendes una clase idiomas? Mi universidad ofrece distintas clases de idiomas, deberías investigar si la tuya hace lo mismo. Puedes incorporarlo a tu horario, conocer gente nueva y si realmente prefieres aprender de un profesor, esta sería una gran oportunidad para tí.

¡Todo lo que quieres en la vida depende de tí! Pero tampoco intentes hacer todo al mismo tiempo. Cuando se trata de universidad e idiomas, debes encontrar un buen balance e intentar diferentes recursos. Yo te mostré algunos métodos que me funcionan a mí, pero te recomiendo que busques la manera más personalizada para conseguir tus objetivos. ¡Nunca dejes de explorar y disfruta el proceso de aprender un idioma! Chrissa

Wie du Sprachenlernen in dein Unileben einbringen kannst

Hey! Heute würde ich gerne über das Sprachenlernen und die Universität reden. Es ist sehr wichtig für mich, da ich selber Studentin bin. Für die, die es wissen wollen, ich mache meinen Master in Computerlinguistik und es nimmt einfach die meiste Zeit ein. Studieren kann sehr stressig sein und deswegen müssen wir gute Wege finden, um Sprachenlernen in unser ausgelastetes Leben einzubringen. Zuerst, würde ich gerne zwei Sachen klar stellen: Pausen zu machen ist wichtig und du solltest Sprachenlernen als Ausgleich zu deinem stressigen Universitätsleben sehen. Und bevor ich weiter gehe zu den eigentlichen Tipps, wie du Sprachenlernen einbinden kannst, werde ich dir mehr darüber sagen wieso es so wichtig ist.

- Mach Pausen! Du bist immer noch ein Vollzeitstudent! -

Deine Klausuren sind bald und du bist fast schon überwältigt von all der Arbeit, die du leisten musst, und dann ist da noch das Sprachenlernen. Du hast so gut wie keine Kraft mehr für all das, also ist die Zeit gekommen, dir eine Pause vom Sprachenlernen zu erlauben. Es nützt nichts, sich überfordert zu fühlen, weil du schon längst genug Stress durch deine anstehende Klausurenphase hast. Also gönn dir eine Pause vom Sprachenlernen und konzentrier dich auf die wichtigen Sachen: deine Studienfächer! Nach all dem Stress an der Universitäts kannst du wieder beginnen Sprachen zu lernen, und du wirst dich erholt fühlen und mehr Motivation haben.

- Sprachenlernen ist für deinen Ausgleich -

Genau wie mit dem Pausen machen, solltest du auch daran denken, dass Sprachenlernen ein Ausgleich zu deinem Studium sein soll. Du solltest nicht zu viel davon machen, nur genug um einen Ausgleich zu haben. Wenn ich zu sehr im Sprachenlernen vertieft bin, erwische ich mich oft dabei, all meine Arbeit für die Universität zu vernachlässigen, und das führt immer zu so viel Stress und Problemen für mich. Deswegen rate ich dir, bleib fokussiert auf dein Studium, aber lerne ab und zu Sprachen. Finde eine Balance, so dass beide Sachen dich erfreuen.

Photo by Jason Wong on Unsplash

So, nach all dem Gerede über das wichtige Zeug, das du im Hinterkopf behalten solltest, wenn es zu dieser Situation kommt, sind hier einige Tipps, um zu wissen, wie du eigentlich das Sprachenlernen in deinen Alltag an der Uni unterbringen kannst.

- Lerne einen kleinen Happen jeden Tag -

Hast du das Gefühl, dass du keinen Fortschritt in deiner Zielsprache machst? Vielleicht solltest du versuchen, jeden Tag kleinere Schritte zu machen. Du könntest versuchen nur ein Wort oder einen Phrase am Tag zu lernen, es wird dir helfen jeden Tag einen Fortschritt zu machen, und du wirst dich nicht zu sehr überfordert fühlen.

- Du nutzt es schon längst: Social Media! -

So hast du uns gefunden, so verbinden wir uns alle mit dem Sprachenlernen: Social Media! Du kannst es nutzen, um Accounts zu folgen, die etwas über deine Zielsprache posten, du kannst nach täglichen Wörtern/Phrasen suchen oder du könntest einfach nach Accounts schauen, die irgendwas Interessantes in deiner Zielsprache anbieten. Anstatt in deiner Muttersprache durch Instagram zu scrollen, solltest du so vielen Account wie möglich folgen, die in deiner Zielsprache sind. Und so kannst du ganz einfach etwas lernen während du auf dem Weg zur Uni bist (davon ausgehend, dass du den Bus oder den Zug nimmst).

- Höre dir Musik oder einen Podcast an -

Eine andere Sache, die ich gerne im Zug mache, ist mir Musik anzuhören. Ich höre immer Musik, also ist das Beste für mich, um eine Sprache aufrechtzuhalten, sie mir anzuhören. Wenn dir Podcasts besser gefallen, dann könnte das eine Möglichkeit für dich sein, die Sprache zu hören.

Photo by Victoriano Izquierdo on Unsplash

-Nutze Apps in deiner “verlorenen Zeit” -

Und während ich Musik höre, und wenn meine Konzentration es erlaubt, öffne ich meine Lieblingsapp zum Sprachenlernen und mache ein Paar Lektionen. Die Zeit im Zug ist “verlorene Zeit” für mich, am Morgen bin ich noch zu verschlafen, um an Unizeug zu denken und am Abend bin ich zu müde. Nutze jedes Bisschen “verlorene Zeit”, die du hast, und du wirst trotzdem das Gefühl haben, dass du was getan hast.

- Deine tägliche Abendunterhaltung -

Du schaust gerne einen Film oder eine Serie am Abend, um vom stressigen Tag runterzukommen? Versuche dies doch mal in deiner Zielsprache. Es hängt von deinem Level ab, du kannst entweder komplett auf deine Zielsprache schalten oder etwas Bequemlichkeit behalten mit Untertitel in deiner Muttersprache. Überfordere dich nicht, unterhalte dich nur damit.

- Finde Freunde -

Du kannst immer neue Freunde finden, die deine Zielsprache lernen oder sogar sprechen. Also, zieh los und finde neue Leute. Muttersprachler können dir helfen, ab und zu ein Gespräch zu führen und du kannst sie um Hilfe bitten. Aber es hilft auch sehr mit anderen Lernern deiner Zielsprache zu reden. Sie können dir Hilfe anbieten, neue Lernressourcen zu finden, abhängig ihres Levels, kannst du mit ihnen üben oder ihr beide könntet euch auch einfach nur motivieren.

- Was bietet dir deine Universität an? -

Zuletzt, möchte ich noch darüber reden, was dir deine Universität zu bieten hat. Du bist jeden Tag dort, also wieso schaust du dich nicht nach einem Sprachkurs um? Meine Uni bietet sehr viele Sprachkurse an, also überprüfe ob deine dies auch macht. Du kannst sie in deinem Stundenplan unterbringen, neue Leute treffen und wenn du es sogar vorziehst, durch einen Lehrer zu lernen, ist dies eine großartige Gelegenheit für dich!

Alles was du tun möchtest, liegt an dir! Erwische dich nicht dabei, zu überwältigt zu sein von all den Sachen, die du tun musst, egal ob es für die Universität ist oder für deine Sprachziele. Finde eine Balance und teste alles aus, das dir in den Sinn kommt. Ich hab dir nur einige Wege gezeigt, aber es gibt immer personalisierte Wege, die nur für dich funktionieren. Hör nie auf zu entdecken und genieße deine Reise des Sprachenlernens! Chrissa

#langblr #language learning #language blog #polyglot #therealpolyglot #university #german #english #spanish

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jibunstudies · 6 years

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Lately I’ve been getting a lot of questions from people like “Wow, you’ve been learning Japanese for such a short time! How did you progress so fast?” and “What are some tips/tricks for sounding more colloquial and natural when I speak?”

My answer is always the same: talk to natives.

No matter what language you’re learning, the ultimate goal is to be able to talk to people in that language, right? I mean, you wouldn’t start learning French with all of its vowels if it weren’t for the allure of getting to one day have French-speaking friends or, gasp, a French-speaking lover! Don’t forget the access to thousands of new books, television shows, films, and songs, too!

Learning a new language unlocks a lot of doors, but the main one is you unlock an entirely new form of communicating with brand new people.

You didn’t slave for hours over correct tones in Mandarin not to get out there and speak it with people, right?!

When I tell people “talk to natives,” a lot of times they say, “But I don’t live in Japan like you!" True story: I was talking to natives an entire year before I came to Japan. I had friends here before I even left U.S. soil! It has both drastically improved my experience in Japan and my language abilities.

This post is fairly long, so more information under the cut!

So, how do you start talking to natives if you don’t live in your target language’s country?

Okay, this is where the internet + language learning is amazing. There are so many resources online that make it possible to get in touch with native speakers! The cool part? You’ll also get to teach them your native language. This can be a lot of fun, especially because it’ll help you understand where your own mistakes come from (direct translations are not a thing, people!).

FIRST, LET’S TALK APPS & WEBSITES

HelloTalk (free + paid) -- HelloTalk is the app I recommend most to people looking to talk to natives. One of the most rewarding features about this app is Moments. You post a “diary” entry, and natives can like it, correct it, and respond to it! Not only does it mean you’re receiving corrections, but you’re interacting with people. It can be a little scary at first, but after a few posts it gets a lot easier! I also like the ability to narrow the age ranges that can contact you, as well as the option to allow only native speakers of your target language. Overall, this app is just really great for getting to know natives. I’ve made so many friends on this app that I still talk to almost a year and a half later!

HiNative (free) -- I love this app for those “oh crap, how do I say this?!” moments that are unavoidable. You can also ask for pronunciation help and translations! This app is less about interaction and more about getting native input/correction, but that’s invaluable. Post something in your target language like “How do I say ‘hello’?” and you’ll have an answer from a native within minutes. Oftentimes, natives will say “We say it this way, but you might want to say it this way to a friend,” which is the start of your colloquial language journey. (･ω<)☆

Speaky (free) -- This app is fairly similar to HelloTalk but without the Moments feature. It also has the ability to add more than one language (HelloTalk requires a paid membership to study more than one language and has a maximum of three). I used it for a little while and it’s a bit more glitchy, but overall this is a great app either way! It allows natives to correct you and gives you the opportunity to start chatting almost immediately.

Tandem (free) -- This is another app similar to Hellotalk and Speaky, but it doesn’t have a Moments feature either. You can receive messages and corrections from natives as well! Tandem also has a bit of an authentication system, so you won’t be able to start using it right away (it only took them around 2 hours to get back to me though).

iTalki (free + paid) -- This is probably one of the best websites for language learners out there. Free resources include an active community of natives + learners asking and answering questions, blog posts and tips from natives (I love this!), as well as a messaging + friend system. Paid resources include access to native tutors that can teach you through Skype sessions from 30-60 minutes at a time about anything you want! Lessons range in price based on the tutor, but they’re a fraction of the cost of college classes and (to be totally honest) 10x more helpful.

Conversation Exchange (free) -- This allows you to connect with natives that are living in your area, but if you’re not up for meeting with people or there aren’t any people to meet with, there’s also a penpal option! There’s also text, voice, and video chat options if you’re looking for something a little more “instant” or digital.

Verbling (free + paid) -- Verbling has features similar to iTalki in that it allows you to connect with native speakers that have been selected to be tutors (there’s an application process). They also have an active community of natives + learners asking and answering questions. Their language variety is fairly expansive as well!

My Language Exchange (free + paid) -- This website is really cool because it allows you to apply a multitude of filters when looking for partners such as city, age range, gender, type of interaction (text, email, video, voice, etc), and more! It’s a great way to really look for people that you’ll likely talk to long term.

Wyzant (paid) -- This website is actually a full-on tutoring website (which means they have math, sciences, and more available), but languages are there as well! It’s similar to iTalki and Verbling, but it helps match you with a tutor based on your interests and language learning goals.

Bilingua (free) -- This app is still fairly new and in some beta stages, but it has a HelloTalk feel with an additional feature: topic prompts! So if it seems you’re running out of things to discuss with your language partner, it’ll help you along in order to keep the conversation going. There’s also an online community, but it’s not too active so it’s better to check out the app first and see if it fits you.

BUT HOW DO I KNOW WHICH APP IS RIGHT FOR ME?!

That’s where you have to start your journey through applications and find what fits your needs and wants. In my case, HelloTalk was the gem app that helped me from basic phrases to full-on conversations about various topics. I met amazing people that became good friends that I still keep in touch with now.

I also love iTalki because tutors are invaluable, and the interface of the website is easy to navigate. I also like the ability to communicate with my tutors before the lesson in a private chat.

Finding an app that works for you might take time! I know a lot of people that don’t like HelloTalk but love Tandem. I personally don’t like Tandem but love HelloTalk. It’s based on preference and language. Some apps are better for certain languages or have more active communities!

You’ve downloaded the app...but now what?

So now that you’ve got your app, you’ve written your short bio telling people what you’re learning and what you’re doing, and you’re all set to start...you’re stuck. Who do you talk to? What do you say? Do you start in your language? Their language? Both?!

I promise it’s not as overwhelming as you’re making it out to be! Take a breath and think about everything you’ve learned so far. What are basic introductions? What’s the best way to introduce yourself? Do you want to do a basic “Hello, my name is ______” introduction? Or do you want to be more thorough and talk about yourself a little bit?

Personally, I do the following:

Select a person based on several criteria: age, gender, and whether or not they have a bio/picture (I prefer to talk to women 18-40 (more on this later))

If they have a bio, read it!!! Likely they talk about where they live, what they’re studying, why they’re studying your native language, and what interests they have (hobbies, if they like movies, etc)

I prefer to start conversations with people I might connect with. My favorite band is One Ok Rock, so if someone has in their bio that they love One Ok Rock, I message them a basic message (below) and follow it up with “Hey, I like One Ok Rock too! What’s your favorite song?” This gets a conversation going and shows you took the time to read their bio!

Basic messages vary from language to language (i.e. Japanese is quite formal in its introductions, but other languages like Spanish have more flexibility in “basic” sayings). It’s important to know how to say hello and introduce yourself. How much you include is up to you, but I recommend at least sharing your name/alias and where you’re from.

After the message is sent, you begin your journey in language exchange! One thing I highly emphasize though is don’t be discouraged if not every language partner works out. I’ve gone through hundreds of language partners (no joke) and have ended up with about 3-4 solid, dependable language partners that I still talk to. Just remember: quality over quantity! It’s better to have 4-5 really great language partners than 20-30 that you have so-so conversations with.

Look for people that genuinely want to help you improve and aren’t just focused on improving themselves. This actually goes both ways! Make sure to talk to your partners in your native tongue as well. This is why I like “dual” messages, or messages that are written in your target language first and then written in your native tongue. This allows you both to practice and correct while using both languages at once! It’s impossible to do this in person, so take advantage of it during text conversations.

⚠️ Safety online

I really don’t want to sound like your mom here, but this part is necessary because there are a lot of minors studying languages on this website and I want to touch on safety before ending this post (for minors and adults).

Do not share information that you don’t want to share. I know this can seem obvious, but I stress this a lot. Even though a website asks for your age/location/gender/photo, don’t feel obligated to share it. If it makes you uncomfortable, make your photo a picture of your dog or favorite celeb. Leave your age + location blank. Keep your privacy!

Do not talk to people that make you feel uncomfortable. Even though these websites stress multiple times during their sign up that they’re language learning applications, there are people looking to “meet someone” in a romantic sense. If someone starts to make you feel uncomfortable, BLOCK THEM. REPORT THEM. Don’t talk to someone that makes you uncomfortable for the sake of language. It isn’t worth it!

Never meet up with people alone. Even if you’ve been talking to them for a year, meet up with them with a friend or family member! If you can, meet in a group. I’ve never met a friend from HelloTalk alone; I always went with a friend. Also, meet in public places or areas where you feel comfortable. Don’t go to an unfamiliar city or area of town.

Be mindful of photos you share. Try not to share photos of other people, and if you do, blur/cover their faces. Don’t share photos of where you live or unique areas you frequent. Even if you live in Germany and are talking to someone in Canada, sharing too much information can be dangerous. I like to share information about vacations I took or places I went, but only if they’re places I don’t frequent or don’t live close to.

Don’t agree to phone call/video chat if you’re not ready. It doesn’t make you a bad language learner if you don’t want to call/video chat with someone because you’re still nervous about showing your face or talking with a stranger. Ask to exchange audio files instead until you’re comfortable with the idea of further communicating with this person.

Don’t give your social media information unless you’re comfortable with it. If you’re learning any of the Asian languages (especially Japanese and Korean), it’s common for people to ask to exchange Line/KakaoTalk IDs. If you’re not comfortable with this, don’t do it. I prefer to wait at least a month before giving out this information to someone, and that’s only after we’ve had consistent and healthy conversations.

A lot of these apps (I think HelloTalk is included) don’t allow people under the age of 18 to sign up. If you’re under the age of 18, it’s up to you (and your parents) whether or not you use these applications. It’s entirely possible to learn a language without a language app/website, so don’t feel like without this you’ll never be fluent. Look into local tutors or classes, or see if there are meet-ups in your area for natives + learners to get together.

And with that...good luck! 頑張ってね！행운을 빈다! ¡Buena suerte! Buona fortuna! Bonne chance! Καλὴ τύχη! Viel Glück! Lykke til! Удачи!

Start talking to natives when you feel you’re ready, but remember not to wait too long or to get caught up in the “I need to improve more” trap. There’s no such thing as too soon, and a lot of people will help you through the basics if you ask them. Don’t be afraid to make mistakes, either! Remember that they’re learning your language too, so mistakes will happen on both sides.

Have fun and get talking!（*＾ω＾）人（＾ω＾*）

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chineselanguageblog · 6 years

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To Learn Chinese

So you wanna know where to start when learning Chinese, or how to gain momentum and push through to fluency? Read on, dear reader…

Despite being only a mere mortal like yourself (in that I am not yet fluent in Chinese, - but it is only a matter of time) I am quite experienced in learning languages and have developed strategies and techniques that have saved me literally hours, days, months, maybe even years. These I will share with you today, so that you may learn from my past mistakes and less time studying and more picking up Chinese chicks!

Mentality

Okay, so, if I could impart only one thing on you it would be that confidence is half the battle.

If you spend too much time worrying about whether you will ever reach fluency, firstly, that is time you will not be spending injecting Chinese into your brain, but secondly, and most importantly, it will become a sort of self-fulfilling prophecy – you won’t enjoy the process, will associate Chinese with stress and essentially never become fluent.

This ‘blind faith’, as an atheist, is something that doesn’t come naturally to me. But you really have no choice but to take my word for it that if you:

Put in the time (listening, writing and, eventually, speaking)

Enjoy yourself

Believe you will become fluent

Then fluency is an inevitable result.

“But, Chinese is such a hard language compared to French or Spanish!”

Don’t get sucked into this idea.

Chinese is not harder, Chinese is just far more different to English than most European languages are. Plenty of Westerners have managed to tame the beast. Off the top of my head, take Steve Kaufmann or Luca Lampariello, for example.

In fact, I would argue that Chinese is actually objectively easier and more logical than any other language I’ve come across (with the exception of Chinese characters – logical in theory, but struggle city in practice for anyone trying to learn it who doesn’t use it every day).

Consider these things:

1, Rather than having completely separate words for related concepts, one character in Chinese will represent a ‘concept’ that will manifest itself in a huge number of multi-syllable words, ie: 工 (gōng) – representing the idea of ‘work’, present in other words such as 工作 (to work), 工厂(factory/plant), 工地 (workplace), 工匠 (craftsman), 工力 (craftsmanship), 工业 (industry), the list goes on.

2, No conjugations. No tenses. No cases. No plurals. No gender. Therefore, no memorising ‘je peux, tu peux, il peut, nous pouvons’. ‘Nuff said.

3, No long words – say goodbye to ‘anticonstitutionnellement’, ‘Unkameradschaftlichkeit’ and ‘electroencefalografistas’.

I could go on for ages about how simple and logical Chinese really is. Also, don’t be afraid of tones. They can be learned naturally through extensive listening.

Approach

Although the sometimes vicious debate present amongst the language learning community would have you believe otherwise (I’m looking at you, Steve and Benny), there is no hard-and-fast rule to language learning. What works for some may work for others. What seems to be unanimous is that a lot of input in the form of listening and reading is needed at some stage, with output (speaking) following either once a good level of comprehension has been achieved or from the start, in addition to input.

Here is what I would advise for those beginning their Chinese studies, and for those already on the path.

Beginners

Learning Chinese can be struggle city. But only if you don’t have fun while you’re doing it!

1, Get some materials. Textbooks are okay, as long as they have dialogs with a recorded version. If you’ve got the dough, ChinesePod is great.

2, Do a significant amount of input (reading and listening) with this beginner material. This is the hard bit, where the language gradually becomes less ‘foreign’ – in other words, you get used to the language. To make rapid progress, try to dedicate at least 30 minutes a day (an hour is better).

3, Work the language into your life. I’m not really an advocate of ignoring your friends and family who don’t speak the language, or listening to the language while you’re talking to them and while you sleep (per AJATT), or changing the language on your computer and phone into Chinese - this is too annoying for me. Instead, make use of dead time. Do you daydream on the train/bus? Now you listen to Chinese. Do you wait in lines? Now you listen to Chinese while you wait in lines. Do you walk the dog? Paint your house? Daydream? Listen to Chinese while you do these things. You’ll see how easy it is. I would estimate that the average person has about 1-2 hours a day of dead time, this meaning time they do NOTHING else. If you studied Chinese only in the time you otherwise would be wasting, you will see massive progress. Now imagine if you fit some Chinese into your free time, too?

4, Two words. Mini goals. Learn 30 words a week, and then step it up after a couple of weeks. Listen to 30 minutes of Chinese a day – then step it up to an hour incrementally. I’m soon to write an entire post over on my own blog dedicated to explaining the importance of mini goals.

5, Characters. Forget about them for the first month. After that though, they are important. Spend 15 minutes a day learning them. Although it may seem tedious, it’s worth learning the radicals first, or as you encounter them – this will enable you to quite accurately guess new characters later on.

6, Get an SRS. Do your reps daily, and add sentences whenever you can. Also, I’ve found sentences are better than words, as you learn grammar and new vocabulary simultaneously – it also seems much less boring than just drilling single words. If you have the option/can be bothered, add sentences with audio so you don’t get a botchy pronunciation (or just do a lot of listening). Where to get sentences? Mine them from the dialogs in your textbook, from ChinesePod, wherever. Just make sure they are correct!

Intermediate Learners

1, Enjoy. This is the best part of the language learning journey. The language is starting to become familiar, and you can start doing fun stuff in the language! Like, watching TV shows from YouKu (the Chinese version of YouTube, but with full episodes) and actually understanding them! Or, reading authentic, interesting content and books. Or making friends, or…

2, Get a girlfriend/boyfriend. Now this may be a difficult and in some circumstances unethical task (if you are just using them to practice your 中文). The truth is, that at the intermediate level you need to actually increase the amount of input you’re getting in the language in order to step it up and push through to the advanced level. At the very least, get some friends! If you live in a cultural melting pot (like my own city, Melbourne, or like, NYC, etc) then you should have no problem meeting Chinese people. Or go study overseas (this may not be practical for you – but if you’re at Uni, go on exchange like I am!) Or, hey, why not get some Chinese roomies? Instant friends that have to hang with you!

3, Everyday. Even more important than in the beginner stage, at this level you need to be having contact with the language every day in order to incorporate it into your psychic. This is because the language needs to become part of the fabric of your mind, which is just not possible if you only study on the weekend. There’s a saying that goes ‘learn a language and gain another soul’. This is because you develop a borderline personality disorder when you learn another language – you will find your thinking and personality will be heavily influenced by cultural elements of the target language.

4, Don’t give up. At this point, you have got it in the bag! The hard yards are almost over. Like I said, this is the best part, it is all downhill from here. You don’t have to agonise over mind numbingly boring hospital-grade artificial learning materials, and can get onto some juicy stuff. It’s simply a matter of continuing to consistently expose yourself to the language, and talk as much as possible. Language acquisition is a natural process, and we are inherently good at it by virtue of being human. Just don’t stress, it will come!

Anyway, that’s all from me, for now.

There is an abundance of resources out there to help learn Chinese, yet it can all be very confusing and time-consuming for the new student to find the best way and the right materials to help.s

Wanting to provide some assistance to students, at one of the regular meetings of the Learn Mandarin Now team, we decided to commission a survey to find out the preferred methods savvy, modern, Chinese language students use. After some thought on how to do this, we agreed to ask 50 or so top bloggers what resources they use to get ahead with learning Chinese - after all…, they should know!

Just who did we ask?

Actually, we asked a wide cross-section of people including teachers of Chinese, native speakers, new and experienced students of the language (both Chinese from overseas and foreign students) and, of course, top bloggers.

The aim: to get a wide variety of opinions and suggestions.

The top 10 recommendations

For reasons such as ease of being able to study whenever the student wanted to and the variety of options on offer, the results, perhaps not surprisingly, showed that the preferred methods to learn Chinese are primarily web based. Other students, however, still preferred to learn and practice with other students or people in their day-to-day lives or via hard copy items such as books.

With 42% of votes Pleco, an integrated Chinese-English dictionary/flashcard system, which not only allows students to learn via Smartphones, but also offers a variety of other features such as being able to look up unknown Chinese words ‘live’, came out on top.

22% of respondents went for human interaction, either learning or practicing with Chinese friends, girlfriends, boyfriends, work colleagues or via other social interaction with native Chinese speakers.

Multi-media captured 20% of the votes, and this included watching Chinese TV programs, dramas, documentaries or movies, or even listening to Chinese songs in order to listen to tones, and learn more common words and colloquial phrases.

The MDBG Dictionary, a comprehensive dictionary which offers the ability to look up a huge number of words in Chinese, Pinyin or English was also a popular choice-easy to use and readily available and it garnered 14% of the votes.

Both also polling 14% were:

(i) WeChat (Weixin), “the new way to connect with friends across platforms”, offering voice and group chat, free calls, video calls and the obligatory message stickers, and thereby especially popular with the younger generation looking to instantly chat in and learn Chinese; and

(ii) Anki, a spaced repetition software programme which makes remembering things easy. As it’s considered more efficient than traditional study methods, time spent studying can be decreased or the amount learned greatly increased. The programme is content-agnostic and supports images, audio, videos and scientific mark-ups.

Skritter which is suitable for Smartphones or PC’s and allows the student to learn how to correctly learn to write Chinese characters—even suggesting corrections to any mistakes if they appear, scored 12%, as did Memrise which offers a wide variety of on-line courses and aims to make learning joyful and exciting.

Rounding off the top 10 with 8% was Line Dict, a very useful on-line Chinese dictionary which translates both words and phrases from Chinese to English and vice-versa, using Chinese characters and Pinyin—plus offering handwriting recognition and the ability to view stroke orders for characters, and also Chinese Pod which promotes itself as a site offering “Chinese learning for busy people”, with over 3,000 short, self-contained, award-winning lessons.

It was both exciting and rewarding for us at Learn Mandarin Now to do this survey and we may well repeat it at some future date. If you’d like to know more about the results in detail you can also read: How to learn Chinese: great tips from 50+ top bloggers, one of our other related articles.

Happy learning!

#learn chinese

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we-mysticstudentmentality-blog · 3 years

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Usa learns Alternate Options

There are many types of content material out there online. There are programs with a wide range of teaching methodologies. This app is offered by Duolingo on Google PlayStore with 4.7 average customers score additionally a large number of downloads. Also, number users be taught spoken English and grammar in the world’s #1 language studying app. Practice speaking, reading, writing additionally listening.

But in case you have some free time, you need to use the applications to be taught new words by translating no matter involves your mind. Write in the language — One of the nicely-proven language learning methods. When strangers approached me to talk, I reciprocated by smiling and communicated with hand movements. When people saw that I was making an attempt onerous to study Spanish, they became extra patient to grasp my nascent Spanish. For the remainder of the article allow us to assume that you're both within the nation of the goal language or you can converse to no less than one native speaker of that language often. You can even discover individuals who need to learn the identical language in meetups in your city or on social media.

I even have experience as an English trainer in language faculties and firms. I studied two years of simultaneous interpretation Spanish - English / English - Spanish. The most important thing in my courses is that my college students have fun, humor is important to create a relaxed environment during which they can feel relaxed and safe.

Are you a local speaker who loves educating languages and meeting new individuals? No matter when you’re a certified teacher or not, you can turn into a language tutor on italki and receives a commission to help others study a language. ” The non-native English speakers make nice English lecturers overseas as they have studied the language themselves as properly. Just just like the learners the non-native English audio system also have experienced the up’s and down’s whereas studying the language. Teaching English on-line could be a good method to earn a valuable supply of revenue with on-line TEFL certificate course. Like other on-line language educating web sites, it additionally supplies you with formally licensed native-speaking teachers.

You can study the proper sounds of the new language if you know the best phonetics. When I began talking Spanish, I used to thrust out a string of jumbled words without articles, pronouns, and proper tenses. Then I started including these lacking constructors one after the other. Watch a Bollywood movie with your goal language subtitles. Find a recipe you want to prepare dinner within the language you need to be taught. Change the language of your phone and laptop to the target language.

My video was of excellent quality and similar in type and to the a number of videos of profitable teachers that I had seen on their website. However, I was unsuccessful on the very first stage. When I obtained rejected I tried to get some feedback on the reasons for the rejection.

Simply talking, the TEFL course is a gateway to Online English Teaching. The certification of the Best TEFL Course is a kind of proof of your professional English educating skills. Learn American English with English language classes from Voice of America.

You are additionally free to pick any time of the day and night time. After every session, the coaches give suggestions on the candidate’s engagement within the lesson and the advance. And the most uncommon ones thus learn English with italki far, American Sign language and Esperanto, a synthetic language. You simply want to find the proper information for yourself by exploring and studying critiques.

But here we are a few many years later the place science has blessed us with purposes and bots which might help us with studying English or another subject for that matter. Here are some apps which may help you with speaking apply. Well, the ESL teaching experience isn't required however English language proficiency, instructing skills, and pc literacy are needed. If you could have a Certificate of Proficiency in English Language, it is a plus! As a Bibo Global Opportunity teacher, you will ship English lessons to college students from Japan, Taiwan, and different elements of the world via Skype. You will need a working computer - desktop or laptop, a Skype account, a gradual web connection, working headsets/earphones and webcam.

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eurolinguiste · 6 years

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Aesthetics typically refer to the nature and appreciation of beauty. When applied to the linguistic field, it refers to the appreciation of language’s beauty and nature. On a more informal level, aesthetics of language could be viewed as our individual perception of the sound and beauty of a language. This is form where the idea that “French is romantic” or that “German is harsh sounding” emerges.

But it isn’t about languages as a whole that we form these judgements.

By the age of three or four, you begin to develop opinions about the languages, dialects and accents you hear. These associations are developed by the voices you hear on television, the accents and speech of your parents and other close family, or from even hearing your parents say, “oh, you have such a beautiful accent” to someone that you meet.

Our accents play a big role in the formation of our identities. It tells people where we might be from, what our native language might be, or what social groups we identity with. It’s also why we often make small (or sometimes large) adjustments to our accents when we move to a new place.

An accent can mark us as an insider or as an outsider.

If we adjust our accents and the ways we speak, we can better fit in with different groups. And if we want to identify with those groups, changing our accent is something we aim to do (even if it’s subconscious).

But sometimes, especially when taking on a new language, our accents are something that we’re stuck with, often earning us the question, “where are you from?” A frustration for many learners who wish they could be indistinguishable from the locals – “when will I lose my accent?”

Whether it’s in your native language or a language that you’re learning, have you ever noticed, that sometimes, no matter how hard you work at reducing your accent, some people just don’t seem to understand you?

It’s something that I’ve experienced with certain languages. It got me curious about the subject, so I did some investigating.

It’s Not Just Accent That Affects Our Comprehension

How well we understand someone else, whether it’s in our native or target language, depends on what is called ‘speech clarity’.

Speech clarity is determined by how fast someone speaks, the gender of the speaker, the pitch of their voice, whether or not there is background noise, distance from the speaker, and accent.

Some people are equipped to better handle a wider range of clarity than others and it all comes down to one thing: how wide of a scale you’ve been exposed to.

If your circumstances mean that you haven’t heard a wide variety of accents or poor clarity with any consistency, you’ll have a harder time understand different accents than someone who has had that exposure. If you have, you’ll do alright.

The Reason Some Accents Are Hard to Understand

When we hear someone speak, we already have an idea of how the language is supposed to sound. When it doesn’t quite fit, we have to work a little harder sort it out. And that requires mental energy. This process slows us down, which means our comprehension is diminished. You’re still trying to figure out what someone has said when the conversation has already moved on.

This is called “effortful listening” because “because the accented speech itself deviates from listener expectations in (often) systematic ways”. (source)

When we listen to someone speak in a way we’re not used to hearing, we have to try harder to understand them. And if you’re not used to making that effort, it can be difficult to maintain.

In an article on accents, a native Italian speaker wrote the following:

“I was born and raised in Rome, so Italian is my native language. Now I live in the US, and I’m basically bilingual. Yet, when I hear other people speak English with an accent, sometimes I have a hard time understanding what they’re saying. In movies […] I sometimes struggle; if I don’t turn on the subtitles, I’ll miss half of what they’re saying. But when I hear a fellow Italian speak English, even with a thick accent, I have no problems at all. I understand everything.“ (source)

This is interesting because it’s not that he can’t understand strong accents, he can. But only those he is familiar with. Unfamiliar accents prevent him from enjoying or engaging with certain things and in certain situations.

What to Do If You Struggle to Understand an Accent

If you have a hard time understanding other accents, you’ll want to do what you can to reduce any other interference so that you can focus on the other speaker. So, if for example, the conversation is taking place in a loud room, ask your conversation partner to move to a quieter place with you. If the phone connection is bad, ask if you can call back at another time.

Other things that you can do are to:

1. Ask the speaker to slow down. // Sometimes this helps clarify things, but be warned – sometimes asking the speaker to slow down causes them to exaggerate their accent rather than reduce it.

2. Expose yourself to different accents. // If there is an accent you commonly hear, try to get more exposure to it. Youtube is a great source for finding speakers of different accents. If there isn’t a specific accent, you can still benefit by listening to a wide range of accents.

3. Ask them to write it down. // If this is for a language tutoring session, you can ask your tutor to write what they said in the chat. Being able to read it sometimes makes it all click. If the conversation is for something important or work related, you can ask them to write you an email summarizing their requests. That way, you can avoid being rude by constantly interrupting them and asking them to clarify and you can be sure you don’t miss anything.

What to Do If You Struggle to Make Yourself Understood

It’s sometimes hard to think, “I have an accent.” Until you travel somewhere where everyone speaks with a different accent than your own and you’re the minority, it can feel like everyone else has an accent but you.

When you’re learning another language, however, a strong accent is often something you can’t escape (at least for a while).

When you look up advice on accent, a lot of the tips are for how to “improve your accent”. This bothers me somewhat because it implies that certain accents are better than others. I don’t believe that this is true. There are many different modes of speaking, and each has its place.

Instead, I prefer to offer tips to “reduce” an accent.

Here are a few tips to help you reduce your accent:

1. Shadowing // This is a technique where you mimic a native speaker. The idea is you repeat what you hear as quickly and as closely as you can to the original. You can find videos demonstrating this technique here.

2. Work with audio resources often // The more you hear a language, the more you tune your ear to its rhythm and pronunciation. The more familiar you are with how it sounds, the better you will be at producing it.

3. Speak often // When you speak a new language, you’re training the muscles in your mouth. You need to learn to produce new sounds and new combinations of sounds, and the only way to get better at this is with practice. So if you’re goal is to reduce your accent, speak often!

4. Record yourself // One of the best ways to judge how you’re doing as far as accent and pronunciation is to record yourself and listen back to it. Once you’re slightly removed from the situation, as a recording provides, you can evaluate how you’re doing more objectively.

5. Find the right audience // When your aim is to get language practice with someone who will understand you even with an accent, you want to find someone who will be used to hearing different accents. Someone on the street is going to have a harder time understanding you with a strong accent than a language exchange partner or tutor who have likely had more exposure to different accents. So the best place to find someone to chat with is through a language exchange site.

Conclusion

When it comes to accent, what matters most is finding the time to do more listening comprehension. The more exposure you have the better you’ll do in understanding and being understood.

Personally, I find accents to be a positive thing. They are a part of who you are and can be a great conversation starter. As someone who’s shy, having an accent is a great way to get the ball rolling. The people that I talk to are curious about my accent and where I’m from. It’s an easy thing to talk about and a great way to get to know people.

What about you?

What are your thoughts on accent and accent reduction?

I’d love to hear from you in the comments.

The post Why Some People Understand Accents Better Than Others + How to Improve Yours appeared first on Eurolinguiste.

#IFTTT #WordPress #language learning #travel #eurolinguiste

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bradsuserinterface · 4 years

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Week 1 - User Research

We were welcomed back from our two week break. Our team goals this week that we set were...

Monday: Set the objectives & goals, start user research. Wednesday: Bringing some data, keep researching CTA’s and micro-interactions on existing NGO websites. Conduct interviews or survey with prepared questions.

Setting the goals and objectives. To work on this project we need to prepare and plan our moves strategically. This would enable us to focus on other papers, track our progress, get stronger feedback on the formative hand-in and hopefully finish a few days before hand-in for the summative deadline.

Here is our 5 week calendar. As the week progresses, we will highlight text green to show that it is completed and we have progressed from that stage.

Start user research - NZESS.co.nz First step of user research is defining who we are researching, the audience the NGO is targeting and how users already utilize the service. I recorded all of my information into my note book to document the research.

This page of research defines and informs. It clearly define who is involved and what services the website provides. This research was collected from the NZESS website https://www.nzess.co.nz/

From this research, I learnt that these users are coming to the service because the seek some kind of social information help. Users are coming to the service because they’re concerned about something, someone or need help. This would mean that these users are vulnerable or to some extent, helpless. But what would make the website stick and inform these users correctly so that they can over come these problems. The answer is trust. Trust that you won’t feel condescended to, trust to keep issues private, trust to protect yourself and others, and trust that will improve, motivate and invoke calls to action.

I did some research as to how I could design or consider factors that could make website design and information more trusting to the users. Here is what I researched and found.

With these factors considered, I also researched more around barriers for our users and call to action seen above here. It is important that our website is able to communicate the necessary information to our users who might not be able to understand English if it is not their spoken language. This would also include what users See and Hear. How is that information getting across to them and how can they find out more or receive further help if what they’re looking for isn’t there?

Call to Action

CTA’s are the last important factor to consider as it provokes the user to do something. It get users the help they’re seeking by giving them the initiative to go out of their way to connect and work with the service. By having a call to action on the website, users will not have to just scroll the website looking for information. It is vital that the services that are provided instantly connect with our users and keep them on the website for longer to build trust and relationships with our users.

I did get the chance to interview people and get more insight to the experience people would expect and assume as well as their settling experience in New Zealand. I interviewed 4 international people at work as they have had similar experience settling into New Zealand as users of NZESS would have. I interviewed Derek, Violet, Lakitha and Gowri. I did not interview random people unless I wanted them to use and test the current NZESS website. These questions were directed towards users with experience of coming to live in New Zealand.

Short and Sharp Interview Results: My questions: 1. If you needed help when you came to New Zealand. What kind of services would you go to? Replies: [1] Chinese to English translator - Speaking directly to someone who has had living experience here in New Zealand. [2] Pasifika Community Groups. Well established here in New Zealand as our culture thrives on family connections [3] Not too sure as I’ve never needed to use a service. Maybe a direct response or Q and A to find out more. [4] I would see friends and family first before I’d need to go to a service. But if that were to fail, I’d probably look online sources to find a more direct approach to my needs, I don’t think I would need help, just answers. 2. What might make an online service trust worthy? Replies: [1] Show diversity, show that you can connect with international people. Show that you can talk to non-English speaking people. [2] Family connections. A display of how the service has had a beneficial impact on families in New Zealand. [3] Show that culture and diversity is inclusive. Figure out a way to show this. [4] Make people comfortable. Make it familiar with the language to help them understand. 3. How do you think a service might communicate with foreign users? Replies: [1] Native language - Even a video for people in a or of a language / culture. [2] Spoken Language, Readable language, whatever is easiest. [3] Video to explain service and how they can help, It would be cool if the video could change based on your language. [4] Speak to them in their own language, pre set languages could improve communication. 4. What would you expect to see on a website that offers you ethnic social services? Replies: [1] Helpline, Places to go for people of a certain culture/ heritage. Proving the help works. [2] All kinds of help. The question is, what can the service offer me because there could be services that are available that I didn’t know exist. [3] Social media or Contacts [4] Family help, Individual help, Academic / tutor help. 5. Which is the best way for you to learn and receive information from an online social service? [1] Visual learner, I like videos to watch and sometimes images help guide me through [2] Connection, Recommendation, sometimes a search can help [3] I do it all online, quick and easy answers. [4] Brief read over. Videos are great because they’re easy to follow 6. Off the top of your head, how would you imagine the structure of a social service website that tends to ethnics? [1] a) What problems occur b) What we offer c) Where to go? d) Support and Success [2] a) Connect with people/ services b) What they do c) Who can help them [3] a) Top - Who can help b) Middle - Why they help c) Bottom - Who they have helped [4] a) What problems occur b) What we provide c) Where to go d) Support, Supporters and Success 7. What creative features would you include to help connect users to the services it provides? Replies: [1] Q and A session to see what’s wrong and based off the results offer services that meet those requirements [2] Download an app with direct links to services based on requirements [3] See or meet others who have used the service [4] Map for people to show them where to go and the closest places they can refer to.

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fluentlanguage · 6 years

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How to Make More Friends Who Love Languages

Chuck Smith is a polyglot, app creator, Duolingo course author, co-founder of the Polyglot Gathering.

And today, he's my guest on the Creative Language Learning Podcast. We talked about how to make friends through language, and why Esperanto is awesome.

This year, Chuck published his first language learning app, Amikumu.

What is Amikumu?

Want to text another person and ask them to meet up and practice a language...without looking creepy?

Amikumu will help you find people near you who love languages. The purpose of the app is to help you find people nearby to chat and meet up, and it supports the world's 7,000+ languages (including 100+ sign languages).

The idea for Amikumu came out of Chuck's love for the planned language Esperanto. It’s not a natural language choice, it’s a minority language. Why would anyone bother to learn?

5 Reasons Why Learning Esperanto Could Improve Your Life

Esperanto is a planned language, it’s only a few people's native language, it’s a minority language. In our interview, Chuck spoke about using it as a key to connecting with people anywhere in the world, using Esperanto as a bridge language to speak to people from Japan to Brazil.

You could do this in English, too - but when you and your new friend have both learnt Esperanto, there's something more that you have in common. It's an instant link.

Beyond that, Chuck also points out that learning English comes with both irregular verbs and inconsistent spelling..and a lot of cultural and historical baggage. It's a strong argument to make for Esperanto, a language conceived to bring people together.

If that's not enough to convince you, Esperanto's simple structure is also something to approach as a starter. You'll be able to spend a few weeks learning Esperanto, and reap the benefits in ALL other languages forever.

The Esperanto network Pasporta Servo opens up hosts for your travels all over the world, all of whom love learning the same language as you.

And finally - jackpot - everyone is a learner of this language. Imagine never feeling embarrassed in front of a native speaker.

Language Learning Apps

If you have a smartphone and you live in the 21st century, they are an essential component of language learning.

In our interview, Chuck explained how he came to work on Duolingo and why he loves gamified learning, how we can bring more soul into language learning apps...and why you could probably learn a language if you have three apps.

Check out Chuck's app recommendations in our link list below.

EPISODE SPONSORS

CLOZEMASTER

Visit our sponsor Clozemaster, the free addictive language app in over 50 languages

EPISODE LINKS

Amikumu

Amikumu's Kickstarter Campaign

Clans of Caledonia: A Game about Whisky, Trade, and Glory by Juma Al-JouJou — Kickstarter

Trovu loĝejon | Pasporta Servo

Memrise - Learning, made joyful

Learn Esperanto in just 5 minutes a day. For free. - Duolingo

Just 2 weeks learning Esperanto can get you months ahead in your target language - Fluent in 3 months - Language Hacking and Travel Tips

Evildea - YouTube - YouTube

Esperanto Association of Britain - Homepage

Lingvist: Learn French, German, Spanish and other languages

Fluent Forever, The App: Learn to *Think* in Any Language by Gabriel Wyner

Learn language in context - Clozemaster

Itchy Feet: the Travel Game by Malachi Ray Rempen — Kickstarter

12 Ideas For Making the Perfect Language Learning App by Fluent Language

Middlebury Language Schools | Intensive Summer Programs | Middlebury | Middlebury

Creative Language Learning Podcast: Top 5 Fictional Languages

#amikumu #app design #crowdfunding #duolingo #esperanto #kickstarter #language learning #polyglots

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langloverthings-blog · 7 years

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Translation blog for language learning

Hello everybody! I woke up with this idea in my mind. I find the langblr community very motivating and super useful with the multitude of tips you all post both in your native and target languages, but looking at those endless lists of words, I realised that maybe something is missing.

Learning a language becomes easier reading real texts than just trying to learn vocabulary and/or grammatical rules by heart. For this reason, I thought we could make a Translation Blog where a text/article about any topic - taken from the Web or originally edited(?) - is published in English and translated into other languages by native (or non-native) speakers from the langblr community.

Everyone could collaborate and submit their translation to let the learners of their language see how the TL is actually used - with its grammatical structures, vocabulary, fixed and idiomatic expressions. Maybe the translator could add a note where they mention particular structures and use of language in order to help learners.

It would help both the translator and the readers to improve their knowledge of their respective TLs, but also people who like writing original texts and see how they would in another language.

In addition, it would be a way to meet new people allover the community, since we could make a chat group to collaborate and help each other with the translation and propose new texts to publish.

I don't know if I managed to explain it well (lol) or to "inspire" you, but if someone thinks is a good idea, then comment or just send me a PM.

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teachingspanishmadeasy-blog · 6 years

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“CI” for World Language Teachers: 5 Ways to Enrich Your Second Language Skills During The Summer

The summer is the perfect time to relax, go on vacation and to tackle that never-ending to-do list. It is also a time to ENRICH and/or CULTIVATE the language you so love and teach. This post is geared toward non-native speakers and teachers of a World Language who are looking for ideas to keep their language skills sharp during the lazy hazy days of summer.

1. Take Full Advantage of the Series and Shows on Netflix, Hulu, and Amazon Prime

In the last few years, there has been an explosion of Foreign Language Films. My father-in-law, my go-to person for Netflix series, has even started watching Turkish movies and soap operas; he loves them! Netflix has a lot to offer for those who speak and understand Spanish and French. Misclasseslocas.com and aventurasnuevas.wordpress.com have made some bonafide suggestions over the past year.

Similar to how and why we provide comprehensible input to students, watching shows or listening to the language continually during the summer months “attunes” your ear, helps you to stay in the language, and to stay motivated. Once school starts back, you’ll have “menos lagunas mentales” and will be ready to jump back into the swing of things, and provide your students a rich aural experience!

French Shows

My personal favorites on Netflix are:

Mar de plástico

I really like this show because the cast is so diverse!

I am also a big fan of ” Tiempos de Guerra”. I am so desiring the second season!

In addition to watching movies, there are other things you can do to keep your language skills well-polished.

2. Watch Youtube Videos on topics with which you are both familiar and interested.

When strangers find out that I am a Spanish teacher, they immediately confess how they’ve always wanted to learn Spanish as a second language. Then they ask the million dollar question: What is the best way to learn a language? They then begin to list off all the programs they’ve tried such as Duolingo, Rosetta Stone, etc. They feel compelled to tell me their life’s story about how they’ve been learning Spanish for decades or took years of it in school, only to be able to muster up a few words. My advice is always the same: Start with what you love! If you love knitting, find videos on knitting, learn some of the specialized vocabulary, and follow prominent knitters on Social Media. You will not only learn vocabulary incidentally, the way it works in a CI classroom, but you will find yourself doing something that you so enjoy!

My Favorite Topics to Seek Out

These last few years, I have taken a very keen interest in writing (hence my Language Learner CI Novels). But lately, I started relying less on my storytelling skills and more on honing the techniques of seasoned writers and some famous “Literary” Youtubbers. I have checked out several videos (posted below) that have enabled me to communicate better with writers that I meet on Social Media. Not only have I learned meaningful techniques on outlining or “Esquematizando” my stories, but I have also added new “writing” jargon to my Spanish lexicon. I am also passionate about aliens, bioethics, philosophy, the Bible, Apologetics, and cloning (all of which we explore in Spanish IV), so I am always looking for novel perspectives on these topics.

3. Subscribe to Magazines in The Target Language

Subscribing to online magazines is another way to prevent your language skills from atrophying during those summer months. Twitter is a great place to find daily inspirations for your interests. Below are two of my favorite organizations to follow on Twitter. I get little snippets of psychology articles, studies, or quotes that keep the target language at the forefront of my mind. They are also topics with which I love to debate with my father-in-law, that keeps me on my toes as well. I am always surprising him with new words! @psicologiamente @psicologiaySer

I also love going to Target or Hispanic grocery store to stockpile print magazines. We have a store near my house called “La única” and they sell my favorite magazine of all times: Muy Interestante. If you don’t have the luxury of living near a store that sells Spanish-language magazines, check out Zinio.com as they have quite a selection of Spanish-speaking publications.

4. Listen to Podcasts (that interest you)

There are tons of great content on Tunein radio! My two favorite programs, aside from listening to “Las noticas de las ilsas canarias” are:

Todos somos sospechosos – Is a program dedicated to “La novela negra”. They talk about books, characters, and the “La novela Negra” genre on a whole. I have learned quite a bit about new authors, the genre, and of course, the jargon (although these are mostly English words to define phenomena). Best of all, the program’s host is very engaging.

El ojo crítico- Is an Arts and Culture podcast. The themes are wide-ranging but include interviews with authors and episodes dedicated to the work of Classical Spanish Artists and Writers ( Picasso, Cervantes).

5. Read A Book in The Target Language

This may be an obvious step, but recently I just realized the plethora of Kindle books le available in Spanish. I have three authors whose books I am crazy about, and they are all on Kindle! Dulcinea, Yauci Manuel Fernández, and Marcos Nieto Pallarés. They all have very different styles. Dulcinea’s writing style is very contemporary, immediate, she makes you feel part of the action, and has a way of pulling you into the drama. Her book “El día que el océano te mire a los ojos” is a gripping account about a girl who has a terminal diagnosis, a cheating boyfriend (all on the back of the book’s jacket), whose life takes a sudden turn. I discovered in ” El Corte Inglés” in Madrid, and am so happy that she is on Kindle! I recommend her books!

I also like Yauci Manuel Fernández. He authored “Cada día cuenta” and “Dos palabras para enamorarte“. I read his first book and am making my way through the second one. I have opted to read his book rather than watch my favorite telenovela “Amar es para siempre”. His writing is reminiscent of Paulo Coehlo’s themes, as his books center on the human journey in life, priorities, decisions, and living through past hurts. Good stuff!

“El asesino indeleble” a suspensful read. I bought it on Kindle a few months ago, and I could not put it down. It is so entralling. I love the characterization and the dialogue. If you like crime mysteries, I’d recommend this!

6. Find Opportunities to Speak the Language (I know I said 5, but this one is important as well!).

Make the extra effort to speak the language during the summer months, even if you speak the language at home. Although I speak Spanish very regularly with my husband and his family, and my friends, I go out of my way to experience the language in new ways. Last summer I joined a book club. We read one book a month and then meet up to discuss them. In the group were Spanish-speaking people from all over. I remember learning “Ándate a la punta de un cuerno” from one of the Ecuadorian women in the group. We’d discuss different ways of saying things, our cultures and so forth.

I hope these tips were helpful. What are ways you keep up with the language during the summer months? Please comment below!

“CI” for Language Teachers: 5 Ways to Enrich Your Second Language Skills Over the Summer "CI" for World Language Teachers: 5 Ways to Enrich Your Second Language Skills During The Summer…

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learnspanishfans · 7 years

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How I Learnt Spanish, Italian and Portuguese for the Price of a Beer

I sat in the sunshine in a cafe in my new adopted city of Seville, chatting to a Spanish friend about life in Andalusia. We talked about southern Spanish traditions, the prospects for young people and of course, the fiestas of the month that we would attend. And I did this all in Spanish. A few months previously, I would stutter on even the simplest Spanish phrases, having studied the language for years but never really practiced with native speakers.

After Years of Spanish Study, I Still Mixed Up “Gracias” and “Hola”

Before moving to Spain I had been learning Spanish on and off for around six years. I decided that this would be the year I finally became fluent. From my studies, I’d worked up to a B1 level in Spanish. But my Spanish skills had receded, after having lived in Rome for one year and learning Italian. My Spanish conversational level was still a strong A2, functional but basic. That said, at the start of my trip, I walked into a bakery and said "gracias" instead of "hola"! Though I had a solid base in Spanish, I still found it difficult to hold conversations with native speakers. What’s more, I was living in Andalusia, a region renowned for having one of the hardest Spanish accents for learners. As I sat chatting with my friend in the cafe, listening to my friend speak Spanish, I realised my Spanish was getting better and stronger. Even my friend had noticed. "Wow! You speak a lot better than last time," he said sounding quite perplexed. I had only been in Seville a few weeks; how could I be more fluent than I was last week? Wasn't learning a language supposed to take years instead of weeks?

My Language Learning “Formula”: Beer and Facebook

I used the same formula to learn Italian, Spanish and Portuguese. With each language I learned, the time it took to reach fluency decreased. This was partly because I recycled the techniques that worked and partly because they're all Latin languages, so a lot of the vocabulary and grammar is shared. In fact, after becoming fluent in Spanish and Italian, all it took was a language-learning CD and a few weeks in Porto, Portugal to get to a conversational level of Portuguese. I had the same routine for each language I learned: meeting up with native speakers in cafes for a “language exchange” arranged on Facebook. Each exchange only cost me the price of the beer, coffee or sangria from the cafe and a few hours of my time. The language exchanges I organised were always free for both of us, as we would spend half the time speaking Spanish and half the time speaking English, so we both benefitted. Any free time I had was devoted to improving my Spanish. Some of my friends balked at this, saying that it must be exhausting doing so many language exchanges per day, but what's exhausting about meeting new people, learning, eating tapas and going for drinks? It was incredible fun and in six months living in Barcelona, Cadiz, Granada and Seville, I had done over one hundred language exchanges, made new friends and memories and of course, significantly improved my Spanish.

It’s Easier than You Might Think to Find Work Overseas

Facebook and beer were my main tools for improving my Spanish, that and a willingness to make mistakes all day long and meet new people everyday. But to make the most of these tools, I needed to move to the country whose language I planned to learn. Now, it's true that you don't need to move to the country to learn a language, for me, immersion has always been a fun way of learning a language. You get to live in a new culture, travel, make new friends and learn the language in context. How did I manage to live and work overseas? Using Workaway, I searched for work-exchanges in hostels. Hostels are a great way of moving to a country to learn a language: you have an instant social life with the other workers, access to staff who are probably from the area, free rent, an awesome central location, a flexible work schedule and sometimes food and pocket money are included. As an alternative, au pairing can work well, but your schedule will be more restricted, your hours longer and sometimes you will be employed only to speak English to the children. That said, you will likely earn more as an au pair compared to doing a work-exchange in a hostel. I worked around twenty hours per week in hostels and relied on savings as the placements were not all paid. But with beer as cheap as €0.33 for a caña (a very petite Spanish beer) and food included, I barely had any expenses. And I made some extra money by teaching English on the side, which helped keep me afloat financially. This was my foundation from which I learned a language and organised language exchanges for myself.

Here’s How I Used Facebook to Arrange Language Exchanges

As soon as I settled into my hostel, I used Facebook to find native Spanish/Italian/Portuguese speakers. Using Facebook's search bar, I would type: [Name of city] + [Language exchange] And: [Name of city in target language] + [translation of the word for "exchange" in target language] So, for example, when I lived in Granada I would search:

Granada Language Exchange

Granada Learn English

Granada Intercambios (translation: Granada Exchanges)

Granada English

Granada Inglés (translation: Granada English)

Granada idiomas (translation: Granada Languages)

It's important to use lots of different combinations in both English and your target language because you want to find as many groups as possible. Make sure to include the name of your city in English and your target language and to type the above search terms in both languages, with as many relevant words as you can think of. Add yourself to every single group you find. I normally added myself to at least ten groups per city. In each group would post the same message. Here’s the exact script I used:

Hola! Soy una chica Inglesa y estoy buscando españoles para hacer intercambios de idioma. Si alguien quiere mejorar su Ingles y tomar algo, estaría encantada! Cualquier cosa, hablame por privado. Muchas gracias.

Translation: "Hi! I'm English and looking for Spanish people to do language exchanges with. If anyone wants to improve their English and grab a coffee or beer then send me a private message, thank you." I always wrote this message in the target language and would copy and paste this onto the wall of all the Facebook groups I joined. Most language groups had hundreds, if not thousands of people on the page, so the post would get a lot of traction and I sometimes got as many as sixty requests in one city. One by one I would respond to each message inviting them for a coffee or a caña and arranging a day to meet through private messages. I tested a few different approaches and found that it's better if you ask people to message you in private as they tend to tell you more about who they are and where they're from, rather than just letting people comment on the post, as the most they'll say is "I'm interested!" People are also more likely to respond to a private message than a long trail of comments on a single post. I always tried to make plans quickly with the other person - ideally in the next couple of days. Otherwise it's too easy to lose momentum. Some people would be a bit surprised and asked if I wanted to chat a bit online first, but you can't really waste time getting bogged down in endless online chat. I often needed to learn the language in a few months, so met up with every single person who responded!

More Hints and Tips on Arranging Language Exchanges

Tip 1: Speaking English Gives You a Big Advantage

If you’re a native English speaker you will be at an advantage, as in countries like Spain and Italy the level of English is low and many youngsters are keen to learn it for work and potentially moving abroad, so you will be flooded with requests for an exchange. On the flip side, my approach doesn’t work as well in countries where the level of English is high. In Portugal, for example, the level of English is high and more on par with Germany than Spain and Italy, so the only responses to my language exchange requests came from a few Brazilians living in Portugal.

Tip 2: Keep it Local: Small Cities are Better than Big Cities (Smaller cities are better than bigger cities?)

Living in smaller cities accelerated my language learning and I recommend places like Cadiz over bigger cities like Barcelona. Though I only spent three weeks in Cadiz, I met so many people and made a lot of friends. In Barcelona, it was harder to meet people and the logistics of doing language exchanges were a nightmare, simply because it took a lot of time (and money) to get from one side of the city to the other.

Tip 3: Connect with International Students

Smaller cities with a university typically have a strong Erasmus community, which can be a boon if you want to practice other European languages. As I spoke Italian and Spanish, Erasmus and other international student groups were fantastic exposure and Erasmus students are a friendly bunch.

Tip 4: Carry a Notebook to All Your Language Exchanges

As you are doing so many language exchanges, it's important to establish best practices, as you don't want to waste those hours. I always carried a notebook with me and got my language exchange partners to jot down useful words and phrases, which I would then upload as flashcards on my phone, using Anki. I then tried to ensure that I used them in conversation in the next few days.

Tip 5: You Don’t Have to Drink Beer!

My method also works for non-drinkers! I only drank beer in the language exchanges because at €0.33 for a caña it ended up being cheaper than coffee and even water. I would try and ensure that my language exchanges were at least one hour in English and one hour in Spanish, so that even if I had three in one day, I would spend around €0.99 for three drinks, six hours of socialising and meeting Spanish people and three hours of actually speaking Spanish. So, this ended up being far cheaper than doing classes and a much more effective way of getting speaking practice.

What Level Did I Reach in Spanish?

I ended up with so much speaking practice that I reached a strong B2 level after 3 months. I probably could have reached this goal sooner, but all my friends working in the hostel with me were Italian, so I spoke Italian inside the hostel and Spanish outside of it. Initially it was hard switching between the two languages, but it ended up being fantastic practice because by the end, each language was a separate beast and my Italian went from B2 to C1. Incidentally, the same thing happened in Portugal, where everyone working in my hostel was Spanish and a lot of our guests were Italian, so I got to practice those while also doing Portuguese language exchanges. The hundreds of language exchanges I did in Spain, Portugal, Italy were amazing and the best memories I have of living abroad and learning a new language. So, if you want to live abroad, get to know a new culture and learn a language cheaply (or for free) whilst making new friends, make sure to organise your own one-on-one language exchanges, it'll be the most fun you have abroad!

The post How I Learnt Spanish, Italian and Portuguese for the Price of a Beer appeared first on Fluent in 3 months - Language Hacking and Travel Tips.

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englishnotes · 7 years

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Motivation in L2 learning

I chose this topic because I consider that motivation is one of the main reasons of success in second language learning. I experienced it in first person during my years learning English, French and Italian. I have shared a classroom with dozens of unmotivated students who simply focused on academic requirements in order to pass the course with the minimum score necessary. Now, as an adult I see that they did not continue improving their language skills and at this moment they are not proficient at all in those languages.

I want to study the reasons why students feel motivated and also to try to find ways to change the feelings of unmotivated people. During my life I met some really good teachers who were able to get most of the students connected with the class. I would like to know the skills that are necessary to be like them.

Definitions of motivation

Motivation is composed by the following elements: interest, relevance, expectancy of success or failure, belief in forthcoming rewards, decision to be involved and persistence to pay attention or persist. Crookes and Schmidt. (1991).

Motivation can be broken down into several categories. The most common is the dichotomy of intrinsic vs. extrinsic motivation. Intrinsic motivation is the tendency to work with autonomy and to be rewarded by the discovery itself. Extrinsic motivation is the product of the classic punishment/reward system. It happens when the student is motivated to learn because he will receive a very good gift if the grades are good or because he will receive a punishment if he fails.

A great number of language learners are young children who study language simply because their parents take them to classes or because it is a requirement of the public education system. It is not a decision of the student to be a language learner. In these cases it is very common to find more extrinsic motivation, because the student did not sign up for the classes with a particular purpose.

There are other two distinctions: instrumental and integrative motivation. Integrative motivation is probably the most powerful one, because it arises from the desire to belong to a particular community: to form interpersonal relationships with people who speak that language. On the other hand, instrumental motivation consists on the desire to learn in order to achieve a certain goal or skill: for example, to find a job in another country, to be able to read academic articles in English, etc.

Both motivations are powerful, but an instrumental approach could be insufficient because as soon as the goal is achieved, the motivation to keep improving could be halted, leaving the learner in a permanent status of fossilization. An integrative mindset focuses on the feeling of membership in a community. This means to achieve full proficiency in order to be treated as equal, to be able to communicate like a native speaker.

Approaches to its study

Most of the studies used interviews, questionnaires and in-class observation to come up with results. One study (Waninge, F., Dörnyei, Z. and De Bot, K. (2014)) used a questionnaire called “motometer” in which the students had to write their level of motivation every ten minutes. This would be used later to detect the changes in the tendency based on the activities the teacher was carrying out at each moment.

Some other studies focused on the relationship between the perceived motivation of the students and their final score in the language course. These results were highly inconclusive because it seems to be a fact that such relationship does not exist. Unmotivated people with very good linguistic skills would score better than highly motivated people who were not that good at language. Jones, Irene Eiko. (2007).

Another way to account for motivation is in-class observation. The researcher can analyze the amount of times in which the students participate, their attitude toward the teacher, etc.

Factors that affect motivation

All the studies agreed that one of the biggest motivators is the teacher himself. If students connect with him everything is much easier. It is important for a teacher to create an environment of participation and relaxation. The usage of jokes and the usage of personal examples to illustrate the language learning process are seen as very positive because that lowers down the barrier between teacher and learners. That barrier is crucial in terms of in-class participation and private questions after the class. If the students perceive that the distance between them and the teacher is very high, they will feel constrained to participate and will feel embarrassed to ask for questions. Hicks, Claire M. (2008).

The grades obtained can also affect motivation to some extent. For example, if a student receives very good grades even though he thinks that he is not putting too much effort on it, his motivation will decrease. If a student is trying really hard to improve and participate but he does not see those results in the final score, he will also be unmotivated. As teachers it is important to adjust the scoring system so that it is diverse enough to cater for the needs of each individual.

Dull textbooks, long grammar explanations, drilling exercises, a bad environment in the class and very high pressure on the students were all seen as a common demotivation factor among all the students and they should be restricted in some way. When they cannot be avoided, they should be minimized or accompanied by more pleasant activities before and afterwards.

Dynamic nature of motivation

Motivation is a very dynamic process. It can change from one minute to the other within a class session. Two different persons could experience the same and have completely opposite levels of motivation: it is a very personal variable. As a teacher it is important to keep in mind that fact: we cannot please everyone and we should try to apply a variety of techniques to try to account for most of the learning methods.

The “motometer” showed very big variations in motivation that proved the dynamic nature of motivation. People experience changes of motivation throughout a class session that could be attributed to many different factors like the teaching content, the time of the day, whether that person had participated in class or not, etc. It is not a stable factor that changes over long period of times, it changes almost instantly according to the current situation. Waninge, F., Dörnyei, Z. and De Bot, K. (2014)

Approaches for addressing motivation / encouraging motivation

Most scholars agree that the usage of jokes and games are the best way to motivate students, especially if those students are young. However, that is a very general statement. I preferred to focus on specific techniques that could be applied by any teacher. Sometimes it is not in the teacher’s personality the ability to seem funny and introduce good jokes every now and then. Nevertheless, I believe that any teacher could implement procedures and techniques that ensure that everyone can feel motivated.

One study found that changing the classroom layout increased the motivation. Placing the chairs in a U displacement so that every student could face each other increased the participation levels and overall motivation. People could see when someone was not paying attention and that encouraged them to be connected. This was also positive to make students feel that they belong to a group. Hicks, Claire M. (2008).

Öz, H., & Efecioglu, E. (2015) mentioned the usage of graphic novels in order to teach a second language. They referred to any kind of illustrated story, not essentially novels. For example, comics are liked by almost all young people. They are positive because they help to understand the plot more easily and new vocabulary is acquired through the association between images and words. In this study they found that the participation and the interest on literature increased significantly.

Zapata, J. E. (2007) proposed the usage of group activities. Instead of making random groups or let the students make their own groups, he tried to arrange the groups according to similar interests and personalities. To accomplish that, he gave questionnaires to the students at the beginning of the course. Each group member was assigned a role: leader, managing the dictionary, spokesman, writer, etc.

For each unit of the course syllabus, he created a micro-project. Different groups were arranged for each one. This way the whole class was involved and the students could know each other better. All in all, the results showed that the whole class improved their language skills and also their final grades.

Meng-Ching Ho. (1998) said that it was necessary to show aspects of the culture of the people that speak the language that is being learned. If we are teaching English, we should show how life in English-speaking countries is and highlight the differences. Some people learn it only to have access to better economic opportunities or to meet academic requirements. However, the studies show that the best way to find motivation to achieve full proficiency is to feel connected with the target culture: to have willingness to visit those countries, to speak that language in a social environment.

Conclusion

Although this topic is very dynamic and hard to measure, it should be considered by any teacher. When planning a course or a class, the teacher must take into account the motivation of the students. It will not be possible to make everyone feel happy, but we could help keep most of the students connected by using some techniques. Some simple actions could generate a big benefit on the students, like the usage of jokes, the change in the class layout or group activities.

Source list

Waninge, F., Dörnyei, Z., & De Bot, K. (2014). Motivational dynamic in language learning: Change, stability, and context. Modern Language Journal, 98(3), 704-723. doi:http://dx.doi.org/10.1111/modl.12118

Jones, I. E.The effect of motivation on second-language acquisition: Integrative motivation and instrumental motivation Available from Linguistics and Language Behavior Abstracts (LLBA). (85646806; 200706331). Retrieved from http://proxylib.csueastbay.edu/login?url=http://search.proquest.com/docview/85646806?accountid=28458

Waninge, F., Dornyei, Z., & De Bot, K. (2014). Motivational dynamics in language learning: Change, stability, and context. The Modern Language Journal, 98(3), 704-723. Retrieved from http://proxylib.csueastbay.edu/login?url=http://search.proquest.com/docview/1650525857?accountid=28458

Noels, K. A. (2001). New orientations in language learning motivation: Towards a model of intrinsic, extrinsic, and integrative orientations and motivation. MOTIVATION AND SECOND LANGUAGE ACQUISITION, dornyei, zoltan, & schmidt, richard eds], honolulu: U hawai'i press, 2001, pp 43-68 () Retrieved from http://proxylib.csueastbay.edu/login?url=http://search.proquest.com/docview/85541217?accountid=28458

Hicks, C. M.Student motivation during foreign language instruction: What factors affect student motivation and how (Order No. AAI3314422). Available from Linguistics and Language Behavior Abstracts (LLBA). (85686528; 200909068). Retrieved from http://proxylib.csueastbay.edu/login?url=http://search.proquest.com/docview/85686528?accountid=28458

Öz, H., & Efecioglu, E. (2015). Graphic Novels: An Alternative Approach to Teach English as a Foreign Language. Journal Of Language And Linguistic Studies, 11(1), 75-90.

Glas, K., & Cardenas-Claros, M. S. (2013). New English Cultures and Learner Autonomy for Intrinsic Motivation and Democratic Empowerment in the Chilean Context. English Teaching: Practice And Critique, 12(3), 23-40.

Zapata, J. E. (2007). Implementing Strategies of Cooperation for Enhancing Intrinsic Motivation towards English Language Learning. Online Submission,

Kong, Y. (2009). A Brief Discussion on Motivation and Ways to Motivate Students in English Language Learning. International Education Studies, 2(2), 145-149.

Meng-Ching Ho. (1998). Culture Studies and Motivation in Foreign and Second Language Learning in Taiwan.

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