#so far it sounds like 3 chinese speakers a spanish speaker and a korean speaker

[sternbilder]

AHHHHHH as soon as I saw that this game was voiced I was wondering if they were gonna do this

all the characters are voiced in the language of their nationality!!!!! that's so COOL

#so far it sounds like 3 chinese speakers a spanish speaker and a korean speaker? #apparently all of these characters' dates are intertwined or something so..interesting #*fates #kinda wish this game was fully voiced though ): #cam thoughts #liveblog: WILL

[olderthannetfic]

It's really surprising that you're so well versed in older fandoms and yet participate in new popular ones (that cdrama, kpop) is this by design? Im in my twenties and my interest turnover is already way slower than it used to be

You know, that’s a really interesting question. I wouldn’t say it’s by design exactly in that I do tend to just follow what strikes my fancy, and I can’t force myself to want to write fic for just anything. (I find it easier to like reading fic without serious involuntary emotional investment, but writing takes more. Vidding I can do on command most of the time, but I don’t usually bother unless I have a lot of feels or I’m fulfilling someone’s prompt.)

However, me getting into BTS was 100% due to me wanting to understand BTS enough to explain to people who weren’t very interested but wanted to know what was going on in fandom lately. Under normal circumstances, I run the dance party at Escapade, the oldest extant slash con. We borrowed vividcon’s thing of playing fanvids on the wall--all of them set to dance music--as the soundtrack for the dance party. This means I’m creating a 3-hour mixtape of fannishness, which has amazing potential to make people feel in the know about Fandom Today... and equal potential to make them feel alienated if nothing they care about shows up. Only about 100-150 people attend the con, so it really is possible to make a playlist that feels inclusive yet informative--it just takes a huge amount of work.

Every year, I do a lot of research on which fandoms are getting big and look for vids from vidders people won’t have heard of, so there is an element of consciously trying to keep up with things. Generally, I only get into these fandoms myself if I had no idea what they were and then suddenly, oops, they’re my kryptonite, like the buddy cop android plot in Detroit: Become Human, which sucked me in hard for like 6 months on the basis of a vid.

(So if you’re into cross-fandom meta and associated stuff as one of your fannish interests, you tend to have broader knowledge of different fandoms, old and new, than if you’re just looking for the next place you’ll read fic. It’s also easier to love vids for unfamiliar things than fic.)

But though I was only looking for a basic primer on BTS, BTS has 7 members with multiple names and no clear juggernaut pairing, not to mention that AU that runs through the music videos and lots of other context to explain. The barrier to understanding WTF was going on at all was high enough that to know enough to explain, I had to be thoroughly exposed... And once I was over that hurdle, oops, I had a fandom.

--

In terms of old vs. new, here’s the thing: kpop fandoms in English and c-drama fandoms in English right now feel a lot like anime fandom in English did in the early 00s. I had a Buddy Cops of the 70s phase in the middle, but my current fannishness is actually a return to my older fannishness in many ways.

What do I mean about them being similar?

Yes, I know some wanker will show up to say I think China, Korea, and Japan are indistinguishable, but that’s not what I’m talking about. I’m talking about the way that I used to routinely meet Italian and French and German fans, Argentinian and Mexican, Malaysian and Indonesian and Filipino too. English-language fandom of SPN or MCU may have all those fans from all those countries, but it feels very American most of the time. English-language fandom of a non-English-language canon is more overtly about using English as a lingua franca.

It also tends to attract people who as a sideline to their fannishness are getting into language learning and translation, which are my other passion in life after fanworks fandom. (I speak only English and Spanish and a bit of Japanese, but I’ve studied German, French, Russian, Mandarin, Old English, and now Korean.)

Nerds arguing about methods of language learning and which textbooks are good and why is my jam. This is all over the place in English-language fandoms of Chinese, Japanese, and Korean media. Those fandoms also tend to be full of speakers coming from a Germanic or Romance languages background who face similar hurdles in learning these languages. (In other words, if you’re a native Japanese speaker trying to learn Korean, the parts that will be hard for you are different than if you’re an English speaker, but you’re also usually not doing fandom in English.)

There’s also an element of scarcity and difficulty of access and a communal attempt to construct a canon (in the other sense) of stuff from that country that pertains to one’s fannishness. So, for example, a primer explaining the genre of xianxia is highly relevant to being a n00b Untamed fan, but just any old thing about China is not. A c-drama adapted from a danmei webnovel is perhaps part of the new pantheon of Chinese shit we’re all getting into, but just any old drama from decades ago is probably not... unless it’s a genre precursor to something else we care about. Another aspect here is that while Stuff I Can Access As A N00b Who Doesn’t Speak The Language may be relatively scarce, there’s a vast, vast wealth of stuff that exists.

This is what it felt like to be an anime fan in the US in 2000. As translation got more commercial and more crappy series were licensed and dumped onto an already glutted market, the vibe changed. No longer were fans desperately trying to learn enough of the language to translate or spending their time cataloguing what existed or making fanworks about a show they stuck with for a bit: the overall community focus turned to an endless race of consumption to keep up with all of the latest releases. That’s a perfectly valid way of being fannish, but if I wanted that, I’d binge US television 24/7.

Anime fandom got bigger, but what I liked about anime fandom in English died, and I moved on. (Okay, I first moved on to Onmyouji, which is a live action Japanese thing, but still.)

Hardcore weeaboos and now fans of Chinese and Korean stuff don’t stop at language: people get excited about cooking, my other other great passion. Times a thousand if the canon is something like The Sleuth of the Ming Dynasty, which is full of loving shots of food preparation. People get excited about history! Mandarin and Japanese may share almost nothing in terms of grammar or phonology, but all of East Asia has influence from specific Chinese power centers historically, and there are commonalities to historical architecture and clothing that I love.

I fell out of love with the popular anime art styles as they changed, and I’m not that into animation in general these days. (I still own a shitton of manga in art styles I like, like Okano Reiko’s Onmyouji series.) I’ve become a filmmaker over the last decade, and I’m very excited about beautiful cinematography and editing. With one thing and another, I’m probably not going to get back into anime fandom, but it’s lovely to revisit the cultural aspects I enjoyed about it via live-action media.

BTS surprised me too, to be honest. I really dislike that early 90s R&B ballad style that infests idol music (not just Korean--believe me, I resisted many rounds of “But Johnny’s Entertainment though!” back in the day). While I like some of the dance pop, I just don’t care. But OH NO, BTS turn out to be massive conscious hip hop fanboys, and their music sounds different. I have some tl;dr about my reactions in the meta I wrote about one of my fanvids, which you can find on Dreamwidth here.

--

But back to your comment about turnover: I know fans from the 70s who’ve had one great fannish love and that’s it and more who were like that but eventually moved on to a second or third. They’re... really fannishly monogamous in a way I find hard to comprehend. It was the norm long ago, but even by the 90s when far more people were getting into fandom, it was seen as a little weird. By now, with exponentially more people in fandom, it’s almost unheard of. I think those fans still exist, even as new people joining, but we don’t notice them. They were always rare, but in the past, only people like that had the stamina to get over the barriers to entry and actually become the people who made zines or were willing to be visibly into fanfic in eras when that was seen as really weird. On top of that, there’s an element of me, us, judging the past by what’s left: only people with an intense and often single passion are visible because other people either drifted away or have seamlessly disappeared into some modern fandom. They don’t say they’re 80 or 60 or 40 instead of 20, so nobody knows.

In general, I’m a small fandoms and rare ships person. My brain will do its best to thwart me by liking whatever has no fic even in a big fic fandom... (Except BTS because there is literally fic for any combination of them, like even more than for the likes of MCU. Wow. Best fandom evar!) So I have an incentive to not get complacent and just stick with one fandom because I would very soon have no ability to be in fandom at all.

My appetite for Consuming All The Things has slowed way down, but it also goes in waves, and a lot of what I’m consuming is what I did back in 2000: journal articles and the limited range of English-language books on the history of m/m sex and romance in East Asia. It’s not so much that I have a million fandoms as that I’m watching a few shows as an expression of my interest in East Asian costume dramas and East Asian history generally.

I do like to sit with one thing and experience it deeply rather than moving on quickly, but the surface expression of this has changed depending on whether I’m more into writing fic or more into doing research or something else.

But yes, I do do a certain amount of trying to stay current, often as a part of research for fandom meta or to help other people know what’s going on. Having a sense of what’s big doesn’t automatically mean getting into all those things, but I think some fans who are older-in-fandom and/or older-in-years stop being open to even hearing what’s new. And if you’ve never heard of it, you’ll never know if you might have liked it.

#fandom meta #fandom history #Anonymous

[ghostwoo]

── ❝ 001 : CHARACTER STUDY: SUNWOO SEONG ❞ ───

Name:  Sunwoo “Sean” Seong

Age: 26 

Gender: Nonbinary Male

Pronouns: He / him + They / them

Birthday: Saturday, January 01st 1994 at 06:59 AM

Zodiac sign: Capricorn 

Enneagram Type: Type 8 — THE CHALLENGER

Character Alignment: Chaotic Good

Myers-Briggs Type: ENTJ-A

Chinese Zodiac Sign: Rooster

Birthplace: Santa Monica, California ( Pico District )

Ethnicity: Korean American

Current Location: Downtown Santa Monica

Occupation: Reference Librarian / Anonymous Street Artist 

Sexual Orientation: Pansexual + Demisexual

Relationship Status: Single

Nicknames / Aliases: — “Sol” ( artist tag / alias ) — “Sean” ( acquaintances / generally ) — “Sunny” ( close friends & family )

── ❝ HEADCANON COUNTDOWN ❞ ───

5. FIVE HEADCANONS ABOUT:

Mental Health.

O1. While Sunwoo doesn’t have any psychological disorders that are massively disruptive to their lifestyle, they do exhibit signs of mild narcissism and characteristics of OCD.

Sexual Orientation. 

O2. Sunwoo identifies as pansexual and demisexual. They feel sexual attraction once they have a close emotional bond with someone, and that someone can be anyone regardless of gender.

Their Appearance. 

O3. Their appearance is one of the things they take the most care and pride in. They don’t make a large effort to look flashy, but they like to have an unique flare to their style no matter where they’re going. For work they make ‘business-casual’ attire look formal. For casual gatherings, it might be comfortable but it also looks ridiculously coordinated and cool. They’ve picked up their tricks from looking through countless fashion mags while cataloguing at the library but fashion is a general interest of theirs. Especially since California is a lively state with an infinite pace of styles.

History of their name.

O4. It is one of the Seong family traditions that the parents pick the name of their firstborn grandchild, so Sunwoo’s grandparents chose their name as they’re his mother’s firstborn. Sunwoo’s grandparents chose the name because it sounded mighty and powerful for a boy. But the tradition is also why Sunwoo cracks jokes about how their little brother gets away with getting a generalized name. Sean is the name they chose to generally introduce themselves to people as.

O5. As for their tag name “Sol”, Sunwoo adopted the name during their time doing community service when serving as a volunteer at the library. They became obsessed with mythology and studying the different types of it. The name Sol was always associated with the sun, much like their own name was. On top of that, they embrace the name even more because of its interchange of pronunciation between the word “soul” ( which they feel all art speaks from + calling themselves the ‘soul’ of Pico ) and Seoul, the capital of South Korea, and a homage to their roots.

4. FOUR HEADCANONS ABOUT:

Academics.

O1. After graduating high school, Sunwoo jumps in to study at UCLA. At the age of 20 after interning at Los Angeles County Museum of Art, they complete their two year program and receive their master’s degree in Library and Information Science (MLIS) with special concentrations in academics, reference, and user services.

Favorite Things. 

Three things Sunwoo cannot function too far without: 

O2. Diet Coca Cola ( they’re always seen with one. It’s a pretty unhealthy habit they’re busy trying to break. )

O3. a nice watch ( they love having matching watches to go with their outfits )

O4. and a fidget spinner. ( Sunwoo enjoys spinning them when he’s idle at work or in deep thought. They can do a few tricks. Their little brother turned them onto these after leaving a few at his apartment by accident. )

3. THREE HEADCANONS ABOUT:

 Languages spoken.

O1. Sunwoo can speak in English, Korean, and Spanish fluently. They started to pick up Spanish from friends as a teen and chose to completely commit to learning the language when they noticed a need for speakers during their time doing community service work at the library. Between learning Mandarin and Spanish, both predominant languages in the community, Sunwoo opt for Spanish not only for the need but also? They quietly enjoy the shock of people have when an Asian begins fluently speaks the language.

Home life. 

O2. Sunwoo was raised in a single-parent home, since their dad walked out on their family when they turned 17. He went off to marry another woman and began a family of his own and Sunwoo resents him for it. Otherwise, Sunwoo’s mom and his baby brother, Mason are their world and he would do anything for them. He was quick to readjust his more reckless behavior to be a better role model for Mason after their dad left. He moved out from their home in the Pico District to an apartment Downtown when they were 21. 

Ethnicity/Culture. 

O3. Though they were born in America they’re not shy in embracing their Korean heritage and roots. They’re very proud and appreciative of their culture and though Mason doesn’t appreciate it as deeply as Sunwoo does, they’re glad that their mother didn’t shy away from sharing and raising her boys around it despite it being in a different country.

2. TWO HEADCANONS ABOUT:

Favorite Food. 

O2.  Sunwoo loves loves loves pizza. If pizza is mentioned you could make them budge on close to anything. There are so many types of pizza and pizza combinations in the world you can never ever get bored.

Their Workplace.

O1. The library is their home away from home. They’ve been working at the Main Branch in the head reference librarian in the reference department for five years. Their desk and workspace is very neat. They have a two art prints and photos of them and their family framed around their desk. There’s also a small personal collection of their favorite philosophy books on display, a small desk plant, and a glass dragon egg for display simply for the aesthetic. They make sure their desk always remains neat and clean.

1. ONE HEADCANON ABOUT:

Defining moment + A Goal.

O1. It was a impromptu, spur of the moment visit back to the neighborhoods of Pico one day. They were pretty upset over something, and if you asked Sunwoo now, they still couldn’t tell you what it was exactly. All they knew was the only way to make themselves feel better was the comfort food served in a local corner store they used to frequent so often as a kid. It was a hotspot among many in the neighborhood and the family that ran it was always friendly and there was no way you could be mad once interacting with them. 

Except when Sunwoo arrived, the corner store was shut down and instead had an obnoxious sign nailed outside the building about a reconstruction for a new shopping center instead. Sunwoo was baffled, wondering how many people knew, knowing the closure had to be fresh because there were a handful of people in their contacts that would’ve told them of any premeditated closures. They wondered if the family had much of a warning, as Sunwoo knew for years the business was how they made their living. The entire situation ignited a blazing fire with them. The projects of building around Pico wasn’t new per say, but this was too close to home. For a shopping center? For who’s benefit? It hit too close to home. It was too close to someone else’s home. 

After days of digging, reconstructing the story on the closure, hearing more stories of displacement, and reading into the million dollar projects that would be appearing in the area of Pico over the next few years, Sunwoo’s kindled anger had become an entire firestorm.

Those they said they did, the city didn’t really care. The “betterment” of the district was at the expense of the people who lived there their entire lives. Sunwoo was one of those people. No matter how far they moved, Pico was always home. 

Despite being better in the eyes of the law, serving the community to dismiss older incidents of graffiti tagging as a teen, Sunwoo picked up some old spray cans. They came back to the corner store, now sad and deserted, and went at the sign that showcased the pristine future shopping center: ‘F*CK YOU’.

It was aggressive, it was all rage, it was relieving. But it could be better. They could be better. It was start of a war, but not the one Sunwoo could see themselves continuing. Their noise couldn’t be bleak and dark like most taggers resorted to. It had to be bright. It had to paint the town, it had to speak loud and illuminate Pico to prove to Santa Monica it was something worth saving. 

Pico had to have a light. And Sol would be the one to do it.

#sm:task #sm:talk #//i smashed two into one and hm lets say this unintentionally got Long™ 😰😰 pls forgive if you read thru #( sunnygraphics )

[purplesurveys]

853

1. What is your first language? Filipino.

2. How many languages do you know currently? (Even if you’re not fluent) I can read and speak fluently in Filipino and English. I can slightly read Cebuano and Spanish if there’s enough context and if I recognize enough words haha. There are also phrases in other Filipino languages that I’ll be able to catch but they are very few and far between, like Kapampangan and Ilokano.

3. If your first language is not English, when did you start learning English? If your first language is English, have you ever picked up another language and when? I started reading from a very early age and since all the books my parents got me were in English, that’s where I learned my first English words. My grandpa also always preferred speaking to me in English so I learned more phrases and sentences from him. Then the ball rolled when I learned even more English once I started going to school, and then I got exposed to TV shows and movies.

4. How do you feel about films being dubbed and voiced over? Do you prefer to have it in its original language with subtitles or does this not bother you at all? Dubbing is very important at least in the Philippines because we don’t have a completely literate population, especially in the lower classes. It helps them a whole whole lot to just hear voiceovers speaking in Filipino when watching movies that are in English. But for my own personal consumption, I prefer subtitles.

5. Speaking of subtitles, have you ever read them and disagreed with their translation? Yessssss. Some Filipino phrases can be super harsh and when I read the English translation they just don’t pack a punch as much as it would have in Filipino.

6. Do you listen to music with lyrics in languages you do not understand? What draws you to it? I never do that. I personally don’t enjoy listening to music I don’t understand.

7. Do you try to learn a language through music and films? Well I don’t specifically *try* to learn Korean through films and shows. It’s just that I watch too much Korean media that I just kinda pick up words and phrases and end up learning.

8. What is a language that you’ve always wanted to learn, but feel that you would never be able to learn? Any Philippine language other than Filipino.

9. Is your household bilingual? Yes.

10. What languages sound harsh or rough to your ears? Probably German and Russian. Sometimes French. Chinese people also always sound like they’re mad when they’re really just having a normal conversation haha. Koreans sometimes do it too.

11. Do you think the native speakers of the languages that you find rough to be rough as people or have a “harsh” personalities? Not necessarily. Like what I observed from the Chinese and Koreans, it’s really just how they normally speak. They can be completely calm but sound super pissed off to a non-native speaker. Takes a bit of getting used to.

12. In your opinion, what languages sound pleasant? Japanese sounds incredibly soothing to my ears, as long as it’s not a squealing schoolgirl/anime girl talking.

13. What accents and/or regional dialects do you have? I speak Philippine English. Sometimes I’ll codeswitch and speak Taglish, but I only save this for informal settings like if I’m with my friends.

14. Do you think that there are certain situations where it is necessary for a person to speak “properly”? In your opinion, what does it mean to speak properly? I guess. I speak ~properly when I’m in a formal or serious situation, like when I was attending my internship, or when I’m in an oral examination, or when I’m speaking with my friends’ parents.

15. Do you believe that a structure of a language shapes the way a person thinks and conceptualises the world? For sure. For instance, Filipino’s a gender neutral language. We have no term for ‘brother’ or ‘sister’ or ‘she’ or ‘he,’ and instead we simply have a term for sibling and the pronoun they. That’s why I was puzzled for quite a while when I saw that other languages had gendered nouns even for inanimate stuff, like Spanish. Your social standing will also dictate the language that you speak and the words you choose to say.

16. What do you find most beautiful about your first language? It’ll be hard to explain to a non-speaker but deep Filipino sounds very poetic. I’m very envious of those with an exceptional command of the language. Also, we have a billion verb tenses and while that’s not necessarily beautiful, it’s fun to see non-speakers get tongue-tied about all of them HAHAHA.

17. How do you feel about linguistic erasure (when certain countries deliberately try to eradicate a language that isn’t considered the standard)? Do you think it happens in your country? Yeah Filipinos act so embarrassed about Filipino and always prefer English. That’s why so many kids now are more fluent in English – some even have a British accent thanks to Peppa Pig??? – and I think that’s even more embarrassing.

18. Can you roll your ‘r’? Yes.

19. Can you pronounce the French ‘r’? How about the German ‘r’? I can do the French r in a way that will probably be considered stereotypical. I’m not claiming that I can do it 100% because I don’t speak the language. I don’t know what the German r is.

20. What grammatical rule or feature in English do you find most bizarre or fascinating? Probably double letters. Thankfully I was always good at spelling, but I know it’s difficult for non-English speakers to memorize the double letters in words like committee, obsession, commemorate, bookkeeper, etc.

#survey #surveys

[idyoma]

The 10 Most Useful Languages for The Global Marketplace

Most Useful Languages

The world is a big place and there’s way more languages about than you can hope to learn.

So how do you decide what to start with?

Sometimes you fall in love with a language; something about it just eats into your bones and buries itself deep inside you.

For some, though, which language to add to their bow can be a much more calculated and logical decision.

If that sounds like you, then keep on reading.

In this Idyoma article, Pauline Farris is looking at which languages are most useful in the global marketplace, for business and travel.

It’s a small world after all

In 1964, Disney featured a ride at the New York World’s Fair. That ride was titled, “It’s a Small World,” and a singing group, the Sherman Brothers, wrote a song of the same title to be played during the ride. Visitors got into boats and traveled through scenes of children from all over the world, animated and in native dress.

That was 1964, and the world was really not such a small place. Certainly, there was international trade and travel, but businesses remained headquartered in their native countries.

The world has indeed become “small,” as the song stated. Today, international business is as commonplace as white bread. Consider just the following:

American retail enterprises have factories all over the world that produce their products (e.g. Nike in China)

American car manufacturers have plants in several foreign countries, and Japan has assembly plants in the U.S.

Consumers use Internet shopping to purchase products from all over the planet. And companies that want to reach foreign consumer markets must market their products and services in those markets.

Large enterprises have staff placed in strategic locations/offices ion countries in which they have business interests.

Companies are involved in importing and exporting raw materials and products among any number of nations and must communicate and collaborate with suppliers, customers, and partners in those other countries.

Job seekers often look for positions in foreign countries and then take up residency or even apply for citizenship in those countries.

With all of these international associations and the need for clear and understandable communication, language obviously becomes a critical factor in business success.

With that in mind, it might be important to take a look at the most important languages that will dominate international business now and in the near future.

Our list of the most useful languages:

Mandarin

Russian

German

Hindi

Arabic

Spanish

Japanese

Portuguese

French

Korean

Most useful languages: 1. Mandarin

While there are many variations of the Chinese language, Mandarin is the most widely spoken (about a billion speakers).

And here is the important thing to remember about China: It has the second-largest economy in the world. Predictions are that it will surpass that of the U.S. in the not too distant future.

The Chinese have expanded their business reach throughout the world, and it will be a rare country that does not feel that reach.

Learning Mandarin would be a wise choice for those who wish to work within the Chinese market place. And as pointed out by The Word Point, a major translation agency, the demand for Chinese translators is growing at a far more rapid rate than for other language experts.

Many companies are now hiring full-time Chinese businessmen and women in key positions, in order to have a better and more productive relationship with Chinese companies with which they do or intend to do business.

The challenge, of course, is that Mandarin is one of the hardest languages to learn for those who are native to the romance languages. On the other hand, Western business-people who are able to speak it will certainly impress their Chinese counterparts.

Most useful languages: 2. Russian

Russia, and its earlier counterpart, The Soviet Union, has wielded great political and economic power throughout the world for a long time. And as the world’s largest producer of oil, it is a force to be reckoned with.

Beyond oil, Russia has economic and political interests all over the world and has business relationships with many major Western enterprises.

It is estimated that about 260 million people in the world speak Russian, including many in countries that became independent when the Soviet Union was broken up. And within these former parts of the Soviet Union (mainly Eastern Europe), there are a large number of business opportunities in the engineering and IT industries.

Russia is also a major market for the U.S. and other Western countries’ goods. Because trade and business dealings will only increase with Russia and other Russian-speaking countries, having good translators or key staff who are fluent in the language is important.

It is another language that is very challenging to learn.

Most useful languages: 3. German

This is, without doubt, a major language of business in Western Europe. Unlike American students, most who grow up in European schools learn a few languages. While English is certainly one of them, German is as well.

Germany also enjoys the best and largest economy among European nations, and it looks as if it will remain in that position for years to come. Any company that is or has plans to enter the German and, indeed, the European market would do well to have its own people fluent in the language. On the other hand, German is not that difficult a language to learn.

Most useful languages: 4. Hindi

If you’re based in America, it is probable that you do not know one student who is studying Hindi, or a high school that is offering it.

Hindi is now the fourth most spoken language in the world, a result of the huge and growing population in India.

While it is still considered a “developing” nation, it is still considered one of the world’s fastest developing economies, and recently surpassed the United Kingdom and France in terms of raw GDP. The numbers of young people earning degrees and entering the global workforce are rapidly growing, and these will be the business leaders of the near future in the country.

Learning Hindi is one thing. Understanding the cultural segments and nuances is quite another. For this reason, companies that do business in India will need not just fluent Hindi speakers but, as well, natives to the culture.

Most useful languages: 5. Arabic

With about 300 million speakers of this language, spanning 27 countries, this language is an obviously important one.

There are plenty of areas in which the U.S. and other Western enterprises have major holdings, business interests, and collaborations across the Middle East and, as such, there are many opportunities for native English speakers to work in the area.

Equally many wealthy Arabic-speaking businessmen have holdings and business interests in Western countries; buying up real estate and investing in major Western corporations.

The Middle East has become a major importer of Western goods as well. As those populations get younger and more modern, and as some of the more traditional cultural standards are being relaxed, the demand is increasing exponentially.

While Arabic is a difficult language with many dialects, companies who do business or who wish to do business either with Arabic language-based businesses or consumers, are well-advised to get great intermediaries or employ Arabic-speaking natives, if they intend to collaborate and/or market effectively.

Most useful languages: 6. Spanish

Not only is the Spanish-speaking population of Latin America growing, but increasingly Spanish-speaking consumers and businesses are moving throughout the Americas.

This language is so prolific in the United States, for example, that now most phone calls taken by American businesses provide the option for English or Spanish.

And there is an increasing Spanish-speaking population throughout Europe as well. Some predict that Spanish-speakers will make up a full 30% of the U.S. population by 2050, and it is currently the official language of some 20 countries.

The business potential in Central and South America has long been realized by any number of American and other Western businesses. It has been an area for manufacturing of goods sold by American companies. But as Latin America continues to develop, there are far more collaborative business opportunities on the horizon.

And Spanish is such an easy language to learn, for those whose native languages are romance. It just makes sense for business leaders to take the time to learn the language, or, barring that, employ a strong staff of native speakers.

If you want to read more on learning Spanish you can read our articles:

Best Way to Learn Spanish: A 6 Month Process That Works for You

The Best 12 Spanish Movies to Immerse Yourself in the Language

Most useful languages: 7. Japanese

Japan continues to be a key player on the international business stage.

Its prowess in the electronics and gaming sectors are almost unmatchable. But more recently, robotics has become a major economic sector. And given that robotics is virtually impacting every major industry worldwide, being a leader in this niche puts Japan at the top for international business. Wikipedia says that Japan currently employs well over a quarter of a million robotics workers and that figure is expected to rise to well over a million by 2025, with revenues upwards to $70 billion.

Japan is one of the world’s largest economies and though Abenomics has come under strain post-crash, the economy continues to increase in productivity and grow in size. Japan are a major world player and their cultural impact globally has increased significantly in recent decades.

While many Japanese business leaders do speak English to some extent, companies would do well to employ Japanese-speaking pros on their teams. It’s a difficult language to learn, but a very popular one at the moment as a surge of Western youth take up the challenge.

Most useful languages: 8. Portuguese

Most people think of Portuguese as a language spoken only in Portugal and Brazil.

Actually, there are about 250 million native speakers in these two countries, and it is the official language in seven more.

But by far the most opportune area of international business is in Brazil, with its population closing in on about 225 million alone. And because over 60% of Brazilians are under 30 and increasingly educated and establishing and/or taking over businesses, the potential for investments, collaborations, and partnerships with foreign enterprises is significant.

Given that Brazil is now by certain metrics the 7th largest economy in the world, a source for significant raw materials, as well as a country coming into its own in industrial sectors, it will greatly help foreign companies to be prepared to deal in the language.

Portuguese is very close to Spanish and is not a difficult language to learn, but getting native-speakers on board now will enhance a company’s ability to get a foothold in this growing economy.

Most useful languages: 9. French

At one point, French was considered the international language of business, but that time has long since passed.

Still, given its colonial history, French is spoken all over the world, on every continent. It is second only to German within the European mainland languages. In all, there are about 350 million French speakers throughout the world, and many businesses, especially in Africa, the Mediterranean and the former Indochina prefer to use it.

As a romance language, French is not terribly difficult for English-speakers to learn, and it is taught throughout high schools and colleges in the English-speaking world. Any business hoping to move into markets that are heavily French-speaking would be advised to get some French-speakers in key positions.

Most useful languages: 10. Korean

The Kia and the Hyundai – both manufactured in Korea. Samsung – another multinational enterprise based in Korea. Within the technology and automobile sectors, Korea is a major player. And it is continually seeking collaborations and partnerships with enterprises all over the world – as distributors, assemblers, etc.

The need for business cooperation between South Korea and enterprises in other countries is significant. And Korean cultural mores demand a personal relationship with any business partners. Having Korean-speaking natives on your team will go a long way to establishing those trustful relationships that are such a priority.

It doesn’t have as many Western learners as Japanese or Chinese languages, but interest is higher now than at any point before.

Isn’t English the most useful language?

While English is still the most widely-used language of business in large parts of the world (there are well over 300 million people who speak English as either their native or second language), things are evolving.

The good news is that businesses will be able to find English-speakers in almost any country into which they wish to expand. But speaking only English can result in disadvantages too. There are cultural relationships to build too, and having speakers of the target business language can break down lots of barriers.

English is incredibly useful and that bodes well for those of us who are native speakers, but we have a great deal to gain from being able to effectively communicate in another major world language.

The global marketplace is becoming increasingly competitive. Businesses that want to move or continue to move into foreign markets would do well to provide some manner to communicate with businesses in their native languages. It breaks the ice, fosters better relationships, and indicates that those organizations are valuable and respected.

What languages do you believe are most valuable in the global marketplace? What’s your plan for learning them? Let us know in the comments below!

This guest post was from Pauline Farris. Pauline speaks Portuguese, English, Spanish and Italian. She travelled the world to immerse herself in new cultures and learn languages. Today she is proud to be a voting member of the American Translators Association and an active participant of the Leadership Council of its Portuguese Language Division.

Check out some more of our articles:

The 14 Best Language Learning Apps for Fluency in 2019

The 7 Best Language Learning Software of 2018: The Awards!

The Best 12 Spanish Movies to Immerse Yourself in the Language

Best Way to Learn Spanish: A 6 Month Process That Works for You

Or download Idyoma, the number 1 app for local language exchange, on the AppStore or Playstore today:

Idyoma on the AppStore

Idyoma on the Playstore

#most useful languages #best languages to learn #english #mandarin #russian #german #hindi #french #spanish #arabic #portuguese #japanese #korean #idyoma #disney

[svartikotturinn]

My speaker attitudes towards dialects

(Adapted from a Reddit comment of mine.)

People who think they know a thing or two about linguistics often tend to chastise others for their prescriptivism, especially others who know a thing or two about linguistics (and I should know—I got my BA in linguistics and East Asian studies). What they tend to ignore, however, is that a key part of linguistics is sociolinguistics, and a key part of that is speakers’ attitudes.

We are speakers. We live in a society where our language is spoken, and we know when and where certain features are used, and our attitude changes accordingly. It’s as inevitable as the change in language itself. Of course, sometimes it’s blatantly classist/racist/sexist, but that’s another issue. Oftentimes it’s purely æsthetic or something related to other issues.

So what about me as a speaker?

Generally I prefer conservative dialects of just about any language, as they maintain certain distinctions that others lose (which can lead to confusion or just less intuitive spelling and murkier etymology).

So, I’ll address the phonological level first.

In English, I like dialects that don’t mix up words like these:¹

Consonants:

Unstressed syllables:

ladder–latter

winner–winter

Syllable finally:

father–farther

Elsewhere:

wine–whine

Vowels:

Before ‹r›

marry–merry–Mary

higher–hire

coyer–coir

flower–flour

horse–hoarse

irk–erk, earn–urn, fur–fir²

Before ‹l›

vial–vile

real–reel

‹u…e›, ‹ew› after coronals

through–threw

you–yew

choose–chews

loot–lute

do–dew

toon–tune

Diphthongs:

wait–weight

Wales–wails

tow–toe

Unstressed syllables:

emission–a mission–omission

Pharaoh–farrow

shivaree–shivery

Otherwise:

cot–caught

meet–meat

The whole just makes so much more sense this way, especially if you’re teaching the language to learners, because that way there’s more of a 1:1 correspondence between orthography and spelling so there’s less memorizing involved (speaking as an English tutor and enthusiastic language learner).

It also helps when there’s a certain ‘symmetry’ in the vowel system, like when both ‹a…e› and ‹o…e› are pronounced as mid-high–high diphthongs (or just long mid-high vowels), one front and the other back; in the eastern half of the US and in the UK, that’s not really the case. Also the tense ‹a› vowel being pronounced the same in all environments makes it much less confusing to teach; in most American dialects, it tends to vary based on the sounds that follow it and whether it’s in a closed or open syllable, and in Australia (and I think certain places in the US) there’s an inconsistent split into two categories among the words. Shifts like those sometimes make more such distinctions (e.g. mad–Madd, and also put–putt for most dialects), but they can be a real headache to teach.

Similarly, I prefer to keep the vowel distinction of hurry–furry, as it makes morpheme boundaries clearer. The same for keeping the first vowel of sorry in words like corridor or horror, because it makes the orthography more consistent, following a clear rule:

A vowel letter before ‹rr› in an open syllable (within morpheme boundaries) is pronounced like a normal tense vowel.

In Hebrew, I have a special appreciation for ethnolects that maintain the distinction between:

uvular and pharyngeal voiceless fricatives, e.g. כָּךְ /käχ/ ‘thus’ vs. קַח /kä/ ‘take! masc. sing.’

glottal stops and voiced pharyngeal fricatives, e.g. אֵד /ʔe̞d/ ‘vapour’ vs. עֵד /ʕe̞d/ ‘witness’

velar and uvular plosives, e.g. כָּל /ko̞l/ ‘every’ vs. קוֹל /qo̞l/ ‘voice’³

plain and pharyngealized voiceless coronal plosives, e.g. תְּבִיעָה /tvi.ˈʕä/ ‘lawsuit’ vs. טְבִיעָה /tˤvi.ˈʕä/ ‘drowning’

plain vs. pharyngealized voiceless alveolar sibilant affricate, e.g. צָאר /t͡säʁ̞/ ‘tsar’ vs. צַר /t͡sˤäʁ̞/ ‘narrow masc. sing.’⁴

simple vs. geminate consonants, e.g. גָּמָל /gä.ˈmäl/ ‘camel’ vs. גַּמָּל /gäm.ˈmäl/ ‘(literary) camel driver’

There are other distinctions that I omitted here, mostly in terms of vowel length and quality: back in the times of the Mishna, Hebrew dialects had up to 7 or 8 different vowels and as many as 3 or even 4 different vowel lengths, but in Modern Israeli Hebrew, the vowels have coalesced into a system of five vowels with no length distinctions. However, those are pretty much obsolete except in liturgical uses, and I don’t care much for liturgical use except for academic interest because I have a very, very negative view of Orthodox Judaism. I somewhat lament the loss of such distinctions to that realm, especially since the loss of those distinctions means that a lot of Hebrew morphology and phonology no longer makes any immediate, intuitive sense (at least until you learn the logic behind it—then it makes a lot more sense but it’s still very mechanical), and is now basically the bane of every highschooler’s existence.

In Japanese, I like dialects which, unlike Standard Japanese (which is based on the Tokyo dialect and serves as the basis for transliteration and standard kana orthography), maintain the traditional distinction between:

Consonants:

plain vs. labialized velar plosives (both voiced and voiceless), e.g.

家事 /kaʑi/ ‘housework’ vs. 火事 /kʷaʑi/ ‘conflagration’

both normally transcribed kaji

雅歌 /gaka/ ‘elegant song’ vs. 画家 /gʷaka/ ‘painter’

both normally transcirbed gaka

voiced sibilant affricates vs. fricatives, e.g.:

alveolo-palatal ones: 地震 /d͡ʑiɕiɴ/ ‘earthquake’ vs. 自信 /ʑiɕiɴ/ ‘confidence’

both normally transcribed jishin

alveolar ones: 数 /käzɯᵝ/ ‘number’ vs. 下図 /käd͡zɯᵝ/ ‘the illustration below’

both normally transcribed jouzu or jōzu

/o/ vs. /wo/:

折る /oɾɯ/ ‘to fold’ vs. 居る /woɾɯ/ ‘to be’

both normally transcribed as oru

Vowels:

long mid-low and mid-high rounded vowels, e.g.:

～長 /–t͡ʃɔː/ ‘head or leader of’ vs. ～庁 /–t͡ʃoː/ ‘government office of’

both normally transcribed as chou or chō, pronounced /–t͡ʃo̞ː/ in Tokyo

In addition, I also like how the Kansai dialect allows for more varied pitch accent patterns than the Tokyo dialect. Distinctions like these, along with those mentioned above, could be immensely helpful in mitigating the preposterous amount of homophones it has (especially among Sino-Japanese loanwords) which make it so, so much harder for learners to master listening comprehension (and for native speakers to understand spoken academic or technical texts), but alas. It also makes the connection between less intuitive go-on & kan-on pairs, which generally remain a mystery to anyone who hasn’t researched them in depth or has any background in Chinese.

In other languages, I naturally prefer other such distinctions, e.g.:

Spanish dialects with lleísmo and distinción

French dialects that preserve all the vowels that Parisian French no longer does, and also between mid-high and mid-low vowels

Portuguese dialects that resist as many of the plethora of mergers other dialects have as possible

Italian dialects that distinguish between mid-high and mid-low vowels; examples of minimal pairs here

The North-central dialect of Vietnamese

Korean dialects that preserve vital distinctions in terms of vowel length and quality as well as pitch accent, and also initial /l/ in loanwords

Mandarin dialects that retain retroflex consonants, rather than merge them into alveolar sibilants (like in Taiwan and southern Mandarin dialects)

Cantonese dialects that retain the difference between

Tones

high and high-falling tones, e.g. 衫 /saːm⁵⁵/ ‘shirt’ vs. 三 /saːm⁵³/ ‘three’

Consonants

plain and labialized velar plosives, e.g. 各 /kɔk̚³/ ‘every, each’ vs. 國 /kwɔk̚³/ ‘country; national’

alveolar laterals and nasals, e.g. 里 /lei̯¹³/ ‘li’ vs. 你 /nei̯¹³/ ‘you sing.’

But at the same time, I’m not above political or regional biases, e.g.:

I like Arabic dialects that maintain the wide array of consonants of Modern Standard Arabic, but I feel very connected to my city of residence Haifa, so I prefer the dialects spoken in this region.

Also, I prefer Standard Taiwanese Mandarin (think Pearl in the Taiwanese dub of Steven Universe) over PRC Mandarin partially because, well, fuck Winnie the Pooh.

On a grammatical level, I love how dialects create subtler distinctions in terms of tense and aspect or pragmatic distinctions:

For example, while African–American English exhibits a wide array of phonological mergers (e.g. fin–thin, den–then), it also exhibits far subtler distinctions of tense and aspect that ‘Standard’ English lacks: compare the short AAE been knew vs. the much longer SE have known for a long time.

Another example is the modern ‘vocal fry’ (a.k.a. creaky voice) that some American girls have started using in the past few years, which marks parenthetical information in a sentence.

This is also why I like German dialects that have a wider use of the preterite (i.e. more northern ones), as opposed to those that have merged them entirely into the present perfect (e.g. in Bavaria). It’s also why I’m somewhat miffed by the merger of the 1st. sing. fut. conjugation of Hebrew verbs into the 3rd. masc. sing. fut. one, e.g. יַסְבִּיר /jäs.ˈbiʁ̞/ ‘[he] will explain’ vs. אַסְבִּיר /ʔäs.ˈbiʁ̞/ ‘[I] will explain’.

On the other hand, being non-binary, I have a special distaste for gendered morphology. This is why I came up with this system to do away with the last bit of gendering in English, and why although I find non-native speakers crude attempts at reinventing Hebrew morphology extremely distasteful (seriously, shit like that is why I say American Jews are, first and foremost, American),⁵ I do rejoice at any erosion I see of gender distinctions in Hebrew. It’s also why I like most sign languages so much—I say ‘most’, because Japanese SL, for example, has gendered pronouns (unlike ASL or Israeli SL, for example), and why I resent the Western influence that led to gendered pronouns becoming a thing in Japanese and Chinese, and why I often think about learning Finnish properly.⁶

On a lexical level, I have a particular affinity for archaisms, or more lexically conservative languages.

In the case of English:

I like dialects that preserve Old English archaisms, words from Old English that have been displaced by Latinate cognates, holding on like the Gaulish village of Astérix and Obelix. Words like gome and blee fascinate me and I wish they were in more common use, which is why I like the idea of Anglish so much.

I also like dialects that maintain mostly obsolete ‘irregular’ forms of verbs, for example clumb as the past participle of climb, as they provide a rare insight into the development of English.

And I most certainly like dialects that still use some variation of thou, like tha in Yorkshire or thee in Lancashire.

Hebrew, on the other hand, doesn’t really have any dialectical variations per se to speak of, or any ‘archaisms’ that they preserve, as it was pretty much dormant for nearly two millennia. Back when Jesus was still around, there was some regional variation among Hebrew speakers—this can be seen in the New Testament, for example, when people confront Simon Peter after Jesus is arrested and claim that his accent gives away the fact that he was one of Jesus’ men. For example, different accents of the time had notably different vowel systems, for example, which is why there were three different systems (roughly speaking) to indicate them at the time, and this is before we’ve even considered Samaritan Hebrew, which is about as comprehensible to a Modern Hebrew speaker as Doric (or even Frisian) is to an English speaker. Hebrew speakers borrow phrases extensively from their traditional literature, much like Chinese people with their four-character idioms, and often use more literary language in tongue-in-cheek, so it’s not really comparable. However, there is some amount of sociolinguistic variation as to doing so, but I would say it has more to do with religious and socio-economic status than ethnolect and certainly regional variation (which is far more limited in Hebrew than in English, mostly confined to rather small subsets of regionalisms), and I do like it when people do use these.

This is why I appreciate Québec French, for all its overzealously purist and prescriptivist faults. It’s often a wonderful museum of words of bygone days, from dialects that the efforts to standardize French have nearly if not completely exterminated. As an English speaker in particular, it’s interesting to see Norman remnants in the language.

On the other hand, it always fascinates me when languages borrow words for concepts they already have, and use the loanword for a more specific concept therein. Consider, for example, the English words kingly (Germanic), royal (Norman), and regal (Latin), or these fascinating examples.

The problem is that many of these features are fairly stigmatized.

In terms of phonology, I make a conscious effort to maintain most of the distinctions above when I speak English, but on the other hand I flap my ‹t›s and ‹d›s in rapid speech to avoid sounding like a stuck-up prick. Similarly, I don’t maintain the wine–whine distinction, for example, unless, say, I’m working with a student on a story that takes place in the Southern US, because I would sound like a dick who’s trying to sound like a Southern gentleman or something. I still teach the distinction, if only to explain why there is such a difference in the orthography to begin with even if I tell students not to observe it when actually speaking. When I speak Hebrew, I most certainly don’t make those traditional ethnolect distinctions—that would come across as being either unbelievably pedantic or outright mocking. When I speak Japanese or other languages, well, I generally don’t know them well enough to maintain all the distinctions as I would like to, even those that aren’t stigmatized, but I do make an effort to at least observe those distinctions when the orthography makes them clear enough (and stick to the standard in Japanese).

In terms of grammar, I don’t teach dialectical English irregular forms. At most, I gloss over them with a sentence or two, and leave it at that. I assume my average student would hardly read books or watch films or TV shows that take place in Appalachia or what-have-you, certainly not without subtitles anyway. If I ever got a particularly advanced student, however… I would still be reluctant, as I am hardly over-familiar with those dialects myself, and don’t want to mislead them. In Hebrew, on the other hand, my grammar and spelling do tend to be very conservative to the point of anachronism sometimes (like, I generally follow the BuMP rule when I speak; most Israelis don’t), but I balance it out with a decent amount of slang.

In terms of lexical items, I pretty much avoid teaching dialectical archaisms altogether. Those are almost entirely useless for students, and I don’t even speak the dialects that use them, so I can’t say for a fact which dialecticalisms are even in current use. In Hebrew, I might make some detours, but that’s because truly archaic words, that wouldn’t even be used in tongue-in-cheek, are a rarity, and oftentimes they share roots with more common words, so they can cement the understanding of those roots more readily.

If no socio-linguistic considerations (or my own fluency) were a complete non-issue?

In English:

I’d make an effort to maintain all of the distinctions mentioned above, including those that are observed today only by a handful of older people from rural areas.

I’d pronounce ‹gh› in words like right and weight to tell them apart from rite and wait.

I’d use thou and AAE grammar and any dialectical archaism or even Anglish coinage I could get away with.

And, of course, I’d use my gender-neutral pronoun system for everyone except trans people who might get dysphoric.

In Hebrew:

I’d speak Hebrew with extremely conservative pronunciation, like BCE-level ancient, making all of the distinctions mentioned above.

On top of those, I would distinguish between the voiceless alveolar sibilant and lateral fricatives (which was lost very early on), so I pronounce סוֹרֵר /soː.ˈreːr/ ‘unruly, recalcitrant’ and שׂוֹרֵר /ɬoː.ˈreːr/ ‘existing, prevailing’ (both in masc. sing.) differently (rather than pronounce both like the first).

I’d reintroduce syllable-final glottal stops so that the orthography and grammar finally make a lick of sense.

On the other hand, I would think of a system to do away with gendered language in Hebrew that still made internal sense.

In Japanese:

I’d speak Japanese with all of the distinctions mentioned above, the fact that they characterize two parts of Japan that are practically on oppsite ends of the country be damned.

I might maybe even bring back a few obsolete features, like nasal vowels or the syllable ye and palatalized consonants before e (when applicable), because they make go-on and kan-on relationships clearer, and also clear up their relationship to Mandarin and other languages with extensive Sinitic vocabulary. (Although I doubt there are modern dialects that do that today, certainly not in a discriminating way, so I might give up on that.)

And, of course, I would do it all with Kansai pitch accent, or at least  There are too many homophones, damnit, I gotta tell them apart SOMEHOW!

In Mandarin:

I’d speak Mandarin with Standard Taiwanese pronunciation.

Maybe I’d even use the Old National Pronunciation—what with my background in Japanese, it would save me a lot of memorizing, because I’d remember that all the characters that ended with a voiceless consonant in Japanese have the same tone in Mandarin.

Hell, I might even reintroduce the distinction between /e/, /ɔ/, and /a/.

In Cantonese:

I’d distinguish between the tones and the initial consonants, as mentioned above.

In addition, I might even bring back the distinction between alveolar and palato-alveolar sibilants that died in 1950—it’ll certainly make things easier for me, as I’ve learned some Mandarin in the past.

In Korean:

I’d speak a mix of dialects preserving all of the above distinctions and then some; I’d probably sound a lot like I were from North Korea, but in this scenario this wouldn’t matter.

In Vietnamese:

North-central dialect all the way.

In that scenario, the only thing that would stop me from talking like that would be comprehensibility. It would definitely be an issue—even today English speakers would probably be thrown off by pronouncing the ‹gh›, for one, and I’m sure my variety of Hebrew would be incomprehensible to most native speakers today.

But for now, I’ll make do with what I got, I guess.

—

Endnotes

¹ Most dialects that do mix them up generally pronounce them like the former in each pair.

² These distinction traditionally exists in Scotland; Ireland has a two-way split that works differently. On this note, I’d also count distinctions between e.g. wait and weight, but at this point it’s already Scots, not English. (Which is just another reason I love Scots so much, along with its lexical conservatism.)

³ This distinction, as well as the three that follow, are exceedingly rare.

⁴ The phranyngealized voiceless alveolar sibilant affricate was not preserved as such in any ethnolect: it either became a pharyngealized voiceless alveolar sibilant fricative (in Yemenite and Mizrahi Hebrew), or it simply lost its pharyngealization (in Sephardi and Ashkenazi Hebrew, and Modern Israeli Hebrew)—e.g. צַד /t͡sˤäd/ > /sˤäd/, /t͡säd/ ‘side’. Barring the exceedingly rare loanword, I could not think of a single minimal pair such as the one given above.

⁵ For the record: I was raised speaking English alongside Hebrew, albeit in a non-Anglophone country, and a lot of research went into my solution to ensure that it’s based on precedent rather than be a tasteless neologism.

⁶ There are other genderless languages as well, but they’re either super-niche or spoken by communities that aren’t as progressive, or both.

#linguistics #sociolinguistics #speaker attitude #personal #languages #dialects #dialectology

[eurolinguiste]

With new apps and online communities sprouting up everyday, there are an endless number of resources to choose from to learn almost any language. You can also connect more easily than ever with native speakers around the world. It’s often easier to feel overwhelmed by the different resources out there than it is to struggle to find them.

Even so, if you’re looking for a way (or an additional way) to make language learning a part of your day, here’s a list of 100+ ways to do just that.

They’re organized by the skills they help you build to help make choosing the right tools easy!

100+ Ways to Learn a New Language

There are essentially four different aspects of language learning – reading, comprehension, speaking, and writing. There are resources that cover all four of these skills, but there are also those that focus one one or two of the aforementioned. 

Getting Started

Use a to-do app to keep your language tasks organized and keep track of your “path goals”. // Path goals are the steps you take to ultimate achieve your “vision goals” (your big, long-term goals). You can read more about goal setting in this post.

Join #CleartheList to keep accountable with a fun group of learners. // We share our goals each month and encourage one another. 

Set specific times for various study tasks. // For example, use your commutes to listen to audio. Do a round of flashcards while you’re brushing your teeth or waiting for your lunch to heat up in the microwave. Use your lunch break for an online lesson or some course book study.

Commit to just five minutes per day. // It adds up quicker than you might think!

Download an app to your mobile device so that you always have something with you. // You can check out the recommendations below, but I personally love Duolingo, Memrise, and LingQ.

Attend a language webinar or live Q&A. // These are fantastic, free online classes that are offered by language bloggers. One of my favorite live Q&A vloggers is Benny Lewis of Fluent in 3 Months.

Take an online language course. // There are tons of great courses online both free and paid. Some of my favourites are Language Routine Mastery, Language Habit Toolkit, and of course, Say Goodbye to Shy, as well as my new free 7-day email course The Busy Language Learner.

A Few Quick & Easy Tasks 

Sometimes it’s just about getting your systems into place, preparing for your actual study and building some momentum. When this is the case, here are a few quick tasks you can complete when you only have a moment, but need or want to do something.

Create a “things to check out list” // That way you can focus on whatever you’re using now, but don’t forget about the other resources that look interesting to you when you decide you’re ready for them.

Open your coursebook to the next lesson // And if you’re feeling ambitious, read the first page. There’s a good chance you won’t stop there.

Look up a word you’ve been wanting to know // This can be a word in your native language that you want to translate into your target language, or a word you heard/read in your target language that you want to look up in your native language. 

Make a list of words to look up later // Same rules apply as above.

Create an account on a language learning platform you’ve been meaning to use. // It can be iTalki, HelloTalk, LingQ, Lang-8, the Innovative Languages courses, Lingoda, Baselang, Rhinospike, you name it…

Send a message to a potential language exchange partner

Distill a page of an old language notebook // This is where you go through an old notebook and copy the words you still don’t know (but find useful) into your new notebook.

Find an article that explains something you’re currently struggling with in your target language. // For me, this was this post on the in subjunctive Spanish.

Read an article from a language blogger on how to learn languages. // Some suggestions are: Fluent in 3 Months, I Will Teach You a Language, Lindsay Does Languages, Fluent Language, Actual Fluency, French Lover, etc. And of course, the blog you’re already reading, Eurolinguiste.

Join a Facebook group // There are tons of lovely Facebook groups that are either language specific or just general groups of fellow language learners.

Do Some Math // Numbers can be tricky in a foreign language. They’re not easy to pull up or understand right away and we sometimes end up doing more translating and mental counting than needed. It can really slow you down. Practice some basic maths in your target language to get more comfortable with numbers.

Sign up for a language mailing list to get tips sent right to your inbox // This can be language specific or not.

Grab one of my 100+ Conversational Words & Phrases Worksheets // So far I have them for Korean, Chinese, French, Italian, and Croatian.

Learn super helpful phrases in your target language // Like: “How do you say ___ in ___ language?” or “Can you repeat that?” or “Can you say that differently?” or “What is ___ in English?” or “Please say it again slowly”.

A Little Bit of Everything

Duolingo // This is a fun and popular language learning app that is available for a variety of languages. You can complete a lesson in just a few minutes, whether at home or on the go.

Assimil // Assimil is my favourite course book series. They have a much wider selection of material available for French speakers, but what they have for English speakers is pretty great as well (if more limited).

Attend a Gathering or Conference // Even if you are not a polyglot (or don’t consider yourself one), I’ve heard good things about each of the language events around the globe. I will actually be a speaker at the upcoming Montréal Lang Fest and it would be incredible to see you there!

Start a Challenge // Like Lindsay Does Languages’ IGLC. Or Benny Lewis’s Speak in a Week.

Visit a Museum or Monument // Whenever M and I travel, I try to pick up the brochures in my target languages and opt for the tours offered in other languages (if available). On our most recent trip to the Getty Museum I had fun reading about the history of the museum in every language but English.

Watch Language Lessons on Youtube // There are a ton of great educational channels available on Youtube. Some of my favorites for Mandarin include Yoyo Chinese and Chinese with Mike. Just do a bit of searching to find videos in your language!

Use a Language Program // There are both free and paid programs to help you with your language learning including: Busuu, Rosetta Stone, Babbel, Rocket Languages et al.

Teach Someone Else // One of the best ways to ingrain a skill (or just better understand it) is through the act of teaching someone else. I began to understand German grammar better when I had to explain it to my father and my tones improved as I started to teach M words in Mandarin.

Start Using FluentU // I was contacted by FluentU a while back to test out their platform and I was impressed. It is a tool I really wish I used more. They also have an incredible blog for each of the languages they feature.

Play Games // If you’re at a beginning level, card games are a great place to start as are word games. Board games can be fun (if you have friends to play with), as can video games (whether online community based or just foreign language versions of games). I play my favorite Nintendo games in Mandarin and I know other language learners who play online games like WOW in their target languages.

Take an In-Person Class // But don’t allow yourself to become one of those students who does the bare minimum to succeed. Take an active interest in learning the language and use the class as a launching point. 

Bust Out Your Phrasebook // And learn phrases rather than individual vocab words. My personal favorite phrasebooks are this one from Tuttle, this one from Assimil and the Lonely Planet Series.

For Advanced Learners: Take a Free Online Language-Specific Class in Your Target Language // Instead of taking a class on your language, take a class in your language. MIT and Coursera offer several courses in other languages for free online.

Try out Glossika // This is another course that offers elements of reading and listening.

Use Forvo to hear how things sound // This is a great online dictionary for tons of languages with audio.

Submit something to Rhinospike // And get it recorded by a native speaker so you can hear how it sounds. Be sure to reciprocate for someone else!

Travel to the Country // Not for everyone – it can be pretty expensive. But it is an option if you have the means.

Reading & Writing

Graded Readers // McGraw-Hill puts out a great series of easy readers. For those of you unfamiliar with the term “graded reader”, read this.

Native Language Books // What better way to improve your French reading comprehension than by reading classic French texts like Le Petit Prince or L’Etranger? The same can be said for any great literature in any language.

Use LingQ // LingQ is honestly my favourite app for language learning right now because it combines one of my favorite things (reading) with vocabulary study. You can use the content they already have available or you can important your own reading material.

If your language has a different writing system, learn it.

Translations of Your Favorite Books // Like Game of Thrones or Harry Potter? Why don’t you read it in your target language rather than in your native language? If that’s too hard, there are tons of children’s books available to choose from! Dr. Seuss and even some Disney stories are available in a wide selection of languages.

Memrise // Memrise is an incredible online resource and my favourite way to learn new vocabulary.

Flashcards // You can either make your own or use pre-made cards like those made by Flashsticks. Or you can go with digital Flashcards like Antosch & Lin or Anki.

Label Objects in Your House // Make up sticky notes (or use Flashsticks) to label objects in your house to help you build up your day-to-day vocabulary. If you don’t want to overwhelm your loved ones, do it one room at a time.

Textbooks // I particularly like the material that Tuttle puts out. Assimil is another of my favorites.

Keep a Language Journal // It’s a great way to hang on to all the awesome things you’ve learned, review them, and look back at where you were at a few months back.

Free write in your target language // Just because or to submit for corrections.

Translation from Your Target Language // Bust out a target language document and your dictionary and get to work with this old school way to learn a language. In addition to translating the document, I like to keep a second notebook on hand to make notes on the information that is new to me and that I’d like to retain.

Translation into Your Target Language // This is a bit harder than translating from your target language into your native language. So if you want to up your translation skills, this is definitely a good activity.

Change the Language Settings on Your Devices // You can set the language of your phone or computer in your target language, and there are tons of other ways to get inventive with this option. Heck, even my car is set in one of the languages I’m learning (I changed the radio/control panel language in the settings) as is my gaming system.

Change the Language Settings on Your Social Media Accounts // This sometimes needs to be done separately from the device itself.

Check Out the Ethnic Foods Section of Your Local Grocery Store // Learn the ingredients of the foods you eat! 

The Instructions and Ingredients on the Backs of Products You Buy // I’ve done this forever with my shampoo bottles. Now that I’m learning Mandarin, I’ve even started doing it with the tags on my clothes and the instructions for everything I buy. Since I do most of my shopping at the local Chinese market, I end up with tons of material to learn from.

Go to the Library // No need to spend money you might be able to save by checking out the language section at your local library.

Write a script // Scripts are great exercises because they really offer you the chance to focus in on a specific subject  and learn the vocabulary and grammar you need just for that topic.

Newspapers and/or Magazines // Whenever I travel, I try to pickup newspapers in my target language. Even if I don’t use them then, I can save them for when I have time.

Make Friends with Your Dictionary // Open up to a random page and learn a new word. Make a list of words you’d like to know, look them up, and create a new flashcard set or vocab list like this. I also like Language Surfer‘s advice on this technique.

Use Readlang // I only just discovered this tool and I’m going to have to add it to my arsenal of study tools.

Use Lang-8 or iTalki‘s Journal Tool to Write // These sites offer your the opportunity to write in your target language and have it corrected by a native speaker. It doesn’t cost anything, but be kind and reciprocate. Correct another language learner in your native language too.

Find a Website Available in Multiple Languages // Open your target language and your native language in two different windows and do a comparison. Take notes. Wikipedia is a great starting point.

Install your Language’s Keyboard on your Phone or Computer // I use my Chinese keyboard to type emojis – it forces me to remember the words for different moods and objects.

Read a Comic // Who says you need to read text-only books anyway?

Focus on Grammar // If you grammar needs some brushing up, spend some time reviewing or learning. Most older language learning texts are great for this as are the Teach Yourself series.

Participate in the Language Reading Challenge!

Grab a guide // My favorites are the Why X is Easy series for French, German, Italian, Spanish, English, and Chinese. Or the Master Japanese and Master Chinese books.

Speaking & Comprehension

Pimsleur // Try a free lesson.

Skype Lessons // If you’re not sure where to find a tutor, iTalki is my favourite platform for connecting with excellent teachers. I’ve also enjoyed Baselang (for Spanish) and Lingoda (for Spanish, German, and French).

Language Exchanges with Native Speakers

Language Exchanges with Others Learning the Same Language // Don’t just rely on native speakers to help you practice your target language. Partner up with others who are learning the same language as you! Lindsay and I did this for Korean and it was a great way to keep accountable.

Converse with Friends

Read Aloud // You know those books I mentioned above? Use those to work on both your reading comprehension and speaking abilities by reading aloud.

Podcasts // There are so many incredible and FREE podcasts available in a wide range of languages. The Innovative language series like RussianPod101, SpanishPod101, JapanesePod101, ChineseClass101, etc. 

Listen to the radio // If you’re ready for it, you can dive into native language radio programs, or you can try out something like News in Slow French/Spanish or Slow Chinese.

Conversations with Yourself // It can be intimidating trying to converse with a native speaker for the first time, so why not get some practice in on your own first?

Audiobooks // This is great for those of you that spend a good amount of time in the car. Why listen to “The Three Musketeers” when you can enjoy “Les Trois Mousquetaires”? The great thing about most players too is that you can slow them down!

Find a Restaurant in Your Area // Get some practice in ordering and conversing in your target language.

Record Yourself Speaking // This is a learning technique that I’ve used often in music and that can certainly carry over into language. One of the best ways to improve your pronunciation and speaking abilities are to record yourself and listen back. You’ll definitely hear mistakes you didn’t even know you were making!

Go to a Cultural Event in Your Area // About a year ago I went to an Italian heritage festival hosted by a neighboring city with my parents. It was a great opportunity for me to brush up on my Italian, enjoy delicious food, make new friends, and hear a variety of Italian music (everything from opera to pop).

Start a Vlog // Record yourself speaking in your target language and share it on Instagram (like I do) or on Youtube.

Watch Commercials on Youtube // They are short and some even have captions. They’re a great way to get bite-size language exposure.

Watch a Movies or TV Show with Subtitles // If you’re looking for something a little more involved try graduating up to television shows or movies.

Watch a Movie or TV Show without Subtitles // Even if you don’t understand everything, this can be a great way to push your comprehension or get a better feel for what level you’re at.

Watch an Overdubbed Version of Your Favorite Movie // Try watching it with and without subtitles. You already know the plot and can probably remember a good chunk of the dialog.

Watch a movie or tv show that is more than one language // This is a little less intense than watching an entire series or movie in a foreign language. One of my favourites for Russian is The Americans. You can really have fun with this and even use it to learn a conlang like Dothraki by watching Game of Thrones. Hey, it’s all in the name of learning a language!

Listen to Music in Your Target Language // Spotify has a great collection of music to choose from although some artists have blocked certain countries. I also use Kougu which is the Chinese equivalent of Pandora (and oddly enough, they have a French language channel). I have also started playlists for the languages I’m learning that you can checkout on my YouTube channel.

Work on Pronunciation // Focus on properly pronouncing your language’s alphabet or combinations of sounds (for example tones in Mandarin). Really break it down so that you can work on just creating the right sounds. This is especially crucial if the language you are learning has sounds that don’t exist in your native language.

Record yourself // You can record  one of your lessons or exchanges, or even your monologue. Be sure to listen back!

Learn different interjections an onomatopoetic expressions. // These are fun ways to sound more “native”.

Focus on learning conversation connectors. // These are great tools to give yourself the chance to think and segue into new topics. Anthony Lauder has a fantastic list for Czech. You can use it as a basis to translate into your target language.

Bonus

I like to think that learning about the cultures associated with the languages you’re learning as a bonus to developing your ability and attachment to what you’re studying. Consider the following:

Read a Book About the History of Your Language // Or about the group of languages to which yours belongs (i.e. Slavic languages rather than Croatian).

Read a Book About the History of One of the Countries Where Your Language is Spoken // It can be a general history, one on a specific time period or specific movement. Whatever interests you.

Read a Book About the Experience Someone Had Moving to or Traveling Through a Country Where Your Target Language is Spoken // This is a great way to get an outside perspective.

Learn to Cook a Local Dish // Double bonus if you can cook it using the recipe in your target language rather than a translated recipe!

Take a Look at a Map and Learn About the Major Cities // Use a map to pinpoint the larger cities and look them up. Don’t cheat and Google “large cities in XYZ country.” Get familiar with your country’s geography and where the major cities are located.

Learn About Some of the Holidays Unique to the Country Where Your Language is Spoken // Double bonus if you can find a celebration in your area and attend!

Don’t go looking for something if you don’t have a problem. // I don’t know what it is about language learning that leads to us hoarding resources, but there is definitely something. Perhaps it’s in thinking that we’ll be more thorough or that a new resource will solve a problem for us, or who knows. I’ve recently adapted a more minimalist approach to language learning, so I only bring a new resource in when I have a problem my current resources don’t solve.

Learn some of the common hand gestures or body language used by those who speak your target language. // There are some infographics like this, but watching movies or tv shows is another great way to do this.

Take a course that teaches you how to be a better learner overall // Like the Learning How to Learn course on Coursera or Scott Young’s Rapid Learner course.

I’m tackling some of the items on this list of 100+ ways to learn a language from @eurolinguistesk… Click To Tweet

I hope to continue building out this list, so if you think there are any techniques I’ve missed, please feel free to share in the comments. I look forward to hearing from you!

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[pricelessmomentblog]

New Project: Level Up Korean with Five Hours Per Week

One of the most important variables in any learning project is simply how much time you devote. Devoting fifty hours per week is going to have much faster progress than fifty minutes each week. This should be obvious.

However, when evaluating the success of others, this factor of hourly time investment is often ignored. People asking how long you’ve been learning a language always ask it in terms of months or years, never hours.

Most baffling to me was some of the responses I got from the MIT Challenge. I put in 50+ hours a week for nearly a year straight to get through it. Yet, I occasionally get emails from people asking whether it would be possible to do the challenge on time while also juggling a full-time job.

Due to this bias of months over hours, I often pick projects with intense full-time schedules. They are more compelling because most people focus on the total duration of the project, and not the number of hours.

I want to try to undo some of that bias by trying a different kind of project, one that is decidedly part-time. I want to improve my Korean language abilities with only committing five hours per week (one hour per weekday).

Why Korean?

Korea was the last of the four stops on Vat and my language learning trip. Korean is a difficult language, we had very minimal preparation, and the weight of having to repeat an immersive language learning process four times in a row burned us out. This combination of factors meant my Korean wasn’t at the level I had gotten to with Chinese, Spanish or Portuguese.

I would say, when I left Korea, that my ability was somewhere in a low-intermediate. I could have basic conversations. I could also have more difficult conversations, provided the vocabulary gaps could be filled with a dictionary or someone who otherwise knew English.

Coming off of the trip, I felt like my Korean was the most frustrating to maintain. While the other languages tended to get maintained in real-use situations—encountering people who spoke those languages—I rarely use my Korean, even when the opportunity comes up.

As such, my only current practice comes from a twice monthly maintenance lesson I have with a tutor on Skype. Given the initial investment in learning, and the ongoing investment in maintenance, I felt that it was time I either decided to get up to a comfortable usage level of Korean or drop it in favor of focusing on other things.

In the end, I decided I’d rather improve my Korean a bit to a level where I can comfortably use it, than to just let it decline. However, my schedule at the moment doesn’t permit a big full-time ultralearning project. So, I decided to use this opportunity to look at the kind of progress I can make with far fewer hours invested.

Ultralearning in Five Hours Per Week?

Ultralearning is a term I use to describe intense self-education projects. This puts it in contrast with the majority of self-education projects which tend to carefully pick activities to maximize enjoyment and avoid frustrating difficulty.

Learning a project full-time or nearly full-time is one type of intensity. However, there are good reasons to believe it might not be the best kind. Doing lots of learning in one large chunk has diminishing returns. Therefore, this kind of intensity may allow you to pick up skills quickly, but you actually lose efficiency over more minimal projects.

A different type of intensity, however, is the intensity you apply within each hour of your learning. Consider two different language learning tasks:

Grinding through an exercise at the edge of your ability. You need 100% of your concentration and you still don’t get it all the time.

Passively flipping through flashcards while you commute.

The former is certainly more intense than the latter.

I hesitate to say that the former is necessarily more effective than the latter. Good learning projects often use a mix of learning activities that themselves vary in their demands on concentration.

However, because the dominant mode of self-education is a heavy bias towards less-intense methods, the former activities are often completely omitted, even when they are necessary to make a key improvement. The research on deliberate practice shows that this amateur bias towards fun, is prevalent in almost domains of learning.

The ultralearning philosophy is to flip that on its head. Define a schedule for learning. Set clear directions and motivations. Push yourself to engage in intense activities that will drive improvement.

No, this approach isn’t for everyone. But, I believe the results are usually worth it. There is also something distinctly satisfying about doing something in a hard way, that doesn’t try to dodge the core activity of learning.

My Plan for Learning Korean

My plan for Korean is to commit five hours, but not restrict myself to five hours. That may seem like an odd distinction, but I think it’s a very useful one (particularly for language learning projects).

My five-hour commitment means I’m setting aside five hours per week to do the kind of intense, deliberate practice and active learning that will best create improvement. Those hours are going in my schedule, my daily to-do list and I’ll be doing my best not to miss any of them.

This commitment, however, doesn’t mean I will prevent myself from engaging in the language at all outside of these bounds. If I want to watch a television show in Korean, go to a Korean restaurant and speak to the waiter or casually do some flashcards on my phone, I won’t hold myself back.

The key is that, outside my committed hours, I’ll neither push myself nor avoid using Korean. If I’m sick of learning Korean for the day, there’s no pressure to do more. But if I have an opportunity to engage and I’m genuinely interested, I won’t stop myself.

This way of thinking about ultralearning a language, in my experience, works well because the core hours are often helpful for making genuine improvements, but once you start engaging in the language, opportunities start coming up to learn it in a more spontaneous way.

As of this moment, my current learning plan is as follows:

1. Two, one-hour tutoring sessions, via iTalki.com.

Because I’m already at a low-intermediate level, my goal here is to avoid complacency. Only speak in Korean. Use a variety of different tutors so that I don’t get into a communicative rhythm with one that won’t extend to new situations.

2. One hour of grammar practice.

I believe I made the mistake, in Korea, of learning the grammar through flashcards instead of an actual grammar textbook. My starting resource is to use HowToStudyKorean.com.

3. One hour of listening practice.

Intensive listening practice was very useful in Chinese, but while in Korea, I didn’t have particularly good resources for it. Since that time, new resources have come up that I’m eager to try out and see if I can fix that mistake. My starting resource is going to be FluentU, but there’s a lot of different resources here so I will probably experiment in the first few weeks.

4. One hour reading/writing practice.

My goal is still conversational with Korean, so adding reading/writing might seem odd. However, I found that learning to read/write in Chinese opened a lot of doors in my conversational ability. While it might be wise to ignore in the early stages, I think avoiding reading will probably hold back moving to an upper-intermediate stage and beyond.

In addition to these committed hours of practice, I’ll also be monitoring my usage with some other possible, casual learning activities. These include:

1. Anki cards.

For some people, Anki is a grind and would definitely require committed focus. Personally, I find it very easy to fill spare moments with Anki, and that’s why I got through over 16,000 cards in Chinese (probably too many, to be honest). I’d like to make a deck I can do the same with Korean, but I won’t push myself if it feels onerous.

2. Korean television or movies.

Not sure about this one. I know Korean dramas and K-Pop are a big reason many Westerners become interested in Korean culture, but I’m not a huge fan of soap operas or bubblegum pop. That said, I love moves like Oldboy and The Wailing. Although I’m still at a level where watching without subtitles isn’t enjoyable enough to sustain without effort, so I’m not sure how much benefit will come from watching with English subtitles.

3. Socializing in Korean.

Here I’m lucky. I live in downtown Vancouver, Canada, right next to a large community of Korean speakers. Many Korean students come here to learn English, so my section of town is full of Korean restaurants and bars. In theory, it shouldn’t be too hard to practice if I feel up for it.

What I Want to Achieve

Honestly, I don’t expect to accomplish anything impressive with this project. That might sound defeatist, but simply because, having done a lot of public projects, I know a lot of the biases that go into what other people think is impressive.

The monthly-over-hourly bias means people tend to view projects done over a very short time as more impressive than a similar project which took the same number of hours over a longer period of time.

Another bias is that people see projects which start from scratch as more impressive than those which start from an intermediate level. In part, this is because zero is an easy benchmark to imagine progress from. The other reason is that outsiders are bad at evaluating skill level, and so often can’t perceive even large differences in intermediate skill level.

However, while these biases mean that my project probably isn’t going to be as compelling as some of my other ultralearning projects, I think there’s a good chance I can still make some important personal gains in my Korean to justify the commitment.

My long-term hope is to reach an upper-intermediate level of Korean. I recently traveled to China and did some public speaking in Chinese. While I’m far from that goal now in Korean, that’s something I’d eventually like to reach.

My more immediate goal is to be able to spontaneously participate in Korean, the way I feel I can comfortably do in the other languages I’ve learned. This means I should be able to have a conversation with Korean people without anyone feeling they need to switch back to English to accommodate me.

It’s not clear how long this will take. I may be closer than I realize and can accomplish the goal in a couple months. It may be further and require closer to a year. I don’t really know.

For now, my goal is to commit month-to-month. Meaning I’m going to commit for one month and renew my commitment each month as I feel necessary. I’ll try to provide semi-regular progress updates to show how the project is getting on.

Interested in Leveling Up With Me?

I realize that many people find themselves in a similar situation. They’ve been learning a language for some time, but don’t feel it’s quite where they want it to be. However, they don’t have the opportunity to travel or otherwise commit full-time to improving it.

If anyone else is interested in doing something similar to “level-up” their language ability, why not share your plan in the comments?

New Project: Level Up Korean with Five Hours Per Week syndicated from http://ift.tt/2kl7pJj