Recently in Personal Progress Category

Language Programs Pimsleur and Michel Thomas

By Ascolto on July 13, 2009 8:30 AM | No Comments | No TrackBacks

Recently, I've discovered that there is interest between the differing programs out there to study language. While there are uncounted resources to learn a language some of the most well known and popular programs are Pimsleur and Michel Thomas. These programs have been used over and over, and their price shows that they may have something to offer as well, being that these programs are generally quite expensive.

I'll start off by saying that because these two programs are the most popular it doesn't mean they are the best option for all learners, nor does it mean that they don't have very formidable competitors. Often it depends on what language you want to learn, and why exactly you are learning the language. Linguaphone alltalk is language learning system that has books as well as tapes, which are very useful, since in many cases the learning follows a paradigm of a story, which means you are consistently being prepared for real life situations in which you then learn the necessary vocabulary to survive in these situations. I think Linguaphone is one of the better competitors to the most popular programs, but there are still more out there, which come in handy to different sorts of learners.

The Pimsleur and Michel Thomas programs both offer programs that are designed to give the learner a conversational proficiency. The programs can vary widely in what areas they give conversational proficiency, but generally deal with introductions, ordering food, getting from A to B, human emotion, and perhaps even introducing yourself. Neither of the programs really focus on writing ability or reading ability, although some Pimsleur programs do contain short reading sections, but are not integral to the course, since they can be completed at any time within the course. This also means that both the programs will not help with key reading skills that would be necessary abroad, which for me means that these programs are survival courses meant to keep the learner and traveler abroad agile enough to make their way through most situations without being left in the dust. Both of these courses also make excellent companions to traditional courses in the language, and will augment vocabulary and fluency, which is a definite plus and why I would recommend using one of these programs in addition to traditional courses.

There are some key differences between the programs though. The Pimsleur program was developed by researcher Paul Pimsleur, and through his research found that most learners need to repeat a word an average of 80 times before they can actively use and recall vocabulary. The research also found that learners retained more information in lessons of 30 minutes, and any longer was too much, which means Pimsleur has short and to the point lessons packed with content (information via introduction to Pimsleur programs). Thus, the Pimsleur program stresses memorization, but in such a way that words are repeated in context over a long period of time, which means the learner is forced to actively try to remember, but the memorization isn't a rote process that is painful. The process is actually quite pleasant and not very dull at all. The program follows natural dialogue between natives and between foreigners and natives. The conversational variety progresses slowly as the program moves on, but will review old vocabulary on each step of the journey, so once you finish you have a strong foundation of vocabulary that can be remembered with very little effort. The downside to this method is that conversational variety and ability to speak without a scripted pre-formed sentence is not really a skill that is allowed to develop here. Another reason why it makes a better companion to traditional study. However, I wouldn't say that this program is at all bad for independent study in other circumstances, because in the right context with an avid and active learner this program is really quite useful.

The Michel Thomas program was developed by a linguist of the same name who learned several European languages, and subsequently developed courses using the method aptly named the, "Michel Thomas Method," which focuses on conversational variety and immediate fluency in a language based on recognition of cognates in the language similar to the learner's own tongue. The method seems to be exclusive to English, whereas Pimsleur has programs for say Spanish speakers trying to learn English and more, which makes it more usable for learners who do not prefer to learn from English to their target language. In some respects Michel Thomas focuses more on the vocabulary the user already knows and can easily remember, meaning that the method of communication is much simpler, vocabulary acquisition is much faster, and communication is therefore more intimate in some instances than it would be with Pimsleur. This method is particularly useful when the learner wants to express emotion rather than stress survival skills, although the course does not forget key survival areas such as food and travel accommodations. The strength of Michel Thomas is that is provides the learner with very immediate results and with most European languages an active vocabulary of several thousand words, which are learned with little to no effort, since they are cognates. The program also stresses that the learner is not to actively memorize or try to think of the words, but rather let them flow naturally. This is perhaps a blessing and a curse of the program. While stress and anxiety are poor motivators they are also to an extent necessary in small amounts to get the learner to have a quick memory while speaking.

While I like both of the courses each of them have their own individual drawbacks. The Michel Thomas Method has been developed into many other languages since Michel's death, including languages such as Russian and Arabic, however the efficacy of these courses in languages that don't match the method so easily is quite debatable. Furthermore, the Michel Thomas Method preys on the fact that English is an international language, which makes it difficult for foreigners to use if they aren't familiar with English. While Pimsleur is much less faulted because serious research has given applicable methods that work across languages but the same vocabulary is not as readily applicable with this program as with Michel Thomas. The programs are essentially equal in the applicability and usefulness to the learner. While I can see results more quickly with Michel Thomas, I am much more confident and fluent after have spent time with Pimsleur. I also find the Pimsleur program to be much more mentally stimulating and fun than I do the Michel Thomas program. The Michel Thomas program also has a more sociable aspect to it, which means that during the audio lessons there is regular conversation about the history and development of the language, as well as the stress of the learners that learn with you during the course. Although with Michel Thomas it is much more challenging to hear the perpetual mistakes of the learners through the program, than to just make it past your own mistakes, and not pickup on the mistakes of the learners. This makes Pimsleur much more personal and accessible, because you are not sharing the experience with others, but rather trying it yourself, instead of with the learners. I find Pimsleur more challenging, yet more accessible than Michel Thomas, because it focuses on retention rather than quick fluency tricks. In summation, I would say the proper program depends on the learner, and the amount of fluency he or she wants to develop. I would definitely recommend Pimsleur for serious learners and Michel Thomas for casual learners that want to wet their feet and gain some fast fluency.

Anxiety in Foreign Language Classrooms

By Ascolto on June 26, 2009 4:30 PM | 1 Comment | No TrackBacks

I have finished my 6 week course in Arabic at the University of Utah. Throughout the course I became really interested in how people pickup vocabulary in foreign languages and especially how people deal with stress and the anxiety of learning a Less Commonly Taught Language (LCTL). In the past I have always had a remarkably easy time memorizing and remembering the vocabulary in Spanish and Portuguese. Having learned languages similar to English this is of course an expected outcome for learners.

However, with Arabic I struggled to pickup the vocabulary quickly, especially because the vocabulary was being thrown at me at an incredible rate at about 20+ words a day - more or less- and then I was expected to recognize around half of the vocabulary that was on the list to learn. In addition to this the foreign script and unfamiliar sounds made visualization of the word even more difficult to tackle. So I set out to learn a way to memorize vocabulary more easily.

I researched some of the more common ways to learn vocabulary. With no surprise Mnemonics were the tips topping most lists. Relating the new word to a word you already know seems to be the most dominant way to memorize vocabulary that seems difficult. For example, relating the new word to any word you know that sounds similar to the new word, and then putting a mental image in your head relating the two words together. As an example take the word al-izdham(الازدحام), which I related to the words "his ham," then I imagined people crowding around his ham, and the rest is the magic of mnemonics. This technique in most research seems to be the most effective since the visual and auditory queues help to store the vocabulary more readily in the mind, and eventually the mnemonic device becomes unnecessary.

Another problem that seems to be evident at least within my studies in Arabic and possibly of LCTLs is that the vocabulary is not presented in orderly fashion, which means that the new vocabulary is presented to the student in the form of a story, which means that the new vocabulary is essentially random, and may or may not have any real utility for the student. This is the biggest problem in learning and teaching a language, and the fact is students will not strive to retain any vocabulary that will not be directly useful to them. Useful vocabulary is anything that is used multiple times or information that is necessary for what the student has the desire to communicate, and for the most part the random vocabulary presented may not represent what the student wants to say. I`ve found that the best way to learn the vocabulary with a solid foundation is to use the vocabulary in a contextual environment, which means that writing the vocabulary out in context plays a key role in remembering any of it, and the advantage of reading and hearing the new vocabulary in context from a native text is also extremely useful as well.

I also audited the 6 week course that I took, which means I didn't` have the pressure of a final grade or the stress of failing in a language which was completely foreign to me. More than half of the students in both sections of the course dropped the course, because of emergencies, fears, and a general lack of confidence. Students taking the class for a grade had an incredible time coping with the stress of the class. Although I was auditing the course I tried to keep myself to the same levels as the other students earning a grade, and I did just that, as I kept up with most of the homework during the program, and I didn`t miss a day of the 6 week course. With that said I had a very stressful 10 hour per day schedule. After the first week I was feeling stressed, and came close to dropping the course.

During the course I noticed a fluctuation in the anxiety levels of most of my classmates. During the first week of learning the script and learning to write students were noticeably more anxious and insecure of their abilities. The initial shock of the program also caused the anxiety that lead to most people leaving the course, even a linguistics major, who seemed content on staying throughout the course. From what I've read about anxiety in the classroom, and especially LCTLs anxiety when learning is not a useful strategy. Certainly a healthy amount of anxiety is natural and happens in most classroom situations, but when the anxiety becomes higher, then students tend to underperform, or drop out, and stop learning the language completely.

This underscores an essential problem in learning LCTLs, because the anxiety of learning something completely foreign with a different script and drastically different sound patterns makes learning something more difficult than with the languages that are taught and learned more frequently. Unlike Spanish the Arabic language takes a considerably longer amount of time to master, which means the learner is forced to become much more patient in order to gain even intermediate proficiency. This is a frustrating aspect to learning a language such as Arabic, because the language does not lend itself very easily to foreigners, and is unremitting when it comes to the desires of the learner. Although I should warn future learners that past the initial hurdles of a beginning course there is hope on the horizon, and that you too can begin to understand and speak such a foreign language.

There are of course numerous problems that work against learners of LCTLs. Arabic is one that really requires a fight to gain any proficiency at all and proficiency that lasts and can create an effective communication between you and a native of the language. Arabic is unfortunate in that there are multiple dialects that can vary greatly between countries, and speaking Modern Standard Arabic (MSA) has the tendency to come of as elitist. This means that most learners will at some point need to come in contact and partially master a dialect of the language in order to have a greater and more conversational usage of the language.

I can only say that in order to combat this there are several tactics that one might take to eliminate the numerous problems that exist within teaching LCTLs. My suggestions below, with some reiteration:

Script: Teach learners early on not to be afraid of the script, and that as foreign as it looks it is extremely easy to conquer with only a little bit of practice.
Vocabulary: Use mnemonics and present useful vocabulary; make sure to put the vocabulary in context as often as possible. Remember that some people learn vocabulary differently. Some people prefer flashcards, some need kinetic energy to get benefit, others need music, but everyone should use the words in context. Experiment to see what works.
Anxiety: If I were to teach an LCTL my first and primary goal would be to eliminate any initial anxiety about grades. Encourage the students with assurance that their grade is not based on their overall ability in the language, but the effort and time they spend to learn the language. A strict grading scale simply isn't an effective method to keep students learning the language. If students are aware that they aren't expected to be masters they will suffer from less anxiety during the course.
Dialect Mastery: This bullet really relates to the fact that learning a language is a task that is more musical than anything else. Learners, who begin to pickup vocabulary and can memorize entire sentences with ease in foreign languages, are usually to the point where they can hear the acoustic qualities and patterns in the language. Production is no longer a recitation of memorized tables, but rather a pleasant and communicative action. To hear the music of a language as it were continual practice and listening of all forms is helpful in mastery of the task.

I've planned to take the Fall course in Arabic at my university as well, and I hope that I will be able to report back the progress that I`ve made from the remainder of my summer and what I happen to learn as the new semester begins. It will be an interesting experience, and interesting to see how far I am able to progress in my studies.

The Mayan Calendar. And my lack of inspriation.

By Ascolto on November 3, 2008 6:00 AM | No Comments | No TrackBacks

I've been so lost recently in my school work. I've learned quite a bit this semester, and gained an untold amount of information about a lot of things that interest me.

I've been battling stress and sickness within my stomach quite literally. I've had a lot of stomach pain, which I have not been able to completely solve, but the use of bacteria cultures has helped.

I've learned more and more about linguistics in my online linguistics course. However, the professor seems to be involved in his own work and research, without concern for what his students should be learning, but perhaps I am wrong. If that is that case he certainly could learn to listen to his students, and be more attentive to the fact that there are lots of things missing from the text, because it lacks a concise nature to it, besides being a sort of novel text that I don't enjoy reading.

In my political science course I have been focusing a great deal of time on reading many many pages worth of material about International Relations theory, and it is really fascinating, but I can tell that as much as it fascinates me it is not something that I would want to study all the time. My Spanish course is going well, and I'm satisfied with the small amount I've learned in the course, although I generally tend to refer to it as the "Gran repaso" (big review).

On another note, the reason for which I am writing this blog is to write about some interesting things I learned in my Mesoamerican Archaeology class. The professor is quite good at sharing the stories that are known etc. etc. I really like stories and anything that sheds light on peoples that lived not so long ago, but seem so foreign and mystical to me. I've always been so enamored with these cultures that are so radically differet, yet so adept in some ways to things that our modern world cannot comprehend.

The view of time is one of the essentially different characteristics between the Mesoamerican view and the view of today. It is understandable that each culture has an essentially different paradigm into how time is percieved and happens to pass. For the mesoamerican cultures the Mayans and Aztecs it worked with the nromal 360 days calendar minus a few days, and then a ritual calendar with 260 calendar days. The 260 day calendar was the centerpiece of religion, and it was tied to nature with animal symbols. The day a child was born was pivotal in the traits the child would have later in life, it was so telling that even when the child was born, they would delay the birth day ceremonies until a better day passed, meaning that the official birth date would be on the most auspicious day.

These customs extended also to fear that the world would end. According to belief the world had been created and destroyed 4 times. The destruction was all encompassing. Disaster struck with giant jaguars eating everyone up, floods, and other miscellanous tortures abruptly ending the last era. In the current world the 5th world it was foretold that it would ending with earthquakes and then creatures from the sky that would devour anything that lived after the giant quakes. The image above depicts this. At the center you can see the 5th and present era represented with the 4 previous eras depicted upper and lower to the center era, and symbols representing how these eras ended.

But for the Mexica people, also know as the Aztecs, the end of the world was not certain. People could influence it through their actions, mostly to the gods, and mostly through sacrifice and sacrificial blood letting. Every 52 years when the two calendars aligned all the fires within the city/village were extinguished. On this day world's end was within sight. They chose a man to sacrifice, and led him to a cave. The man was of course sacrified his internal organs removed and opened his chest cavity. If the people could start a fire within the empty cavity, then the world would not end, but if they could not then the end of the world was certain.

Well, I've finally written something so I hope you enjoyed it. I'll be back to writing once again when things slow down. Probably around December. If there are enough interesting things out there, then I will try to write a few blogs in advance to prevent deficiency in the Spring semester.

Advantages of speaking with non-natives

By Ascolto on July 30, 2008 8:10 AM | No Comments | No TrackBacks

In a recent blog, I found the assertion by a language learner and teacher that speaking with a non-native in learning can reap many benefits. Previously, I have asserted perhaps unknowingly that speaking with natives is also really beneficial, because of all the first hand real usage you get when it comes to learning. So to append my initial thoughts I will revise my beliefs when it comes to oral practice in a target language.

First, practicing with non-natives is necessary as a beginner, perhaps even essential to developing oral skills, and doing so has a great deal of benefits to the learner. As described in the blog I linked to it puts a learner on a level playing field with someone who knows exactly what you know, give or take some vocabulary, ease of cognition, and conjugation skill. It means that both learners will speak at a steady pace willing to listen to all mistakes and then work collaboratively to assure each person is understanding the conversation. What one learner can do and the other cannot makes for a cooperative situation where each learner is working to reinforce the skills of their partner.

In a native to non-native situation the communicate schema changes completely. I think that delving into speaking with a native should be a step taken only when the learner is proficient enough to accurately comprehend most text, has the ability to ask questions for further information, and can respond appropriately. It is likely that the native will correct and or criticize your mistakes, and my advice is that you should be embarrassed(People learn better that way I'll prove it in an upcoming blog!). I've found that a native to non-native situation is best when the native is learning your native language, then there is a commonality since each person will understand the alternative grammars of each other. It also gives each person the ability to practice their target language and pickup vocabulary that is useful for expressive modes of thought and emotive responses. I've even found it useful if each respective person uses their native language to reply, because you benefit from the ease of expressing your own thoughts, but then you also have to comprehend the reply, this can also work in a vice versa manner.

Here is an example dialogue between an American and Spanish speaker.

American_Guy: Hi
Spanish_Guy: Hola
American_Guy: How are you?
Spanish_Guy: Estoy bien, ¿y tú?

Here there is an exchange fairly simple and natural for both parties. The context here is very simple, but the learner should attempt to say as much as they can in the target language, especially in, "Hello, how are you?" scenarios where the context has been thoroughly memorized. Whereas, more complex ideas can, if appropriate, be kept in the learner´s native language, but still with a valid attempt at coding the text into the target language at least mentally.

For advanced learners who really want to take off with their language learning then it is time to fine a native who is not familiar with English. Why? Well, keeping an active role within your language will help you develop it. In all the previous scenarios of conversing you had the option to slip into your most comfortable mode of communication. Of course, that's what you learned a language for anyhow, so you could converse in the language. However, finding friends who speak only your target language is key to developing a fluidity of speech that is necessary to effectively communicate.

Portuguese Morphology from Spanish

By Ascolto on July 8, 2008 8:14 PM | No Comments | No TrackBacks

I've been searching for proper research about the changes Portuguese underwent from Spanish to become what it is today, but I find that most research dealing with the topic is based on certain verb forms or worded in such a way, as research papers are, that I have no idea what any of it means.

From what I have gathered in only a few weeks of Portuguese this is what I have found to generally be true:

Change in Diphthongs
There is a strong shift in accented diphthongs from Spanish to preserve pronunciation for example: El Camión to O Caminhão.

Other prominent changes that make the diphthong change apparent are very visible in conjugation of the gerund. Verbs ending an ar conjugated in the gerund do not contain a diphthong, and are therefore in most cases conjugated exactly the same in Spanish. While er and ir verbs contain a diphthong in the gerund conjugations, which is in turn eliminated in Portuguese.

N and M Differentiation
An "N" is Spanish will often be switched to an "M" in Portuguese. This is apparent in verbs as well as adjectives i've encountered. An adjective may lose its "N" to an "M", but still have a highly similar pronunciation. In verbs the change is striking "son" changes to "são" and "están" to "estão." What I'll call a nasal diphthong is created to handle the case of the "N".

Removal of Ñ and substitution with silent H
The "Ñ" does not exist in Portuguese and thus leads to an interesting substitution for the sound, which is similar but not the same. A silent "H" replaces each instance in words such as, "Español" to "Espanhol" the absence of the "Ñ" almost create the sound in the silence, okay maybe not, but still the change is apparent and very evident in all words which previous contained the letter.

LL change to CH
In many Portuguese words I have noticed the switch from "ll" to "ch." For instance, "me llamo" to "me chamo" and llorar to chorar. The pronunciation remains strikingly similar, although the sounds are ever so slightly different.

Hard consontants are softened OR Change of C
Hard consonants in pronunciation such as the letter "c" are softened into things than flow off the tongue more easily. Thus, "Cocina" becomes "Cozinha." Generally, the "c" sound is changed to an /s/ perhaps resulting in the character "ç" to substitute for the loss.

Non-Morphological Lexical and Aural Changes
The Portuguese Lexicon has adopted many words from dialects descended from Latin, and has seen many changes to adjectives that have been adopted in other languages. the pronunciation is different and sounds similar in some ways to Italian and perhaps slightly to French. The nasal sounds are the most striking changes, but I can´t trace where they descend from.

These are my thoughts on Portuguese morphology albeit amateur, but my go at understanding the changes that have happened.

(Image Courtesy of mi amiga Sol. She graciously shared with me some images of Salta in Argentina. )

Second Language Acquisition and Me.

By Ascolto on June 24, 2008 6:19 PM | No Comments | No TrackBacks

Stage	About how long?	About how many words?
Preproduction (the "Silent Period")	0-6 Months	500 receptive words
Early Production	+6 Months	1000 receptive/active words
Speech Emergence	+1 Year	3000 active words
Intermediate Fluency	+1 Year	6000 active words
Continued Language Development	5-7 Years	Content Area Vocabulary

Something that interests me are the states of Second Language Acquisition. Above is a table of the different phases. Currently, with my first second language(Spanish) I would mark myself within the Speech Emergence to Intermediate Fluency Category. However, either of which I am not entirely comfortable placing myself within.

I can say that these phases are a remarkable histogram of my progress in the language. I remember long ago when I first began learning the language. My first classes within a Middle School environment consisted of a strong resentment of having to do any speaking aloud. I kept my ears open and learned quite a great deal of vocabulary. However, I was hesitant to speak, and I have no recollection of any dialog. The vocabulary was key and with time I was able to mimic the sounds I heard, and silently repeat them. Songs were particularly helpful in learning lists of things. I remember a song that went through the days of the week, and without it I might not have learned the days as quickly. this period consisted of mindless repetition, and attempts at translating the language word for word into my own. The true grammatical structures and literal meaning made very little sense to me as I still used my native language as a crutch.

With time I graduated in the same year to the Early Production phase. This consisted of learning basic verb conjugations, such as the "Go Go Verbs," and other simple conjugations, as well as key pronouns. Reflexive verb conjugations used a drastically separate set of pronouns, which created utter confusion. Verbs like "gustarle" made very little sense. What I didn't understand literally I inferred through common patterns. For instance, I knew that I could say "Me Gusta La Manzana" and that inversely if I liked "Manzanas," then the conjugation would change. However, this structure did not follow most norms of conjugation, and was therefore something I avoided. Multiple times while learning students were prompted to create worksheets for the rest of the class explaining this seemingly complex structure, and each time the idea became clearer.

Within the next two years I rehashed these skills constantly. Picking up new vocabulary, and over and over rehashing learned conjugations. Moreover, I was relearning how I thought about language. My misconceptions about what I thought the language would be changed into what the language was, which was entirely different from my initial conceptions about language.

Today I can say quite a bit in the language, which means I've probably entered a stage of Intermediate Fluency, but I'm not quite ready to say that I'm quite so far into the game. I realize now more than ever that understanding is very different than I had every thought of before. Often people or maybe only kids think that learning a second language will be gained with simple memorization and then a sort of instant gratification for the work. Still more, people expect to be able to understand each and every word spoken with their new skills with each, but in reality for most of us it takes quite a great deal of time and effort, and reaching native proficiency and fluidity of speech is a difficult goal to obtain.

(Credit to John Stanford Intl. School for the table, and additional info on Second Language Acquisition, )

Slipping into Pidgin

By Ascolto on June 23, 2008 3:50 PM | No Comments | No TrackBacks

Having met many new and interesting people it is also difficult to understand that they are also learning, and that perhaps for better or for worse I have the tendency to slip into Pidgin when speaking with someone who has not yet mastered the English language.

I have encountered a cornucopia of people from Brazil who desire very readily to learn English, but for whatever reason have not been able to master the language, but have command of operative phrases and use an albeit Pidgin like way of speaking.

What's worse is that I will slip into Pidgin when typing back and remove unnecessary words that are not essential to comprehension. I am quickly becomes, "I is" not because my friend in incapable of understand the syntax and grammar, but because it is easier for me to understand how they are understand it in their own language. Portuguese is in itself a sort of Pidginesque language that really came about right off the coattails of Spanish, and it has the vocabulary and grammar to prove it.

Other very prominent problems conversing with people who have not yet gained a command of the language is that there are often problems to resolve with their computer or general use of some tools that the internet allows. I was unfortunate enough to have been thought to have given a Virus to one of my friend after trying to install a web cam and microphone so we could practice speaking and see each other. Of course, I was absolved of all wrong doing, but I was still quite confused as to how everything panned out, even though I wasn't to blame.

(Image Courtesy: Daniel F. Pigatto from Open Source Pidgin Chat Client. )

Progress update

By Ascolto on June 19, 2008 9:00 PM | No Comments | No TrackBacks

Portuguese for me has been progressing very steadily and has come quite easily from my studies of Spanish. I have not abandoned French entirely, but have stuck more to learning vocabulary and sticking to pronunciation for the time being.

My Spanish has also been progressing quite quickly.

I've tried to limit the uptake of new friends, because it doesn't seem that I have enough time in the day to talk to all of my very good friends abroad. They have all been very accommodating and have even offered me stay in their homes if I ever choose to visit them. I hear so many great stories form these people I have been meeting, and I can hardly imagine that such an experience has been offered to me free of charge, which is an immense and very wonderful gift for me to be able to experience.

Practicing With The Natives

By Ascolto on June 3, 2008 8:21 PM | No Comments | No TrackBacks

In my fun with LiveMocha, I've had bad and good experiences. Certainly, I would say that the majority of all my experiences have been overwhelmingly positive. I've been able to practice with natives through all manner of communications and best of all through voice.

I've noticed the great potential to learn vocabulary and colloquialisms of natives. I've kept a list of all the new words I encounter, which I will undoubtedly revisit for future reference and to enhance my learning experience. I've noticed that my verbal aptitude for language is somewhat impaired by the necessity to think out the grammar and conjure what I desire to say. Often, I am slowed by conjugations, and at times a lack of functional vocabulary. I imagine that it can only improve with further practice.

With other learners I've encountered some difficultly in cross-cultural communication. As I've brought up before politics can be a particularly difficult subject, especially when it is likely that the person on the other end of the line may not agree. Still, most of the time when difficult issues arise the subject is changed and things become cordial once again. Some learners have pointed out some odd pronunciation tendencies in my English, which were a complete surprise to me, although I try to write and speak as fluidly as I can to avoid confusion on the end of the learner.

The most common and pervasive problem is when people I encounter trying to learn English simply don't know enough to communicate, or to further the conversation. At first, a conversation in a foreign language, as I know from experience, can be intimidating and very stressful, as well as mentally draining if you are not well versed in the language. I notice that myself included, learners like to slip into their own language, even if the person they are talking to may know very little of that language. Nevertheless, continued communication and some translation can help to further the vocabularies of both people.

Perhaps some common problems result from sayings such as, "I'm back," which might in turn be translated into "I'm a back," a truly odd body part to be. Often simplifying written and oral communication helps as the person you communicate with learns more proficiency. Thus, "I'm back" would transform itself into "I have returned," which has a more precise meaning to it, although both will make sense to a native, which the latter is less casual.

Of all the back experiences I've had on LiveMocha. I count out the flood of messages and speaking to almost five people at once as the worst thing to handle. I would say rather the people who abuse LiveMocha for whatever malcontent filled idea they have. I would especially rate the man with the Webcam from Turkey as the worst experience I've had in my many weeks there. Simply put, don't look for love, but rather amistad and perhaps if one follows the next then love. Nevertheless, never trust anyone without a shirt on that happens to be in front of a web cam.

(Photo Courtesy of Szeke through Creative Commons)

Arabic Lesson

By Ascolto on May 31, 2008 3:33 AM | No Comments | No TrackBacks

I login to LiveMocha today after a long nap, and bang all of the sudden I am running 5 conversations at once again. I absolutely love it and loathe it. I have had to limit my conversations, because I really cannot talk to everyone. Still, I try to talk to as many people as I can. I often end up lying about the status of my mic, because I simply cannot practice with everyone! I really am wishing that I could carry on multiple conversations by voice at once.

Still I encountered a guy in Brazil and about 2 people from Egypt at once. I had a voice conversation with a man by the name of Mohamed in Egypt. It was really awesome for me. Though my interest in Arabic has been limited by the problem of accessibility he gave me a short lesson in how to say my name here is what I learned....

enna isme, ehnna isme, anna isme. The list in the last sentence are a few variations as phonetically as I can spell them for you. So in Arabic one would say name my is Name.
So to write my name the following ensued.

US Keyboard Layout: Hkh Ysln fvhk]k

أنا إسمى براندن : AR Keyboard Layout

I learned how to use a few letters of the Arabic Keyboard layout, and although they are still a little difficult for me to differentiate between with some practice I should be able to memorize and be able to use the Arabic alphabet in close to no time.

We also discussed the differences between "pretty good" and "pretty good." Differences I hadn't realized before Basically if one were to say, "It was pretty good I liked it," then the pretty good is in the affirmative.Whereas, "It was pretty good, but it wasn't great," is in the negative, and implies that what you are speaking of is okay, but could be better. Notice that in both cases after the "pretty good" there is a specifier that confirms what level of goodness we believe to be true.

Other linguistic nuances that came to light was the loss of some sounds when say things such as "it was" and my friend described some Americans will often mash the words togeth as "iwas" where I is pronounced lightly like ih.Very interesting little nuances to my own language that I hadn't notices.

Really a lot of learning for me today, despite the fact that I spent most of the day napping!
More to come soon.

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