Tuesday, January 10, 2012

Asculta Radio Online în chineza

Chinese Internet Radio and Online News Radio
Posted by BookWorm at 1:46 PM 0 comments
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Invaţă Limba Chineză !!!!

A "short list" of the best Chinese study resources available to help those new to online/electronic resources to get off the ground.

DictionariesOnline Reading Assistant (instant pinyin and definition while you browse)

Online Dictionaries

Listening Material

Reading Material

Flashcards/Vocabulary

Study Tools
Converters

Language Partners
Games
Other
Posted by BookWorm at 1:22 PM 0 comments
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Thursday, December 29, 2011

So you want to learn Japanese eh?

So you want to learn Japanese eh? Great choice! The language is fun, the culture is fascinating, and the food is delicious!

Here's a few tips to get you started.

1. Study everything! Don't look for one or two resources and expect to learn everything from them. When someone asks which book, CD, computer program, or website is best to learn from, I say, "All of them!" I learned something from every Japanese language-related book I've ever read. Study a lot and you'll learn a lot.

2. Start with the basics. The book "Japanese: The Manga Way" by Wayne P. Lammers gives a good, fun overview of the language. So does Tae Kim's "Guide to Japanese" website ( http://www.guidetojapanese.org ) which is very detailed. Kim Allen's "Japanese for the Western Brain" site (http://kimallen.sheepdogdesign.net/Japan… ) gives an overview while focusing on the differences between Japanese and English, and is very helpful. If you need an online dictionary, jisho.org ( http://www.jisho.org ) is a great site to use.

3. As you continue your study, develop each of the four areas of language learning: Hearing, Speaking, Reading, and Writing
--Hearing: Go to JapanesePod101.com ( http://www.japanesepod101.com ) and sign up for their free podcasts. They range from beginner to advanced and will be a great resource in your study.
--Speaking: Talk to Japanese people every chance you get. Shared Talk (http://www.sharedtalk.com ) has voice chat through which you can talk to Japanese people and they're generally very supportive.
--Reading: Memorize the hiragana ( http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hiragana ), then the katakana ( http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Katakana ). After that, you can start memorizing kanji and reading japanese manga (which you can purchase from Amazon -- http://www.amazon.co.jp )
--Writing: Start an online blog at Lang-8 ( http://www.lang-8.com ). When you post, native speakers will correct your sentences. It's a great resource.

4. Take a class. The good thing about taking a Japanese class is that it forces you to study, even if you don't want to. It also provides a nice structure for learning the language, along with someone who can correct your pronunciation.

5. Go to Japan! This is the number one, fastest, easiest, guaranteed-to-work way to learn Japanese. Even if it's just for a visit, being immersed in the language is a huge benefit to study. Japanese people are usually really supportive of foreigners learning their language and their encouragement will be a great boost for you.

6. Never give up! Japanese is a really hard language. It requires a lot of memorization and practice. Don't expect to be fluent even after a few years of study (especially if you're not studying in Japan). Language learning is a life-long pursuit.

7. HAVE FUN! This is the most important tip I could give you. As long as you're having fun learning the language, then you will be successful. Always try to find ways of making the learning enjoyable.

これから頑張ってね!
Posted by BookWorm at 11:28 PM 0 comments
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Wednesday, December 28, 2011

Learn Any Language in 6 Months


Learn Any Language in 6 Months

Topics: How To, Japan, Language
Read Time: 15 minutes
By utilizing techniques such as spaced repetition, complete immersion, and prioritized learning, I’m confident that anyone can learn any language to conversational fluency in six months or less.  I started learning Japanese in November of 2008 and within two months I had learned the meaning of 2000+ kanji, and within six I was having conversations with strangers at rock concerts (cute Japanese girls!). I’m not trying to glorify myself here either – I’m a particularly weak-willed person and getting motivated for me often involves a literal act of God. Language learning has been put on a golden pedestal for most people, achievable only for the super-intelligent. Because of this false imagery and a bad case of failure-leading-to-lack-of-motivation seen in high school language classes, very few people achieve any real success. But if you are simply willing to put in the time, you too can have interesting conversations with people from distant lands.

Step X: Prepare Your Mind

You can do it.
Believe and have faith, this is the first and most important step. I know it sounds cheesy and motivational, but it’s true. Decide that you want to learn a foreign language and commit yourself to it. Imprint it to your mind and imagine yourself already at the goal. The most successful people are the ones who can best visualize their goals, and they don’t let excuses prevent them from reaching their goals – they find a way get around them. Understand that you’ll encounter barriers preventing and hindering you from reaching the goal, but decide beforehand that you’ll find a way to overcome them.

Step X: Learn the Characters of Your Target Language

For languages with alphabets differing drastically from English (Chinese, Japanese, Hindu, Arabic, etc.), learn the alphabet first. This shouldn’t take more than a day or two when using an SRS (I’ll explain what this is in a moment).
For Chinese, Japanese, and languages with characterized written languages, I suggest familiarizing yourself with the meanings of characters before learning their pronunciation. This may seem counter-intuitive at first, but there’s a reason. Essentially there are three parts to a character – meaning, pronunciation, and the written character. By skipping pronunciation you can simplify the learning process and familiarize yourself with characters faster than by trying to memorize two things at once. Check out Charles Heisig’s books – “Remembering the Kanji” or “Remembering the Hanzi” for learning characters and further discourse supporting this method.

Step X: Using an SRS (Spaced Repetition Software), Make Native Sentence Cards

SRS is a flashcard-like computer program which allows you to create digital flash cards and study them in the most efficient manner possible. Basically, our memory works best when we repeat items that we want to learn. Just like when you repeat the chorus of your favorite song twenty times on your iPod, SRS imprints the facts into your mind by repetition. But the problem with conventional flashcards is that you end up studying the difficult cards with the same frequency as the easy ones, wasting your precious time. Using an SRS solves this problem by automatically repeating the cards at the optimum time interval. Difficult cards get seen more often than easy ones, and you learn your language faster.
The SRS I use is called Anki, and I highly recommend it.
Now that we have the right tool for memorization, we need to know how to use it for maximum effect. From personal experience I’ve found that learning complete sentences, even if they are small, is the best way to study a language. Cognitive reasoning is one of our most powerful tools here. The brain easily takes phrases and pieces them together to create sentences and communicate ideas. Don’t study vocabulary by itself as this is a waste of time. All you have to do is fill your mind with example structures of everyday sentences in your target language, and your mind will automatically fill in the necessary vocabulary and verb conjugations.
Example flash card from my Anki deck (you may need Japanese text support enabled):
Front:
映画を見た人は誰？
Back:
えいがをみたひとはだれ？
Who is person who watched movie?
There are a few things to take notice of in this example. First, I didn’t worry about “translating” the sentence into English. As long as I can understand the meaning it doesn’t matter. Second, the sentence is short and simple. Linguist Dr. Stephen Krashen suggests the “i + 1″ method, where you add one new item to your knowledge. Try to never make a card with two new words in it.  Thirdly, the sentence is native. I don’t remember where I got it, but it’s not an English thought translated into Japanese, it’s real Japanese from a native Japanese source. A dictionary with good examples sentences is one of the best sources for word-specific native material.  Thinking in L1 (your mother tongue) and trying to translate to L2 (target language) is detrimental. Learn to think like a native by imitation, just like a baby!

Step X: Complete Immersion: Input Before Output

Another deciding factor for success is immersion. Complete immersion. If you want to learn this langauge, really learn it, then you have to spend every waking moment in it. Most people fail at learning new languages because they simply don’t spend enough time in L2. Taking classes is especially deceptive because they make you feel like you’re learning, when in fact your going at a snail’s pace. I got straight As in my High School Spanish class, but when I took a trip down to Mexico City I realized just how valuable my two years of study were worth: NIL. I was one of the best students in my class, and I still couldn’t handle the most basic Spanish conversations.
Every aspect of your life should be entrenched in your target language. Do you use the internet? Download your internet browser in L2. Do you read the newspaper? Find a way to get it in L2. Do you have a smartphone? Switch the default language to L2. Watch movies in L2. Listen to L2 music exclusively. Every aspect of your life from now on should be done in the language you want to learn. If you want it bad enough you’ll find a way.
“But I don’t live in country X!” “How can I be completely immersed with all this English around me?!” – I feel this is one of the biggest language myths ever. You don’t need to live in France to learn French. You don’t need to live in China to learn Chinese. You don’t need to live in Latin America to learn Latin. Wait a second… that’s not right. Anyway, there are plenty of resources available to you (many for free) where you can get a life-like immersion experience without a 10 hour plane ride. Granted that the real immersion experience is better, but I can surf YouTube for hours and get nearly the same native language exposure as somebody who lives in Japan.
There is no need to worry about understanding the language right away. Complete immersion means you won’t understand everything, and that’s okay. Listen even when you don’t understand. It usually takes babies a year of listening before they start talking, and as adults we have the advantage because we can already think logically and don’t have to figure out our vocal chords.
Don’t force output. It will probably take months of high quality input before you’ll feel comfortable speaking. I feel this is a major flaw in modern teaching methods, and one of many reasons to avoid the classroom. Many college professors expect their students to produce native-like sentences after the first few lessons! Their theory is that you should make mistakes often so that they can be corrected, leading to a better understanding of the language. Bull. Mistakes only create bad habits and confusion. Learn it right the first time and you don’t have to worry about it. Output should feel natural and mistakes should be avoided at all costs; don’t be in a big rush to speak.
Recommended Inputs:
  • Listen to free audio-book downloads before going to bed. When was the last time someone read you a bedtime story? It’s incredibly relaxing.
  • Always carry an L2 book with you. Everywhere. Audio-books in conjunction with paper books are awesome when you want to learn pronunciation.
  • Computer programs with any clout will have a slew of language options. Switch them to your L2.
  • Buy an iPod touch or smartphone and download the Anki app and a dictionary. You’ll be able to study your flash cards anywhere.
  • Think in L2. Whenever I thought a thought in English, I did my best to rethink it in Japanese.
  • Eat your country’s cuisine. Life revolves around food in most countries, so being accustomed to and knowledgeable about native foods will give you an automatic “in” when visiting.
  • YouTube
  • Movies – but DO NOT use English subtitles! They’re a crutch that prevent you from diving into the language fully.

Step X: Prioritize

A typical unabridged Chinese character dictionary will have more than 40,000 independent entries. It would take a lifetime to familiarize yourself with all of these characters, but thankfully languages follow the rule of 80/20, a.k.a. the Pareto Principle.  What this means is roughly 20% of those characters are used 80% of the time. A well-educated Chinese student will recognize upwards of 7,000 characters, and reading a newspaper may require a working knowledge of 3,000 characters [1]. We can find the same thing in English – “The Reading Teachers Book of Lists claims that the first 25 words make up about one-third of all printed material in English, and that the first 100 make up about one-half of all written material [2].” Using an SRS like Anki and a dictionary with good example sentences, the initial effort of memorizing 100 words should take three days at most. Three days for 50% comprehension! I know I know, that number is slightly overstated because many of those 100 words are lemmas (more than one word – like “is” can be “He was”, “I am”, “You are” etc.), but you see the point I’m trying to make right? By learning the common words first, you quickly increase your effective comprehension of the language. Note: You can find the first 3000 common Japanese words in this post.

Step X: Make it Fun; Choose Material Comparable to Your Current Interests

Beyond the first 500 words or so, I suggest learning interest-specific or field-specific vocabulary. Take the things you currently do in L1, and do them in L2. Find a way to make an L2 copy of your current self. Language learning isn’t difficult, but it does take focused effort over a long period of time. If you want to make this endeavor sustainable, and it must be sustainable, it sure as hell better be fun. Like any good drug addiction, you want to keep coming back to it again and again. I treat myself to a cup of coffee or tasty drink every time I do my SRS reps.
When I was studying in Japan, I completed an introductory program for the PA-10 Mitsubishi robotic arm. It involved learning basic robotic arm control, which was comprised of creating a computer program from scratch, solving inverse kinematics problems, and a mother trucker load of questions for my Japanese lab-mates. In order to communicate effectively I had to learn some of the technical jargon associated with robotics. Now I’m pretty confident using words like 逆魚列 (inverse matrix), 再起動 (restart), 軸線 (shaft axis), 運動学 (kinematics), and 機械工学 (Mechanical Engineering). This kind of vocabulary would be useless for anyone else, even most Japanese, but it was essential for me and my situation.

Step X: Goal Setting – Small and Achievable with Consistency

During my most intense period of learning Japanese, I bought this calendar for 100 Yen ($1) at a thrift store and used it as a daily visual reminder of my goal to become fluent. Each day I accomplished my (small) goal, I took a big red marker and made an X on the day. The sense of accomplishment I felt after each X’d day helped to create even more momentum for the next day.
Learning a language takes a lot of effort, so keep your goals small and achievable while finding ways to keep them sustainable over long periods of time. A small effort every day for a month is far more productive than three days of caffeine-induced cramming. After a few days of studying you’ll become more aware of your physical limitations; it’s at that point you want to create a daily goal. Make your goal achievable, but somewhat of a stretch. Too easy and you’ll end up cutting yourself short, too hard and you’ll get disappointed by failure. The key is long-term sustainability.
In contrast to this, don’t put an extended timeline on your goal to become fluent. When you’re first starting out you shouldn’t worry about when you’ll arrive at your goal, or make baseless assumptions about how long it should take you to acquire a 10,000 word vocabulary. Yes I know, the title of this post is “Learn any language in 6 months”,  but it may take some people longer and others shorter. Just start walking the road and have a surprise party when you get to the end.

Step X: Never Stop Learning

I attempt to live my life in such a way that I’m always exposing myself to new ideas and attaining new knowledge. But at the same time, I make an effort to not forget the things I’ve already learned. Learning a new language is an exciting and fulfilling experience, but not quite as fulfilling ten years from now when you’ve forgotten everything you’ve learned. The initial effort of learning is long and tough, but the fun kind of tough, and similar to getting a freight train moving. The power you need to start is immense, but as soon as you’re moving, it’s not too hard to keep going. Many people are willing to put forth the effort to get the train started, but don’t quite realize that the train will eventually come to a slow stop if they don’t keep shoveling the coal.

Step X: Further Reading and Resources

ajatt.com – All Japanese All the Time dot com.  This is the blog that inspired me to pursue fluency in Japanese and provided the resources and ideas that are making it possible.  Purveyor of the 10,000 sentence method: learn 10,000 sentences in an SRS to achieve native-like fluency.  Major props.
antimoon.com – Polish pioneers of the SRS/sentence learning method.  These guys learned English to college level fluency in 3 years using their method.
How to Learn Any Language in 3 Months – Author Tim Ferriss wrote an enlightening article that directly inspired my writing this post.  Hence, credit is due.  Our content is similar in many ways, but disagree with him on some points.  I encourage reading his post also to gain a broader perspective on language learning.
Anki – The free SRS that makes it all possible.  I suggest watching the Intro Videos to get a better understanding of the concept.
Supermemo Articles – Supermemo, the original SRS, was created by Dr. Wozniak who has written not-a-few articles about SRSing, memory, and acquiring knowledge.  Recommended reading: 20 Rules and Memory Myths. Fascinating stuff.
Do you have any language acquisition stories?  Failure/Success stories?  Discussion and idea-sharing are encouraged, so post a comment!
Posted by BookWorm at 2:34 PM 2 comments

Wednesday, November 9, 2011

Reinventing Language Education

Reinventing Language Education
I wouldn’t go as far as Seth and say that what is happening in the public school systems in regards to language education is a waste, but I think most of us will agree that if we were to talk to ten friends who sat through two semesters of high school Spanish, most would say they learned very little. Even fewer perhaps could actually speak any Spanish. So while I wouldn’t call it a waste, anecdotal evidence at least would point to something far less than success.

In today’s post then, I want to offer a few of my thoughts as to how we might reinvent the system. I put quite a bit of thought into this but in no way think my ideas are great. They are I hope, a beginning. I would love to see a serious conversation take place, for ideas to be shared, for risks to be taken. I would love to hear what you think. I especially want to hear your thoughts from your own experiences. I write the post about the American system, but would like to hear what my international readers have to say from their experience as well. An outside perspective is always a good one to have. And we need to hear from those of you involved in language education.

Nine Ideas
I am not putting forth ideas to ‘reform’ the present system. I am suggesting that we start over. Not an easy task and not an idea that will be readily accepted. The status quo has a certain power to remain. Change is always hard work but often well worth the risk and the effort. And so today I want to present nine ideas as a starting point for reinventing the language education system in America. They are undeveloped ideas at best, but perhaps can act as a catalyst for conversation.

1 – The Only Goal

The goal of the reinvented language classroom will be this: To see students develop a life long love of language learning that will continue for the rest of their lives. To my mind there is no other goal that is higher than this one. It is not a goal I see communicated clearly to students in our language programs today. When I took German in university, the goal was to learn some German, not to fall in love with the German language and German culture. When the end of the semester came, I wiped my brow, took a deep breath and promptly moved on. So did all but one of my classmates.

2 – Scrap The Way It’s Been Done

I don’t think the status quo can be reformed in any way that will truly lead to a transformation that will affect significant change. Because of this I think that perhaps it is time to scrap the way we’ve done it and start dreaming about new ideas and approaches to introduce young people to the wonderful world of language learning. It won’t be easy and it shouldn’t be a top down, the White House has a new plan sort of change. It starts with a conversation which moves onto action.

3 – No Language Specific Classes

The first thing I would suggest is to do away with language specific language classes. High schools would no longer offer Spanish or French but rather would offer a general class that would introduce students to language learning and would allow students to chose what language they would like to learn. The main goal of this class would be to help kids fall in love with a language and give them the tools and knowledge to become life long students of it. I’ll expand on this later.

4 – Teachers as Coaches

Not having to specialize in a specific language, teachers would move into a coach/mentor role and would work to learn new languages along side students. Teaching would still take place but would focus on teaching students how to learn a new language, presentation of ideas about second language acquisition and instruction on how to access the language on the internet and in the community. The teacher would act as a facilitator, regularly introducing students to new tools and activities for learning and monitoring progress as they empower students to take control of their language learning. Modeling language learning would be an important part of the job and they would work more than anything to help their students become independent, self-directed learners. They would not teach grammar. They would not give grades. They would not need to ‘have arrived’ as a distinguished speaker of a particular language but rather would be a passionate and joy filled traveller on the language learning journey – toward any language(s).

5 – Students Are In Charge

Students in this new system would be placed in charge of their language learning. They would chose which language(s) they want to study and to what level they would like to master them. They could focus on one language or may chose to switch languages every month or two. They would create (with their language coach) a personal language learning program and then chose the daily activities they would work on during class. They would regularly reflect on and self-evaluate both their command of the language and their personal learning program. This will all be a big change from anything they have done before and so teacher/coaches will need to work to empower and equip students to take responsibility.

6 – No Levels

There will no longer be levels in the language program. The first year will be required but after that students will chose whether or not to continue to sign up for the language learning journey. Each year they will pick up where they left off. The end of the year will no longer signal the end of their interaction with the language but rather the opportunity to continue through the summer. Teachers will model the life long learner attitude and invite students to see language not as a “class” to be checked off the list, but an amazing lifestyle into which they can enter. The goal will no longer be to pass level one and improve the GPA.

7 - No Grades

GPA will no longer be important because grades will not be given. Grades are a sacred cow in our education system, but I think we need to do away with them in language education. I am not sure what purpose they serve in actually helping students learn another language but they seem one part of our traditional system that may be preventing students from really entering into a passionate pursuit of learning another language. Grades will always set the bar too low. If a student needs to learn 100 words to get an A, they will inevitably learn 100 words and no more. Students will study for the Final Exam in a crash course cram session after which everything ingested is promptly purged. When grades are no longer the goal, the bar can be raised to something worth shooting for – learning a new language so that they can speak and interact with native speakers confidently.

This is not to say that their should be no assessment of or requirements on students. Just the opposite. Students will engage in high quality self-assessment (guided by their teacher in the beginning) that assesses both their ability to use the language and their language learning program. Teachers will also create certain requirements for students to meet. One of these should be for students to demonstrate that they have created real engagement and friendship with native speakers using the language. Perhaps they will be required to demonstrate 600 minutes of spoken conversation or 10,000 words of written communication. What ever it is, it should be real life stuff.

8 – Internet Is Central

Opportunities for language and cultural learning are available today in ways we could only dream of even ten years ago. Until recently, teachers were the main means for student to receive comprehensible input. This was the reality of the pre-Internet world. With the Internet however, high quality opportunities are more abundant than ever before. Teachers must learn to help their student plug into these and use them as efficiently and effectively as possible. It could very well be that the bulk of a student’s time in this new system then will probably be spent in the computer lab. The Internet is the one tool that will allow us to create near immersion like experiences for our students.

9 – Human Interaction Is More Central

The main reason we learn languages is to communicate with real human beings, beautiful people from all over the globe who speak other languages. Everything that happens in the language classroom should work toward creating human interaction. The Internet is key only in that it is the best tool we have to help students develop the necessary language skills to be able to connect and communicate with native speakers of the languages they are learning. It is a tool and rightly used will allow student to create valuable interaction with students from the target language country.

A Final Thought
I do not offer these nine ideas as an expert in any way. I do not pretend that they are fully developed nor is this intended to be a coherent plan for a new system. They are ideas. Plain and simple. I know that there are some amazing teachers out there whose students are falling in love with the language and who are becoming life long students and so I in no way want to take away from the work that you do. This is in no way intended to be a critique of language teachers but rather ideas for changing the system within which they function.

I was both an ESL teacher and a regular high school English teacher in the states before moving to Turkey and so have some experience in this field. My work and writing now are directed at helping learners become independent and self-directed. It is from these two experiences that I have learned to believe in the power of giving students more choices and more responsibility to direct their own learning.

My goal with this post then is merely to see a conversation take place. I could be way off base and many of you will likely disagree with the above, but I feel like there is some need to consider new and creative ideas for the future of the American language education system.

I look forward to a robust and productive conversation.
Posted by BookWorm at 1:21 AM 0 comments
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