Archive for February, 2012

More tips on learning French

Say out loud – Read the sentences or the words out load. Is difference from reading storybook of your native language whereby silent is preferred. By reading it out loud help you to improve in your memorization and speaking ability it is important for your brain to hear it from your mouth.  If you feel shy, just do it in your room but please do it. Reading it aloud also enable you to catch mistake with your own pronunciation.

Do not be afraid of making mistakes – That is how children learn the language. It may seem that they are uttering gibberish but at some point transforms itself into intelligible sentences. Children are never scared at guessing at words and getting them wrong and neither should you. Everyone who learns a new language makes mistakes, but if you are afraid at making them, you may never learn from them. The fastest way to learn to speak a new language is to try, and not afraid of the mistakes.

Flashcards – Using traditional flashcards for language learning is nothing new to us. In fact, it is a method our parents and teachers have used when we were young and one which we continue using for our new generation as well. To learn any new language well you must increase your vocabulary. New words are the basic of every language and the best mettod to learn them extensively is through flashcards just whip them out whenever you have time takes a second to look at the card and learn a word.

Few tips for learning French

1. Start immediately – Don’t delay start now procrastination do more harm than good. The longer you leave it, the more that initial excitement will fade. There is no time like the present, and the sooner you begin, the sooner you will be speaking in French. Have you wondered you could have starting the conversation in French already if you have started 2 months ago.

2. One step at a time – No one is the same when come to learning a foreign language some can learn faster than the other, so don’t give yourself pressure when you are not progress to your expectation. Usually the right study methods and discipline, you can learn a language quite quickly be patience and wait for your ears to tune to hearing the new language once is  ’tuned’ it will all fall into place and your understanding will drastically increase overnight.

3.More short frequent lessons – Spend 30mins twice a day everyday  is better than 2 hours  twice a week when, this is not only to help the working population find time, it is actually considered the most productive time span. The mind is perfectly adapted to small bite size chunks of information and will soon ‘turn off’ if too long.

Reading and Listening part 2

Speaking in any language is all about emulating other people. You want to be able to speak the language fluently, you do not want to think about what words to use or grammar when you are having a conversation – in fact, you do not do normally that when you are using your native language. Appropriate sentences just come to you. Actually, your brain automatically recalls sentences you have seen or heard. If you want to speak a foreign language fluently, you have to learn it the way you learned your native language – by massive input.

You need at least 1 million words input (reading) and 40,000 output (writing) annually in order to be proficient in the language. If your brain has enough correct sentences input, it can replicate them, producing similar sentences to express the meaning you want.

Reading and listening will help you develop language instinct. It is all about putting many correct sentences in your head. Every time you read or listen try to take note of the useful vocabulary, soon you would be able to use it when speaking and writing. More than that, you would able to decide what sounds good or bad from the language instinct you developed.

If you observe how children learn language, you would notice that before children go to school, before they even know what grammar is about, they are able to communicate with you fluently.

The children learned the language firstly from hearing, then mimicking, exploring and finally practicing. We help children learn the language by talking to them, by telling them bedtime stories, by patiently repeating instructions to them. We teach them how to read from flash cards. We do no teach them grammar until they are much older.

Research show that children who listen and read a lot do better in the English examination then those that do not therefore when it comes to learning a second language you should listen and read a lot. The more the input, the better fluency you will achieve.

Why George wants to learn French

Motivation can easily be sustained if is out of love. For instance, a father works overtime to provide for his family; a wife learns to cook delicious foie gras because her husband likes to eat this dish; a mother learns to drive so that she can ferry her children around. As shown in the examples above, the overpowering love keeps motivating them towards achieving their goals.

My friend George is a Chinese who knows nothing about French language besides a few common words like bonjour (good morning), Merci! (thank you!),  Oui! (yes!) that he picked up from the French movies and he told me he has no interest in learning French at all even though he is working for a French company because he thinks that he is not intelligent enough to learn this language, and that he does not think that it will help him much for his career as he is just a mechanic but things took a change when he was sent to the company headquarters in France for a job training for two months. During his stay, he met this beautiful French girl whom he fell in love at first sight. According to him, she looks like Kate Moss – ya right! The problem is, she does not speak Chinese so when they tried to communicate, they relied a lot on sign language which was a tad troublesome and sometimes resulted in miscommunication, even though they clearly enjoyed each other’s company. Before too long, the 2-month training stint was up and George had to return home.

So strong is George’s love for the girl that he decides to learn French. He attends short courses, reads French newspaper (often times referring to the dictionary), watches a lot of French movies. He is always seen with an MP3 and headset during lunch breaks. Soon he does not need to behave like a mute actor when he Skypes with his girlfriend, from being able to speak only a few words to a few phrases to long sentences and he now speaks fluently. As a result of this additional language ability, his company sends him to France yet again, but this time, as a Business Development Manager to handle and facilitate the Asian business. George has since married his French girlfriend and is expecting their first child.

So do not ever deprive yourself of a chance to learn another language just because you think you are not intelligent enough, and do not think that it will not help you in your career – you just never know! Of course, being able to marry the girl of your dream (who speaks a foreign language) is an additional perk!

Reading and Listening

Should I learn another language? Even though it is not an easy task, definitely there are rewards associated with learning another language. For one you stand a better chance at getting the job than others.

First, we must focus on listening. With a foreign language, we deal with many difficulties. Every language sounds different and uses different intonations. Different muscles are used. The lips, mouth, nose, and tongue, along with breathing in or out; there are endless ways of combination so pay attention to the pronunciation, the vowels, the intonation, and the accents by listening to the radio, news, CD.  When watching news, listen and observe the movement of the lips, mouth, and tongue of the news anchor.  After listening, the next thing to do is to speak. Listen first, then speak and again repeating. Start from learning simple vocabulary and only much later proceed to learn reading and sentence construction.

The next thing to do is practice what you have learned, some people are too shy to use it in public, which is like buying a beautiful dress but only wearing it at home.  What you should do is learn some polite and basic expressions and some phrases related to shopping, for example, and venture out to the shopping center. You may be surprised to note that it breaks the ice of formality because most people feel closer to you when you talk to them using their native language.

The best method to learn French is to travel to France where the language you wish to learn spoken in every corner you turn, and to be surrounded by people who speak French, for about three to six months. However, this will cost you a lot of money. Since this is not a practical option for most people, the next best approach is to sign up for an online course.

Just listen to the audio several times and then repeat after the trainer. If you do that for 30 minutes every day, in a few weeks’ time you should be able to strike a basic conversation with others.