Category: Language learning

Learning a language, are we really too old?

By Simon

Today we have a guest post by Jade Henriques, a young language learner who is planning to pursue a degree in linguistics. Here is her website languageninjas.com. You can also keep up with Facebook.

From the first time I started learning languages, I see this question pop up from time to time. I too considered if I was just too old to learn another language. The thing is that people believe that you have to be at a certain age to learn a language, once you pass this age learning a language is next to impossible.

On the contrary scientist may disagree; I’ve actually stumbled across many researches that say; not learning a language because of your age is a myth. When it comes to learning a language, adults actually have the capability of learning faster than little children. One perspective I have is that as adults we already learned the basics of communication and the meaning of objects around us. For example, a seven year old may learn that a tree is a plant, a tree has leaves, and a tree grows from the soil. As adults we know this already, in our second language all we need to know is what a tree is in that language, we don’t need to go into details of what it is or a description of it.

It’s still, however, an ongoing battle of whether children learn better or adults do.

Our Brains can actually do it
The human brain is still a mystery to many scholars and scientists out there. The complexity of it is baffling. Something I see so very often is that if we see a word 160 times over, it is permanently lodged into our permanent memory. That doesn’t mean you should sit and say a word 160 times over. It means that if over a period of time, on different occasions, if you see a word at least 160 times, it’s going to be hard to forget that word. This research was carried out by a group of Cambridge neuroscientists. This is why reading is so important when learning a language. The first time you see a word and you don’t understand it, don’t beat yourself up. If you were to see this word again, and again and again, our brains will begin to make sense of it and remember it for us.

It’s about inputting
There is no way on God’s earth you can speak a language with very little input. It is in the same essence if you see a word for the first time and you don’t understand it right of the back, then that simple means you hardly see this word or you’ve never seen this word before. So, before you open your mouth, start inputting data into your brain.

I’ve find that it is actually easier to remember words when we are not fighting ourselves to remember them. For instance, making vocabulary list and spending your day studying this list is not the way to go.

But naturally just reading and listening (to things you actually enjoy) will help you to remember words faster and pain free.

Long term, Medium term and short term memory
Long term memory is words that we will never forget. Long term memory is very hard to destroy and it would take a brain disorder such as Alzheimer’s to do so. This is what the above study suggests that if a word is seen 160 times, then it’s a part of your long term memory. With words in your medium term memory, it suggests that you have seen these words numerous times but not enough. If you neglect these words over a period of time, chances are you will forget them. Words in your short term memory are the easiest to forget, maybe you just seen these words a handful of times, overtime, try to make words in your short term memory apart of your long term memory.

In conclusion, you are not too old to learn a language; it’s just a matter of practice and a passion for the language.

Benefits of language learning

By Simon

According to an article I came across today, it is the process of learning a new language that encourages people to learn more languages, and becoming bilingual makes learning further languages easier.

The article talks about at study of native English speakers who were either monolingual, or bilingual in English and Spanish or English and Mandarin, and who were presented with words made up by the researchers. It found that the bilingual participants could learn the made up words much more easily than the monolingual ones, and the researchers think that the process of learning a foreign language improves your language learning skills.

Another study found that bilinguals are also better at learning words in their native language and generally have faster brain activity, especially older adults (60-68 years old) who have been bilingual from an early age. Apparently “these results suggest that lifelong bilingualism may exert its strongest benefits on the functioning of frontal brain regions in aging.”

Linguisticator

By Simon

I came across an interesting-looking site today called Linguisticator, via the Economist.

It says that it provides “an advanced online language training program designed to teach adults how to learn languages quickly and effectively. It is unique in providing a single course that can be used to learn any language on the planet. The program was designed with military and business professionals in mind, but is available to anyone serious about learning a language.”

Apparently, “With the training Linguisticator provides, it’s possible to learn languages faster and more accurately than children do, such that you can gain conversational competence in only a few weeks and fluency in a few months.”

It’s basically a video-based course that you subscribe to and watch online. It doesn’t teach a particular language, but teaches you how to learn languages systematically. You can also book individual language lessons via the website and work out a language learning plan.

There’s a free trial version that gives you a taster of the course.

Have any of you tried it?

SoundCloud

By Simon

I’ve been exploring SoundCloud recently after uploading a new song that I wrote last Sunday, and have discovered that there’s some useful material there for linguaphiles and language learners.

For example, there’s a group called United Sounds that is collecting recordings of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights in many languages. You can also find recordings of conversations and songs in many different languages – I found quite a few in Breton, for example.

It might also a good place to upload recordings of you practising your languages and to get feedback, as there is a comments facility. Have you used it in this way at all?

Русский & français

By Simon

Last Saturday at my brother’s wedding I had plenty of opportunities to use my Russian – my brother’s wife is Russian, and while she speaks very good English, few of her family speak any, so I did my best to speak with them in Russian. I was able to have some basic conversations, with help from the Ukrainian bridesmaid, who speaks Ukrainian, Russian and English. I wasn’t worried about making mistakes, just trying to communicate, and managed to do so reasonably well. It was a little difficult to explain that I live in Wales and that it isn’t part of England, but is part of the UK.

I also had a chance to speak French as the bride’s brother-in-law speaks it – he learnt it in school and he visits France regularly on business – and there there were a couple of French people there – one of whom is the bridesmaid’s husband. So it was quite an international and multilingual gathering.

Russian is starting to sound more familiar now and I’m getting better at reading it. I don’t understand a lot much, but am continuing to learn a bit more every day and making progress.

Brezhoneg

By Simon

My Breton studies are progressing and so far I’ve learnt a bit more everyday. Last week I worked through the first five lessons of my textbook (Le Breton, par Assimil) and today I got to the seventh lesson, which summerises what you’re learnt in the previous six lessons. The lessons are all short and don’t overload you with new information, as is often the case with other courses I’ve used. In courses with longer lessons you can go through each lesson over several days, but I prefer the shorter Assimil lessons.

The more Breton I learn, the more similarities I find with Welsh. For example, there are only five irregular verbs in Breton, as there are in Welsh, and Breton word order is similar to Welsh – you put the most important piece of information at the beginning of the sentence.

These sentences all mean the same thing, “The weather is fine in Ploulann today”, but with different emphasis in each:

– Brav eo an amzer e Ploulann hiziv = Braf ydy’r tywydd yn Ploulann heddiw = The weather is fine …

– An amzer a zo brav e Ploulann hiziv = Mae’r tywydd yn braf yn Ploulann heddiw = The weather is fine …

– E Ploulann eo brav an amzer hiziv = Yn Ploulann mae’r tywydd yn braf heddiw = The weather is fine in Ploulann …

– Hiziv eo brav an amzer e Ploulann = Heddiw mae’r tywydd yn braf yn Ploulann = The weather is fine in Ploulann today.

As the textbook is in French I’m also learning some new French words like:

– la tournure = turn of phrase, form, e.g. la tournure de qch = the way sth is developing; la tournure des événements = the turn of events; la tournure d’esprit = frame of mind

I’ve started working on the script for a Breton animation entitled “Pelec’h emañ Erwan?” (Where is Erwan?) – a thrilling adventure in search of the ever elusive Erwan.

Cariad@iaith

By Simon

I went to an interesting discussion last night entitled cariad@iaith (love4language) which featured two English writers, Simon Thirsk and Mike Parker, who have lived in Wales for many years, learnt Welsh and written books based on their experiences. It was mostly in Welsh and was chaired by the Welsh author, Bethan Gwanas. Simon and Mike talked about how they learned Welsh, about being accepted, or not, in their local communities, and about their books.

The audience was made up of Welsh learners and native Welsh speakers, and one good question that came up was how native Welsh speakers can make things linguistically easier for Welsh learners. After some discussion we concluded that the most helpful thing the native speakers can do is to stick to Welsh and not to switch to English even when learners are struggling. Other helpful things would be for native speakers to speak a bit more slowly and to avoid using too much slang.

Native speakers of languages that many people learn, like French, German and Spanish, might be more accustomed to encountering learners and might be relatively willing and able to modify the way they speak, but for lesser-studied languages, like Welsh, the story can be different. This partly depends on whether or not the native speakers of lesser-studied languages speak another major language like English, French or Spanish.

When you speak in your foreign languages to native speakers of those languages, do the native speakers make any allowances for you as a learner (if you’re not at near-native level)?

Do speakers of some languages do this more than for other languages?

If you are a native speaker of a lesser-studied / minority language, are you happy to speak to learners in your language and to accommodate to them by slowing down and simplifying things? Or do you quickly switch to English or another major language?

Distractors – don’t let them get you!

By Simon

So far I’ve managed to study a bit of Russian and Breton every day and have realised that one important thing I need to do when studying is to minimise distractions. I’ve tried to study languages using online courses, and with using audio on my computer, and find it very difficult not to get distracted. Usually it starts with looking up a word or phrase in an online dictionary or translator, then I might have a quick look at Facebook or my email, and before I know it these, or related things have taken over. I know I could use programs to block them, or simply turn off my internet connection, but I find this just frustrates me. So the best way for me to study seems to be with books and CDs, well away from computers and other distractors.

Do you try to minimise distractions when studying? If so, how do you do this?

My language studies

By Simon

This week I decided to start learning Russian and Breton again. I’ve learnt bits and pieces of them before but haven’t managed to get back into the habit of studying any language regularly for quite a while. I keep on making plans, and then due to inertia, laziness and procrastination don’t implement them.

So I will spend each morning listening to online Russian radio (Голос России) and then going though a lesson, or at least part of a lesson, in my Russian textbook just before lunch – I’m using Oxford Take Off in Russian. I might also use a number of online courses. Once I’ve learnt enough to have a basic conversation, I’ll seek out Russian speakers to practise with.

I plan to spend each afternoon or evening listening to online Breton radio (Radio Breizh) and then going through a lesson or two in Le Breton Sans Peine, and possibly also in Colloquial Breton. Using Le Breton Sans Peine gives me the chance to improve my French at the same time. I know a few Breton speakers I could practise with, and would like to visit Brittany once I have a basic conversational knowledge of Breton.

I might write bits and pieces in Russian and Breton on my multilingual blog – I’ve already started adding Breton to les mots de la semaine, some fo the words and phrases that crop up at the French conversation group I go to – and maybe I’ll make some videos as well.

Sentence bank

By Simon

I’ve decided to learn some more Breton and have found a very useful website – the Breizh-Llydaw Sentence Bank (y Cronfa Frawddegau Breizh-Llydaw / Ar gevredigezh Kembre-Breizh) – a bilingual corpus of sentences in Breton and Welsh from the magazine Breizh-Llydaw. I can understand the Welsh sentences and can more or less work out the meanings of the Breton words from the context. I think I’ll use it to learn Breton vocabulary and grammar in context.

Does anybody know of any similar bilingual corpuses for other languages?

Related tools include Geriaoueg, a Breton, French, Welsh, English, Icelandic, Catalan, Spanish dictionary; and morphological analysers for Breton and Welsh.