foreignlanguagelove-blog

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Short Language Learning Trick #3 - memrise

Hey, everybody!

I haven't posted anything for a very long time...I'm very busy with school stuff at the moment. But I didn't pause learning languages completely.

I had very much fun with a learning website, called 'memrise'.

Your progress is showed by flower growing. If you have to water your flowers, it means, that you have to recap some vocabulary.

What I really adore about memrise is, that it's not some 'magic potion'. It just represents a little language learning help.

I've already made some progress learning Italian.

Arrivederci e grazie per leggere! :D

[foreignlanguagelove-blog]

Hallo, du kommst aus Deutschland ich glaube? Ich komme aus England aber ich lerne Deutsch seit vier Jahre, ich habe ein Sprachen-Blog auch (allthelanguages) wohin ich rede über Deutsch, Slowenisch und Sprachen allgemein. Es tut mir leid wenn mein Deutsch schlecht ist, ich kann fast nie üben. Deine Englisch ist sehr gut btw o.0

WOW! You're German is stunning! Keep it up. Thank you for your comment, I'll take a look on your blog.

It's normal to make mistakes, I make them myself often too. (i.e.: I didn't know that there's a difference between 'child' and 'children')

Your mistakes are just very small and to be honest, you speak German better than most of the Germans. XD

[foreignlanguagelove-blog]

Short Language Learning Trick #2 - Surfing in your Language!

It's very useful to surf the internet in your language.

Set Google Chrome into your language:

Open Google Chrome

Go to chrome://chrome/settings/languages

Click on 'Add' and choose your language

Click on the added language

Click on 'Display Google Chrome in this language'

Restart Google Chrome

Set YouTube into your language:

Scroll down to the bottom of the home page

Click on 'Language: ...'

Click on the language you want YouTube to be shown

Wikipedia in different languages:

Visit http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Wikipedias#List

Search your language

Facebook in your language:

Visit https://www.facebook.com/settings

Click on 'Language'

Choose your language from the list

[foreignlanguagelove-blog]

Shalom, privet, marrhaba, hola, halo, hi I like your blog, I'm learning Russian and hope to learn more languages in the future. I have a language blog that i just started but I don't really know what to do with it yet haha.

Good Luck! Just start with teaching some easy phrases like "Hello" "How are you?" etc. and also add realistic dialogues! :)

[foreignlanguagelove-blog]

Oh also can you post videos of you speaking Thai, Vietnamese, etc.?

Maybe in the future, I have to get my hair cut first! XD

[foreignlanguagelove-blog]

Learn how to say "Thank You" in Arabic, Bulgarian, Cantonese, Chinese, Dutch, Filipino (Tagalog), Finnish, French, German, Greek, Hebrew, Hindi, Hungarian, Indonesian, Italian, Japanese, Korean, Norwegian, Polish, Portuguese, Russian, Spanish, Swedish, Thai, Turkish and Vietnamese.

[foreignlanguagelove-blog]

Short Language Learning Trick #1 - Looking up a word without a dictionary

If you want to look up a word, don't go to Google Translator right away. First, look for the word in Google Pictures! In most of the cases you will already see, what it means by just looking at the pictures.

This trick will only work if your language is quite popular on the internet.

[foreignlanguagelove-blog]

5 short tips for Language Learning

Hey everybody!

Today I want to talk about how to learn a language!

(This post is not specialized for a specific language)

#1 No word exists by its own

When you want to grow your vocabulary, you have to know, that there's no word, which is used alone in daily life. For example: "Apple" in French is "pomme", but you need to know more. If you go to French grocery market you can't just say "Apple!" instead of "I want to buy some apples."

So if you learn new vocabulary, use at least two example sentences per word, maybe a description sentence and a conversational sentence (For example: 'La pomme est rouge.' [The apple is red.] and 'Je voudraix acheter des pommes.' [I want to buy some apples.])

#2 Learning without motivation is pointless

For learning a language, you need something big to 'face'. For example you want to work abroad or you want to talk to your love and so on...

If you're just learning Korean because of K-Pop and K-Drama, forget it. Because these are just passing fads. Learning a language 'because it's cool' just isn't right, because you will become bored and you will give up when the fad is over.

#3 Only learn with fun

Do you know, why you can't have fun at school? Because of the uncomfortable setting. If you want to learn a language at home, sit down your desk or your bed, learn with your books (or your PC, or whatever you use to learn), get a drink, turn on some music in that language and have a fun time. Watch DVDs or YouTube videos in your learning language or even try to read a book!

#4 Pronounce like a native

When you learn by CD or audio files, ALWAYS act like the speaker. Note all the 'ng's and 'w's and don't 'englishize' them. Don't turn a 'ng' into a 'n' or a 'w' into a 'v'.

#5 Learn grammar

Yeah, this may sound boring, but if you didn't grow up speaking and hearing the language infinitely, then you won't be able to get any grammar by your own. So don't try to just learn the language by repeating some phrases.

Maybe I'll do some book recommendations soon...See you then! :)

[foreignlanguagelove-blog]

Learning a Language isn't that hard...

Hi again!

Today I want to talk about language learning itself. Why is it so much easier to learn a language as a child? Why am I NOT supporting Pimsleur or RosetteStone? Why do I love learning languages that much? This is not a post where I give hints on learning a language, something like that will come later and maybe it will depend on the language.

(And by the way: When I'm saying 'child' I mean a baby or a toddler)

How language learning works

You maybe have already heard that language learning is much easier as a child. This is completely true! BUT there's a huge difference between learning a language as a child and learning a language as an adult. (Now, listen up, Pimsleur employees, this goes especially to you!)

A child has all time in the world and its brain is like a sponge. They don't have to go to school or work, they have no interest in the news and they don't need to know much about people and how the world works. So they just absorb every word and phrase they hear.

An adult HAS to go to school or work, an adults brain is filled up with stuff from school or work, with useless or sometimes useful knowledge, with memories and much much more. So it won't work by just hearing someone talk and repeat it as fast as a child.

Pimsleur, RosettaStone and other magic potions...

Now here's some bad news for the rich people: The argument "The more expensive the more helpful" is absolutely wrong. Learning a language is a very complicated process, which needs much attention and passion.

Of course you should pay SOME money. For example a dictionary is pretty important. Or a notebook. But you should NOT pay 300$ for a computer software. Neither you should pay 50$ for a magic way to learn a new language just by listening to short lessons for 10 days. These methods may help somehow, but what if you're suddenly unmotivated?

Language Learning can be fun!

Why do I still learn languages then? Because I use it as a hobby. I learn languages whenever I've got free time. I just love to understand more and more of a language step by step. I love to see my process and getting better.

Have fun with your language and a Happy 2013! See you then! :)

[foreignlanguagelove-blog]

All about me...

Introduction (on me and my blog)

My name is Tobias, I'm 14 years old and I come from Germany. I really enjoy learning languages and now I've decided to make a blog about this.

All started about a year ago. I'm fluent in English since about 2 - 3 years. I'm also learning French in school since 2 years. Last years summer break I've decieded to learn Chinese. Just for fun. I was always interested in China, so I went to YouTube and watched some of these videos, which covered some basics. Now I'm mostly learning with these videos.

But some months later, something strange happened...I wanted to learn ONE MORE language. I thought 'Yeah, that's cool, I mean, we're learning 2 languages in school too, so why shouldn't I learn 2 languages at home too?". That's when I've started learning Thai with these videos.

So then it was winter 2011 and one of my friends showed her Japanese speaking skills. (I can't remember why she did it, I think someone asked her for this) I was so impressed by her skills and somehow, a little bit of her enthusiasm fall on me. So I've started to learn Japanese too. I've first used these videos, but I will tell you later, how I continued.

At the beginning of 2012, we went to an Asian restaurant. I've noticed, that the waitress has spoken a very strange sounding language with her husband. After getting the Bill, I took a look on the owner's name and typed it in Google. I've found out, that they were Vietnamese and I thought 'Hey? Why don't you learn Vietnamese? Just for fun!' And I've watched these videos to learn the very basics.

So then I thought 'Okay, if you start learning a new language every 2 minutes, why don't you just decide to learn everything?' That means, that I just want to learn every language where I have the possibility to learn it.

So now I've got good Chinese and Japanese knowledge and I know the basics in Thai, Vietnamese, Arabic, Korean, Hebrew, Mongolian, Dzongkha and Spanish.

What you will see on this blog

I will give you tips for learning foreign languages (maybe they're different depending on the language you want to learn, so just ask me for it!) and show you some useful ways to learn a language.

See you then! :)