Change Up Your Language Practice - Games You Can Play

Internet Polyglot has some games which you can use to vary up your language practice, and get some more grammar and vocab. Most of the games are accessible for free.

The site's interface leaves a lot to be desired, and the games actually require a little knowledge of Spanish, but I've become a big believer in the idea that you need to have a few options at your disposal while you are learning, simply because you might need a break. You don't eat Cheerios every morning, do you? (actually I often do, but sometimes eggs and bacon really hit the spot).

Conversational, spoken practice is the ultimate end goal for me, but building vocabulary is so important - so I hope this helps you stay focused on your goals, and your daily language practice.

What The Kids Are Using To Learn Spanish

No, it isn't drugs or rock and roll. I'm actually talking about sites with interactive books, like this one from Scholastic. They put it out on the web for you, so it would be insulting if you didn't use it to learn Spanish!

The level of interactivity is not huge, but you can read sentences in Spanish, have the read for you, and pick up some practice. As long as you are down with Clifford.

Don't lie to yourself now, you know you like Clifford the Big Red Dog. If you are honest with yourself, you may even admit that Clifford Puppy Days books are the last things you cast your drowsy eyes on before you sleep each night.

Have fun.

Free Resources for Spanish Practice - iGoogle Widget

You may or may not use Google's Personalized Home functionality (called iGoogle), but if you are learning a foreign language, you might consider it.

I've been using a widget from braser.com each day to practice vocabulary (see image below). Setting up the widget is fairly easy - first you have to have iGoogle set up on your Google Account, then you add the widget to your page.


What you end up with is a new vocabulary word each day, with a phonetic pronunciation and the word used in a sentence. I look at it each day, to supplement the rest of my practice.

And, of course, it's free.

Culture Tips - Did I Shake Your Hand Too Hard?

When learning language, learning cultural "do's and don'ts" can be really valuable. Of course, being able to say "Encantado de concerte" is important to meeting someone who doesn't speak your language, but nonverbal communication makes up a very high percentage of what you end up communicating.

So something as simple as how you shake a person's hand can say as much as your words!

For example, I learned this tip from a Korean friend of mine the other day. When shaking hands, he asked me "Is it the custom in the US to shake hands firmly, or to shake hands lightly?" Being a man, I of course replied "Firmly!"

Without thinking of whom we are shaking hands with, we usually default to whatever the most appropriate thing is in our culture. My friend told me, however, that it is most polite to shake hands lightly in Korea.

Had I not know him, and greeted him "Anyang ha sayo," while shaking hands, my fine use of a Korean greeting might have been completely undermined by a firm, and impolite, handshake!

Here's an article on the topic.

More Free Resources - Self-Test

Another test, provided by Juan Ramon de Arana. Go on, take a spin.

BabelFish

I recently received an email written entirely in another language, and rather than asking someone to translate, I decided that this would be a perfect chance to practice and learn.

So I found some tools, and translated the text - the language was not a common one, so I had to use special tools. But just after that, I learned about BabelFish. A great tool - you simply plug in the text, choose the to/from languages, and click submit.

I've used it since for German, French and Italian, and it works pretty well! Enjoy!

Parenting & Language Learning

As an adult learner, it's hard to read an article like this and not feel a bit, well, cheated. But if you have children, it should really reinforce a) your attempts to learn language, and b) the impact of you learning a language on your child.

I find the idea that kids older than 5 or 6 have missed a window of opportunity a little hard to swallow, but on the other hand, it is also motivating.

There are also plenty of ways to expose a child to a foreign language:
- Video programming
- Friends who speak a foreign language
- Travel to foreign countries

The point made in this article that is most important to me is how crucial the parent is to language development. If you have kids, your learning pursuits can make a difference to them.

Motivating Statistics About Spanish, pt. 2

Wikipedia has an interesting entry for Spanish Language in the US. Again, maybe the most important thing is gaining a little extra motivation for your study. If you aren't studying Spanish, you might look for a link for your language.

The table indicating the Spanish-speaking percentage of the population by state is really interesting!

Using the Verb "Tomar"

For those of you studying Spanish, you'll find this article from About.com interesting.

Tomar is one of those words that means all kinds of different things. So it can either be a high value piece of vocabulary, or confusing as heck!

Free Resources for Spanish Practice

In my regular search for resources to help me learn, I stumbled upon this test from the BBC. It will, at least, give you a sense for what you are learning as you practice.

Motivating Statistics About Spanish

As I've mentioned in past posts, sometimes, keeping your motivation level up is the most important thing you can do to achieve your language learning goals. So here are a few "did you knows" (courtesy of the Baltimore Public Library Site):

• Spanish is the official language of 20 countries
• There are more than 30 countries and territories in which Spanish is widely spoken
• Spanish is the third most widely-spoken language in the world? 250 million people speak Spanish as their mother tongue
• Spanish ranks 4th in official language population. 280 million people live in countries where Spanish is the official language

Surviving the "Dip" - 5 Rules

Here's a thought for you - 5 Rules for Surviving the Language Learning Dip.

1) Have clear goals & write them down - When you hit the tough times, if you don't know why you are working so hard, you will be more likely to quit. Have a goal(s) written down in your study area so you can refer to it daily. Make it exciting and challenging - mine is, "Learn enough Spanish over the next year so I can go there to live for a month or two." Always helps if there's a reward in it for you.

2) When you get bored, shake things up - Vocabulary drills can be mind-numbing. Although I do practice vocab, I don't do it daily. But if you're getting bored, change things up - find a foreign language paper online, and try reading a sentence. Look up the words you don't know. Flip on an foreign language internet radio station - try writing an email to someone in Spanish (you don't even need to send it).

3) Stay focused, practice daily - Think of it the same way you would think about exercising - if you don't work at it daily, you won't get in shape. Make time for it each day.

4) Challenge/reward yourself regularly - Nothing is more motivating than taking a risk (such as speaking to a native) and being rewarded with a positive reaction ("Your accent is great!"). More traditional rewards are good too - you might also set a short-term goal (learn how to conjugate verbs...) and then buy yourself that iPhone you've been waiting to buy...

5) Work within a community - This may be the most important thing of all - seek out people who are also trying to learn, people you can talk to. That way, you'll have extra motivation to learn, and support during the rough times.

Can I Talk To A Native Speaker?

No matter how much you practice, you will probably never be entirely comfortable in talking to a native speaker. Let's face it - it's the same reason that talking to an attorney about law or a professor about their discipline can cause you to roll over and agree with anything they say.

They are the experts, right?

Although I've been practicing Spanish diligently for months, I still get tongue-tied and make mistakes when I try to actually speak with a native.

Speaking to another person is a lot like public speaking - you may feel as if your whole value as a person is being judged! But working through that feeling is valuable.

So here's a technique I've recently developed - feel free to use it. You don't even have to give me credit:
1) Pick some people you know are not primarily English speakers (regardless of what language they speak)
2) Learn one or two words in their language (I recommend hello and goodbye)
3) Every time you see those people, use these words
4) If they correct you, try to implement what they suggested next time. If they don't correct you, ask them if you are saying these words correctly.

Although you may learn 5-10 words in languages you will never speak, you will get practice using simple words to speak to someone in another language. And that practice will help you lose your fear of speaking the language you are trying to learn.

Staying On Track By Getting Off Track

A post from Thomas Crawford about a Seth Godin idea called the "Dip" - definitely something for you to read if you're starting the adventure of learning a new language. The post also references Karl Kapp (whose recent book Gadgets, Games, and Gizmos features our product), who reinforces the same idea from a different direction - that of trial and error.

Take the two ideas together, and you end up with an empowering idea for anyone trying to learn - it's OK to get stuck in a rut, and varying and rethinking your studies, even if it means a loss of productivity (getting off track) might hold the key to getting you back on track.

This is a knowledge fractal you'll see show up across lots of disciplines - my Tae Kwon Do instructor talks about periods where you "plateau" in terms of your development, and no matter how much effort you put in, you don't seem to move forward. Times passes. Then you hit a magical breakthrough point, and you're off again.

Look back at Thomas Kuhn's Structure of Scientific Revolutions and you'll find the same idea of "punctuated equilibrium" or paradigm shifts.

Bottom line - Expect to have periods in your process of learning where you seem to be running in place, and when those times hit, get out of your routine and try something different. And give yourself a break. Part of the solution is time passing...

Entertainment and Learning

Today, my son and I were watching this video of the original introduction to the Spiderman cartoon. He loves watching it - and so do I actually - we repeated it 4 times before I had to shut it off.




I noticed that he was carefully practicing the lyrics and trying to get them all down, so afterwards I asked him, "Was that cool or what?"

His reply was yes - and it illustrated for me the importance of entertainment in learning, especially for people doing self-study. The excitement helps fuel the learning process.

Vocabulary Flashcards

Flashcard Exchange is a great tool if you like to use flashcards for your study. They offer a free account, and I've found there are a few free resources specifically for language study - take a gander at them!

"Stretch" & Learning

In creating a daily learning routine for yourself, you're probably making choices about which drills and practice you do, just like I do. Well, I've noticed that it's incredibly easy to fall into the trap of rehashing the same ground, and not challenging yourself quite as much as you should.

Put another way, once you have a piece of vocab down, you don't have to practice it as much to keep it fresh in your memory - so you should move to more challenging vocabulary.

While that makes the administration of learning a bit harder, it's important to set up new challenges for yourself on a regular basis, so that you continue to build your skills.

I'd set a time each month to take a look at your routines and "up the ante"!

More Free Resources

Surviving the "Dip" - Theory

Like marathon runners, learners of any subject go through times where there excitement is high, and times when it is a real struggle to practice. But regardless of the tools you use, or the subject you are "training" in, you need to weather the dips.

Just like a marathoner running a race, you are eventually going to hit a wall - the marathoners typically hit the wall in the last miles of the race, ironically enough. But they often experience smaller dips earlier in the race.

So if you are learning a foreign language, when do the dips hit? What do you do to overcome them? In past posts, I've thrown out some ideas, but my most basic one is this - language learners often hit a wall because they can't easily apply what they know to real life.

What I mean is this - if you read books and do written language practice at home, but never write a letter to anyone in that language to actually communicate to them, it's...well, always just academic.

Real life application is really important. I play guitar and have played in bands for a long time - but I often have an irresistible urge to play a show or record the songs I've written. It isn't good enough for me to play or practice every day - there needs to be a fulfilling end to your efforts, not just a goal.

So, if you are learning a language, what is your fulfilling realization of your efforts? The goal might be "learn to speak Spanish" but when you think about it, that just isn't motivating! If the real end is to read the writings of a famous Spanish author in the original text, or to travel to Spain and speak only Spanish - well those are examples of fulfilling realizations of your efforts. More importantly, you can set up intermediate milestones (speak to a friend at work who speaks Spanish, read a Spanish newspaper, etc.) that will keep you from tiring of your pursuit.

Like a marathoner, don't just train to be fit! Train to run the race - the fitness will happen on its own!!

Notes in Spanish Podcasts

In my never ending pursuit for content which can help me learn Spanish, I was referred to this site, which features podcasts to help you learn or maintain your Spanish. For me this works well for road trips for work, when I need an alternative to NPR.

TIP: Speak to Your Kids, Friends, or Family

One of the things I've noticed lately is that speaking to your kids (or friends, spouse, etc.) on a daily basis even if they don't speak the language has a huge impact.

I routinely use phrases like "A donde vas?" or "Que quieres?" with my son. He now knows what I am asking, and responds in English most often. The weird thing is, after so much repetition, I also don't think about the English translation!

Now I'm starting to try to say other, more complicated things using what I'm learning.

It really helps retention.

The Importance of Variety

Recently, in my quest to learn Spanish, I've noticed that one of the walls I hit is one of interest.

As many of you who have used books, like Pimsleur or Berlitz, or tapes/CDs, will understand my point. It gets boring to drill on chapters of a book repeatedly - not to say that it isn't worthwhile to go through a book or CD/podcast from time to time.

I have a couple books, sites, and products that I'm using to learn (apart from the actual interactions I'm trying to have with people):
- Muzzy - The content is a little outdated (it appears that they are really trying to maximize the value of an investment by the BBC years ago), but it is still a piece of media. Some buyers I've talked to say they hate it - but I do pop in the DVD or CD from time to time, because I find the repetition helpful. At over $200 a language, it isn't a cheap thing, though. I bought it for my kid - as a substitute for Thomas videos.

- My First Spanish-English Visual Dictionary - This is just a kid's book - but it has a ton of vocabulary, and pictures too. I leaf through it from time to time, again, to reinforce vocabulary.

- Mommy Teach Me Spanish - A line of DVDs on the level of the Baby Einstein series by Julie Aigner Clark. The production values are similar - looks like someone produced it fairly inexpensively. However, it is, again, a fairly effective way to get some repetition and variety. The DVD was a gift to my son - and it is interesting in that it uses real kids in it, so kids may identify with it more readily.

- 3DLanguage - Full Disclosure - I'm part of the company that produces 3DL - Together with these other materials, 3DLanguage is really helpful in getting you listening to and speaking Spanish sentences. Unlike phrase books, the interactions are realistic and extremely interactive, so I get a chance to try my hand at words and phrases, and get real feedback. Kind of like a dress rehearsal. Rather than go into an extensive comparision of products out there, I'll just say that, based on using other products for Japanese and other languages, I find 3DLanguage to simply be more engaging - and that is a huge advantage when it comes to sticking to your language learning plan.

More later...

Investing in The Future - Pushing for 6 Weeks

One of the toughest things I've found about learning language is persisting through the rough spots, where you would rather just give up.

In fact, learning a language and getting in shape seem to be kind of similar. At first, you have all adrenaline of a new adventure pushing you forward - but after few weeks, the work is not nearly as exciting as it was, and the results haven't really shown up yet.

As with exercise, you can get a personal trainer - but for most of us, spending big $$$ on a trainer for a year or two while we get ourselves in shape is not feasible. I've heard it said that if you can last 6 weeks with a new routine, you can make it part of your permanent schedule.

I guess it comes down to self-discipline, and staying focused on what you want to achieve. I just passed the hump of 6 weeks, and it did get hard to stay focused. But I kept telling myself - "If you can make it one year, and you have some fluency, I'm taking you to Spain!"

Maybe a little reward every so often, or a big one when you hit your goal will be motivating?

A Few Observations...Right Off The Bat

First and foremost, I've noticed a few things that it might help to know - and certainly helps for me to keep in mind as I practice.

I know that my personality type is different than others, so some of these may not work for you - but they have for me:

1) Make a learning "appointment" - The reality of my situation is that I have to get up at the crack of dawn to study language. I tried for a time just practicing whenever - but it was very easy to put off, and just didn't happen. Getting up early worked for me in college (a lesson I learned 3rd year...), and it is even more true now, with kids who will not leave me alone when they are awake.

2) Surround yourself with the language - I try to turn on the Spanish speaking sports channel when I'm in the car, or read a kids book in Spanish, or just look at "word of the day" sites. My son also has the "Muzzy" line of Spanish products. While those little things don't really impact my spoken Spanish much individually, collectively, they help support what I'm doing.

3) Focus on speaking - OK, I have to admit a bias, since I'm part of the 3DLanguage team. But honestly, it is a heck of a lot more meaningful to practice spoken language than writing. After all, you learn to speak before you learn to read...I really recommend getting a tool that can help you with spoken language. With full disclosure then, try 3DLanguage if you think speaking will help you - Spanish is available now, with English and Arabic under development.

4) Get a partner in crime - My oldest son, unwillingly, has been drafted into my Spanish practice. I try to say what I know to him - and it's funny, but he's young enough to not question it. He routinely responds to me in Spanish now. I can't tell you how motivating that is.

One Man's Journey To Language?

A few years ago now, I took my first trip to Spain. Like the founder of 3DLanguage, Dave, my experience with the country was enough to make me want to learn the language.

I'd studied more than a couple languages, having lived overseas for a while, so I thought to myself "Hey, this is going to be great. After all, Spanish is really similar to English, right?"

I spent the first couple years reminding myself - "You need to learn Spanish. Get on that."

It wasn't until I had kids that it kind of dawned on me - if I wanted them to have fluency in two languages, I was going to have to get on it. So a couple months ago I decided to try to really supercharge my efforts, and get disciplined for a year. To see if I could really make a dent in my goal.

I decided to start this blog to keep a record of my own progress in learning, both as a resource for others and myself. Of course, I'm using the 3DLanguage tool on a daily basis (I'm targeting 10 minutes a day...). To get a free demo of it, click on this link - then the icon with the face.