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Isabelle Jones

When do people learn languages? - 0 views

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    Advice for language learners General warning: what follows may or may not apply to you. It's based on what linguistics knows about people in general (but any general advice will be ludicrously inappropriate for some people) and on my own experience (but you're not the same as me). If you have another way of learning that works, more power to you. Given the discussion so far, the prospects for language learning may seem pretty bleak. It seems that you'll only learn a language if you really need to; but the fact that you haven't done so already is a pretty good indication that you don't really need to. How to break out of this paradox? At the least, try to make the facts of language learning work for you, not against you. Exposure to the language, for instance, works in your favor. So create exposure. * Read books in the target language. * Better yet, read comics and magazines. (They're easier, more colloquial, and easier to incorporate into your weekly routine.) * Buy music that's sung in it; play it while you're doing other things. * Read websites and participate in newsgroups that use it. * Play language tapes in your car. If you have none, make some for yourself. * Hang out in the neighborhood where they speak it. * Try it out with anyone you know who speaks it. If necessary, go make new friends. * Seek out opportunities to work using the language. * Babysit a child, or hire a sitter, who speaks the language. * Take notes in your classes or at meetings in the language. * Marry a speaker of the language. (Warning: marry someone patient: some people want you to know their language-- they don't want to teach it. Also, this strategy is tricky for multiple languages.) Taking a class can be effective, partly for the instruction, but also because you can meet others who are learning the language, and because, psychologically, classes may be needed to make us give the subject matter time and attention. Self-study is too eas
Andrew Jeppesen

Building Peace - Thoughts on Modern Conflict - 0 views

  • This is the crux: foreign language ability is not just about converting information from one format to another. It's about human relationships.
  • A few years ago, while General Abizaid was still CENTCOM commander, I flew a C-17 into Cairo to pick him up after a meeting. While I sat on the parking ramp with my engines running, knocking out checklists for the next takeoff, I looked out the window and saw General Abizaid moving among a circle of grinning Egyptian military officers. He was shaking hands, talking, doing the kinds of things a combatant commander is supposed to do: keeping our alliances strong at a time when the situation in Iraq was critical. Because he is fluent in Arabic, I presume he was doing at least some of this in Arabic. I remember thinking, Wow. This is why language matters.
  • Language is extremely hard. We need as many language solutions as we can get, and technology certainly can and should help fill the gap. But no matter how good the technology gets, no matter how prevalent English becomes, old-fashioned speaking of a foreign language still matters.
Lauren Rosen

Lead with Languages - 9 views

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    Video to promote making the learning of languages a national priority, where we recognize in other countries learning another languages is already a part of the curriculum and where it is important to know other languages to succeed economically, diplomatically and in our careers.
Isabelle Jones

learning a language | how to learn new foreign languages - 0 views

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    The author provides in-depth advice on learning a language, taking language courses and the benefits of learning a second language. In this book you will discover the various types of course available, examine your learning style, and find the type of course which best suits you.
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    very interesting!
Aaron Myers

The Everyday Language Learner - 14 views

I write The Everyday Language Learner to promote and empower self-directed language learners. I would love to hear what others are doing to learn and help others learn another language and to crea...

resources languages

started by Aaron Myers on 17 Jan 11 no follow-up yet
Isabelle Jones

Obama Knocks Critics Of Language Comments, Democrat Dismisses Conservative Critics Of H... - 0 views

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    Languages are a political football in many different ways
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