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johnsonel7

There's a movement to de-gender the Spanish language. It doesn't involve "Latinx." / LG... - 0 views

www.lgbtqnation.com/...language-doesnt-involve-latinx

language movement

shared by johnsonel7 on 02 Jan 20 - No Cached
  • Earlier this year, Merriam-Webster made news by designating “they” as its “Word of the Year.” It seemed a fitting cap to a year in which the very structures of language itself were the subject of debate and scrutiny over its real effects on how we live, especially where it concerns the advancement of human rights. Across the globe, people are posing questions about how we use language to describe people and situations, and whether the words we use are inclusive enough of all genders and orientations.
  • This intense debate is epitomized in the Spanish-speaking world, where a teenage-led movement to eliminate gender from the language has made strides this past year, forcing different generations to have a conversation about what is acceptable in 2019.
  • “the language form has divided the feminist movement from which it originated. While some within the movement insist on speaking in a way that includes non-binary people, others have resisted, preferring to emphasize the voices of women by using feminine words.”
  • ...1 more annotation...
  • For concerned speakers of Spanish, however, the experience one of the leading activists featured in the Post, Natalia Mira, offers some insight into how they might get more used to change in what is ultimately a social construct. She started using gender-neutral Spanish in her daily life, with her parents, her taxi drivers, even when singing in the shower. By the time she was interviewed by a broadcast journalist, the words just came out with natural ease.
Javier E

What that Cruz-Rubio 'He doesn't speak Spanish' thing was about - The Washington Post - 0 views

www.washingtonpost.com/...-speak-spanish-thing-was-about

spanish culture foreign language language white supremacy

shared by Javier E on 15 Feb 16 - No Cached
  • America, this was one of those moments full of history and emotion and deep social meaning that a good portion of the audience likely did not fully comprehend. But, it’s worth noting because that entire exchange was made possible by decades of misguided, scientifically unsound and bigoted thinking that plenty of Americans continue to laud every day.
Javier E

WHICH IS THE BEST LANGUAGE TO LEARN? | More Intelligent Life - 2 views

moreintelligentlife.com/...which-best-language-learn

language education Chinese France US

shared by Javier E on 05 Mar 12 - No Cached
  • For language lovers, the facts are grim: Anglophones simply aren’t learning them any more. In Britain, despite four decades in the European Union, the number of A-levels taken in French and German has fallen by half in the past 20 years, while what was a growing trend of Spanish-learning has stalled. In America, the numbers are equally sorry.
  • compelling reasons remain for learning other languages.
  • First of all, learning any foreign language helps you understand all language better—many Anglophones first encounter the words “past participle” not in an English class, but in French. Second, there is the cultural broadening. Literature is always best read in the original. Poetry and lyrics suffer particularly badly in translation. And learning another tongue helps the student grasp another way of thinking.
  • ...11 more annotations...
  • is Chinese the language of the future?
  • So which one should you, or your children, learn? If you take a glance at advertisements in New York or A-level options in Britain, an answer seems to leap out: Mandarin.
  • The practical reasons are just as compelling. In business, if the team on the other side of the table knows your language but you don’t know theirs, they almost certainly know more about you and your company than you do about them and theirs—a bad position to negotiate from.
  • This factor is the Chinese writing system (which Japan borrowed and adapted centuries ago). The learner needs to know at least 3,000-4,000 characters to make sense of written Chinese, and thousands more to have a real feel for it. Chinese, with all its tones, is hard enough to speak. But  the mammoth feat of memory required to be literate in Mandarin is harder still. It deters most foreigners from ever mastering the system—and increasingly trips up Chinese natives.
  • If you were to learn ten languages ranked by general usefulness, Japanese would probably not make the list. And the key reason for Japanese’s limited spread will also put the brakes on Chinese.
  • A recent survey reported in the People’s Daily found 84% of respondents agreeing that skill in Chinese is declining.
  • Fewer and fewer native speakers learn to produce characters in traditional calligraphy. Instead, they write their language the same way we do—with a computer. And not only that, but they use the Roman alphabet to produce Chinese characters: type in wo and Chinese language-support software will offer a menu of characters pronounced wo; the user selects the one desired. (Or if the user types in wo shi zhongguo ren, “I am Chinese”, the software detects the meaning and picks the right characters.) With less and less need to recall the characters cold, the Chinese are forgetting them
  • As long as China keeps the character-based system—which will probably be a long time, thanks to cultural attachment and practical concerns alike—Chinese is very unlikely to become a true world language, an auxiliary language like English, the language a Brazilian chemist will publish papers in, hoping that they will be read in Finland and Canada. By all means, if China is your main interest, for business or pleasure, learn Chinese. It is fascinating, and learnable—though Moser’s online essay, “Why Chinese is so damn hard,” might discourage the faint of heart and the short of time.
  • But if I was asked what foreign language is the most useful, and given no more parameters (where? for what purpose?), my answer would be French. Whatever you think of France, the language is much less limited than many people realise.
  • French ranks only 16th on the list of languages ranked by native speakers. But ranked above it are languages like Telegu and Javanese that no one would call world languages. Hindi does not even unite India. Also in the top 15 are Arabic, Spanish and Portuguese, major languages to be sure, but regionally concentrated. If your interest is the Middle East or Islam, by all means learn Arabic. If your interest is Latin America, Spanish or Portuguese is the way to go. Or both; learning one makes the second quite easy.
  • if you want another truly global language, there are surprisingly few candidates, and for me French is unquestionably top of the list. It can enhance your enjoyment of art, history, literature and food, while giving you an important tool in business and a useful one in diplomacy. It has native speakers in every region on earth. And lest we forget its heartland itself, France attracts more tourists than any other country—76.8m in 2010, according to the World Tourism Organisation, leaving America a distant second with 59.7m
julia rhodes

Masculine or Feminine? (And Why It Matters) | Psychology Today - 2 views

www.psychologytoday.com/...or-feminine-and-why-it-matters

science research psychology language brain science feminine masculine thought cognition

shared by julia rhodes on 15 Sep 13 - No Cached
  • If you’ve ever studied a foreign language, you know that in many languages, nouns —even inanimate objects— have grammatical gender.
  • As it turns out, a language’s grammatical gender can have significant and surprising effects on cognition.
  • So linguistic gender can spill over into other mental processes, leading us to judge and categorize inanimate and abstract nouns as truly having a gender, even though we logically know better.
  • ...7 more annotations...
  • Can grammatical gender influence speakers’ cognitive processes when they’re speaking another language entirely?
  • They created a list of 24 objects that have opposite genders in Spanish and German; in each language, half of the objects were masculine and half were feminine.
  • peaking English and using materials written in English
  • The word “bridge” is feminine in German and masculine in Spanish. Sure enough, German speakers described bridges as beautiful, elegant, fragile, pretty, and slender, while Spanish speakers said they were big, dangerous, strong, sturdy, and towering.
  • As these studies show, grammatical gender can influence people’s thinking, even when they’re speaking a language with no grammatical gender to speak of —and even when they’re not speaking any language at all!
  • Small, unnoticed features of language can influence our thoughts, sometimes in big ways. Knowing that, imagine how else language, culture, and society might affect our thoughts, feelings, and behaviors
  • it seems we are not yet free of gender stereotypes
jmfinizio

Sergi Mingote: A Spanish mountain climber has died after falling from K2 - CNN - 0 views

www.cnn.com/...index.html

mountain climber died

shared by jmfinizio on 16 Jan 21 - No Cached
  • Spanish mountaineer Sergi Mingote has died while climbing K2, the world's second highest summit,
  • "He wanted to continue making history by being part of the first expedition to crown this mountain in the middle of winter and a tragic accident has ended his life.
  • "We [were] informed by unexpected movement on his GPS tracker and could see he made a big fall,
  • ...2 more annotations...
  • The peak is renowned among mountaineers for its difficulty and has been bestowed the moniker "Savage Mountain" as an ode to its unforgiving nature.
  • A team of 10 Nepali climbers did reach the summit of K2 on Saturday,
Emily Horwitz

¿Por qué tosemos más en los conciertos de música clásica? - BBC Mundo - Noticias - 0 views

www.bbc.co.uk/...os_concierto_clasica_gtg.shtml

coughing classical music

shared by Emily Horwitz on 01 Feb 13 - No Cached
  • Todo está en silencio. Los instrumentos de cuerda, los de viento y percusión esperan la señal del director para empezar la pieza. Al otro lado está el público callado, tragando más espeso y conteniendo la tos. Hay alguien que no lo puede evitar y con el primer acorde empieza a toser. ¿Por qué siempre ocurre esto?
  • "Toda la estadística existente sugiere que la gente tose dos veces más durante los conciertos", le dijo Wagener a la BBC.
  • El especialista descubrió que la acción de toser no es completamente aleatoria. La pieza que se escucha también incita a toser más o menos.
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  • "Si se trata de conciertos más modernos, como por ejemplo música clásica del siglo XX, los movimientos más lentos y los silencios son interrumpidos con mayor frecuencia".
  • cuando alguien empieza a toser y contagia a los otros.
  • "Creo que muchas personas cuando van a conciertos clásicos se dan cuenta que el nivel de ruido es mucho menor que la música a la que están acostumbradas a oir a través de sus auriculares o conciertos de música pop", agregó la pianista.
  • ese silencio en los conciertos acústicos es reconfortante, para otros puede originar inconformidad que se manifiesta en la acción de toser.
  • Andreas Wagener se mostró parcialmente de acuerdo con la teoría de Tomes, pues "cuando alguien va a un concierto (de música clásica) sabe que debe permanecer en silencio".
  • "Es una cuestión de etiqueta, saben que no deben hablar o caminar, hacer ruido o toser, pero la gente sigue tosiendo en exceso".
  • con la tos no se puede saber si es deliberado o involuntario.
  • "Creo que a veces la gente no esta consciente de como suena para el concertista. Es un factor muy distractor".
  • Emily Horwitz on 01 Feb 13
     
    I realize that this article is in Spanish, so those who don't understand the language will likely be confused, but I thought that it was very interesting, and related to TOK. Essentially, the article talked about a study that Andreas Wagener, a German scientist did, in which it was discovered that people cough twice as much at classical music concerts than otherwise. Wagener also found that the amount of coughing was not random; rather, it was dependent on the style, tempo, etc. of the music being played. The slow, more modern pieces often elicited more coughs. Additionally, Wagener found that, similar to how we think about yawning, coughing is contagious; one cough can cause an avalanche of other coughs. The article also noted the possibility that some of the coughing going on during a classical music concert may not be the typical, involuntary, reflexive cough, but a deliberate cough of social interaction. In terms of TOK, I thought that this article was most interesting in that, when put into a situation in which we may be uncomfortable (often with silence), we cough more. I related this to my own experiences at Friends, during MFW, when people often seem to cough out of a need for interaction. It would be interesting to see if Wagener could work with some geneticists and biologists to discover if a connection between slow classical music and more coughing is purely biological, or if it stems from another causation of human behavior.
Javier E

The Rolled R's of Vanessa Ruiz - The New York Times - 0 views

www.nytimes.com/...rolled-rs-of-vanessa-ruiz.html

language spanish english

shared by Javier E on 18 Sep 15 - No Cached
  • It is wrong to think that polyglots inhabit several alternative universes, each defined by a different tongue. In truth, they live only one life, just like everyone else — except that they have the advantage of looking at it through different linguistic lenses.
  • code switching: the spontaneous, even joyful, combining of elements of two or more tongues in a single sentence.
  • Ms. Ruiz’s use of Spanish words in English newscasts, and her choice of pronunciation, would have been unthinkable 50 years ago. Today, they are polemical; tomorrow, it will seem inexplicable that there was ever a fuss.
sandrine_h

Bilingual brain boost: Two tongues, two minds | New Scientist - 0 views

www.newscientist.com/...in-boost-two-tongues-two-minds

science research brain science language

shared by sandrine_h on 06 Mar 17 - No Cached
  • Speaking a second language can change everything from problem-solving skills to personality – almost as if you are two people
  • Cognitive enhancement is just the start. According to some studies, my memories, values, even my personality, may change depending on which language I happen to be speaking. It is almost as if the bilingual brain houses two separate minds. All of which highlights the fundamental role of language in human thought
  • The view of bilingualism has not always been this rosy. For many parents like mine, the decision to raise children speaking two languages was controversial. Since at least the 19th century, educators warned that it would confuse the child, making them unable to learn either language properly. At best, they thought the child would become a jack-of-all-trades and master of none. At worst, they suspected it might hinder other aspects of development, resulting in a lower IQ
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  • a key study in the 1960s by Elizabeth Peal and Wallace Lambert at McGill University in Montreal, Canada, found that the ability to speak two languages does not stunt overall development. On the contrary, when controlling for other factors which might also affect performance, such as socioeconomic status and education, they found that bilinguals outperformed monolinguals in 15 verbal and non-verbal tests
  • Besides giving us bilinguals a brain boost, speaking a second language may have a profound effect on behaviour. Neuroscientists and psychologists are coming to accept that language is deeply entwined with thought and reasoning, leading some to wonder whether bilingual people act differently depending on which language they are speaking. That would certainly tally with my experience. People often tell me that I seem different when I speak English compared with when I speak French.
  • One explanation is that each language brings to mind the values of the culture we experienced while learning it, says Nairán Ramírez-Esparza, a psychologist at the University of Washington in Seattle. She recently asked bilingual Mexicans to rate their personality in English and Spanish questionnaires. Modesty is valued more highly in Mexico than it is in the US, where assertiveness gains respect, and the language of the questions seemed to trigger these differences. When questioned in Spanish, each volunteer was more humble than when the survey was presented in English
  • Much has been made of the difficulties of learning a new language later in life, but the evidence so far suggests the effort should pay off. “You can learn another language at any age, you can learn it fluently, and you can see benefits to your cognitive system,” says Marian. Bialystok agrees that late language-learners gain an advantage, even if the performance boost is usually less pronounced than in bilingual speakers. “Learn a language at any age, not to become bilingual, but just to remain mentally stimulated,” she says. “That’s the source of cognitive reserve.”
  • As it is, I’m grateful that particular challenge is behind me. My mother could never have guessed the extent to which her words would change my brain and the way I see my world, but I’m certain it was worth the effort. And for all that I just have to say: Merci!
cvanderloo

Why 1.2 billion people in China share the same 100 surnames - CNN - 0 views

www.cnn.com/...index.html

China surnames dialects knowledge science language

shared by cvanderloo on 17 Jan 21 - No Cached
  • five most common surnames in China -- shared by more than 433 million people, or 30% of the population
  • With 1.37 billion citizens, China has the world's largest population, but has one of the smallest surname pools. Only about 6,000 surnames are in use, according to the Ministry of Public Security. And the vast majority of the population -- almost 86% -- share just 100 of those surnames.
  • To put that in perspective, the United States -- with less than a quarter of China's population -- reported 6.3 million surnames in its 2010 census
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  • It also has to do with language; you can't just add a random stroke to a Chinese character and create a new surname, the way you can add a letter to an English name.
    • cvanderloo
      cvanderloo on 17 Jan 21
       
      Language!
  • people with rare characters in their names, which aren't compatible with existing computer systems, can get left behind -- pushing many to change their names for the sake of convenience, even if it means abandoning centuries of heritage and language.
  • China's history, full of migration, political turmoil and warfare, meant people's names were often in flux -- which is partly why many have since vanished.
  • People sometimes changed their names for convenience, too -- for instance, simplifying complex characters by adopting similar-sounding ones with fewer strokes. Other times they did it out of superstition, abandoning a name believed to bring ill fortune, said Chen, the associate professor.
  • surnames are lost or die out over time with each new generation as women take on their husbands' surnames.
  • With China roaring into the digital age, nearly everything -- from making appointments to buying train tickets -- has moved online. That meant a world of trouble if you happened to have a rare character in your name, that might not be in the database.
  • China's digitized ID cards made the problem even more pressing. The first generation of these cards allowed people to hand-write their names on -- but the second-generation cards, launched in 2004 and dubbed "smart cards" for their digital features, exclusively used computer-printed text.
    • cvanderloo
      cvanderloo on 17 Jan 21
       
      Reminds me of requiring people in Guatemala to fill out a form in Spanish even though half of the population doesn't speak spanish.
  • Another factor exacerbating the increasing commonness of Chinese names is the government's efforts to standardize and regulate the language.
  • Various dialects of Mandarin are spoken between the provinces, with some so different that speakers are unintelligible to each other.
    • cvanderloo
      cvanderloo on 17 Jan 21
       
      Dialects vs languages and the bariors they form
  • To try to address this, experts have increased the database from 32,000 characters to 70,000 characters, according to the government. They're still working to expand it to include more than 90,000 character
  • This struggle, and the cost of adapting to the modern age, was exemplified in a village in the eastern Shandong province in the late 2000s. Many villagers shared the ancestral name "Shan" -- but when they began applying for the digitized ID cards, local officials advised them to change their surnames to "Xian," a similar-sounding but more common character, according to state-owned news service CNTV.
  • In the end, more than 200 villagers were forced to change their surnames, a source of sorrow for many.
caelengrubb

The Linguistic Colonialism of English - Brown Political Review - 0 views

brownpoliticalreview.org/...linguistic-colonialism-english

shared by caelengrubb on 17 Jan 21 - No Cached
  • Through centuries of colonialism, neocolonialism, Cold War expansionism, and, most recently, globalization, the West has spread its preferred systems of capitalism, democracy, and moral values.
  • As a result of this, contemporary English is detached from any specific cultural identity; it is a tool which links different societies in an increasingly smaller world.
  • The first population to speak English was the British. About five hundred years ago, between five and seven million people spoke the language; today, about 1.8 billion people do.
  • ...11 more annotations...
  • Processes of violent imperialism have paved the way for the cultural pandemic originating in the West
  • Most former British colonies now use English as their official language (e.g. Ghana and South Africa). Ever since the US colonized Puerto Rico after winning the Spanish-American war (note the absence of Puerto Rico, or Cuba, in the name of the war), the official languages on the island became Spanish and, of course, English.
  • Today, English is the third most spoken language in the world and tops the list of second languages. English is a necessity for studying at the most prestigious institutions of higher learning, a ticket to working almost anywhere in the world, and an instrument enabling a livelihood in the wealthiest nations.
  • This phenomenon feeds into the growth of social inequality linked to globalization. The majority of the time, English learned as a second language in public schools does not create a proficiency level adequate for working, studying, or relying on the language in daily life.
  • People dedicate their time and resources to learning and perfecting their understanding and knowledge of English, rather than preserving their own customs and culture.
  • The process of globalization leads people to visualize an array of opportunities and an exponentially better future linked to the English language. A language is not only an instrument of communication, however. It is also the tool of a society, made up of its culture, traditions, and sets of religious and ideological beliefs
  • English has also become the main language used in science. Doctors around the world use English to communicate their findings. Most research papers are written in English as a way to facilitate international scientific cooperation.
  • Although this may seem like a necessity to promote scientific discovery, the resulting gap is problematic. The researchers who have not had the chance to learn English are at a disadvantage.
  • These processes suggest a disconcerting implication – globalization is simply a more “socially acceptable” means of imperialism, without violence
  • Globalization and the expansion of the English language have resulted in oppression and inequality.
  • If the preservation of other cultures is given the same importance and value as spreading English is currently receiving, the language can be an addition, not a replacement, to a naturally evolving culture’s array of nuances.
knudsenlu

Facebook, el monstruo de las dos cabezas - Archivo Digital de Noticias de Colombia y el... - 0 views

www.eltiempo.com/...CMS-12049765

language social media libertad

shared by knudsenlu on 14 Nov 17 - No Cached
  • Es así como, casi sin darnos cuenta, comenzamos a comportarnos como productos, siempre buscando tener más compradores, en función de la identidad más "vendedora".
  • Aunque tiene el potencial para convertirse en el Gran Hermano, la diferencia con la versión de George Orwell es que en ella las cámaras y micrófonos eran instaladas en contra de la voluntad de sus habitantes, mientras que
  • "Trino, luego existo", podría ser el eslogan del hombre moderno, para quien su valor se mide a menudo en el número de amigos virtuales que logra acumular, en cuantos 'Me Gusta' obtiene por sus comentarios, imágenes y publicaciones en red.
  • ...1 more annotation...
  • En código de programación, nuestra vida cotidiana queda registrada sin que nos demos cuenta.
  • knudsenlu on 14 Nov 17
     
    Sorry- I know it's in Spanish.. it just seemed fitting for TOK
johnsonel7

The Language You Speak Influences Where Your Attention Goes - Scientific American Blog ... - 0 views

blogs.scientificamerican.com/...nces-where-your-attention-goes

language

shared by johnsonel7 on 02 Jan 20 - No Cached
  • Research with speakers of different languages revealed that bilingual speakers not only look at words that share sounds in one language but also at words that share sounds across their two languages. When Russian-English bilinguals hear the English word marker, they also look at a stamp, because the Russian word for stamp is marka.
  • Even more stunning, speakers of different languages differ in their patterns of eye movements when no language is used at all. In a simple visual search task in which people had to find a previously seen object among other objects, their eyes moved differently depending on what languages they knew. For example, when looking for a clock, English speakers also looked at a cloud. Spanish speakers, on the other hand, when looking for the same clock, looked at a present, because the Spanish names for clock and present—reloj and regalo—overlap at their onset.
  • Because of the way our brain organizes and processess linguistic and nonlinguistic information, a single word can set off a domino effect that cascades throughout the cognitive system.
  • ...2 more annotations...
  • Not only is the language system thoroughly interactive with a high degree of co-activation across words and concepts, but it also impacts our processing in other domains such as vision, attention and cognitive control.
  • In other words, it is safe to say that the language you speak influences how you see the world not only figuratively but also quite literally, down to the mechanics of your eye movements.
Javier E

Covid Study Finds 18 Million Deaths, Three Times Official Tally - Bloomberg - 0 views

www.bloomberg.com/...lobal-deaths-since-spanish-flu

deaths pandemic research mortality science

shared by Javier E on 11 Mar 22 - No Cached
  • “At the global level, this is quite the biggest mortality shock since the Spanish flu,” s
  • Covid drove a 17% jump in deaths worldwide, he said in an interview. The flu pandemic that began in 1918 killed at least 50 million people. 
  • The evidence suggests the mortality surge is a direct result of Covid-19, the researchers said. But some deaths may also have occurred indirectly, they said, caused by a lack of access to health care and other essential services during the pandemic, or from behavioral shifts that led to suicide or drug abuse. 
  • ...5 more annotations...
  • Because of its large population, India alone accounted for an estimated 22% -- or 4.1 million -- of the global deaths. The U.S. and Russia were the next highest with 1.1 million each, followed by Mexico, Brazil and Indonesia.
  • In the end, the scientists estimated there was an excess of 120 deaths for every 100,000 people around the world. The study found 21 countries had estimated mortality rates higher than 300 per 100,000, led by Bolivia and Bulgaria
  • Places with the lowest estimated excess mortality rate were Iceland, Australia, Singapore and New Zealand.
  • Mask-wearing, physical distancing and other public health measures led to a decline in other communicable diseases, which reduced mortality in some countries
  • the prevalence of obesity and older age in a population were two of the biggest determinants of excess mortality, Murray said. 
peterconnelly

In 'Singing With Elephants," Margarita Engle explores being an outsider : NPR - 0 views

www.npr.org/...tsider-in-singing-with-elephan

npr

shared by peterconnelly on 01 Jun 22 - No Cached
  • The Cuban American author Margarita Engle explores what it's like to be an outsider in her new middle-grade novel Singing with Elephants.
  • Engle tells Morning Edition she wanted to imagine how it would feel for a child to live near an accomplished poet and to wonder if she could write poetry too. Singing with Elephants is told in verse.
  • Ten years ago, publishers put the Spanish in italics so people didn't really think of it as bilingual in the same way, because the Spanish was kind of separated by the italics.
  • ...4 more annotations...
  • They communicated without knowing the same language but as my mother learned English, she had a very heavy accent and still does to this day at the age of 91.
  • There are children in every classroom learning a language — whether it's English or not. Everywhere in the world with refugees dispersed, people are learning new languages and adapting to new homes.
  • As we mature and then go to school and encounter people from all different backgrounds, it's kind of a shock for anybody in any language to seek a sense of belonging with people who aren't from your family, people you don't know. And yet there are these universal languages, like poetry, which is musical and is rooted in emotions. And I feel like that's a refuge.
  • For me, when I think of where have I ever had a sense of belonging, I have a sense of belonging on the page.
Javier E

What's the secret to learning a second language? - Salon.com - 0 views

www.salon.com/...t_to_learning_a_second_lanuage

language learning

shared by Javier E on 29 Oct 12 - No Cached
  • “Arabic is a language of memorization,” he said. “You just have to drill the words into your head, which unfortunately takes a lot of time.” He thought, “How can I maximize the number of words I learn in the minimum amount of time?”
  • Siebert started studying the science of memory and second-language acquisition and found two concepts that went hand in hand to make learning easier: selective learning and spaced repetition. With selective learning, you spend more time on the things you don’t know, rather than on the things you already do
  • Siebert designed his software to use spaced repetition. If you get cup right, the program will make the interval between seeing the word cup longer and longer, but it will cycle cup back in just when you’re about to forget it. If you’ve forgotten cup entirely, the cycle starts again. This system moves the words from your brain’s short-term memory into long-term memory and maximizes the number of words you can learn effectively in a period. You don’t have to cram
  • ...8 more annotations...
  • ARABIC IS ONE of the languages the U.S. Department of State dubs “extremely hard.” Chinese, Japanese, and Korean are the others. These languages’ structures are vastly different from that of English, and they are memorization-driven.
  • To help meet its language-learning goals, in 2003 the Department of Defense established the University of Maryland Center for Advanced Study of Language.
  • MICHAEL GEISLER, a vice president at Middlebury College, which runs the foremost language-immersion school in the country, was blunt: “The drill-and-kill approach we used 20 years ago doesn’t work.” He added, “The typical approach that most programs take these days—Rosetta Stone is one example—is scripted dialogue and picture association. You have a picture of the Eiffel Tower, and you have a sentence to go with it. But that’s not going to teach you the language.”
  • According to Geisler, you need four things to learn a language. First, you have to use it. Second, you have to use it for a purpose. Research shows that doing something while learning a language—preparing a cooking demonstration, creating an art project, putting on a play—stimulates an exchange of meaning that goes beyond using the language for the sake of learning it.Third, you have to use the language in context. This is where Geisler says all programs have fallen short.
  • Fourth, you have to use language in interaction with others. In a 2009 study led by Andrew Meltzoff at the University of Washington, researchers found that young children easily learned a second language from live human interaction while playing and reading books. But audio and DVD approaches with the same material, without the live interaction, fostered no learning progress at all. Two people in conversation constantly give each other feedback that can be used to make changes in how they respond.
  • our research shows that the ideal model is a blended one,” one that blends technology and a teacher. “Our latest research shows that with the proper use of technology and cognitive neuroscience, we can make language learning more efficient.” 
  • The school released its first two online programs, for French and Spanish, last year. The new courses use computer avatars for virtual collaboration; rich video of authentic, unscripted conversations with native speakers; and 3-D role-playing games in which students explore life in a city square, acting as servers and taking orders from customers in a café setting. The goal at the end of the day, as Geisler put it, is for you to “actually be able to interact with a native speaker in his own language and have him understand you, understand him, and, critically, negotiate when you don’t understand what he is saying.” 
  • The program includes the usual vocabulary lists and lessons in how to conjugate verbs, but students are also consistently immersed in images, audio, and video of people from different countries speaking with different accents. Access to actual teachers is another critical component.
maxwellokolo

Actually, Let's Not Be in the Moment - 0 views

www.nytimes.com/...lets-not-be-in-the-moment.html

shared by maxwellokolo on 05 Jan 17 - No Cached
  • maxwellokolo on 05 Jan 17
     
    On the face of it, our lives are often much more fulfilling lived outside the present than in it. As anyone who has ever maintained that they will one day lose 10 pounds or learn Spanish or find the matching lids for the Tupperware will know, we often anticipate our futures with more blind optimism than the reality is likely to warrant.
maxwellokolo

Woman busted smuggling refugee in suitcase - 0 views

www.cnn.com/...index.html

shared by maxwellokolo on 03 Jan 17 - No Cached
  • maxwellokolo on 03 Jan 17
     
    Authorities stopped the 22-year-old woman last week at a border crossing into Ceuta, one of two Spanish enclaves in North Africa, from neighboring Morocco. A 19-year-old migrant from Gabon was found concealed inside. The man was immediately offered medical attention due to the lack of oxygen inside the compact travel bag, Spain's Civil Guard said in a statement.
oliviaodon

Language barriers still burden science, new study suggests - CSMonitor.com - 0 views

www.csmonitor.com/...den-science-new-study-suggests

shared by oliviaodon on 09 Feb 17 - No Cached
  • In today’s globally connected world, language may still be a barrier to science.
  • Today, almost every major scientific journal prints in English – even while featuring research from all over the world.
  • Meanwhile, new research suggests, tens of thousands of reports are being published without English translations.
  • ...4 more annotations...
  • “Language barriers continue to impede the global compilation and application of scientific knowledge,” lead author Tatsuya Amano, a professor of zoology at the University of Cambridge, said in a statement.
  • “Scientific knowledge generated in the field by non-native English speakers is inevitably under-represented, particularly in the dominant English-language academic journals,” Amano said. “This potentially renders local and indigenous knowledge unavailable in English.”
  • English wasn’t always the lingua franca, or common language, of science.
  • But doubling down on English may not be the best way to overcome the language barrier, researchers say. Instead, they argue, journals should supply translations of current scientific publications. To emphasize that point, authors included summaries of their new study in Spanish, Portuguese, Chinese, Japanese, and French.
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