Learning a Foreign Language: Learn from the Blind
In a previous article, you read that to establih your own lists was the best way to learn vocabulary as fast as possible. Let's study what an effective list looks like.
Among prejudices about languages, there is the following: you need to establish huge lists in order to acquire as many words as possible.
WRONG !
The most effective list contains 5 to 6 words at a time. Yes! Your larger list contains 6 words. Are you still afraid of the task? I'm sure you can deal with 6 words at a time. If you could draw your memory, you would draw a two room flat. The first room, your instant memory, is large enough for 6 items. Your deep memory, the second room, has no limit, but it can receive no more than 6 items at a time and wants you to confirm your order. What happens when you fight against Nature?If you go on solliciting your instant memory and try to add a new item when there is no room left, it will make room for this new item (your memory is obedient, from a certain point of view) by pushing out something else. The newcomer is not added, it replaces the older in the queue. If you are lucky, the previous 6 items in your deep memory had been stored when you tried to add one and the pushed-out word enters your deep memory. More often, as you have experienced, it disappears. That's the reason why the memory seems a bit temperamental as long as you don't know how it works.
If you are determined to learn a foreign language, you can't rely on luck to enrich your vocabulary.Don't fight against Nature, use it.Take advantage of this human feature instead of struggling with it. You have got six-item boxes, but the number of boxes is unlimited, and anyway, long lists are boring.
Fill a box, send it, confirm your order! again and again. It is the fastest and best way to enrich your vocabulary. Do you recognize the "first five minute factor"? When you begin a novel, when you start watching a movie, you meet the characters. Honestly, how often do you have to rewind the tape to encounter them a second time? Never. Neither need you to re-read the first chapter of a book. Though I admit I have some trouble with Dostoievski's characters.)Make the first five minute factor the slave of your memory.
why and how to become a kind of ventriloquist.
Gabrielle Guichard, a French teacher who can be reached on GabrielleGuichard.com and listened to on FrenchPodcasting.com
MORE RESOURCES:
Masters of mystery component speak language of their own in BCS polls - The Birmingham News - al.com
Masters of mystery component speak language of their own in BCS polls The Birmingham News - al.com, AL - There's no need to e-mail Wes Colley with complaints. He recognizes his computer rankings look goofy each week in the Bowl Championship Series standings. ... |
Language issue splits Rosemead officials Whittier Daily News, CA - "If someone spoke another language, it's basically saying they need not apply," Clark said. "When this is in a brochure sponsored by the city, ... Website provides free English instruction |
World Language Awareness Day Exposes Students to Cultural Diversity EVLiving - Mesa, AZ - Students celebrated cultural diversity at the World Languages Awareness Day event on Wednesday for Mesa Community College’s International ... From Russia With Love |
RatePoint Expands Online Reputation Management with International ... MarketWatch - Unhindered by language barriers, businesses using the RatePoint Site Seal provide consumers with instant visual confirmation that their business is credible ... |
RatePoint Adds New Language Support Web Host Industry Review - Companies can also provide the option of using more than one language at once, says RatePoint. This is particularly significant for companies like web ... |
Glencoe Literature Programs Customized to Align with Alabama's ... MarketWatch - The skills and strategies within Glencoe/McGraw-Hill's new inquiry-based reading and language arts program seamlessly integrate with literature and ... |
Ad Council To Teens: Anti-Gay Language Isn't Cool MediaPost Publications, New York - ... will only make it harder for the Advertising Council's new effort to educate teenagers about how painful and harassing anti-gay language can be. ... |
 Hoboken411.com | Hoboken parents divided over dual language program The Jersey Journal - NJ.com, NJ - Parents who spoke in favor praised the merits of language immersion and said it would encourage parents to send their children to the public schools. ... Kids will |
 CTV.ca | Looking for support in Quebec election, PQ to talk language and ... The Canadian Press, MONTREAL - MONTREAL — Parti Quebecois Leader Pauline Marois is introducing the party's platform on the hot-button issues of culture and language Thursday morning. ... Premier widens lead to possible majority, poll says Rules for debate give Marois a break as PQ leader has right to ... Downtown CHUM 'a dead-end project,' Dumont says |
Menominee language finds new life in schools Green Bay Press Gazette, WI - But it's more of a challenge to others who may not have been as exposed to the native language. "I just want them to try," said Snow, one of two language ... |
Language - Google News
Teaching English in Mexico: A Decent Living?
What's more disappointing than a person who makes a promise he can't keep? A person who makes a promise that is a lie. Many promises to make a "decent living" teaching English in Mexico are just that-a lie.
Learn to Speak Basic Chinese (Mandarin) Words and Phrases
The Chinese Language and dialectsEach province, each city and even each village speaks their own dialect. There are hundreds of Chinese dialects in China so much so that each dialect speaker is not likely to understand another dialect speaker from another village or city.
Learning a Foreign Language: the Psychological Factor
When it comes about learning a foreign language, many people wonder if they will be able to memorize enough vocabulary. But this question never occurs about their mother tongue.
Show Me the Bunny: Language Acquisition
Some children are really funny about experimenting with speech. Nonetheless, the first intelligible words bring such a feeling of elation to a parent.
English Language Sputtering Online Like an Old Ford!
Sad, but true. Just about everywhere you look online, the English language is suffering a fate worse than death.
Teaching English in Greece - What Do You Need to Know?
The employment situation can be quite uncertain for newcomers to Greece and therefore many people choose to try teaching English as a foreign language, on a full or part-time basis. It can bring in a good income whether it is your preferred career choice, or you wish to do it short-term until another career choice pans out.
Learn Italian for Free
Italian is one of the most widespread languages in the world, and speaking it can give you a tremendous sense of accomplishment, an edge in your career, and even a stronger bond with your ancestors if you are of Italian descent. There are many ways you can learn Italian, including textbooks, tapes, CDs, software, group classes or private lessons, but there are also ways you can begin or continue your studies of the Italian language entirely for FREE!1.
Learning a Foreign Language: Why Should you Learn Words You Never Use in Your Mother Tongue?
Imagine a child sitting in front of a desk, his head in his hands, and mumbling various lists of words over and over. Does this child remind you of your own experience? If yes, I bet that "list of words" does not sound appealing to you.
Aphasia: The Cruelest Language Barrier
Imagine the following scenario: You wake up one morning and instead of speaking English, everyone around you--including your family and friends--is speaking Hungarian. This is a problem because you don't speak Hungarian and you don't have a clue what they're saying.
Chinese Pinyin or Hanyu Pinyin Overview
Chinese Pinyin is the romanization of the Chinese "written sound". Romanization approximates Mandarin pronunciation with Western spellings and includes a tone mark to signify the pitch of a word.
How To Learn Spanish Quickly and Easily
Spanish is a very useful language to learn as it is the world's second most popular language.Outside of the popular coastal tourist resorts a basic knowledge of Spanish is invaluable.
Don't Take The Romaji Short-Cut When Learning Japanese
This is an issue many Japanese learners come up against, particularly if they live outside Japan. After all, If you are not in the country, it seems difficult to justify the huge amount of time that learning Japanese characters seems to require.
Speaking Spanish To Increase Mind Power
Our "mind power" is largely in the way we use our words, and limited by our vocabulary. Words, and the concepts they express, are different in each language, and there are differing common expressions.
7 Words Americans Should Stop Using Until Further Investigation
Relationship: Here is a word that is used to qualify, justify and honey coat just about every nefarious, sleazy or reprehensible union between almost anybody and anything. Recently on an edition of the Jerry Springer show a guest was about to be interviewed who was getting it on with a very close relative.
Learn Korean: Part 2 - Social Status in Culture
Part 1 of this series covered the language and language families in general for the Asian languages. Part 2 will cover the social conduct that is seen throughout Asian countries.
Learning French in Paris
Nothing can be more frustrating than to be in France and not been able to speak their language. For, I remember the days when I was among people chanting around in a language totally alien to me, and me, trying to bring a smile in my face while shaking my head from north to south doing as if I am getting everything what they are speaking about, and waiting impatiently for my French wife to do the translation - and I can't deny, that that was not the most comfortable period of my life.
Can You Understand English?
There is a lot of talk about making English the official language of the USA. That would stop the need to spend so much money printing out things like drivers license, tax, voter registration and other official forms in so many languages.
Learning a Foreign Language: Learn from the Blind
In a previous article, you read that to establih your own lists was the best way to learn vocabulary as fast as possible. Let's study what an effective list looks like.
Mexican Living: Todays Obsession
I would like to talk about one of my many obsessions: learning Spanish. I have been thinking about this lately mostly because I am under the impression that, though I've lived in Mexico for two years, my Spanish sucks in a major way.
English Slang For Perplexed Tourists
I watched the British version of 'Big Brother' recently. That's the television show which is a human hamster cage.
