Bad Criticism in Language Learning

Glossika

Today I have the privilege of introducing Glossika, (Mike Cambell). Glossika is both a linguist and a polyglot. I have been watching his YouTube videos for a few weeks. It is a rare event that I will actually go out on a limb and give a call out to another person. This is one of those rare occasions. Not only do I think Glossika is an impressive person, but I also recommend all my viewers to check out his channel immediately. You can find his channel simply by clicking on his name as it appears in this blog.

Glossika learns foreign languages because he loves them. There is not a single ethnocentric bone in his body. If only other people had this kind of open-mindedness. He does not express any negative attitude towards any particular language. He does not express any value judgment’s towards rare languages. He understands that there is no such thing as a useless language. Learning languages will give a person a richer and fuller ability to appreciation of things they otherwise would not have been able to appreciate.

 Glossika has no agenda other than sharing his love for languages. His YouTube channel contains dozens of fantastic videos. These videos not only show us his impressive language abilities, but also instructions and good advice about how to learn a language.

I grew up in a part of the United States, within a specific family culture that was and is VERY ethnocentric. I am sure you know the types. Those people who think that English is the best language on earth and everyone should speak English as a primary language. The same people who think that America is the best country on earth, yet they have never even lived in another country. These people place the English language at the top of an imaginary hierarchy and subsequently assigns other languages a lower value. They boast that English is allegedly the hardest language to learn, but they have never studied any foreign languages themselves. I do not see how any person can make that claim without having fluency in at least one other language.The funny thing is that the people who tend to make these ethnocentric arguments tend to be high school dropouts who could not even give a single English lesson if they tried. As you can see – I am very judgmental and openly admit it.

Glossika is not judgmental like me. At the same time, he embraces a lot of the qualities I wish Americans would embrace. That is one of many reasons he is one of my favorite YouTube Polyglots

Glossika’s goal is simply to teach and share with a large audience. He does not get involved in drama. He even makes it clear on his channel that all “subjective political and religious comments will be deleted.” He recently uploaded a video about some of the negative criticism one can receive when they upload a video in another language.

The reality is that Youtube is full of trolls. Their only goal is to tear a person down. In his video, Glossika gives some solid advice about how to deal with abuse, haters and trolls. He also encourages people to continue their language learning goals. I think that his message is important which is why I asked his permission to mirror the video on my channel.

I especially like his video about linguistics, polyglots, and philologistics. Not only does Glossika teach us languages, but he also teaches us about the science of language learning. 

Kudos to Glossika! Keep up the good work!

My progress on Live Mocha

   While I have been in bed with a broken rib, I have been making some progress on Live Mocha. I wish I could do some other things right now, but being on my back for the next two weeks is going to slow down my language learning a bit.

Correct my Swedish

This is an open invitation to any Swedish person who would like to help me learn Swedish. Below I wrote two simple paragraphs. The purpose of this exercise was to learn how to tell time, and what time of the day certain things happen. I know my Swedish grammar sucks right now. I am just beginning. To be honest, this is one of the most difficult languages I have ever learned. If any person would like to correct my grammar or suggest how things might sound better, please post a comment below. On live mocha, my Swedish friends correct my grammar then explain to me the corrections they made in Swedish. I need instructions to be in English.

Tak!

 

Jag vaknar klockan åtta. Jag äter och dricker kaffe klockan half åtta. Tio över nio bostar jag tänderna. Klockan kvart över tio duschar jag. Jag går till kontroret clockan elva. Jag går till skolan klockan tre, Jag kommer till huset klockan kvart över sex. Jag går till bankomaten kvart över åtta. Jag går till en restaurang. Jag dricker rött vin. Jag går hem klockan kvart över nio. Jag ska inte gå till jobbet nu. Jag tittar inte på teve. Jag skriver och läser svenska nu. Klockan tio studierar jag spanska och svenska. Jag förstår spanska. Jag förstår inte svenska. Jag gillar svenska språket. Jag pratar engelska. Klockan tolv jag går in i sovrummet. Jag läser och sover.

Du vaknar klockan sju. Klockan kvart över sju lager mat i köket. Du äter och dricker mjölk klockan halv sju. Tio över åtta går du till kontoret. Du kommer till huset klockan sjutton. ( klockan fem) du tittar på teve klockan kvart över fem. Du lyssnar på radion klockan arton. Du äter en smörgås och du dricker vatten klocker halv sex. Du borstar tänderna klocker arton.

un ángulo oscuro

Today I did a quick Spanish lesson on Live Mocha. (FYI - I love this website and recommend it to EVERYONE). Anyway, the lesson was rather simple but the thing about Live Mocha that I like is that they introduce vocabulary Rosetta Stone does not introduce. Rosetta Stone is more about guided immersion, repetition and absorption.Rosetta Stone is a great program, but like all language programs it must be used with other language learning programs.

So today on Live Mocha I had to write some simple Spanish sentences. Estoy frente al banco cruzando le calle. Estoy en la esquina opuesta al banco. I was not familiar with the word la esquina, I figured by the context it meant block or corner.

I moved onto the next lesson and had to write some more simple sentences. Again, most of the stuff I already know but occasionally they use new words. One of the sentences I had to write was, Siga derecho dos cuadras y doble a la derecha. What got my attention was the word una cuadra. I wondered, how is that different from la esquina.

In English, we say Walk one block. Walk to the corner. We pretty much use the words block and corner. In Spanish however, it is just a little different.

Consider this sentence - The poets were meeting in a corner of the restaurant. What about this sentence - in a dark corner of the room.

Which word do we use? Do we use la esquina? Nope. Do we use la cuadra? Of course not - it would not make one bit of sense in Spanish. What we say is this.... Los poetas estaban reuidos en un rincón del restaurante. Del salón en un ángulo oscuro.

*  El osito de peluche estaba sentado silenciosamente en una esquina.
*  El osito de peluche estaba sentado silenciosamente en una esquina obscura del closet.

*  El hombre pensó detenidamente, solo en la esquina del café. 
*  La mujer siempre se sienta en una esquina solitaria. 
*  El hombre observó escalofriantemente, mirando en blanco desde un rincón del café.



 If one is speaking about outside a corner, where one street meets another street or where one sidewalk meets another sidewalk, the Spanish word is esquina.

Me van a esperar en la esquina de Palma y Verde.

When you are not speaking about a corner of a room, a box, restaurant or sidewalk, but rather the intersection itself we use the word bocacalle. Note that the word bocacalle tends to be used in Spain more than Latin America.

* Cuando llegue a la bocacalle, doble a la izquierda.
* Cuando llegue al topar con la calle, doble a la izquierda.

In Spain, for city block they say manzana .. yes, the word for apple. In Latin American they say una cuadera. But... Hispanic Americans say the word bloque. Then again, Mexican Americans have been accused many times of butchering the Spanish language. I am not an expert on that. I suppose some people on my friends list are in a much better position to judge that one than me.

The English way is much easier and much simpler. It is a block, a corner, or an intersection. But, you can say block or corner interchangeably.

Thanks for reading this blog! If you would like me to write about anything in particular, feel free to send me an e-mail and let me know.

naomijchambers@yahoo.com

Swedish Online - A Website Just for learning Swedish

Hello everyone,

One of the great things about learning languages online is the people you meet. I just meet a female on Live Mocha. ( As many of you know, I am addicted to Live Mocha ) She too is learning Swedish. We exchanged a few emails on Live Mocha, and she introduced me to a new website for learning Swedish. The website is called Swedish Online. I have not checked it out yet, as I am currently in Mexico City doing things with the family. But I decided that is was worth writing a short blog. If you are a Swedish learner and know anything about this website, please post some comments and tell me all about it. I will link the site again in case you missed it. SWEDISH ONLINE.

Intimidating Languages

Nobody enjoys being yelled at. Does it sometimes feel like being yelled at in on language is more unhinging than other languages? I speak French fluently. I can say confidently that being yelled at in French does not bother me in the least bit. To me, when Germans yell at each other it sounds like barking. In fact, there isn't much about the German language that I like. Even terms of endearments sound harsh and guttural. 

I put together this little video clip to demonstrate the worse kind of verbal abuse in different languages. Of course, we must remember that the some voice over actors are better than others. I thought this video would be funny. I am sure many of you will enjoy it. 

Live Mocha Is Awesome !

I am proud to be from Washington State. I love our mountains, beaches, forests and orchards. I love the down to earth people. I love the unique sounds and smells of our famous Pike Place Market. Washingtonians are know not only for being earthy, kind people. They are also known for being leading innovators whom make breakthroughs in science and technology. In Forbes 2008 Fortune 500 list of the United States largest companies based on total revenue, six are located in Seattle. These include Boeing, Microsoft, Safeco, Starbucks, Nordstrom and Amazon.com. But this blog is about polyglots, so where am I going with this.


I recently posted a video on YouTube about a language learning social network called LiveMocha. I linked the actual video below so that you can also watch it here.

I liked the name. It evokes the image of a relaxed Seattle coffee shop / bookstore atmosphere. Being a Seattle girl, I love coffee and the atmosphere. LiveMocha introduced its Web site in late September 2007. It is a social network of language learners who use their own language proficiency to help others. Since then, he said, about 200,000 users from more than 200 countries have joined. Just a few minutes ago I learned that LiveMocha is a Seattle company!


I love using LiveMocha! I have been using it every day for the last three days to practice the two languages I am actively working on, Spanish and Swedish. I do not need too much help with Spanish, after all I do live in Mexico. However, LiveMocha has helped me tremendously in learning Swedish. 


It works something like this. You study a core lesson with about 40 objectives. This lesson can be about nouns, adjectives or whatever. It depends on what level you are starting at. Then you submit coursework for peer review. First, you submit a written assignment. Second, you submit an oral assignment. The oral assignment means that you record yourself speaking in your target language. They will always have something for you to read. Almost immediately, native speakers have corrected your coursework, both oral and written. Instant feedback from native speakers. How does it get better than that? (Well - living abroad is better than that.) But it is a pretty close second, wouldn't you agree? Native speakers also record messages for you. They give you tips on how to pronounce certain words properly. 


Lessons are provided in thirty languages. With 200,000 users, there will always be plenty of people who speak the language you are studying. These people are usually on LiveMocha to learn English. You contribute by correcting their written assignments and reviewing their oral presentations. After a while, you will see that the more you help others the more help they give you. I think it is a fantastic idea! This is a great website. I am only sorry I did not find it sooner. You can also chat with these people live. According to John Cook's Venture Blog, Livemocha was easily Seattle's biggest moving start-up company in Autumn 2007.


Websites like this reminds me that language learning is very different today than it was when I was in high school. It is that unique element of being a social network that makes LiveMocha so useful. Students are motivated to continue their language learning. They are motivated to engage with others. They are motivated every time a native speaker posts an audio reply. Below is a sample of some of my Swedish writing and instant feedback I received from a Swede. 

As you can see from the  images above, other members correct my grammar and spelling. They also record audio messages to help me pronounce those three letters in the Swedish alphabet that do not exist in English: ö ä å. They have even linked me up to other websites where I can listen to the Swedish language online. One of those Swedish websites is Startsida/svt.se. I have been listening to interviews on their news websites already. Unfortunately, I have a long way to go before I can really understand what is being said on Starsida. 


In short, I will end this blog saying that there is no time better than the present. Learning another language is fun, personally enriching and will give you a whole new perspective on the world. When you are able to communicate with others in another language, you will feel a tremendous amount of pride.