Input Based Learning

Today one of my favorite YouTube polyglots, Lingo Steve published a video called 'Input Based Learning.' The learning method stresses taking in as much authentic material as possible, and progressing from beginner books to living texts withing a few months. The method requires that you download audio programs onto any listening device. With consistency, learners must attentively listen to the material.  It also requires that the learner read the language with as much frequency as they listen to it. This method certainly sounds easy. The good news is that it is easy. But like any language learning strategy, you must be disciplined and willing to put in the effort.

One of the things I discovered about polyglots is that they tend to agree that the most important part of language learning is listening. Moses McCormick repeatedly stresses the importance of listening. I wish that someone had said this to me when I was in high school learning French. I used to rent French movies on my own and watch them. It never occurred to me to try input based learning. I trusted that I would learn French from my teachers.

Many people think they know how to listen. It is the most basic skill, we've been doing it since birth. But many people actually do not know how to listen. Allow me to break down listening into six categories:


1. Ignoring /  Passive listening
2. Pretending / Usually stock nods and uhums, yes, of course, etc.
3. Selective listening - Intentionally disregarding/dismissing the other person's views.
4. Attentive listening - personally driven fact gathering and analysis
5. Active listening - understanding feelings and gathering facts
6. Emphatic listening

Input based learning is based on the idea that one should spend a bulk of their time taking in information. This technique is opposed to Out-put content, such as speaking, writing, and composing. I think of it in terms of taking more than giving. Steve finds this to be one of the best ways to learn a language, and he lists five reasons why Input Based Learning is the way to go.

Hebrew Alphabet and Maps in Photos

With everything going on in Israel right now, today is a good day to publish Hebrew alphabet, numbers and charts. I will include maps as well.

Buy foreign language books for children this Christmas.

Christmas Shopping for the Kiddies

The best time to learn foreign languages is when we are children. Since we cannot roll back the clocks, maybe what we can do is buy foreign language books for our children. First, let me just say that it was no easy task finding these websites. I am willing to do the work for something that I think is important. For me, language learning is important.

If you would like to buy some foreign language books for your little ones, check out the following links. I would like to find websites for buying books in Arabic, Russian, Portuguese, and Greek. If you know any other languages or websites, post a comment on this blog. 

Chinese Alphabet in photos

Chinese does not have an alphabet in the sense that we know it in the West. Chinesecharacters are not really letters, they are characters that represent concepts and ideas. Enjoy these images. If you need to learn how to type Chinese with your English/American keyboard, visit my other blog: How to type Chinese  Please subscribe to my blog. I enjoy publishing useful material to my viewers.

Naomi

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Chinese, German, English, Russian, Japanese Words For the Fall and Halloween

In Chinese (Traditional / Simplified font): 

spider: 蜘蛛 (zhīzhū) 
fall, autumn: 秋季 (qiūjì) 
broom: 掃把 / 扫把 (sàobǎ) 
candy: 糖 (táng) or 糖果 (tángguǒ) 
candle: 蠟燭 / 蜡烛 (làzhú) 
cemetery: 墳場 / 坟场 (fénchǎng) or 墓園 / 墓园 (mùyuán) 
black cat: 黑貓 / 黑猫(hēimāo) 
bat: 蝙蝠 (biānfú) 
pumpkin: 南瓜 (nánguā) 
costume: 服裝 / 服装 (fúzhuāng) 
devil: 魔鬼 (móguǐ) or 魔王 (mówáng) 
scarecrow: 稻草人 (dàocǎorén) 
ghost: 魔鬼 (móguǐ). Chinese don't usually distinguish between devil & ghost. 
jack-o'-lantern: 南瓜燈 / 南瓜灯 (nánguādēng). Lit. translation: pumpkin light. 
leaf: 葉 / 叶 (yè) 
Halloween: 鬼節 / 鬼节 (guǐjié) 
to haunt: 嚇人 / 吓人 (xiàrén). To scare someone to death: 嚇死人 / 吓死人 (xiàsǐrén) 
to play a trick (on someone): 做鬼 (zuòguǐ) 
goblin: 小妖精 (xiǎoyāojīng) 
mask: 面具 (miànjù) 
mummy: 木乃伊 (mùnǎiyī) 
monster: 怪物 (guàiwu) or 妖怪 (yāoguài) 
October: 十月 (shíyuè) 
witch: 魔女 (mónǚ) 
skeleton: 骨骼 (gǔgé) or 屍骨 (shīgǔ) for bones of the dead. 
All Saints' Day: 萬聖節 / 万圣节 (wànshèngjié) lit. translation 10,000 Saints Festival 
(All Saint's Day) or 萬靈節 / 万灵节 (wànlíngjié) lit. translation: 10,000 Souls 
Festival (All Soul's Day). 
the thirty-first: 三十一日 (sānshíyīrì) or 三十一號 / 三十一号 ((sānshíyīháo) 
vampire: 吸血鬼 (xīxuèguǐ) for blood-sucking ghost or 僵屍 / 僵尸 (jiāngshī) the Chinese 
version. 

South America is the linguistic powerhouse

Did you know that in the South American continent, there are thirty four language families and over a dozen isolated stocks with about one thousand individual languages? Wowza. It looks like the Amazon can brag about biological and linguistic diversity. This represents the highest level of diversity as compared with any other continent. All of Africa, Asia, and Europe combined have twenty one language families. Africa, for example, the single family Niger-Congo has 1436 languages while Bantu has over 1000. 

So how did this happen? Native Americans migrated from Asia in three separate waves over 10,000 years.  It is important to have a good sense of time, and with that, a good sense about how long it take a language to evolve to the point that it would not be recognizable by ancestors going back five, six, or ten generations. It is amazing when you think about it. 

With each large migration of Indians, spanning that huge chunk of time, they all would have been foreign to each other. Imagine the second or third wave arriving, and seeing Indians who arrived three thousand years prior. They will not have a common language. Their cultures may be very different from each other. 

Incorporating the Holidays into foreign language learning

One of the best ways to build vocabulary is to make the information personal to you in some way. As we have entered my favorite time of year, I have been thinking about how we can incorporate our holidays and seasons into language learning. I would like to than the contributors from Learn Any Language in helping me gather these words. It was a lot of work and could not be done without them. 

What makes this trick unique, is that within each culture and language, the holidays are expressed differently. There may be some holidays and celebrations that we are not accustomed to. It is a good opportunity to expand our holiday vocabulary, while learning about new traditions.

Again, I would like to thank the forum members for helping me with this list. I am putting together more lists from other languages.