Dawdling along in Mandarin

Mandarin Orange

Today I made it through Unit Three, Mandarin Chinese.

That language is so different from anything I have known or studied. I decided to start out just listening. I am hoping that I will learn the basic words and phrases phonetically. I have been going over the material repeatedly. I do not feel like I am getting it. 


Just to be clear on one thing...I had to go over each lesson MANY, MANY, MANY times. 


I feel like such a retard. I am just not getting it. 

The Fine Art of Note Taking

Regardless if you are teaching yourself a language with Pimsleur, Rosetta Stone, Living Language or you are taking a class, note taking is a fundamental part of the process. Everyone must take notes. There is no way around it.The fine art of note taking is different when you are trying to learn a foreign language. 

One Binder for Each Language

Each language that I studied had its own three ring binders. I have a French binder, Italian binder, Spanish binder, and Swedish binder. Within the three ring binders, I organized my notes by topic, date or lesson. Many of my binders are over ten years old. I still have them packed up in the top of my closet. Every once in a while I will go back and take a look at my earliest language binders. It is good to go back and look at the process I went through to become fluent in French.

I usually follow the same format when I decide to learn a new language. 

Legitimacy of Ebonics

Since Oakland Public Schools decided to pass a measure acknowledging the legitimacy of Ebonics as an English dialect, the controversy surrounding Ebonics has been hotly debated. Linguists have supported Ebonics, while some are very much against it. I do not know if I will add anything new to this discussion. What I will do is discuss prestige languages, what they are and where Ebonics fits in.

For those of you familiar with my writing, I like to jump right into the topic. You will never have to worry about having to read fluff or filler in my essays. So, lets hop to it. 

il peut être difficile voire impossible de l'exprimer dans une autre langue

Un idiotisme est une construction ou une locution particulière à une langue, qui porte un sens par son tout et non par chacun des mots qui la compose. Il peut s'agir de constructions grammaticales ou, le plus souvent, d'expressions imagées ou métaphoriques. Un idiotisme est en général intraduisible mot à mot, et il peut être difficile voire impossible de l'exprimer dans une autre langue.

Find your pace

Find Your Pace

If you are learning another language outside of the structure of a classroom, one important rule to remember is that you should proceed at your own pace. This does not mean that you should not schedule your time and follow that schedule! This does not mean that you should study whenever you feel like it! It means that you should not feel pressured into thinking that you only have one chance to digest the information in the lessons before moving on to the next lesson.

Allow me to explain this in further detail.

Fifteen Simple Rules

Japanese Alphabet and Charts in Photos

 When I was at George Mason University I took a class called Japan at War. My professor was a fifty two year old Australian woman. She had a tramp stamp on her lower back. She was only our teacher for a few weeks because she developed spinal cancer. I do not know what happened to her, but she was a great teacher.

Anyway, what I remember about her was that she first worked as a nurse in Australia. I believe that down under, this was a five year degree. Then, she went back to school and became fluent in Japanese. I believe she earned two more degrees in Japanese. Other than being a professor at GMU, she also ran a consulting firm, helping others do business in Japan.

I learned a great deal from her about Japanese culture. It is amazing how they industrialized, and reverse engineered British, German and French technology. This was how Japan became a super power in Asia - reverse engineering. They would buy something, take it apart, learn how it worked, rebuild it, making it better.