How to learn French

Since the inception of this blog I have written about languages that I have never studied, like Armenian, Polish and Hungarian. I write about the philosophy and science of language learning. I have also given some great pointers about how to effectively take notes and study. Today, I decided to share with you how I came to learn French.

First, let me just say that I did not want to learn French in high school. My school only offered French and Spanish - I was interested in neither. I wanted to learn Italian. I thought Italian was much cooler and sexier than French or Spanish. Being the impractical person that I was, I chose French because it was more exotic than Spanish. I thought speaking Spanish did not make me ´special´enough. Yeah, I know what you must be thinking. How vain! I have to admit that you are right. I was mostly concerned with being unique and different than being practical. The only redeeming thing I can say about that, is that I was true to myself. I did not do things just because others did it. I followed what made me happy.

Armenian Alphabet in photos

Continue Reading This Blog for more Photos and Instructional Armenian Videos 

let the tones grow on you

The 10,000 hour rule

Outliers - The Story of Success 

The Rule of 10,000 hours states one must do a skill for 10,000 hours before they can claim Mastery. This comes from the book Outliers, by Maxwell Gladwell.Gladwell examines the factors that contribute to success of those who operate at the extreme outer edge of what is statistically plausible. Polyglots fall right into this niche.

Foreign Language Cartoons For Babies

Good Morning Everybody!

It is Saturday morning. We do not have television at my house, but I decided to let my eldest son watch some cartoons. I decided that my son should watch some Spanish language cartoons. If you have small children and would like them to watch Spanish language cartoons, provided below is a 25 minute episode.

Why should you let your children watch Spanish language cartoons? Because early exposure will make it much easier for your children to become fluent if they elect to do so. Listening is the key to language learning.

Enjoy!

I made a playlist of children cartoons. The playlist is embedded below. If you know of any other cartoons that you would like me to add, please send me an email.

Doing What The Heavy Weights Do

¨You cannot copy what the superstar weightlifters, guitar players or super-star linguists do every day because you are not in the right developmental stage to do that yet.¨ - Anthony Lauder a.k.a FluentCzech

Lauder explained that he tried to emulate the daily routine of successful language learners, and found himself increasingly frustrated by it. When one is emulating the athlete, doing everything the athlete does, it follows that one will start to feel like they just can´t do it. For the professional language learners, we know routine is the backbone of any language learning program. Routines facilitate teaching and learning.Routines make life easier and save valuable time. As we are self-taught language learners, routines are good for the teacher in ourselves and the student in ourselves. His video first put into question, at least for me, is it realistic that any Tom, Jane or Sue watch someone like Mike Campbell, McCormick, or Loki, emulate what they do, and become just like them?

How To Speak Like A Native

There are many times in my life that I studied another language and felt like I could not understand how it was spoken in a natural setting. It was very discouraging. In my second year of high school french I met some French people downtown Seattle. We became fast friends. When they spoke French I could not understand much of what they were saying. 

This problem is resolved in a couple of ways. First, one must become familiar with slang and common expressions that are not learned in an academic setting. This often means that one must familiarize themselves with idioms. Second, one must learn to improve their listening skills when listening to native speakers. The key is to listen to the language spoken at normal speed. When we listen to the language in class or language learning programs we have the freedom to stop, rewind, and listen again. This is not an option in the real world.