Monday, May 12, 2014

Why You Might Want to Learn Spanish – via Vlogger Lindsay Dow

The biggest, most important reason why anyone might want to learn to speak Spanish?
Why, to speak to native speakers of Spanish, of course!

Sometimes people don’t understand “the real reason” I want to learn so many languages. They look at me as if I’m  daft because, well “everyone speaks English.” When I point out the fallacy of this argument they tend to say something like, “well, then they should learn to speak English.” Of course they should. Why put the onus on yourself when you can simply stand around waiting for the rest of the world to catch up with you and what you want, even if it is to simply sit on your couch all day playing video games. Someday this will all catch up with us…Oh wait; it already has done some of that. Unfortunately they haven’t felt the full effects of globalization and an ever increasing global marketplace where a majority of the world is not only hungry (and often quite literally) but also very willing to work and work hard to get ahead. Because it sucks to be poor and it sucks to be hungry and it sucks to be homeless. They will learn English. And then they will take your job for a fraction of what you were making–before the layoffs and the cut backs. Because the nature of business is to make money.

What better way to make money than to cut expenses in the form of cheaper labor and no benefits packages whatsoever? Pay attention people; your life is not nearly as secure and comfortable as you may think it is.

My apologies to any readers who are not in the United States but I’ve seen a lot of changes in the past several decades and most of it has not been good. Unfortunately most people seem content to wear blinders and ignore the reality that is all around them, assuming that the people who are losing their jobs somehow deserve it. Some do but many don’t. Even worse, some employers are hanging on to their worst employees in a subversive attempt to drive good employees away. Because if you have constant turnover, no one gets raises and you can continue to pay new employees less than you were paying the old employees. And with poor leadership who wants to stay and deal with incompetency every single day?

My advice is to learn another language. Spanish is a really good language to learn for many reasons and here Lindsay Dow from “Lindsay Does Languages” tells you about nine of them. Watch her now:

Wednesday, May 7, 2014

One of My Favorite Language Learning Tools (That Post I Promised You)


This may sound lame but I really like the VocabuLearn series. As a matter of fact, I had forgotten just how much I do like it. If perchance you have tried any of the VocabuLearn products and have a different opinion, please bear with me while I explain some of its benefits. I have found that if someone explains how and why to do something a certain way, sometimes it opens my eyes to new possibilities and I can then return with a fresh perspective and end up agreeing with the other person and admit that I was wrong or short-sighted in my previous assumptions. I hope you will give me that same opportunity. (For the record, I own most of the VocabuLearn series on CD and I bought them all myself; I do not have any relationship with the series or the publisher of the series. This is simply my opinion of one of many language learning products that I own and use.)

I have seen both good and bad reviews for VocabuLearn on Amazon; the bad reviews usually seem to be based on the premise that “you can’t learn a language this way.” Well, actually you can learn a tremendous amount of a language this way, but it’s not designed to be a standalone product; it’s designed to be used either in conjunction with additional language learning materials or your academic classroom. If you are not able to locate additional resources in your target language however, it is a great start. That last bit is far less relevant today, now that we can all use the internet in ways never imagined when this series began, but it still performs functions that are difficult if not impossible to replace with direct human contact.

One thing that VocabuLearn does that other sources usually don’t is provide you with a written translation in dual languages for everything in the product. For instance the introduction and even the packaging labels are written in both languages. Inside the discs themselves you will find the words and phrases spoken two times but not at the same time. As in, first there are two tracks with English words followed by the target language words. Then the next two tracks are the target language followed by the English words. This methodology is designed to make the learning of the material more fluid by teaching your brain how to go in either direction; you can go from English into the target language or you can translate from the target language into English. The second purpose of this is that it can also be learned by native speakers who want to learn English, making it invaluable for ESL.

The second thing that I like about VocabuLearn is the printed material itself. Each program comes with a small pocket-sized booklet with all of the audio portions of the program in it. This is useful for learning to visually how the language looks in the written form as it is spoken, thus aiding in the acquisition of reading while at the same time you are working on your pronunciation and building your vocabulary.
The third thing that I really like about the VocabuLearn program is that it always provides you with the article. In English gender is not attached to nouns in the same manner as it is in many other languages. VocabuLearn understands that learning what gender a particular word is can be frustrating to learners so their sections on nouns always have the correct article with the noun.

The fourth thing that I really like about the VocabuLearn program is that you not only learn a healthy dose of the main parts of speech (nouns, adjectives, adverbs, prepositions, conjunctions and verbs are all included) but you also learn expressions. And while there are many shorter expressions and phrases in this section, there are also complete sentences too.

The way that I have successfully used the VocabuLearn program is as follows: if you have an iPod, I highly recommend ripping your CD’s to iTunes so you can take it with you. VocabuLearn is now available from Audible for downloads too, for those of you who prefer strictly digital material. Turn your audio (CD, digital track, iTunes, etc.) on while doing other things. This could be driving or riding in public transportation, cleaning the house, cooking dinner or some other daily activity that you can do without worrying about your language learning. Pay as much or as little attention to the audio as you want and can afford to do at the time. Allow the program to play as if were some bizarre Muzak in the background and continue to do your other activities. When and if you have more time on your hands or are able to concentrate better (this could by while on public transportation or waiting in line, etc.), take out your booklet and read along as the audio plays. When you are alone or otherwise don’t care if people are watching, repeat the target language after the speaker as best as you can. Concentrate on your pronunciation and intonation. Make an effort to sound as much like the native speaker as possible. Continue to vacillate between these different modes of “study” as your schedule and other activities allow. Even just passively listening will aid in your language learning more than you realize.

Used strictly passively, VocabuLearn serves as an audio flashcard system. Used with more concentration and the printed material VocabuLearn serves as both an audio and visual flashcard system.

One of the things that I appreciate about VocabuLearn that is not directly related to its content is the variety of languages that they have made available. VocabuLearn is available in less commonly taught languages (LCTL) such as Swahili, Dutch, Tagalog, Thai, Swedish and Western Armenian. And while the internet and near global access to its use has served to allow users to communicate more freely from people in varied and remote regions, I still believe in using standalone materials when I can. I believe that people should make the most use out of well thought out courses and come to the party prepared as best as they can.

I do not mean this as any sort of put down to those people who prefer to stick with communicative learning. I agree that speaking as soon as possible is good and a necessary step towards attaining fluency. I simply believe that putting all of your faith in other people to teach you is not always the best idea. Here is why I believe this way:

I have a friend who related the following story to me but if you have an interest in studying foreign languages and cultures you might have your own story to tell.

My friend Frank has a friend who owns a small neighborhood store in a location that is frequented by many Latinos. His friend, we’ll call him John, only speaks English but because he wants to be able to communicate better with his customers, he decided to learn a little Spanish. This well-intentioned man earnestly asked another friend of his who is Mexican-American, we’ll call him Pedro,  if he could teach him a few things to say. Pedro agreed to do so and promptly told John that when Latinos enter his store he should call out a certain phrase in greeting. The store owner practiced the phrase over and over until Pedro told him he had it down. The store owner began to use it immediately and was disappointed at the results he received. John related this tale to Frank after explaining to him why he had, with a friendly tone of voice and great enthusiasm, called out, “Go ____ your mother!” when Frank had entered the store. As Frank knows Pedro, he had a few words with him about doing such a thing again and Frank also immediately rectified the situation by teaching the store owner some correct greetings and phrases to use. The harm to John’s reputation was unfortunate though; he is unlikely to ever regain the trust of those who he accidentally offended.

The moral of this story and the reason why I am relating it to you here? First of all, no matter how noble your intentions are when you begin to learn a new language, you cannot always tell when someone is legitimately interested in helping you learn their language. Now if this same person happens to be a language teacher, tutor or otherwise engaged in producing real results for people, they have a vested interest in producing the results you desire. The same thing goes for companies who create language learning materials. Their reputation is on the line; they want you to be able to use their product or service and come away as a happy customer. Why? Because just as with any other relationship, business or other, an unhappy customer is far more likely to spread the word about you, your business and your product than a happy customer is. This means that it is imperative for them to create happy customers so they can attract still more customers. Attracting customers and then spoiling their experience sends potential customers scurrying in the wrong direction, announcing to anyone within earshot about what  a louse you are to deal with.

This is why I am a firm believer in using tried methods to learn languages or anything else for that matter. I do not disdain Wikipedia, Google, YouTube or any other method that you might use to learn a language or any other skill. As a matter of fact, I am a huge fan of opencourseware and other methods of sharing knowledge or learning that does not cost money to the users. That being said though, you can do a lot with commercially published materials that you are unlikely to be able to do with the average YouTube video. Basic level conversation skills are great but finding a random person to discuss philosophy, physics or whatever specialty that you love in a target language is not too likely. It is possible to find people and get to that place but it is far easier to find people who barely speak a word of English and who are not overly educated in their own language either. This is not to put down anyone anywhere; the desire to learn can work wonders where the infrastructure has failed and I salute anyone who is trying to better themselves no matter where they live.

Keep in mind that I am also talking about higher level language skills here. You may, through trial and error, locate one or more people who are dedicated enough to assist you in learning your language, usually in exchange for helping them with their English. This is great as far as it goes and this might even be perfect for you and the level of language fluency that you are striving for. If however, you are seeking college level language acquisition so that you can understand and participate in conversations that involve current affairs, public policy and the like, YouTube might not be the answer. At some point you are likely to need to address your needs with commercially available materials and I prefer to start that way rather than wait until later. It is far better to learn to speak grammatically correct sentences than it is to have to relearn after you have installed incorrect grammar. It is always far easier to “dumb down” language than it is to smarten it up. Learn the right way and then you can play with language in any way that you care to; learn it incorrectly and risk appearing a fool when it really matters.


Wednesday, April 30, 2014

Day 30 - The End, Finally

Your Average Per Day
5,021
Words Written Today
7,057
Target Word Count
50,000
Total Words Written
150,645
Words Remaining
0
Current Day
30

Local Writer Breaks Personal Record with Aplomb

A local writer, entering her eighth consecutive National Novel Writing Month challenge with an entry into this month’s Camp NaNoWriMo (www.campnanowrimo.org), shattered her personal writing record by a wide margin.

The local woman, who recently found herself unemployed, spent the month of April writing over one hundred fifty thousand words. No, that was not a typo; over 150,000 words, all written in the span of thirty days. Just as a reference, one hundred fifty thousand words in a Microsoft Word document with standard spacing is the equivalent of approximately three hundred thirty (330) pages. That is quite a bit of writing for a single month!

When asked what the topic of all this frenetic writing was, she replied that it had started out as a life experiment in language learning and writing.

She explained, “After several unfruitful months of looking for work, Camp NaNoWriMo, which I would have normally entered anyway, provided me with a creative outlet for my frustration and a worthwhile goal at the same time. I entered the writing event with the standard goal of completing a fifty thousand word document within the thirty days of April. But based upon my personal interests and in the spirit of increasing my attractiveness to potential employers, I added a twist. This month my challenge was to write those fifty thousand words in a blog and teach myself Spanish at the same time.”

“If this all seems like too much, it was. But not for the reasons that you might think. First off, I was starting a brand new blog on WordPress and I had never used this writing platform before. I simply started too late to understand how to use it fully enough for my purposes. That was my first mistake,” she continued.

“My next mistake was that of one big technical problem; my language learning materials, all previously ripped to my computer, were simply gone. My desktop computer had refused to unlock sometime late last year after a power outage had shut it down (it was protected by a surge protector though) and I didn’t have the money to get it fixed. I thought I was still alright anyway because I had all of my iTunes saved to an external hard drive. Wrong again.”

“When I hooked up the external hard drive to my netbook, nothing happened. Nothing at all. I opened up “My Computer” but it didn’t even register that the hard drive was there. I turned the computer off and restarted it again but there was nothing. All of my previously ripped material—some of which I can no longer find after my most recent move—was gone, completely vanished. My Spanish project was not exactly doomed, but it was off to a rocky start.”

The author then goes on to explain that she found some older cassette programs and started working with those but not at the pace she had intended.

“Between the starting difficulties I was having with learning how to use WordPress effectively and my missing language materials, I just threw myself into my writing even more. My continuing job search was stalled and while I was initially still studying a little Spanish, as the month progressed I eventually stopped that too. By the time mid-month rolled around I was determined to complete my first ever one hundred thousand word month in a National Novel Writing Month event,” she explained.

“I can go back to the Spanish next month; this month I reduced my goals from finding decent work and writing fifty thousand words about my Spanish studies to simply finding a decent job and writing one hundred thousand words period,” she continued.

So how is that job search going for you?

“It’s not. I’m sad to say that it seems as if most of corporate America, or at least many of its’ representatives here in what I believe is being called the “rust belt” now, have bought into the Wal-Mart plan. By that I mean that if you are willing to work part-time for minimum wage, jobs are easy to get; you can sign up for welfare to get your groceries paid for and your medical coverage too. But if you want full-time employment with benefits and you want to—even expect to—do rewarding work that is also challenging and earn a decent wage at the same time, you are out of luck.”

“Don’t get me wrong; I know that there are still really good—even excellent—companies and jobs in America. Not all companies operate in this manner,” the author continued. “The internet is a double-edged sword. Now I can and do receive e-mail notifications from multiple sources every single day with supposed job opportunities for me. Many of these jobs are so out in left field that it is ridiculous and many are not even real job opportunities at all. Still more are offers for things that I either cannot do or I am not interested in doing.  I constantly receive “job opportunities” for the military, truck driving and even advanced medical careers—as in, I need to already be a registered nurse or a medical doctor to get them. It’s crazy. And while it’s nice to have e-mail assisting me with my job search, the internet is also forcing potential employees to all look exceptional on paper. What if you don’t look exceptional on paper but you really are exceptional? I’ve always gotten jobs when the employer had the opportunity to meet with me one-on-one; the internet simply screens out applicants who do not meet a certain criteria. I don’t even get calls.”

Why do you suppose that is?

“One of the biggest reasons that employers aren’t calling is that they never see my application. If they aren’t hiring full-time I’m not interested to start with. If they are paying minimum wage I’m also not interested. I have expensive student loans to pay; how is that supposed to happen when I can barely afford my utility bills as it is? I would not have taken out those loans if I had known that I wasn’t going to be able to repay them.”

“The second reason that employers don’t see my application is that when they insist that you put a ‘real’ number in the amount you expect to earn for the job, I do. I put a number in that will allow me to survive, if not necessarily thrive, as an employee. I know I will be worth it. The truth is that by simply comparing that portion alone, employers will never call excellent job candidates because they are not willing to invest in good people. And that right there is a symptom of a much larger problem in America today.”

What is that?

“Many companies, despite what they say, seem to have forgotten what it really important. People are important; if you have the right people, you can go to the moon, just as we proved back in the sixties. With the wrong people, well, pick your catastrophe and that’s what happens. The real trouble is that while we all have tremendous potential to achieve excellence within our lives, many people don’t care about actually doing the work it takes to be excellent. Many people only want to appear as if they are excellent and plenty of those same people do look great on paper; they just don’t have what it really takes to do more than strike the proper pose.”

“One final problem with this whole “internet as pre-screener” process is this; I have been forced—and by that I mean you cannot leave it blank or they won’t accept your application—repeatedly  to complete questions that involve my age and as many of my colleagues are finding out, ageism is on the rise in America. It is and has been for a very long time illegal to ask any questions that can tell an employer your age. This includes actual date of birth and date of graduation from high school. I have found some form of these questions on almost every application that I’ve either filled out or looked at online now. This is a problem for many of the chronically unemployed in America today,” the author concluded.

What has happened to your Spanish studies?

“My Spanish studies are temporarily on hiatus; I will probably start them up again either later this coming month or in June, albeit it at a much slower pace than I had originally anticipated for this month’s project. I do know that  I want to be more careful when I structure it this time and I want to be sure that all of the pieces are in place first when I do continue. As I free up time from other responsibilities I will ramp up my study time again; I have a raft of other self-improvement projects on the back burner too and that is just one item on a very long list.”

What’s next on that long list of things you plan to do?

“Despite my many successes at completing a National Novel Writing Month event by writing at least fifty thousand words in thirty days, I have only written one complete novel so far. Everything else has fallen apart during the course of the writing. I still write enough, it just hasn’t been enough of what I planned to write; there have been many false starts during the process.”

“As for my first novel, unfortunately I have never gotten around to editing it yet and it is a really rough draft. I want to finally edit that novel and then I am going to teach myself how to self-publish via Amazon’s KDP—that stands for Kindle Direct Publishing—and initially publish it in e-book format. I would also like to publish it in paperback after I finish publishing the e-book version.”

So what will happen to your blog after this month? Are you going to continue writing?

“Absolutely; I love to write. If nothing else this month—especially the end-of-the-month push that I just completed—has shown me without question that I love writing above almost anything else. My blog is designed around the entire concept of self-directed learning. Spanish—and language learning in general—are but one facet of the many interests that I have. I have every intention of continuing my blog and, as I have done my whole life, continuing my journey of self-improvement via self-directed learning. Please feel free to follow my blog if you’re interested in watching my progress.”

It seems like you have plans that will keep you busy for a very long time—good luck!

Monday, April 21, 2014

Day 21 Update

Day 18
My Current Word Count:   62,419 words
Words Written Today:   4,222 words
Camp NANOWRIMO goal for today:   30,006 words (60,012)

Day 19
My Current Word Count:   69,267 words
Words Written Today:   6,701 words
Camp NANOWRIMO goal for today:   31,673 words (63,346)

Day 20
My Current Word Count:   77,351 words
Words Written Today:   8,084 words
Camp NANOWRIMO goal for today:   33,340 words (66,680)

I'm not posting today's word count as I haven't finished writing for the day. I will say that I've written enough today already to get me beyond eighty thousand words though.

I cannot believe just how fast the words have been piling up this month! As you can see from my word count update, I had a fantastic weekend of writing. My goal for this past weekend was at least five thousand words each day and I surpassed that easily. I have set a similar goal for next weekend too. At this point I'm just curious to see how many words I can write in a single month.

I was almost finished with a "real" posting for the blog today but I ran out of time and had to go pay bills and post here before it got any later. I hope to post it tomorrow. The topic will actually involve language learning and one of my favorite tools to enhance language learning.

Stay tuned and keep writing!


Thursday, April 17, 2014

Day 17 (Including All of the Missing Days)

In case you have been wondering what happened to me, well, I've been writing. A lot.

Sadly, my Spanish learning project has taken a backseat but my writing has taken off.

I have surpassed my original goal of fifty thousand words for this month and I am now aiming for my first ever one hundred thousand word month.

I have created a little chart with each day's actual written words, total written words and the initial or recommended daily word count based upon the 1,667 words per day rule. And now I have added a double word goal in parentheses after that to show where I want to be on average each day in order to hit my new target of 100,000 words this month. I am including my month to date so you can see that I have been doing something, I just haven't been sharing.

Day 1
My Current Word Count: 5,467 words
Words Written Today: 5,467 words
Camp NANOWRIMO goal for today: 1667 words (3,334)

Day 2
My Current Word Count: 7,036 words
Words Written Today:   1,569 words
Camp NANOWRIMO goal for today: 3,334 words (6,668)

Day 3

My Current Word Count: 9,546 words
Words Written Today:   2,510 words
Camp NANOWRIMO goal for today: 5,001 words (10,002)


Day 4
My Current Word Count: 10,928 words
Words Written Today:   1,382 words
Camp NANOWRIMO goal for today: 6,668 words (13,336)

Day 5
My Current Word Count: 12,570 words
Words Written Today: 1,642 words
Camp NANOWRIMO goal for today: 8,335 words (16,670)

Day 6
My Current Word Count: 16,034 words
Words Written Today:   3,464 words
Camp NANOWRIMO goal for today: 10,002 words (20,004)


Day 7
My Current Word Count: 19,659 words
Words Written Today: 3,625 words
Camp NANOWRIMO goal for today: 11,669 words (23,338)

Day 8
My Current Word Count: 23,934 words
Words Written Today: 4,275 words
Camp NANOWRIMO goal for today: 13,336 words (26,672)

Day 9
My Current Word Count:   27,366 words
Words Written Today: 3,432 words
Camp NANOWRIMO goal for today: 15,003 words (30,006)

Day 10
My Current Word Count:   31,222 words
Words Written Today:   3,856 words
Camp NANOWRIMO goal for today:   16,670 words (33,340)

Day 11
My Current Word Count:   34,945 words
Words Written Today:   3,723 words
Camp NANOWRIMO goal for today: 18,337 words (36,674)

Day 12 (Write-a-thon)
My Current Word Count:   39,553 words
Words Written Today:   4,608 words
Camp NANOWRIMO goal for today: 20,004 words (40,008)

Day 13
My Current Word Count:   45,277 words
Words Written Today:   5,724 words
Camp NANOWRIMO goal for today:   21,671 words (43,342)

Day 14
My Current Word Count:   48,487 words
Words Written Today:   3,210 words
Camp NANOWRIMO goal for today:   23,338 words (46,676)

Day 15
My Current Word Count:   49,330 words
Words Written Today:   843 words
Camp NANOWRIMO goal for today:   25,005 words (50,010)

Day 16
My Current Word Count:   54,751 words
Words Written Today:   5,421 words
Camp NANOWRIMO goal for today:   26,672 words (53,344)

Day 17
My Current Word Count:   58,344 words
Words Written Today:   3,593 words
Camp NANOWRIMO goal for today:   28,339 words (56,678)

Tuesday, April 8, 2014

Day 8

Day 8


My Current Word Count: 23,934 words
Words Written Today: 4,275 words
Camp NANOWRIMO goal for today: 13,336 words

Blog Post – Day 8

Day 8 – Further Refinements to the Plan

Tags: self-directed learning, Camp NANOWRIMO, The Office of Letters & Light, writing, goals, word count, blogging, NANOWRIMO, priorities, editing, publishing, 

My Current Word Count: 23,934 words

Words Written Today:  4,275 words

Camp NANOWRIMO goal for today: 13,336 words

This blog was originally designed to chronicle my experiments with self-directed learning in general (through predominately openly available and free resources) and also with language learning specifically (usually through commercially available resources but free materials will also be discussed and used as time allows). My desire is to document, both for myself and for others who share my interests, what methods I use, my successes and any changes that I make along the course to mastery, assuming that I actually get that far! Nobody can master everything and sometimes along the way you discover that you aren’t that interested in the first place; no one should expect anything different from anyone else either. 

So far during this introductory month I have been forced to make many changes to the structure of my experiment, predominately in order to accommodate all of the other factors that are a part of my life. There are only so many hours in a day. As such I wanted to address where I stand now and how I intend to progress—as of now anyway—until the end of this month. 

This first month of my blog is being written in conjunction with Camp NANOWRIMO, or for the uninitiated, Camp National Novel Writing Month. This is a semi-annual even put on by the folks at the Office of Letters & Light, a non-profit organization founded for the purpose of promoting writing. The basis of the annual NANOWRIMO, which takes place every November, is that virtually anyone can write a fifty thousand word novel in thirty days. Since the initial years of NANOWRIMO, the event has continued to increase in popularity and a July “Camp” was added to the plan. As popularity continues to grow, a second Camp has been started in April with the ability to select not only genre but also word count goals. If fifty thousand words in a month intimidates you, you can set your sights lower and write towards a smaller goal now.

My initial goal was to edit and publish my writing as I went along this month. As it turns out (and I really should know better) this takes too much energy and time so I am reverting to a back-up plan that I have since created. As originally envisioned, this month’s blogging event was designed as a test for my language learning and writing skills. It seems that I have only twenty-four hours in a day and so while I continue to write, I will be limiting my posts until after this month is over. As of now, my posts will include my current word count (I will also be adding these refinements to my older posts), the number of words I’ve written that day, and the recommended NANOWRIMO word count goal for the day. I am including this last metric as a means to quickly assess my current word count based upon the recommendation of the fine folks at the Office of Letters & Light. This daily cumulative goal is simply created by multiplying the day number against the average words per day it takes to reach fifty thousand words in a thirty day period. It is included here simply as a guideline and to help maintain focus on the bigger goal. 

Currently I am also planning to go back through my writing and select portions that I have written for any given day and, after editing them, post them on the appropriate day. But that will have to wait until after May. I will probably also post a few things from time to time during the month but I will no longer be focusing on this as it takes too much time away from my other priorities. 

I apologize for repeating anything that I’ve already mentioned but I wanted to be clear here. I also don’t want anyone to be too disappointed about my failure to post more regularly but everyone has to have priorities. 


Best wishes on your own learning journey!

Day 7

Day 7

My Current Word Count: 19,659 words
Words Written Today: 3,625 words
Camp NANOWRIMO goal for today: 11,669 words