How to Study New Vocabulary
Learning new vocabulary is an integral component to studying any language. You can know all the grammar, but without a vocabulary the language will be useless. There are many statistics spun about English and vocabulary. Some I have come across suggest one needs to know only 500-600 words to be capable of communicating on a basic level. This doesn’t seem too unreasonable, but the larger your vocabulary the more capable you will be. Here are a couple of techniques for studying new vocabulary.
Flash Cards. This is an old technique, but a really helpful technique. One side of the card will contain the English word, and the other side will contain the equivalent word from your chosen language. Then, you simply work through the cards until you have them memorized. Remember, go through them and memorize them from both sides.
Practice Writing. Take your new words and write them in 5-10 sentences. If you repeat this task everyday for a week, you will be much more likely to remember that word.
3 Fun Ways to Supplement Your Language Learning
Podcasts
Podcasts are a great way to supplement your learning. There is a large number of podcasts that are all available for free. It’s a great way to learn while going to work or at the gym. The iTunes Music Store has a good selection of language learning podcasts. Go to the iTunes music store and click on “podcasts” then click “education” and then “Language Courses”. Or you could simple click on the link below which will open iTunes and go to the language courses.
iTunes Music Store Link
International / Foreign Films
Foreign Films are fun to watch and can also help you learn more about the culture you are learning about. I really enjoy watching foreign films for fun and as a way to hear the language that I’m learning being spoken in real conversations.
International Films on Amazon.com
International Music
Music is another way to hear the language spoken naturally. As a musician, I enjoy listening to many different kinds of music and discovering new music. Listening to music in the language I’m learning is enjoyable and gives me more exposure to the language.
International Music on Amazon.com
Do you have any tips or fun ways that you supplement your language learning?
Finding a Language Partner
The old expression claims practice makes perfect. There really is no such thing as perfect performance within language production, but practice is essential to the language learning process. Immersion is perhaps the best way to provide yourself with opportunities to use a second language, but for many of us that option does not exist. There exists another option, language partners.
A language partner is someone you help with their chosen language and they help you with yours. Thus, as a native English speaker, I will help my partners with English and as native Korean speakers they will help me with Korean. Though, it is not necessary for either partner to be native speakers, it certainly helps because native speakers have an intuitive sense when something sounds wrong. A language partner can be a great asset to your language learning process, and I will talk more about this in the future. For now, I would like to point you to a few resources which can help you find a language partner.
SharedTalk is a website established by the publishers of the Rosetta Stone language learning application. It allows you to chat with other language learners, message them, and make connections for learning outside of the application. I met both of my current language partners on there. Please note, the website is Flash-based.
My Language Exchange is another excellent website for meeting language partners. I have met a number of my past language partners through this website.
HanLingo is a language exchange site focus mostly on English-Korean language exchange. Not everyone is looking for an English or Korean language partner, but most are. I met one really good language partner through this site.
As you can see, I have had a number of language partners and used a number of language exchange websites. There are many more sites beyond those listed here. I recommend searching for more if these don’t satisfy your needs.
Learn a Language in a Week
Language learning doesn’t have to be hard. But, could you learn a new language in a week?
A man learned Welsh while on a holiday by reading the street signs and children’s books and attempting to speak it with natives as much as he could.
AN AUTISTIC man who picked up Welsh from road signs and children’s books during a two-week holiday has boasted: “I could learn it in a week.”
Genius Daniel Tammet hopes one day to speak at the Eisteddfod and perhaps even win the coveted learner’s prize.
The linguist and writer, who lives in Avignon, in the south of France, discovered the tongue when he visited Blaenau Ffestiniog for a break in Snowdonia.
Mr Tammet, 29, a Londoner, also has synaesthesia, which can affect language learning.
He said: “I saw the road signs in Welsh and saw all the public conveniences were in Welsh and it struck me as a beautiful language. I was told that was where Welsh was spoken widely, where it really thrived. So I got a dictionary and bought some children’s books in Welsh and read them, and enjoyed them.”
Mr Tammet has also taught himself French, Finnish, German, Spanish, Lithuanian, Romanian, Estonian, Icelandic and Esperanto. He has also invented his own language called Mänti.
He said it took him “not very long” to pick up Welsh during his visit.
He managed to learn Icelandic against the clock in a week for a Five documentary.
Learning a Language with Software
photo credit: William Hook
Computers can be very useful when learning a new language on your own. There are many software choices available to help you teach yourself a new language.
Two popular language learning software options are Rosetta Stone
The problem with software like Rosetta Stone
The library is also an excellent resource for free language learning software. Many libraries across the country offer Tell Me More
Towards Proficiency: Some Plans for Learning a Language
I would like to provide some background information about myself, and then I will attempt to outline my approach to learn my chosen language of Korean.
My Background
I do have experience learning languages and teaching English. I am currently a graduate student in TESOL (Teaching English to Speakers of Other Languages). I do not claim to be an expert, but will do my best to apply this experience to learning my chosen language, and to help others learn theirs. I also have some experience studying Korean in formal and informal settings.
Korean
My approach to Korean will combine many techniques for learning a second language. I will be taking the second-semester first-year Korean course at a local community college, and then assuming finances are there, I will enroll in a summer intensive for about nine to ten weeks. There is a wonderful textbook series called Integrated Korean which I will be working through. I will use it primarily as a grammar and structures guide. As you will see, using sentence structures will play an important part in my study plan. Next, I will be using the Korean Picture Dictionary to provide supplementary vocabulary study. There are approximately 3,000 terms within the book. And finally, I will be participating in language exchange with some my native Korean-speaking friends.
Final Thoughts
These plans are certainly not immutable, and will like change over time. I will learn certain things work well for me, and other things are unhelpful. I hope others can adapt some of these techniques and reach their own language learning goals. And, as always, I am open to suggestions and constructive criticism.
Lingua Boost Has Gone Live
Want to boost your language skills? If so, then welcome to Lingua Boost. Lingua Boost is the brainchild of two lazy language learners looking for a great way to encourage themselves in learning languages and giving back to the community at the same time. For at least the next year, we’ll be blogging about our experiences in learning languages, reviewing some language learning resources, providing some tips, and hopefully not making fools of ourselves. Join us for the ride. It would should be a blog-worthy adventure.
