Pronunciation

So I realize that no one who is beginning a new language, or even many people who are years along in learning a language, is going to magically be able to pronounce things perfectly.  So please don't take this particular lesson as something to worry a LOT about.  That being said, there are a few languages where pronunciation can make a world of difference.  For instance in the Chinese language you can make complete sentences using a word that is pronounced the exact same and changing just the inflection of the word.  This is an extreme example of why being able to pronounce things is important, but there are less extreme cases that have much the same possibility of being both a great success in what you are trying to say as well as a huge catastrophe and might make you look like a big idiot/jerk/%$@#...etc

   In the German language for instance the incorrect pronunciation of schiessen can turn you from a gunslinger into something slightly more smelly as one of my fellow students learned back when I first started learning the language.  That being said I am not telling you that you have to focus really hard on pronunciation, but just be open to people correcting your pronunciation.  It doesn't at all mean that you are bad at the language, or anything of that nature.  They truly are trying to help you both master the language, and prevent yourself from an embarrassing mistake.  Of course as with most all of my posts the easiest way to work on these things is by once again immersing yourself in the language.  Watch videos, listen to music, and most importantly! Speak up in class! Be excited about making mistakes! It's a much better way to learn especially cause if you aren't making mistakes then you probably aren't actually learning the language anyway... >_>

So, moral of the lesson!: practice repeating words as you hear them lest you make a fool of yourself! (or if you're trying to make a fool of yourself then don't worry about it ^^)

Articles

So most of the languages one can learn today have more than a few definite or indefinite articles.  For example in German you have der, die, das, den, dem, des, ein, einer... and the list goes on, or in Spanish: El, la, lo, los...etc  There are a few languages (especially the character based languages ie: Chinese and Japanese) that don't have them, but if you happen to be learning a language where these articles do exist be sure to learn them from the get go!  I know for a fact that when I started learning German I neglected to learn the articles along with my vocabulary even though my instructor told us we should (and even sometimes quizzed us on them as part of the vocab), and it really put me in a bad spot later on in the language learning process.  I admit that I struggle with grammar even these days being the equivalent of a fourth year college German student, and having neglected to learn the articles, or at least a way to be able to guess relatively accurately what they would be based on the word has made my continuous attempts to improve my grammar that much more difficult.  Instead of being able to focus solely on the grammar structure I am trying to learn/practice, I have to spend time trying to guess the right article, or looking it up which detracts from the process of creating those connections in the brain responsible for being able to do said grammar.

So today's moral of the story is: Learn your articles! lest you be thrown into the pit of stressed annoyance! >_>

Other ways you can immerse yourself

And you might have not even thought of them before!  Are you a gamer? Great! you can buy games online from the  country of origin! (or even play flash games online!) Or how about a non electronic gamer?  I myself have personally played Dungeons and Dragons in German with some fellow students. It was quite the challenge.  Or even if you're not the hardcore console or computer gamer type you can find smart phone apps in your language of choice. I just picked up a hangman app and an anagram app in German.  Both are quite fun (and remind me quite easily of how easy it is to forget a language if you aren't practicing it on a relatively regular basis which brings us to another possible way to get that immersion!

What way might that be you ask? Well having a pen pal of course! There's hundreds of pen pal websites out there on that vast interweb including this one http://www.interpals.net/ .  One of my friends introduced me to it around the time I started this blog (about 3 days ago or so)  and I most definitely plan to use it.  (maybe in a future update I shall inform you of my progress in this venture!)  Or if you are the super nerd type of gamer and love playing WoW (and even pay for it!) there are servers that are (purposefully anyway) German based!  You could create an account on one of those and suddenly you have a whole world full of German speakers you can talk to and venture with!

So the moral of this post is!: Much like one of the previous ones! Be proactive in immersing yourself! Find ways that fit your style and use them!

Probably one of the most easy

And most difficult lessons for anyone to learn when learning a new language is to learn to speak up in class.  I know for a fact that every language teacher in the world wants their students to participate, and how else are you going to get practice actually speaking the language when you aren't in the country? You might be thinking "oh i'll do it with someone else later" but here's the thing.  The teacher is (one would hope) a master of the language and its grammar.  If you say something wrong or silly they'll correct you and you might be embarrassed, but think about how much worse it would be if you're talking to a native and made that same mistake when you were speaking very fluently and culturally correct. A whole lot more embarrassing right?  A great example of this happened to me the first time I went to Germany.  I had developed a habit of answering questions (usually about whether or not I wanted to eat something) with the statement "I'm good."  It's a relatively acceptable thing to say in English to someone asking you if you want more food right? I think so, and my host mother asked me that very question in German.  So I translated it directly into German. (translates to "ich bin gut") The next day I overheard some of the other German students who had gone on said trip with me talking about how they had learned just that last year in class (they were one year ahead of me) that the term "ich bin gut" means to Germans: I am good in bed.  In fact the proper way of informing someone that you would not like any more food in German is "ich bin satt" which translates roughly to i'm satisfied (and a danke on the end wouldn't go amiss either).

Now I realize that there are a lot of things (like that one) where you probably won't learn it in class unless the situation is just right, but actually speaking up in class does a lot of other things too.  For instance it might make you more comfortable about speaking the language in general (and more confident too), it'll help prevent you getting into bad habits with grammar or pronunciation, and your teacher will love having you in class which could possibly get you a better grade (*wink wink*).  And one of the biggest things, (in my opinion at least) the all important fact that you might voice the question everyone else is thinking but too afraid to say.  That particular fact is true of any and every class you're in honestly, but it shouldn't be something that should ever happen in a language class since you're taking it to be able to speak the language.  Why the hell would you not want to speak it when you expressly thought when signing up for the class "I want to be able to speak this language"

So, the moral of the story: SPEAK UP! BE HEARD! OTHER THINGS WRITTEN IN CAPITAL LETTERS!!!

If you are choosing to learn a language

Which I assume you are otherwise you wouldn't be reading this blog, then one of the rather obvious things that a lot of people don't do is actually immerse yourself.  It's pretty obvious that the best way to do that is to go to the country, but for those of you who can't for various reasons there are ways of still accomplishing this.

No matter whether you are just starting to learn a new language, or have been at it a while the internet is an amazing asset.  You're reading this blog on it for instance! And it's a great place to download (either bought or otherwise though I am not advocating anything here >_>) music, movies, books...etc in the language of your choice!  I for one have the entire Harry Potter series in German as books on tape which I sometimes use to listen to while walking around campus or while on long car rides.  Music and movies are both great ways to immerse yourself as well.  They help you understand a bit about the culture of your country of choice (if developed in said country) or you can watch films you know and love with a language change.  My girlfriend (who is currently a first year German student in college herself) has been watching many Disney films with me in German even without subtitles and she's been a lot more proactive than myself in finding German music (which by the way is awesome) and it's helped her learn that much faster.

So the Moral of the story is: Find ways to be proactive in immersing yourself even if you can't go to the "home country"!

Time for lesson two

Flash cards! They suck. Useful in many ways, but they still suck. >.<  You spend hours rereading them, shuffling through them constantly, forgetting cards you learned just yesterday, writing them, making them pretty, making all the info fit on them... the list goes on and on and on.  Bottom line: flash cards are no fun.

          That being said there are truly many words out there that you can't connect to a physical entity.  Although it's pretty easy to connect most words to something that happens, exists, sounds similar...etc (ie: running, a ball, [vs the German word: Der Ball] a turtle...etc) there are some times, especially when learning new languages, that it is just a good option or you are unwilling to watch childrens shows from *insert random country here.*  

          When you decide to study using flash cards what do you do?  Do you wait until you absolutely need them?  Do you go through the cards as a full stack for the vocabulary?  Do you ever shuffle the cards? What I figured out for the simplest and quickest way to learn vocab using the dreaded flash cards is as follows.  

First the mechanics of the cards themselves: 

          Create your flash cards very methodically.  I like to write two words on each flash card and cut them in half, and have something that you can carry them without them getting destroyed, I like to punch a hole in the corner and stick them on one of those rings that you can open and close.  This allows you to always know where your cards are, and not struggle with having all the cards facing the correct direction (this can be crucial when learning one of the Japanese alphabet for example)

Now for the studying of the cards:

          It's really easy to learn the cards when you test the top card, then put it at the back of the pile right?  I don't personally think so. What if you have a pile of 100 cards? not so easy now right?  Most of my language classes (especially in college) expect me to learn upwards of 20 to 30 words in less than a week.  Supposedly the average human can only learn and retain I believe somewhere around 9 words a week (if anybody knows the correct number and stuff please correct me ^^)  After some of my psychology classes and just personal experience I know that you forget the words in the middle of the list a lot faster than those at the beginning and end of the list.  Now that you're thinking about it you are either going "already knew that" or "oh yeah!"  So what I like to do is study my cards in sets of 10.  I pull 10 cards off of my little ring, and instead of always sticking the card I just tested myself on at the back of the pile, I base where the card goes on how well I know the card.  So if I know the card, it goes to the back of the pile.  If I don't know the card, it gets shoved somewhere in the middle/near the front.  This serves two purposes.  Firstly it allows you to test yourself more often on the cards you don't know while still being able to review cards you are pretty sure you know, and secondly it forces you to learn the word or phrase rather than just remember "oh it comes after this word" because the order of the cards is ever changing.  Once you've learned those ten words you don't put down that stack of 10.  Instead you add a new stack of 5 on top.  Continue in this manner until you are somewhere around 30-40 cards or until you are bored of practicing your cards.  Whenever you reach this point or pick up your cards again, go through them one last time.  Every time you come across a card that you are absolutely certain you know, put it aside rather than at the back of the pile.  This new pile goes onto a different ring thingy.  Remember though, just because you're sure that you absolutely know that word you should still randomly go back and test yourself on this second ring.

         At the same time though, I would hope that, if you really are learning like you should be, you would never need to go back to that second ring again because you'll be using your new vocab in class or conversation...etc.

So to recap:  Flash cards suck! but if you must use them.  Try the method (is kinda hard to recap the method >_>) or come up with your own!

So let's get started shall we?

I have to say that one of the biggest things I came to realize after not a few years of studying other languages that I, like most people, was that when you're learning a new language you shouldn't consider it another language.  That just makes it seem that much more daunting and terrifying.  Instead, all you're really doing is adding words to your vocabulary.  For instance, the world for father in German, Vater (pronounced fater).  It's just a different way to say the same thing.  We learn new words in our original language almost every day. (if you're a student you learn far more than one new word a day)

So why do people learn those words without skipping a beat while doing the same thing in "another language" is so difficult and terrifying?  Well that's something that a lot of experts probably already know but few people think about when trying to learn something new.  I personally think (after years of random contemplation) that it's because people trying to learn a new language try far harder to equate the word they are trying to learn to a word that they already know rather than to what the word physically is.  My epiphany if you can call it that in regards to this came to me in the form of the word circle. Everyone who speaks English fluently can tell you that a circle is a shape that has no corners, is round... etc. It looks like an O for gods sake.  So the word for circle in german, Kreis, means exactly the same thing right? If you answered right to this question then congrats. you understand what I'm trying to say.  so now we have two words in our vocabulary for the same thing.  Circle and Kreis and one should be able to interchange them in one's conversation because they understand what it means.  Kreis does mean Circle yes, but that is only in the translation of words.  If you want to use really technical English it would be much easier to call them Synonyms and not Translations.  Makes it a lot less daunting doesn't it?

So, the first lesson basically boils down to: Stop learning another language, and start adding to your vocabulary.

A bit about Me

Hi everyone.  My name is Pat, and I'm a German major in my fourth year at Oregon State University (go beavs... blah blah blah whatever) and I figured I would start this blog talking about different ways I go about studying for and learning a new language.  Mind you, I am a normal human so I'm not necessarily the most amazing language learner in the world, but I have learned a few tips and tricks from taking not only German, but Japanese, Chinese, and Spanish.  I like to consider myself comfortably fluent in German, and am currently at the tail end of my second year of college level Japanese.  I've taken a full year of college level Chinese and a year of high school level Spanish and do plan to learn these again some day.  Along with just about any other language I can lay my hands on.

My goal for this blog will be to see if I can impart some "wisdom" about how to study languages and try and explain or improve upon things you reader(s) might already be doing.  I also happily accept criticism and suggestions for myself.  I'm always looking for ways to learn things faster.  Feel free to ask me if I have any suggestions, but expect this blog to mostly just be things that have worked for me, and hopefully will work for you too. ^^
Aufwieder sehen for now. ^^
Pat