Online Language Review

For your convenience I have selected a few links to post on this page. I hope you find them useful.

Rocket Languages program seems to be "popping up" everywhere. So, I thought it fitting to put their link first. Click Here!

Who wouldn't want to learn the language of their choice quickly?! Learn to speak ANY language in just a few days!! Click Here!

Although this link is not to a language program, it's information is invaluable! It shows you the techniques to make the most of your studies. Click Here!

If you would like to travel and try out your new language skills stop by this travel site! Click Here!

By Larry M. Lynch

In his article entitled, "How to Learn (But Not Master) Any Language in One Hour", author Tim Ferris details his techniques or what he calls "deconstructing" a foreign language. His argument is that by deconstructing the language's main elements such as alphabet, key grammatical structures, rules of pronunciation and sentence structure, you can gain a basic understanding of just how it functions. That way you can relatively easily determine if you will be able to pursue fluency in communicating in that language within a reasonable amount of time.

How to Learn Any Foreign Language

His general belief system is similar to my own in that I state in my foreign language learning techniques book entitled, "You Can Learn A Foreign Language: Tested Techniques Anyone Can Use" that if a language is similar in grammar and structure or pronunciation to your own first language (L1), then it should be fairly easy to acquire using English, for instance, as a point of reference. An example would be a native Spanish speaker learning Italian, Portuguese or even French. These are all in the same linguistic family.

On the contrary, if the language that you are considering is vastly different in structure, grammar or pronunciation to your own, then you will likely tend to have increased difficulty in learning it. That is not to say that you cannot learn a foreign language radically different from your own, but simply that learning it will have greatly increased difficulty for you in comparison to one in your first language's family group.

Linguistics and Families

Languages, like people, come in families. In my book, I go into detail about linguistic families and which ones are grouped together. English, for example, is in the same linguistic family as German - not French and Spanish as many language learners initially believe. While there are a substantial number of true word cognates between these three - English, Spanish and French, which often can help considerably with communications, there is a distinct "caveat". What is it, exactly? It is the presence of a considerable number of false cognates. That is to say, words which look and are spelled in similar manner but have very different meanings in the two languages.

In the next and final part of this article, we'll consider anomalies in spoken Chinese. Also, we'll review how to look at foreign language learning "as a sport". See you then.

Prof. Larry M. Lynch is an EFL Teacher Trainer, Intellectual Development Specialist, prolific writer, expert author and public speaker. He has written ESP, foreign language learning, English language teaching texts and hundreds of articles used in more than 120 countries. Get your FREE E-book, "If You Want to Teach English Abroad, Here's What You Need to Know" and English language teaching and learning information at: http://bettereflteacher.blogspot.com Need a blogger or copywriter to promote your school, institution, service or business or an experienced writer and vibrant SEO content for your website, blog or newsletter? Contact the author at the above blog address for more information.

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Larry_M._Lynch

By Larry M. Lynch

Foreign Language Learning

In the first part of this article post, we briefly looked at the general belief system for learning a foreign language as opinioned by noted author Tim Ferris as compared to my key considerations. Here in the final, part 2 of this article, we will continue by examining anomalies in the Chinese language which add to its already inherent difficulty in learning it as a foreign language.

An Anomaly of the Chinese Language

But being in the same language family can also have its problems and idiosyncrasies for unwary foreign language learners. Chinese is a good example of this. Although there are nine major "dialects" of Chinese, most of them are virtually unintelligible to speakers of the other Chinese dialects or variants. Speakers of Cantonese cannot "talk" directly to speakers of Mandarin, although they can read the written form of Mandarin since most of the dialects in Chinese have the same written form! They can easily read and understand each other's writing, but cannot speak to one another.

Treat Language as a Sport

Author Ferris advises would-be foreign language learners to "treat language learning as a sport". Learn the rules of the language first to determine if you'll be able to manage it, before investing any substantial amount of time in trying to learn a foreign language which may be somewhat "out of reach" or at the very minimum, a "broad stretch" for you to acquire up to even a mediocre level. His clearly laid out and well-defined points are well taken in my opinion.

Learn a Foreign Language in One Hour

Can you learn a foreign language in one hour? Normally, most certainly not. But you could do enough deconstruction of a foreign language in one hour, more or less, to determine how well or how difficult it would potentially be for you to learn that foreign language. This could definitely go a long way in helping to avoid the disappointments and frustrations of trying to learn a foreign language that was too far out of your league for easy acquisition. And that my dear potential foreign language learner, is certainly something well worth considering.

Prof. Larry M. Lynch is an EFL Teacher Trainer, Intellectual Development Specialist, prolific writer, expert author and public speaker. He has written ESP, foreign language learning, English language teaching texts and hundreds of articles used in more than 120 countries. Get your FREE E-book, "If You Want to Teach English Abroad, Here's What You Need to Know" and English language teaching and learning information at: http://bettereflteacher.blogspot.com/ Need a blogger or copywriter to promote your school, institution, service or business or an experienced writer and vibrant SEO content for your website, blog or newsletter? Contact the author at the above blog address for more information.

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Larry_M._Lynch

By Kelly Winter

It is no mystery that the secret to preventing memory loss, dementia and Alzheimer's disease is to ensure your brain stays active throughout your life. Largely fueled by the concerns and fears of the aging baby boomers, there is a thriving business surrounding this topic and you can now find numerous books, articles, games, courses, websites and other products dedicated to helping you maintain a healthy and properly functioning brain.

Luckily, this is not all just hype and there has been extensive scientific research surrounding this topic. A quick internet search will fetch you volumes of information on related studies so I won't go into technical detail here except to summarize that findings show that when the brain is stimulated to produce new neural pathways (connections between brain cells) on a continuous basis, throughout your life, the brain will continue to grow and improve.

Neurologists have reported that by spending only 20 minutes, 3 times a week, practicing mental exercises you can reduce your chances of developing Alzheimer's disease by 70%. And so, what is an effective brain exercise? It has been discovered that for a brain exercise to be beneficial it needs to meet three criteria; one, it needs to engage your attention, two, it must involve more than one of the senses (sight, sound, touch, smell, taste), and three, it must break a routine activity in an unexpected, nontrivial way.

Learning a new language is recognized as being a highly effective brain exercise because it strongly meets and even exceeds all three of these criteria.

One, you must focus intently to make progress in your lessons thus making your brain work strenuously. You have to listen to a word or phrase, repeat back the word or phrase and at the same time your mind has to translate the meaning of words from and to your native language. Add memorization, listening, reading and writing to the list and your brain will feel the workout.

Two, you must use sight, sound and speech to properly speak and understand a new language. Although speech is not one of the five senses, it does require the brain to interpret and organize the information from the other senses and to formulate a response using motor-skills thereby exceeding criteria number two.

Three, If you only speak one language than it is probably safe to assume that learning a new language would not be a routine activity for you. Even if you already speak multiple languages, each new language brings new concepts and challenges to the brain.

Besides the obvious benefit of brain longevity, learning a new language will provide other benefits such as confidence when travelling to the country where your new language is spoken and perhaps it could even open doors for certain careers.

There are many ways to learn a new language ranging from formal classroom style courses to self-paced video, audio or online computer courses. My personal preference is online computer courses mainly because when cleverly designed, they are highly interactive, entertaining and transportable (that is if you have a laptop or access to multiple computers). A well designed computer based language courses will offer a variety of learning techniques such as audio, video, text, games and quizzes providing an even greater opportunity to flex your brain muscles.

Kelly Winter is just one of the many baby boomers concerned with keeping healthy, active and alert as she enjoys the next phase of her life. She enjoys travelling the world and has had great fun and success learning to speak Spanish with the rocket language program which offers all the benefits mentioned in her article. Check it out at http://www.rocketlanguages.ca and start to challenge your brain now.

[1] Alzheimer's Research & Prevention Foundation

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Kelly_Winter

By Jonathan Sayles

The problem with looking for language translations online is the way most websites translate languages. You enter a word into a search box, and every possible translation, or possible similar word will flash infront of your eyes.

As an example, have you ever tried translating something as simple as car? Of course, the language you are trying to translate into will depend on the translations you get, but if you chose Italian, you might achieve the following:- macchina, automobile, auto, tram, vagone, carroza, carro and a few more.

Which is the right one? If you wanted to translate car into Bisaya, one of the Philippine languages you would get awto. However awto would represent all of the different types of car you can have. Convertibles, people carriers, estate cars. There is no real definition.

The main method for finding the translations I use is as follows, if I need to translate a word, I`ll think of similar words. If I wanted to translate lemon tree, and I already knew the translation for tree I would include that in a search on Google. In Spanish it would be "lemon tree árbol" This way I wouldn't be using a language website, but the power of Google to locate articles and websites that might list language translations as word lists.

For singular word and singular phrase translations, this is the master method you can use. If you want to translate a bunch of words related to one specific field, like drinks, you can also use the same method, just increase the amount of words in the search, and include some of those words in the language you already know.

Try this Google search for a list of drinks in the dutch language.

The other method of translating words which are quite rare is to use Wikipedia. Type your word in your language, and if you find an article page, search on the left side for a language link to the language you wish to translate too. For wildlife and nature, Wikipedia is a very useful resource.

Another way of translating the right word is to find someone else that has done all of the hard word already. Categorizing each word into the right places, and translating compound forms and phrases. This is what I`ve been doing for the past three years on my website http://www.jonsay.co.uk/. I used the above methods in the construction of my website, and without them, there is no way I could have done so much work. So far I have categorized a few thousand words in each of the following languages:- bisaya, chinese, dutch, italian, indonesian, japanese, spanish and tagalog, and with german almost ready to go live.

A final tip, get a friend from the country you wish to learn the language for! I did, and they have all been an excellent source of information.

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Jonathan_Sayles

Whether you are a student in high school, college, language class or just studing on your own, I thought these were some very good tips to help you in your quest to learn!

By Tom Tessin

Are you currently taking a foreign language class in college? If you aren't yet you most likely will need to take a few foreign language classes to get your major in college. There are many general education classes that are needed when in college, and foreign language is one of them. Foreign languages can be very difficult for some people to learn. When in college, it is even harder to learn a language because you learn the language at such a fast pace. Read below for some tips on how to pass your college foreign language class.

Professor - Your professors are supposed to be your friends so make sure you can ask them questions. If ever you have a question be sure to always ask until you understand. Whether you ask in class, or after class be sure you find out the answers.

Be there - College is expensive and if you don't show up you're going to only be wasting money. You want to make sure you go to every class when you have a foreign language. If you miss one day you will most likely be missing out on a lot. It's like math you have to learn the basics before you can go any further.

Textbook - Any kind of book in college costs an arm and a leg these days so you want to make sure you read it. Go through the textbook and go page by page and chapter by chapter. If you keep up with reading the textbook you will go much further than you think.

Sounds - You want to make sure you get a feel for the sounds. When learning a foreign language we often get confused at first with the different sounds. Try to pick them up and speak with the accents. It will take some time but it will flow much nicer and make you feel a whole lot better.

Verbs - To create good sentences in a foreign language you need to make yourself aware of a lot of verbs. Take a few days a week and just study verbs for 20 minutes each time. The more verbs you know the better your speaking will get.

Tenses - Be sure that you familiarize all the tenses. You want to make sure you know the past, present and future tense. If you don't learn these properly your sentences won't make sense. Once you get the feel for the tenses you will be on a roll.

Conjunctions - Learn all the conjunctions of the foreign language. Be sure you understand the subordinating, coordinating, and verb conjunctions. Once you know these a foreign language will make much more sense to you.

There is a lot to know about learning a foreign language. The most important thing is to have patience, have fun with it and have motivation. Foreign languages can be very frustrating but once you get the gist of it you'll be glad you took the time to learn it.

Find articles like these and more of Tom's work all on his student blog.

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Tom_Tessin

By Ioana Mihailas

A descendant of Old Norse, Swedish belongs to the East Scandinavian group of languages, a subdivision of the North Germanic branch of the Germanic languages.

Swedish is mutually intelligible with Danish (also a member of the East Scandinavian language group) and Norwegian (which belongs to the western Scandinavian language group). It is spoken by approximately nine million people worldwide, most of whom reside in Sweden, Norway, Finland, Denmark and Estonia. Sweden is an official language in Sweden and Finland, as well as in a small region of Estonia – Noarootsi.

Chronologically speaking, we can distinguish three periods in the evolution of Swedish language: Old Swedish, New Swedish and Modern Swedish.

- The first refers to the language spoken on the Swedish territory in the Middle Ages. The most relevant sample of this language was found in a law code, Västgötalagen, written around 1250.

- Gustav Vasa's Bible is one of the first documents written in New (literary) Swedish and dates back to the 16th century.

- Since then Swedish language has gone through various changes and, under the influence of writers and intellectuals, as well as due to the industrial development and internationalization, it has developed into becoming Modern Swedish, the language spoken by the Swedes today.

“Rikssvenska” (or Standard Swedish), is the official language of Sweden. It is used in media, officialdom and administration and it was created in accordance with the dialects spoken around Stockholm.

Swedish uses a 29 letters alphabet, 26 of Latin origin and three specific letters: ö, ä, å.

Its vocabulary is predominantly of Germanic origin. Borrowings from German and English are quite common together with many French words that became part of the language in the 18th century.

Both Swedish syntax and morphology resemble the ones of the other Germanic languages. Swedish verbs fall into five conjugations; the nouns are divided into five declensions and are inflected according to number, case and definiteness; the adjectives agree with the nouns and pronouns; the number words are cardinals and ordinals etc.

Although apparently a difficult language, Swedish may prove easy to learn for a person who speaks a language of Germanic origin and it is sure to create no problems for someone speaking another Scandinavian language.

Swedish is a working language of the Nordic Council and one of the official languages of the European Union.

Considered one of the countries with the highest living standard, Sweden is famous for its worldwide appreciated industry represented by companies like Volvo, IKEA, Tetra Pak etc.

Ioana Mihailas is a linguist for Lingo24 document translation companies, a top provider of technical translation services in London.

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Ioana_Mihailas