Labyrinth of language learning

The significance of the picture to the right is the saying, "An elephant never forgets." And, indeed, remembering is a big part of language learning . To master a language, a working vocabulary of 2000 words is required. Besides vocabulary, there are also phrases, grammatical endings and constructions to remember. This does take time and effort, both to learn and to be able to retrieve what you have learnt. I want to talk about how to make that effort in a way which is effective, not wasting energy on what will not deliver the result you need. So how do you do it? Let me suggest some ways I have used to remember language . 1. One artificial way of remembering words is to come up with some association . My Hebrew teacher taught us to associate the Hebrew derekh (road) with the name of my current church minister, Derek. The word for yellow in Russian, jolty , sounds like the word for a dayglow jacket ( jilet ). I remember the German for elephant trunk, because it ...

The title of this post is based on a saying in English, "to call a spade a spade." This means to say things directly, rather than using euphemisms or not saying what you really mean. However, I am using this saying to show how words can have different meanings in different languages.  Most of the languages I know are Indo-European, that is to say they derive from a single parent language called Proto-Indo-European, which was spoken as a single language about 4500 years ago somewhere in modern-day Ukraine or Turkey. Its speakers then spread as far as India in the East and Ireland in the west. You can even listen to a reconstruction of that original language here . Native speakers of Indo-European languages account for almost half the world's population (3.2 billion people). The relevance of all this for language learning is that when I, for example, as a native speaker of English, learn, say, Italian, then lots of the words will be familiar. The numbers will sound th...

One of the most difficult things to 'get' in a foreign language is humour. In case you did not understand the title of this blog, it is a reference to something people say when a joke is not found funny by the hearers. In other words, background information ('being there') is required in order to find something funny. Often jokes function by saying something unexpected. Here's my first joke for today. Two Irishmen are talking and one says to the other, "What do you think about the Covid 19?" His friend answers, "Ach, they are probably innocent; they should all be set free." This joke - in case you don't 'get' it - is based on several high-profile court cases in the United Kingdom, when groups of men, designated as 'the Birmingham Six' or 'the Guildford Four' etc., were accused of terrorist crimes and later exonerated (found not guilty). The joke is based on someone thinking Covid 19 is another such case of wro...

Learning languages is about examples, not rules.  And there are some pretty odd rules out there.  To give you an idea about weird rules in languages, let me show you two French sentences: 1. J'ai vu la voiture. (I have seen the car) 2. Je l'ai vue . (I have seen it, i.e. the car) Now, even if you don't know French you will notice that in the first sentence the word 'vu' (seen) is spelled without the final 'e' but in the second sentence it has a final 'e'. Let me explain why that is. First of all, you need to know that in many languages every noun has a gender (masculine, feminine and, in some cases, neuter). Often these genders defy logic. In German " Mädche n" (girl) is not feminine, but neuter. The word for 'problem' is masculine in French ( le problème ), feminine in Russian ( проблема ) and neuter in German ( das Problem ).  In French car ( voiture ) is feminine.  I could go into all sorts of additional expl...

Yes, singing. I reckon it is one of the keys to language learning. When I was about 15 I decided to learn some Welsh; my Dad was from a Welsh mining town called Blaenavon. I learnt the entire Welsh national anthem and to this day can sing it from memory, even though my knowledge of Welsh is far less advanced. In a similar way, my daughter, who is learning Spanish, can sing the whole of "Valiente" from memory. She has only a few words of Spanish so far. So why is singing so useful when it comes to language learning? 1. It's easy to listen over and over again and just join in when there are words you can discern. You don't have to understand them all. 2. It is an easy-entry way of picking up the pronunciation, rhyme and rhythm of a language. 3. Singing helps you memorise the words - far better than a list. Just as a tune can get 'stuck in your head', so can the words. 4. It doesn't feel like study; you can just listen and join in to relax ...

It might seem out of character to be talking about syntax on a blog in which I have advocated getting on with using the language, even if you don't know the rules ... yet. I have indeed repeatedly urged you not to spend your time with your noses in textbooks. You need to be pushing forward with your own self-study and trying things out at the earliest opportunity. But that doesn't mean that I don't see the need for grammar and syntax. Let me give you some simple definitions of both those terms. Grammar is about things like verb endings. Syntax is about arranging words in a sentence. You could say grammar is about selecting the right-shaped bricks and syntax is about making them into a wall . So, syntax is about how to arrange words in a sentence, which is made up of one or more clauses. Let me quickly explain what a clause is. A clause is part of a sentence, often marked off by a comma. "She is good at languages, therefore she enjoys travelling," would...

If anyone is not familiar with the saying in the title of this blog post, the full version is, "Where angels fear to tread fools rush in." It alludes to someone doing something hastily, not thinking about the consequences. What I actually want to say is that the right approach to language learning is precisely that: to rush in. This goes directly against the approach which starts a language learner off slowly learning the alphabet, progressing to learning some basic words and by the third of fourth lesson starting to learn very basic sentences, saying things you would never say in real life like, "The dog is red," or, "The house is there." I am suggesting you get on with learning, even before you might have had a chance to find out some basic things like how many letters are in the alphabet or how you pronounce all the sounds. And there is a theory of language learning that states that you should always be one step ahead of your theoretical knowledge,...

Most readers will be familiar with the expression, "Flogging a dead horse" (see picture below). If you don't know this expression, it means to make an effort when no result is possible; the saying imagines someone beating a dead horse, hoping that it might get up again. A futile exercise, as you can imagine. That may be the way you feel about your past language learning. Maybe there is a language which you learnt many years ago. And, whenever you are reminded of that language, you despair of reviving it. Let me encourage you. As a Christian I believe in miracles (that's another story), but reviving a 'forgotten' language is no miracle; it is entirely realistic and let me give you some tips on how to do it. Firstly, and please dwell on this point, you have not forgotten German or Russian or whichever language you have neglected for years. It's there is your head. You can remember bits and pieces - the numbers, the word for bread, My name is - and f...

So, just today I had one of those moments when I said something and they didn't get it . 'They' being speakers of my foreign language - actually, my best one (Russian). It was a video conference and there must have been a dozen of them. So why didn't they 'get' it? Why did I fail to get my point across? And how can my experience today help you and me with language learning? My first mistake was the order in which I provided information . Rather than saying what I wanted to say straightaway, I started with something less important, a qualification, and that distracted my hearers. If it's not your native language, say the main thing straightaway, don't get sidetracked . Secondly, I waffled, cluttering up my sentences with long words and phrases, again creating 'noise' which hindered my listeners from getting what I was on about. I need to learn to keep it simple . Thirdly, there was a key word I couldn't quite find in the moment. I wan...

When people learn foreign languages, they tend to reach a certain level and then plateau, i.e. stop learning and developing. I am sure you are familiar with speakers of English (or of your native language) who can't pronounce particular words or sounds, who use the same wrong word every time or who say things the way they would sound in their own native language. A dear Belgian gentleman and friend of our family once said, "I am not visible," to mean, "I am not presentable." Russian teachers of English stubbornly insist on calling school homework 'home tasks' (домашние задания). My Italian aunt, when travelling as a passenger in the car, used to urge the driver to "take over" the vehicle in front. When I moved to Russia I referred to a planning meeting ('planiorka') as a floorplan ('planirovka'). Native speakers of German will say things like, "Are you coming with?" (Kommst du mit?) When castigating bad behaviour,...

For those of you who are not familiar with the word 'stickler' , it means a pedantic person who wants things to be right. For example, you could say, "He is a stickler for punctuality."  The 'stickler' is very useful, perhaps even essential, when it comes to langauge learning. So, what is a 'stickler' and how might they help you to learn a language?  Well, one of the best ways of learning a language is just to get on with using it. You can compose sentences, expressing whatever is on your mind in your foreign language. You could even compose a whole article or talk. And then send that text or speech to someone who knows the language, preferably a native speaker, and who is willing to correct your mistakes. This is your 'stickler'. What happens next is that your 'stickler' corrects what you are saying. If there are mistakes, they can point them out. If there are oddities, they can tell you how to say it differently. Often slightly...

We all have our favourite words and phrases, sometimes to the extent that people can identify us by the things we always say. In the same way languages have what I call resonance words and phrases - they come up all the time and evoke a response in the hearers . This is about more than the plain meaning of words. To use another metaphor, these are words and phrases which native speakers will gravitate towards, go-to vocabulary and constructions. Let me give you some examples so you know what I am talking about. If I say, "That is the same as what I am talking about," it sounds stilted, foreign, doesn't it? But if I say, " That's what I am talking about ," it immediately connects. Or if, in the present context, I were to say, "We are paying attention to the curve," it would be understandable, but if I said, " We are keeping our eye on the curve," it just sounds more English. I recently translated a text which spoke, literally, of a c...

I am pretty sure we have all faced it. You want to say something in a foreign language and then you realise you don't know a crucial word or phrase - or just cannot express what you want to say. I call this the road block .   Here are some examples of English words and phrases which may be difficult to convey in a foreign language (if you are a non-native speaker of English, maybe you find these difficult to understand): - I relish a challenge. - Integrity - To heckle - Faced with this problem.... - To patronise (i.e. an unwelcome condescending attitude) - A brief (i.e. a short description of a task to complete) - To overstate a case - To embrace the future This list is potentially endless. I have just shared my latest list of words and phrases - which in this case are fairly abstract - to be able to translate into my foreign languages. (If you have any ideas or thoughts about these you could Facebook message me www.facebook.com/russelljamesphillips) Any...