Just some things I’ve came across / read recently that I found interesting. Enjoy.

• The Center for Open Educational Resources and Language Learning – This site is a little treasure trove of language learning goodies. It’s home to the Grimm Grammar (German), as well as Tex’s French Grammar, both of which are pretty well known, but there are lots of other resources as well. The main COERLL page has links for Arabic, Chinese, Hebrew, Hindi, and others languages.
• 8 Ways to Create Better Flashcards – A nice guide to making the most of your flashcards, and avoiding some common pitfalls. Combine with Anki for best results.
• One Thing in a French Day – A “daily life” podcast, from a woman living in France. Transcripts are available for each episode (at least the newer ones; the archive feature doesn’t seem to be working, at least for me). New episodes come out every Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday.
• Interlinear texts – a forgotten route to language learning – A brief look at some of the history of language learning. I’ve always found it kind of funny that translating / reading of interlinear texts is “bad” these days (according to many people), despite it being the standard method of language learning for centuries.
• The Foreign Language Library Online – Going along nicely with the above link, the FLLO offers a variety of short articles on different topics, translated into various languages (specifically, English, French, Spanish, German, and Russian). And, there’s a section specifically for history articles, so I already quite like this site. (A tiny little piece on Sputnik right here.)

I was recently contacted and offered an account at Learn-Thai-Podcast.com in exchange for writing a review of the course, as well as talking a bit about how I would personally approach using it. While it would be ideal if I completed the entire course before reviewing it, that would take a very long time , so I’m going to review it now, based on the impressions I have after perusing and listening to a variety of different lessons.

Course Contents

The Learn-Thai-Podcast site has a format very similar to lots of other language learning podcast sites. Each lesson is available as:

• a video, with text to go along with the audio;
• an MP3 file;
• and a PDF transcript.

There is one exception to this, however: the reading and writing lessons, due to their obvious visual nature, are not available as an MP3.

When you log in to your account, you’re presented with this menu:

Learn Thai Podcast course screenshot (click to enlarge)

The full list of each course “segment”:

Module 1

1. Phrase Lessons
2. Beginner Lesson Cycles
3. 300 Most Common Thai Words

Module 2

1. Grammar & Review Lessons
2. Beginner Vocabulary Lessons

Module 3

1. Intermediate Lesson Cycles

Module 4

1. Advanced Lesson Cycles
2. Advanced News Lesson Cycles

Module 5

1. Reading & Writing Lessons
2. Alphabet Mnemonics

There are currently 300 vocabulary lessons, each consisting of around 10 words each. Each lesson is based on a theme: health, verbs, birds, and so on. There is also a Vocabulary Trainer, which is basically their implementation of flashcards. Every lesson in the lesson list has a “Open in Vocabulary Trainer”; this will open up the corresponding words from the lesson in the trainer, which I found to be pretty handy. The trainer includes the phrase / word in Thai script; transliteration; English translation; and the phrase / word spoken.

Thoughts on the course

The course has a lot going for it. The biggest thing to note is that there is a lot of good material here. The lessons remind me a great deal of Michel Thomas and Pimsleur, just that there’s a whole lot more here. Explanations are given in English, and sentences are broken down, bit by bit.

One thing in the transcripts that really popped out at me, and which I love, is that literal translations are provided for everything. While they’re certainly not what you want when you’re reading a foreign language book, they’re extremely handy for unraveling a language you’re learning. In a lot of newer courses, literal translations are nowhere to be seen. Here’s an example:

An example page from a Learn Thai Podcast transcript

Obviously, if you only had the literal translation, it wouldn’t be of great help, but seeing the “normalized” translation along with the literal? Golden. It lets you see how thoughts are pushed together in Thai, as opposed to how it would be rendered “prettily” in English.

A minor point, but worth mentioning: having listened to a number of lessons, I can honestly say both of the speakers’ voices are pleasant and not a chore to listen to. On occasion, a course will be good, but the speakers are, for whatever reason, rather annoying (MIchel Thomas’ weird mouth sounds drove me crazy). I didn’t have that problem here. Something to consider, if you’re going to listen to hours and hours of people talking.

One minor point…

There is one major thing I wish were different about the course: the organization / labeling of the lessons. There are a lot of lessons, around 800 at the time of my writing this review, and they’re not named in any way to really help you find what you’re looking for. Most follow a pattern, such as: “Beginner Grammar Lesson 1; Beginner Review Lesson 1; Beginner Grammar Lesson 2; Beginner Review Lesson 2″; and so on. No textual explanation is given for each lesson. Once you actually start the video (or MP3), a title is given, such as “Grammar and Word Usage Lesson 5: Question Words,” which is a lot more helpful. I’d really like to see these lesson titles incorporated into the lesson pages, so it would be easier to track down what you’re looking for. Perhaps in a later update?

Would I recommend it?

I would. While I’ve often been hesitant in regards to “paid podcast language courses,” there is a lot of quality material here – text, audio, video. The current price is $197. If my stacks upon stacks of books, CDs, and other language learning materials testify to anything, it’s that you could easily rack up $200 in other courses with less material (especially audio).

Perhaps most importantly for anyone interested, they offer a sizable chunk of their course for free. You can check out 118 of the lessons for free; just open up the course in iTunes. Here’s a link. If you like what you see in those, then you’ll certainly like the full course, as it’s all structured the same way. Of course, with the podcast lessons, you won’t have access to the transcripts or Vocabulary Trainer section, but there’s more than enough in the free stuff to form an opinion.

How I’d use the course

They actually provide a proposed 1 year plan, which can be found here. I would sort of follow that, with a quite a few tweaks of my own. In talking about the lessons, they use what they call “cycles” to group lessons together. For example, in the Beginner Lessons Cycle area, you’ll see this:

1. Basic Conversation Lesson 1
2. Basic Vocabulary Lesson 1
3. Basic Grammar Lesson 1
4. Basic Review Lesson 1

Then Basic Conversation Lesson 2, Basic Vocabulary Lesson 2, and so on. Essentially, then, each of these sets of 4 go together. The conversation part gives you the overall picture of the lesson; the vocabulary lesson goes into the individual words; grammar covers, obviously, the grammar; and the review, unsurprisingly, reviews the whole thing. Later modules have a different number of parts to a “cycle,” but the idea is the same.

When tackling a cycle, then, I’d recommend mastering it as well as you think you can in a reasonable amount of time, before moving on to the next. Obviously, if you reach a point where you’re truly banging your head against a wall with a lesson and feeling like you’re making no progress, forge ahead and return to it later (the course lets you mark lessons as not finished, “okay,” and completed, to help you keep track of such things). But considering how very different Thai is from English, I’d want to make sure your foundations are solid before you sprint ahead to stuff that’s simply too tough for you.

With that in mind, getting started, I would work through: Phrase Lessons, Beginner Lesson Cycles, and then the 300 Most Common Thai Words. I would be tempted to then move on to Module 2, but I think I would instead skip ahead to Module 5, and work through the Reading & Writing Lessons, along with the Alphabet Mnemonics. No small task, to be sure, but certainly worthwhile. It is noted in their study guide that you can go through the course sequentially, but I would much rather learn the writing system sooner rather than (much) later. I generally hate transliteration, and find it to be a major crutch. People would find it peculiar for a Greek person to learn English using Greek alphabet transliterations, and I find it similarly peculiar to strafe around one of the most central parts of a foreign language. Furthermore, as soon as you have a grasp of the writing system, the world is your oyster (at least the Thai part of it, anyway). Any native language materials can be used for further study. If you rely on transliteration, that just isn’t the case.

Once I felt I had a firm grasp on the alphabet and writing system, I would probably loop back and review those beginner lessons again, just to be able to see the various spellings of words I’ve (hopefully!) learned at this point. Then I’d feel a little more comfortable moving on to the more advanced lessons.

As I worked through the course, the standard “rules” (mine, anyway) would all apply:

• Review each lesson many times. Nothing will destroy progress in a language quicker than a weak foundation. If you can’t crawl, you definitely can’t run.
• Listen a lot. One of my most oft repeated language learning mistakes is relying too much on the written word. Listen to the lessons until you’re sick of them, then… go listen to something else in Thai.
• Speak, from the start. When you’re listening to the lessons, pause after the Thai is spoken, and say it yourself. Yeah, you’re going to get it wrong at first (really wrong, most likely), but practice makes perfect.
• Once you’ve learned the alphabet, copy out Thai words and, later, whole sentences, from the lessons. I would recommend the sciptorium method. It will get you to slow down and truly focus on the writing (and language itself), as opposed to writing it out as fast as you’re able.
• Consider the word list method as a supplement to the vocabulary trainer for rapidly learning vocabulary. The vocabulary lesson transcripts will give you the raw material you need for this exercise. Print your transcripts and get to it. In this particular age of language learning, it may seem overly “traditional,” but it works.
• If you’re not actually in Thailand, make some Thai friends / penpals / chat buddies online. Sharedtalk.com can help you do that (for Thai and just about any other language you might be learning). You’ll most likely feel stupid at first, stumbling along as you try to say or write anything, but don’t worry about it. See above regarding practice makes perfect. The easiest way to force yourself to use Thai is to have friends who speak Thai, and know you are learning. A real world need is a wonderful motivator.
• Expect it to be tough. It’s often stated that “no language is any harder than any other language.” I think this is nonsense. As an English speaker, if you compare Spanish and Thai, I imagine you’ll find yourself thinking that, wow, Spanish looks a lot easier than Thai. Why? Because Spanish shares a lot more in common with English than Thai does. Subjectively, at least, Spanish is a lot easier. So, cut yourself some slack and expect the road to be a long one. Progress is progress, even if it is slower than you’d like. Stick with it.

I hope this proves useful, and I wish you the best of luck in your Thai learning adventure! Cheers.

Full disclosure: This is a paid, sponsored review. Furthermore, I received a free account at Learn-Thai-Podcast.com for 1 year so as to be able to evaluate the course materials.

So, as of late, I’ve been running through a few Assimil courses, refreshing my French and Russian. In regards to my language learning, for a long time, I would beat myself up over the fact that I’d go through spurts of activity followed by spurts of… well, lots of inactivity. At this point, I’ve just accepted it as normal (for me, anyway), and approach it as a routine thing: I let my languages go for a bit, and then need to do some tidying up with them, to get them to at least a respectable level. I’ve mentioned elsewhere on my blog  that I was surprised to find that when going back to a language I had neglected, it wasn’t nearly as much work as I expected, to get back to where I was before. Dormant, yes; lost, no.

As usual, Russian is proving far trickier than any of my other languages. The vocabulary is as slippery as an eel. I learn it, I forget it. I relearn it, I think I’ve got it, and… then I forget it again.

C’est la vie du apprenant d’une langue, n’est-ce pas?

Elsewhere on the language map, I’m getting a serious craving to do a bit Italian. I’ve got the Assimil Italian course waiting for me. I blame this recent language lust on my having just finished playing through Assassin’s Creed: Revelations, starring Ezio Auditore da Firenze. Voice acted by an American, with (from what I’ve read) a less than stellar Italian accent, but still. Enough Italian present to make me want to learn a bit, and hey, Italian’s sexy.

We’re just about to the new year, and with that comes New Year’s Resolutions. Some people make resolutions for their health; others do it for different areas of self improvement. Some of us go a bit geekier, and make language learning resolutions. If you’re planning on doing that, here are a few tips I’d like to share with you:

Be Realistic

Just as people are advised to not make a New Year’s Resolution of losing 100 pounds and becoming a supermodel, you should keep your language resolutions in check. Don’t set out on January 1st with the resolution of “become fluent in Russian, Italian, and Chinese.” Not only is fluency a tricky subject to nail down, it’s just not overly realistic if you’re just starting out. Keep yourself grounded so you don’t get discouraged. The least effective resolution is the one you abandon out of frustration.

Be Specific

This is always important with New Year’s resolutions, and that goes for language learning resolutions, too. Don’t make your resolution nebulous or vague, to the point where you can’t really track it. For example, if you’re intermediate with a language, don’t make your resolution to be “improve my Spanish.” How do you track that, exactly? Sometimes progress is slow, almost to the point where you can’t see it. That doesn’t mean you aren’t making any! Things that you can say for sure, yes or no, I did or didn’t do that – that’s what you should be looking for. For example, instead of “improve my Spanish,” say, “I will read 10 Spanish books this year.” Reading 10 books (or even 1) will surely help you improve your Spanish, and that’s something you can track. And, every time you mark off a book, you know you’re working towards your goal.

Go Easy On Yourself

This one might seem a little peculiar, but let me explain. I liken it to having a choice: you’re at the top of a mountain, and you want to start an avalanche. You can either throw some fist-sized stones down the mountain, and let them gain momentum, knocking more rocks and snow loose as they go; or you can try and push a giant boulder off the mountain. The end result for both will be similar, but doing one is a lot easier than the other. When it comes to resolutions, try to go easy on yourself; after all, the idea here is to improve yourself, not beat yourself into the ground with a bunch of stress. Instead of saying, “I’m going to finish these 6 Italian courses this year,” why not say, “I’m going to do one Assimil lesson a day.” And when you’re done with that lesson, if you want to keep working on your Italian, great; do so. But if you set out saying, “Every single day, I have to study Italian for 4 hours,” do you know how many hours you’re going to study Italian during a lot of those days? 0. You won’t do it. It’s much better to commit and regularly do half an hour or an hour, on a specific task, than it is to cram for 6 hours once every week.

So, in short:

1. Think about the goals you want to achieve
2. Make sure your goals are realistic
3. Figure out actions that will lead to the result you want
4. Commit to doing those actions, and consider tracking them, to note your progress

I wish you all the best in your language endeavors in the coming year!

While browsing the HTLAL forum, I came across a Russian podcast I was unfamiliar with. Called Очень по-русски, it focuses on “REAL Russian language: slang, common expressions, idioms and even swearwords.” Here’s a bit more from the About page:

This site aims to fill this gap at least a little and to overcome this unfortunate injustice. Russian slang, idioms, common expressions – I share with you the Russian language, which you will not find in standard textbooks. The language that I hear every day, that I and people around me speak every day. There are also expressions that I personally do not use and do not advise you to use – rudeness and swearing are not the best ways to communicate. But they are also a part of my native language and therefore they are here.

New podcast episodes are published every Monday and Thursday.

Most episodes are around two minutes long, and a full transcript is provided for each one. Certainly worth checking out, particularly for intermediate to advanced learners.

(Today, we have a guest post from Rob, of Spanish Obsessed. Enjoy!)

If you’re like me, starting a language is an exciting new journey. I love the feeling of slowly getting to know a culture and language from the inside out, and seeing a whole new world and viewpoint slowly start to emerge. Taking up a new language is also, I think, one of the easier parts of learning it. The hard part is to carry on – how often do you find yourself looking at that language with the same enthusiasm six months or a year down the line? And let’s be honest, if you want to learn a language properly, you need to be in it for the long haul. For me, the key to language learning lies in one very simple idea – not stopping! And the only way you carry on is to keep your motivation.

Why do we lose our motivation?

Here are some of the main reasons from language learners I’ve spoken to:

• We finish all the “easy” stuff, and get bogged down in obscure vocabulary or grammar
• We stop seeing the quick progress which we experienced at the start, as the learning curve flattens out
• We forget why we started, and lose our way
• We don’t use it for what it’s there for – communication. If we can’t communicate, language is just an exercise in abstraction.

How to get over the language learning “wall”

Remember your initial enthusiasm

When you start a language, write down as many reasons as you can for why you’ve started it. If you can’t think of any good reasons, perhaps it’s not the language for you! Keep those reasons, and when you feel your motivation start to slip, referring back to them is a huge help.

Give yourself something to aim for

Use the reasons you’ve made to set yourself goals. For example, if one reason is “to be able to speak to X”, then setting yourself a target of a 15 minute conversation with that person will be a motivating goal to aim for. By equating your goals to your initial motivation, your language learning takes on a new significance.

Do stuff which interests you

Perhaps a no-brainer, but lots of people endure boring grammar exercises or vocabulary lists without being interested or engaged in what they’re doing. It’s a simple concept – if your language learning process doesn’t interest you, then it’s a matter of time before you lose your motivation. Don’t trawl through dictionaries and word lists because it’s “good for you”, if in reality it bores you. Watch films you enjoy, listen to music in your target language, check out magazines and so on. The majority of what you do in your target language should interest, captivate, and inspire you.

Use it more

Language was born out of a need for humans to communicate with each other, and when it gets divorced from that concept it becomes fairly irrelevant. I find that if the language I learn loses its human aspect, it’s not really a language any more. It’s really important to use the language with real people in real situations as soon as possible after taking it up, and to keep up interactions and relationships in that language. I believe that’s the reason that people who go through immersion in foreign countries learn that language so quickly – it’s not necessarily that they study more or harder, but that all of their interactions and relationships to other people are under-pinned in that language.

Share the love!

I’d love to hear about other ways which you keep yourself going when you hit the language learning “wall”. For me, language learning is more about your emotions and mind-set towards the language than any intellectual prowess. And if nothing else, remember that you can only fail at learning a language when you stop!

Who am I?

I’m Rob, and I’m very happy to be posting on Language Geek today. I’m also a passionate language learner, but have a special soft spot for Spanish, as I lived in Spain and various South American countries over the last few years. At the moment, I’m sharing my passion and experience on Spanish Obsessed, so check it out and let me know what you think!