Make a Friend and Learn a Language

Amazing Language

Human language is intriguing, complex and numerous. How many languages are there? One random sampling of New Yorkers, indicated that many believed there were several hundred known languages.  Ethnologue (published by SIL International), an authoritative source on world languages, reports there are actually 6,909 known living languages today. The number of known languages is growing, not because new languages are being formed, but because existing languages are continually being discovered. This number represents a paradox because the actual number of languages is decreasing as ancient and unwritten languages are becoming extinct.

Today’s The Challenges

For me, language is fascinating, but not for everyone. The U.S. made provision for as many as 80,000 refugees in 2001 alone. Combine that number with the 720,000 foreign students currently in the U.S. and there’s a lot of potential for language confusion. Leading places of origin for international students in 2010/11 were China, India, South Korea, Canada and Taiwan. These nations represent over 53 percent of the international students studying in the U.S. Many for these incoming refugees and international students speak little or no English. This is a big challenge.

Many of the foreign children coming to the U.S. will adapt well to a new language and culture, but not so for parents and other adults. Numerous linguistics experts report that the older you get the more difficult it becomes to learn a new language. Many foreign adults will insulate themselves with a small group of same-language peers and be resistant to adapt to a new language and culture. These people need our help.

Ways To Help

Resentment agencies or sponsors play a vital role in assisting newcomers in their transition, but their help alone is often not enough. What these people need most are English-speaking companions. Establishing a welcoming relationship with a non-English speaking adult can provide them with the language and culture immersion they really want and need.

Get Out of Your Comfort Zone

If you encounter non-English speaking people in your community or neighborhood it may be time to step out of your comfort zone. I’m not suggesting that you alter your routine or lifestyle at all, but that you offer a simple initiation. A simple invitation to your ordinary world can do wonders in helping an international student or refugee acquire the language and communication skills they need to thrive in their new environment.

Here are some ideas for you:

1.    Invite someone along to the grocery store.

2.    Have them over for diner.

3.    Invite them to go to church or other community events (Don’t abandon them when you’re there).

4.    For families, plan play dates at the park.

5.    Include them in your holiday or family gatherings.

6.    Go to a movie together.

As a former student minister I witnessed numerous exchange students and foreign college students as they made communication improvement through regular involvement in weekly church related activities. Through this connection these foreign students built relationships that led to involvement in the everyday part of their new friends lives. The idea is to incorporate them in the ordinary and routine parts of your life. This kind of immersion will drastically accelerate their language skills and comprehension of the English language.

Why go out of your way to help a non-English speaking person? I’’ give you for reasons. First of all, you really won’t be going out of your way, your just inviting them to join in the things you are already doing. Secondly, you have a kind and compassionate heart; you care about your community and the people in it. Thirdly, you’ll have an opportunity to learn about a different culture and make new friends. Lastly, you could learn one of the worlds 6,909 amazing languages through your new friendship.

Matthew Anderson – A stay-at-home father and primary educator of four amazing children. I’m currently learning Mandarin Chinese along with my family and enjoy researching linguistic tools and services such as Transparent Language and others.

BROWSE THE WEB AND LEARN A NEW LANGUAGE?

I’m currently learning Chinese along with my wife and four children. It’s been a lot of fun and we’re all learning, but I really wanted more ways to engage this new language on my own. Recently I stumbled across a way to experience this new language while browsing the web- Language Immersion for Google Chrome.

Language Immersion for Google Chrome is an experimental web browser extension. It works by switching certain words in English with words from your choice of the 64 languages supported by Google Translate. Currently, English is the primary language of this extension, so if you want to learn English, you’re out of luck. There isn’t a translation from other languages into English. It works great for English speaking people wanting to learn other languages though.

To use this language extension, you first need to download the Google Chrome browser. After that, you can find the extension in the Chrome Web Store. Go to the extensions tab and click on productivity. One you find the Language Immersion extension, click on the green button in the upper right-hand part of the screen and add it to your browser. Once added to your browser, you will see a small box just to the right of your address bar. You can click on it to turn it on and set your options.

I added the extension to the Chrome browser on my iMac and gave it a try. You can easily switch between languages, but even more impressive is the way you can increase your level of immersion. Options include novice, intermediate and fluent with levels in between. With each increasing level more words are substituted from the chosen foreign language.

There is also an option to have the translated words highlighted and you can select a hover and translate option. That part is pretty cool. Your mind naturally reads the words being replaced, but sometimes you don’t know a certain word in the new language. You simply mouse over the new word and a nice voice reads that word to you in the new language while revealing the text in English. It really helps to hear how new word are pronounced so you don’t start a bad habit of saying them wrong. I’m guilty of that in English.

Google lets you know upfront that this is an experiment. They don’t want your expectations to be too high and they state that translations won’t always be 100% accurate. They also said, “…it probably won’t turn you into a language genius overnight.”

I’m definitely not a language genius, but I can definitely see how this could be an effective way to kill two birds with one stone approach- a fun way to incorporate learning a new language while browsing the web.

Matthew Anderson – A stay-at-home father and primary educator of four amazing children. I’m currently learning Mandarin Chinese along with my family and enjoy researching linguistic tools and services such as Transparent Language and others.

NEW LANGUAGE - A FAMILY AFFAIR

Our Decision

The ability to communicate lays a foundation for living and learning the rest of our lives. As home educators, my wife and I want to provide our children with the best opportunity to advance scholastically according to each child’s potential. We want them to be fully equipped when they enter college or the workforce. Being multilingual opens a huge host of career opportunities that simply wouldn’t be possible otherwise. So, early on in our parenting we made a decision to raise multilingual children. 

What Age?

We were certain that at least a second language would be critical in our children’s overall education, but we weren’t sure how early to begin. What is the best age to introduce a second language? How early is too early or how late is too late?

According to Multilingual Children’s Association, the earlier you introduce language the better. Here’s what they said in an article on bilingual children and language development:

“With the help of modern technology in neuroscience, we now understand how language develops during infancy and early childhood. Also, based on countless studies, researchers can safely conclude that as your child grows older, her uncanny language abilities decrease significantly. This 'critical period' means that you should strike while the iron is hot!”

With this in mind, we have elected a course of education that incorporates a second language as early as preschool and certainly by early grade school ages. Multilingual parents can actually begin teaching their children from birth. The longer you wait to introduce additional languages, the more difficult it becomes to learn.

What Method?

My wife was introduced to foreign language in high school, but that proved to be completely insufficient in actually gaining fluency in that particular language. She can only remember a few words or at best a phrase or two. I’m curious how you can get straight A’s in Spanish for three years in a row and still not be able to carry on a conversation in that language. I have even known people that majored in foreign language in college, but still struggle with fluency. Apparently the predominant grammar based language programs are not working too well.

We found ourselves in a dilemma because we were not multilingual. As parent teachers, we needed a method that would work without us actually knowing the language first. We needed a way for our entire family to learn a language together. This seemed unlikely since there is such a vast gap in age and understanding of our primary language. We discovered that the best way to learn a second language is the same way you learn your first – vocabulary immersion.

Immersion means to be placed into a setting where you hear only the language being learned. There’s not a comparison from one language to another. You simply hear words in the new language that your mind naturally links to things being experienced by your other senses. This is how babies learn language. If you want a baby to learn the word nose, you say the word and point to your nose. If you want them to lean the word cold, you put an ice cube in their hand a say cold.

Immersion schools and programs outside the home weren’t an option, so we researched and discovered a computer-based program for homeschoolers that uses the vocabulary immersion strategy. We have four children between the ages of ten and fifteen months and we’re all engaged in a natural way of learning language that pairs real-life imagery with the voices of native speakers. There is a lot of interactivity that promotes proper pronunciation as well.

It’s been fascinating learning a new language together as a family. I’m really excited to see what experiences and opportunities open for our children as a result of our decision to equip them with an additional language early in life. It’s a lot of fun speaking to each other in a new language too.

 

Matthew Anderson – A stay-at-home father and primary educator of four amazing children. I’m currently learning Mandarin Chinese along with my family and enjoy researching linguistic tools and services such as Transparent Language and others.

Supporting All Students

What Some Teachers Are Doing to Help Non-English Speaking Students

The 2001 No Child Left Behind initiative requires that all public school help students become proficient in English in order that they meet State and National achievement standards. English as a second language (ESL) programs use more supplies than standard English courses including additional teachers, which puts a strain on school budgets. During difficult economic times, schools are finding it more and more difficult to stretch their dollars and provide quality education for all children including ESL students. With classrooms becoming more diverse, experts predict that, by the year 2020, 50% of all students in American public classrooms will come from non-English speaking homes. While funds may be, limited and ESL instructors stretched, public school teachers are doing all that they can to maintain quality teaching and meet the needs of ESL students.

Teaching Through Art

Art is an excellent medium through which to teach any student. All children are intrinsically creative and this makes art an excellent activity for teaching the English language. At the most basic level, art is easily incorporated into a lesson the primary and secondary colors, white, black, red, blue, yellow and green, pink, orange, brown, purple and gray. Younger children enjoy making pictures with certain colors and then practicing naming the colors. Another valuable activity is to have students bring in a piece of artwork from home and tell everyone about the piece. This art sharing activity helps promote many important language skills, in addition to public speaking skills.

Teaching With Songs

Everyone loves music, and it spans all cultures and languages. Music and songs have long been a staple in the classroom. Songs are not only entertaining but also a useful tool to teach and help children memorize key facts. Early grade songs teach the days and months of the year, numbers and even the alphabet. Older children will benefit from the use of songs to learn vocabulary. Many teachers combine songs with worksheets to make learning more engaging and interactive.

Using Magazines

An excellent ESL activity that will not strain the classroom budget involves the use of magazines. Magazines are easy to acquire and provide countless learning opportunities. Young students can cut out pictures they like and paste them into a vocabulary booklet. Older students can scan magazines for familiar words and phrases and use them as story prompts or topics for discussion. Another popular activity for older students is to collect news magazines and discuss current events, popular people, and political figures.

Partnering and Group Activities

While some people say that classroom immersion is not the best tool to teach a foreign language, as it is time consuming for teachers, group activities seem to propel non-English speaking student’s ability to master English. ESL students placed in groups or with English-speaking partners can do everything from playing simple card games to working on vocabulary and spelling words. Group activities help ESL students feel accepted and build the necessary confidence that is needed to learn a new language.

Call for Creativity

As budget cuts continue to hit hard, teachers across the country are joining to acquire new and creative ways to improve on ESL activities in order to teach “all” children and leave no child behind.

About the Author:  Susan Patterson is a home school mother of three who is passionate about her children learning a second language. She has done a great deal of research on the bestway to learn French and has a daughter who receives French instructions via Skype.

Bilingualism

Being Bilingual Rocks
Growing up in a home where two languages were freely spoken was kind of a novelty in my neighborhood. We were the only Spanish speaking family in the area, but my parents were committed to us maintaining our native tongue and also learning the popular and school language. As a child, my friends thought it was cool when they came over to play, and my parents were rattling off to each other in our mother language. They would always ask me to translate and even began to pick up on Spanish quickly. My parents loved it when they would greet them in Spanish or even ask a question in Spanish. It was kind of like a game. I was fortunate in that I received not only grammar in English but also grammar in Spanish so that I could read, write and speak both languages with ease and in a grammatically correct fashion. Being bilingual was fun when I was a kid and now that I am an adult, I am so grateful to my parents for encouraging bilingualism from such an early age.

Do You Speak More Than One Language
Yes
No

Benefits of Bilingualism
A study done in York University, in Ontario has seen good evidence that being bilingual may keep degenerative mental diseases such as dementia and Alzheimer’s at bay. Researchers state that people who speak more than one language have greater cognitive reserves, which allow the mind to run for a longer period, than their unilingual peers. For me, being bilingual opened up a host of career possibilities and gave me an advantage in the job market that many others do not have. It has also been proven that bilinguals have a keen ability to process a great deal of information rapidly and switch their attention between two or tasks effort. In addition, being bilingual opens up a whole new world when it comes to exploring and enjoying different cultures.

Learning Early
It is definitely easier to learn a second language when you are young, and your brain is still forming then when you are older. Many upper elementary, middle and high schools offer foreign language classes to students, however; there has been an argument made that second language instruction should begin in early elementary grades and continue through high school. Currently foreign language studies can be found in 25 to 30 percent of American elementary schools.

Can I Become Bilingual Later in Life? Many people have become bilingual once they found that they had a need for a second language. Take for instance, if you move to another country where the main language spoken is not your first language. For instance, if you want to learn French fast, visit France or Quebec where the language is freely used. You will find that in order to get by you had better start learning the new language. If you are around the language, and have the opportunity to interact with others who speak it, learning comes naturally. Of course, formal instruction is also useful, as it helps with grammar, reading and writing.

Learning A Language

Five Ways to Acquire New Language Skills
Maybe you want to travel or expand your employment opportunities or just think that learning a new language would be neat. There are not many things more valuable than being able to speak more than one language. It opens up a whole new world of possibilities. However, the thought of learning a new language may seem somewhat daunting at first. While it is true, that learning a new language takes time, patience and effort; there are many ways to achieve your goal. 


Watch Television
Believe it or not, just watching television shows or movies with subtitles in another language will help you to pick up on words and phrases rather quickly. Watching television will help train your ear and give you an idea of the rhythm of the language.


Travel
There is nothing more exciting than travelling to a foreign country and being immersed in the language. Living with a host family is an excellent way to learn the culture and pick up important conversational language skills. For instance, if you wanted to learn how to speak Spanish you could travel to Mexico and stay a while with a Spanish speaking family. With the language all around you and daily interaction, your vocabulary will develop rather quickly.


CD’s or Computer Programs
There are countless programs available that use CD’s or computer software programs to teach language skills. CD’s are excellent for those who may have a long drive to work and can just pop the CD in a listen. People who are self motivated and learn best by listening benefit from this type of instruction. The sky-is-the-limit when it comes to computer programs that teaches language skills. Some beginner online programs are free and teach basic vocabulary. Other, more advanced, programs offer detailed instruction, practice and often interaction and are a great way to learn for stay-at-home parents or anyone who prefers to learn form the privacy of their own home.

Tutors
Some people learn best with one on one tutoring. It is best to find someone who speaks the language you are learning fluently and has some experience in formal teaching. This will ensure that you will receive proper instruction in grammar and not just learn “slang” terminology. An up-and-coming way to learn a new language is using videos programs such as Skype. With Skype, your teacher could be anywhere in the world, and you meet on the computer for your lesson. This allows you to take your lesson at home and choose from teachers all over the world.


Newspapers and Magazines
Although you may not learn all of the correct grammar, you can pick up on key words and phrases simply by thumbing through foreign magazines and newspapers. Have you foreign language dictionary handy as you thumb through the print media. You can make a list of new words and expand your vocabulary each time you pick up a new magazine or newspaper while getting caught up on all the latest news and views.


Everyone Learns Differently
Since there are many different types of learners, it is important to find what works best for you when taking on a new language. Often a combination of learning tools proves to be most successful. Remember, learning a new language does not have to be a chore, so have some fun while you learn.

Learning Something New

Why You Should Learn a New Language

Many people have a thirst for learning and long for as much information as possible. There is not doubt, that the drive to acquire knowledge is one that can become a useful pursuit, especially if the knowledge and tools that one gains are beneficial.  There are numerous benefits to learning a new language, and the acquisition of new languages is fast becoming a popular pursuit.

Learning a new language is useful if you wish to study in a foreign country

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 Study Abroad

Maybe you have always had the dream of studying abroad. Moving to a new country, experiencing a new culture is always an exciting prospect. However, it is important that you be able to communicate once you reach your destination. Learning even the basics about the country language to which you will be travelling will help you get around and communicate. If you will be studying in the country tongue, you will benefit from an advanced understanding of the language.

Travel

Many people long to travel the world and see and experience new places and people. It is difficult to really experience a new culture without at least some basic understanding of the popular language. Because speech is such a valuable source of communication, you will learn more and feel more integrated if you understand the language of the country you are travelling to.

Employment

Once a prospective employer finds out that you can speak and understand more than one language you are automatically put in an elite class. Second language skills are highly regarded in most industries. People who speak more than one language have more opportunities than those who are unilingual. Those who can speak a multitude of languages especially impress companies with foreign interests.

Family Ties

America is a true melting pot full of people whose parents, grandparents and relatives came from other parts of the world Perhaps your family roots are in another country, and you want to get in touch with where you came from. While many descendants of immigrants have maintained their native tongue, some of the younger generations do not know how to speak the language of their ancestors. Learning the language of your people helps you to understand where you came from and allows you the opportunity to reconnect with family.

Fun Fact

In 1929, there were 279,678 immigrants were recorded to have come to America.

Don’t Be Nervous

Many people shy away from learning a new language because they believe that it is impossible. While learning a second language is a little more challenging as you age, it is possible. There are countless tools available for learning a language. It just takes a desire and commitment to be successful.

About the Author: Susan Patterson is a home school mother who has recently done a great deal of research on the best way to learn Spanish in order to teach her children.