Archive

Posts Tagged ‘foreign language learning’

Korean: Confidence

May 12th, 2010 Andee No comments

Just a short note on confidence builders in the last week.
I’ve been chatting a little with Koreans on several sites (mostly sharedtalk; no link because I don’t really like the site) recently to try to add variety to how I approach some pretty typical topics of an intermediate nature; nothing overly complicated. Things like lifestyles, family, interests, travel, [...]

Academic Vocabulary

May 12th, 2010 Andee No comments

As many of you will know, the study at university in an English speaking country you’re likely to need the right TOEFL or IELTS score. And that’s a lot of work. Speaking to some of my international classmates though, I’ve come to realise something. Even though they have an excellent command of English and the right [...]

The Truth About Arabic

May 11th, 2010 Andee 2 comments

There’s no doubt that the people from the Middle East are very proud people. They are proud of their country, of their history and of their language. Except when speaking English… many of those I speak to wish to lose all traces of the  markers that identify them as being from the region. But that’s a [...]

Accents: Native or Not

May 10th, 2010 Andee 2 comments

Our friend Ultimate Attainment is back again. He’s someone we’re talking about a lot in my seminars lately and unfortunately, certain people do believe the falsehoods about sounding like “native” being the ultimate. It’s also a fundamental aspect of my dissertation (specifically dealing with English in Korea).. but that’s another story.
When it comes to accentual [...]

How long for fluency?

May 7th, 2010 Andee No comments

Common question… variable answers.
It all depends on what the learner considers fluent, which language they are learning, the environment they are learning in, how motivated they are, how often they study, and so and so forth.
Let’s set the ground rules at 2 hours study per day. Not unrealistic if you consider the Borrowing Time post [...]

Korean: Conversation

May 7th, 2010 Andee 2 comments

The last two days have been a bit of an anomaly when you look at my time back in Australia. I do have a fair amount of chance to practice Korean in Perth, but due to being busy with research and having a family life, this isn’t all that realistic. However, the last two days have [...]

Size Matters: Vocabulary

May 5th, 2010 Andee No comments

How many words do you know?
Something that in reality, I consider to be, err, a stupid question. I don’t really care how many words I know, and it doesn’t really matter how many words I know. What matters is that I know the words that I need.
Anyway, watching your vocabulary grow is a motivational tool, [...]

Reflective Learning: Learning Log

May 4th, 2010 Andee No comments

A common question is “how long will it take me to learn X”? ..The answer is always “as long as it takes”.
Each and every learner is different depending on study time, efficiency of study, motivation, surrounding environment, prior learning of related languages, prior learning of any language, and a list of any other number of [...]

What is Fluency?

May 3rd, 2010 Andee 3 comments

Are you fluent?
It’s a pretty simple question. The answers are more than subjective.
To a non-language learner there seems to be the consensus that this question is a definitive yes or no. So not true. Everybody has their own interpretation of what fluency is and while there is a switch in all of us that [...]

Study Methods: Power of the Schedule

May 3rd, 2010 Andee No comments

Planning your time and using it effectively, this is how we learn a language successfully. It’s not exactly that complicated but it is something that a lot of people neglect. To use the exercise analogy, it’s better to do a little a lot than a lot a little.
Meaning… 15 mins a day for a total [...]