Posts Tagged ‘polyglot tricks’

An audacious tool for improving language fluency

Tuesday, June 1st, 2010

In the last post on cool tools and gadgets to give your language learning a boost we looked at recording your own voice as a way to improve your language skills. There is often no fiercer critic than yourself; and having the cold, hard light of day shone on your dodgy pronunciation is a great way to improve, I hope you all gave it a try?

Today’s tip is slightly more nerdy, but still free and simple if you stick to the basics. A great way to learn a language; and particularly improve your listening skills, fluency, muscle memory and pronunciation is by listening and singing along to music in the language you are learning. There are a load of studies on how music can improve memory and focus. I won’t go into those now but I think intuitively we know that music can change our mood (for the better and worse) and for most of us remembering large chunks of a chorus is inherently easier than a paragraph from a book.

So today is all about using music to help your fluency, but following the theme of tools and gadgets we’re going to focus on a great free tool called Audacity. Audacity allows you to slow music down while maintaining close-to-the-original pitch and tone, so you can master the lyrics at a pace you can manage without having to distort the words.

First things first, we’re going to be working with MP3 files in this example (though if you have music in other digital formats it will probably work), this is a standard music format and is likely what you have on your digital player (unless you have an Ipod in which case read this tutorial). If this is all Greek to you (and you don’t happen to be learning Greek) see the bottom of this article for links to more information.

  1. OK, so we’re assuming at this stage you have a supply of MP3s in the language you want to work with (otherwise try Amazon), so now go to the Audacity web page http://audacity.sourceforge.net/download/ and download and install the latest version (currently in BETA) for your system.  For licensing reasons you also need to install a separate MP3 encoder/decoder called Lame, instructions are here.

  2. Once installed you will see a screen looking like this – don’t be intimidated by it, you can do a million things but we only want to do one for now.

  3. Next you need to open the MP3 file to work with so go to File > Import > Audio and find the file on your hard drive, then click Open

  4. If you have done this correctly it will look like this:

  5. Go to Effect > change tempo (NB specifically “change tempo” not “change speed”)

  6. From this screen you can set the amount of speed change you want. There is no right or wrong setting, if the song is naturally slow you may not need to reduce it much, but start with a small amount (say 5%) and increase as you go, use the preview function to give you an idea of how much it has slowed down.

  7. Once you have clicked ok, you will notice the wavy lines look like they’ve been pulled apart a bit, click on the play button at the top:

And there you have it. If all has gone well you should hear the song in good pitch (this will deteriorate somewhat the more you reduce the tempo so you need to find the balance), go through the song a few times and then try speeding it up.  You can then either export the slowed down version back to MP3 for your music player, or just keep it in Audacity.

As part of the process it is well worth writing out the lyrics as you go as well it will only add to the value you will get from this exercise, use it as a fun listening test and have your tutor or a native speaker friend check it out.

Have fun!

Oh, as promised here are some additional links:

Convert iTunes to mp3

Buy mp3s from Amazon

What are MP3s?

Installing the MP3 encoder in Audacity

VN:R_U [1.9.12_1141]
Rating: 0.0/10 (0 votes cast)

Tags: , , , ,
Posted in Practice, Self-teaching | 3 Comments »

Cool tools and gadgets to give your language learning a boost: Part 1

Tuesday, May 11th, 2010

In the last couple of posts we’ve focussed on some of the more academic side to learning a language, in the next few we’ll take a look at some of the nifty toys you can play with that can add a bit of fun to your learning while also giving you some really useful feedback on how you’re doing.

At the end of this series of posts, we’re going to be releasing a new gadget (and some other great new features) on BitesizedLanguages.com so make sure you read through to the end to find out what we have in store for you…

To kick things off let’s look at the simplest but one of the most revealing tools: the humble sound recorder.

Whether it is recorded through your PC, Mobile phone or MP3 player; one of the best (and cheapest) self-improvement tools is recording your own voice for playback. Working one-on-one with a tutor is of course ideal, however when that isn’t an option recording your own voice is surprisingly revealing. While you may cringe at the thought, here are 6 reasons why recording yourself speaking in a foreign language is great for self-improvement:

  1. As most people know the voice you hear from within your head is not the same as that which others hear so it is impossible to be really self-critical when assessing your own pronunciation.
  2. When you’re speaking your brain naturally skims over the bits that you are fumbling on so what sounds to you like poetry may actually be coming out in quite a broken fashion.
  3. One of the things that often leads to the broken speaking above is relying on “safety words”, often things like “yes”, “no”, “ok” these are often words that are your default response to a question you’re still processing (to buy you time so you don’t feel silly). This isn’t strictly a singular activity but when practising with another fire up the recorder and listen for these habits – then fix them.
  4. Recording your voice and then teaching yourself what you did wrong is an excellent way of improving not only your pronunciation but also your general ability, teaching is often the best way of learning.
  5. It’s fun! Get over the cringe worthiness of your voice, laugh at your mistakes and then fix them. Whether you do this or not you will still have those habits so better to notice them, laugh about them and then fix them!
  6. It’s (probably) FREE! All modern PCs & Macs, many mobile phones and MP3 players have recording devices built in (or accessible with a cheap microphone).  It doesn’t have to be Dolby quality, you just need to be able to work out your habits and weak points.

So, give it a try there really is no excuse not to!  Please do share your stories with us in the comments below, we love hearing from you.

Have fun!

Simon

VN:R_U [1.9.12_1141]
Rating: 5.5/10 (2 votes cast)

Tags: , ,
Posted in Practice, Self-teaching | 13 Comments »

Ultimate memory tricks to boost your foreign language vocabulary – part 3

Wednesday, April 28th, 2010

In the first of this series on memory tricks to improve your vocab I talked about the simplest of vocab tricks, word associations. In the second we got a bit more technical with an extension on word associations known as mnemonics. In this post I want to wrap it up by discussing how best to use these very powerful tools, and just as importantly how to avoid any potential pitfalls while using them.

Both of these things can be achieved simply by really understanding the role that these memory tricks have, namely establishing a mental hook so the word is forced into your short term memory. What they are not are speaking aids you should be using in the normal flow of conversation.

Fellow Bitesizer Gareth commented on the last blog that mnemonics in particular are great for words that just “won’t go in”. I’m a bit more enthusiastic than that in that I believe at very least a memory association for most of the words you look at will speed up your recollection and can be a good default option. Perhaps I don’t have as good a natural short term memory but I find that particularly at an early stage of learning most words don’t actually sink in without one of these tricks (or loads of repetition which can often be impractical if not tedious). What I remain acutely aware of however, and with practice this just becomes second nature, is that once I have the word in my mind that the mnemonic or word association becomes a background tool only to be used if I’m struggling to recall a word.

Once you have the word held in your mind, it is vital that you work on establishing both contextual patterns (i.e. by using the word in context as often as possible) and muscle memory. While above I described repetition as tedious; what I am specifically referring to is the unconstructive, flashcard-after-flashcard repetition that seems to pass the time but not achieve all that much. Repetition in terms of speaking phrases over and over, writing stories and sentences that use as many words as possible or trying to converse with native speakers is absolutely vital, and for me personally very satisfying.

Memory aids provide a foundation, contextual repetition solidifies muscle memory and embeds the word in your long term memory, and in the times when a word just won’t come out the memory aids can provide that little kick to keep the conversation going. Gareth mentioned “letting them go” when they have done their job, for me it is more about understanding their place, and not using them as a crutch – this is pitfall number 1 to avoid.

The second potential source of problems is the possibility that by allowing tenuous links between words (because they mean something to you) that bad pronunciation may be encouraged. This can happen because your associated patterns aren’t a perfect match. In my example I used the word “itu” which is Indonesian for “that” and my mnemonic was “’Eh Tu Bruté’, now that is Shakespeare!” The problem here is obvious; “itu” is not the same as “eh tu”) and if I relied on the mnemonic literally then I would end up pronouncing something that wasn’t actually a word (or worse meant something inappropriate!) This is an important issue and one you should be conscious of, but my own experience is that as long as you stick to the process that is: mnemonic first then follow up with the contextual repetition second, the risk of dodgy pronunciation can be minimised. Remember you should start practicing with the word in context as quickly as possible to iron out any glitches, the word will become part of your natural vocabulary without needing the mnemonic any longer.

As a part of the rigorous academic testing we do as part of our daily routine here at Bitesized ;) I’ve been working on some language learning games lately, one in particular around mnemonics and flashcards. I’ll talk about those in a future post, but last week I was able to knock off about 60 new words with no more than 10 minutes review per day using mnemonics, so if you haven’t done so already I urge you to give them a go, let us know how it works out.

Have fun!

Simon

VN:R_U [1.9.12_1141]
Rating: 0.0/10 (0 votes cast)

Tags: , , ,
Posted in memory, Vocabulary | 3 Comments »

Ultimate memory tricks to boost your foreign language vocabulary – part 2

Tuesday, April 20th, 2010

In the last post about boosting your language memory I discussed the simplest memory trick you can use to help master new vocabulary, word associations. Word associations, just like all memory tricks, serve to provide a mental hook, something that embeds a word or concept into our short term memory so that through repetition it will work its way into our long term memory.

The next trick, again one some people will have used before, is an extension on simple associations known as mnemonics. As usual, a handy definition of a mnemonic comes from Wikipedia which defines it as :

“…a mind memory and/or learning aid. Commonly, mnemonics are verbal—such as a very short poem or a special word used to help a person remember something—but may be visual, kinesthetic or auditory. Mnemonics rely on associations between easy-to-remember constructs which can be related back to the data that is to be remembered. This is based on the principle that the human mind much more easily remembers spatial, personal, surprising, sexual or humorous or otherwise meaningful information than arbitrary sequences.”

I said it was a handy definition not a simple one! The key bits to keep in mind as far as I’m concerned are the last three words “than arbitrary sequences”. These go to the heart of the problem we often face when looking at new vocabulary. In a nutshell the problem is that without lots of background exposure (as a young child may get being around people speaking), a solid knowledge of the language’s patterns or some other specific reason why a word may stick in your mind, when we first look at a foreign word, as far as our brain is concerned, it often represents little more than an arbitrary sequence of letters. Unless we can establish a mental pattern in that sequence and relate it to something with personal meaning, it may as well be scribble on a piece of paper.

Mnemonics can help us establish this pattern and they do this by transforming the word into something you can visualise. With this definition you can see the example I used in the last post is actually a simple mnemonic rather than merely a word association. The word in Arabic for “tourism” is “seeaha”, not really much to hang my hook on there, but by breaking it down into a series of smaller patterns it instantly becomes more memorable.

The first bit “see” and the second bit “aha” are already two things that have a meaning to me: I “see” things every day and every now and then have an “aha” moment, so these are a good starting point. Next step is to work out how those words could relate to tourism: this is a very simple example for me (it need only mean something to you personally), for some reason in my mind there is a perfectly logical relationship between tourism/tourists and people saying “See, AHA!” when they see something amazing.

Another example in Indonesian the word for “that” is “itu”.  I distinctly remember in my high school Indonesian class – a long time ago now, ahem – saying to myself “’Eh Tu Bruté’, now that is Shakespeare!”

From these two examples you can see the pattern your brain forms may be totally arbitrary and may not even make sense by itself. Don’t worry the more obscure, funny, personal or rude the mnemonic the better.  Remember it is about creating a pattern, as long as it means something to you, use it.

In the next post we’ll look at a few more examples, some tips on using these tricks effectively and also some of the pitfalls. For now however if you’re staring at a pile of flash cards why not mnemonics a try? At first it can seem cumbersome and slow, but as with word associations the payoff is usually worth it, and you will get better/faster over time. Despite my personal faith in them as an aide-mémoire I still catch myself being lazy and just trying to memorise through repetition, but I invariably come back to mnemonics on the 50th cycle through a pile! Do a comparison with 20 random words, 10 using mnemonics and 10 not and see how it goes.

Let us know how you go, maybe even tell us some of your examples; we’d love to hear from you in the comments below.

Have a great day everyone!

VN:R_U [1.9.12_1141]
Rating: 0.0/10 (0 votes cast)

Tags: , ,
Posted in memory, Practice | 7 Comments »

Are you a learning vampire?

Wednesday, April 14th, 2010

I’m not asking if you suck the blood out of every language tutor you meet, I mean do you study with no reflection?

So far in this series on building learning muscles, we’ve looked at Resilience and Resourcefulness.  In this third article in the series, it’s time to take a good look in the mirror.  Let’s look at Reflection.

Reflection is about watching yourself learn, about taking time to construct a mental mirror and holding it up to your learning strategies, tactics and methods.

We look in the mirror to make ourselves better and if we don’t look, we won’t see what we could improve.  When was the last time you actually took stock of your approach to your language learning?  Is it working?  Have you improved?  Can you measure the improvement?

Why note grab a pen, or open a Word file and answer some of these questions right now:

  • Why are you learning?  Think of three reasons why you want to speak French or German or your language of choice.  Let yourself get excited by them again.
  • List five ways you can remember that were really effective at learning or improving.
  • List five experiences in the past that weren’t so effective.
  • What are your bad learning habits? Are you still doing them?
  • How often do you practice?  Is it enough?  What else could you be doing?  If it feels like a chore, go back to your reasons for learning.  Think how amazing it would be to speak fluently or with more confidence when you travel.
  • Ask yourself honestly: how’s it going?  Are you on target? If not, what can you do right now to get back on track?

Taking time to reflect on your learning is vital if you want to learn effectively.  But don’t just look in the mirror – make sure you act on what you see if it isn’t working.

Gareth

VN:R_U [1.9.12_1141]
Rating: 0.0/10 (0 votes cast)

Tags: , , ,
Posted in Enhance Learning, Motivation, Reflection | No Comments »

Ultimate memory tricks to boost your foreign language vocabulary – part 1

Wednesday, April 7th, 2010

In the next few posts I am going to talk about some tricks that can be used to help improve your recollection of vocabulary.  Some language learners will be aware of these concepts and others may use similar ideas unconsciously, but it is worth taking a closer look at them to see how they can be used to maximum effect.

The most straight forward memory trick for learning new vocabulary is word association.  Word association is simply a process of linking a foreign word to its native meaning through a connecting word (one that sounds and means something similar to the foreign word but also has an association with the native word).  For example in French the word for “Women” is “Femmes” the most obvious word association is probably “feminine” which sounds like “Femmes”, has a similar root meaning and is also clearly linked to the word “Women” in English.

Women -> feminine -> femmes

OK it’s not rocket science to try and link foreign words to those that are familiar to you, you no doubt do it naturally on words like this, what is important to think about however is what is going on when you make this association.

This is more easily demonstrated when you look at a less obvious example.  In Arabic for example, the word for “tourism” is “seeaha” – kind  of a tricky pair to link the same way as above – but  to me the word instantly makes me think of tourists looking at some magical site and saying “see… aha!”  OK it’s a stretch but it only need make sense to you personally.  What this type of association demonstrates is that more than anything else, memory tricks like this are usually about providing a mental hook, a reason for your brain to actually engage with the word you’re looking at as opposed to just seeing it on a page.

I’m sure you have at some point had a pile of flash cards that you just could not seem to memorise?  More often than not the reason you cannot remember the words in your pile is simply a matter of mental engagement.  Your brain has an annoying habit of switching off when it sees a stack of similar looking notes flashing before your eyes; word associations (like bright colours or pictures) force it to see each word distinctly. Even if the association itself means something only to you, it instantly gives you a personal take on things that kicks your brain into gear.

The initial hook is usually enough to embed the word into your short term memory, so that you’re not starting from scratch the next time you see the card.  Then, by simple repetition, it will become embedded into your long term memory, the association only required for a mental confirmation if the meaning becomes hazy later on.

So, let’s put this to the test.  When you’re next going through your pile of flashcards, choose ten in which you will specifically try and use word associations and then ten others you will just try to memorise through repetition then compare the results. Naturally some words may prove too difficult to link (in the next post I’ll talk about “mnemonics” which offer a little more flexibility), don’t spend too much time on them for now.  Associations will get easier with practice, but for now just pick some easy ones to get started and see how you go, the additional time to think about the association is usually far less than time spent going over flashcards repeatedly without the mental hook.

Good luck! Please do let us know how it goes in the comments below.

Simon

VN:R_U [1.9.12_1141]
Rating: 0.0/10 (0 votes cast)

Tags: ,
Posted in memory | 6 Comments »

Top 10 words and phrases – the follow up… Not all words are created equal.

Tuesday, March 16th, 2010

Last week I posted on the top 10 words and phrases to master when learning any language.  It elicited some great responses from people some surprised I hadn’t include one word or another, others suggesting new categories of words.  The title of the post was of course tongue-in-cheek – the real point was to encourage people to think about the relative importance of different words and phrases they are studying.

When learning a language not all words and phrases are created equal.  Not only can focussing on the “right” words/phrases lead to accelerated improvement in your communication skills, conversely a trying to master too much vocabulary too early can actually be counterproductive.

I will explain this in a moment but just to add a little bit of credence to this post let’s take the Top 10 idea and turn it into a more meaningful illustration. Tony Buzan– the inventor of “mind maps” and all around memory guru explored the importance of specific words in came up with a list of 100 key words in his book ‘Use Your Memory’.

Based on his analysis the words or their equivalents in foreign languages (shown at end of post) comprise around 50% of all the words used in normal conversations. Whether it is 50% or not is not important, and as my colleague Gareth observed out there will of course be some cultural variation but what is intuitively obvious is that the meanings conveyed (not necessarily the literal translations) by those words in the list add significantly more weight to your language skills than say a list of common foods, medical conditions and zoo animals (as entirely practical as those nouns and adjectives may be in specific scenarios with specific requirements).

So, why can the opposite (that is too much vocabulary) be counterproductive?  It is mainly a problem for beginners or casual learners who all need as much learning juice as possible (AKA motivation) to overcome the inevitable learning curve (AKA total confusion and frustration) when learning a language.  However it can also be a problem for more established learners, where “flashcard procrastination” can sneak into study patterns.

For the first group to maintain momentum and push through the frustration it is important to start meaningfully communicating as quickly as possible and thus start seeing reward for their effort.  Hours of work to memorise all the fruits and vegetables as opposed to Buzan’s Top 100 is not likely to achieve this unless you are a green grocer wanting to compare notes in a foreign country.  That sort of vocabulary is often best absorbed when you need it (i.e. looking it up before you go to a green grocer when you will be “in the mood”), and while I am certainly not saying it should never be studied pro actively just be aware of the relative importance of concepts you are trying to master and focus on learning key elements first.

“Flashcard procrastination” which affects more advanced students is where people make up for a period of ebbing enthusiasm by nailing a stack of new vocabulary.  Again, it is not to say this is not useful, it clearly adds to your knowledge and helps to keep the truck rolling, but I can say from personal experience it is often a very passive process that is often little more than a distraction.  Be conscious of this when you study and try and break your pattern if you feel yourself falling into it.

I overran the word limit a few paragraphs ago, so I will wrap it up and hope to receive any thoughts, complaints, arguments, suggestions below.  If you take one thing from this post it is this “not all words are created equal”.  Engage with your learning, focus on meaning and depth not just numbers and your language will improve dramatically.

Good luck!

Simon

Top 100 most useful words

from ‘Use Your Memory’, Tony Buzan, BBC Books, London, ISBN 0-5633-37102-1

1. a, an      2. after      3. again      4. all        5. almost
6. also       7. always     8. and        9. because    10. before
11. big       12. but       13. (I) can   14. (I) come  15. either/or
16. (I) find  17. first     18. for       19. friend    20. from
21. (I) go    22. good      23. goodbye   24. happy     25. (I) have
26. he        27. hello     28. here      29. how       30. I
31. (I) am    32. if        33. in        34. (I) know  35. last
36. (I) like  37. little    38. (I) love  39. (I) make  40. many
41. one       42. more      43. most      44. much      45. my
46. new       47. no        48. not       49. now       50. of
51. often     52. on        53. one       54. only      55. or
56. other     57. our       58. out       59. over      60. people
61. place     62. please    63. same      64. (I) see   65. she
66. so        67. some      68. sometimes 69. still     70. such
71. (I) tell  72. thank you 73. that      74. the       75. their
76. them      77. then      78. there is  79. they      80. thing
81. (I) think 82. this      83. time      84. to        85. under
86. up        87. us        88. (I) use   89. very      90. we
91. what      92. when      93. where     94. which     95. who
96. why       97. with      98. yes       99. you       100. Your

Use Your Memory

Tony Buzan. BBC Books 2003, Paperback, 196 pages, $129.97

VN:R_U [1.9.12_1141]
Rating: 0.0/10 (0 votes cast)

Tags: , , ,
Posted in Enhance Learning, Motivation | 2 Comments »

Top 10 words and phrases to master when learning any language

Friday, March 12th, 2010

These days I spend a lot of time thinking about the process of learning a language: what are the common steps, what are the common pitfalls, which words or phrases are really the most use when you find yourself in a foreign airport wondering what to do next?!  Identifying high value concepts/elements in languages can speed up the learning process, by high value I mean words that can add maximum depth to your conversation with minimal learning overhead.

So, here we go; this is my top 10 most important words and phrases when starting a language. The list below is a bit of fun of course, but in all seriousness understanding which words/concepts are actually important to learn is a topic rarely discussed in traditional language courses.  It probably seems obvious when it’s raised but concentrating on how to name all the animals in the zoo is rarely as important as mastering joining words in a sentence, though for some reason many language learning tools seem to imply the opposite.

Quick update 16/03/2010: check out this post’s follow up article when you’re done below.

My top 10:

  1. “Hello” – for obvious reasons, just being able to say this usually wins serious browny points in a foreign country, people engage with people they perceive as making an effort.
  2. “Thank you” – again for obvious reasons, you can’t get by without this one.
  3. “There is” – in many languages can be interchanged with “is there?”, this can be broadly interpreted in many situations.
  4. “Already” – gives you context and can again be both a question and a statement in many languages.
  5. “This/That” – often the difference between the two can make a big difference in conversation.
  6. “Why?” – With a pointed finger can mean “why is it so?”, “why did you do it?”, “why is there a problem?”.  It can get you in to trouble when trying to understanding the answer but people can often interpret very laterally.
  7. “May I have” – or the equivalent, in many languages the literal translation is just “give me”, please and thank you are not required, either way understanding the convention can be very useful (and help you avoid taking/giving offence).
  8. “What” – obvious, the most important word for building your vocabulary, and or avoiding something dodgy in a village market stall!
  9. “I want” – this can indicate intent to do something in many languages as well as a desire.
  10. “Finished” – can often be interpreted as a question, a statement or a demand – all very useful at different times

I would  love to hear your thoughts on this below please do leave a comment;  share your Top 10,20,30 or a story about when some particular words have come in handy.

Simon

VN:R_U [1.9.12_1141]
Rating: 0.0/10 (0 votes cast)

Tags: , , ,
Posted in Enhance Learning | 23 Comments »