Language Advantage

What is the best language to learn?

languageadvantage — Fri, 26 Sep 2008 00:48:01 +0000

The best excuse I hear for not learning a language is ‘well I can’t learn every language in the world’. And that much would be right. There are about 6,800 languages in the world. It would be a pretty tough job to learn them all.

But that doesn’t mean we can’t learn at least one other language. But which one? It should definitely be one of the world languages. Perhaps Mandarin Chinese or Spanish would be best for business? What do you think is the best language to learn?

Happy European Day of Languages!

languageadvantage — Fri, 26 Sep 2008 00:11:16 +0000

26 September is the European Day of Languages – an annual event across Europe to celebrate linguistic diversity and promote language learning. It is the perfect day to start to learn a language!

The European Year of Languages 2001 was successful in involving millions of people across 45 countries in activities to celebrate linguistic diversity and the benefits of being able to speak another language. Many people – young and old – were encouraged to take up a language, or take special pride in their existing language skills. Those responsible for providing access to language learning were encouraged to make it easier for people to learn a range of languages, and to support policy initiatives to promote languages. The Council of Europe then declared 26 September an annual European Day of Languages.

Why do we need a European Day of Languages?

While many people agree that everyone should be able to speak another language, in many countries only about half can do so. There have never been more opportunities to work or study in a different European country – but lack of language competence prevents many people from taking advantage of them. Globalisation and patterns of business ownership mean that citizens increasingly need foreign language skills to work effectively within their own countries. Europe is rich in languages – there are over 200 European languages and many more spoken by citizens whose family origin is from other continents. This is an important resource to be recognised, used and cherished. Language learning brings benefits to young and old – you are never too old to learn a language and to enjoy the opportunities it opens up. Learning other peoples’ languages is a way of helping us to understand each other better and overcome our cultural differences.

There have never been more opportunities to work or study in a different European country – but lack of language competence prevents many people from taking advantage of them.

What are the aims of the European Day of Languages?

To alert the public to the importance of language learning
To increase awareness and appreciation of ALL the languages spoken in Europe
To encourage lifelong language learning

We hope you celebrate this European Day of Languages!

Teach Yourself Japanese Conversation

languageadvantage — Fri, 26 Sep 2008 00:02:41 +0000

Teach Yourself Japanese Conversation
An independent review by Sarah Maddocks

Teach yourself Japanese Conversation is a 3-hour, 3 CD, all-audio language course which is aimed at complete beginners or people who want to refresh their Japanese. Don’t even think about trying to do the course all in one go – it would be near impossible not to mention brain frazzling!

The CDs follow a couple called Chris and Sarah (I know, original names!) whilst visiting an ex-colleague in Japan. The idea of the CD is to learn the language through 20 conversations that Chris & Sarah have with native speakers. The course is accompanied by a booklet containing transcripts of the conversations; the key vocabulary is in bold.

The content of the CDs differ. CD1 & CD2 have 10 real-life conversations about things that you’d be doing on a weekend break or a short holiday or business visit to the country. For each conversation, there are two dialogues in three sections: the first section is listen and repeat, the second section is using the language in context and the final section is practising the conversation again. The CD3 is a recap session and gives you lots more real-life conversations.

When I first started listening to CD1, the first thought that sprang into my mind was ‘why on earth had I decided to even attempt to learn Japanese’. I stupidly (stupidly as in for future reference don’t do this) made the mistake of opening the booklet before I pressed play and thought I was way out of my depth. Still, I carried on and am glad I did. From the start I knew I had made the right decision with this course. The narrator is not irritatingly bland like on some courses – in fact quite the opposite as she is reassuring and easy to listen to.

The fab thing about the CDs is they are repetitive (in a good way) and the narrator often advises you to pause the CD which is easy to do. Throughout the sections some basic grammar rules are explained, as well as when to use and when not to use certain constructions.

CD2 continues on from CD1 and the level remains the same throughout, which is great as it doesn’t progress too fast or too slow (in other words just right).

CD3 is what would be called the revision CD. All the conversations in the booklet are replayed at normal speed and then a different version is played, with a kind of question time at the start. I found this a great way of recapping and actually testing what I had learnt (seeing as in the past I think I have mastered a self-study tape but in actual fact I really have no idea about the language!).

The booklet offers explanations of what to do in certain cultural situations. This is particularly handy if you go to Japan. The last thing you’d want to do is blow your nose, offend the whole room and have no idea why!

This 3-hour course is absolutely fabulous (excuse the quote from the television programme!). To me it seemed like a great 3-hour exam preparation course. Instead of boring me slightly (GCSE German memories flooding back!), it was very entertaining and made me feel that I would be able to handle myself in any one of the situations played out in the conversations and more importantly understand what was being said back to me.

I especially recommend this to people who have done language courses before and found them dull and uninteresting, as this is completely different. You actually come out of this course with a real sense of achievement.

I would recommend this to everyone who wants to learn a more adventurous language and who isn’t scared of challenges along the way. I especially recommend this to people who have done language courses before and found them dull and uninteresting, as this is completely different. You actually come out of this course with a real sense of achievement and a feeling that you could now go to Japan and find the train station, and more importantly order a beer and a sake!!!

Michel Thomas Advanced Spanish

languageadvantage — Thu, 25 Sep 2008 23:47:27 +0000

Michel Thomas Advanced Spanish
An independent review by Sarah Maddocks

The Michel Thomas 5-hour Advanced Spanish language course is an audio-only course (strictly no pens, paper or books) which follows on from the 8-hour course. The course is for advanced students (the title of ‘Michel Thomas Advanced Spanish’ makes this slightly obvious) but also for people who want a refresher course in a language they have already learnt to quite a good level. It follows Michel Thomas through four CDs as he teaches two students, who have already completed the 8-hour course, how to improve their Spanish. The course is not divided into specific lessons, but it is divided into tracks so it is easy to pick up from where you left off (that is if you remember which track you got up to!).

It was very strange hearing Michel Thomas for the first time as I have not done any of his previous courses. For some reason I expected a very cheesy sounding Frenchman (the cover photo of him gave me this impression). Granted you do get a French-sounding man, but he isn’t at all cheesy and does remind you of one of your old teachers (in a good way).

I loved his method of teaching and the way that the CD was organised. There were no ‘typical’ scenario introductions and no ‘typical’ Spanish music (in other words this is not a typical foreign language audio course). Michel (first name terms already!) uses two students and teaches us along with them. They make mistakes and I found that they often made the same mistakes as I did, so this was handy! Michel is quick to correct them and not in a patronising way, which you sometimes get with these kind of courses. Because of the no pens, no paper and no books technique, you find that surprisingly the information really stays in your head. I’m not sure if this is down to the pure driven determination of learning a new language or Michel’s method of repetition – whenever a new structure is introduced, it is repeated several times until you just seem to get the hang of it.

The course is very structure and grammar orientated and there is no real day-to-day vocabulary included. This is not the type of course you would do if you were just looking to freshen up on your holiday lingo and learn how to buy something in a shop. This course is designed for people who want to learn the whole language and not just to learn how to get by.

The CDs obviously get harder as the course progresses. Despite this, Michel Thomas keeps on repeating things and continues to correct the students until the sentence is perfect. I think that the course content is manageable for people who want to be advanced at Spanish and are at an intermediate level at the moment. The CD content is good as it covers topics that you would have already covered elsewhere (in the 8-hour Michel Thomas course or in other Spanish lessons) but still goes on to introduce a lot of new structures. Michel tends not to spend too much time on grammar points which would already have been covered at an intermediate level, but he spends time on the new information to make your Spanish fluent. I think this is an ace way of revising and consolidating what you already know and then from this base going on to learn new things. I personally didn’t get bored recapping some of the Spanish I was already familiar with, as it was taught in a way that I had not experienced before.

One thing I must mention is about the students! It is a man and a woman … you have no idea what their names are, which personally I think is great. I hate the courses where you meet the characters and are supposed to feel some sort of connection, for all we know “Crystal” could be a 87 year old granny rather than a 19 year old gap year student. Anyway getting back to the Michel Thomas Spanish course … the one thing I did find annoying with the students was their accents. The man’s accent was bearable, but I had a slight problem with the woman’s accent. She had a tendency to emphasise every single sound of the word, which sometimes seemed as though she was trying too hard to pronounce things.

Michel Thomas cracks little jokes throughout the course (well I say jokes, but they are more like humorous comments. For example, he says “they’re in their own club, they want to keep it that way” where he is talking about the go-go verbs. I think that if anyone else tried to get away with this humour, it just wouldn’t work. But for Michel, teamed with his accent and the fact I have a small soft spot for him, he manages to pull it off and actually got a small chuckle from me.

I have never done an audio course which I have enjoyed doing as much as this one. The teaching method is just fab and really makes you remember things. I would not hesitate in buying more of Michel Thomas’ language courses. He’s been teaching languages for over 50 years and he obviously knows what he is doing. He is even considerate enough to provide another extension to the course. This is his own Language Builder – I haven’t tried this one out yet but apparently it provides you with vocabulary and more grammar (if that’s even possible) and if it has Michel Thomas on the CD it cant be half bad!

BBC Get Into Spanish

languageadvantage — Thu, 25 Sep 2008 23:25:53 +0000

BBC Get Into Spanish
An independent review by Sarah Maddocks

Get Into Spanish is apparently the ultimate interactive learning experience from the BBC. It certainly seemed to be that way; the language pack contains 2 PC CD-ROMs, a book, audio CDs and access to online learning resources.

The CD-ROM is the main part of the course. It has two CD-ROMs, with CD1 being the installation CD and CD2 being the language course. The CD-ROM has eight language units which include animated dialogue, interactive activities and learning support which gives you the opportunity to listen, speak, read and write the language. You have to download the program onto your hard drive and this took my computer around 10 minutes to complete which isn’t very long at all (since it’s three programs altogether) and while you are waiting for this to load up it is the perfect opportunity to have a flick through the book.

Once the CD-ROM is loaded you can create a character which will be you in the program. You can choose your hair colour and clothes, and all this helps you to really feel like you are involved in the course and that it has been made just for you. The CD-ROM is easy to use and pretty self explanatory but there is a “how to use this CD-ROM” section just in case.

You can choose which areas you would like to learn through navigation via a map of the town. You click on the different places to take part in the different role plays, for example, I clicked on the hotel and took part in role plays about checking in/out, booking a room and making a complaint. You can choose to learn some things about the situation first such as vocabulary, or you can enter straight into the “have a go” section. The “have a go” section is listening to the Spanish speaker and then recording your answer. In this way, you can interact with the program and compare your answer to that of a Spanish speaker. This helps as you can hear what words you are pronouncing correctly or incorrectly and it gives you an incentive to improve. You can also choose to “zoom in” on certain areas of the screen. I clicked on a price list on the wall which was then enlarged for me and I could then choose to translate the text. This is a fab way of learning new vocab and it’s not forced upon you, which makes you want to learn even more.

The only thing that was annoying with this CD-ROM was that you needed a microphone to be able to complete the role plays. If you haven’t got one built into your computer or laptop, then you are advised to buy one which would cost even more money on top of the course. But the CD-ROM does have a wow factor and personally I absolutely loved it. The BBC really have found a fun way of learning a language and have made it very modern and funky. It felt like I was playing a computer game like “The Sims” rather than actually doing something educational.

You can choose your own hair colour and clothes for your character in the course. It felt like I was playing a computer game like The Sims rather than actually doing something educational.

The Get Into Spanish book is designed to help you to refresh and revise the Spanish already learnt on the CD-ROM. It has 10 units and covers the GCSE areas of the language such as eating and drinking and asking for directions. The book is a handy size which meant it was easy for me to carry in my bag and read on the bus. I found it very useful that it was a standalone book so you didn’t have to sit and do the CD-ROM at the same time.

The book has 10 units and each is loosely connected to the CD-ROM. In each unit you have a CD-ROM box section (there’s a little picture of a CD-ROM so very straightforward to know when to refer to the CD-ROM if you need to), then there’s the cultural rule bit, where they tell you when to use certain tenses, pronouns etc; for me this was a plus to this language course as the last thing I would want to do in Spain is be rude to someone within the first hour of arriving. You also have a key vocabulary box which makes it easier. The book is very interactive and gives you exercises to complete. This is a good way of getting people to practise what they have learnt. I don’t know about you, but when I read a book and there is nothing interesting to do I often don’t take in what I have learnt. This book allows me to practise my newly learnt Spanish and helps me to remember what I have learnt.

At the back of the book, there is a grammar section with basic-intermediate grammar information. I found this great as when I learn a language, grammar is the hardest part for me to learn as its boring (at least I’m being honest!). But with this book, all the grammar is laid out in small chunks and it doesn’t go into too much depth and so is not boring to look at and learn. Throughout the book there are ‘have a go’ sections and luckily the book provides the answers at the end. In the past I have had to buy answer books to accompany certain language learning courses, so this way I can see if I have got it right without having to buy a whole new separate book.

Finally, the audio CD is a way to develop your listening skills and improve your level of learning. As usual, you have the token English tourist trying to find their way around the town. This time it is a British web designer called Simon who travels to Alicante.

The audio CD comes with a separate book where all the conversations are written down, so if you so find it hard you can look at the words as they are being said. At first it is hard to concentrate especially when Simon’s London accent comes out when he speaks Spanish but after the first couple of sentences you get used to it. The speed of the Spanish is at a level where if you are a beginner and have completed the other parts of the course you will have no trouble understanding it. This is also good for people who have previously done Spanish and want to refresh it.

The telephone calls that Simon makes to his friend and business partner are slightly annoying as they are like telephone calls on a soap opera when it is obvious there is no one on the other end! The conversations are quite fun, without giving too much away it turns out that Simon helps the police with a problem they have been having. Unlike other CDs I have listened to they add in fun conversation and words that you would be unlikely to learn otherwise, even the words “you look like a gangster” are thrown in.

You can buy the CD-ROM separately to the audio CD and book. But to be honest I think the best way to “get into” Spanish is to buy the whole set. All of the parts were so helpful and it never got boring, which for me is a huge thing.

In my opinion the BBC were correct to describe this as the ultimate interactive learning experience – it certainly is that. With all the material and resources given in the pack, it is definitely an ace way of learning Spanish thoroughly. They seem to cover every basic situation and give you lots of information but keeping it fun at the same time, so it doesn’t feel like a chore to sit down and do the course. I would recommend this 100% to anyone who wants to learn Spanish in an entertaining and different way.

What is your favourite language course?

languageadvantage — Thu, 25 Sep 2008 23:19:22 +0000

We’re always on the look out for new and innovative language courses. Let us know which language courses have worked for you and why you like them!