First Steps for Building a Language “Basis”

The first steps in language learning may be the hardest: Getting a good basis in a language, so you can build on it and really enjoy learning more. With “basis” I mean four simple things: 1) mastering a number of essential phrases, expressions, and short sentences that you can use with native speakers; 2) pronouncing these in a way that native speakers can understand you; 3) learning the melody of the language (the up- and-down in sentences, questions, requests, etc.); 4) gaining an understanding of grammar that you need for communication (distinguishing past, present, and future forms, identifying pronouns, and choosing the correct form of politeness).

Learning Castilian Spanish in Barcelona

No doubt, the most desirable and effective way to immerse yourself in a new language is by staying for some time a country where the language is spoken. But not all “immersion” stories are the same. Here’s one of an American ex-pat couple, Rob and Lila, whom we recently met in Barcelona. The couple had moved to Barcelona a few years before and set up an international business that they’ve been running – in English - over the Internet. Lila already knew a few languages and learned Spanish easily by watching TV, etc., but Rob, who now speaks Spanish quite well, had to learn it from the ground up, word by word.

Dogs Can be a Great Asset...

Over a glass of wine, and great-tasting “montaditos” (small, hot sandwiches), Rob told us about his “method” for learning Spanish. “Right from the beginning, my dog was my most valuable asset,” he said with a chuckle. He then told us that he went walking with his cute little pooch every day, morning, late afternoon, and evening - looking for Spanish conversations. Other dog owners were easy to talk to, and of course, their conversations revolved around dogs. They talked about what kind of dog, the dog's character, funny little anecdotes, etc. At first, Rob said, he understood very little, but he'd go home and look up words in a dictionary or find them on the Internet. This way, he explained, he built up a stock of vocabulary, little by little.

Learning “Real” - Not “Textbook” Language...

Another part of his “method,” he said, was to talk with homeless people in parks for a euro or two. “They were happy to pass the time chatting with me,” he added, “and I learned real language, not just textbook phrases.”

The next step for Rob was to have regular conversation sessions with Maia, a local friend, who very patiently corrected his Spanish and explained the why and how of certain phrases. “She was wonderful,” he said. “I would treat her to a cortado (an espresso with a dash of milk) and she would practice small talk in Spanish with me.” For Rob, the hardest but most effective part of these sessions were the “language tasks” Maia prepared for him. She instructed him to go to the market or to various shops to buy specific items; or she asked him to go buy bus or train tickets, make a phone call, etc.

Practice, Practice, Practice

The key to language learning is practice, practice, practice. Obviously, when you are living in a country where the language is spoken, practice comes easier. But even then you may have to develop your own strategies and systems to improve your skills. This is especially true, if you are living in an ex-pat community or working with colleagues in an English-speaking environment. Whether you follow Rick Steves’ suggestions, are using one of the many online language programs, or are learning new foreign words with vocabulary apps, consistent practice will eventually let you build your language “basis.” You’ll then find out what a great adventure it is to travel and interact with locals - in their language.

Rick Steves' Travel Tips Also Work For Language Learners...

I recently came across one of Rick Steves' articles “How to meet the locals while traveling in Europe.” As we are currently in Barcelona, Spain, I thought we would try out a couple of his suggestions.

Using Social Media to Connect. We used: Conversationexchange.com

Rick Steves lists a number of links for meeting locals through social media. While none of his links worked out for us, another site, www.coversationexchange.com, which I found by chance, set us up very well. A few days after registering, we were contacted by Fabian, a professor of architecture who teaches at a University in Barcelona. He was as eager to practice his English as we were to practice our Spanish.

We met in the “Ciutat Vella” (Catalan for “Old City”) and he took us on a tour of some special places we had not yet seen. (The picture on the right shows children playing in the Plaça de SANT FELIP NERI, where the bullet holes from Franco era executions are still visible.) The language exchange was great. Beyond that, though, he gave us a fascinating glimpse into the cultural and political struggle between Catalonia and “Spain.” (And yes, Catalonia is a part of Spain!) This ongoing push-and-shove between the two cultures is something we had been aware of, but certainly hadn’t appreciated enough. (We’re planning another blog on just that topic.)

Using Spanish Language Phrases...

Another of Steves' suggestions was also right on: “Play with kids.”; “...make friends with the parents...” At one of our favorite squares, Plaça de la Vila de Gràcia (left), we were sipping our evening aperitifs at an outdoor café, as a young woman and her two-year-old child came to sit down at the next table. It did not take long before we played peek-a-boo with the child and tried out our Spanish with the mother by asking “How old is your daughter?”, “What is her name?”, etc. (all phrases and sentences, by the way, we had remembered or adapted from our Spanish 1 course). We soon were talking away, and when Carmen told us that the brother of her Italian husband works in a restaurant in Falmouth, MA, we could even use another phrase from our course: “¡Qué coincidencia!” In our conversation with her, we gained quite a few insights into Catalan life and society. A couple of days later, Carmen introduced us to her parents as well as to her 94 year old grandmother, who had lived through the Franco years. We may not have understood all of the grandmother's painful and vivid memories. However, without our basic knowledge of Spanish, we would have missed all of it. (The grandmother speaks no English!)

Making Yourself into a Language Extrovert ...

“When you’re traveling in Europe, make yourself and extrovert, even if you’re not.” Following Rick Steves' suggestion, we try to start up a conversation with anyone who will talk to us - and we do it in Spanish. We do our shopping in Spanish, where we often make small talk with the shopkeeper or other people waiting to be served. We order our meals and ask about obscure (to us) items on the menu in Spanish. The other day, we visited Vilanova (a town about 30 minutes away) and at the Information Office, the woman asked us if we wanted her explanations in Castilian, French, or English. We chose Castilian and had no trouble following her. Since Castilian Spanish is the second language for most native Catalonians, they speak it (a little more) slowly and deliberately – a real advantage to learners like us!

We haven’t yet tried Rick Steves' trick that he calls “pal up to a pooch” - but it might be worth finding out, if pooches in Barcelona are bilingual too. The drawback is that pooches don't talk back...

Can Playing Language Games Make You Smarter?

A recent article by Dan Hurley in the New York Times suggests as much. Hurley starts by describing a “memory game” where kids have to remember “which window a cat was in.” First, it's in a window just before, then in a window a Level before, and finally in a window two Levels before. It's as simple as that: “The cats keep coming and the kids keep remembering.”

Working Memory and “Fluid Intelligence”

Apparently, the “cat game” is one of the games that some researchers say can improve “working memory,” which is defined as: “the capacity to solve novel problems, to learn, to reason, to see connections and to get to the bottom of things.” All of us use “working memory,” Dan Hurley explains, for remembering telephone numbers, doing math in our head, understanding metaphors or analogies, for making sense out of language, etc. The sum of the skills of working memory is what we call “fluid intelligence” (as opposed to “crystalline intelligence,” which is produced by long-term memory skills).

Long-term memory and “Crystalline Intelligence”

It seems clear to us that language learning requires long-term memory skills. You need to acquire a good store of vocabulary, grammar structures, and (foreign language) sounds in your brain to be able to communicate, and thereby enhancing your “crystalline intelligence.” But “working memory” is just as essential. We, at GamesforLanguage.com  look forward to research that analyzes the relationship between second language acquisition and improvements of “fluid/crystalline intelligence” in adults.

Language Fluency and “Working Memory”

Just learning words, with the many flash card games now available for phones and tablets, is a good way to accumulate a store of vocabulary, and rules for pronunciation and spelling. But flashcards alone won't make you fluent. Fluency requires the ability to speak and communicate. And this, in turn, involves a “working memory” that is well-engaged. A new language confronts a person with many “novel problems.” The learner will have to decode and use new grammar patterns, new sound combinations, to figure out the meaning of new words, and so on.

Language Learning Requires Practice

We can well imagine that real and continuous efforts to acquire and try out a new language will make you smarter by boosting your working memory. As Hurley states: “practice improves performance on almost every task humans engage in, whether it’s learning to read or playing horseshoes.” However, the required practice is often the greatest hindrance to becoming proficient in a new language. And as Hurley cautions: “Just like physical exercise, cognitive exercises may prove to be up against something even more resistant to training than fluid intelligence: human nature.”

Language Games to make Practice Fun

Games can make language practice fun, and by taking the boredom out of the required language practice, you’ll improve your “working memory” playfully. Will you end up being smarter by learning a second (or third) language? Hurley's article seems to suggest as much! But we're also looking forward to more research on that particular topic. In any case, if you start learning a new language now, you'll be ahead!

Learning a Language Without Traveling?

A couple of days ago the national Spanish newspaper El País ran the following article:

Se puede saber idiomas sin viajar (pero no igual) [One can know languages without traveling (but not equally well)]. 

The article then continues: “Can one become fluent in a language without traveling? Yes, according to the Minister of Education, José Ignacio Wert. No not entirely, according to the majority of experts.”

 Now that we have stayed in Barcelona for a couple of weeks – we rented an apartment for a month in the Gracia neighborhood of town - it makes total sense that being in Spain adds a  huge level of reality and relevance to the Spanish words, phrases, and sentences that we learned with our Spanish 1 course to prepare for the trip.

Traveling is great - Practicing is essential

Yes, Barcelona is totally bilingual – we also hear and see a lot of Catalan (which we actually can read pretty well, see an earlier blog). Still, Spanish is all around us. We've been immersed in Spanish right from the moment of arrival, when our taxi driver greeted us with a rush of Spanish, and then patiently engaged us in Spanish small talk about the weather, the traffic, FC Barcelona, etc.

It's great that we can use Spanish for everyday life. No problem doing our food shopping at the market or in one of the many little shops around; or, ordering meals in cafés or restaurants and paying for them. We can ask directions, ask for information, and for explanations. We can even make small talk with people standing next to us in shops, or sitting at a table next to us in a café. (We often use the phrase: ”Gracias, pero quiero practicar mi español” - when somebody tries to be helpful in English...)

But for us this is just a start. What then are the next steps to getting out of the “eternal intermediate level,” as Alejandra Agudo, the writer of the article, aptly calls it?

The most important one is to continue to build on your language skills: Continue to acquire practical and relevant language and absorb its grammar in a meaningful way.

Real-Life language helps you to communicate

Beyond that, Alejandra Agudo points to two other recommendations that we subscribe to enthusiastically:

• Learn the language that is really spoken - “el lenguaje de la calle” (the language of the street). Don't just learn textbook language which also may be a little outdated. A couple of examples for here in Spain: We hear the word “vale” spoken dozens of times a day. Literally, "vale" means "it's worth." But in Spain, it's the equivalent of OK, and everyone says it in any situation. Or, a shopkeeper or waiter will say “Dígame ...” to ask what we want. And, in general, much to our surprise, the casual form of address is used a lot here, even with us!

• In the best way that you can do it, make the language you are learning part of your life. Start keeping a journal in your new language, even if it's just a couple of sentences a day. Whatever self-talk you do, do it in Spanish, German, French, etc. Look up and learn the words of everything in your surroundings and of your daily activities: chair, table, door, I'm setting the table, I'm getting the newspaper, etc. and say them to yourself, aloud, if possible. In that way, learning a language successfully is almost a life-style choice.

Language learning is a process of building. You create a good base of knowledge and understanding, and then, thoughtfully, gradually, with many repetitions, you start adding to it. Traveling or not, your language skills will improve dramatically. 

Spanish Learning and Dining - Solving Lunch and Dinner Mysteries

Dining in Barcelona

One of our pleasant surprises in Barcelona was the plethora of very reasonably priced restaurants, especially in our Gracia neighborhood.A couple of days ago we stumbled upon what we thought was a real find: “O'Gràcia” - located on the “Plaça de la Revolució de Setembre de 1868” [sic]. We saw the evening menu advertised for 15 Euros, IVA (tax) included, and decided to give it a try.

O'Gracia is a small restaurant, with two tables to seat 4 or 5, and four tables for 2. We were early, with with only one other couple there. We were seated without a reservation. (But read later online that we may have been lucky and also saw it listed in the Loneley Planet's Barcelona Guide - so others found it before us!)

Our  Menu Choices

The menu,(shown above) in Catalan and Castilian Spanish, showed a choice of seven(7) “Primeros” and six(6) “Segundos”. We chose “Esparragos verdes con queso de cabra” (Green aspargus w/ goat cheese) and “Crêpe de Jamón O champiñones y queso” (Crepe w/ ham, champignons and cheese) as Primeros, and “Pollo a curry” (Chicken curry) and “Lubina al horno” (Baked sea bass). Included in the menu price was: a bottle of water, ½ liter of wine or local beer, as well as a choice of desserts. Both Primeros and Segundos were delicious, and when we asked for a copy of the menu as we were leaving, the maitre'd was happy to oblige.

Catalan Clues for Castilian Choices

We are using the menus to both learn about the local cuisine as well as to decipher/compare the Catalan and Castilian terms. For example: If we had not known “queso” (cheese), the Catalan “formatge” with its similarity to the French “fromage”, would have been a clue; on the other hand, the Catalan “pernil dolc” (ham) told us less than the Castilian “jamon”, which is close to the French “jambon”.

But there are plenty of words, where none of the languages we know is any help. We understood from the waiter that “Lubina” was a fish (“Llobarro” in Catalan), however, could not identify it, when it arrived on a plate, head and all. We later looked it up online and saw that “lubina” means “sea bass”.

We should have solved the mystery of “al horno” right away, as the Catalan “al forn” - close to Italian “il forno” or French “le four” (the oven) – would easily translate as “(baked) in the oven”.

We continue to have fun unraveling the mysteries of Spanish food and dining expressions. We also know very well that language courses such as our Spanish 1 and other beginner courses cannot cover the astounding variety of lunch and dinner offerings that we find here in Spain. It takes curiosity, persistence and, yes, a little dictionary work!

PS: A few days ago - on a Saturday evening - we went back to O'Gracia. We discovered that there was actually a second room in the back that seated another 24-26 people. The food was as delicious as the first time; the fixed price evening menu still included a Primero, a Secundo and a Postre (dessert), but the beverages were now extra and the price had increased to $16, still a deal!

Learning Spanish: Barcelona - primera etapa de David en España

Good Friday in Barcelona started with rain again. Undeterred, but armed with umbrellas, we decided to follow in the steps of our "hero" David. Those of our users who have completed Level 1, may recall that David's aunt Carmen lived on Calle Mallorca, (which is not far from our apartment in Gracia). As you see on the picture, most streets in Barcelona, however, use the Catalan name for "street", therefore "Carrer de Mallorca". 

If you follow Carrer de Mallorca to the Northeast, crossing the "Avinguda Diagonal", ("Avinguda" is Catalan for "Avenida") you will soon see "La Sagrada Familia" appear above the rooflines. It's an impressive sight, the still unfinished masterpiece by Antonio Gaudí (1852-1926) and arguably Barcelona's call sign and most well-known monument!

Good Friday was quite obviously not the day for us to visit the interior of the church - the waiting lines stretched around an entire block. But we took our time, circled the entire complex and will be back after the holidays.

Walking towards the harbor, we passed by another impressive complex, the Plaça de Toros, the bull ring.  (note the Catalan form for "Plaza", using the French "ç")

With the sun out, the walk along the harborfront promenade was delightful. We drank a freshly squeezed "zumo de naranja", enjoyed the sidewalk performers with the many, young and old, who had also ventured out on this first day of the long Easter weekend.

Online Spanish Learning: Bilingual in Barcelona...

Today is only our second day in Barcelona. We experienced unusual thunderstorms and heavy rains during the night, but ventured out anyways in the morning drizzle. Our first goal: to get a metro and bus pass. The number of choices are amazing! Using our basic Spanish (learned with GamesforLanguage Spanish 1), we found out about passes for 10 trips, 50 trips in 30 days, 30 days unlimited, daily passes, etc. etc. We finally settled on a pass of 70 trips in 30 days for families (including couples). The price: Euro 51.80 - which breaks down to only $.74 per trip for each of us, if we use all of them. Quite a deal!

With this pass, we took our first subway trip to the Plaza d'Espanya and the CaixaForum. Inaugurated in February 2002, CaixaForum is the Barcelona headquarters of Fundació "laCaixa" - a social and cultural foundation belonging to "la Caixa" savings bank. The Forum is situated in an old but wonderfully renovated textile factory.

Benefiting from the free admission, we saw two fabulous exhibitions: one of Francisco Goya (with many works lent by Madrid's Prado), the other of Eugène De La Croix (with works lent by Paris' Louvre). All descriptions of the paintings were in two languages: no, not in English – but in Spanish and in Catalan. Barcelona is indeed a bilingual city.

Not having had any exposure to Catalan before, we were surprised that we could easily understand the Catalan descriptions of the paintings as well as the Spanish ones.

But why be surprised? Yesterday, fresh off the airplane, I bought the “blue” edition of “el Periódico,” the local newspaper. Sitting in an outdoor café, we skimmed over some of the headlines and read a few articles. We only realized after a while that we were reading the Catalan edition! (The Spanish edition has red as a background color.) As stated in the Lonely Planet guide, Catalan “belongs to the group of Western European languages that grew out of Latin, including Italian, French, Spanish, and Portuguese.” Many of the words in our newspaper resembled Italian and French. A knowledge of both of these languages helped us understand the newspaper articles and the descriptions in the CaixaForum.

At both lunch and dinner, our menus came in two languages: Spanish and Catalan. So all you anglophiles: Brush up on your romance languages, if you want to know what you are seeing and what you are eating in Barcelona!

Why Online Language Games based on a Travel Story can help you learn Spanish (and German, French, and Italian)

As we completed our Spanish 1 course in preparation for our upcoming stay in Spain, we were reassured that our idea of a “Story” to drive our language courses makes sense. (Click here to listen to the "Story" as our Spanish 1 "hero" flies from Boston to Barcelona.)

How do we know?

When we are trying to recall certain words and phrases, we begin to imagine the situation our traveller (David) finds himself in. And expressions such as: “...es la primera vez...”, “ ...es muy bueno...”, or “...no es muy bueno...”, “...me quedo tres semanas...”, “...me alegro...”, etc., etc. often come to mind as we are thinking about '”The Story”.

We also fully expect that with a vocabulary of only 700 words, we will not be “fluent”, nor likely to understand everything that is being said. But we already know that we can read a fair amount of Spanish text (which users of only audio and picture programs may not be able to); and watching yesterday a Spanish "soap opera" (La Que No Podía Amar) for the first time, we already understood quite a bit.

We'll keep a log of our language adventures...

ESL Learning Through Gaming

I still remember the first time I played a game on a computer. I was just a 6-year-old kid, and as a native speaker of Spanish, it was an exciting and challenging experience to play games intended for the English speaking market. Simple on-screen messages like “loading” or “game over” were exposing me to the language for the first time, before I started receiving proper English lessons at school. A few terms, the easiest ones, I would learn by pure observation, others, I would have to check the dictionary for their meaning.

In any case, it didn’t feel like I was making any extra effort, because I was having fun and the new vocabulary I was acquiring would also help me complete each game I played.

What’s more, far from developing prejudices against the English language, I started having a genuine interest about the language and its culture. The whole gaming-based language learning process broadened my mind considerably.

Today, I think my first and natural approach to language learning shares many similarities with the type of approach that certain courses follow, which integrate fun and effective games for language learning. Truth is, I wish such courses would have been available back then, in the early 80’s. Some of these new programs are especially designed for language learning in mind, unlike the computer games I played when I was a kid. But all in all, I am happy I put many hours into gaming, as it helped raise my curiosity for a new language.

PS: Pablo Montoya is both the writer and a speaker of our Spanish 1 course; he is also assisting us in developing our ESL course for Spanish speakers. For a description of our Spanish 1 course, click here

Foreign Language Learning: The Benefits of Set Phrases

We’re off to Spain next month! We’ll be retracing the steps and travels of our “hero” David, from Barcelona, to Granada, Sevilla, and Madrid. In preparation, we are learning Spanish with our Spanish 1 course. The similarities and differences between Spanish and Italian require constant vigilance. Distinguishing between a new language (Spanish) and a known one (Italian) certainly keeps our grey cells engaged, but also allows for comparisons and mnemonics.

As I’m playing through the various scenes and games, I notice how I can recall particular words better, when I remember them in the context of a phrase or sentence. For example, with the expression for “Would you like to... (eat something)?”, in Spanish: “¿Te gustaría ...(comer algo)?”, I don't even worry about having to use the conditional verb form. Later on in the course, I can easily adapt the phrase to “¿Me gustaría...”, a very useful expression, as for example, in “Camerero, me gustaría pagar.” (Waiter, I'd like to pay.)

I still remember picking up the expression “J'aimerais...” (I would like...)when I was learning French some years ago. Though it was a staple of my daily interactions (I was then living in the French part of Switzerland), I was totally oblivious to its “conditional” form.

Another expression that helps me remember several words is: “Tengo que comprar algo.” (I have to buy something.) While learning this expression, I recalled that the Italian “comprare” is very close to the Spanish “comprar.” However, the Italian and Spanish equivalents for “I have to” are different: “devo" vs. “tengo que,” as are the words for the English “something.” In Italian, the word for “something” is “qualcosa” and in Spanish, it’s “algo.”

This is how many of us learn our second, third (or more) languages: by constantly comparing and contrasting the new language(s) with the language(s) that we know.

Flash cards with or without pictures – as used by many online or CD-based language programs - are useful for learning the vocabulary of objects, numbers, colors, etc., however, the words for actions, feelings, opinions, etc., are best learned in the context of phrases and sentences. Learning set phrases and sentences will not only help you memorize particular words, but will also minimize any struggles for finding the correct grammatical form.