Learning Spanish - 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.
While we are still exploring the district where our apartment is located - Gràcia - (see our favorite Vila de Gràcia square above) we also are figuring out how to get around the city with public transportation.
Public Transportation
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!
Learning Spanish in Museums
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. (We are describing in "Solving Lunch and Dinner Mysteries" some of the clues we used...)
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!
Bio: Ulrike & Peter Rettig are co-founders of Gamesforlanguage.com. They are lifelong language learners, growing up in several European countries before moving to Canada and the United States. You can follow them on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram.
As we completed our Spanish 1 course in preparation for our upcoming stay in Spain, we were reassured that our idea of a “Travel-Story” for our language courses makes sense. (Click HERE to listen to the "The Story" Podcast of Level 1 as our Spanish 1 "hero" flies from Boston to Barcelona.)
Why a Travel-Story Language Course to Learn & Practice Spanish?
When we are trying to recall certain words and phrases, we begin to imagine the situation our Spanish traveler (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 also are sure that we will encounter many of the travel related words and phrases on our trip.
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 as well. We'll keep a log of our language adventures.
However, if you want to learn some basics in Spanish: greetings, polite phrases, travel terms, go to our - also completely free - sister site Lingo-Late, where we have 30+ Spanish words and phrases. You can Listen, Record Yourself, Playback Your Voice as many times as you want to learn and practice.
PS: See our posts about our month-long stays in Barcelona and Seville. We were fortunate enough to be able to practice our Spanish while also enjoying the many museums and cultural events in both cities.
The 2012 (tennis) Davis Cup between the USA and Switzerland is taking place in Fribourg in February.
I'm just now spending some time in Fribourg, one of the western cantons of Switzerland where mainly French is spoken. Because of its common language, this region is called “la Suisse romande” or “la Romandie” (Romandy).
With my knowledge of standard French, I have no problem conversing with locals here. But once in a while, I'm baffled and not sure I'm really getting what's being said. That's because in French Switzerland, some words have acquired a different meaning.
Here are a few Swiss French words and a common expression that I've encountered during my visits to Fribourg. I've also added three numbers in French that have a wonderful simplified Swiss French version.
Growing up in Austria and Germany, I started to learn English in 5th grade, followed by Latin and French in the 8th. I can't say that I liked Latin, but I know that I hated French, and my grades certainly reflected this dislike.
Life had a funny way of changing my mind about French. I love speaking French now and use it often with family and friends. But the big takeaway has been: If you don't use your language skills, you'll lose them.
Learning French
After completing my engineering degree, it was therefore with great trepidation that I took a job with an engineering firm in Fribourg. (see picture above, with Cathedral). This is a town that is situated on the German/French language divide in Switzerland and is therefore bilingual.
While a couple of my colleagues also spoke a (French version of) Swiss German, the professional language in the office was clearly French. I had no choice but to learn it.
I did so by taking evening courses and by practicing with the records of a self-teaching language program. And, with time, and importantly - a French speaking girlfriend - my French improved enough so that I could communicate even on a professional level. Eventually, I became quite fluent.
Learning Italian
A few years ago, my wife and I planned an extended stay in Italy. We prepared ourselves with 90 lessons of self-teaching audio CDs and, once in the country, we made a concentrated effort to improve our Italian.
We used a tutor, engaged in conversations with locals, read newspapers, watched movies and TV, spoke Italian to each other, etc. “Immersion” in a foreign language when you live in that country clearly works. It works especially well if you avoid contact to people, who speak your native language.
Keeping it Going
When you live in your own country, learning a foreign language and keeping up your language skills has to be an ongoing effort.
I, for example, try to read online newspaper articles in French, Italian, and German on a daily basis. Both of us regularly watch original French, Italian, and German movies with Netflix (and I really should continue with an Italian book I had started...)
But I also find that playing the later scenes of our French and Italian gamesforlanguage.com program provides me with a great way to keep up my language skills. I realized the other day what made them so effective for me:
• The listening games keep reminding me of the language melody.
• The continual speaking practices let me test whether I can still match the native speakers' intonation. (I actually repeat a spoken foreign phrase as many times as I can, before the next one comes up.)
• The writing exercises continue to be challenging, although I should know most of the words.
There are still a few games where I have not yet reached the 100% score, but I'll certainly get there! I look forward to a little language break once a day (and my Mac reminds me!) I'm now also learning Spanish. And while I often mix it up with Italian, I know I am making progress!
Clearly, not everyone can spend as much time as I do to keep up my language skills. But, if you also don't want to lose them, you have to find ways to incorporate some practice into your daily schedule.
Gamesforlanguage is just one option for doing so. There are many others, on the web, in print, movies, radio and TV. You need to find the way that works best for you, as you also know: If you don't use it - you'll lose it!
When in a German speaking country, you certainly want ways to better engage in a German conversation. There are essential skills to deal with daily, practical situations: ordering in a restaurant, asking directions, greeting friends or strangers, introducing others, purchasing, paying a check, checking into a hotel, etc.
But you also want to be able to engage in conversations with locals. To do this, you must swallow your anxiety about speaking up and find ways to start, sustain, and eventually end a conversation.
Conversing with strangers can feel a little awkward in any language. A recent article by Marc Chernoff: 12 Ways To Make Talking To Strangers Less Awkward has some good tips on braving such a challenge.
Of course, these tips also work for talking with strangers in a foreign language. I've adapted them here for conversations with German speakers. A good antidote to "conversation anxiety" is to practice some useful expressions ahead of time. You can start with the list below.
1. Initiating a conversation
When initiating a conversation, act confident and comfortable, this will put the other person at ease too.
a) Be sure that you know how to address a stranger correctly to be appropriately polite. Best to use a neutral greeting such as “Guten Morgen,” “Guten Tag,” “Guten Abend” (Good morning, Hello, Good evening) or have a a couple of polite phrases ready, such as:
- "Entschuldigen Sie ..." (Excuse me ...) - "Bitte ..." (Please [can you tell me] ...)
b) Importantly, you should use the formal "Sie" (the polite form of "you") as a starter with anyone, except children. In most cases, it's best to wait until you're prompted to use the familiar: "du."
That means, of course, that you also have to learn to distinguish between the appropriate German verb endings. Listen here to a German conversation where students talk about using the familiar "du".
c) By the way, in German, you would never use "How are you?" (Wie geht's?/Wie geht es Ihnen?) as part of a greeting, unless you know the person very well. Germans take such a question seriously and may be tempted to give you a literal answer.
d) Learn to ask for directions or for information; this may very well lead to a longer exchange. Start with a neutral greeting (see above) and follow up with a question, such as:
- "Wo ist ...?" (Where is ...?) - "Wie komme ich am besten zu ...?" ("How do I best get to ...") - "Wissen Sie, wann/wo ...?" (Do you know when/where ...?)
e) Comment about the here and now. For example when you're at a café, a restaurant, a museum, in a shop, at a market, etc. Talk about what's around you, what you see; you can even mention the weather.
- "Ein Früchte-Eisbecher? Was ist das?" (A "Früchte-Eisbecher"? What is that?) - "Das ist wirklich ein schönes Gebäude!" (That's really a beautiful building!) - "Wunderbares Wetter heute!" (Great weather today!)
2. Once engaged in a conversation...
Once engaged in a conversation, you'll want to have a few topics up your sleeve to sustain it. a) Know some basic information about the city and a few interesting historical facts about the country. This also means that you should learn how to say dates.
b) Say something about your stay in the country, where you're going, or where you've been, etc.
- "Ich bleibe fast drei Wochen in ..." (I'm staying almost three weeks in ...) - "Ich fahre übermorgen nach ..." (I'm going to ... the day after tomorrow.) - "Ich besuche Freunde und Verwandte." (I'm visiting friends and relatives.)
c) Learn to listen as well as talk. Be able to ask questions and make comments to show your interest in what the other person is saying:
- “Wann wurde ... gegründet?” (When was ... founded?) - "Wer ist/war ...?" (Who is/was ...?) - "Das wusste ich nicht." (I didn't know that.)
d) Obviously, the old stand-by, if you did not understand:
- "Das war ein bisschen schnell!" (That was a little fast!) - "Könnten Sie das, bitte, wiederholen!" (Could you, please, repeat that!)
3. Closing a conversation.
It's always important to find a way to close a conversation gracefully. Germans are a little more formal about it than Americans and a little more resolute. Have a few exit lines ready!
a) Signaling the end:
- "Vielen Dank für die guten Tipps." (Thank you for the good tips.) - “Es war nett, mit Ihnen zu reden." (It was nice to talk with you.) - "Oh, es ist schon spät. Ich muss noch ..." (Oh, it's already late. I still have to ...) - "Ich treffe mich noch mit Freunden." (I'll be meeting some friends.)
b) When you're leaving:
- "Jetzt muss ich leider gehen." (Unfortunately, I have to go now.) - "Also nochmals: vielen Dank/es war richtig nett." (Again: many thanks/it was really nice.) - "Noch schönen Nachmittag/Abend!" (Have a nice afternoon/evening!) - "Auf Wiedersehen!" (Goodbye!)
Practicing some of these conversational phrases and expressions ahead of time will be quite helpful and impress your German speaking contact. While such phrases will obviously not be sufficient for an intensive discussion, they will boost you confidence in speaking. The next step will be to add a few more topics and strategies to your conversational skills.
You Want to Learn German Fast?
Not everyone will agree with Benny Lewis', the Irish Polyglot's statement "Why German is easy!" But, if you are serious about learning German - and even before you buy or subscribe to any expensive courses (except GamesforLanguage.com's German 1 and German 2 courses obviously, which are FREE!) you may want to learn more about Benny's approach.
Disclosure: The link above is to a partner's program with revenue sharing, if you decide to buy or subscribe.
Several months ago as we were traveling to Germany, I bet with my wife that I could make the German immigration officer say the exact sentence of a dialog we are using in one of the first scenes of our German 1 language program.
She was skeptical, but listen to this Dialogue, which occurs at the beginning of Scene 4:
If you speak German, you'll realize right away, why I was sure I would win the bet. If you don't, this is what happened:
When I approached the officer, I greeted her with a friendly: “Guten Morgen!” (Good morning!) while handing her my American passport. As I had predicted, she answered with an equally friendly “Guten Morgen! and a somewhat surprised: ”Sie sprechen Deutsch!” (You speak German!)
Although I could not give the same response as our “hero” Michael, ( I was not born in Boston) her next question was again the same as in our scene: ”Sind Sie geschäftlich hier?” (Are you here on business?)
We were not, and we continued a friendly conversation before she stamped our passports and we moved on.
The above question (Are you here on business?) reminded me of the story of a woman who reacted with indignation when she was asked by an Italian immigration officer:
You may have figured out why the woman - who obviously spoke little Italian - misinterpreted the question: “É qui per affari?” He asked: “Are you here on business?” but she thought he asked whether she was there for an affair... (Or she might also have thought: “How could he possibly know this...?”)
But all bets and jokes aside, the point of these little vignettes is that knowing another language can both be helpful for your travels as well as avoid misunderstandings. Learning a new language will not only benefit your next travel adventure, but also be one of the small steps to strengthen your willpower or even help seniors' grey cells to function at a high level. It's never too late to learn a new language...
Even German can be Fun
Our games and travel-story based courses are also a great way to practice your German. If travel to Germany is in your near future, you may also enjoy our post: 4 Fun German Language Games Before You Travel.
And if you already have some German you can try our two free German Story Courses for fun practice. Just register and play.
Willpower, do we need it for language learning? Well, a few simple tips may help.
It's Monday morning, top of the week, and I'm more than ready for the following headline in the Lifestyle section of my local paper: "How Willpower Works."
Research indicates that willpower can be strengthened like a muscle - and is a key predictor for success in life." That looks promising.
I'm just embarking on learning Mandarin Chinese, my first non-European language. A little extra willpower will be helpful for sure.
In her article, Deborah Kotz, health reporter/blogger for the Boston Globe, has tracked down pertinent research about willpower in general, and mentions various studies that show the benefits of self-control.
She concludes: "Willpower, it turns out, is one of the most important predictors of success in later life."
Research and Experience
But how can the research she describes apply specifically to learning a new language, which Kotz calls a "high-willpower activity"?
One key premise is a quote by the "endurance artist" David Blaine, who states: "Getting your brain wired into little goals and achieving them helps you achieve the bigger things you shouldn't be able to do."
Learning a new language, sticking with it, and getting some real results is definitely a "big thing." Like staying with a diet, language learning has a high failure rate.
In part, this may be because people expect too much too fast and don't find a way to stay with it. So how can you best strengthen your willpower for learning a new language?
Five Simple Tips
1) Set your mind on a specific long-term goal and be clear why you want to achieve that goal.
For example: You're planning a trip to France in the spring and you want to get a good command of survival French.
You want to learn how to buy fruit at an open market or a newspaper at a kiosk; navigate the public transportation system; ask for directions to someone's house or apartment; make formal and informal introductions, etc.
2) Get into the habit of doing little self-control tasks on a daily basis.
And as I understand, they can be really "little." Some of these tasks don't need to be language related. Remember, you're just exercising your willpower muscle.
In his book "Willpower" Roy F. Baumeister suggests that cultivating specific new habits that require a mental effort - such as doing a habitual action in a different way - can strengthen self-control. For example, you can fix your posture several times a day, or brush your teeth with the other hand.
3) Become creative with language learning mini-tasks.
Besides the regular language learning schedule you're committed to, do a number of language learning mini-tasks throughout the day.
For example, keep a journal in your new language and make several short entries throughout the day; practice a few vocabs intermittently on your smart phone; or line up a couple of YouTube videos for the day to click on.
Or scan the online edition of a foreign newspaper, initially just for some phrases and sentences, later for full articles or stories.
4) Get to know that part of your brain where you make your decisions.
Deborah Kotz explains the function of the prefrontal cortex (here, radically simplified by me): the right side helps you say "no" to temptation, the left side helps you say "yes" to the good choice, and the middle part helps you weigh the either/or.
Each time you achieve a small goal, it's a springboard for the next one. Also, be aware that there are things that will drain your willpower. Fatigue is one, being hungry or stressed out are others. I would also add boredom and being overwhelmed with choices.
5)Learn to pace yourself.
Unless you're studying for a language exam or you're one of those rare language geeks, a step-by-step approach may be best.
• Break the language down into chunks and then put it together again. • Make sure that there always is a meaningful context. • Doing 15 minutes a day, every day will get you farther than doing 1 hour twice a week. • If you miss a day, don't be self-critical. When you're ready, just continue where you left off.
The Bottom Line
Doing little self-control tasks throughout the day can help your willpower for language learning. Conversely, setting regular language learning goals for yourself can help you be successful with other, larger achievements. It's a win-win situation.
Now, will my tennis practice help my acquisition of Manderin Chinese, or is my language learning helping my tennis? The answer is yes! The issue is not just the tennis or the Chinese itself, but the discipline of its practice. It's all good.
OK and now, before I start on my 15-minute Mandarin Chinese practice, should I have a little left-over Halloween candy for a glucose boost, or should I have that apple?
A few years ago, my wife and I decided to celebrate my retirement by living for several months in Rome, Italy – to both explore the historical treasures as well as to learn another foreign language. We both were fluent in several languages (German, French, English, and my wife also in Dutch).
These were languages we had learned either as children or young adults, living and/or working in the respective countries. However, Italian was to be the first language we were going to learn as mature adults.
A few months before our travels, we began using Pimsleur's self-teaching Italian language courses and completed all three levels of the program, totaling 90 lessons. This was an accomplishment. We felt quite smug about being able to understand basic Italian, but we also knew that the real test would come when we arrived in Rome.
The drive from Fiumicino airport into Rome to our apartment did not prove conclusive, as our landlord's driver wanted to practice his English – which was clearly better than our Italian.
Our apartment in Trastevere was located in a narrow street, above a bakery/grocery store. Directly opposite was a wonderful little restaurant called “Le mani in pasta.” Here we could try out our Italian. English was not spoken.
Limited Vocabulary and Skills
We discovered rapidly that our vocabulary was quite limited. What we remembered best were the set phrases we had learned in our language course: How to order a glass of wine or beer, how to buy 100 grams of prosciutto, etc.
We also found that while our knowledge of French was quite helpful at times – both Italian and French are Romance languages and share many similar words - at other times our brain simply refused to memorize certain Italian words.
We also realized that by having used mainly CDs and tapes, we had not learned how to read and write in Italian. Through a local bookshop, we found a wonderful young Italian tutor, whose initial writing test quickly ascertained this deficiency.
Over the next months, as she worked with us and monitored our daily homework, our confidence grew. We started to understand and enjoy Italian TV and movies, and increasingly conversed with shopkeepers and people we encountered throughout the day.
Language Learning is Good for an Older Brain
Learning a new foreign language as an adult takes effort and some discipline. But our brain is certainly able to acquire new vocabulary and new grammar rules. In fact, research has shown that such mental exercises can be especially beneficial to an older brain.
Playing electronic/computer games does not have to be the purview of children and young adults. Seniors who play language games also exercise their gray cells and have fun doing so. They don't feel guilty. They are learning a new language at the same time!
We now watch Italian movies on a cable channel at home, read Italian newspapers online, and continue to exercise our gray cells. We believe: “If you don't use it – you lose it!”
Learning Spanish - 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. 
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. 
