As readers of previous posts know, I am currently learning Dutch. As GamesforLanguage doesn't have a Dutch course yet, I'm using the Dutch courses of Duolingo and Babbel.
I have reached Level 11 and accumulated over 3500 points with Duolingo and am nearing the end of the course. In three weeks, by the end of my 3-month subscription, I'll have Babbel's Beginner Course 4 done as well, and thereby completed a total of 87 lessons and likely several of the Grammar and Extra section lessons.
While my comprehension skills have clearly improved (my principal goal), my speaking attempts with my wife (who speaks Dutch fluently) have just begun and are less successful.Although I now spend about an hour every day with these two programs, and Dutch has many similarities to my native German, I feel that my progress is slower than it should be.
However, using both programs in parallel also gives me a good opportunity to compare them. And here is my take on – the good, the bad, and the frustrating.
The Good
Duolingo - My strongest motivation to continue with Duolingo each day is that I don't want to lose my “Streak” (currently standing at 255 days). Having acquired this daily “Duolingo habit” (now just 1-2 lessons per day) has also made it quite easy to follow up with several lessons on Babbel.
I also like the standard Duolingo lesson setup, which lets me study the 7-8 new words of each lesson for a minute before I start. In many cases I can figure out the meaning from their Germanic roots.
Translating the words and sentences then seems quite easy. A feature that works well for me is the sentence dictation: "Type what you hear." Also, I like it that Duolingo has found a way to often accept a spelling error, as well as (limited) alternate translations.
Having you redo any sentences with errors towards the end of a lesson is a good move by Duolingo and enhances learning.
Babbel – I like how Babbel first teaches you the 4-8 new words or expressions: you hear them, see pictures and spellings, and then have to complete sentences with them by using the scrambled letters of each word. The grammar explanations are also very well done, accompanied with simple examples and exercises that let you understand the grammar points.
What I like most, however, are the short stories or dialogs at the end of most lessons. They require me to fill in the words that I learned in the current or in previous lessons. Not only do these sentences make sense, but they also let me hear and see words and expressions that I don't yet know (but may remember for later).
The Bad
Duolingo – I really don't like translating a Dutch sentence into English by typing the English sentence. I feel that I'm wasting my time as I'm not spelling Dutch. I do understand that it's important to translate from Dutch to English translation to fully understand the meaning. However, I find it faster and more practical to get the translation by clicking on the given English words.
But, what I probably dislike the most, are the nonsensical sentences that come up from time to time. I will never have to use, for example, "mijn neushoorn is een manntje" (my rhinoceros is a male) or "de eenden lezen" (the ducks are reading). A close second is that in a lesson most sentences are totally unrelated and that I therefore forget them quite easily.
Babbel – While there are no parts with Babbel that I dislike quite as much, there are a few features that I find frustrating, as described below.
The Frustrating
Duolingo-I certainly understand that it's difficult to create a program without any glitches. (We are also fighting those in our Gamesforlanguage courses and Quick Games). I find it frustrating, however, that at times the given translation in a word look-up is then not accepted for the translation itself.
I also find it frustrating that the Duolingo app does not give you any grammar information (at least I have not found it), the way you can get grammar help online on a laptop.
Also, the exercises "How do you say ..." and "Tap the pairs" often ignore the gender or number of a noun, or the form or tense of a verb. At times, the correlations are even downright weird.
Babbel - Different from Duolingo, any spelling error during a translation or dictation results in a mistake. You don't have a second try. Moreover, there is only ONE accepted correct translation, which can also be frustrating at times. (This is a technical issue that we can appreciate in our courses as well!)
When I can't remember a word during “fill-in” exercises when using the iPad app, I sometimes wish for a clue, maybe a first letter, etc. (The online/laptop version gives scrambled letters with the “Help” function.)
A final beef that I have with Babbel is the voice recognition feature on the app. It sometimes takes me multiple tries to get the program to accept my pronunciation. My best solution has been to turn this feature off.
100 hours
I originally started learning Dutch mainly to understand Dutch conversations at my wife's family reunion in the Netherlands later this month. Starting with 1 Duolingo lesson per day in January 2015, then increasing it to 1-2 lessons per day in May, I added the 3-month Dutch Babbel course in early June.
Adding up the time that I spent on all lessons to date, I arrive at a little less than 100 hours. While this still seems quite a bit of time, it also is clearly not enough to become fluent in a language (not even to speak about mastery...)
I am encouraged, however, that when my wife speaks Dutch with me these days, I'll understand most of it – although my responses are still halting and incomplete. We are now making an effort to speak as much Dutch as we can during the day. I'm curious to find out when that is going to make a significant difference in my fluency.
Bio: Peter Rettig is the co-founder of Gamesforlanguage.com. He is a lifelong language learner, growing up in Austria, Germany, and Switzerland. You can follow him on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram, and leave any comments with contact.
Disclosure: Gamesforlanguage.com has no business relationship with Babbel.com other than for its founders having purchased a 1-year subscription to the Spanish course and a 3-month subscription to the Dutch course. No business relationship exists either with Duolingo, except GamesforLanguage's founders are learning several languages with its free courses. See our Privacy Policy and Terms of Use for further details.
A few years ago, my wife Ulrike and I were staying in Ajaccio, Corsica. We had just arrived by ferry from Sardinia and on the drive from Bonifacio to Ajaccio noticed many road signs that did not look French. We had read up on the island by using the Lonely Planet's excellent guide Corsica and were aware of its colorful and dramatic history.
Napoleon Bonaparte was born in Ajaccio in 1769, just a year after France had acquired the island from the Republic of Genoa. And although this eventually created a strong link to France, we had also heard from French friends that tensions with Paris still existed regarding autonomy, culture, language, economic development, etc. More about that and the Corsican language later.
During a late afternoon walk, while exploring the neighborhood around our hotel, we came by a movie theater and were intrigued by the title of the advertised movie.
Bienvenue Chez les Ch'tis
The French movie playing there was “Bienvenue chez les Ch'tis.” We weren't familiar with the movie and didn't know what “les Ch'tis” meant. At first blush, we thought it referred to a phrase in Corsican. I did, however, recognize the name of the actor, Dany Boon, who is also the director of the film.
On the spur of the moment, and although the movie had already started, we decided to purchase two tickets.Groping for our seats in the dark in a nearly empty theater, we just arrived at the scene in which the new director of the local post office, played by Kad Merad, arrives in town during a rainy, miserable night. He almost runs over the other main character with his car, the local letter carrier, played by Dany Boon, who is to show the new boss his apartment.
The dialog that then develops had us soon laughing ourselves to tears: Boon's character tries to explain to his boss that there was no furniture in the apartment because it had all belonged to the former occupant: “c'était le sien” - it was his (furniture). However, in the dialect of the “Ch'tis,” it sounds like “c'était le chien.” (it was the dog)
Maybe you feel intrigued and want to watch the 2008 movie, as we did again a few days ago. The movie is not available on Netflix, but I discovered that you can get it on Amazon either as an instant download or as DVDs in original French, with English subtitles.
How wrong we were...
It was a few years later that we saw the actual beginning of the movie with the set-up of the postal director's involuntary transfer. We had, of course, realized even in Ajaccio, that the movie isn't set in Corsica, but rather in the northern part of France.
When you watch the movie from the beginning, you learn right away how this region is perceived in the south, and why being sent there is seen as punishment. The region, especially the Nord-Pas-de-Calais - quite undeservedly - has a reputation of not only being cold and inhospitable, but really being “in the sticks.”
However, a little “googling” also educated us about the fact that the “chti” or “chtimi” languages are part of the “Picard” group of languages, spoken in the far north of France and parts of Belgium.
A Language or a Dialect?
Picard, is one of the “langues d'oïl,” or “Old French” and belongs to the Gallo-Roman family of languages. Interestingly, Belgium's French Community has recognized Picard as a regional language. France, insisting on the other hand on linguistic unity, only recognizes one official national language.
If you are interested to learn more about the Picard languages, the different spellings and pronunciations, consult this Wikipedia entry, which I also used for much of the “Picard” information. You will also quickly see from the few examples below why the “ch” and “s” sounds can be confusing:
English
Picard
French
Thank you
Merchi
Merci
I am sorry
Échtchusez-mi
Excusez-moi
How much does it cost?
Combin qu'cha coûte?
Combien ça coute?
The Wikipedia article further notes: “Today Picard is primarily a spoken language. This was not the case originally; indeed, from the medievalperiod there is a wealth of literary texts in Picard. However, Picard was not able to compete with the inter-regional literary language, which French became, and was slowly reduced to the status of a 'regional language.'
A more recent body of Picard literature, written during the last two centuries, also exists. Modern written Picard is generally a transcription of the spoken language. For that reason, words are often spelled in a variety of different ways (in the same way that English and French were before they were standardised).
One system of spelling for Picard words is very similar to that of French. This is undoubtedly the easiest for French speakers to understand, but can also contribute to the stereotype that Picard is only a corruption of French rather than a language in its own right.
Various spelling methods have been proposed since the 1960s to offset this disadvantage, and to give Picard a visual identity that is distinct from French.
At the present time, there is a consensus, at least between universities, in favor of the written form known as Feller-Carton (based on the Walloonspelling system – which was developed by Jules Feller– and adapted for Picard by Prof. Fernand Carton).”
In the book When Languages Collide, Brian D. Joseph et al. note on page 161: “In the French linguistic tradition Picard has been labeled a dialect.” But one of the editors then says: “Given that Picard is not a dialect of French, as it evolved side by side with French rather than out of French, I prefer to use the label language to refer to Picard.”
Linguists may argue whether Picard is a dialect or a language, but for those learning French, this distinction is irrelevant. If you're a learner, you're just trying to figure out the meaning of what you hear.
So, if you happen to be in a region where “old French” is spoken, familiarize yourself with some of the basic pronunciation differences to standard French, and you at least, will not confuse “sien” with “chien.”
The Corsican Language
During our stay in Corsica, we learned about Corsican history and culture: Its Italian heritage in medieval times, with Tuscany and then Pisa gaining control. In 1282, the island became part of Genoa until 1768, when it was sold to France.
An Italo-Dalmatian Romance language, Corsican became “gallicised” after France's acquistion. While the Corsican language appeared to be in serious decline for many years, in the 1980s the French government reversed its unsupportive stand and initiated some strong measures to save it.
Although Corsica is a small island, its geography may have encouraged the formation of different dialects: Supranacciu, spoken in Bastian and Corte and generally in the north; Suttanacciu, spoken in Sartène and Porto-Vecchio and generally in the south; the dialect spoken in Ajaccio; the dialects of Calvi and Bonifacio, which resemble the dialect of Genoa; the local dialect of the Maddalena archipelago. A Corsican dialect is also spoken in the norther part of Sardinia.
We found this corsica-isula web site especially helpful and interesting, as it not only provides an introduction to the Corsican language, but also links to other sites and Corsican dictionaries. Corsican also has a rich tradition of writers and poets. To find out more, click here.
We have to confess that in spite of speaking French quite fluently and understanding Italian well, we were never able to understand Corsican conversations in bistros or cafes, maybe also because of the various dialects.
We certainly felt that our Italian helped us more than French for picking up a word here or there. However, the bilingualism of Corsicans is impressive, and we never had any trouble conversing in French.
Corsican Impressions
One of the strong impressions of our 7-day drive through the island - from Bonifacio, to Adjacio, through the middle of the island, Corte, and on to Bastia and Calvi - was this: Corsicans are proud of their land and their language. Nearly all road signs we saw, either had the French name painted over and often, obliterated by bullet holes as in this left picture.
While Corsicans are pleasant and accommodating to tourists like us, they don't particularly like foreigners buying land or even condominiums. While we were in Ajaccio, a small bomb exploded (nobody hurt) at the front door of a condominium, which had just been purchased by a German.
We heard stories about the ill-fated French government's efforts to re-settle people who were called “pieds noirs.” They were French citizens who had lived in Algeria, but fled after the country became independent in 1960.
A good description of this period (and many other facts about Corsica) can be found on page 197 in the Lonely Planet's Corsica. The unrest of the seventies and eighties seems to have abated (but, as the bombing incident mentioned above indicates, it's not quite finished).
We found Corsica a wonderful island to visit. We had lots of great experiences: our arrival in Bonifacio, a small town, perched on a limestone pedestal (see picture); the capital of Ajaccio with its connection to Napoleon; the rugged landscape and the snow-covered mountain tops in April, while we were driving across to Corte on excellent roads (see picture above).
In a museum in Corte we discovered a hand-drawn language atlas which showed linguistic boundaries of individual words, tracing them from the island's south to the north.And we did not even take advantage of the many great beaches, and the snorkeling and diving opportunities that fill the guidebooks.
Just watching “Bienvenue Chez le Ch'tis” again the other day brought back many memories from that trip and made us think again how powerful and ultimately wrong some misconceptions about people, their languages and pronunciations can be.
Bio: Peter Rettig is the co-founder of Gamesforlanguage.com. He is a lifelong language learner, growing up in Austria, Germany, and Switzerland. You can follow him on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram, and leave any comments with contact.
Recently we came across an online language learning site that has intrigued us. LinguaVille describes its approach as "National Curriculum Language Learning," aligning itself with the national curricula of Australia, New Zealand, the United Kingdom, and India, as well as the K-12 syllabi across the United States.
We had recently compared Duolingo and Babbel and were interested in finding out how you can learn with LinguaVille.
At this time you can learn six languages: English, French, German, Hindi, Italian, and Spanish. You can set any of these languages as your native language and one of the others as your target language.
When we contacted LinguaVille and indicated an interest in reviewing the program, we were kindly given a limited free registration and access to Spanish and French, as the target language for English speakers.
I opted for Spanish, since it's the language I'm learning at the moment and the one I'm least proficient in.
The Village Map
You'll find the map by clicking on your name, once you've registered. This colorful map (see above) lies at the center of the LinguaVille program and shows the language village. Click on the various buildings to get into them.
First, explore what's there: the Library for dictionaries; the Hospital is a helpline for dealing with concerns; the Travel Center for phrases to practice; the Trophy Shop for earned points and awards; the Playground for games. Then, you'll want to head to the School. That's where your structured learning will take place.
Two Introductory Sections:
Class 1: Here, you can learn or review the basics, such as letters of the alphabet, accented letters, numbers, days, parts of the day, meals, clothing, and parts of the body.
Beginners: In this section, you'll find 1000 basic words which you can learn flashcard-style through pictures that are first associated with their sound. You'll then see the written words in your native and target languages. Clearly, you can do this section in stages, and come back any time.
Three Levels of Difficulty/Proficiency
The best way for a self-learner to proceed is to follow the program in the order that it's presented. You can, of course, start from whatever level of proficiency that you have.
In each of the levels - Standard, Intermediate, and Advanced - you'll learn and self-test yourself on material used within the national curriculum. As expected, the content becomes increasingly sophisticated.
What makes this program efficient (I tried out my intermediate Spanish) is that you learn interactively and get immediate feed-back. Every level has a series of fun and challenging target-language exercises. You can do each of these exercises also as a test.
Exercises
• In "Multiple Choice," you're asked a question or given a brief task in your target language. As your response, you click on one of the choices, which are also in your target language. I loved using just Spanish and after a while found that I wasn't translating at all.
• In "Word Order," you're asked to rearrange a series of words into a specific order. The order may be written-out numbers from high to low, the days of the week in sequence, events in chronological order, a sequence of phrases to make a correct sentence. Again, the question is given to you in your target language.
• The exercise "Fill in the Words" shows you a short text with six gaps. From a group of words below the text, you choose the words that fit into the context. For this, you really have to understand what the short passage is about.
• For "Cloze" (or "reading closure"), you again fill in six gaps of a short text, but this time you have to come up with the correct words yourself. You're not given any choices. Needless to say, this is a challenging exercise.
• The "Verb" exercise gives you a verb and a paradigm skeleton, which you fill in with the correct tense that's required. The practice is straightforward and very useful. Who doesn't need to review verb forms?
• "Text Adventure" shows you a paragraph of text with a brief storyline or scenario. You then select the correct statement that's related to it. To pick the right one, you'll need to read the passage very closely.
• Finally, in "Dictation," you'll hear short passages of text, which you then have to write out with correct spelling and punctuation. I found this the hardest exercise of all because the texts are read at normal speed. I had to redo a lot of them.
Travel Center Phrases and Playground
On the central map of the "Village," you can click on the Travel Center to learn and review the phases of thedifferent School levels in another format. Here, the phrases(over 52, 000 of them) are arranged according to various categories (such as Business Travel, Directions, the Office, etc.), and sub-categories (such as Food, Meal Times, School Subjects, etc.)
Three different exercises (and tests) help you master the phrases. You first learn the meaning, then write the phrase after just hearing it (with correct punctuation and grammar), and finally translate it.
When you click on the "Playground" (see picture), you'll find various games, such as "Beat the Clock," "Anagram," "Matching," "Word Search," etc., to review vocabulary.
Four Things I Enjoy About LinguaVille
1. Online, interactive learning. I've become an online-learning junkie. I love learning a language by seeing and hearing words and phrases, and practicing speaking and writing. I also enjoy learning and testing myself with a variety of exercises that put language into context and give me immediate feedback.
2. Extensive, challenging content. With its 1000 basic words, 52 000 practical phrases, text passages that become increasingly more challenging, LinguaVille provides a large amount of structured content. A motivated and disciplined learner can significantly raise his or her level of target-language proficiency.
3. Doing exercises within the target language. I particularly like the many exercises in the Standard, Intermediate, and Advanced Levels that stay within the target language. They have an immersive quality that is quite effective.
4. The gamified features of LinguaVille, which include certificates, medals of achievement, and cups that you're awarded as you progress through the program.
Comparison to other online language learning sites
The other sites I know well are GamesforLanguage, Duolingo, Babbel, and Rosetta Stone. Compared to these sites, navigating LinguaVille is not simple. In addition, some of the instructions and descriptions seem overly complicated.
Although you're encouraged to follow the progress of exercises and levels at LinguaVille, you can easily skip around - which for some learner might be confusing, but for others a more fun, freer way to learn. Also, it's not entirely clear how the thousands of phrases in the Travel Center are integrated into the learning sequence. They seem to be phrases, passages, scenarios, etc. collected from the entire program. You can study them separately, use them as dictation, or play them as tests.
With GamesforLanguage and Duolingo you have to follow the lesson sequence. You cannot skip ahead. In both programs you can redo past lessons, and in online Duolingo you can “practice a skill to restore it.” Perhaps it's the simple and intuitive design here which gets self-learners addicted.
Pricing
Linguaville is not a free program. A free trial is available with school membership (or with a voucher or promotion code). Click on the link to check pricing. (School subscriptions, which add a Teacher Dashboard and an authoring option, are being priced on request. )
These rates put Linguaville at the higher end of online language-learning subscriptions.
Final Thoughts
If you're a home user and are motivated and disciplined enough to learn and practice regularly, LinguaVille could well be worth it. With its large number of texts, exercises, and tests, it is a content-rich program that can keep you learning for a good while.
LinguaVille could also be a good program for homeschoolers who have to meet the language learning goals of national curricula. These include proficiency in all four skills, especially communication skills. The national curriculum aims for England can be seen here.
Bio: Ulrike Rettig is the co-founder of Gamesforlanguage.com. She is a lifelong language learner, growing up in Austria, the Netherlands, and Canada. You can follow her on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram, and leave any comments with contact.
Disclosure: Gamesforlanguage.com has no business relationship with LinguaVille other than having received limited free subscriptions to its English, French and Spanish courses. No business relationship exists either with the other language learning apps mentioned, Rosetta Stone, Duolingo, and Babbel. See our Privacy Policy and Terms of Use for further details.
It's good to have a few basic Spanish words and expressions at hand, when traveling to a Spanish speaking country.
In many Spanish travel guides you'll find the translations for greetings, please, thank you, where is the bathroom, asking for directions, etc. Learning a few of these makes interactions friendly - and - they can also help you out in a pinch.
Knowing the basic numbers in Spanish can be especially helpful, when shopping, giving an address to a cab driver, buying a train ticket, or asking for and giving someone a telephone number, etc.
We have found that knowing the basic numbers in any language is one of the most useful things when traveling – and it's often one of the easiest to learn.
Spanish numbers are not difficult for English speakers, if you just memorize a few numbers and some basic rules. Plus, it's good to practice them so they become automatic.
Spanish Numbers 1-15
For most English speakers, Spanish numbers from 1 to 15 are not that difficult to learn and remember. Many of the English and Spanish numbers are related, and even though their spelling is different - as in: • uno (one) • dos (two) • tres (three) • seis (six) • siete (seven) • nueve (nine) These should be easy to remember.
For other numbers you may want to use some mnemonics: • cinco (five) • ocho (eight) • diez (ten) • once (eleven) • doce (twelve) • trece (thirteen) • catorce (fourteen) • quince (fifteen) If you already know the French numbers, then they'll help you out.
Spanish numbers 16-20
Spanish numbers from 16 to 19 use the inverse English model by using the prefix “dieci” in front of the single numbers: •dieciséis (sixteen) • diecisiete (seventeen) • dieciocho (eighteen) • diecinueve (nineteen) The Spanish number “twenty” is “veinte.”
Note that at times you may also see the old spelling of 16 to19 (“diez y seis,” etc.).
The numbers between 30 and 90 that end in a zero follow the same pattern as in English, by adding the suffix “-enta” (in English “-ty”) to an abbreviated form of the numbers 3 to 9: • treinta (thirty) [note the exception**] • cuarenta (forty) • cincuenta (fifty) • sesenta (sixty) • setenta (seventy) • ochenta (eighty) • noventa (ninety)
** The one exception is “tre-inta” (thirty), as the first part ends with the letter “e,” and the suffix “-inta” is added.
Spanish Numbers 21-29
The numbers 20 to 29 are straightforward, except notice the accent on 22, 23, and 26: • veintiuno (21) • veintidós (22) • veintitrés (23) • veinticuatro (24) • veinticinco (25) • veintiséis (26) • veintisiete (27) • veintiocho (28) • veintinueve (29)
And, you may also see the old spelling: “veinte y uno,” etc., which was replaced by the new spelling above.
Spanish Numbers 31-100
Here “treinta,” “cuarenta,” “cincuenta,” etc. are just linked with the separate word “y” (and) to the single digits, for example: • treinta y uno (thirty-one) • cuarenta y dos (forty-two) • cincuenta y nueve (fifty-nine) And this continues consistently through the nineties.
So, as in English, once you know the Spanish numbers 1 to 9 and 20 to 90, then 21 to 99 are a breeze.
The Spanish number for 100 is “cien,” but combined with another digit, 100 changes to “ciento”: • ciento uno (101) • ciento tres (103), etc.
The numbers from 200 to 900 combine similarly to English, except that they become one word and add an “-s,” for the plural hundred at the end. Thus you have, for example: doscientos (200) trescientos (300) cuatrocientos (400) seiscientos (600) ochocientos (800)
However, note the slight exceptions for “quinientos” (500), “setecientos” (700), and “novecientos” (900).
By just remembering these three (3) last exceptions, you should be able to count easily to “mil” (1000), as the numbers are otherwise quite regular: • 145 - ciento cuarenta y cinco • 243 - doscientos cuarenta y tres • 329 - trescientos veintinueve • 578 - quinientos setenta y ocho • 707 - setecientos siete • 838 - ochocientos treinta y ocho • 999 - novecientos noventa y nueve
Spanish Historical Dates
Historical dates, of course, are rarely written out. But there are conventions on how to say them.
In Spanish, unlike in English, you use “thousands” (not hundreds) to say a specific year between 1101 and 1999. So, 1829 is “mil ochocientos veintinueve.”
Millions, Billions, Trillions
A point of frequent confusion for speakers of American English are the high numbers that are often quoted in news reports about global finances, as for example, in the negotiations between Greece and the European Union regarding Greece's financial obligations.
Spanish and English agree on: 1,000,000 - un millón (one million).
But, for the U.S. English: one billion (1,000,000,000), Spanish uses “mil millones”
And the U.S. English: trillion (1,000,000,000,000) is the Spanish “billón” You can see the problem.
Practicing Pronunciation
Practicing the Spanish numbers also gives you an opportunity to work on your pronunciation. As in any language, getting the mouth mechanics right is important in Spanish.
The numbers “tres” or “cuatro” do not have the “r” as in the English word “tree”; for the Spanish words, the tongue is in the front of your mouth, and not farther back.
The Spanish “v” as in “nueve,” has a sound between the English “b” and “v.”
In Castillian Spanish the beginning “c” and the “z” at the end of a word, such as in “cinco” and “diez,” are very close to the English “th.” In Latin American Spanish, both letters are closer to the English “s.”
In Seville, Andalusia, we noticed that the “s” endings are often dropped. So you may hear “tre” instead of “tres” or “sei” instead of “seis".
Many Opportunities to Practice
During the day, whether you're commuting to work, noting how many email messages are in your inbox, reading the newspaper, doing exercises, etc., you'll always see numbers.
Count and pronounce numbers silently, or out loud, if you can, in Spanish. And you'll be surprised how fast you'll know them!
(And once you know the Spanish numbers, learning the Italian numbers will be easy for you. You can read more about them in our post "Uno - due - tre..." - and you can already see the similarities with the first three!)
Bio: Ulrike Rettig is the co-founder of Gamesforlanguage.com. She is a lifelong language learner, growing up in Austria, the Netherlands, and Canada. You can follow her on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram, and leave any comments with contact.
Adults have to use different strategies and methods than children, but as second language learners all over the world prove: You CAN learn a second language as an adult!
A Second Language For You?
The many benefits of learning another language are well-documented. But adults also have strong reasons for deciding against becoming bi- or multilingual. The reasons English speakers most often use, include: - I do not need to speak second language. - I can get along with my English well enough when traveling. - I am not good at learning a second language. - I don't have time to learn a second language.
What about those adults who began learning a second language, or even continued with a language they had leaned in school, but then stopped? Why did they give up?
Inconclusive Data
I recently came across this question on Quora from 2012: “What is the success rate of learning a foreign language in the world?” You can find three thought-provoking answers HERE.
I have not been able to find any other credible statistics for the U.S. or other countries than those mentioned in the answers to the above Quora question. A recent Pew Research report looked at the foreign language requirements in Europe.
While the anecdotal evidence may point to higher success rates in European countries than in the U.S., the question remains: Why do so many adults give up on learning a second or third language, even one they learned for several years during school or college? And what about the astronomical failure rates of students enrolled in language courses, including those subscribing to online programs?
I believe there are three (3) main reasons why adults give up on learning a language:
1. The “Adabei” Effect - or: No True Reason or Need
There is a wonderful expression in the Austrian/Bavarian dialect for a person who wants to be part of a peer group. The dialect word is “Adabei,” which in standard German means “auch dabei” (also with it). In the context of language learning, an “Adabei”would be someone who wants to speak a certain foreign language because his or her friends say it's the “in thing” to do.
A desire to be or do “like the others” can indeed be a strong initial motivator. But it may also be short-lived, once the excitement fades and it becomes clear that substantial effort is required.
Years ago, it was fashionable to learn French, which was then replaced by Russian, and more recently by Mandarin Chinese and Arabic.On the other hand, Spanish in the U.S. is certainly on the rise and may become not only an “in” language but also a very useful one to learn and speak.
By the same token, a person who lives in an immersion environment - as in a country or region where everybody else speaks another language - is not an “Adabei. ” Rather, such a person is someone who - out of necessity - quickly becomes a very motivated learner!
2. Marketing Promises and Unrealistic Expectations
Ubiquitous marketing promises, such as “Learn a language in 10 days,” “Learn a language like a Child,” "Guaranteed Success", etc. have raised expectations that many learners are unable to meet. Such slogans are a symptom of our new technological world, promising instant, effortless results and gratification.
We don't even need to use keystrokes on our smartphone or tablet to immediately get the most esoteric information: We can just ask Siri for it! You can buy almost anything over the phone or web. Amazon will fill your order in a day or two.
Unfortunately, our desire for immediate and effortless results also produce high expectations. For learning a second language, these expectations often lead to disappointment and a sense of failure. While nobody can learn a foreign language in 10 days, you CAN become fluent in 3 months – but only if that's your main focus during that time. (In a 2014 post we looked at estimates of how long it takes to achieve mastery in a language.)
But for most learners, the fast and easy path to fluency is an unrealistic expectation. My own experience is instructive here: I have been learning Spanish for over a year now, regularly spending 10 to 30 minutes a day with GamesforLanguage, Duolingo, and Babbel courses. I've got good basic listening comprehension and can read quite well.Since our one-month stay in Seville in March 2015, I can also participate in simple conversations (especially when I prepare for them). While I don't speak Spanish fluently yet, I know that I will get there with more conversation practice.
I've also been learning Dutch for several months now, first with Duolingo, and since early June also with Babbel, spending 20 to 30 minutes every day. I don't expect to be fluent, but hope that by the end of August, I'll have made enough progress to understand some Dutch conversations (see my earlier post). And to put things in context: I'm not a language learning beginner, but speak three languages fluently.
3. No Long-Term Plan
If you don't have a compelling NEED to learn another language, and no long-term plan that suits your lifestyle and time commitments, then your learning effort made indeed falter soon. True, classroom or online courses can be a great start for learning a second language.
But unless they are high-intensity, immersion-type courses - such as the Defense Language Institute, Concordia Language Villages, Middlebury Language Schools in the US, and many other schools worldwide offer - even a daily one-hour class, 3 to 5 days a week for several semesters won't make you fluent. Many school and college students experience that fact.
And not everybody is able to follow Benny Lewis'Fluent in 3 Months time-intensive prescriptions. However, his Speak in a Week Free language course may be just the encouragement you need to get started. (And no, you won't be speaking fluently after a week!)
“I have no time” is the excuse most frequently used. I suspect that it also hides the true reasons why someone abandons a language learning effort. Priorities change (see “Adabei” above), progress is too slow (because expectations are too high), or there's no long-term plan that integrates your learning into your daily life
Therefore, if you really want to acquire a second (or third) language, you should take a long view and first make a plan that takes into account your available time and resources: The material you learn best with, time constraints, and financial means should guide you to select from the wide offerings of free and fee-based resources: online and classroom courses, online and personal tutors, apps and podcasts, library CDs and books, etc.
If you are really serious about learning another language, you have to supplement classroom or online courses with other activities: reading books, newspapers or online articles, listening to podcasts, watching movies, and, if fluency is your goal – having conversations in your new language.
Long-term Engagement: Turning Failure Into Success
If you're wondering whether to continue learning your new language, think about a long-term view to keep you going. It's all about making a language part of your everyday life. Some questions to ask yourself: - What could make learning more fun? - How could you incorporate some language learning into your daily life? - A free Duolingo, GamesforLanguage lesson or Quick Game before breakfast? - A Mindsnack game while waiting? - A foreign Neflix movie at night? - Using your Chromecast to watch a foreign TV show? - Listening to a podcast while exercising? - Connecting up with a language partner online?
If your life is busy and you can't commit much time to learning another language now, adjusting your plan is still an option as well. By keeping a long view and calibrating your learning effort to your current situation, you'll maintain your investment and can keep building on it again later on.
Bio: Peter Rettig is the co-founder of Gamesforlanguage.com. He is a lifelong language learner, growing up in Austria, Germany, and Switzerland. You can follow him on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram, and leave any comments with contact.
Disclosure: Gamesforlanguage.com has no business relationship with Babbel.com other than for its founders having purchased a 1-year subscription to the Spanish course and a 3-month subscription to the Dutch course. No business relationship exists either with the other language learning apps mentioned, except for the Benny Lewis affiliate links. See our Privacy Policy and Terms of Use for further details.
Is relearning a language a language hard? Not if you have the right mindset.
A couple of weeks ago, when buying a laptop in one of those trendy stores, we had a typical conversation with a young saleswoman. “Oh, you guys speak German,” she beamed, as she came back from helping another customer. “I thought I recognized the language, all those scratchy sounds.”
She continued: “Well, I took Spanish in school and college. I used to speak it pretty well. But, it's been a couple of years since then. I'd really like to relearn it." She added sheepishly, "Now I couldn't say anything in Spanish if my life depended on it."
That wasn't true, of course. My husband immediately tried his Spanish on her, and she responded with a couple of simple phrases. “Okay” she said, “but I would need to go to Mexico and live there for a while. I bet Spanish would come back.”
At the moment, it looked like she was busy getting her work life together. She didn't really seem focused on language learning. But she got us thinking again about how adults can get back a foreign language they once knew.
Relearning a language has to be one of the smartest decisions you can make. There are so many benefits involved. Besides adding a notable skill to your resume, you're giving your brain a fantastic workout.
Also, knowing another language makes traveling much more fun. For more benefits, read lingholic's blog post. Simply said, if you're open to the pleasure of language learning, it's always worth it.
1. Reactivating a classroom language
When you learn a language in school or college and then stop using it, you may feel after a while that it's “gone.”
But is that really so? As studies have shown (using functional magnetic resonance imaging, fMRI, as described in this academic Sciencedirect.com article): When you learn a new language, your brain undergoes neural changes, which have short and long-term effects on language learning and cognitive control.
From such studies, it becomes apparent that a second language - even when learned as an adult - retains a presence in your brain. This neurological presence gives you a head start on various aspects of the language, ones that a newcomer would have to learn from scratch.
Traditionally, classroom learning has tended to be somewhat heavy on textbook exercises and reading, and (necessarily) a little light on speaking practice. Classroom learners acquire reading and writing skills, and at least a basic understanding of grammar.
Therefore, reading will likely be the most effective way to reactivate a classroom language that you've put aside. Plus, if you liked the writing exercises, you can easily bring this skill to life again by first copying texts and later participating in a language community on one of the social networks.
Some have found that labeling objects in their home with Post-its will boost their vocabulary. A further step would be to try one of the interactive online language programs. In some ways, they are a perfect tool for adults who want to reactivate a language.
Many of the online programs or apps have you learn or review a language in various ways: identify a word you hear, write the translation, repeat after a native speaker, figure out grammar patterns, put together basic sentences, etc. In this way, you can practice - and relearn - the sounds, spelling, essential grammar, word order, and vocabulary of the language you want to brush up.
All of the above-mentioned ways give you an easy start, and can definitely get you going. To this you'll want to add more reading, and a lot of listening, and as much speaking as possible.
Speaking is probably the hardest skill to acquire for former classroom learners. Fortunately, there are a lot of options for practicing speaking (even if you don't have family members or friends who speak the language you're relearning). If you're the social type, you'll find plenty of free opportunities with language exchange partners, language communities on Facebook, etc.
Paid options include Skype lessons, online tutors such as italki, or courses such as Pimsleur audio programs. For the latter, I would suggest starting with Level 2 or 3, because you're not a beginner.
2. Relearning a childhood language
If you spoke a language as a young child, and then forgot it because it was gone from your life, you may take a different path for relearning the language.
My own experience is informative here: My first language was German. When I was 9 and 10, I went to school in the Netherlands.
Then, after moving to Canada, I had to learn English and had little exposure to Dutch and German. It was only after the family had settled in and my siblings and I did well in school, that my family started using German and Dutch again at home. It was mostly just by speaking that I kept these languages alive.
Young children learn a language by hearing and speaking it, often during play.At the same time they are learning to make sense of the world around them. They discover objects and actions, become aware of emotions, and find out how to communicate their needs and wants.
The sounds of the words, which they hear and learn to say themselves, become deeply imprinted on their brain. For young children, the spoken word is paramount because it functions as a tool for discovery and survival.
So, it's especially language as sound, which imprints itself on a young child's brain and leaves a "permanent" mark, as this Guardian article explains. Thus, for adults who spoke another language as a child, reactivating native pronunciation and sentence intonation will come pretty easily. Listening to songs and stories has proven to be a good first step to relearning a “lost” childhood language.
Even more effective would be having conversations with a friend or family member. If he or she can gently correct your mistakes, all the better.
Then, there are other skills to learn. You may have to learn a new spelling and writing system from scratch, as well as essential grammar rules, if you had no formal instruction before. Though a child may have acquired a good-sized vocabulary, the adult has to learn grown-up, formal, and specialized language.
If you're interested in new discoveries about bilingualism and language acquisition, look at François Grosjean's book Bilingual: Life and Reality or check out his Psychology Today blog “Life as a Bilingual: The reality of living with two (or more) languages.”
Make a Plan and Build a Habit
Once you've made up your mind to get a (somewhat) forgotten language back into your life, it helps to make a project out of it. Be clear in your mind why you want to relearn the language.
Then set some goals and decide on a daily schedule that you can easily stick to. One way to start is to Build a Habit with the 20 minute Rule. The “20 minute Rule” is based on the idea that you can do anything for twenty minutes, even if you find the activity hard to get into.
So, don't think too much about it. Nike's right: “Just Do It.”
Bio: Ulrike Rettig is the co-founder of GamesforLanguage.com. She's a lifelong language learner, growing up in Austria, the Netherlands, and Canada. You can follow her on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram, and leave any comments right here!
As readers of a previous post know, I am currently learning Dutch, while continuing to improve and practice my Spanish.
As German is my native language, Dutch shouldn't be that difficult for me. And indeed, the many similarities between both languages make it much easier both to listen/understand and even to read Dutch.
However, speaking and writing continue to be quite challenging. There are several sounds that don't exist in German and that I have difficulties in reproducing. Then there are words that sound similar to German but are spelled quite differently in Dutch.
My Spanish is better and more fluent than my Dutch and that has led me to use different learning tools for each.
My Tools for Learning and Practicing
For Dutch, I am currently using Duolingo and Babbel (with a 3-month subscription). For about a month, I did two Duolingo lessons per day. Now I am down to one Duolingo lesson per day, plus 1 to 2 daily Babbel lessons.
For Spanish, I am currently using our Gamesforlanguage Spanish 1 course and Quick Games, Duolingo, Babbel (with a 1-year subscription), and the Drops app.
In the evening, I reread a couple of pages of Isabelle Allende's original Spanish edition of “Zorro.” Last year when I first read the Spanish edition of Zorro, I used the English translation along with the Spanish original. I reported about my experience in this post.
In addition, my wife and I listen to Spanish news and, once or twice a week, we watch a soap or movie in Spanish.
For Dutch, I'll practice speaking with my wife (who is fluent in Dutch), but I still need to increase my vocabulary for a real conversation. Right now, short sentences about daily life is all I can manage.
My 5 Language Learning Tips
Maximizing your exposure to the language you are learning is clearly key for making progress. If you observe how much time young children spend daily on listening, repeating, and trying out their first language, you realize that for an adult 1 to 2 hours per week of learning a new language will not be enough.
The trick is to find ways to build language learning into your daily life, in the morning, on your commute, during a lunch or coffee break at work, or in the evening at home. There are so many ways you can do that and for each person it will be somewhat different. Sometimes it's just a matter of getting a little creative.
Here are the five learning tips that are working for me:
1. Limit the number of NEW Foreign Words per Day
I have found that I can't handle more than about 20 NEW words per day. The key here is “new.” It's very tempting, once you are on “a roll,” to do several lessons a day with an online course. This is especially the case when you did well in a particular lesson.
However, rather than continuing with new lessons, I have found it more effective to redo a previous lessons or to review my errors. With Duolingo, after 2 to 3 lessons (with 3 to 8 new words per lesson), I reach my limit and then choose to “Practice Weak Skills.”
Similarly, with Babbel (where you learn 3 to 6 new words per lesson), you can review your errors or redo a previous lesson. With Gamesforlanguage (which teaches 16 to 18 new words per lesson), you can redo any of the games, starting with the ones in which you score less than 100%.
I'm using the new iOS app “Drops” for Spanish every day. Five minutes are free, and while I know many of the words, I like the fun app. It provides a great way to recall words.
2. Don't be Afraid of Making Mistakes
I have found that making mistakes helps me remember better. Duolingo has recently changed the “penalty” for mistakes. You do not have to redo a lesson if you make more than three mistakes. You just have to get 20 correct answers. Sentences in which you made mistakes, reappear later in the lesson so that you can get it right.
Babbel's Review Manager lets you review your vocabulary with writing, speaking, or with flashcards. In the PC version, you can also replay the errors of your lesson (but not in the iPad app). With Gamesforlanguage, you can just replay each game, until you get a perfect score.
3. Repeat Words and Sentences Aloud
With all three online programs, I often find myself forgetting to repeat a word or sentence aloud. Trying to emulate the native speaker is essential both for pronunciation and intonation. So, it's worth making the effort.
GamesforLanguage has a “Say it” game, in which the learner is asked to repeat a word or phrase before it appears. With Duolingo you really have to remember to repeat sentences aloud. Babbel, on the other hand, has a “Listening and Speaking” section in the full Spanish course, which lets you practice both skills.
(A "Listening and Speaking" section is not yet available in the Dutch Beginner's course.) When reading Zorro, or now my Dutch reader, I read aloud whenever I can.
I find the voice recognition option of both Duolingo and Babbel often more frustrating than helpful. When after a third or fourth attempt my voice still gets rejected, I turn it off.
4. Learn and Practice Daily
This may be the hardest task to accomplish in our busy everyday lives. However, if practicing becomes a daily routine like brushing your teeth, you've got it made!
I have to give credit to Duolingo for keeping me motivated with its “streak” concept. I am now on a 214-day streak for Spanish and Dutch. And, as I hate losing my streak, I am likely to continue practicing every day until I've aced the programs.
I know that the prospect of losing my streak motivated me several times to complete at least one Duolingo lesson late at night. You obviously can set yourself reminders on your phone or tablet. With Babbel you have the option for daily progress reminders.
Yes, my goal for September - to understand Dutch conversations during a family reunion in The Netherlands - is a motivator as well. However, it would not be enough to keep me practicing daily. The threat of losing my “Streak” however, does! (With Duolingo you can also choose to compete with others for a weekly point score, but my competitive spirit has not gotten excited about this one.)
5. Use Different programs and Tools
I find it very important to use various modes to learn and practice. Different online courses teach different words and sentences. Or, the same words appear in different contexts. All of this goes to reinforce your understanding and retention.
There are lots of language apps to add to your toolbox, such as the new iOS app “Drops” that I mentioned above. Others that have been around for a while are Mindsnacks, Word Dive, or Memrise. Old or new, use these apps to add fun and variety to your practice. Recently, I've been hooked on a fun Android app called “Spanish Injection.”
Once you've got a basic understanding of your new language, start to read things you enjoy, such as stories, novels, news articles, blogs, Twitter or Facebook feeds. For reading online articles, a browser extension is an excellent tool.
And obviously, listening to radio and watching TV not only helps your listening skills, but can keep you learning while hearing things that interest you.
To become fluent in any language you have to start speaking it. If a friend or lover cannot give you foreign language practice, or if a teacher or tutor is not in your budget - then language exchange sites provide another free or low-cost alternative.
In any event, before you're really able to participate in a conversation in your new language, you'll have to start learning and practicing. There are many online and offline opportunities to do that. By using those that work best for you and by heeding the Nike slogan "Just do it" - you can DO IT as well!
Disclosure: Gamesforlanguage.com has no business relationship with Babbel.com other than for its founders having purchased a 1-year subscription to the Spanish course and a 3-month subscription to the Dutch course. No business relationship exists either with the other language learning apps mentioned, including Duolingo, except GamesforLanguage's founders are learning several languages with its free courses. See our Privacy Policy and Terms of Use for further details.
When learning Germanic and Romance languages, English speakers are fortunate to find many “friends” or true cognates. These make memorization certainly a much easier task.
On the other hand, there are also “false friends,” or words or expressions that look (and maybe sound) alike, but mean something else.
When the meanings are quite different, they can put you on a wrong track entirely. However, this very fact - once you realize your mistake - will also help you recall them better later on.
The “false friends” that sound alike in German as in English (even if spelled somewhat differently) pose a particular problem during conversations. You don't have much time to figure out their meaning from the context. When you read a text, on the other hand, you can look up the meaning at your leisure.
If you're traveling to Germany or meeting up with German-speaking friends or business partners, a quick look through the list beforehand may prevent some misunderstandings. There are quite a number of inexpensive “false friends” books on Amazon, just in case you'd like to discover more.
Here are twenty common German words and their English counterparts:
Identical Spelling – Different meaning
You'll notice that some words are pronounced exactly, or nearly, the same in English and in German - gift, mist, handy, spot, chef, rock - while others are spelled the same, but are pronounced differently - taste, rat, bad, etc.
das Gift (poison) - gift (das Geschenk) Die Polizei fand Gift im Wandschrank. (The police found poison in the wall cupboard.)
der Mist (dung, junk) - mist (der Nebel) Räum doch gefälligst deinen Mist auf. (If you don't mind, clean up your junk.)
das Handy (cell phone) - handy (adj, praktisch) Hast du mein Handy gesehen? (Have you seen my cell phone?)
der Spot (TV ad, spotlight) - spot (der Fleck, der Ort) Hast du den neuen Spot von Apple gesehen? (Did you see the new Apple TV ad?)
der Chef (boss) - chef (der Küchenchef) Heute war unser Chef gar nicht im Büro. (Today our boss wasn't in the office.)
der Rock (skirt) - rock (der Fels) Meine Tochter hat sich einen neuen Rock gekauft. (My daughter bought a new skirt for herself.)
die Taste (key [piano/computer]) - taste (der Geschmack) Du musst diese Taste drücken. (You have to hit this key.)
der Rat (advice, council) - rat (die Ratte) Ich brauche deinen Rat. (I need your advice.)
die Wand (wall) - wand (der Zauberstab) Stell doch den Stuhl gegen die Wand.) (Go ahead and put the chair against the wall.)
das Bad (bath) - bad (schlecht) ein Zimmer mit Bad (a room with bath)
der Stock (stick, floor level) - stock (der Vorrat) Ich wohne im vierten Stock. (I live on the fourth level.)
herb (dry, tart) - herb (das Kraut) Das ist ein richtig herber Wein! (That's a really dry wine!)
Modified Spelling – Changed Meaning
Even with different spelling, but similar sound, some German words can put you on the wrong track. The first one (“eventuell”) has definitely tripped up plenty of English and German speakers alike and caused confusion and misunderstandings.
And if you are trying to practice your best German by asking: “Das Menü, bitte,” you may just wonder why the waiter suddenly brings you the daily special and not the menu!
eventuell (maybe) - eventually (endlich) Ja gut, das werden wir eventuell machen. (Fine, maybe we'll do that.)
das Menü (daily special) - menu (die Speisekarte, das Menü [computer]) Zweimal das Menü, bitte. (Two daily specials, please.)
aktuell (current, topical) - actual (wirklich) aktuelle Nachrichten (current news)
groß (big, tall) – gross (ekelhaft, grob) Die Frau dort drüben ist sehr groß! (The woman over there is very tall)
brav (well-behaved) - brave (tapfer) Die Kinder waren heute sehr brav. (The children were very well-behaved today.)
das Lokal (pub, bistro) - local (einheimisch) Warst du schon mal in dem Lokal dort drüben? (Have you been to that pub over there?)
das Gymnasium (high school) - gym (die Turnhalle) Mein Sohn geht ins Gymnasium. (My son attends high school.) die Rente (pension) - rent (die Miete) Mein Vater geht in Rente. (My dad's retiring.)
When you're taking part in a conversation, language seems to race by at high speed. German, especially, poses a challenge because of its word order. You're often waiting for the verb at the end of a sentence to make sense of what was just said.
(With German double-digit numbers, you also have to wait, and listen for the second digit before you know what the number is.)
In a stream of words, familiar-sounding ones always provide momentary relief. However, when a word has a vastly different meaning from what you think, then what follows may not make much sense at all.
English and German have plenty more false friends (also called “false cognates”) than the ones listed above. With time you'll get to know many of them.
A good strategy is to always pay attention to the context. You may identify a word as a false friend, if it just doesn't seem to fit the context at all. And don't hesitate to ask for the meaning of a word, when it doesn't make sense to you!
True Cognates
German and English also share a large number of “true cognates” - words that are similar in form and meaning and have the same root.
When you google “English German cognates,” you'll find lists with hundreds of items. Even when there's been a sound shift, cognates are easy to recognize, such as: • “das “Brot” (bread) • “der Kuss” (kiss) • “das Netz” (net) • “das Papier” (paper) • “der Stuhl” (stool, chair) • “das Haus” (house),
Plus most of the numbers, and many more. Paying attention to both true and false cognates can provide you with an easy tool for memorizing German vocabulary.
You Want to Practice Your German?
Our games and travel-story based courses are also a great way to practice your German.
With our German 1 and 2 courses you'll learn and practice German for FREE - with stories of a young man traveling through Germany and - its sequel - solving a "Blüten"-mystery in Berlin. "The Story" and easy games will let you forget that you are actually learning German!
And you can also listen to both Stories by clicking on German 1 or German 2 on our Podcast page
A recent YouTube video by Tom Scott “Why Can't Adults Learn Language Like Children?” had me also look at that question again. Tom gives a engaging quick overview of the various language learning theories that are popular today.
He uses the example of how difficult it is for English-speaking adults to distinguish between a “p” and a “ph” sound. Hindi language speakers apparently learn this distinction as children.
Tom concludes that “categorical perception” may be one explanation for the difficulties that adults have in learning a second language. Categorical perception (CP) was actually a new concept for me and I wanted to understand it a little better. Here is what I have learned so far about CP.
Categorical Perception
R.Goldstone and A. Hendrickson, in a 2009 paper, define “categorical perception" as “the phenomenon by which the categories possessed by an observer influences the observers perception.”
The highly technical paper notes that “cross-cultural evidence suggests that the learning of a particular language influences the pattern of discriminability between speech sounds.” In other words:
Once you have learned your native language(s) (yes, many children learn more than one), then the sound categories you have acquired as a child make it difficult for you to hear (and learn) the sound differences of other languages as an adult.
In the YouTube video linked above, Tom Scott cites the example of the “p/ph” sound difference that English speakers can barely hear. Similarly, speakers of Chinese and Japanese have difficulty hearing and pronouncing the difference between the “l” and “r” sounds.
Practically all foreign languages have certain sounds that do not exist in one's native language. Some we may be able to recognize and reproduce easily.Others we may never learn completely.
Color categories are another famous example. Which shades will look alike to you, or which you will perceive and name as different colors, depends on the language you speak and in which culture you have grown up.
The concept of CP suggests that as adults we have already categorized the world around us. And CP may therefore provide ONE explanation, why adults have more difficulty in learning a second language than children.
Listening and Speaking
The examples cited above relate to listening. Once we have acquired the sounds of our native language (and “categorized” them) as children, we seem to start tuning out the sounds of other languages.
Let's not forget though that it takes children more or less the first 2 years of their life with constant listening and practicing to remember and internalize these sounds. It takes them additional time before they can speak in full sentences.
Speaking requires children to both listen and imitate the sounds they hear. Once we have learned to produce the sounds of our native language as children, we find it harder as adults to reproduce the sounds of other languages.
The ability to discern different sounds and reproduce them automatically diminishes with children between the age of 8 to 10 years. Apparently, by the time they are teenagers that automatic ability all but disappears.
But with deliberate practice adults can still make progress. Attention to “mouth mechanics” can be very helpful, as we point out in a recent post. When we understand and practice how to produce a “foreign” sound, we can often get pretty close to native pronunciation. With time, we also begin to hear the differences.
Second-Language Acquisition
When looking into the various theories of second-language acquisition, I found that they fall into either a linguistic or a psychological camp. Just check out this Amazon page and you'll see many well-known names in those fields.
While these books make interesting reading for the language aficionado, they probably help you little in learning a second language faster.There does not seem to be any general agreement on the best method by which adults can learn a second language.
And, because of the changes our brain goes through as we grow up - think CP - there is NO method that lets adults learn exactly like a child, whether it's languages, mathematics, science or anything else for that matter.
What is helpful, however, are descriptions by people who themselves have successfully learned foreign languages, as adults. Opera singer and polyglot Gabriel Wyner's “Fluent Forever”, for example, combines useful learning tips with explanations of how our memory works. It's an engaging and worthwhile read for serious learners.
Interestingly enough, Wyner does not seem convinced that the children's language “learning machine” disappears in adults.
He traces a child's learning advantage over an adult to his or her longer exposure to language in their early years. Adults can typically commit only limited hours when learning a second language.
Benny Lewis, "the Irish Polyglot", in Fluent in 3 Months Premium describes his own strategies and experiences in learning a dozen languages or so after he turned 21. His tips and techniques to become fluent are fun to watch and listen to. They are also a great motivator for many committed learners.
Common to both books is this: Using various strategies, methods and techniques can accelerate your learning quite a lot. Key is using them often and consistently, always remembering the Nike tag line: JUST DO IT!
The Good News for Adults
Even if we, as adults, cannot commit the same amount of time to language learning as children, we have other advantages: We can already read and write our native language, we can devise learning strategies, use various learning resources, see grammar patterns etc.
And if we accept findings that CP will make listening and producing new sounds more difficult, we also know that we can learn to overcome such shortcomings.
A personal experience can illustrate how important it is to listen a lot to a foreign language. When I started to learn Italian a few years ago, (even after having completed all 90 lessons of the three (3) Italian Pimsleur courses), I only seemed to hear gibberish when listening to fast-talking Italian radio or TV programs.
But after a couple of weeks of daily listening, I started to discern distinct sound clusters and words. After a while, I began to understand some of the words, then entire sentences. The same happened recently again with Spanish.
No question, Spanish and Italian sounds are easier for English speakers than those of Asian languages, but the point holds: We can learn to distinguish foreign sounds with practice and effort.
So yes: Learning a second language for adults requires time and effort. However, with the right tools and strategies, adults can make good progress and achieve a high level of understanding, and - with enough conversation practice - even fluency.
Bio: Peter Rettig is the co-founder of Gamesforlanguage.com. He is a lifelong language learner, growing up in Austria, Germany, and Switzerland. You can follow him on Facebook, Bluesky and Instagram, and leave any comments with contact or below.
Some time ago we wrote a post about "Mouth Mechanics" and how simple lip and tongue adjustments can help both German and English speakers.
French pronunciation - for example of "bienvenue" - can be hard for English speakers because the language contains sound combinations that are quite different from English.
Yes, there are the nasal sounds (such as in "bien") that were especially embarrassing when you had to practice them in front of your classmates. And the French “r” and “u” and various “e” sounds can often be a challenge.
But it's not that English speakers can't produce these sounds once they are aware of some basic "mouth mechanics." Here are five French pronunciation steps that will help. You can practice them with the games below.
1. The FRENCH "r"
French "r" is everywhere and very different from the American "r." Getting the French "r" right (or even just closer to "right") will give your pronunciation a big boost. Just try pronouncing“France” the French and the English way and you should hear the difference.
Tip: The sound of the French "r" resembles the "ch" in Loch Ness.
The American "r" is pronounced in the middle of your mouth and you need your tongue to produce it.
The French "r" is pronounced in your throat. It's the same place where you produce a hard "g" (as in "go.")
You do not use your tongue. Just do a slight scratching sound in your throat.
Common words/phrases with "r":
• "très bien" (very well) • "merci" (thanks) • "je parle" (I speak) • "pas de problème" (no problem) • "américain(e)" (American) • "parents" (parents).
Note: Verb infinitives with an "-er" ending are an exception. For the "-er" ending say the English "day" or "say," but don't extend the "y" sound. Examples or words with "-er" ending:
• "manger" (to eat) • "acheter" (to buy) • "payer" (to pay) • "chercher" (to look for) • "déjeuner" (to have lunch) • "tutoyer" (to say "tu"/use the informal form of address).
But: Verb infinitives ending in "-ir", "-re" and also "-r" (without an "e" before) DO have the French "r" sound. Examples of words with "r":
French "u" is a sound that does not exist in English. But you'll hear and need to say it a lot since it comes up in a number of frequently used conversational words.
Tip: The sound of French "u" lies between the English "oo" (too) and "ee" (tee).
So, to find the mouth position for "u", first say "too," then pull your lips apart slightly to start saying "tee." Half way there, you have the French "u" sound.
Common words/phrases with "u":
If you have French friends, you'll be using "tu" with each other. There's even a French word for that: "tutoyer." But there are lots of other little daily words that you'll need to say too. Examples of words with "u":
• the ubiquitous "du" (some, masc. sing.) as in "je veux du café" (I want [some] coffee) • "une" (one/a, feminine) • "jus" (juice) • "plus" (more) • "la rue" (the street) • "sur" (on) • "salut" (hi)
Note: There is an exception. If French "u" is followed by an "n" or an "m," it is nasalized and has a different sound, unless "n" or "m" are followed by another vowel as in "un/une," as further explained below.
When vowels are followed by an "n" or an "m," the vowel has a nasal sound, and the letters "m" or "n" are not themselves pronounced.
Tip: To pronounce nasal vowels, let air pass through the nose, as well as the mouth.
One way to practice the difference, is with the minimal pair "un/une." • In the first word - "un" - the vowel "u" is nasal, and you do not pronounce the "n." • In the second word - "une" - the vowel "u" is not nasal and you DO pronounce the "n."
Common words/phrases with "nasal vowels":
A lot of short words (as well as longer ones, of course) have a nasal vowel. Examples of words with a nasal vowel :
Linguists call this sound a "schwa." In French it's known as "e-muet" or "e-caduc."
Tip: In English the same sound exists in unstressed "a" or "e": a book (uh book), the man (thuh man), etc. The phonetic symbol for the latter is an inverted "e"
Common words/phrases with the weak, unstressed "e":
It's a matter of knowing when to use the unstressed "e." It helps to frequently listen to French, and to repeat not just individual words, but full sentences after a French speaker.
The unstressed "e" or schwa sound gives a French sentence its particular rhythm. Easiest to remember is that an (unaccented) "e" at the end of a syllable or at the end of a word is unstressed. It can be pronounced as a schwa or even dropped completely. You'll find it in verb forms, nouns, feminine adjectives, etc.
Examples of unstressed "e" that is commonly dropped:
• "appeler" (to call - the first "e" is unstressed) • "il admire" (he admires - ) • "il passe" (he spends) • "il note" (he writes down) • "la banque" (the bank)
In addition, many of the short common words contain the schwa sound. Here it is pronounced.
An accent on a letter changes its pronunciation and sometimes the meaning of a word. Often, the accent tells you which pronunciation to use.
In some cases, the accent is used to distinguish between words that are otherwise spelled identically.
The acute accent ("l'accent aigu") appears only on the letter "e" - as such: "é."
Tip: The sound of "é" (e-acute) is similar to the vowel sound of "say." The letter "é" can appear at the beginning, in the middle, or at the end of a word.
Common words with "é":
• "une école" (a school) • "le séjour" (the stay) • "le crédit" (the credit) • "la clé" (the key) • "il a parlé" (he spoke) • "il a réservé (he reserved).
The grave accent ("l'accent grave") appears on "a", "e" or "u."
Tip: Connect the sound with an English word: "à" - father; "è" - fair (without the English "r"); "ù" - similar to "too".
Common words with "à": You'll most frequently see and say "à" meaning "at," "to" or "in." (The unaccented word "a" is pronounced the same way, but it means "has.")
• "à" (at, to, in) • "voilà" (here is, there is) • "là" (there, versus "la" meaning "the") • "là-bas" (over there) • "déjà" (already)
As with the word "à," the accent grave on "ù" only serves to distinguish between words otherwise spelled identically. In fact there is only one word you need to remember, but the difference is important:
"où" means "where" (while "ou," written without the accent, means "or."
The circumflex accent is used on top of any of the vowels (â, ê, î, ô, û).
Most commonly, it indicates that historically a letter had fallen away, most often a missing "s." In many cases the circumflex accent minimally affects the pronunciation of a word.
This blog post just touches on five points of French pronunciation. The list is by no means complete. If you want to review all the French sounds and letters take a look at this TalkinFrench post.
By paying attention to your mouth mechanics and practicing aloud, as you can do with our games, you can improve your pronunciation substantially. And finally, listen as much as you can to French podcasts and radio programs (like TuneIn, for example), watch films and videos, talk with native speakers.
After all: Is getting closer to sounding like a native French speaker not one of your goals?
As readers of previous posts know, I am currently learning Dutch. As GamesforLanguage doesn't have a Dutch course yet, I'm using the Dutch courses of Duolingo and Babbel. 
Duolingo - My strongest motivation to continue with Duolingo each day is that I don't want to lose my “Streak” (currently standing at 255 days). Having acquired this daily “Duolingo habit” (now just 1-2 lessons per day) has also made it quite easy to follow up with several lessons on Babbel. 
Duolingo – I really don't like translating a Dutch sentence into English by typing the English sentence. I feel that I'm wasting my time as I'm not spelling Dutch. I do understand that it's important to translate from Dutch to English translation to fully understand the meaning. However, I find it faster and more practical to get the translation by clicking on the given English words. 
Duolingo - I certainly understand that it's difficult to create a program without any glitches. (We are also fighting those in our Gamesforlanguage courses and Quick Games). I find it frustrating, however, that at times the given translation in a word look-up is then not accepted for the translation itself. 
the difference.
known as "e-muet" or "e-caduc."