Yearbook 2011

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Table of Contents Happy New Year 2011 ............................................................................................................................................. 2

Playing Around with Languages .............................................................................................................................. 2

Book Collection ....................................................................................................................................................... 2

Use It Now! ............................................................................................................................................................. 3

Learning by Doing ................................................................................................................................................... 3

The Polyglot Project Interviews .............................................................................................................................. 4

First, Forget About Grammar! ................................................................................................................................ 4

Watching Cartoon ................................................................................................................................................... 5

Steve Kaufmann's Secrets ....................................................................................................................................... 5

Reading Chinese Text .............................................................................................................................................. 6

Is Writing Better Than Typing? ............................................................................................................................... 6

Is Memorizing Effective? ......................................................................................................................................... 7

Translate Back and Forth between Languages ....................................................................................................... 7

Google Translate ..................................................................................................................................................... 7

Online Language Learning ....................................................................................................................................... 8

About the Writer ..................................................................................................................................................... 9

Further Reading ...................................................................................................................................................... 9

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Happy New Year 2011 Saturday, January 1, 2011

I hope that everything will be better in this New

Year. "歐趴" or "All Pass" to all my classmates in

the final exam next week.

Happy New Year

Selamat Tahun Baru

新年快樂

新年快乐

sen lin fai lo

laimīgu Jauno gadu

새해 복 많이 받으세요

unyaka lomusha lomuhle

Playing Around with

Languages Sunday, January 2, 2011

Studying in the international program has let me

experience the feeling of being in an international

society, where students come from more than 60

countries around the world. The international

program benefits me a lot in terms of language. I

have learned that some countries in the northern

Africa have Arabic or French as the official language,

there are 11 official languages in South Africa, and

Afrikaans is similar to Dutch as Swazi to Zulu or

Xhosa. I have also learned that people in Haiti

speak Haitian Creole, which is similar to French as

well as learning about Pidgins, Creole, languages of

countries in the Pacific Ocean, and many more

things that are interesting.

There is interesting information that I found from

Wikipedia.

The Foreign Service Institute (FSI) of the US

Department of State has compiled approximate

learning expectations for a number of languages.

Of the 63 languages analyzed, the five most

difficult languages to reach proficiency in speaking

and proficiency in reading (for native English

speakers who already know other languages),

requiring 88 weeks, are "Arabic, Cantonese,

Mandarin, Japanese, Korean". The Foreign Service

Institute considers Japanese to be the most difficult

of this group." (Read more)

The official languages of the United Nations are the

six languages that are used in UN meetings, and in

which all official UN documents are written when

budget allows. In alphabetical order, they are

Arabic, Chinese, English, French, Russian, and

Spanish (Read more)

Book Collection Sunday, January 9, 2011

Apart from playing guitar, another hobby what I

have is collecting foreign-language books. Does it

sound interesting? I have 11 languages so far,

besides English, Chinese, and Indonesian. I got

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some of the books by exchanging with friends and

some are free. I am glad to have kind friends that

helped me in collecting books. I am certainly

looking forward for more books.

The 11 languages are listed in the following:

1. Latvian

2. Kurdish

3. Gilbertese

4. Vietnamese

5. Mongolian

6. Korean

7. Dutch

8. Spanish

9. Russian

10. German

11. Swedish

Use It Now! Tuesday, February 8, 2011

I have been wondering about how the best way to

start language learning is. Then, I did a small

research by watching videos, browsing online,

going to the library and I finally found out the way.

Language teaching method at schools usually

requires students to memorize words repeatedly. I

find this way less interesting and less effective

because students will tend to forget them quicker,

instead of remembering them.

The other problem is, there is no guarantee that

those words are used in daily conversation or in

any situation where the students might likely to

encounter. If the learning material contains daily

conversations, it is fine. However, how would it be

if the learning material were poems or storybooks?

For instance, let me pick up "lavatory" as an

example. How many times does the word

"lavatory" appear in the poem or storybook,

comparing to travelers' pocket language book? In

fact, "lavatory" is one of many important words

that you need to know when learning a foreign

language.

Key Phrases

From my language learning experience, I come up

with the idea of learning few phrases that can be

applied in daily conversation directly. At least, it

can help you to deal with some basic matters. The

phrases are as the following:

Where, Why, Who, When, and How

questions

Name of places, such as lavatory, restaurant,

bank, etc.

Excuse me, Thank you, Sorry. These three

are "magic" words.

You may need to know how to say thing

related yourself, for instance your origin,

occupation, family, etc.

Learning by Doing Wednesday, February 9, 2011

Language learning requires practice, practice, and

practice. Continuous practice helps to improve

your language ability rapidly and learning by doing

is one of many good language learning methods.

You may use the word or phrase that you have just

learned in writing. And you may realize that you

will need new words or phrases to complete the

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writing. Hence, there are two things that you can

learn simultaneously — able to form sentences and

to learn new word or phrase.

The goal of language learning is to be capable of

conveying your message in the language. My

method in language learning is to write as much as

possible. If necessary, I can also find some friends

to review my writing. Dictionaries and other

language learning references may be very useful in

the beginning of your writing.

Mistake = Learn

Do not be afraid to make mistakes because

learning is also from mistakes. Note that writing in

a foreign language cannot always be done by literal

translate. If you do not know the meaning, you

may translate it to the closest meaning as possible.

But make sure someone will correct it later. Making

mistakes that will be corrected later, is the solution

to your language problem. The reader can still

understand what you mean from the context.

Besides writing, living in the country of your target

language also gives you benefits. You can learn

directly from the native speakers and you get the

opportunity to explore the culture.

The Polyglot Project

Interviews Thursday, February 17, 2011

"The Polyglot Project", a collection of story about

language learning was published in 2010. It

comprises personal experiences, from learning

methods to learning advice, of language

enthusiasts and polyglots around the world. All of

them gathered and contributed their time and

efforts for this remarkable book.

Interviews

David Mansaray conducted interviews with ten

amazing contributors of the book. They are listed

as the following:

Episode 1 : Moses McCormick

Episode 2 : Dr. Peter Brown

Episode 3 : Kathleen Hearons

Episode 4 : Susanna Zaraysky

Episode 5 : Robert Bigler

Episode 6 : Richard Simcott

Episode 7 : Luca Lampariello

Episode 8 : Michael Erard

Episode 9 : Vladimir Skultety

Episode 10: Alex Rawlings

First, Forget About

Grammar! Sunday, February 20, 2011

You may have heard an advice not to learn

grammar in the beginning or not to focus too much

on grammar. This is obviously true because

learning grammar may not keep you motivated.

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Moreover, grammar may cause boredom because

of its abundant rules. It does not mean that

grammar is not important. In fact, grammar is the

foundation to build a perfect structure of

sentences. You will learn about the grammar as

you are learning to construct sentences. It will not

be fun to spend too much time with grammar,

instead of the cultural aspect of the language. You

should be able to find a way to make your language

learning fun. This will keep on motivating you in

the progress. Good luck!

Watching Cartoon Monday, February 21, 2011

I have just realized one little but important method,

watching cartoons. Watching cartoons can be an

effective way in language learning. Cartoons are

targeted for kids, although there are a few

cartoons for the grownups. Apart from cartoons,

you can also choose kids TV programs. They usually

have lighter topics; hence, they use simpler

language in order to let the under-age viewers

enjoy.

Advantage

Many popular American and Japanese cartoons can

be found in several countries with dubbed speech

or subtitle. This is one advantage for language

learners to practice listening and reading.

Mandarin TV shows, include cartoons, in Taiwan

always have the subtitles not in any foreign

language, but in Mandarin.

Steve Kaufmann's

Secrets Tuesday, February 22, 2011

You can find Internet almost wherever you go

nowadays. It becomes the part of our lives.

Internet is a great tool that you can utilize in your

language learning process. You can find audio and

video about language learning online and keep in

your computer or any media devices. YouTube is

one of many websites that play a great role in

learning language. There are so many videos that

have been uploaded about learning language, from

tips and trick to the multilingual speakers (polyglot).

The Seven Secrets to

Successful Language Learning

I have just come across one YouTube member

under the name of lingosteve. He is known to be a

speaker of 11 languages and the founder of

learning language website, Lingq. In his YouTube

channel, he has made seven strategies to language

learning, which you can find on the following:

1. Spend the time

2. Do what you like to do

3. Learn to notice

4. Words over grammar

5. Be patient

6. Get the tools

7. Become an Independent Language Learner

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Reading Chinese Text Saturday, February 26, 2011

When I was searching about learning Mandarin on

the Internet, I found a very brilliant tip in reading

Chinese text. This technique can be applied only by

those who know Traditional Chinese phonetics (注

音 zhuyin) So, here is the technique:

1. Go to Wazu site to find several Chinese font

types.

2. Scroll down and download.

HanWangKaiMediumChuIn

(wp010-08.ttf)

HanWangMingMediumChuIn (wp010-05.ttf)

You can see the phonetics in these font types.

3. Copy or Cut and Paste to C://Windows/Fonts

4. You can use the font in your document now.

You may use this method to read interesting

Mandarin articles on the Internet. Simply copy and

paste the article in Microsoft Word and change the

font type to one of those you have just installed.

Is Writing Better Than

Typing? Sunday, March 6, 2011

I just realized about the importance of writing

when I was practicing Chinese characters writing as

part of an assignment from my language teacher. I

always type the Chinese characters rather than

writing them. Then, I realize that even though I can

type the Chinese characters, I am lacking of writing

ability.

Written Chinese characters do not give you a clue

about the pronunciation in Chinese. You put the

phonetics and choose the correct Chinese

character when you type. On the other hand, when

you write a Chinese character, you write the

character without any phonetic.

Typing vs Writing

In the technology-developed era nowadays, more

and more people rely on technology devices, such

as computer and smartphones, on a daily basis.

Hence, your typing ability is important because of

this reason. On the contrary, writing helps you with

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non-technology-related case. For example, writing

a simple note asking about direction, taking a

written Chinese exam, being in a situation where

you do not have any technology devices, etc. Both

writing and typing are important depends on your

situation.

Is Memorizing

Effective? Saturday, April 2, 2011

In the middle of my chat with a friend yesterday,

she told me that she is struggling to memorize a list

of English words. It came up to my mind about the

effectiveness of memorizing as a way of language

learning. Honestly, I did that before when I was at

school. There was a joke of people memorizing the

words are only when they are facing the exam.

They will forget what they have memorized after

the exam.

Forgetful Brain

As far as I have known, it is true that you will forget

easily. Our brain is forgetful. Hence, memorizing is

not effective if you want to be fluent in the

language. If you really like this method, you still can

do it but keep only a list of words or phrases that

you will frequently use. Do not overload your brain.

As long as you spend much time with the language,

I am sure you will remember it.

Translate Back and

Forth between

Languages Sunday, April 10, 2011

You may translate a text from a foreign language

into your native language in order to understand

the meaning. If the translation is good, you may get

the meaning. Otherwise, it will give you confusion.

This is caused by the differences in grammar,

including sentence structure, terminologies, and

the cultural aspects behind the foreign language.

Before translating back and forth between

languages, you need to have the knowledge about

those languages. Translating to your native

language may be easier; however, you need to use

the proper grammatical rule and word when you

translate into a foreign language. Some languages

share the same word for different meaning. You

should be aware of the confusion that may exist

from those languages.

Google Translate Thursday, May 5, 2011

I just found an interesting article from Yearlyglot

about language learning, which is using Google

Translate. I know that Google Translate cannot

always be reliable, but at least it helps in some

circumstances. So, the idea works in this way: You

will first need to make friends with the native

speaker or people who are fluent in the language

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that you are learning. Write a composition in your

language and translate it using Google Translate

into the language you are learning. Then, you will

learn from the corrections given by your native

speaker friends.

Online Language

Learning Tuesday, May 17, 2011

Fortunately, Internet exists today and it helps a lot

in our daily activities. The internet is also a tool to

learn language nowadays. There are several

language learning websites or forums, for instance

Busuu, iTalki, Livemocha, and LingQ. Language

learning has become so much easier and more

efficient with the existence of the internet and

websites, as well as forums.

You just need to register to the website and start

to find a language partner or take language lessons.

You can chat or talk on Skype. You even can submit

your writing composition or audio assignment to

be corrected by native speakers. It is so easy to find

native speakers or people who are learning the

same language with you.

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About the Writer

Hi! My name is Teddy, or also known as Teddy Nee.

I’m currently living in Taiwan. When I’m not

studying or working, I like to read books in various

languages. Connect with me!

Speak with me in Hokkien Medan, Indonesian,

English, Chinese, Spanish, or Esperanto.

@tdnee

+teddynee

Further Reading

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