Posts Tagged ‘Languages’

Language Course

December 26th, 2009

When anyone wishes to learn a foreign language such as Spanish, French or Chinese, the best way for him/her is to go for a suitable and extensive course which will not only enable him/her to read the language properly but will also help him to speak that foreign language fluently as well as correctly. Of course this will require a continuous and meticulous training on the student’s part, which in turn will allow them to adapt to the language properly and clearly.

To facilitate the student to learn a new language or a foreign language, a good assimilation of the course content is the first and foremost requirement. The content of the course must be adequate enough to permit the learner to have a complete hold on the language. Loquella, one of the pioneers in language learning websites offers extensive courses on languages such as Spanish, French and Chinese. At Loquella the courses are designed at par with the standards that are set by the Foreign Service Institute.

Since the courses at Loquella have been designed in accordance to the Foreign Service Institute method, the learning of a language becomes easy and enjoyable. Loquella puts emphasis on learning to speak the language properly. Thus they have developed scientific and innovative methods to teach a language. There are various language drills which are used to teach a language. The audio lessons also play a major role in making the learning easy and accurate.

The most significant feature about enrolling with Loquella is that it is flexible. Since it is an online teaching site, the learner can learn the language at their own convenience. Loquella also offers various other options to learn a language. The learner can choose the options as per their requirements or wish. This makes the site more flexible and agreeable.

While learning a language at Loquella, the learners get to choose their way of studying from four different options. The first option though only shows the other three options in an order Loquella would recommend for learning. But one can choose according to their wish. The second option enables the learner to listen to the audio lesson first and then read the sentences afterwards. The third option allows the learner to read the English sentences first, then listen to the audio lesson and then learn the foreign language sentences covered in both the English and audio lessons.

At Loquella, the learner can get the flexibility of learning and practicing one option as many times as he wishes. Proper pronunciation is a must have for any learner as it enables him/her to get understood better. Thus conversations in formal and informal topic are also covered to make the learner ready for the day to day usage of the language. Be it Spanish, French or Chinese, conversing in that language is a must do for the learners. It sometimes depends of the determination of the learner as well as interest shown in the the language to get imbibed thoroughly.

At Loquella, learners from all age groups can learn a language proficiently and accurately. The innovative methods and the techniques used by then are unique and definitely noteworthy. For further details please visit loquella. com.

Give The Gift of Languages This Holiday Season

December 25th, 2009

We live in an increasingly global society – our neighbor is from Puerto Rico, our co-worker from South Africa and our child’s teacher from Sweden! We realize as adults how hard it is to learn a new language at this point in our life, but it’s not too late for our children!
Time & Newsweek ran feature articles on the window of opportunity for second language learning – reported to be between birth and ten years old. It’s true! Why? A growing number of brain studies indicate that young children learn languages easily and retain them longer if they are exposed to new languages early in life. Experts agree that while a baby is learning one word for an item, it is just as easy for his young brain to learn a second word for the same item.
Recent studies out of York University show that children who received instruction in two languages scored twice as high on language tests than their monolingual peers. These bilingual children also read sooner and demonstrated advanced problem solving capabilities. (Dr. Ellen Bialystok, 2001)
Latest research suggests that children learning through a bilingual format will outperform their mono-lingual peers in grade school as they experience advanced cognitive development. And the added benefit of learning a second language before middle school? These children will speak the new languages with native or near-native pronunciation.
You see how quickly your child learns new things between the ages of birth and five – why shouldn’t a new language be next on the list of important things to bring into her life? Give this gift early enough, and your child will read sooner, score higher on standardized tests and have better opportunities in life. With many linguists, educators and experts agreeing that sooner is better, begin the bilingual fun now!
By six months old a baby has the ability to learn all the languages of our world – all at the same time. Up until the age of five a child still has the ability to learn five languages simultaneously. By middle school we all know learning a new language is no longer as easy as it used to be in elementary school. Children whose brains have been wired to learn languages early in life will experience advanced success in learning any language of their choice later in life.
Find a fun way to bring the language learning into your family’s daily routine. Look for programs and products that use a bilingual format for children ages birth – five. Reason being that as the young child is still acquiring skills in their native language, the new language should be presented in a seamless bilingual format with both languages presented side-by-side. This allows for better retention and higher self esteem.
Make the second language journey easy and fun for you and your child. Sing, dance and play together as you enjoy learning each new word on the path to becoming bilingual for successful travel through our very global society.

Why Chinese (Mandarin) Is One of the Easiest Languages to Learn – Reason 2

December 22nd, 2009

In my 1st article I discussed how Mandarin Chinese is an easy language to learn because of the lack of verb conjugations. Now I want to demonstrate to you how easy Mandarin Chinese is when we look at how they describe verbs in the Past Tense. Using English again as a comparison lets take the verb “to go” as an example. I go -> I went What relation does the word “go” have with “went”? NONE! There isn’t even 1 common letter between them! So think about how hard life is for the foreigner who is learning English that they must simply memorize these words that have no logical relation to one another. How about Chinese? SO EASY! In Chinese when you want to describe past tense you simply ad the sound “le” after ANY verb and it becomes past tense.   So using the verb “to go” as an example, in Mandarin Chinese it goes like this: I go -> I go “le” In order to simplify things above, I have used the English words of course.   But that’s all you need to learn in Mandarin Chinese.   Learn the verbs and just add “le” when you want to express that verb in past tense.   SO EASY!  It’s kind of like how we add “ed” to regular verbs in English. I play -> I played But of course in English we have many exceptions to this “ed” rule, making foreigners wonder if it even is a rule at all.   French of course is the same which is again why I struggled with 10 years of French.   But after only 2 years of learning Mandarin Chinese it was already better than my conversational French. Let me show you yet again how easy Mandarin Chinese is when using the Past Perfect tense.   Look at these 2 English sentences: I ate fish I have eaten fish Both are using the verb “to eat” but the meanings are completely different.   The first sentence is referring to something in the recent past (perhaps today or yesterday) while the other referring to eating anytime in the past, perhaps many years ago, conveying the idea that I have eaten fish at least once in my life at some point.   In English the verb again must change (“ate” becomes “eaten”) and further we need to add the verb “to have” in order to convey this meaning.   Mandarin Chinese? Again VERY EASY.   Simply add the word “guo” to any verb and you convey the idea of Past Perfect.   So the 2 sentences above would be “ I eat “le” fish I eat “guo” fish Notice how I kept the verb as “eat” in the above examples, as that is how it goes in Chinese.   Keep the original verb exactly as is and just add “le” or “guo” depending on what kind of past tense meaning you want to convey. Hopefully in these 2 short articles I have already built up your confidence in your ability to master this surprisingly easy language.   But I have not even begun! In the next article I will show you how easy it is to express Future Tenses.