Spanish Vocab Builder #29 - Plants

Learn Mexican Spanish with SpanishPod101.com ! Our Mexican Spanish vocabulary lists are listener favorites, and now we’ve made it even better! In each lesson, you’ll hear the Mexican Spanish words and phrases from the Mexican Spanish vocabulary lists. Join us for Mexican Spanish Vocab Builder! In this lesson, you’ll learn words and phrases for Plants. Click [...]

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News #196 - Your New Languages & Special Gift for Helping Us Reach 34 Languages!

Last time, you got the new Daily Dose App so you can learn your language in minutes a day. There’s more! This time, we’re celebrating 34 languages – that’s right, we have 3 brand new languages for 2016 – and have a special gift for you for helping us grow! Celebrate With Us! Click Here to [...]

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Teach Me Spanish: A Step-by-Step Guide for Beginners

So you want to learn how to speak Spanish? Good choice! Spanish is relatively easy to learn, because once you’ve learned how to pronounce the letters, you can sound out any word. There are no complicated pronunciation rules, as there are in English. On top of that, Spanish is one of the most widely spoken languages in the world. Spanish also has a special place in my heart, being the first foreign language that I ever became fluent in. Where should you begin with learning Spanish? Starting a new language can be daunting, especially if it’s your first time trying it outside of a classroom environment. Where to begin? What’s the most important material to learn right away, and what can wait until later? Let’s take a look at what you should do in the first hour, first day, first week and first month of learning Spanish.

Teach Me Spanish: Equipment and Time

Before we begin, you will need the following:

• Notepad
• Pen
• Computer or tablet with internet connection

Optional extras:

• Spanish phrasebook
• $10 - $20 per week to spend on language teachers

To follow this guide, you’ll need to set aside around four hours each weekend (I recommend scheduling out Saturday mornings), plus around 45 minutes per day on weekdays. I also suggest you start at the weekend to give yourself a “first day” boost. Here’s where to start on that first day...

Teach Me Spanish: Your First Hour

Your first step in learning Spanish is to create a personalised Spanish phrasebook. Why do this? In my approach to learning Spanish, you’ll focus on learning Spanish that’s relevant to you, your life, and your reasons for learning Spanish. Get a fresh notebook, and a pen, and write “My Spanish Phrasebook” on the cover. This notebook will contain the Spanish phrases that you need to know, rather than the one-size-fits-all phrases found in most Spanish courses and phrasebooks. Let’s get that first page filled! Head to the Spanish phrases section of the Omniglot website, and write down the translations for:

• Hello
• Good Morning
• Good Afternoon
• Good Evening
• Good Night
• Goodbye

Whatever your reasons for learning Spanish, these are likely to be the words and phrases you’ll use more than any others. As you write down the translations, click the Spanish word on Omniglot to hear the correct pronunciation. Say the words out loud as you write them down. Also as you write out the phrases, pick apart what you write. In other words, look inside the phrases and see how the language works. Which part of the phrase means “good”? Which part means “morning”? Figuring this out for yourself is really powerful, because the act of doing so burns the vocabulary into your mind.

Teach Me Spanish: Your First Day

Your first day studying Spanish is a Scavenger Hunt of Spanish words and phrases. Your aim for today is to collect essential Spanish phrases that are specific to you and your life. In other words, you’re preparing to talk about who you are. By the end of the day, you should have gathered phrases that allow you to answer the questions:

• What’s your name?
• Where are you from?
• What do you do for fun?
• What’s your job?
• Where do you work?

Remember, you’re looking for the words and phrases that enable you to answer these questions. When you’ve discovered a useful phrase, add it to your personalised phrasebook. Where should you look? The internet is a fantastic resource, particularly if like me you’ve got a job or hobby that’s not in most phrasebooks (I’m a travel writer, author and speaker at conferences). A phrasebook can also be helpful, as most phrasebooks include a pronunciation guide. Sticking with an old-fashioned paperback phrasebook also means you avoid the potential distraction of Facebook and email. Finally, if you’ve got any friends that speak Spanish, give them a call and ask for their help. As you write down the answers to these questions, don’t get too fancy. Keep the sentences simple for now, so they’ll be easy to remember. Also, during your research, don’t worry about collecting every phrase you discover. Ignore irrelevant phrases and pick only the ones that you think you’ll use during your first conversation in Spanish (I’ll get to that part in a minute). Try to memorise a few phrases as you write them down. That means speaking them out loud to yourself. Go over the phrases one final time once you’ve collected them all. A word of warning: Don’t stress about grammar. That will come much, much later. I like to think of learning a language as similar to learning to drive. You could spend weeks studying the inner workings of combustion engines, and reading books about the principles of driving, yet still not be able to drive around the block. You learn a car by driving. The same is true of learning a language. There’s no substitute for just doing it.

Teach Me Spanish: Week 1

One your first day, you started creating your personalised Spanish phrasebook. Now you’re ready to start using it! You’ll use it in several ways: First, revisit your phrasebook every day and work through the phrases you’ve noted down. This is the key to fluency: exposing yourself to the language over and over so that thoughts, phrases and responses come to you automatically. Second, you should add five words to your phrasebook every day. Again, focus on adding words and phrases that are relevant to your life. If you’re not sure what to add, the following are useful for most people:

• Numbers
• Days of the week
• Months of the year
• Greetings and pleasantries (such as “How are you?” and “Pleased to meet you”)

Finally, you’ll use your phrasebook for your first Spanish conversation. Before the end of this week, have your first conversation with a native Spanish speaker. I know it’s a scary prospect, but don’t skip over this part! It’s the only way you’ll actually learn Spanish. Where do you find native speaker to practise with? I recommend italki, which will hook you up with Spanish speakers you can chat with over Skype. It gives you the option of meeting with a Spanish teacher (paid, though not expensive) or a language exchange partner (free). Whatever you do, do not skip this step. It’s essential to learning the language, and the earlier you get started, the quicker you’ll progress. If you’ve got the money (and it can be as little as $5) I recommend you do your first Spanish conversation with a teacher rather than a language exchange partner. Teachers are more likely to be patient with your slow speaking speed and your mistakes, and they’ll be experienced in helping you focus your learning efforts. Language exchanges, on the other hand, are free. However, the downside is that you have to spend half the time helping your exchange partner speak your native language. Plus language exchange partners are likely to be less experienced in teaching a language. Be sure to arrange with the tutor in advance to keep the lesson entirely in Spanish. This ensures that you’ll have a chance to practice all of the Spanish you’ve learned so far. Once you practice them with a real person, trust me, you’ll never forget them. Need help building your confidence to take this step? Then sign up for my free Speak in a Week course.

Teach Me Spanish: Week 2

This week is all about embedding the vocabulary you’ve already learned, and expanding the tools you use to learn Spanish. Your personalised phrasebook is brilliant for collecting new words and phrases, but it’s not ideal for helping you memorise vocabulary. There’s where Anki comes in. Anki is available for iOS and Android, and it allows you to create your own deck of virtual flashcards to help you memorise words and phrases. What makes Anki really powerful is that is uses a Spaced Repetition System to help you memorise vocabulary. That means it prompts you to memorise words and phrases when you’re just on the verge of forgetting them. This is the most effective way of keeping them in your memory. An added benefit with Anki is that you’ll have a study aid you can use anywhere. You can pull out your phone to review a few flash cards whenever you have a few spare moments, such as in an elevator or in line at the grocery store. By the end of the day, you’ll have memorized quite a few new words and phrases without ever having to set aside any explicit study time. This week you should start reading in Spanish too. Check out my list of Spanish reading resources for ideas on where to start. Don’t expect yourself to understand everything - you’ll just starting out, so you’ll need help with most words. Keep a virtual Spanish-English dictionary so you can look up new words as you read. When you read any phrases you’d like to learn, add them to your personalised phrasebook and your Anki flashcard deck. Finally, keep speaking! Aim for two conversations with native Spanish speakers this week.

Teach Me Spanish: Week 3

By now you should have a sizable repertoire of you-specific vocabulary, enough for a short, simple conversation in Spanish about one or two topics that interest you. That is, if you’ve kept up your practice. Have you? Chances are you’ve had some days when you felt super motivated, and some days when life happened and you didn’t do any language learning. If you feel like you’ve stalled, this week is the time to put things right. Something I’ve learned over the years in my many language missions is that it’s far more effective to distribute your total weekly study time over every day of the week, than to do all of your studying in one or two days. Studying less often means you have to spend more time in each study session reviewing what you learned last time. You also risk falling out of your routine and giving up on your language mission. So keep up the daily studying! Even if you can only commit to a few minutes each time. That’s where Anki comes in handy. Your main task this week is to create a study schedule that works for you. In your study sessions, keep adding to your Anki deck and your personalised phrasebook. Did you know? On your Anki deck, you can add words or phrases. I’ve found that complete phrases are more helpful on a flash card than an individual word. Phrases give you context for the words along with correct examples of how to use them. Finally: Don’t let this week go by without at least one conversation with a native speaker. Ideally, aim for three conversations this week. You should schedule as many face-to-face conversations (either in person or on Skype) as you can fit into your schedule. When you look back at the end of your first month and see how far you’ve progressed, you’ll find that conversations with native speakers were the cornerstone of your learning.

Teach Me Spanish: Week 4

This week is all about maintaining the healthy study habits you set up last week. Follow the schedule you set for yourself, and see how it works. What if you find you’ve been too ambitious? Tweak your schedule so that it works for you. The important thing is that you study every day, even if it’s just for a few minutes. Set your sights too high, and you’ll overwhelm yourself and end up quitting. Here’s what to focus on this week:

• Keep adding to your personalised Spanish phrasebook and your Anki deck
• Listen to a Spanish podcast or radio show (we’ve collected some of the Internet’s best Spanish listening resources). Don’t stress about understanding what you hear, just treat it as an immersion experience.
• Find a Spanish song that you enjoy. Write out the lyrics then sing along.

Most important of all: aim for four conversations with native speakers this week. Speaking should always remain top on your list. After all, your goal is to learn how to speak Spanish.

Teach Me Spanish: Month 2 and Beyond

Follow the schedule above, and you will surprise yourself with your progress. It’s amazing what having real conversations with native speakers does for your confidence. Keep that confidence and swagger! Around two thirds of any given conversation, article, song, podcast or article (in everyday use) is made up of just 300 words. Fluency could be much closer than you think. No matter what route you take to learning Spanish, just be sure to do what works for you. That’s the only sure-fire way to learn, and keep learning, your new language. What approach do you take when learning Spanish? Let me know in the comments.

The post Teach Me Spanish: A Step-by-Step Guide for Beginners appeared first on Fluent in 3 months - Language Hacking and Travel Tips.

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Episodio 184: Seguir una dieta

In this episode we explain how to lose weight without feeling hungry. Learn some Spanish vocabulary while you learn how to have a healthier life. Transcript available: " Hola y bienvenidos de nuevo a Spanishpodcast.net El invierno va avanzando y cada vez falta menos para que volvamos a tener buenas temperaturas. Es por eso, que en estas fechas, la gente empieza a pensar en ponerse a dieta para bajar los kilos de más que ha ganado durante las navidades ... "

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Newbie Lesson S4 #23 - I’m Going to Put You in Your Place in Spanish!

Learn Spanish with SpanishPod101.com! While you’re minding your business at the train station, a young boy approaches you and asks you for directions in Spanish. When you tell him where to go, he tells you that you used the wrong Spanish word. Who does this young Spanish-speaking whipper-snapper think he is, telling you that you’re [...]

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Episode 20 (Preview) – Season 4 – Coffee Break Spanish

In this lesson we join María for a diary entry in which she talks about Rory’s plans to go searching for the sunken treasure. The dialogue features many complex grammar points and interesting idiomatic expressions, and these are discussed by our hosts.

In the preview episode available here on the Radio Lingua site, on iTunes and on Soundcloud, you’ll be able to listen to Carmen and Mark’s introduction, to the core text of this episode, and to the summary in English of what happens in the text. For a full analysis of the text and in-depth discussion of the words and phrases contained in the episode, you can subscribe to our premium version. For further information, please see below.

Accessing the Premium Version

The premium version of Coffee Break Spanish Season 4 provides additional materials which will help you move forward more effectively with your advanced studies of Spanish. The premium version includes the following elements:

• full-length audio episode: in each episode Mark and Carmen discuss the language covered in each text in depth, providing further examples and testing you on your understanding;
• transcript: a full transcript of the entire episode including notes on complex language and grammar points;
• bonus audio episode: test yourself on the key constructions included in the audio episode with this bonus audio translation exercise.

The members’ version can be accessed through our membership system. You can purchase a membership using the links below.

• Season 4: Lessons 1-40
  £79.00 GBP inc VAT / approx $112.00 USD ex VAT for non EU customers)

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Why Tonal Languages Aren’t as Hard as You Think

Here’s my take on language difficulty: All languages are created equal. Mandarin Chinese. English. Russian. Arabic. You name it. They all have their own challenging aspects. But - here’s the kicker - humans can speak all of them. I’ve yet to hear about a language that went extinct only because it was so difficult to learn. If I’m wrong, please let me know. All that said, some languages appear harder than others. Don’t they? Some have genders. Some have more tenses than others. Some have different alphabets. Some even have tones. “Oh, nooooooooo! Tones!” A lot of people feel intimidated by the prospect of learning a tonal language simply because they think it’s so hard. In this article, I’ll show you why tonal languages are not as hard as you may think. But first of all, remember this: English uses intonation.

Tones in English

Think about the word “really”. Depending on the tone you use, it can be used to express disappointment (really?), surprise (really!), or sarcasm (really…). The only difference with English is that the tones aren’t as fixed as they are in tonal languages. With tonal languages, tones aren’t always fixed (for example in songs, or when you’re yelling), but they’re generally consistent, and they’re part of the grammatical structure of the language. Whereas in English, tones are used to express emotion. Looking at the example of “really” again:

• If you say, “Really?” then you’re asking a question.
• If you say, “REALLY!” then it shows excitement.
• If you say, “(Hmmm) really…”, than it expresses doubt or negative emotion.

That’s why it’s difficult to detect emotion when we send messages on our machines. On smartphones and computers it’s hard to tell what kind of tone of voice we are using. That’s why we have EMOTICONS ;) English speakers usually use a high intonation when asking a question and a low intonation when bearing negative news (think when somebody gives condolences for a relative who recently died). But, I’m not trying to argue that English is a tonal language. It’s not. I’m just trying to make it clear that English uses tones to communicate, whether we realize it or not, and learning a tonal language isn’t as foreign or as difficult as we think it is. If you speak English, then you’re already familiar to some tones. In Vietnamese and Thai, the rising tone is very similar to the intonation English speakers use when asking a question. Or to take another example, think of a little kid shrugging his shoulders and saying, “I dunno!” The intonation you are thinking of is very similar to the hỏi tone in Vietnamese. Though tones from English may not line up perfectly with new ones you will learn in a tonal language, sometimes they are quite close, giving you a nice little head start.

Can “Tone Deaf” People Speak a Tonal Language?

Maybe you’re reading this thinking… “But, wait! What if I’m tone deaf?!” This is another preventative wall people often put up. I’m here to tell you that you are wrong (no offence). I’m a musician, and some people may tell me I have an easier time recognising tones when I’m learning a tonal language due to my musical background. The truth is, I know plenty of musicians here in Vietnam that can’t speak Vietnamese one bit. I also know plenty of Vietnamese people that can’t sing well! Being a musician may help, but mostly because musicians love sound. You can love it, too. If you believe that you are at a disadvantage because you are not musically talented or you are tone deaf, then you’re wrong. When I was in high school, a Brazilian exchange student named Eduardo lived with me for three months. When he first arrived, he could barely speak any English. After three months, we became best friends and brothers, and his English was phenomenal. One day, about a month after he arrived, we were hanging out with my friend, Ashley. At the time, Eduardo’s English was pretty good, but he was still learning and making mistakes. We were walking from my house to the park down the street and we decided to sing some songs to pass the time. Classic high school thing to do! Eduardo and I started singing whatever Taylor Swift song was popular at the time, but Ashley didn’t join in. “You don’t like this song? Come on, sing!” I encouraged her. “No, no. I can’t,” she replied. “Why not?” Eduardo asked in his heavy Brazilian accent. “You don’t want me to sing, trust me. I’m tone deaf,” she replied. Eduardo’s face suddenly became serious. “On my god! Have you gone to a doctor for help?” Ashley and I busted out laughing! But, Eduardo had no idea what was going on. She explained to him what she meant. Then we all had a chuckle. Except Eduardo didn’t really think it was funny, because he translated “tone deaf” literally into Portuguese, which didn’t make sense. had never heard of the concept “tone deaf” before. What’s the point of this story? “Tone deaf” is not real as long as you don’t believe that it’s real. [caption id="attachment_17671" align="alignnone" width="740"] Nature is real. Being “tone deaf” is not.[/caption] Musicians may have a little bit of a head start because they tend to pay more attention to sounds, but you are just as capable. I don’t care how bad your singing voice is or whatever excuses you may make up in your head. You are able to learn a tonal language and you are not at a disadvantage. You just have to remind yourself of` that. Another reason you can learn a tonal language easily is...

Tonal Languages Have Fewer Words to Learn

With tonal languages, you don’t need to memorise nearly as much vocabulary. In Vietnamese, ma (ghost), má (mother), mà (but/which), mả (tomb), mã (horse), and mạ (rice seedling) all have different meanings. Same letters, but different tones. Once you conquer the tones, it’s easier to add vocabulary because you have fewer combinations of words to choose from.

Tonal Languages Often Have Simpler Grammar

For most tonal languages, there is no verb conjugation, no tenses, and no gender. For example, in Vietnamese, “Hôm quá, em đi đâu?” means, “Where did you go yesterday? Its literal translation is: “Yesterday, you go where?” To talk about the past or the future, you simply add one word. But, in this situation, you don’t even need to, because it’s already implied that you are talking about the past when you say yesterday. You also don’t have to worry about conjugation or tenses (my LEAST favorite part about learning French) at all! Literal Vietnamese translation breaks down as follows:

• Tôi muốn ăn cơm:“I want eat rice.”
• Em ấy muốn ăn cơm: “She want eat rice.”
• Ngày mai họ muốn ăn cơm: “Tomorrow they want eat rice.”

For negation, you just add one word (không) and the rest of the sentence remains the same. Tôi không muốn ăn cơm: “I no want eat rice.” Pretty simple, huh?

What’s the Best Way to Learn a Tonal Language?

Learning a tonal language takes time and effort (so does learning ANY language!), but here are some tips and tricks that will surely help you in your journey. And remember to be patient... No one sits down at a piano for the first time and knows how to play a 12 bar blues in E minor. No one can juggle 5 bowling pins the first time they try juggling. No one can complete a triathlon the same day they learn how to swim and ride a bike. You get the point. Building skills like these take time; you’ll need to be patient.

Step 1: Start with Exposure and Mimicry.

Studies prove that the first time our brains are exposed to tones, we can’t differentiate them. However, after a certain amount of exposure (a few weeks or maybe even a few months, everyone is different), we’ll have a breakthrough and we’ll be able to recognize tones and differentiate them. Think about a baby boy in China learning Mandarin Chinese. He’ll start learning words and sounds far before anyone tells him how many tones they are, or what they look like on a graph. How’s he going to learn these words and sounds? By mimicking his mom and dad. So, instead of studying and analyzing the tones first, start by listening to them. Search the web for videos in your target language. Listen to radio stations. Stream music. Even if you can’t understand anything and it sounds confusing, just listening to the language will help you learn the flow and rhythm, as well as getting you familiar with the tones. As you listen, try to mimic what you hear. Start by mimicking words and short sentences. It won’t matter that you don’t know what you are saying, because just by speaking, you are allowing your brain to become familiar with the tones. Think of it as listening to a song and then repeating back only the melody. Remember to be patient. Everyone struggles through this stage.

Step 2: Master the Alphabet (Exception: Chinese)

If you can’t pronounce the new sounds of your target language, then the tones are going to be even harder to learn. Fix this by mastering the alphabet (with Chinese being the exception to this rule). That way, once you try to tackle the tones, you’ll be familiar with the sounds and be able to pronounce the words correctly. Adding new sounds and new tones to your “vocabulary” will be overwhelming, and you might even confuse the two. Learning whole words and grammatical structures can wait. It doesn’t matter how many words you know or how well you can write a sentence. If you don’t know the tones, then no one is ever going to understand you when you speak.

Step 3: Learn One Tone at a Time

Don’t overwhelm yourself and learn all of the tones at once. If you do this, it’ll be the same as when you go to a party and you are introduced to eight people all at once. After shaking their hands, you’ll realize that you didn’t remember a single name. Instead, learn one tone and spend a week or two practicing it. Once you are confident, then move on and learn the next one. Every time you learn a new tone, you should review the tones you’ve already learned by comparing them to each other. Physical actions can help with this. Have fun with it! Rising tone? Stand up on your tippie toes. Low tone? Make an angry face. Heavy tone? Hold out your fist. The more fun you have the easier it will be to remember. [caption id="attachment_17673" align="alignnone" width="740"] If you jump up and down like this every time you practise the rising tone, I guarantee you’ll remember it. Or, you’ll get really tired. Or, both![/caption]

Step 4: Apply the Tones You Learn to English

Before applying the tones to new vocabulary, practice the tones on a non-tonal language that you already speak. It’s going to seem awkward at first. But, trust me, it will help. If you introduce too many new concepts (vocabulary, pronunciation, AND TONES), it’ll be overwhelming and no fun at all. Once you can apply the tones to English words you already know, then you’ll be able to recognise them more easily. Then, you can start using them with vocabulary in your target language.

Step 5: Find Native Speakers to Practise With

You can’t learn tonal languages alone. Well, you may be able to, but it’ll be a long and hard process. You’re going to need help from someone who knows the language. It can be a teacher, a friend, or your landlord. Just make sure they’re willing to take the time to help you out. If you are living in a country where your target language is spoken, practise speaking with the locals as much as you can. Listen to them and try to mimic them as much as possible. If you’re learning Thai, go to the family owned Thai restaurant near your house and tell them you are learning Thai and try to practise. I’m serious. Two years ago, when I was in New York City, I took two 45-minute subway rides just so I could go to a Ghanaian restaurant to eat Ghanaian food and practice my Twi. The restaurant owners were so happy! Not only did they help me with my Twi, but they also gave me a discount on the meal! And don’t be afraid to make mistakes! Think of it as learning how to ride a bike. It’s hard to get the feel for it at the beginning, but once you figure it out, it suddenly clicks. As you’re learning, you may fall from time to time (in this case, forget the tones or make mistakes), but every time you get back on the bike, you’re one step closer to riding it like a pro. Another thing you can do is record yourself practising your tones and send the recording to a native speaker and ask them to correct you. I actually did this to practise my Patois (Jamaican). I sent voice messages through a messenger app called Whatsapp. My friend would respond using the correct accent, and then I’d try to mimic her the best I could. You can find language exchange partners to do this with using the HelloTalk app. My favourite site to connect with native speakers on the web is italki. When you need help, just ask. Most people love to help others learn their language. If they agree to help you, ask if you can take them out for coffee or lunch once or twice a month. Alternatively, for long distance friends, ask if you can do a Skype call. You’ll never know until you ask. Before I moved to Vietnam, I reached out to my high school friend, Huy, and told him that I was moving there. I hadn’t talked to him in over 4 years, but he was super excited that I was going to his native country. He even offered to help me learn Vietnamese! Even though he was in busy in medical school, he still taught me for an hour on the phone before I left. The vocabulary he taught me ended up being more useful than anything I could find in books or online.

When the Going Gets Tough, Just Keep Going

Even when things are difficult and you want to quit learning a tonal language, keep going. It’s worth it! Without patience, none of the steps above will do you any good. It will take time to master tones. But, try your best not to get frustrated, and you’ll see for yourself that learning a tonal language is not as bad as you may think. When I first started learning Vietnamese (fall of 2013), I was stubborn. I neglected the alphabet and the tones. I refused to pay for a teacher because all of them insisted that I learned the alphabet and the tones. I wanted to learn words and phrases, not sounds! I was not patient. After casually (and inefficiently) learning Vietnamese for about 8 months, I still didn’t know the alphabet or the tones. Then, I spent 25 days on a reality TV show speaking only Vietnamese, and I was finally forced to figure it out. One month after I got back, I participated in a stand up comedy compilation. All in Vietnamese, of course. I am not Superman. In fact, I am far from it. I am lazy, unfocused, and impatient. Plus, I never hired a teacher because I stubbornly convinced myself that I couldn’t afford it! But, if I could manage to get on TV telling jokes in a tonal language, then you are more than capable of and speaking one! The only thing stopping you is yourself. Now tell me: What tonal language have you neglected because you thought it was too hard?

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Episodio 183: Cantar las cuarenta

What's the meaning of 'cantar las cuarenta'? Learn Spanish with this episode and practice Spanish pronunciation and conjugation with us. Transcript available: "Hola a todos y bienvenidos a un nuevo episodio de SpanishPodcast.net En esta ocasión os vamos a explicar una expresión utilizada en español. No es una expresión que se utilice todos los días, pero sí que podemos escucharla con cierta frecuencia. Es una expresión que se utiliza en todo tipo de contextos: formales e informales. Aunque esto es verdad, os recomendamos utilizar esta expresión en contextos informales ... "

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News #195 - New Free App! Get Daily Mini-Lessons on the iPhone & iPad

The year has just started and we already have new study tools for you! What’s new? Daily 1-minute mini-lessons with the Daily Dose App. Learn a little bit of language every day! Free! Click Here to Download the Daily Dose App for the iPhone & iPad! Click Here to Get 20% OFF Premium! Ends January 27th, 2016! In [...]

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Spanish Vocab Builder #28 - Music

Learn Mexican Spanish with SpanishPod101.com ! Our Mexican Spanish vocabulary lists are listener favorites, and now we’ve made it even better! In each lesson, you’ll hear the Mexican Spanish words and phrases from the Mexican Spanish vocabulary lists. Join us for Mexican Spanish Vocab Builder! In this lesson, you’ll learn words and phrases for Music. Click [...]

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How to Speak Korean – It’s Easier than You Think

Korean is hot property. Interest in the language has soared over the past five years. [caption id="attachment_17635" align="aligncenter" width="506"] Google searches for "Korean", 2009 - 2015[/caption] “Gangnam Style” by Korean pop icon Psy was the first YouTube video to reach one billion views (and the first to hit two billion views). [caption id="attachment_17639" align="aligncenter" width="634"] Korean pop star Psy performs "Gangnam Style".[/caption] K-Dramas - Korean television dramas - are a rising trend that’s set to take the world by storm. Korean novels such as Please Look after Mom are starting to enter the international bestsellers list too. [caption id="attachment_17636" align="aligncenter" width="272"] Bestselling Korean novel, "Please Look After Mom".[/caption] What’s more, South Korea is a young, tech-savvy country that’s home to popular tech brands including Samsung and LG. Why not make Korean the next language you learn?

Is Korean Difficult?

Although Korean might be ranked as one of the more difficult languages to learn by the Foreign Service Institute (FSI), it is by no means impossible. In fact, compared to Japanese and Chinese, Korean has some huge advantages that make it easy to learn. Let’s find out more about these.

Why the Korean Alphabet is Easy to Learn

The first step in learning the Korean language is becoming familiar with the Korean alphabet, as it’s likely considerably different from the other languages you’re familiar with. When first seeing the Korean alphabet, many people assume that it is just a bunch of squiggles and that it is as impenetrable as learning the thousands of Chinese characters that students of Mandarin face. Believe it or not, this causes some learners to give up before they even start! While there are ways of learning Chinese and Japanese characters quickly, the Korean alphabet is nothing like Chinese characters. It is far easier to learn than even the Japanese ‘script’ alphabets of Katakana or Hiragana, and maybe even Cyrillic. The reason for this goes back centuries and lies in its origin. Unlike other alphabets that grew organically, Hangul, the Korean alphabet, was invented. Not only was it invented, but it was made with the specific purpose of being easy to learn and use. Basically, it’s almost impossible to design a simpler writing system than Hangul that would still work with the Korean language. It is said that “a wise man can acquaint himself with them [the alphabet] before morning is over; a stupid man can learn them in the space of ten days.” The truth is that using modern learning techniques, anybody can learn Hangul in just ninety minutes. Think about that for a second – this language was constructed with language learners in mind! Hangul exists not to confuse and intimidate learners, but rather to give them the quickest access to Korean culture possible. The alphabet itself is not intimidating at all – the only intimidating part is the initial unfamiliarity you can get past in less than ninety minutes. With only twenty-four letters in the Korean alphabet, it doesn’t take long to learn. Equally, while some writing systems look impossible to scribe, Korean is easy. One of the letters is a circle, one is a square, and two are literally straight lines! Hangul has another huge advantage over Chinese characters in that it is phonetic. Even if many Chinese characters may have phonetic elements to them, Korean is entirely phonetic. There aren’t hidden sounds or pronunciations that new learners are expected to know right off the bat. In fact, it has this advantage over the Latin alphabet too. For example, if you are an American travelling to the U.K. and you come across a sign saying ‘Leicester’. You may well assume that this is read ‘Lie-kest-er’ when it is in fact pronounced ‘Lester’. There are countless examples of this in English and in the Romance Languages. For example, there are many different ways to pronounce ‘ough’ in English. The differences in spelling and pronunciation can make it difficult to put two-and-two together. Yet, you are fluently reading English right now, despite the tricky spelling and pronunciation that comes with the territory. If you can read Hangul, then it is very rare that you will have similar problems with pronunciation. When pronouncing a Korean place or name, there are only a handful of situations where the pronunciation isn’t exactly the same as how the word is written. Luckily, you can easily learn these exceptions in no time! That’s why it’s easy to connect written and spoken Korean. For example, if you hear somebody talking about going to an ‘an-gwa’ then you might remember that word when you are walking down the street and see a sign saying ‘안과’ above a shop selling spectacles. The link between the sound and the written word makes it easier to remember these new words. After you become familiar with the characters in the language, acquiring new Korean words will happen in no time! Hangul is so easy to learn, that an online comic can teach it to you in 15 minutes!

Word Families: How Korean Words Are Built

You might be thinking ‘if the Korean alphabet is so logical, then why are all the letters jumbled up instead of just being in a straight line?’ Well, this is the genius part of the Korean alphabet that makes learning new words and ideas very simple! However, it is most likely different from the letter orders in the alphabets you are most familiar with using. In Korean:

• ‘ㅅ‘ sounds like ‘s’;
• ‘ㅏ’ sounds like ‘a’;
• ‘ㄴ’ sounds like ‘n’.

When put together they look like ‘산’ , which is pronounced as ‘san’. Rather than being just three letters in a line, it makes a nice self-contained block! Korean is essentially made up of three types of words:

1. Words that are ‘pure’ Korean;
2. Words that are based on English (we will come to these later);
3. Words that are based on Chinese characters.

When we see 山 in Chinese we know this means mountain. Equally, in the Korean words that are based on Chinese, each block in Korean has the same meaning as a Chinese character. 산, in this context usually means ‘mountain’. This means that any time we see 산 at the end of a word, we can guess that it probably has something to do with a mountain. Easy enough, right? In English, the spelling of the words ‘volcano’ and ‘iceberg’ are totally different from ‘mountain’. In Korean, they are 화산 (fire-mountain) and 빙산 (ice-mountain). This can help you learn words very quickly and guess new words without ever seeing them before. When you learn one word, you will have access almost instantly to other words and phrases that build upon that first word. For example, from our earlier word 안과, if we are walking around the streets and see words like 내과, 치과, 피부과, etc., then we can guess that they have something to do with medical care. Equally, if somebody asks if you wear 안경 then we can guess that they are talking about glasses. Look at the following list to see how quick it can be to learn new words using a bit of logic.

• 1 (and sun) = il
• 2 = ee
• 3 = sam
• 4 = sa
• 5 = o
• Moon = wol
• January = il-wol
• February = ee-wol
• 1st March = sam-wol il-il
• 2nd April = sa-wol ee-il
• 3rd May = o-wol sam-il
• Country = guk
• Korea = han
• Middle = jung
• Person = in
• Language / fish = eo
• Korea = Han-guk
• China = Jung-guk
• Korean language = han-guk-eo
• Chinese person = Jung-guk-in
• Mermaid = in-eo

How to Pronounce Korean Words: No Tones

When you begin learning Korean, you’ll start with learning how to read words in the Korean alphabet, then move on to learning how to pronounce those words. While learning pronunciation can be intimidating at first, it’s easier with Korean that with many other languages. Each Korean word, or letter-block, has several different meanings. However, they are all pronounced the same way. This is great news as you don’t have to worry about tones,. Tones are an entire additional element to language that can make the learning process much more complicated. Of course, the fact that one word can have many different meanings can be confusing. For example, 어 (pronounced like the ‘o’ in the word ‘song’) often means either ‘fish’ or ‘language’. However, realistically, how many times are you going to be having a conversation that involves both fish and language? Context clues are everywhere in Korean and will greatly speed up the learning process for beginners.

Konglish: You Already Know Thousands of Korean Words

Every day new words are added to languages. The good news is that with Korean, these new words are often based on English. That means that every day you are getting better at Korean without even studying (unless you are North Korean)! Some Korean words such as computer, taxi, and ice cream are almost exactly the same as English words in both their meaning and pronunciation. Other words are based on English, but have slight differences to standard English. However, because they are based on English words, they are easy to remember. As a speaker of English beginning to learn Korean, you will find that you are already pretty familiar with some Korean language words and concepts – it’s almost like the work was done for you! The parallel between Korean and English words isn’t the only easy part about learning Korean -- Korean tenses and grammar are also much more straightforward than languages like French and Spanish.

Korean Grammar Is Really Easy

If your average French class at school consisted of hour upon hour of ‘I am’, ‘he is’, ‘they are’ and so on, then try not to jump for joy when I tell you that you don’t need to do this in Korean. In fact, when you start out learning Korean, it’s best not to bother with pronouns at all. When learning Korean, you can speed right through conjugation pretty quickly. Korean verbs change based on several factors, such as tense and politeness level. However, even when they do change, then they change in a predictable way based on the final consonant of the verb (or vowel if it ends in a vowel). Since there are a limited number of consonants, and only about five types of irregular verbs, learning how those verbs change doesn’t take long. Even better, the verbs stay the same when the pronouns in the sentence change. For example ‘to do’ (하다) will always be 해요 (do) regardless of whether ‘I do’, ‘he does’, or ‘they do’. Pronouns are rarely used in Korean, so you can often just say the verb. The other person can guess from context who you are referring to. As a result, here is a verb conjugation list for the verb 먹다 (to eat) in the present tense:

• I eat – 먹어요
• you eat – 먹어요
• he eats- 먹어요
• she eats – 먹어요
• they eat – 먹어요
• we eat - 먹어요 (in case you didn’t notice, they are all the same).

I have more good news: this applies to adjectives too! If you want to tell somebody that the gimbap, a popular Korean street food, was delicious, then you can just say ‘delicious’. Likewise if you want to ask somebody else if that food was delicious then you just ask, ‘delicious?’ Tenses in Korean are also regular, so you don’t need to learn extra words like you do in English (teach-taught, is-was, etc.). There aren’t any special past participles, either. Instead you just stick an extra word onto the end of the sentence to change it from ‘ate’ to ‘have eaten’. Easy enough, right? Luckily, due to how straightforward grammar and tenses are in Korean, you can make a lot of progress in learning Korean before you have to tackle the more complex elements of the language.

Deal With the ‘Difficult’ Parts of Korean Down the Road

When learning Korean, you can put off the difficult parts of the language for later. One difficult aspect of Korean is that it is a hierarchical language. This means that you use different words depending on who you speak to. While this sounds daunting, if you just use the regular form of the word (verbs that end with ‘yo’) then nobody will be offended. Stick to the “yo”, and you’ll be good to go! Apart from that, if you use the wrong word with somebody who is older than you, the worst that will happen is that they will correct you (optimists could see this as ‘the worst that will happen is that you will receive some free expert tuition from a native speaker’). As you get better at Korean, you can start using the different levels of language properly and fluidly. However, you don’t have to get worked up about early on in your language study. There’s no reason to be apprehensive about using your new Korean knowledge with native speaking strangers – if anything, it’ll only stand to help you acquire more knowledge! If you are wondering how honorifics and hierarchy work in Korean, basically there is a way of speaking for people who are close to you, and a way for speaking to people more distant. The more distant version (ending in ‘imnida’ or ‘sumnida’) often comes up in textbooks early on. However, you will only ever use it if you are doing a job interview, giving a presentation, or speaking on the news (things that are unlikely for beginner students to be doing). Therefore you should focus on the ‘yo’ system, which you will be using much more often. If you are speaking to somebody who is younger than you and close to you, then you can drop the ‘yo’. This will be handy when you begin making Korean friends and acquaintances. Honorifics are used for showing respect to people above you. This basically involves inserting a 시 somewhere into the verb (not too difficult in itself). Some words have special versions that should be used when speaking using honorifics. For example ‘to eat’, ‘to exist’, ‘birthday’ and ‘age’ all have special words (there aren’t too many special words, only about twenty or so, so don’t worry). You should never use honorifics when talking about yourself, but unlike Japanese, you can use them when referring to your own family (especially your grandparents). These different levels of Korean often scare people, but English and other languages also have these levels (For example, “to die” vs. “to pass away”). When you think about it, Korea’s hierarchical system is easier to explain than trying to explain these levels in the English language, and you’ve already been using a hierarchical system for years whether or not you’ve realized it! Once you’ve learned the more approachable parts of Korean like the alphabet, tenses, and words based on English, you’ll feel comfortable enough to begin using Korean conversationally. It’s through conversation and exposure that you’ll become more comfortable with the more complex parts of the language like hierarchical changes and words that aren’t based on English.

Breaking Apart Korean Words

Using Korean words is very simple. If you want to use them as a verb, then you can just stick the verb ‘to do’ (하다) at the end of the word. Once you learn how to change this verb into different tenses and how to attach modal verbs to it, then you can suddenly say a ridiculously large amount with very little effort. Remember, you rarely need to use pronouns and you don’t need to conjugate based on pronouns. You’ll be surprised at how quickly you will learn how to communicate basic concepts in Korean with relative ease! Another thing that makes picking up these new Korean words and concepts a breeze is how accessible Korean-learning resources are. After you begin your journey to learn Korean and start looking around for help, you’ll be surprised about the abundance of resources available through books and the Internet.

Why It’s Easy to Find Resources for Learning Korean

Of course people have been speaking Korean for thousands of years – it’s not exactly a new language. However when learning Korean, you won’t have to learn using the Korean version of Shakespeare or anything equally antiquated. The rest of the world started caring about Korean culture much more at the start of this millennium so most of the cultural resources for learning Korean are very new and easily accessible. There are many great online resources for studying Korean, and often teachers will give modern examples or use recent video clips when explaining difficult concepts. When studying the Korean language, the last thing you will be doing is looking through a dusty old textbook. Korean resources are current and relevant, making the learning process that much more fun! Along with modern cultural resources, you’ll also have the opportunity to learn by speaking Korean to native speakers as soon as you’re even a little bit conversationally fluent.

How to Get Korean Speaking Practice

Most Koreans are very proud of their country and language, and would love it if more people could speak Korean. As a result, there are plenty of people who are willing to teach you Korean. Especially in Seoul, it is quite easy to find free Korean classes. Equally, Koreans rarely expect foreigners to speak Korean perfectly so they won’t judge you as harshly as people from some other countries if you mispronounce a word. Learn the basics with some help, and then get out there and experiment with all the doors that you’ve opened by beginning the Korean learning process! Those Korean dramas aren’t going to watch themselves…

The post How to Speak Korean – It’s Easier than You Think appeared first on Fluent in 3 months - Language Hacking and Travel Tips.

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Episodio 182: Latinismos (parte II)

Latinisms are words and expressions that come from Latin. Today, they're still used. Learn some important latinisms you often hear or read in Spanish. We also talked about this in our #136 episode. Transcript available: "Hola de nuevo, bienvenidos a Spanishpodcast.net. ¿Tenéis ya un propósito de año nuevo? Si es así, esperamos que los consigáis pronto. En el episodio de hoy volvemos a hablar de las palabras latinas que continúan manteniendo su forma original o muy parecida desde la antigüedad ..."

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Beginner Lesson S4 #14 - “There Will Be” a Tomorrow in Spanish, Right?

Learn Spanish with SpanishPod101.com! You and your friends are so excited to go to the Spanish concert. You’ve saved your money, and now you’re so excited that you cannot wait another minute - you’re ready to dance and sing the night away to music with Spanish lyrics. You walk to the ticket counter expectantly, and [...]

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Inner Circle #24 - December Inner Circle: How Mastering A Language Has Changed My Life

Now, we’re at the end of 2015. I’ve reached my 45-minute Spanish speaking goal for the year. Have you reached your goals? You should know that learning a new language is easier when you’ve mastered one before. In this final Inner Circle, you’ll learn just why I’ve been able to hit my goals.   In this Inner [...]

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The Goldilocks Technique: How to Set Language Goals that Are Just Right

Do you ever struggle to reach your language goals? In my 13 years of language learning, I’ve set myself some big language goals. Some have gone fantastically, and some have totally flumped. Over time, I’ve got better and better at setting goals that inspire me to do my best, but that are also realistic I’ve learned this through trial and error - using what I call the Goldilocks method (this is an idea I borrowed from fellow language learner Andrew Barr). Some of my language goals were way too big, and I failed to reach them. Some were far too simple, and they didn’t challenge me as much as they should have done. The best goals were just right. These goals stretched and challenged me without overwhelming. I’d like to share how you can use the Goldilocks technique to set language goals that are just right for you.

Step 1: Reach for the Skies

I called it ambitious, but some other people have had different names for it. “Ridiculous”. “Unreasonable”. “Impossible”. Whether or not this is true, it hasn’t stopped me from aiming high and challenging myself. I like to start by dreaming big. I think it’s far better to aim too high and then fail with just “pretty high”, than it to aim low, get bored, not push yourself and achieve way less than you could have. Why are big goals good? You get to test your limits and push them as far as possible. You also end up accomplishing much more than you could ever have dreamed if your goal had been more modest. A modest goal will give you the satisfaction of saying you achieved exactly what you set out to do. However, it won’t teach you to stretch yourself. It won’t push you to your limits and beyond. There’s one question I hate to be stuck with: “How much further could I have gone if I pushed myself?”. I don’t like having this question lingering in the back of my mind. So I aim high. That said, I want to make it clear that I only set goals I believe are possible to achieve. I don’t just aim for B2 in all my language missions then hope for the best. For example, if I only have an hour a day to study, then pushing for B2 (CEFRL scale) in three months is way over the top. It’s why I haven’t had any such project for the last two years; until recently I’ve been travelling intensively for a world-wide booktour, which is time consuming and exhausting and means I’d rarely have more than that single hour free. With this in mind, I’ve had to adjust my goals and have instead tried to cram as much Bahasa Indonesia as I could into 4 hours, be sure my French was at a C1 level so that I could follow the long road to a definite C2 level, reactivate my Mandarin after a long break, and even coach another person to learn another language quickly. So I know exactly if and when a three month project isn’t possible, and adjust to other goals when it isn’t. How high you aim in your own language mission will depend on your own personal factors:

• How badly do you want to learn the language?
• How do you intend to use the language at the end of your mission?
• Are you in an immersion environment?
• If not, are you willing to set up a virtual immersion environment and put the time into make sure it you stick to it?
• How much free time do you have to study and practise?

I’ll look at each of these factors below, and explain how you can expect them to affect your language mission. For the sake of simplicity, I’m going to talk specifically about appropriate goals for a three-month language mission.

Step 2: Assess Your Motivation

Everyone has their own reasons for wanting to learn a new language. Some people learn a language because otherwise they get brain itch. They need to be learning or they get bored. Are you constantly curious about the world? This could be you. Some people want to get an inside view of another culture. They’d like to see the world in a new way, and learning another language is a brilliant way of doing this. Still others learn a language for practical reasons. Perhaps they’ve married someone from another country, or they’re required to travel for their job. Whatever your reason, it must be enough to keep you inspired day after day. Learning a new language is a wonderful thing to do. But there will be days when it’s a slog and you’ll feel like quitting. It’s only by trying that you’ll see how deep your motivation runs. If you find you keep starting to learn a new language, then quitting after a few weeks, perhaps you need to investigate your motivation. Sometimes when I really press people, I see that it just “sounds cool” to them to speak another language, or it’s on a long “bucket list”, or for bragging rights. None of these will ever motivate you to do the work necessary, so you need to really think about, and possibly change your big “why” for learning the language in the first place. What if you still need an extra push? I recommend joining an online language community like the Add 1 Challenge. You’ll meet other language learners who also want a push, and who will support you in your language learning. Accountability is a fantastic motivator. You will probably end up achieving far more than you expected.

Step 3: Set a Timeframe

Goals are meaningless unless you have a deadline in which you want to achieve them. I originally started setting three month language goals because I’d be visiting countries on a three month tourist visa. I’d visit a country and immerse myself in the language and culture for three months, aiming to reach fluency in that time. Back to Goldilocks, I’ve found that 3 months is in the zone of being not too little, so that I get a genuinely good idea of that culture and can make a couple of friends, but not too much, so that I could still explore several places. So I’d still spend 3 months in some countries even if tourist visa limits weren’t effective (like in the European Union, since I’m an Irish citizen). It’s also the amount of time when I can work intensively on a project enough to both make huge strides of progress, and to push myself just enough to not burn myself out. Even if I’m not able to travel, I find that setting a deadline of three months works well for me. It’s far enough into the future that it’s possible to achieve big goals. And close enough to the present that I can see the finish line. So that’s why the timeline is relevant to me. Three months may be a completely random number to you though. It’s way better to pick a goal that fits with your lifestyle. Are you leaving on a trip in six months? Do you have a semester abroad coming up in 6 weeks? Do you have 2 months off for the summer and the time to realistically invest in such a big project? Is your grandmother who only speaks Czech visiting you in September? Then that is your ideal end-goal.

Step 4: Know How You’ll Be Using the Language

Are you learning a new language so you can:

• Meet interesting people from around the world?
• Travel the world and be able to order food?
• Attend an overseas conference?
• Conduct business deals in your target language?
• Grow in confidence around other people?

We live in busy times, and most of us only have a little bit of time to spare each day for language learning. Knowing how you’ll use the language will help you use those precious minutes to the best effect. If you’d like a more general goal, I recomend aiming for A2 level. It’s a reasonable target for three months of language learning, even alongside family commitments and a full time job. And it will mean you’ll be ready to hold interesting conversations with native speakers. Why do I recommend setting a specific goal such as A2 level? If you don’t have a concrete goal to work toward, it will become too easy to just start letting your studying slide for days or weeks on end. After all, you have, literally, “all the time in the world” to learn the language. The problem is that “all the time in the world” quickly becomes weeks, months or years of procrastination.

Step 5: Stop Looking for the “Perfect” Language Learning Environment

Yes, it’s good to set big goals. But just as important is how you achieve those goals. It’s easy to set big goals. It’s even easier to find excuses for failing to achieve those goals. What can you do to avoid this? Stomp out potential excuses before they come up. A common excuse is: “I don’t have the right learning environment”. Perhaps you feel too busy to learn, or concerned that you live thousands of miles from people who speak your target language. There’s no perfect place to learn a language. You can just as easily learn French from an air-conditioned office block in Australia as you can by frequenting the coffee shops of Paris. The environment in which you’re learning your target language actually isn’t as important as you might think. So don’t let where you live hold you back from setting big language goals You can learn a language at a fast pace no matter where you are in the world. Even if there isn’t a single native speaker if your target language within hundreds of miles of your home, it’s still possible to learn your target language quickly. In fact, staying at home can be better than travelling. If you travel the world, it’s easy to get drawn into tourist cafés and ex-pat communities. This is especially the case if your native language is English. In most countries, you’ll find plenty of English speakers, and it’s easy to get on the slippery slope of thinking there’s no need to speak the local language, even just “while you settle in”. That said, if you’re fortunate enough to be able to live abroad, take advantage of it. Challenge yourself from the beginning to never use the phrase, “Do you speak English?” no matter how difficult it gets (barring emergency situations, obviously). If you’re serious about your mission and commit to maintaining your immersion environment every day, then you’d be amazed at what you can do in three months. I know this is possible because not only have I had huge successes in many of my three-month projects, but many other people have too.

Step 6: Assess How Much Time You Can Set Aside for Studying

Along with motivation, the time you have available is the key factor in establishing what would be a realistic language goal for you. Clearly, a person who’s able to devote three hours per day to language learning is going to achieve much more than someone who only has thirty spare minutes. This doesn’t mean that it’s bad if you can only study thirty minutes per day. It just means that you should set a different language goal for a three month mission than someone who has more time to devote to theirs. As I’ve said, most people can realistically aim for the upper beginner, or A2 level, within three months. This is ambitious, but still perfectly reasonable if you study smart. What if you want to stretch yourself even further? Then reaching the lower intermediate level B1 is within your grasp. At that level, you’d be able to have lower-intermediate conversations on a wide variety of topics, as long as the person you are speaking to speaks slowly and patiently. This will mean an intense study schedule of at least two hours a day, ideally more if it’s your first language project. How much time can you realistically spare? Take a hard look at your typical daily schedule. You probably have a job that takes up the bulk of your day. Then there are after-work errands you need to run, picking up kids or dry cleaning. Plus socialising and any hobbies other than language learning. Once you’ve decided how much time you can spare each day, cut that figure in half. Then half it again. So if you thought you could spare an hour, you’ll end up with just 15 minutes. That’s your minimum daily study time. Why set such a low minimum? Because it means you’re more likely to stick with it, even when you’re busy or feeling overwhelmed. Also, getting started each day can be the hardest part. By setting yourself a low goal, you’re more likely to get started. Then also try the opposite. If you think you can only spare an hour, then see can you push that further out? Would it be worth giving up Netflix (at least their English programming), reducing nights-out to once instead of 3 times a week, or making some other sacrifice, for three months to achieve a lifelong dream?

What if You Fall Short of Your Goal?

Let me make one thing clear: if, at the end of three months, you’ve not reached your goal, you have still succeeded in something else that’s also extremely important - provided that you maintained a daily habit of language learning. You have greatly improved your language level and know that you’ve truly pushed yourself to your absolute limit. I’ve had a couple of projects where I ended up with a B1 level instead of a B2 level. Calling that a failure is insane - I could converse with another culture, make friends, travel independently and do so much! I acquired a new skill that will enrich my life. And I’ve learned what my limits are, and what I did wrong that I should change in my next three month project. Having big dreams matters. We all need them, as dreams give us purpose and something to strive for. But just as important is taking action to achieve those dreams. If you’ve stuck it out for the entire three months, through the rough parts and the plateaus, and you came out the other side speaking your target language substantially better than you could at the beginning, then you’ve succeeded. There are many ways to succeed at language learning. The only way to fail at it is not to attempt it at all.

The post The Goldilocks Technique: How to Set Language Goals that Are Just Right appeared first on Fluent in 3 months - Language Hacking and Travel Tips.

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Episodio 181: Enfermedades comunes y síntomas

Today we talk about common diseases and symptoms. Health is something very important for everyone, so we talked about this on today's episode. Transcript available: " Hola y bienvenido o bienvenida a un nuevo episodio de SpanishPodcast.net Hoy vamos a hablaros sobre un tema del que no se habla demasiado en cursos de español, pero puede ser importante. Todos hemos estado enfermos alguna vez, no es algo agradable, pero es parte de la vida. Como se suele decir: “para ponerse malo lo único que hace falta es estar vivo”. “Ponerse malo” es una forma coloquial de decir “ponerse enfermo”. “Me he puesto enfermo” y “me he puesto malo” significa lo mismo, pero la segunda opción es más informal, algo para utilizar con amigos y conocidos ... "

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Spanish Vocab Builder #27 - Sport

Learn Mexican Spanish with SpanishPod101.com ! Our Mexican Spanish vocabulary lists are listener favorites, and now we’ve made it even better! In each lesson, you’ll hear the Mexican Spanish words and phrases from the Mexican Spanish vocabulary lists. Join us for Mexican Spanish Vocab Builder! In this lesson, you’ll learn words and phrases for Sport. Click [...]

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The Language Secrets of Prolific Language Learners

Did you know that some of the most famous figures throughout history were also accomplished polyglots? Audrey Hepburn remains an iconic goddess of the silver screen and is regularly touted as being the most beautiful woman to have ever existed. She also spoke six languages. J.R.R. Tolkein, author of the Lord of the Rings trilogy, was not only fluent in numerous languages (some of which he taught himself)… he invented them. Why were these particular people encouraged to learn multiple languages? Was it due to a necessity to survive or a need to communicate? Most importantly, what can we as lovers of languages ourselves, learn from their words, lives and experiences? Read on to find out!

Thomas Jefferson: The Language Lover Who Struggled to Learn Languages

The United States’ third president was a member of Virginia’s elite and spoke four languages. He learned to read Latin, Greek, Italian, Spanish and French while being privately tutored – which was the norm for boys of his social class. He too had dictionaries from a number of languages in his library – including Arabic, Gaelic and Welsh, but no evidence exists that he ever gained any sort of fluency in these languages. [caption id="attachment_17579" align="aligncenter" width="700"] The United States’ third president Thomas Jefferson spoke four languages and learned to read Latin, Greek, Italian, Spanish and French.[/caption] Although Jefferson could read the languages he had studied in his youth, he struggled with spoken fluency.

”I understand the French so imperfectly as to be incertain whether those to whom I speak and myself mean the same thing.” – Jefferson to William Temple Franklin, 1784.

It wasn’t until he had spent some time living in France as the American ambassador, that he was able to achieve fluency in the French language, falling hard for it along the way.

“The French language is unquestionably an important object of education. The habit of speaking it can only be acquired by conversation.” – Jefferson to Dugald Stewart, 1789.

Jefferson acknowledged quite early on the important relationship that the American people would share with the Spanish language and allegedly learned it while reading from a borrowed copy of Don Quixote and a book on Spanish grammar. We are allowed to be a teeny bit sceptical in taking this as fact, as former US President John Adams noted in his journal:

”As to Spanish, it was so easy that he had learned it, with the help of a Don Quixote lent him by Mr. Cabot, and a grammar, in the course of a passage to Europe, on which he was but nineteen days at sea. But Mr. Jefferson tells large stories…” –John Adams, 1804.

Whether or not Jefferson was blowing his own trumpet remains irrelevant to our cause. What we can learn from the ex-President is one very important detail - one that is regularly touted here on Fluent in 3 Months (Fi3M). If you want to learn a language and achieve fluency in it, you need to start speaking it. People often struggle with language in an academic setting. It’s not until after they leave the classroom and start living the language that true progress begins to be made.

Audrey Hepburn: “Nothing is Impossible”

Screen goddess Audrey Hepburn was a master of many tongues. The actress spoke six languages, reportedly fluent in English, Dutch, French, Spanish, German and Italian. [caption id="attachment_17580" align="aligncenter" width="700"] Audrey Hepburn, star of Breakfast at Tiffany's, spoke six languages.[/caption] Hepburn was the child of a Dutch Baroness and British businessman. Born in Belgium, she spent part of her youth attending private schools in the Netherlands and England, where she would have achieved fluency in her native Dutch, English and probably French. In 1939, her mother moved the family back to Arnhem, Netherlands, believing they would be safe from World War II. Unfortunately she was proved horribly wrong when the Germans invaded Holland in 1940. Hepburn, a young teenager at the time, began helping the Dutch resistance. She danced to raise money in secret productions and ran messages. She later spoke of how she was forced to quickly learn Dutch upon the family’s move to Arnhem during WWII:

"My mother was worried about [my] speaking English in the streets with Germans all around." – Audrey Hepburn

Malnutrition during the war dashed Hepburn’s aspirations of becoming a ballerina – so she turned to acting. She and her mother left Amsterdam, travelling to both England and finally the US, where Hepburn became the Hollywood icon she is remembered as today. Her career took her all around the world. She shot films in France, Spain and Mexico, lived in Rome and travelled extensively during her time working as an Ambassador with the charity UNICEF. Looking back on her life and career, you can see that she had multiple chances to learn languages – opportunities that she obviously made the most of.

”Opportunities don’t often come along. So, when they do, you have to grab them.” - Audrey Hepburn

Hepburn was the type of person who didn’t let setbacks stop her from achieving her goals, actively pursuing what she wanted and believed in. What can we in turn learn from her?

”Nothing is impossible, the word itself says ‘I’m possible’!” - Audrey Hepburn

It’s never too late to start learning. To roll with the punches that life throws at you. Most importantly, beyond all else – it’s your attitude that counts above all else, in regards to anything that you wish to achieve in this life. There are many difficult aspects to learning a language. My opinion has always been that it’s best to ignore them. The road to fluency can seem long when you first look at it, but if you approach it with the right attitude, you will be able to take that first step and continue confidently along your way.

J.R.R. Tolkein: The Polyglot Who Invented New Languages

John Ronald Reuel Tolkein, author of many novels including the Lord of the Rings trilogy was not only fluent in many languages – he invented them. A scholar at heart, it was Tolkein’s mother who introduced him to languages, teaching him Latin, French and German in his youth. Over the course of his education, he learned many other languages such as Middle English, Finnish (which he reportedly taught himself), Old Norse, Spanish and Welsh. Languages he was familiar with included Danish, Dutch, Norwegian and Russian. [caption id="attachment_17581" align="aligncenter" width="650"] The One Ring from Lord of the Rings is engraved in Elvish, a language invented by J. R. R. Tolkien.[/caption] As if that wasn’t impressive enough, this early knowledge gave him the grounding he needed to create his own languages, such as Quenya and Sindarin (the Elvish languages, his most developed), Dwarvish, Entish and Black speech. Quenya, the High Elvish tongue is reported to have be inspired by Finnish.

“Elen sill ûmenn’ omentielvo” – “A star shines on the hour of our meeting.” - Lord of the Rings

Tolkein learned languages, simply because he loved and respected them.

”No language is justly studied merely as an aid to other purposes. It will in fact better serve other purposes, philological or historical, when it is studied for love, for itself.” - J. R. R. Tolkein, ‘English and Welsh’, The Monsters and the Critics and Other Essays

From Tolkein, we can learn that the biggest level of success in learning languages, comes quite simply, from a desire to learn. That being, that when you approach language learning, you are doing it for the right reasons. Language learning should never be about bragging rights. Instead, you should have a solid motivation for wanting to learn either another, or multiple languages. Why is this important? Simply, because language learning takes time and commitment. You are going to have days when you feel lazy and unmotivated. Sometimes it may seem like an impossible task. Often, you’ll feel like you’re too busy to dedicate the time needed to achieve the level of fluency that you’ve set yourself. As Tolkein suggests, if you can look back to that one core reason for learning a language – whether that be an interest in the culture of a particular country, or a love for languages themselves – then that motivation that you need on those odd days where you’d rather procrastinate will never be that far out of reach.

Eddie Izzard: “I don’t find languages easy, but I have a hunger to learn”

Eddie Izzard is an English stand-up comedian, actor and writer. He has long been an advocate for the importance of language learning. [caption id="attachment_17582" align="aligncenter" width="700"] Eddie Izzard was the first stand-up comedian to perform in multiple languages.[/caption] To highlight this point, in 2013 he performed his show Force Majeure in four different languages – Arabic, German, Spanish and French. He also spoke in Russian and Italian during the international tour. He is interestingly, the first stand-up comedian to perform in multiple languages. And for good reason, as he noted the difficulty in touring foreign countries, performing in English and expecting his jokes to transcend language and cultural barriers.

“ You could do certain big cities but you wouldn't really get through. I want to be there, getting through.” – Eddie Izzard

Izzard doesn’t claim fluency in each of these languages. He measures himself on percentages and would only claim to be “65% fluent in French and 30% fluent in German”. However, it is his attitude towards learning languages that has led to his inclusion on this list.

“If I get stuck with a word or a phrase during a show I ask the audience, "How do you say such and such", and they help out. I don't find languages easy but I have a hunger to learn.” - Eddie Izzard

Izzard hits the nail on the head. You don’t have to be some kind of genius to learn languages. You just have to be willing to get in there, make mistakes, have a laugh and above all, be doing it for the right reasons.

History Never Repeats - Or Does It?!

Although each of these people throughout history took about learning languages for very different reasons, they all have one thing in common. They recognised the need and value in learning to communicate, no matter what the circumstances of their language acquisition. Is there a polyglot from history that you find inspiring? Who was it and for what reasons? Let me know in the comments! Image credits: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5.

The post The Language Secrets of Prolific Language Learners appeared first on Fluent in 3 months - Language Hacking and Travel Tips.

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Episodio 180: Platos típicos españoles

Today we talk about Spanish cuisine. Learn what are the most typical dishes in our country with this episode and learn some Spanish at the same time. A very tasty episode! Transcript available: "Hola y bienvenido de nuevo a un episodio de SpanishPodcast.net En este episodio vamos a hablar de cocina y comida, concretamente de los platos típicos que pueden encontrarse en nuestro país. La cocina española es muy variada, hay mucha diversidad de platos y puedes encontrar comida para todos los gustos ... "

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Newbie Lesson S4 #24 - Tell Me What to Do in Spanish!

Learn Spanish with SpanishPod101.com! Since you’re visiting Latin America for the first time, you’ve been relying on the helpfulness of Spanish-speaking strangers to help you get around. You know enough Spanish to get by, but sometimes there are some nuances that are lost on you. Despite your Spanish shortcomings, you decide that today is the [...]

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Radio Lingua Update January 2016

Feliz año nuevo, buon anno,  bonne année und ein frohes neues Jahr to the entire Coffee Break learning community around the world. We hope that 2016 is a happy, healthy and successful year for you, and that you have many opportunities to put your language skills to use over the coming months.

We’re delighted to bring you this update from Radio Lingua at the beginning of 2016. We’ve had a very busy holiday period with the launch of our new Coffee Break Academy website and the Coffee Break French and Spanish Masterclass programmes, but more about that a bit later.

Looking back at 2015

Let’s begin by taking a look back at 2015 and what it meant for Coffee Break language learners. We completed our fourth season of Coffee Break French and we launched our fourth season of Coffee Break Spanish last year. We also introduced a brand new language with Coffee Break Italian, along with our children’s show High Five French.

Over the year we delivered over 21 million free language lessons and this means that on average over 59,000 lessons were downloaded every day. In other words, language learners around the world downloaded 41 of our lessons every minute of 2015.

What’s coming in 2016

We spent much of last year producing new content for this coming year: we’ve been filming and recording in Spain, France and Germany for new and existing projects. We can’t say too much about some of these projects just yet, but you can look forward to exciting, new content and we’re sure you’ll enjoy continuing your learning journey with us.

• Coffee Break Spanish Season 4 continues with episode 21 released on 27th January.
• We’ll be launching the second of our Coffee Break French Season 4 Companion ebooks in the next few weeks.
• We’re excited to be releasing our brand new video course High Five Spanish for younger learners in the summer.
• We had planned to record the final section of Coffee Break Italian Season 1 in Italy earlier this month but unfortunately this visit had to be postponed. We’ll be publishing some top-up episodes to help our Italian learners keep up their skills until we can rearrange the visit to Francesca’s homeland.
• And finally, we can confirm that there will be new Coffee Break German content in 2016!

The Masterclass

Our biggest news is the launch of our special 12-month course for intermediate learners of Spanish and French, the Coffee Break Masterclass. We’ve built a brand new website, the Coffee Break Academy, where you can join the Masterclass and become a master of the language. We’ve been listening very carefully to your feedback and have put together this innovative course which combines our regular, structured audio lessons with challenges, tasks and a discussion area. There are already many members interacting every day in the Masterclass forums, practising what they’re learning in the audio lessons and completing our challenges and exercises.

Each month there’s a new module, and you’ll receive lessons every 3 or 4 days. We’ll deliver everything straight to your inbox and the best thing about the Masterclass is that it starts when you’re ready for it. So if you join today you will receive your orientation module and lesson 1, then lesson 2 will follow in a few days’ time. The feedback so far on the Masterclass has been fantastic and we’re very excited to be supporting our intermediate learners in this way.

We firmly believe that learning a language can be done effectively in your 20-minute coffee break, or indeed on a run, on your commute to work, or while you’re doing the household chores. The secret is in making your downtime your “do” time, so if you’d like to take your French or Spanish to the next level, head over to the coffeebreakacademy.com.

Los geht’s – c’est parti – empecemos ya – cominciamo!

We hope you’re as excited as we are as we begin a new year of language learning!

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Level Up! Turn Your Language Learning Into a Video Game

“I wish I was motivated to learn a language! I’ll get started when I’m ready.”

Like most kids, I took a language class throughout high school as a requirement. I picked Spanish because it seemed like a better option than French or Latin, and I dutifully did my work because I had to. Like most adults, as soon as I could stop taking languages classes, I stopped studying and practising and forgot nearly everything I learned. It wasn’t until I set out on a trip around the world that I stumbled across a quirky Irishman named Benny who taught me WHY learning a language is so freaking awesome. Inspired by Fluent in 3 Months, I immersed myself in Spanish, living with a family in Spanish for a month where I only spoke the native language. Thanks to being fully committed and motivated to the cause, my Spanish quickly came back to me, and I loved being able to interact with a family in their language. It was game-changing for me, and taught me just how enriched your life can become when you can speak multiple languages. You’re reading Fluent in 3 Months, which means you’ve probably had a similar realisation: speaking a second language is a goal of yours, but you might struggle with consistently practicing it. We all say things like “I’ll work on the language when I’m motivated to learn it,” but the reality is that we know we can’t rely on motivation and willpower to get us to do something that we KNOW will enrich our lives. It’s not just learning languages either, but the same is true with exercise, learning a musical instrument, or writing a book. Motivation gets us started often, but after a few weeks we’re stuck wondering “what the heck happened?” So what do we normally do? We wait. We sit around waiting for that magical motivation to kick in, or wait for us to get REALLY inspired to learn a language. And year after year, we realize we’re stuck at the beginning and haven’t made any progress! If you’re somebody that loves the idea of learning a new language but can’t seem to get yourself to make progress, I’m going to teach you today how your favorite old school video games and heroes will help you finally learn a language, and in record time!

How to Turn Your Language Learning into a Video Game

Video games are amazingly addictive. And I should know - I’ve spent far too much of my existence getting lost in one game after another ever since I was a little kid with a Nintendo. I imagined I was Link from The Legend of Zelda, couldn’t wait to slay more bad guys as James Bond in Goldeneye, and loved slaying dragons as a powerful wizard in the online RPG, EverQuest. Games are great because when you’re playing them, you’re trying to reach a goal. You’re trying to level up and - ultimately - complete the game. It’s a challenge, and yet you keep coming back for more. What is it about games that keeps us motivated to return to them again and again, even (or especially) when they’re difficult? Games can teach us how to accomplish goals in our lives that we’ve struggled with. Taking a “gamified” approach is ideal when it comes to learning a language. Even if you’ve never played a videogame in your life, don’t worry! This will still make sense. So, what’s so powerful about games? 1. Games show us how to make progress: Are you aware that we are happiest when we are making progress? We love making progress so much, in fact, that we actually enjoy it more than getting the thing we wanted in the first place! It doesn’t need to be big progress, just enough that we realize we are moving forward, improving, and getting better. Incremental improvement can actually be addictive...which is why video games that exploit this mental mechanism can be so addicting... from World of Warcraft to Candy Crush. We get to see instant progress and immediate feedback and gratification. These short-term wins release dopamine— the happiness chemical—in our brains, and thus we crave more. This is referred to as the “Progress Principle” in psychology. We too can find a way to make small improvements and recognize this progress in our lives. So instead of just “practicing a language,” prove to yourself that you’re improving. Give yourself somef way to show you’re making progress! I suggest creating mini checklists with learning tasks that you complete each week. 2. Games show us rewards: Games are fantastic at getting us to go “just one more level,” or “try just one more” or think “after I finish this quest.” Every time we complete something, there’s a reward that triggers our brains again (yay dopamine!), and that reward encourages us to keep playing. How can you add a reward system to your language learning? What if you complete a quest of 15 minutes of language learning every day for the next month, you unlock a reward of buying your favorite book or comic in your target language? Or a pass to the next language learning conference in your town? Reward yourself with things that reward you back by helping you further advance your learning. 3. Games teach us accountability: “Game Over” screen is an ever-present reality in games. The threat of “dying” adds a challenge that keeps us fully engaged and excited. Life is no different! Where’s the accountability if you don’t practice your language? Right now if you skip your language learning, you get to just watch more shows on Netflix. However, what if every time you skipped your language practice you had to give your friend $20? And they have donate that money to a political cause you hate? Welcome to the real world of accountability! 4. Games have boss battles: In games you slowly advance and level up, earning better weapons so you can take on the big boss at the end. Your skills are tested. What better way to hold yourself accountable when it comes to learning a new language than by adding a boss battle to keep you focused on the target: actually conversing in the language? What if you booked a plane ticket to the country where your target language is spoken for 6 months from now, and a boss battle of speaking with a native speaker for 15 minutes while there? Suddenly this shit just got REAL! Now you can reverse engineer your task/quest each week to build yourself up to that goal. This has really helped me stay on target with goal setting and completion. I like to say that I also speak and study the language of music, so I’ve used the above tactics and techniques to become a busker on the streets of New York City, and even started learning to play the violin about 18 months ago. I know how powerful this system can be when applied properly, so I’ve actually created an entire system that allows you to create a character, add missions, and level up as you complete them! I’ll tell you about it at the end of the post.

The Batcave Guide to Language Learning

Okay so now you’re ready to gamify your life. Solid work. However, if you really want to supercharge your language learning, you need to adjust how your environment subtly influences you. I like to think of it like the Force in Star Wars: you’re being subtly pulled in a direction by everything around you, so why not structure your environment to win! If I only played the violin or exercised when I was motivated to do so, I would never practice and I would rarely exercise! If you only practiced a language when you felt like it, you’re never going to make progress. That’s why we need to restructure our environment to And to do that, I’m going to recruit two close friends, Batman and Superman.

Be like Batman

Bruce Wayne needed to build a batcave, an immersive environment that helped him prepare for the bad guys. You need to build a batcave that makes your default behavior “I’m going to practice a new language every day.” Here are two big strategies to create your own immersive environment:

1. Add steps between you and a bad habit that’s keeping you from practicing your language more often. If you spend four hours a day on Facebook, what if you installed Facebook NewsFeed Eradicator to make sure you’re not checking it 120 times a day? What if you cancelled your Netflix (GASP!), or got rid of your cable?
2. Remove steps between you and a good habit relating to learning a language. Put stacks of flashcards all over your house that you can quickly pick up and go through when you enter a room. Turn certain electronic devices (like tablets, phones, TVs, or even sites like Facebook) to your target language.

Be like Superman

Superman has a Fortress of Solitude that he retreats to when he needs to get away from day to day life. What if you created a Fortress of Language Learning in your home? It doesn’t need to be a whole room, but it needs to be a deliberate location. Benny actually makes a part of his home (even a single chair or particular corner) the "target language only" zone, where he knows that he's reading, listening, or Skyping in that language.

Remember: Language Learning is a Multiplayer Activity

Language learning is a multiplayer game. Why do you study flashcards and read language books?It’s so you can connect with other people from different places and cultures.! So far, you’ve learned how to structure your life around mini goals and quests, and how to create a “target language only” zone. Now you need to recruit a group of allies to help you on your missions. I heard once from somebody that you are the average of the people you associate most with. Just like we are influenced by our environment, we too are influenced by our allies. Might as well recruit a damn good group, right? Think about who belongs in your party:

• A Mentor: This is somebody who is actively teaching you on a site like italki. These people are not afraid to correct you on your mistakes and help you get a little bit better each time you interact.
• Group language speakers: Attending language meet-ups in your city to practice your language with other speakers. The app HelloTalk can help with this.
• A partner in crime: This can be a fellow learner who you keep accountable and vice versa. You can do this on the Add1 Challenge.

The more you practise your language out loud, the more people you speak with consistently, the faster you’ll get to conversational fluency (and a boss battle victory). So give yourself all the chances you can!

Power Through the Suck, Speak from Day One!

The first time you ever do anything, you’re most likely going to be terrible at it. Whether playing an instrument, playing a new video game, or speaking a new language: you have to “learn the ropes” and get started. This isn’t a reflection on who you are as a person, the “suck” comes with the territory! This is why you need to embrace the suck. Be okay with being not good at your target language. It’s why Benny recommends “speaking from day 1.” The sooner you start talking, the sooner you start making mistakes, the faster you start learning, and the sooner you get to your boss battle! As you are getting started with your language, fake it 'til you make it. It’s okay if you think you sound foolish or you mispronounce things; how else are you supposed to learn? Make this year the year you learn a language and become a multilingual superhero! To recap on how to make serious progress on your language learning:

• Add mini quests and missions to your language learning: gamify your language learning.
• Add rewards and accountability to stay on target
• Create a boss battle that you work towards, and commit!
• Structure your habitat with a “target learning zone”
• Surround yourself with allies that help you succeed.
• Speak today; get through the “I suck” part.

I’d love to hear from you how you’re planning on implementing the above with SPECIFIC examples. Leave a comment, and Benny will pick five comments send them a copy of my new book, Level Up Your Life, in bookstores and on Amazon now! Level Up Your Life will help you make progress on your big goals (including language learning, adventure, travel, and fitness) and have fun along the way. We’ve even built a character system where you can gamify your language learning goals and level up your life, literally! Now if you’ll excuse me, I need to get back to practicing my Spanish for an upcoming trip to Costa Rica!

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