I regularly learn languages with duolingo and memrise.
Duolingo sends me reminders regularly.
Now there's an odd English phrase. Stay put. Not stay home but stay still, in one place. Now, back to the topic, learning language. I have three new ways of learning or practising a second language.
1 Translate Your Web Pages
Back to the topic. I am on the polyglot page on Facebook. A recent suggestion was to turn one of the pages you use daily to your second language to keep it up or start learning. I accidentally turned my facebook page to French, thinking I was telling readers that I spoke French when clicking on French changed the language of the page. I went back to setting and could not swee how to switch the language back to English. it has become an interesting exercise.
2 Translate A Copied Section
If you want to practise a second language you could do this deliberately. you could also copy your home page and translate it, without altering the original. that way when you met somebody you will be able to tell them your life history, write a cv, and ask questions such as what is your favourite film or where did you go to school. Practise saying 'my school' or technical terms.
3 Translate Phrases You Want to say
If you have a favourite activity, such as eating a Chinese meal, ordering a takeaway, playing a sport such as swimming or tennis or exercise, or walking to the station, the words you want to say, see, hear every day will hold your interest.
Swimming
For example, in Singapore, every day the cleaner would see me walking to the pool and ask 'Swimming?'
I should have answered in Chinese (Mandarin), 'Yes, swimming'.
New Here? Newcomer?
Later, I wanted to tell a lady who was exercising outdoors, 'The outdoor gym is over there.
She thought I was asking the location of the gym. She asked me, in broken English, 'You new?'
I know that Mandarin is more succinct than English and she was probably translating direct word for word.
Eventually I started thinking what I wanted to say in either Malay or Mandarin, the two most widely used local languages after English.
In Malay I know the words for I and you and new. New as in the city of Johor Bahru just across the bridge in Malaysia from the island of Singapore. The adjective new is second. New is bahru.
4 New and Newcomer
In Mandarin you drop the verb to be but add a verbal ending to the adjective. I asked a Chinese speaking friend to translate ' new here'.
She said an extra syllable for new. Why? The English construction 'I am new here', in Chinese becomes 'I newcomer (here)'.
5 Repetition From Patient Friends
That friend of mine from the swimming pool has been teaching me Chinese words. It is very slow going. But she does not tire of repeating the words.
6 Goodbye and See You Again in Chinese
When she says 'goodbye', I ask her to repeat it in Chinese.
Goodbye sounds a bit like 'sigh chin'. It means 'see you again'.
I can look the word up in Google translate or elsewhere to learn what it looks like. From my friend I learn the spoken word, ensuring that I do not learn it incorrectly from the page or webpage.
Repetition From Teachers
When my friend repeats 'see you again' in Chinese for the umpteenth time, for a second I feel despondent. I have heard it so many times and still have to ask to be reminded.
However, I console myself with the thought that I learned the 12 times table by repetition, not the first time, but after many times. When I was at primary school (Americans say elementary school), we were told the 12 times table every morning by our teacher. We recited the tables back to her.
She never tired of repeated the 12 times table. Unlike many adults who get impatient with you, 'She never reprimanded us for not having learned it the first time. She never said, 'I told you before,' nor 'Why don't you write it down?' nor 'I've told you once and I'm not saying it again!'
Because of the teacher's patience, and enthusiasm for ensuring we all new our tables, by the end of the term, at least by the end of the year, we all knew the 12 times table. (Similarly we had already remembered the 11 times table and the others back to two).
Copy Intonation
I decided it was time to learn the word swim. She taught me swimming pool. It sounds like yo-yong sur. But the tone of the sur is low. You have to repeat what you hear in the exact same tone or the word changes its meaning. (Just like the word project is a noun, a project, when you emphasize the first syllable, but a verb, to project, when you emphasize the second syllable.)
The word for swimming pool
I learned the word for swimming pool was 'yo-yong sur'. My memory aid was yo-yo (up and down the swimming pool) for along time in Big Sur. Yo Yong Sur. You could also remember 'Yo-yong, Sir?'
I could learn words through Memrise which allows you to keep a record of your memory aids, and share them with other people and learn from their memory aids.
4 Learn From Strangers
If you don't want to burden or bore your friends and family, or you want to practise in between, you can ask stranger. For example, you could write or type three words in a language and ask anybody who speaks that language to say the words so that you can copy the intonation.
You would not want to delay a stranger a long time, unless they were with you a long time and keen to show off their native language. But even a stranger beside you on the train, or a taxi driver, or wait staff, can spare a couple of seconds to tell you (remind you!) how to pronounce a written word.
In the translate pages I copy all the words individually
Then together in the sentence to see if it the same
Then you translate it back to see if the translation is accurate
I
am
a
newcomer
I am a newcomer
***
I
like
swimming
I like swimming
I like to swim
**
where
where is
where is
the swimming pool
swimming pool
Where is the swimming pool?
Reversing the arrow to get my Chinese translation converted back to English I get this:
I morning One kind Newcomer I am a newcomer *** I like swimming I like swimming I like swimming ** where where where swimming pool swimming pool Where is the swimming pool?
Useful Websites
google translate
memrise
1 Translate Your Web Pages
Back to the topic. I am on the polyglot page on Facebook. A recent suggestion was to turn one of the pages you use daily to your second language to keep it up or start learning. I accidentally turned my facebook page to French, thinking I was telling readers that I spoke French when clicking on French changed the language of the page. I went back to setting and could not swee how to switch the language back to English. it has become an interesting exercise.
2 Translate A Copied Section
If you want to practise a second language you could do this deliberately. you could also copy your home page and translate it, without altering the original. that way when you met somebody you will be able to tell them your life history, write a cv, and ask questions such as what is your favourite film or where did you go to school. Practise saying 'my school' or technical terms.
3 Translate Phrases You Want to say
If you have a favourite activity, such as eating a Chinese meal, ordering a takeaway, playing a sport such as swimming or tennis or exercise, or walking to the station, the words you want to say, see, hear every day will hold your interest.
Swimming
For example, in Singapore, every day the cleaner would see me walking to the pool and ask 'Swimming?'
I should have answered in Chinese (Mandarin), 'Yes, swimming'.
New Here? Newcomer?
Later, I wanted to tell a lady who was exercising outdoors, 'The outdoor gym is over there.
She thought I was asking the location of the gym. She asked me, in broken English, 'You new?'
I know that Mandarin is more succinct than English and she was probably translating direct word for word.
Eventually I started thinking what I wanted to say in either Malay or Mandarin, the two most widely used local languages after English.
In Malay I know the words for I and you and new. New as in the city of Johor Bahru just across the bridge in Malaysia from the island of Singapore. The adjective new is second. New is bahru.
4 New and Newcomer
In Mandarin you drop the verb to be but add a verbal ending to the adjective. I asked a Chinese speaking friend to translate ' new here'.
She said an extra syllable for new. Why? The English construction 'I am new here', in Chinese becomes 'I newcomer (here)'.
5 Repetition From Patient Friends
That friend of mine from the swimming pool has been teaching me Chinese words. It is very slow going. But she does not tire of repeating the words.
6 Goodbye and See You Again in Chinese
When she says 'goodbye', I ask her to repeat it in Chinese.
Goodbye sounds a bit like 'sigh chin'. It means 'see you again'.
I can look the word up in Google translate or elsewhere to learn what it looks like. From my friend I learn the spoken word, ensuring that I do not learn it incorrectly from the page or webpage.
Repetition From Teachers
When my friend repeats 'see you again' in Chinese for the umpteenth time, for a second I feel despondent. I have heard it so many times and still have to ask to be reminded.
However, I console myself with the thought that I learned the 12 times table by repetition, not the first time, but after many times. When I was at primary school (Americans say elementary school), we were told the 12 times table every morning by our teacher. We recited the tables back to her.
She never tired of repeated the 12 times table. Unlike many adults who get impatient with you, 'She never reprimanded us for not having learned it the first time. She never said, 'I told you before,' nor 'Why don't you write it down?' nor 'I've told you once and I'm not saying it again!'
Because of the teacher's patience, and enthusiasm for ensuring we all new our tables, by the end of the term, at least by the end of the year, we all knew the 12 times table. (Similarly we had already remembered the 11 times table and the others back to two).
Copy Intonation
I decided it was time to learn the word swim. She taught me swimming pool. It sounds like yo-yong sur. But the tone of the sur is low. You have to repeat what you hear in the exact same tone or the word changes its meaning. (Just like the word project is a noun, a project, when you emphasize the first syllable, but a verb, to project, when you emphasize the second syllable.)
The word for swimming pool
I learned the word for swimming pool was 'yo-yong sur'. My memory aid was yo-yo (up and down the swimming pool) for along time in Big Sur. Yo Yong Sur. You could also remember 'Yo-yong, Sir?'
I could learn words through Memrise which allows you to keep a record of your memory aids, and share them with other people and learn from their memory aids.
4 Learn From Strangers
If you don't want to burden or bore your friends and family, or you want to practise in between, you can ask stranger. For example, you could write or type three words in a language and ask anybody who speaks that language to say the words so that you can copy the intonation.
You would not want to delay a stranger a long time, unless they were with you a long time and keen to show off their native language. But even a stranger beside you on the train, or a taxi driver, or wait staff, can spare a couple of seconds to tell you (remind you!) how to pronounce a written word.
In the translate pages I copy all the words individually
Then together in the sentence to see if it the same
Then you translate it back to see if the translation is accurate
I
am
a
newcomer
I am a newcomer
***
I
like
swimming
I like swimming
I like to swim
**
where
where is
where is
the swimming pool
swimming pool
Where is the swimming pool?
一世
上午
一种
新人
我是新来者
***
一世
喜欢
游泳的
我喜欢游泳
我喜欢游泳
**
哪里
哪里
哪里
游泳池
游泳池
游泳池在哪里？
Yīshì shàngwǔ yī zhǒng xīnrén wǒ shì xīn lái zhě *** yīshì xǐhuān yóuyǒng de wǒ xǐhuān yóuyǒng wǒ xǐhuān yóuyǒng ** nǎlǐ nǎlǐ nǎlǐ yóuyǒngchí yóuyǒngchí yóuyǒngchí zài nǎlǐ?
Reversing the arrow to get my Chinese translation converted back to English I get this:
I morning One kind Newcomer I am a newcomer *** I like swimming I like swimming I like swimming ** where where where swimming pool swimming pool Where is the swimming pool?
Useful Websites
google translate
memrise
https://www.memrise.com/
Useful Websites
Duolingo
duolingo.com
duolingo.com
About The Author
Angela Lansbury is a travel writer and photographer, author and speaker, teacher of English and other languages.
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