Switching from one language to another
Impressive !
PhD research on the language – Learning Spanish 9
PhD, the highest level of education, is not typically focused on language learning, but on something else. The language is the base. The thesis is something new on grammar, literature or whatever. In my case, it was grammar. The language itself is only a means to an end. You need it as the foundation of…
How to keep a high level – Learning Spanish 8
How could I keep this high level I had achieved after having coming back from Spain? Well, the answer is easy: I couldn’t! To hold your level, there are many necessary things: talk regularly to mother tongue speakers continue learning new stuff even though you may think you know “enough” stay inside the culture of…
When language classes are no good – Learning Spanish 7
Why on earth do you still need to attend language courses once you have been in the country for more than a year? Well, I had to. Even though I had just came back from Spain, having been there for the third time for a total of over nine months, I had to go back…
Where on earth is Murcia? – Learning Spanish 6
A year earlier I had tried to get a scholarship in California. Somehow I thought it would be fun to study my languages in the United States – an opinion the committee that granted these did not share. They asked a lot of questions about my motivation and also about California. As I hadn’t studied…
Language learning (reading) made easy: the EuroCom method – part 2
In the first part of this article I wrote that the EuroCom method – also know as “Seven Sieves” – draws primarily on common elements in vocabulary and our understanding of language structure, in order to acquire in just a few hours the ability to read a foreign language. Now I want to take you…
Switching accents back and forth – Learning Spanish 5
I had said about the second semester: „Our teacher came into class the first day and we had a hard time understanding her. She had decided to speed up a tiny bit. Everything was a bit tougher.” Well, this time again: She came in and was even faster. We had to work a lot more…
Language learning (reading) made easy: the EuroCom method – part 1
submarine, président, acção, problemă – we can understand lots of English and French words, even Portuguese and Romanian ones, without having actually studied those languages properly. The examples above all belong to the vocabulary of the Romance family of languages, although there are equivalents in the Germanic and Slavic languages. Look at the example below,…
Simply communicating – Learning Spanish 4
Valencia is the third biggest city in Spain. I talked to several friends with contacts in Spain and finally a men’s home in Valencia invited me to come over. The house was a rehabilitation center for drug addicts. A lot of men with strange backgrounds, complicated family histories and bad experiences in life waited for me.…
The first step is the “easiest” – Learning Spanish 3
I had totally different plans as a student in high school, but then I chose to study Spanish and German at university to become a teacher. I had found out that my heart was more into languages and cultures and learning about people than any other thing. The first choice I had to make was…