February 2012

Hard Languages for English speakers to learn

Mandarin, Japanese and Arabic.

Ever since I couldn't order myself a Turkish kebab properly in Austria, I've had a dream of becoming fluent in German. I achieved German proficiency in college, and liked to think that I spoke quite well when I had a few beers at the campus pub. I never achieved fluency then, though, even after studying abroad in Austria for a few months.

Big Differences in Language

Translating isn’t enough

Have you ever used Google translate for sentences, or worse, an entire paragraph? Maybe what you got out didn’t exactly make sense. Then, did you then send the translation to a native speaker of the language?

If so, then you know that online translators turn blocks of text into complete nonsense. At best, you will get decipherable caveman talk – “he go eat hamburger.” At worse, you will utterly confuse the person you are corresponding with or fail your university language class.

Cuba Libre

Adventures in Communication

Using a foreign language is an adventure. When you sit in a stuffy classroom listening to a stuffy teacher, it can be like any other school subject. Maybe boring, hopefully interesting, but no substitute for real practice. When you get out in the world it is a communication tool. To use it successfully you need to embrace mistakes.

Learning the Basics

Some Travel Advice

I like to travel and have traveled to many countries. Naturally, people sometimes ask me for advice. With questions and concerns about destinations, money, food, and safety, something they may not think about is language. There seems to be an idea that English is widely spoken all over the world, which simply isn’t true.