Implementing Foreign Language- 5 Days of Foreign Language

This post is part five of a five part series. See part four.
See all posts in the series.

Through the week, I’ve talked about the why, which, and how {sort-of} of foreign language. Regardless of all those {why do you want to learn a language; which program will you use; will you make your own program}, implementing a second language into your life, not just the ‘classes’, will help to solidify the language for you.

What are some ways to implement this language into your life, not just for when you are using a program? “Implement” means to fulfill, perform, carry out, to put into effect according to or by means of a definite plan or procedure (according to Dictionary.com). When using a program or a curriculum it is laid out and planned for how you will use the language. But of when you’re not using it. Okay, I think I’ve made my point: How will you put foreign language to work in your every day life.

Bottom line: Use it. I really don’t know how else to simply state it. Use it, or lose it. Trust me on this one; I know.

Greet your family and friends in your new language. Refer to dishes and utensils in the language. Describe your clothes with the language you are learning. If there is a word or phrase that you do not know yet- have not yet learned- find out what it is and use it. Hopefully your family and friends will be understanding and helpful. If not, well, you can just as easily walk around talking to yourself about what you see and hear. You could have conversations with yourself. I sincerely hope that you will have support though. *wink*

Learn songs in your second language and sing them to others. Watch movies {with subtitles perhaps?} in this new language. It would be amazing and awesome if you could find others who are also either learning the same language or individuals that speak it already {natives or learned, either is good} to interact with. Try to read a book in the language {quite a neat experience but definitely requires time and patience!}.

But don’t give up. Don’t let it go. A second language is like riding a bicycle {which you certainly can ‘forget’ how to do!} and requires patience and practice. In the end, it will be something that will add to you as an individual; it will add to your character and your perception of your {and others’} world.

I do hope that you’ve enjoyed this series on foreign language. Please remember, I am not an expert on foreign language, just a lover of languages wishing to share that with others. May God bless you in your endeavors of learning a new language. May you use it to glorify Him {and have some fun with it!}.

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Design Your Own Foreign Language Curriculum- 5 Days of Foreign Language

This post is part four of a five part series. See part three.
Check back tomorrow for the next post in the series!
See all posts in the series.

You know why you want to learn a language. You’ve decided which language you want to learn and you know the programs that are available. But…you cannot afford to purchase one of the complete programs at this time. Does that mean you set aside and do not go forward with learning a second language? No! Not at all…you just get creative.

In this post, I will share how I designed our own foreign language curriculum based on the resources we had. The resources available will differ, I know. Look at used book stores and scour library sales. Let friends and family know you are looking for particular foreign language books and resources. Of course, this is just a post of my thoughts and how I have done it in the past. I encourage you to take what you can use and leave that which you can’t.

My daughter wanted to learn Japanese the first year we homeschooled but our budget did not include a large purchase such as Rosetta Stone and I did not know about the freebies at the time {our small library definitely did not have Mango!}. What we did have were some audio tapes, a dictionary, a reader and a few ‘mechanics’ books. All of these I had found at used book stores and sales. I followed Donna Young’s lesson plan suggestions to make my own curriculum/program. None of the DY lesson plans mention foreign language however but they are adaptable to just about any subject.

Here are the resources* that we have for Japanese and how we used them:
*all these are linked to amazon at the end of this post if you would like to find more about them

• Japanese for Beginners, copyright 1976, published by Gakken
• Japanese for All Occasions by Anne Kaneko, copyright 1990, published by Tuttle Language Library
• Living Language Conversational Japanese, including 2 audio cassettes and dictionary, copyright 1993, published by Crown Publishers
• Pocket Japanese Dictionary, copyright 2003, published by Periplus Language
• Kanji & Kana, a handbook and dictionary of the Japanese writing system by Wolfgang Hadamitzky and Mark Spahn, copyright 1980, published by Charles E. Tuttle Company

The main ‘spine’ books that were used were the Japanese for Beginners and Living Language Conversational Japanese with the audios. The dictionaries were used whenever necessary. Japanese for All Occasions was more of an off-the-side resource; it wasn’t used regularly and not actually scheduled.

I looked through the books {first stop, the table of contents} that we had and decided what I wanted her to learn first. Many programs, purchased or free, start with greetings. The books we had on hand followed this pattern somewhat… but not exactly. After looking at the TOC, I knew (somewhat) where we needed to be in the book to cover specific words/phrases/etc.

 
The table of contents from our ‘spine’ Japanese learning books

I think it is very good to find books that have pictures. Some might think them ‘childish’ but they are important to associating the sound/word with the item or person.

 
two pages from Japanese for Beginners

After deciding on the beginning sequence, I then did a tentative schedule. The weeks started with listening and repeating the words and phrases. Then came the reading, followed by writing. Knowing what I know now, I would have taken out the second and third step until she had a better grasp of the words/phrases through listening/speaking. The schedule should allow for lots of practice and be adjusted for quicker/slower grasping of the language.

Plan how many times a week the language will be studied. We like to do it in some form each day. For the Japanese curriculum, I scheduled it 5 days a week; every day had listening/speaking exercises but only 1 or 2 days had writing exercises. If a shorter amount of time each week is needed or wanted, it is easy to plan.

Once we had decided on our time spent on the language and the books we were using, we could break down the books and exercises by pages. For the Japanese for Beginners, there are 30 Units which could easily cover one year’s work. I broke this in half for us and decided it’d take two years to cover. When looking at the TOC, I could see that there were 101 pages in the first 15 Units. We would need to cover about 2.8 pages each week to get through Unit 15.

Next, looking at Living Language Conversational Japanese, I thought that Lesson 16 would be a good goal. In this book there are 96 pages through Lesson 16, resulting in about 2.6 pages per week.

Definitely find audio resources for the language being learned. Some libraries have Playaway with Pimsleur that are good to use. In our case we had the audio cassettes that came with the Living Language set we had. I scheduled the audios throughout the week to correspond with the pages being studied. Because the audios are shorter than the length of time it takes to read the pages, they were revisited more than once throughout the week.

The book, Kanji & Kana, is a a great book but we did have to leave it to the side after a short time. This is one of the good things about designing one’s own curriculum or program. If something isn’t working well, it can be omitted completely, tweaked or substituted with another better fitting book or resource. In our case we decided that writing the Japanese language would have to be pursued at a later time.

When I did our schedule, we didn’t anticipate completely finishing either of the spine books we had. Instead, it was a goal to get as far as possible, with mastery the goal, not completion. In our case, we figured out up to two weeks in advance. If when the two weeks were up the schedule was working well, we scheduled the next two weeks. If it was not working well, we scaled back some and only did one week in advance.

When just starting a language, don’t worry about the grammar, the mechanics of the language. Especially with younger learners, focus on the sounds and relations rather than reading and writing. Another tip, based on experience, even if using a ready-made, all-inclusive program, expect to help your student with their language learning. Regardless if they have books and audios, they need someone to actually talk with. Trust me, even if you don’t know the language well, they can definitely learn from the experience {and they are quick to point out when you say something wrong!}.

Making your own foreign language curriculum isn’t easy. It requires research, time, and sometimes a bit of money. It isn’t already laid out for you, ready to be used. It definitely isn’t for everyone. Also, designing your own curriculum won’t guarantee success learning a second language.

But I sure found it to be fun. I learned a lot along the way and now even know a few phrases in Japanese {a language I wasn’t that interested in learning at the start}. And it saved us money {my dd decided that Japanese is a language she might pursue at a later time *rolling my eyes*}.

Have you designed your own curriculum/program before? What worked best for you?

Tomorrow’s post will be the last post in the 5 Days of Foreign Language. I will talk about Implementing Foreign Language. Come back and read!

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“God is good,” in 5 Languages {according to Google Translate}
Italian: Dio è buono
Finnish: Jumala on hyvä.
Galician: Deus é bo.
Indonesian: Tuhan itu baik.
Irish: Dia maith.
*books referred to in this post. Amazon affiliate links.

       

***Disclaimer: Don’t forget that I am by no means an expert on learning foreign languages. I have not mastered a second language. I do have a love of languages though and am striving to learn a second {and I hope a third} language.

Choosing Your Foreign Language- 5 Days of Foreign Language

This post is part two of a five part series. See part one.
Check back tomorrow for the next post in the series!
See all posts in this series.

Yesterday my post talked about why learning a foreign language is a good idea. Today’s post will talk about which foreign language to choose.

What are some criteria for choosing a foreign language? Interestingly, a few of the reasons of why also apply to which- being a missionary, keeping generational connections strong, being more adaptable for the workplace, etc.

There are over 500 million (give or take a few million lol) English speakers in the world and many countries have English as the official language but there are a vast number that do not speak or read this language.

So how to choose which language to tackle for a second language? Here are a few thoughts I have on this.

1. Think long-term. Learning Yiddish may be fun at the start but will it be used when classes are over? For our family, my son wishes to have a military career and Germany is a possible post location when he is older; German would be a relevant language to learn. My daughter wishes to be an editor- this opens many doors for language options. Your family’s long term goals are most likely different than ours. If you and your family are anticipating missionary work, what country will you be going to and what is the language?
2. Think regionally. What language is most prevalent where you currently live? You may move and that may alter the most widely spoken foreign language but start where you live now. We’ve generally been around more Spanish speaking people than other languages {besides English} so this would be a great choice for our family because the opportunity to use the language was higher. However, since we’ve moved, European  languages have become a factor in our decision.
3. Think similarly. When a language is similar to your own, you my be able to assimilate it better. For instance, many words in Spanish and English are either related or are the same word. The word may have be taken from either language and then absorbed. This may not be an option if the other points don’t match up. In that case…
4. Think differently. When the language that you have chosen is not a similar language to your own, its great difference may make it easier to learn. The contrast will cause your mind to {hopefully} analyze it differently. And even if it isn’t ‘easier’, according to the article quoted from below, the difference will make the grasp and use of the language more than just “a sort of half-voluntary action, like swallowing or breathing, hardly at all under [one’s] own control.”

   The language chosen should differ widely from the mother-tongue of the student, because sharp contrasts, as of black ink on white paper, more readily fix the attention and stick in the memory.- "Why Learn Greek and Latin?" by R. L. Leighton, Head Master, The Grammar School, Bristol
   Volume 10, 1899, pgs. 104-109

5. Think globally. This could almost go with ‘think long-term’. What I mean by ‘globally’ is what language is the fastest growing in the global sense? When I Google ‘top 10 foreign languages’, Chinese is the #1 language based on population, with Spanish #2. If we were to have looked this information up, say 10+ years ago, would Spanish have still been at #2? The ‘minority’ {according to US standards} languages are becoming the dominating languages.
   

   Americans who travel abroad for the first time are often shocked to discover that, despite all the progress that has been made in the last 30 years, many foreign people still speak in foreign languages.
   (Dave Barry) emphasis mine

Those are my thoughts on choosing a language to learn. I wrote a post a while back on the languages that we are attempting in our homsechool- and the why of each one. You can search Google to come up with many different criteria for choosing a second language.

How do/did you choose which language to learn as a second language?

Tomorrow’s post will be about Foreign Language Programs & Curriculum for the language you have chosen to learn. Come back and read!

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“God is good” in 5 Languages {according to Google Translate}:
Latin: Deus est bonum.
Afrikaans: God is goed.
Bengali: ঈশ্বর ভাল . (Īśbara bhāla.)
Filipino: (Ang) Diyos ay mabuti.
Icelandic: Guð er góður.

Why Learn a Foreign Language? 5 Days of Foreign Language

This post is part one of a five part series.
Check back tomorrow for the next in the series!
See all posts in this series.

Foreign language is often a requirement for high school graduation as well as  many colleges. If you graduated before 1996 (give or take a few years), you may not have had to meet this requirement. I personally missed it for high school but had to meet it for college.

Besides those reasons, what would make someone *want* to learn a foreign language? Or why might you want your child to learn another language? If you are reading this in the language that it was written, English, you are part of the minority that can. Roughly 4/5 (give or take) of the world’s population do not speak or read English. A few reasons to learn a foreign language:

• To be able to communicate about God to those of a different language.
• To keep a connection to your ancestry.
• To increase intelligence. {or at least mental activity *wink*}
• To increase diversity and adaptability in the workplace and society.
• For fun! {oh yes…. really}

Could you imagine if no one wanted to learn a language other than their own? My son asked me why every one else doesn’t just learn English. Well! They would be learning a foreign language! How can we expect others to do it if we won’t ourselves?

The first reason I listed is to be able to communicate about God to others. Just imagine if missionaries refused to learn the language of the country they are ministering in. A bit awkward, don’t you think?  But it isn’t just for missionaries that learning a foreign language is helpful for spreading the wonders of God- in our every day lives we come in contact with those who do not speak our native language {English, in my case}. Oh to be able to say, “God is good!” in any language!

If being able to proclaim God’s wonders isn’t at the top of your list, perhaps you are concerned more with ‘intelligence’. Just like playing a musical instrument has been shown to increase cognitive activity (the more brain activity- the more ‘intelligence’), so also does learning a foreign language.

“[L]anguage is the instrument of thought; and lack of clearness and precision in our language is a sure indication of a corresponding muddle in our thinking; while an increase in our command of language means an increase in power of thought.”-"Why Learn Greek and Latin?" by R. L. Leighton, Head Master, The Grammar School, Bristol, Volume 10, 1899, pgs. 104-?; emphasis mine

If mastering our mother tongue can be an indicator of our thinking ability, how much more so will ‘mastering’ a second {or third} language!

Some people have cited the desire to learn a new language because it is part of their heritage. Perhaps Grandma or Great-Aunt is a native of Russia, Brazil or still speaks a Native American language. Learning the language of our ancestors can help develop a connection, a bond, with another generation. Passing the language onto subsequent generations increases that bond.

The next reason I’ve listed almost needs no explanation: increase diversity and adaptability in the workplace and society. When looking for a job recently, there were an innumerable amount of ads that specified “bilingual” preferred. Even one or two said “trilingual” and “multilingual”! Those last two words were very rare when I was younger, if I ever even saw them; bilingual wasn’t even very common at the time.  The point is, the world is ‘shrinking’ and people are coming ‘closer’ together than they have before. The more adaptable and diverse one is in languages will propel them farther forward in the workplace and society in general.

I’m used to living in fairly small towns where occasionally Spanish was spoken by a few other individuals and none in my immediate circle. Now I live in one of the most populated areas in Ohio- the diversity here is staggering at times! It’s great though, and has spurred me on to want to learn another language- or two or three!

Which leads me to the last reason: for fun. Learning a new language can indeed be fun. It is interesting to listen to what “How are you?” {or any other phrase that we use and hear all the time} sounds like in another language. It is enlightening when we hear someone say something in a foreign language and we can understand them. Think also of the movies, songs and books that you could see, sing, and read if you knew a second {or third} language!

So, I’ve listed some basic reasons for learning a foreign language. Here is a link to a website with 10 reasons to learn a foreign language. Here’s another site with 12 reasons. What are your reasons? Tomorrow’s post will be about Choosing Your Foreign Language- what are some criteria for picking a certain language over another. Come back and read!

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“God is good” in 5 Languages {according to Google Translate}:
Russian: Бог добр.
Japanese: 神は良いです。
Chinese (Simplified): 上帝是好的。
German: Gott ist gut.
Spanish: Dios es bueno.