Translating and Meaning

Written by E on November 30th, 2009

The word is ziehen.

So my dictionary translates this into ‘pull’, ‘draw’, ’attract’ and goes on about trains.

Hmm. Are we ‘pulling’ over the streets?
Clearly just translating is not going to work.

Ich ziehe nach Frankreich, um dort zu arbeiten. (I am moving to France, to work there.)

and Google gives

Ich ziehe die strasse -> I prefer the street.

So here is this word that flexibly translates from ‘pull’ to ‘move’ to ‘march’. Clearly trying to pin it to one definition is not going to work. Again, this just outlines the importance of getting away from L1-L2 translation and understanding words within their own context.

 

Mind mapping from Spanish to Portuguese

Written by E on November 17th, 2009

Working on Portuguese similarities to Spanish and decided to once again map this visually (click to enlarge).

Portuguese Cognates

Portuguese Cognates

 

Summary of Learning Techniques

Written by E on November 15th, 2009

A lot of language learning techniques exist but I’d like to summarize in a single post a few that I use and feel are worth knowing. Any technique is useless unless it found to be interesting, if one struggles with a technique, it isn’t worth continuing as it will become a numbing task over time, and lead to short-cuts. Short-cuts are often inefficient.

Consider this a type of memory-minder for these techniques:

  • Listening-Reading
  • Shadowing
  • Scriptorium
  • SRS

Listening-Reading

As the name says, L-R is about listening and reading in the target language. Material needed is the target language text and audio plus a source language translation. In short summary:

What to do:
1. Read the source translation – read to understand what will follow.
2. Listen to the target audio and read the written text in the target language at the same time – hear the right way to read the text, learn to separate the oral words in the flow of speech.
3. Review source translation and listen to the source text at the same time, repeat 2-4 times to understand almost everything. (focus on this point to assure that the meaning of the words is being captured, pause and review single words if there is an issue) 
4. Read out loud, repeat after the recording until the text is fluid (see Shadowing), as many times as needed and as closely to the pronunciation as possible.
5. Translate the text from the source language into the target language being learned – this can be orally and/or in writing (see Scriptorium too).

A good, if long and emotional, thread on this can be found here: L-R Method

Shadowing

Shadowing  a text is  listening to and simultaneously echoing a recording of a foreign language. I find it to be a highly effective tool. Early in acquiring a language there is “blind shadowing” (without a text) which focusing on the phonetics only. But I use mostly supported shadowing with either Assimil texts or bilingual books which often contain the target L2 text on one side and the source L1 on the other side of the page. 

Prof Arguelles describes his method and has posted several videos. In summary, it is important to be active (walking, biking or, gasp, ironing?) and with the beat of the physical activity articulate the texts thoroughly in a loud, clear voice.  It’s about creating automatisms. Different people learn in different fashions, and it may well be that the most effective way for you to use this technique is in a less military fashion than I am demonstrating. Prof Arguelles highlights that this is most efficient when followed to the letter — fast activity, correct posture and clear and loud pronunciation. I must admit that often I shadow in the car while driving because I have time for it then and still need to make it into my exercise routine.  Shadowing sessions are usually short – max 15 minutes.

Scriptorium

Scriptorium is the written version of shadowing – it’s writing a text down sentence  by sentence in a structured manner. Again Prof Arguelles describes this and shows some videos. Basically, read a sentence aloud, and write the text down while again saying each word as it being written, and finally reading the sentence aloud as written. A session is about 15-30 minutes of copying  a page of text or Assimil lesson, paying attention to the sentence structure, words and not rushing. It’s a good exercise for over-learning a text.
 

SRS

SRS or Spaced Repetition Systems are just flashcards and a learning algorithm to space the frequency of review of learned cards. Various software exists for this and I’ve used Anki, Mnemosyme (recommended) and Flash my Brain (for the iPhone or iTouch, recommended). In another post I’ve covered some of the risks of misusing SRS.

 

Learning to not translate

Written by E on November 15th, 2009

I’ve been having a conversation on HTLAL about Pimsleur. I’m a user but not a starry-eye fan. Here are the reasons. Methods like Pimsleur or Michel Thomas are rather good at getting a language started, but I have two significant criticisms. In a nutshell:

  • Thinking in the language, spending too much time translating back and forth from L1 to L2 prevents one from thinking in the target language. The rhythm of these courses with back and forth L1 -> L2 and L2->L1 break the flow of thinking only in the target language. It’s important to get away from tranlations and translating early on.
  • Absence of written material, while I agree that learning a language is primarly oral/auditory experience, the written text for langauge learners that can conceptualize that a letter or letter combination can have different sounds (i.e. everyone over the age of 7) is complemented when a written text exists. The success of Listening-Reading is proof of that.

Visual memonics are just so much more effective than just sounds. Reading “O que você vai beber? is an excellent visual complement to just hearing the text when added shortly after hearing in a few times. “I’m going to buy the beers today at noon.” -> “Eu vou comprar as cervejas hoje ao meio-dia.” I can easily understand that ‘dia’ is not pronounced by a ‘d’ but more like a ‘j’ but by reading that sentence I get the ‘Eu‘, ‘vou‘, ‘hoje‘, ‘meio‘ that I might miss otherwise.

However, I do feel that between remembering the pronounciation, remembering spelling & pronounciation or remembering just spelling the first and second are better than the third. But bewteen any of those three and remembering nothing, well, my choice is made. Now I need a cerveja.

 

Portuguese Learning Material

Written by E on November 7th, 2009

Sites which help teach Portuguese: 

Dictionaries
http://www.freedict.com/onldict/por.html
http://www.portuguesedictionary.net/
http://www.ectaco.co.uk/main.jsp?do=online-all_forms

 Audio
EasyPortuguese.com – learn Portuguese language with audio

Grammar
Orbilat site – Grammar web site
learningportuguese.co.uk – Grammar and pronunciation
unilang on Portuguese – Excellent and clear grammar primer

Word lists
400 words - Unilang Portuguese word list

Online Courses
ielanguages.com – Free online Portuguese Lessons
lingQ – Has a full Portuguese Learning Section
http://www.portuguese-flashcards.com/Portuguese – Audio Flashcards

Off-line material
FSI course - Excellent Spanish to Portuguese guide