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âSpanish Language Dayâ commemoration event in room XX. Lecture by Mr. Daniel Hernández Ruiperéz, Dean of the University of Salamanca. Geneva, Switzerland, October 13, 2016. UN Photo/Pierre Albouy
This postcard is written in French. Salut, Renae!
Here is a Rockford landmark - the Woodward Governor Water Power machine Shop/Mill House. A very peaceful view.
âSpanish Language Dayâ commemoration event in room XX. Lecture by Mr. Daniel Hernández Ruiperéz, Dean of the University of Salamanca. Geneva, Switzerland, October 13, 2016. UN Photo/Pierre Albouy
The great comedian Sid Caesar does not endorse the following method of improving at foreign languages.
I teach English in Japan, lately with I like to think increasing success, and I speak & write Japanese. My trick for learning foreign languages is....
The Sid Caesar method: If you learn to impersonate languages, no matter how badly, you will also learn how to speak them. Please give this time, and try the experiment.
Gradually it seemed to me that the biggest difficulty with learning a foreign language is not making meaning but the fear of the lack of it.
What do I mean?! The story goes like this.
When I learnt to speak Japanese after studying it for about 4 years I also found myself able to speak and read French. I had never been good at French at school, but something in my head, my psychological attitude to language had changed. I am not saying I am good at French but suddenly I had no problem with blabbing in my bad French. For a long time I did not work out what had changed.
Then two things happened:
1) I came across some research by Steven Heine, extending "terror management theory" arguing that there is not thing more scary than the absence of meaning. You can download his paper here Page on Psych
2) I came across some comedians that "impersonate languages" such as the late great Sid Caesar, and I thought "That's it. That is what changed."
Here is Sid Caesar impersonating French and other languages.
When I was young I had a black friend who (though he is as English as I am) when treated with prejudice in a public place used to reply in his impersonation of an African language. At the time even the thought of impersonating a language filled me with dread. But now I hardly break into a sweat. I am not as good as Sid Caesar in the above video but speaking in gobbledygook no longer hurts. I will append my video at the end.
Many people (especially in Japan) think that foreign languages are very difficult, and that you need to know a lot of grammar and vocabulary. At the same time, many native speakers (especially children) use a small vocabulary and the grammar they use could be written on a postcard. In other words the intellectual, structural, and factual information required of being able to speak like a child in a foreign language is the sort of thing you can learn in a couple of days.
This fact has been known in the language teaching community for some time, and leads to an emphasis upon "acquisition" of language through practice, rather than learning of language (e.g. rote memorisation of grammar and vocab).
But even using Krashen or other acquisition / communication centred techniques, progress is slow. What is the reason for this? One reason is that practice is required, just as it is required in another other skill, such as tennis. You don't become a good tennis player just by learning tennis theory.
But there is another aspect that is peculiar to language. To an extent we live in language, we narrative our selves in it, and when the language lacks meaning it results in a loss of self that is almost as scary as death (see Heine's research above). When we go to speak a foreign language, and let roll with a sentence that may well be all wrong, and may meet with a complete lack of comprehension, we enter that world of unmeaning and experience something akin to death. And this is terrifying.
However, of course, we do not die and we gradually learn not to be scared.
There is quicker route. If you practice impersonating languages, such as by watching a YouTube video of an Italian interview and then practice speaking in fake Italian mimicry (like Sid Caesar above) then you can, gradually, overcome this fear of flying into unmeaning. I am not saying that you will suddenly become a polyglot, but it will make foreign languages easier.
At the least you will become aware of one of the biggest, I would say the biggest, obstacles to foreign language proficiency.
The experiment.
1) Time yourself for a minute. Try and say as much as you can in the foreign language of you are trying to learn.
2) Then watch a video on YouTube of a language that you know nothing about and try impersonating that language for one minute. Do not worry about the quality of your impersonation, just try and make various word like sounds. (You can find some Chinese by searching for "發明" or some Italian, I think, by searching for "intervista")
In which case did you make more sound? I am guessing that you made more sounds in case (1) even though you had to use correct grammar, correct vocabulary. In case (2) you could have made any old noise.
In other words, it is not the words, the meaning, the grammar that is difficult, but the un-meaning that is the biggest, terrifying obstacle to foreign language acquisition.
If you can already "do a Sid Caesar" then I predict you will be quick at learning foreign languages or already can speak one.
Here is me impersonating Chinese. It is not good and makes me cringe a bit still but in times past the mere thought was quite beyond the pale (i.e. s*** scary). Here is a link to my video of me Impersonating Three Languages.
Image of Sid Caesar in 1959 above adapted from this image which is apparently in the public domain
Addendum (Big Mistake)
"My head" is inside my narrative and field of view, not the other way around! This is a very important point and the danger of the scientific worldview. The scientific world is a product of our narration as even some scientists a vow (Wheeler, Mach). Our head is also something we see in our field of view in mirrors, or our nose and brow directly. Our perceptions (including of our whispers) are not inside "me" or my body. To think so would be double death.
Una volta
cercavo un punto di vista non anamorfico
per osservare una coppia di antropomorfi.
Poi ho trovato una interessante definizione:
"sviluppo senza metamorfosi caratteristico di alcuni artropodi"
As part of International Education Week at College of DuPage, the College’s Office of Student Life hosted an “International Flag Ceremony” hosted by Jim Dugan, manager of the World Peace Sanctuary in Wassaic, New York. Nearly 200 flags were represented at the special ceremony, which also included a custom “Peace Pole” with the eight most represented languages at COD. Students were asked to write a message of peace on a slip of paper throughout the ceremony, which were then placed inside a time capsule with the Peace Pole. Special thanks to the Global Education Advisory Committee that provided funding for the ceremony.
hindi english = hinglish !! people in indian metros use language which is neither hindi nor english !
www.AllAbouttheLightPhotography.com -------------------
------- FB Page: All About the Light Photography ----
Cyanotype print on handmade paper, 20 x 27cm, $350 1 of 1
Thailand, Laos & Vietnam in their languages. (Vietnam & Thailand are recipes from the paper book, Google-translated)
Endpapers for Paper Pilgrimage: Bombs, Bandits, and a Vanishing Art in Southeast Asia
Due out in 2012 from ThingsAsian Press
Other than learning Spanish in school, a Spanish language software can be purchased either online or in computer stores so you can learn from home instead.
What types of Spanish language software should you download? Find out: www.learn-spanish-software.info/spanish-language-software...
Korean language students from the Defense Language Institute Foreign Language Center had an isolated immersion opportunity Oct. 19-20 at the former Fort Ord in Seaside, California. The instructors prepared a scenario in which students played reporters and teachers played police or family members of victims of a tragic ferry accident. The scenario challenged the students listening and writing skills as they interviewed and interpreted what they heard from the teachers to formulate a news story. They then shared their news stories with their classmates.
The immersion also featured Korean food such as kimbab, rice rolls, and chap jae, glass noodles, followed by a few rounds of nori bang, the Korean version of karaoke. (U.S. Army photo by Patrick Bray/Released)
Vision, Language, and Influence:
Photographs of the South by Baldwin Lee, Walker Evans, and Eudora Welty
Knoxville Museum of Art
May 14 – August 1, 2010
Vision, Language, and Influence brings together for the first time the work of three photographers of the American South over a 50-year period. Walker Evans (1903-1976) is represented by incisive images of Alabama sharecroppers stemming from his epic collaboration with James Agee on Let Us Now Praise Famous Men. Eudora Welty (1909-2001) was a Pulitzer Prize-winning Southern writer and photographer who traveled across Mississippi in the 1930s and early 1940s taking photographs and documenting rural and small-town life in her home state. Baldwin Lee (born 1951) is a professor of photography at the University of Tennessee, and a former assistant to Walker Evans. Complementing the 50 or so works by Evans and Welty are more than 30 of Lee’s images of African-American life in the South taken during the 1980s with the support of fellowships from the Guggenheim Foundation and the National Endowment for the Arts.
Vision, Language, and Influence was organized by the Knoxville Museum of Art in collaboration with Baldwin Lee.
Dead - A Celebration Of Mortality
26 June - 30 August 2015
Artist: Alina and Jeff Bliumis
Title: Language Barrier
Materials: resin, foam, fabric, acrylic, ink, steel, human hair
Saatchi Gallery
London, England, UK
PRESIDIO OF MONTEREY, California -- The 2017 Language Day celebration was held by the Defense Language Institute Foreign Language Center at the Presidio of Monterey, May 12. Language Day is open to the public and attended by schools throughout the region to promote an understanding of diverse customs and cultures from around the world. Approximately 5,000 people attended the annual event featuring cultural displays, activities and international ethnic cuisine served by local vendors on Presidio’s Soldier Field.
The event featured a Vietnam War veterans recognition ceremony. Vietnam War lapel pins authorized by Congress were individually presented by POM Garrison Commander Col. Lawrence Brown and Garrison Command Sgt. Maj. Roberto Marshall to approximately 75 Vietnam War veterans in attendance.
Official Presidio of Monterey Web site
Official Presidio of Monterey Facebook
PHOTO by Steven L. Shepard, Presidio of Monterey Public Affairs.
PRESIDIO OF MONTEREY, California -- The Defense Language Institute Foreign Language Center suspended classes on June 16 for a Resiliency Day held on Presidio's Soldier Field. Service members were treated to a variety of culinary options from food vendors while the 517th Training Group Rifle Drill Team performed, followed by a flag-football tournament. Coins and awards were presented to recipients by visiting TRADOC Command Sgt. Maj., David Davenport. The day was capped by a parachute demonstration jump from the U.S. Army Special Operations Command Black Daggers parachute team.
Official Presidio of Monterey Web site
Official Presidio of Monterey Facebook
PHOTO by Steven L. Shepard, Presidio of Monterey Public Affairs.
Students from the Foreign Languages department on the campus of Eastern Illinois University in Charleston, Illinois on August 27, 2015. (Jay Grabiec)
Has a slightly sci-fi - cum - Shangrila look, doesn't it? Beautifully maintained and commanding terrific views over the local countryside dominated by groves of vines and haze-topped mountains. Well worth a visit.
For some strange reason, there was a scotsman dressed up in tartan kilt, sporran, the full works, playing the bagpipes to a family gathering, inside the monument walkway, itself. His skill was such it was rather charming, but an odd moment and more than a tad surreal ...
PRESIDIO OF MONTEREY, California -- The 2018 Language Day celebration was held by the Defense Language Institute Foreign Language Center at the Presidio of Monterey, May 11. Language Day is open to the public and attended by schools across the nation to promote an understanding of diverse customs and cultures from around the world. Approximately 6,000 people attended this annual event featuring cultural displays, activities and international ethnic cuisine served by local vendors.
Official Presidio of Monterey Web site
Official Presidio of Monterey Facebook
PHOTO by Joseph Kumzak, Presidio of Monterey Public Affairs
In honor of 50 successful years of the English Language Fellow Program, Assistant Secretary of State for the Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs Marie Royce hosted a celebratory event on November 5th in the Benjamin Franklin Room at the U.S Department of State to honor the program, its participants, and its partners. Here are some photos of the event!
Photos by Miller Taylor.
January 2016 CreativeMornings/Raleigh event (global theme: Language) with guest speaker Nicholas Sailer.
Nicholas Sailer is a writer and film director whose work has been screened at the Cannes Film Festival and Universal Studios. Sailer got his start when he won Best Picture and Best Director at CMF, the largest student film festival in the world. After studying screenwriting in Prague, Czech Republic, and working in Brooklyn, New York, He moved to Boylan Heights in Raleigh, North Carolina, where he works as the Chief Creative Officer of Betabox, a mobile lab startup that he helped launch.
In 2014, Sailer began the literary project, A Story Each Day, and challenged himself to write one short story every day of the year. When he completed the project, he went on to be featured on the home page of Kickstarter as Project of the Day and raised over $8,000 to publish the short stories in a complete hardcover collection.
Special thanks to our host CAM Raleigh and sponsors CompostNow, Remedy, for video production, Counter Culture Coffee, who generously provided us with complimentary coffee, and Yellow Dog Bread Company, who provided the tasty breakfast snacks.
Learning a second language is fun and has many developmental benefits. Knowing a few signs can give your child the confidence to engage and interact with a deaf child rather than both children feeling awkward and helpless. Here is a set of sign languages for beginners. Download the whole set for FREE at:
www.sharemylesson.com/teaching-resource/Amnerican-Sign-La...
I taught my daughter several signs from the American Sign Language (ASL). She does not have a full ASL vocabulary as she only knows 7 signs. But you know what, just three of those signs have saved us so much grief. I know when she wants "more", I know when she's hungry and wants to "eat", and I know when she wants her sippy cup to "drink" from. I don't have moments of frustration at meal times (okay, maybe some frustration sometimes..we're both human after all). The short of it though, is that sign language has helped us communicate better, even with just a few signs.
Has it hampered her speech? No, not really. I think it wires the brain to connect that all objects have names. And the words she can say, she says. She can say more for example, while signing. But she can't say the hard word "cracker" yet, so she signs that (it's incidentally her favorite word). Other words I didn't teach her the sign for but she instead says are "bird" and "water".
It would be the ultimate understatement to say I'm proud of her.
He climbed and walked and climbed and walked and kept finding intriguing objects. He inspected each one of them curiously. He wished He could keep every new object in His mind, but it wasn't easy. The idea of naming things using some organized language crossed His thoughts, but He abandoned it at once: what would He need a language for if He didn't have any other creature to communicate with? (to be continued)
If you want to know how it all started, you can watch it here, but I wouldn't give a damn if I were you.
PRESIDIO OF MONTEREY, California -- The 2018 Language Day celebration was held by the Defense Language Institute Foreign Language Center at the Presidio of Monterey, May 11. Language Day is open to the public and attended by schools across the nation to promote an understanding of diverse customs and cultures from around the world. Approximately 6,000 people attended this annual event featuring cultural displays, activities and international ethnic cuisine served by local vendors.
Official Presidio of Monterey Web site
Official Presidio of Monterey Facebook
PHOTO by Steven L. Shepard, Presidio of Monterey Public Affairs.
Does this convey "yawn" to you? Appropos of nothing, perhaps having two margies before dance class is unwise.
For FGR and body language.
New foreign language assistants were pictured at Arbroath Academy in October, 2000. They are, from left - Sophie Lavergne, French; rector David Macdonald, Helen Campbell, principal teacher of modern languages; and Christian Fuerst, German.
Rafael Mariano Grossi, IAEA Director General, together with Heads of the Vienna-based Organisation tours exhibited at the UN Chinese Language Day opening ceremony held at the Vienna International Centre, Vienna, Austria. 2 May 2023.
Photo Credit: Dean Calma / IAEA
I tried to clarify the relation between matter and language, from the original chemical components of life (as self-organisation) to the emergence of species, ethno-linguistic groups, programming languages. This cladogram draft permits me to map clearly the shortest path from matter to language (red line). Of all this complexity, interwoven histories, some simplicity should emerge...
The proximity of 2 elements on this tree also make the compatibility of the elements more obvious : compatibility of human and other mamals organ transfert, compatibility of 2 close-by computing syntaxes.
This cladogram is very simplified regarding the complexity of evolution, just a few branches out of the main path. I might continue this research here, feel free to advise me on this subject, if you know a software that does wonderful graphics of interwoven cladograms, I am interested.
research continues here :