Lingualogue Blog

Hi there, and welcome to my Lingualogue Christmas Giveaway Prize Draw. I wanted to have some kind of small competition to thank all of you that read my blog and are working hard to learn a second language.

Of course I wish I could offer a full language learning course as the prize or something like that, but Lingualogue is not exactly iTunes, so I will have to settle for something a little more realistic. Maybe next year one of the big language companies will give me a free language package to give away…hint hint.

For this year though, the grand prize is going to be….drum roll…

$20

Yes 20 buckaroos, all wrapped up in the form of an Amazon gift card

Basically the winner will be emailed a gift card which they will then be able to use to spend $20 on whatever they want at Amazon.com. I know $20 is not a huge amount, but it’s not bad if it’s free right?

What do you have to do?

I’m glad you asked. Basically to enter the competition, all you need to do is fill in the tiny form below with your name and email address and you will be automatically entered into the free prize draw. It really is as simple as that.

Bear in mind that the email you put in the form will be the one that I will send the gift card to if you win. You will not be able to change the email address later on.

When will it be drawn?

In 20 days time, on the 16th December i will choose the winner using a random number generated at http://www.random.org which will pick the winning entry from the list of applicants. I will announce the winner on this site and inform the winner by email. The gift card will also be sent by email of course. Don’t worry, your email address will never be published on the site.

Note: Once you have signed up with the form below, you will be sent an email. Please click the link in this email to confirm your email address. Without it you will not be entered into the draw.

Thai Lottery Tickets - by nist6dh

Okay so it’s that time of year again (well almost). The  time when turkeys start taking  self-defence classes, high street stores give voice to Bing Crosby once more, and the man in red begins limbering up for his one day a year vocation. yes, it is nearing Christmastime.

I actually hate myself for saying that, because although i still love Christmas, I have always hated how early the whole thing kicks off. I mean, let’s face it, it’s not unheard of these days to hear the first renditions of Jingle Bells before you’ve even bought a pumpkin for the year. It almost makes you sick of the whole thing by the time you reach December.

For me though, living in Thailand is a double edged sword when it comes to Christmas. On the one hand, I have never seen a Christmas tree in September, or heard Slade ripping their festive classics over Halloween, and the places that do enter into the Christmas spirit tend not to start until the beginning of December at least. This means that by mid December I am still excited about the whole Christmas shebang. Of course the other sharpened side of my blade is that Christmas at 28° C still doesn’t feel right to me, and Christmas day could basically pass by unnoticed if I didn’t purposefully make an effort to stop it in its tracks and force it to enjoy itself.

All that said I can finally get around to the point of of this post. To try and get into the festive spirit as much as I can, and get the white beard vibes from the big guy in red, I will be holding a little Christmas competition over the next few weeks. I did think about asking for some kind of essay or something, but then I realised I would have to mark them all and that is the bit I hate most about teaching, so not exactly what I want to do over Christmas.

So I figured I would make it as simple as the old tombola at the school fayre, but for free. You enter the competition and on the deadline day I randomly pick a winner with the help of that most high tech of gadgets – random.org.

Obviously the prize will not be a new ferrari or a weekend with Megan Fox as this blog is not called Donald Trump’s Lingualogue. We will be looking at a small cash prize or gift card  for you to use over the Christmas period.

Keep your eyes peeled then as the Lingualogue Christmas giveaway will be in a website near you soon! Nah it will be here really. But don’t miss it, it could be YOU!

Welcome to the Chinese year of the rabbit. Today is the start of the Chinese new year celebrations, where Chinese people all around the world celebrate the beginning of a new year with great enthusiasm.

If you are Chinese, of Chinese descent, or just like to celebrate for the hell of it, I hope you  have a fantastic New Year; I hope the year brings you everything that you wish it to, and I hope your little red envelope is stuffed with more cash than it can hold.

Happy New Year Thailand; Happy New Year China and Happy new Year to everyone else. Let’s hope the year of the rabbit brings us all some extra good luck

Yes today yesterday (I didn’t realise that it is now after midnight here) is apparently English language day. Well there really should be one considering we have a day for everything else in the world. I am not entirely sure what the point of English language day is, but if it makes at least one person learn English or use English in a way that they may not ordinarily do, then it can’t be too bad can it? I doubt very much that designating a day of the year as English Day will do any of those things, but I don’t think anyone really expects it to.

So What is English Language Day All About?

Apparently the idea was set up by a charity called ‘the English Project’ who wished to commemorate the survival of the English language and its growth into a global language. On the very first English language day in 2009, Philip Pullman, an author and patron of the English project, said “Every speaker of English has the right to bring new words or expressions into being, or give new meanings to old ones. I hope the English Project will help many people to realise what a treasure we have in our language”

I applaud the sentiment, but I am not sure I am entirely comfortable with the idea of everyone being able to make up words and add them to the official English language. Thankfully, of course, this is not the case: New words must find their way into common usage before they are allowed into the Oxford English Dictionary. That said, there are some very strange words that have been added over the past decades, and the number grows at an even faster pace with the advent of new technologies. Netbook is a fine example, and even the confusing ‘defriend’ has apparently made it in, although I have never actually heard the term being used myself.

Why is Today English Language Day?

You may well ask. Well apparently on the 13th October 1362, it was the first time in history that the Chancellor of England ever opened a session of parliament in English. The very same parliament also approved a statute of pleading that allowed members to debate in English. What language were they using in parliament before 1362? Well French of course. Thanks to William the Conqueror and the Norman invasion, the language of law in England, and basically the language of the entire upper class was French. Only the lower peasant classes spoke English.

This was of course until that fateful day on the 13th October 1362, when the English language made its revival as the legal language of the land—albeit with a lot of French words mixed in.

I guess there is cause for celebration after all. It could very well have been the case that the English language became extinct, and all those native English speaking countries in the world, would in fact now be native French speaking countries. So if you are a native English speaker, give a little thought to 1362 and the day that gave you your language—today.

If on the other hand you are a student of mine (yes I am talking to you Tatspol, Chudnadis) then you should celebrate English Language Day and go and read a book 

There is an interesting trend growing in the US within families who want their children to learn a second language at as early an age as possible: They hire a Foreign language speaking nanny. This effectively kills two birds with one stone giving them  someone to look after their young ones while they work, and also giving the children immersion into a foreign language.

More and more parents are recognising the importance of being bilingual and understand that it is much easier to learn a language as a child than as an adult. To that end then they are hiring foreign nannies on the condition that the nanny speaks only in her native language to the children. This is a complete turnaround from days gone by when foreign nannies would be asked to use only English to the children in the fear that a foreign language would confuse the children and hinder their learning. Now parents are realising that children can easily learn two languages simultaneously, and can effortlessly switch between the two without confusion. So while the parents speak to the children in English, the nanny uses her native tongue, and the children can learn two languages at the same time.

While foreign speaking nannies has always been an obvious benefit of living abroad (like me), I have to admit I had never thought of hiring foreign language speaking nannies solely to help children learn a second language. I think this is a  fantastic idea, and one that I think every parent that can afford it should consider. I hope it is a trend that will continue to grow and we can finally become nations of bilingual citizens.

If you want to find a bilingual nanny in your area that is professional and trustworthy then you should check out Sittercity

A great move forward by Google and a great new tool for all polyglots who have found difficulties in the past searching for sites in a non-Latin text simply because they have the wrong keyboard. Now help is at hand: Google has added a virtual keyboard to 35 Google search pages that use non-Latin script or use letters with slight variations on the standard Latin script.

This means that if you want to search for a Thai website (for example) then you go to Google.co.th and click on the keyboard icon next to the search bar. This will bring up a virtual keyboard with Thai letters so you can type for the URL using the Thai alphabet. You can type the words in either using your mouse on the virtual keyboard or hitting the corresponding keys on your own keyboard. Saves you buying a whole new keyboard. It is an excellent idea and actually works. It includes the entire alphabet and utilizes the shift and control functions to reach second level letters.

Google says it will expand the number of languages used depending on the feedback from the public. I am sure all of the feedback will be positive as making life easier for language mixing is always a good thing.

The beautiful and archaic language of Latin has apparently been undergoing somewhat of a revival in recent times and has been garnering new interest from some unlikely sources.

So why has this hitherto mouldy language acquired a brand new luster?

And what exactly do I mean by a “revival”?

Last year 137,225 students applied to take the National Latin Exam, according to their website (www.nle.org). In North Carolina there was a 156% increase in the number of students taking the exam, in Nevada an 84% increase. You didn’t even know there was a National Latin Exam, did you? Get with the times! What’s old is new, and Latin is cool again.

Pop-culture has had a big hand in this. The Harry Potter books and movies — insanely popular with adolescents — feature Latin prominently as the language of magic. There is even a complete Latin translation of the first Harry Potter novel, Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone. If your child is reading “Harrius Potter et Philosophi Lapis” you can feel pretty confident about the quality of instruction they’re getting at school.

The more serious side of Latin has been in the movies recently, too. Mel Gibson’s controversial film The Passion of the Christ featured actors speaking in Latin and Aramaic. Although the Bible was not originally written in Latin, Latin became the language of the Roman Catholic Church. Consequently the Latin Vulgate served as the standard Bible for centuries. Inspired by The Passion, many Christians have begun learning Latin so they can read the Vulgate directly.

Research has shown that students who take Latin score higher on their SAT’s, a big incentive for parents. Latin specifically improved English comprehension scores and was shown to sharpen language skills in general.

The study of Latin has significant benefits, and despite (or because of) its arcane reputation it is becoming more common in schools and universities. If you aren’t curious about it now, you will be when your children ask you to read them Harrius Potter at night.

Just like to wish all the Dads in Thailand a happy fathers’ day and of course to wish His Majesty the King a very happy birthday. In Thailand, today is a holiday, but as it is also a Saturday it means that this will be a long weekend as Monday will become a substituted day off.

Let’s hope everyone has a great weekend, and if you are going away, have a great time and stay safe.

Just a quick bit of news that has recently skimmed my desk – Pimsleur Languages have released the third installment of their Eastern Arabic course. Arabic is an extremely useful and worthwhile language to learn, and many Americans are recognising its importance in the world today and opting to learn it.

The Eastern Arabic language is a regional dialect of the language found in the  eastern Mediterranean  (or Levant) region of the middle east, which includes Syria, Lebanon, Jordan ,and Palestine.  Arguably the most widespread Arabic dialect, it allows the speaker to communicate with the majority of Arabic speakers.

Pimsleur Languages eastern Arabic III – good news for anyone looking to learn this language.

Introducing the new Rosetta Stone Totale, the  latest package to be released by the language learning Leviathan. The Totale is aimed at serious language learners and is considered by the company to be a complete, revolutionary language learning system. But is it really?

The Totale comprises the regular Rosetta Stone  software package that many language learners will already be familiar with, but also includes live sessions– where you can talk online to a native speaking tutor or other students– and access to Rosetta World, an online community where you can play games and make friends with native speakers.

I haven’t managed to get my hands on a copy of Rosetta Stone Totale yet as it costs a tidy $999, but you can get an excellent review from the reliable Wall Street Journal to get a better idea of how it works.

As soon as I get hold of a copy I will do a proper review, but I have to say I am a little sceptical from the start. Rosetta Stone is an excellent language learning package, and the added online interactivity does seem at first glance to take it ahead of the competition. However, I am still not yet convinced: $999 is an immense amount of money, and although Rosetta Stone makes a persuasive argument that this is by far cheaper than hiring a personal tutor, it is certainly not the cheapest method out there. I also don’t think it is particularly ground breaking.

There is a free online resource called LiveMocha which has been around for some time, and does virtually everything that Rosetta Stone Totale is claiming to do, but for the immensely more attractive price of zero cents. Even the software exercises are similar. I have a feeling it is the likes of LiveMocha that has prompted Rosetta Stone to release this new Totale offering in the hope that their recognisable brand name will sell a package that is already available (if not globally known) for free on the internet, and catapult them to the front of the pack.

With Live Mocha, you join a community to help you learn a language–native speakers help you by correcting assignments, or just chatting with you to help you practice what you have learned. You in turn help them to learn your language. You meet new people, learn new languages, and maybe even make new friends–all for free. This has got to be better than forking out $999.

As I said before I cannot comment on Rosetta Stone Totale properly yet as I haven’t used it, but if you are thinking of buying it, I would urge you to try LiveMocha first and see if you can do what you want to do there, and save your cash for something else.

You can read a brief review of LiveMocha on the Lingualogue Free language courses page.