Lingualogue Blog

Finally! The biggest, most comprehensive and very possibly the best language learning course on the market is finally available for Mac Users. Yes, Auralog has, at long last, understood that Mac Users are language learners too and released their TellMeMore software package for users of Windows’ less popular but more sophisticated brother. Not exclusively, I hasten to add, but beggars never get to be the keepers of choice.

First of all, I never really understood why the TellMeMore course was not available for the Mac. It was actually one of my major bones of contention with the company when I did my initial review. I can only surmise that Auralog does not have any one on staff that could code the software to be Mac compatible. You would think that would be an easy fix though wouldn’t you?

Anyway, my days of griping over such trivial (for Windows users at least) oversights are over…at least in part. It seems that Auralog still could not find anyone competent enough to convert the Software into a Mac compatible package, and what they have done instead is put their award winning TellMeMore software online for everyone to use.

They call it Webpass, and to all intents and purposes, it is TellMeMore online. Although at the moment the Webpass language courses are available for only a few languages – Spanish, French, German, Italian, Dutch, and English – I would expect this number to grow over time.

So how does it work?
Well it gives you the choice of learning a single language, with unlimited web access, for either 3 months or 12 months. The three month membership will cost you $199, while the 12 month will put you back a not inconsiderable $499. I guess the time frames have been calculated to make the costs comparable to the regular TellMeMore language suites, which I have always considered to be a lot of money, but  remarkable value considering what you get. Of course you could not expect the company to give lifetime membership to customers, as these would certainly be sold on from person to person once the content had been mastered. I think 1 year is probably fair for most serious language learners.

So what do you get for your money?
Well the courses are designed for a wide range of experience levels whether you are a beginner, intermediate, advanced, or expert. Your current skill at the language is initially gauged via a placement test at the very beginning; this will help find your perfect start point for the course.
You can also tailor the language course to your professional needs if you have any, and make the language that you learn immediately useful for your career. The software includes tools to tailor to many different professions,  including marketing, HR, finance, and more. This is a nice touch and I guess makes good use of being online. It certainly seems nice that it is so customizable, and of course the customization can be changed at any time.

The Webpass of course boasts similarly impressive language materials as the TellMeMore software packages, including over 1000 hours of language learning, 500 interactive dialogues, 70 news videos, 60 film clip activities, cultural content, and audio, and more. The audio of course can also be downloaded and loaded onto any mp3 player of your choice. This is a lot of material  and will keep any language learner busy for a very long time. Probably too much for the minimum 3 month subscription, but it would certainly be a good start.

The main beauty of TellmeMore and now Webpass is that unlike the vast majority of language courses, it covers reading, writing, listening, speaking, vocabulary, and grammar. Everything you could possibly need to learn a language to complete fluency.

Webpass then would seem an extremely positive move from Auralog, and I do have to wonder that with the versatility and customization of the online service, if Auralog will be planning to get rid of the software programs altogether and take it all online. I for one would not mind.

Online Language Learning by TELL ME MORE. Spanish, French, English, German, Italian, and Dutch. 12 month unlimited access.

Online Language Learning by TELL ME MORE. Spanish, French, English, German, Italian, and Dutch. 3 months unlimited access.

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.

An interesting thing that I have noticed living in Asia is the difference in the way emotions are perceived with that of the west. This is most obviously apparent in the use of internet emoticons.

In the west we seem to concentrate mostly on the mouth when we are conveying emotion, whereas in the East, the emphasis is most certainly on the eyes. Whether this has anything to do with many parts of Asia seeing the smile as a face saving device rather than solely an expression of happiness I have no idea. The difference is certainly interesting though and should be noted when writing with emoticons to  someone from Asia.

It is a common theme through all of the east Asian blogging and chat sites, and often some of the emoticons used can be extremely confusing to the uninitiated. The more you see them though, the more they make sense, and the greater insight you get into the language and culture of Asia.

West-East Emoticon Examples

	Western-style	Eastern-style
smile/happy		(^_^)
frown/sad		(T_T) crying face
wink		(^_~)
shocked	:0	(o_O)

As you can see, the Eastern versions all have mouths which are a standard horizontal line and convey no emotion whatsoever;  conversely 3 out of 4 of the western versions have the standard colon (two dots) eyes which also are devoid of emotion.

An interesting difference wouldn’t you say?

Edit – Didn’t want it to, but the blog has automatically converted the western emoticons into their cartoon form. This was not what I wanted but seeing as I don’t know how to turn it off, and most people will probably recognise these anyway, I am going to leave it as it is.

If you have used online forums before you will know that they can be a mine of information–a whole community with expertise, experience and interest in the same topics as you. Having someone available who can answer your questions or offer advice is an invaluable resource.

Language Learning forums are equally  essential for helping you through the language learning process. No matter what language you are learning, there will always be a forum with members fluent in that language who are willing to help you with any problems that you encounter. Not only does it offer you the benefits of having an experienced mentor and tutor for free in the comfort of your own home, it also allows you to be part of a like-minded community that will offer moral support as well as academic assistance.

This is why I decided to compile a list of (what I consider to be) the top 10 general language learning forums on the web. By general language learning forums I mean those that cover a wide range of languages and are not language specific.

The full article is on the main Lingualogue site at Top 10 Language Learning Forums

Top 10 Language Learning Forums

1. Unilang.com
2. How-to-learn-any-language.com
3. Omniglot.com
4. Phrasebase.com
5. Wordreference.com
6. Antimoon.com
7. Lingforum.com
8. Ultralingua.com
9. Brighthub.com
10. Learnlanguageforums.com
    

These forums all cover a variety of languages and each offers a mix of language learning materials and resources. They are all a little different and so should be checked out in their own right. Some are linguistic behemoths; some are small language communities.

A more in-depth write up of each, and links to the forums can be found at Top 10 Language Learning Forums on the Lingualogue Website.

A brief update on my previous post about the  announcement by ICANN to introduce website addresses with non-Latin characters. To begin with I thought it was great idea and could see no down side. It seems however that I didn’t think about it long enough because there is a possible downside that never occurred to me–and this downside is phishing. No, not the tedious task of luring piscine creatures onto a hook, but the more sinister act of luring unsuspecting internet users to undesirable sites. Often with the goal of spreading viruses or stealing data.

So how will using non-Latin script possibly increase the likelihood of phishing attacks? Well very simply, an unscrupulous person could substitute a letter from a well known internet address with a similar looking character from a non-Latin script, thereby creating a brand new website and possibly fooling the user to visiting his site instead.

An example of this may be to substitute a regular Latin letter w with a Thai letter พ (Por Paan). I am sure there are many more examples that are even closer and more confusing. This would allow someone to make the site ‘www.พired.com’ and people may not even notice that they are not going to the ‘wired.com’ that they are expecting.

On a more postive note though, I would expect that measures will be put in place to prevent this and I would suggest that script mixing not be allowed, and that each script be given its own [dot] suffix. If each script’s suffix (i.e. .com, .info etc.) is in the same script and is limited to that script then that would limit the possibilities of these phishing attacks.

Of course I am sure there already ‘Phishers’ thinking of ways to get round it.

The internet is set for the biggest single change in its 40 year history: ICANN, the non-profit organisation that governs domain names, is considering the move to allow website domain names (the actual name of the site) to be available in non-Latin script. This will open up the internet to a huge global market that was hitherto untapped and allow the emergence of new websites whose monikers could use non-Latin letters  such as Japanese, Arabic, Korean, or Thai.

I definitely hope this move is accepted as it is about time that other languages were recognised in that address bar.  As well as the obvious reasons that will make the internet a lot more accessible for non-English speakers and allow people to own or visit a website that is named in their own language (which I think is only fair), it is also true that it is necessary to expand the possible names for websites. After all, virtually every combination of english words you can think of has already been taken (albeit more often than not by those detestable portal squatters), so the obvious next step is to open it up to more languages.

I for one am all for it. Read the AP Article

I showed my obvious ignorance of the early days of the internet today as a few friends and I were discussing different methods to escape the tedium of a long afternoon of cancelled classes. After a few runs through the usual football (soccer) trivia games, one guy came up with the ‘Google Whack challenge’.

I have to admit I had never

A valid Google Whack - just not mine

heard of this, or if I had, I had relegated it to the same place as the memories of what I wore for work in 1998. Apparently, Google Whacking was a craze in 2002 onwards and even had (and still has) its own website. I guess I must have missed it. The basic idea for Google Whacking is amazingly simple and yet disturbingly frustrating:  Think of two words and input them in the Google search engine (without quotes) and see how many results are returned. If only it were that simple. The aim is to have your two words return a single result. One piddly little webpage found out of the billions  available, for a search query comprising two words.

I am sure this would have been much easier in 2002 when it all began, after all Google has grown almost exponentially in size and visibility since then. I am convinced, however, that it is still possible. Don’t ask me why. I have no basis for this theory other than the English language is enormous, and combining two words gives  almost limitless permutations from which we should not find relevant websites. The trick is finding the right combination. The mix of words that nobody in their right mind would ever combine on a website (even a dodgy one). It is made slightly more difficult these days, however, with the ubiquity of dictionary and reference sites, as well as the plethora of worthless dollar-driven, or ego-centric wastes of cyberspace of which we are all less than fondly acquainted. You will be surprised (or possibly not) at the crap that is returned. Who in their right mind would ever purposefully visit this drivel, let alone make it?

The challenge is still going though, seven years after it was created. Sure there is no craze now and most people probably think that a Google Whack is a type of internet porn, but the system is still running and the rules are still in place. Who cares if it is more difficult now, we like a challenge right? Be warned though, this could take up literally hours of your free time, days even, and can become highly addictive and a point of pride between friends– especially if you are cursed with a similarly competitive spirit.

If you do happen to find yourself with a few hours to spare and consider yourself a bit of a wordsmith (and have not been a computer geek since 2002) then give it a whirl. Find two words, bang them into Google and see if you can get one result. If you do, let me know and I will write a post with the results. In fact if you do, let Google Whack know and gain a place in history.

Just one more thing before you shoot off and start testing your knowledge of the little known annals of the English language by hammering random words into your search box: THERE ARE RULES (see below) and if you want recognition you must adhere to them.

So many people on the web claim to have found a google whack and yet have obviously not read the rules. Good luck…and happy Google Whacking.

RULES (from the website)

1. Googlefactors must exist in this dictionary. It’s so easy to confirm: Google does the work! In the blue bar atop your Google results, accepted terms are linked to dictionary.com, and so appear ‘underlined.’ No line, no link = Googlejack! (As in, You’ve got jack! Make sure both of your terms are underlined, otherwise it is easy.

2. Google also is the arbiter of a whack’s uniqueness. Look to the right end of the blue bar atop your Google results. If you see “Results 1 – 1 of (any number),’ you found exactly one hit = Googlewhack!

3. Google shows you an excerpt of the page you whacked. Look at that text. If it’s merely a list of words, No Whack For You!

Prevents using lists of medical terms, ailments or phobias.

Just in case you made it this far down, we still have not managed to get just one single result. My friend got 3 (can’t remember the words off hand) but it is damned hard.

Happy Whacking (so to speak)

Lexiophiles is compiling the best 100 Language learning blogs of 2009  and it is an ideal resource for finding information on learning your new language.  Of course Lingualogue  blog has not been nominated as we are too new, but I would still advise everyone to check it out and see if there is anything you can use.

You can still visit the Lexiophile site and vote for your favourite