LoMasTV?

So when I was looking up more internet research about the benefits of language learning, I came across this ad for a program called LoMas TV.

The premise is pretty similar to the telanovela method I wrote about here, and here but with a lot more structure.

Basically, you go on to the site, watch Spanish TV on a special player that has a dictionary attached to it, as well as the ability to slow the video down so you can understand it better.

Source: lomastv.com via Jayme on Pinterest

It also provides vocabulary lessons for each TV segment, and listening comprehension quizes.

It is only ten bucks a month, which seems too good to be true.

Anyone have experience with this program? Is it worth the money?

Brain Benefits of Being Multilingual

It is day 10 of my 31 day challenge, and boy has it been difficult so far. I loathe studying, I hate writing about studying, but this challenge does hold me accountable to myself and it makes me think about why I'm trying to learn another language from a broader perspective.

Here is an article I read today about some of the brain benefits to being multilingual. It is from 2009 at the website Science Daily.

The key points:

1. Learning another language slows aging and can delay in the onset of age-related mental diminishment.

2. The multilingual handle complex and demanding problem-solving tasks better when compared to monolinguals. 

3. Published research suggests that these benefits aren't limited to those who've mastered three or four languages. Research says that changes in the brain's electrical activity may occur already in the beginnings of learning a new language.

So there you go folks! Three more reasons to follow bilingual, trilingual and multilingual aspirations. 

Right now, I'm just working on the second. 

Although to be perfectly honest, I feel like I'm mastering a third language: baby talk.

I know you're supposed to talk to babies the way you would an adult to increase their verbal skills, but my daughter gets so excited when you mimic back to her the sounds she is making, I just can't help myself. It's like she is trying to teach us to talk instead of vice versa.

She is a very good teacher. We are repeating her streams of  "di-di-dab-dab-dub-dub da" to perfection.

I Love a Challenge

I wanted to share some blogs that inspire me lately with their challenges.

The first, which I spoke of before, is Multilingualliving.com's 100 Days of Bilingualism challenge.

Each Monday, Maria Hawkins posts a week's worth of family activities geared for kids ages five to nine.

This seems perfect to me because I have the Spanish vocabulary of a very slow five-year-old.

I'm counting this part of this blog post towards my 31 Days of Spanish writing challenge. Is that cheating?

A Bowl of Full of Lemons is sponsoring a fourteen week program called Home Organization 101. She goes room by room giving instructions on how to clean and organize the space. I don't think she presents any particularly new ideas, but I enjoy looking at the pictures of her house and the links other people have posted.

 I totally did not enroll, but I'm enjoying playing voyeur.

A Beautiful Mess is sponsoring a pumpkin carving competition. First prize is something I've been hankering for for two years, a Kitchen Aide Mixer. You can choose the color!!

Even though I'm not likely to win, I can't help brainstorming pumpkin ideas for my front porch. Here are some of my favorites I've seen on Pinterest.

Source: buzzfeed.com via Jayme on Pinterest

Source: mysweetsavannah.blogspot.com via Copy Cat Chic on Pinterest

Is there anything that can't be Chevroned?

Source: blogs.babble.com via Copy Cat Chic on Pinterest

Source: bhg.com via Copy Cat Chic on Pinterest

Source: creatingreallyawesomefreethings.com via Jayme on Pinterest

Source: moredesignplease.com via Jayme on Pinterest

etc., etc.

Clickin' Mom's has this fantastic Instagram photo-a-day project called CMGlimpse. You can read more about it here.

Source: clickinmoms.com via Jayme on Pinterest

It is similar to Fat Mum Slim's Photo-a-day challenges, but I'm usually much more impressed with these photos than I am with the FMS ones.  Plus I don't feel bad if I miss a day, as there is a new set of photo challenges every week.

Add hashtag #cmglimpse to your post, and  it will join a collection of awesome photos taken by nifty photographers. If you aren't on Instagram you can see the collection here. I'm a wee bit obsessed with this one, and often get my photo of the day up before I've even brushed my teeth in the morning.



Here are some challenges I'd love to take up, but don't have the energy, stamina, will- power, talent or organization for:

In July, Small Notebook has a spend-free challenge where the only thing you spend money on is utilities, rent and groceries. Gulp. Maybe next year?

Source: theminimalistmom.com via Jayme on Pinterest

November is National Novel Writing Month. I have wanted to do this one for two years, but I'm devoid of plot ideas.

Their site is amazing. I love their slogan:"Thirty days and nights of literary abandon." Unfortunately, there was no image for me to steal and stamp this blog post with. Just visit their site if you feel a story tickling you.

Project 333: experiments with living with less, challenges you to whittle down your clothing collection to only 33 items (not including underwear and jewelry, I think). This is another project I'm tempted to try because I'm pretty sure I only wear five things in my closet, but the idea of throwing so many things away fills me with dread.

Source: theproject333.com via Jayme on Pinterest

This one is from The Gracious Pantry blog. It is a NO SUGAR challenge. I basically live on Reeses Peanut Butter Cups, so  this one is filed under challenges I should do, but haven't worked up the guts to do yet.

Source: thegraciouspantry.com via cindy on Pinterest

I'll post another time about all the e-courses I take. I'm currently enrolled in three, outside of my Spanish course!

I crave variety and I feel a strong desire to MAKE things, which is the reason why I can never stick to one thing and I'm always working on a smattering of projects.

It is also why my house is constantly messy.

Anyways, does anyone else get inspired by internet challenges? Am I just a lunatic with too much time on my hands? What blogs help you get all those synapses firing? Please share, as I'm constantly on the hunt for something new!

Spanish Music for Kids pt 1

Youtube is a great resource for kids songs in Spanish. Here are links to a few that I Like to play for the baby girl.

Warning, these are incredibly silly and corny, but they help me review while entertaining/teaching the girlie.

For numbers:


For the alphabet (kind of strange, but the repetition is helpful):


For colors. Girlie especially likes the stopping and starting.


For seasons:


For days of the week:


For singing about chickens:

¡Vamos a Cuba! Learning Spanish In Newfoundland

This is a Clarenville Packet article I wrote about learning Spanish on your own.

¡Vamos a Cuba! Learning Spanish In Newfoundland

When I hear my Canadian friends talk about vacations they’ve taken to Cuba, I become a bit jealous.

The Lonely Planet calls Cuba, “a wildly exuberant place where the taxi drivers quote Hemingway and even hardened cynics are ensnared by the intrigue and romance.”

You can insert my longing sigh here.

I always wanted to visit Cuba, mostly because it is a country that is off-limits to Americans like myself.

I can’t take a trip this winter to Havana, but I can work on my Spanish.

If you have an interest in gaining some conversational Spanish skills, despite living miles and miles away from the nearest Spanish tutor, you can try some of the methods I’ve incorporated into my daily life.

1.    Label everything

Back in my teaching days, labeling my students’ surroundings was a common practice I used to help English language learning students increase their vocabulary. It works for adults learning a new language, too.

Pick a room. Make a list of everything in it. Spend some time looking up the Spanish translations of each object. Then label everything with both the English and Spanish word. Over a few weeks you’ll start connecting the word door with la puerta, and oven with la estufa.

When you feel comfortable with the words, take the labels down and find another room to cover in post its.

2.    Keep a journal

This is another method inspired by my days as a reading teacher. Every night, write about your day in English, and then translate in into Spanish using a site like Spanish.dict.com.

The essential part of this method is rereading your past journal entries before starting a new diary entry. You’ll be studying grammatical structure and vocabulary without even noticing you’re studying.

3.     Use your children

Kids are fascinated by the sound of other languages.

You can use them to help you practice, by reading them bilingual books storybooks or playing them bilingual music. I find a great selection on ITunes and Amazon.

There is also a great free web site called gocomics.com where you can read Garfield, Calvin and Hobbes, and Marmaduke strips in Spanish.

4.     Watch your soaps

Amazon.ca sells a variety of Spanish telanovelas, essentially soap operas, you can get delivered to your home. These television episodes help you master pronunciation and idioms.  I’m currently watching the 2010 Mexican show, Teresa, about a poor young women using her seductive abilities to become filthy rich.

English soap operas have nothing on Spanish telanovelas. The entire story is told in one season, so there is no backstory to worry about. These shows aren’t known for their subtlety or depth. The good characters are rewarded and the bad are punished.  Sweeping overdramatic scoring helps you figure out what is going on.

Just watching the show is not enough. You have to try and understand every nuance of dialogue. Here is how: watch for a few minutes, pause the DVD, write down everything you heard, and translate what you wrote into English.  Then try saying the lines exactly as the actor said them.

If you practice Spanish this way, one thirty-minute episode may take you a whole week to transcribe and practice saying. But as you learn more, you’ll work your way through episodes faster and faster.

Plus, you’ll know how to tell your lover in perfect Spanish that the maid confessed to you that she saw your sister’s boyfriend murder his father after he took his vows to become a priest.

You know, in case the situation arises.

5.    Speak to a native

Okay, this one can be challenging in Clarenville.

Luckily, the internet comes to the rescue again.

Three times a week, I take hour-long Spanish classes via Skype.

I do this through a Spanish Language school named Guacamaya in Copan Ruinas, Honduras.

It costs ten dollars a lesson, and the teachers refuse to use English, forcing you to converse as best you can in Spanish. 

They are also very flexible with their class times, which is great for people who travel frequently or have shifting work schedules.

Guacamaya also offers immersion classes in Honduras for weeks at a time as well. Two summers ago, I spent two weeks living with a Honduran family and taking classes with the excellent teachers, all for less than $200 a week.

Since moving to Honduras isn’t an option for most of us, weekly Skype dates with my Spanish tutor, Julia, is an affordable alternative.

I find myself sweating at the end of our conversations, exhausted but exhilarated from using my brain in a new way. I feel as if my brain is rewiring itself with each class.

These five methods can be applied to any language because the number of affordable resources available on the internet is amazing.

On your next vacation to Cuba, there is no reason why you can’t order your mojito using español bueno.

Just please take a sip for me, too, and tell me how beautiful it was when you get back.

TERESA!

So I try not to watch tv during the day, but I'm breaking my rule with this telenovela.

I bought it on amazon.ca after my friend recommended it to me.

I don't know how much Spanish I'm learning. I'm too busy laughing.

So here is the story: this incredibly smart, ambitious, sexy, but poor girl will manipulate whoever she can to get wealthy.

Her catch phrase is "Entre ser o no ser, yo soy (Between to be or not to be- I AM!)."

I haven't the foggiest idea what she means by this, but she says it with utter conviction.

The acting, the cleavage, the make up is so over the top. Both the baby and I are transfixed.

Favorite Websites for Spanish Language Learners

Here is a great list of websites for Spanish language learning:

1. This is a great article on using telenovelas to learn a language. I love this idea, and I'm trying to use it as best I can. The author is a guy named Andrew, who runs his own site about learning languages here.

2. Caray, Caray is a site created for recapping Spanish telanovelas. The recaps are so humorous. "The blog's banner proudly states "We love to mock here, but don't mistake it for real hate." The creator of Caray, Caray has a great article describing how she discovered telanovelas here.

3. Multilingual Living is a great resource for parents trying to foster language learning for their children. It has lots of advice, research, activities, as well as challenges to help you focus your efforts.

4. The Teaching and Learning Spanish Blog hasn't been updated for awhile but it has a great list of sites for children, adults, and teachers on the left hand side of the screen.

5. Destinos is a free 52 episode Spanish telecourse. Each episode covers new grammar concepts, vocabulary, cultural practices and has a review at the end. With each episode the content becomes more challenging. 

Please comment if you know any others.

Adios!

Is there any hope for adult language learners?

I spent a good chunk of my evening researching the adult brain's ability to take on a new language. I found some promising information.

Yes, it seems like kids are better able to naturally pick up a new language, but just being over the age of twelve doesn't mean your brain cannot rewire itself to functionally learn a new language, too.

In a 2005 Science Daily article, Dr Paul Iverson of the UCL Centre for Human Communication, says the difficulties we have with learning languages in later life have little to do with biology.  

Dr Iverson said, "Adult learning does not appear to become difficult because of a change in neural plasticity. Rather, we now think that learning becomes hard because experience with our first language 'warps' perception. We see things through the lens of our native language and that 'warps' the way we see foreign languages."

So how do I "unwarp my brain?"

The key is obviously immersion.

And to stop wasting time bemoaning the fact that I'm are no longer an "unwarped child"

According to a 2010 Forbes article, "Programs designed to mimic the learning methods of children are...a waste of time and money...Children are good at learning the underlining system of all the language input they get because they can infer the underlying patterns without understanding the rules. Adults must be conscientious of the rules of the language. Their implicit learning doesn't work all that well."

So another key to "unwarping" my brain may be to take advantage of the things I can do as an adult that I couldn't as a child.

In an article on greatist.com, Shana Lebowitz writes, "adults are generally literate, understand abstractions, and have decent attention spans... — all skills that come in handy when learning a new language. In terms of study habits, adults usually organize their time better than kids do."

She suggests that maybe our difficulty with new languages has something to do with our inability to relax. We worry so much about pronouncing things correctly and understanding the grammatical structure that we are too cowed to even let words come out.

I can totally identify with this. In my hour long tutoring sessions, I have to let go of the desire to say everything perfectly, otherwise it cripples me and I'm unable to communicate anything. I have to allow myself to sound stupid, so I can learn. 

Shana Lebowitz writes about language learning classes that are taught through drama and singing. It is as if tapping into the less logical parts of your brain, helps you survive and thrive in an immersive language learning situation. Maybe working the logical and the less logical parts of your brain at the same time is the best way to forge those language connections in your brain.

And even though this research gives me some hope that I can indeed become a fluent speaker of Spanish, the Forbes article tempers that hope by reminding me that having some language aptitude and making a considerable effort to practice daily are the only ways to make any headway.

I can't do much to change my aptitude, except pray my brain has the elasticity to take these language lessons in.

But I can practice, practice, practice; and give myself permission to bludgeon my way through these lessons in order to communicate and learn.