My review of Polyglot Workshops: Brazil

Hi everyone! This time I made a review of the main points of the event in Brazil, Belo Horizonte, Polyglot Workshop, with Alex Rawlings, Jimmy Mello and Richard Simcott.

In case you don’t know them:

Alex Rawlings 

Jimmy Mello

Richard Simcott

Well, if you want to do something, there is nothing better to take notes of the words of experts. It’s exactly what I did, but I want to share with you all. During all the day we had lectures by these three experts in language learning process. Was it exhaustive? Absolutely not!

First point:

How do you deal with your schedule? 

There are a lot of people wanting to learn a new language, but, ok, you made the decision, and now? Well, according to our experts, you need to pick your goals, step by step. It’s not a jumping process. You don’t learn all the points of a language at once. You read, you write, you listen and speak, it’s a gradual process and you need to do it step by step! Once you realize it you can move on!

Ok. You know your goals.

How to avoid the fear to fail?

“While in Hungary, I got a trouble to remember the word for water, that is VÍZ. People didn’t understand me. But, look: I am not stupid, I am a educated person, I am a Polyglot, I speak several languages, I just don’t know the word for water in this language, but the main reason why you don’t speak a foreing language is because you are not from that place!” Alex Rawlings.

Take the words spoken By Alex and keep them in mind. You don’t have to speak perfectly! It is not your language, and like he says: What is the worst thing that could happen in case you make a mistake?

Me and Alex Rawlings.

Ok, Ok, you got the point, you made your choice, you don’t have fear to fail, but…

I don’t have time! How to deal with that? 

Well, to answer this question, an experient linguist gave us a piece of gold!

Jimmy Mello, the man!

Jimmy Mello, The Brazilian awesome polyglot just show his routine to learn!

Well, first, like he always says, you need 10 minutes everyday to learn one language. If you brush your teeth you are able to learn it!

All you need to do is to put you out of your confort zone! When you wake up, listen to the news in another language! When you watch a movie, do it in another language! Even better if you do it with subs in a third language!

and, Flashcards! He is the master of flashcards! He uses a flashcard to remember vocabs and practice another language. In that case, he show us a flashcard in Polish with French. Awesome, isn’t it?

Well, he is owner of a language school, he rules a site with weekly podcast (www.mypolyglot.com), and a lot of projects. Do you think he has a lot of free time? But he learns! You don’t need to be a kind of vagabond to learn! Just take each chance to learn.

Ok ok! You got it! I know my goals, I am not affraid and I do have time! what’s next?

I don’t have resources! How to do it now?

Just here with the legends!

Well, Richard gave us a lot of Apps to train a new language. He speaks more than 40 languages, would you doubt of his advices? haha

Well, he too takes all the opportunities to learn, and he shared with us a lot of apps. You just need internet.

I think his favorite is the app Euronews. You can access news in a lot of languages with this app!

We have, Lingq, to increase vocab. We have Hellotalk to speak with natives. We have readlang, a super interesting extension to increase vocabulary, and in case to use a teacher, try italki!

Well, I do believe in this apps, in part because I myself use some of them, second, if a person who maintain more than 40 languages tells me that it’s good, so, must be good!

What else?

It was a good chance to test your skills, because in this event we have people who speaks a lot of different languages, like Hungarian, Polish, Esperanto, Russian, German, Japanese. We just need to talk with each other.

Polyglots =)

In a polyglot comunity is so easy to build friendship. I had the chance to speak German with an awesome hyperpolyglot named Marlon Couto Ribeiro-Szalay, if you don’t know him, you should, he is part of an amazing team with the Polish Polyglot Konrad Jerzak vel Dobosz and he also is married with the polyglot Aniko Szalay  from Hungary! Wow! What a great team they have! I practice my english and Spanish with the polyglot and my new friend Sarah Brown, from Wales, and got a name of an amazing APP with her. It’s TuneIn. One of the bst apps that I ever saw. Alex Rawlings talked to me in Hebrew. (Note: He speaks with me, because my Hebrew is very poor yet! haha)

But I don’t speak English! How to deal with it? 

In this case, just don’t worry, in that event we had an awesome translator! The polyglot Sérgio Rodrigues was there to help! If you speak english, he translates, if is spanish, too, if it’s french, too! He is an amazing guy that you should know too!

In short: if you have a chance to join one of these events, don’t think too much, just do it!

Ps. Jimmy Mello will share his presentation in video, I will back here and post the link.

See ya!

Dealing with cultural differences in the language learning process

Hi everyone! This time I have an interesting fact to share. One of the most important points of learning a new language, if you want a partner, is to deal with the big cultural differences between you and your partner.

Well, at this moment I am learning Arabic, the point is: My teacher is Muslim, and I am Christian.

The Muslim teacher and the Christian Student: 

LISTEN IT HERE!  

(En):

First of all, when I talked to Haya I was a little afraid, because I thought that a Muslim would never like to teach me. The point is stop judging. So I decide to try. My mind is open and I was very interested in Arabic.

Emotional process: 

For me, the process of learning a new language is completly emotional. So, I need to love the language, the culture and to feel empathy for my language partner. The point is: if I didn’t know how to deal with difference, I would never learn Arabic, once the religion and the culture belong together in this case and for me, Culture comes first, language comes later, naturaly, because the main poin is comunication.

When I gave her all ears, I found a real language partner and friend that loves to teach me, and if I am reaching some goals in Arabic, is because I am dealing very well with that. My religion remains the same, her religion too, and we are learning a lot from each other. The main point is: You can learn to deal with differences, just don’t judge, it’s the key of language learning process.

(Pt):

Em primeiro lugar, quando conversei com a Haya estava um pouco aflito, porque pensei, um Muçulmano nunca vai querer me ensinar alguma coisa. O ponto é: Parar de julgar. Então decidi tentar. Mantive a mente aberta e estava muito interessado na língua árabe.

Processo emocional: 

Para mim, o processo de aprender uma nova lingua é completamente emocional. Eu preciso amar a língua, a cultura e sentir empatia pelo meu language partner. O ponto é: Se eu não soubesse como lidar com as diferenças, Eu nunca aprenderia Árabe, uma vez que a religião e a cultura andam juntas nesse caso e para mim, cultura vem primeiro, idioma vem depois, naturalmente, Porque o ponto principal é comunicação.

Quando eu dei a ela uma mente sem pré julgamentos, encontrei um language partner excelente e uma amiga que adora ensinar sua cultura e idioma, e se eu estou alcançando algum sucesso no Árabe, é porque estou lidando muito bem com isso. Minha religião permanece a mesma, a dela também, e nós estamos aprendendo um com o outro.  O principal é: Você pode aprender a lidar com as diferenças, apenas não julgue, é o ponto chave na aprendizagem de linguas.

(En)

Haya’s vision of the cultural differences:

Diversity is a very beautiful thing, unless we start to judge. All we have to do is to respect each other. The world is full of different cultures, and every single one has its own beauty. We may have different cultural backgrounds, but we can always find something in common. Something that unites us despite all the differences!

I believe that diversity is a gift from God. To know others, learn from them and teach them. Different cultures, traditions, languages, dressings, food, and many other things. That can make travelling more interesting. Imagine if we all have the same culture! Would travelling be this good? Would you even think of travelling? We would all have the same history, present, and future! So why all this hate towards other cultures? Can’t we just give love! Can’t we just look at other people as they have the right to be who they want to be! Only when you learn about other cultures you will get to know about yours more and more, and you will love it as you have never done before!

Before you judge make sure you know the truth. Don’t believe everything on television or internet! Let’s love each other and leave the war aside!

(Ar)

التنوع الثقافي

لا شيء أجمل من التنوع, إلا إذا بدأنا بالحكم على الاخرين. كل ما علينا فعله هو أن نحترم بعضنا بعضاً. العالم مليء بالثقافات المختلفة, وكل منها جميلة بطريقتها الخاصة. من الممكن أن نأتي من خلفيات ثقافية مختلفة, لكننا سنجد دائماً شيء مشترك. شيء يجمعنا على الرغم من كل الاختلافات.

أؤمن بأن الاختلاف هو هدية من عند الله. التعرف على الاخرين, التعلم منهم وتعليمهم. الثقافات المختلفة والعادات والملابس والطعام, وغيرها الكثير. الذي من الممكن أن يجعل السفر أكثر متعة. تخيل لو أننا جميعا نمتلك الثقافة نفسها! هل سيكون السفر بالمتعة الذي هو فيه؟ هل ستفكر أصلاً بالسفر؟ وقتها سنمتلك جميعاً التاريخ نفسه والحاضر والمستقبل! إذاً لماذا كل هذه الكراهية تجاه الثقافات الأخرى؟ ألا يمكننا أن نحب! ألا يمككنا أن نعتبر أن الأخرين لديهم الحق بأن يكونوا ما يريدون! فقط عندما تتعرف على ثقافات أخرى ستتمكن من التعرف على ثقافتك أكثر وأكثر, وستحبها كما لم تفعل من قبل!

قبل أن تحكم, تأكد بأنك تعرف الحقيقة. لا تصدق كل شيء تراه على التلفاز أو الإنترنت! لنحب بعضنا البعض وندع الحرب جانباً!

Haya!                                                                And me: Patrick!

How I am using Russian to help me with Hebrew

Update! : 1 month Studying Hebrew.

Well, first of all, I am a portuguese native speaker, so, I’m from Romance family.       When I decided to learn Spanish, was like a walk around my own city with my family in a neighbor that I didn’t knew.

So, with English, was a little different, like a new city with a new Family (Germanic one) And this same family was with me for German. New structures of sentences, more complex gramatical stuff, but still the same family of English, and the main point. The same alphabet.

So, I decided to try something new. This time a whole different country, family, everything. I started to learn Russian. It was not that easy. In the first place, I could not even read any word.

Slavic experience:

Then, there was my first time without read anything! I became a baby again! The first point in that time was to learn the alphabet. Yes! I learned the alphabet first, point by point, isolated. Not smart thing, I know, but I had no Idea, so I give myself some credit =)

After three weeks, 2 hours everyday, I was able to read! BUT, I didn’t know the meaning of any word! Yay!

It was a painfully process, but it worked! In this point I found a course of Russian by Assimil.

After some time I got the main points of the language, was able to start a basic talking. The point is: I was inside this new Country (The slavic family)! Just needed to start to walk to know more and more about that.

Today I keep practicing, but I reach a good level and I am pretty happy with myself about Russian!

So I tought: WHAT ABOUT HEBREW?

Hebrew is completely different for me! I never knew it before. If I had to learn Hebrew as my first foreing language, I would give up. Even I had to deal with Hebrew before my past experiences, I am not sure if I could do it.

Fortunately, my painfuly Russian process is helping me to deal with it!

BUT HOW?

Is Russian similar to Hebrew? I would say no!

A Slavic language is very very different of a Afro-asiatic language like Hebrew.

But, there are the points that help me:

It is not the first time that I take a new adventure and I became a baby without the possibility to read any word!

Yes! To lose my capacity to read is not a new thing for me! This time a made a different process. I still study the alphabet, but I speak from day one (Benny Lewis tip, that I didn’t know while I studied Russian).

To develop my speaking and listening skills while I start to read and write, this time, I am using Pimsleur method, while I use Teach yourself.

Well, I taught myself a slavic language only with one method (Assimil), I am pretty sure I am able to do it again, let’s try Teach yourself (Moses Sounds to like it).

THE LAST CRUCIAL MISTAKE THAT I AM AVOIDING NOW:

When I was a Russian baby (haha that sound weird), I talked to anyone! First I learned the alphabet, and then, to write, to read, to speak some things, to listen a lot of musics, and then, after almost three months, I found a native speaker to talk with.

And what about Hebrew?

I have a native Hebrew speaker helping me form day one! And it’s totaly different! The family is new, but you have someone to guide you and say: Hey, your pronounce isn’t right. Don’t say it that way.

If you study only with books, you will be a walking book. If you want to talk like a native, you need to learn from a native!

The happy part: I found a patient person from Israel that speaks English, and… guess what? From a Russian Family! (Yes! She helps me to improve Russian and to leanr Hebrew, besides, my language partner still speaks more 4 languages.)

So, the main points of the process:

A lot of musics in Hebrew. Teach yourself, Pimsleur, and the key: Conversation!

I will post a video of me speaking Hebrew soon!

לְהִתְרָאוֹת                                                                                                                                            (lehitraot)

Goodbye!