Moving to a country where a foreign language is spoken and becoming part of the “language education industry” has provided many new insights. It feels appropriate to start a fresh chapter online to reflect this. Having been impressed with WordPress on another writing project, transferring the old content here for archival seemed the natural solution.

There may be a few hiccups on the RSS feed and Twitter over the next couple of days while the new configuration settles in. Thank you for bearing with the site through these changes. In early 2010 I hope to launch a new blog, continuing what was started here. I hope to share what I’ve learned and provide a more informed perspective. Updates will be posted here – don’t forget to bookmark the site, subscribe to the RSS feed, follow on Twitter or sign up for e-mail updates!

Not many of us still have the patience as adults that we had when we learned to walk, nor do we have the same imperative when learning a language. Even when you live in a foreign country, it’s easy to plateau. You can buy a train ticket, you can order a coffee and a sandwich, and your colleagues speak English. Falling over is hard; where’s the incentive when you can already get by? Humans are naturally “lazy” (or “energy efficient”, to put it more generously)! Why work harder? That energy may come in handy when you’re next caught unawares by a sabre-tooth tiger!

So it’s no surprise that we don’t study as much as we know we should. What is required is faith – faith that what we can do, even if it’s small, will somehow be enough. The student who crams may pass the exam spectacularly, but when an interviewer casually throws in a question on (insert obscure academic curiosity here) all will be lost! The student who studies for two hours a day may feel lazy compared to his friend in revision week, or hard-working compared to his friend at the start of term – but while his daily toil isn’t spectacular, his ultimate success will be. What I’ve found from years of experience trying to learn languages is that the difference often isn’t available time, or a snazzy textbook, or even cold, hard-nosed discipline… it’s faith.

If I say to you “study for two hours a week and you’ll know hiragana and katakana in a month” you probably won’t believe me. You will lack faith… so you won’t install the SRS, and you probably won’t bother to study for fifteen minutes a day. At the end of the month you still won’t know hiragana or katakana. You never believed you could! But if you did install the SRS, and fire it up for even just ten or fifteen minutes each day – after breakfast, or during the lunch hour/coffee break… or for a few quiet minutes when you first get in from work, before settling down in front of the TV – you would know hiragana and katakana in a month.

The difference isn’t discipline; you go to work/college/school every day, chances are you even do the washing up sometimes! It’s not a textbook… that’s been gathering dust nicely for a few months now hasn’t it? And if you think hard enough, I’m pretty sure you have the time. You don’t have to use an SRS (although they are very fashionable at the moment, probably because they work)! Anything will do, as long as it doesn’t create a prohibitive overhead. You need to be able to do about fifteen minutes of study without more than one or two minutes preparation.

So for your next “new, fluent-quick scheme”, why not try a tool they don’t mention in the books? Why not try believing that just a small amount of effort, most days, will succeed. You’ll be surprised. Of the many tools (and books, and gizmos, and techniques) I’ve tried over the past four years, it’s the one I wish I’d applied the most.

This may be the last post here on CL for a little while. The site will still be here, but it’ll be “moth-balled” until further notice. Life has changed a lot since I started this blog; after eight years working in IT, I’ve re-trained as an English Language Teacher and am now teaching full time. I also have another writing project (documenting that journey), as well as a great deal to learn about my new profession – there just isn’t time to maintain regular, decent quality posts on this site as well. So rather than have you all wonder what happened, I wanted to add this little note to explain.

Stay tuned to the RSS feed, Twitter account or e-mail subscription if you’d like to find out when site updates resume. I hope that by that time I’ll be able to share better informed views on language learning! In the meantime, best of luck with all your studies and thank you for supporting this site over the last two and a half years.

Global management consultancy, technology and outsourcing firm Accenture also released a paper on China today. The market research report follows a Chinese government initiative to achieve accreditation for and develop China’s outsourcing and services industry, and has been produced with assistance from the China Council of International Investment Promotion (CCIIP). You can read and download the report from the Accenture website.

Apologies for the recent radio silence; I’m on a really intensive training course at the moment which basically consumes your whole life, 24×7, for a month. Am hoping normal service will be resumed in early February!

It’d be great to put something clever in them, for your friends from language class or the native speakers you’ve met through the year. Fear not, my posting-deadline challenged friends! Here is a round-up of key festive phrases in Japanese and Mandarin.

Christmas in Japan is very commercially developed, even if the day itself is typically spent working for most Japanese. Since Christmas is an “imported” holiday, katakana is used to write Christmas greetings; “Merry Christmas” is simply written “メリークリスマス” (meri-kurisumasu).

The festivities fit between Emperor Akihito’s birthday (23rd December) and the build-up to New Year (shōgatsu), which is the most important holiday in Japan. Shōgatsu runs from 31st December to 3rd of January. Families gather to celebrate a fresh start with traditional noodles, enka and a visit to a local shrine. Rising before dawn on New Year’s day is considered auspicious, and the rest of the day should be spent free of stress or worry.

To wish someone a good New Year ahead of the holiday, you would write “ 良いお年をお迎えください” (yoi otoshi o omukae kudasai). This would be the best phrase to use in a card. The first time you see someone after New Year, it is customary to greet them with “明けましておめでとうございます” (akemashite omedetō gozaimasu).

Similarly in China, Christmas is largely a commercial exercise. It is a public holiday in the former colonies of Hong Kong and Macau (not so on the mainland). Christmas trees (“trees of light”) are increasingly seen, and international hotels run festive buffets. Children eagerly anticipate a visit from “Christmas Old Man” – “圣诞老人” (shèng dàn lǎo rén).

You can wish someone a Merry Christmas in China by writing “圣诞节快乐” (shèng dàn jié kuài lè”. “Shèng dàn” translates as “holy birth”, while “kuài lè” is happy/merry and jié means holiday (jié is optional). Happy (western) New Year translates as “新年快乐” (xīn nián kuài lè).

Chinese New Year (also known as “Spring Festival”) is the biggest holiday in China, and falls on the first day of the first lunar month. To wish someone a happy Spring Festival you would write “过年好” (guò nián hǎo”, or if you saw them during the festival you might greet them with “恭喜发财” (gōngxǐ fācái); “congratulations and be prosperous”!

What are your experiences of the festive season in China or Japan? Why not let us know by sending a comment?

Last but not least, here’s a little festive “viral” from J-blogger Fat Blue Man!

Seasons greetings, everyone!

A few days ago I also ran across Nihongo Pera Pera, which is a small and perfectly formed website full of guidance for those seeking fluency in Japanese. I really like the site structure, and that so much of what it contains is backed up by direct and personal experience of achieving JLPT2 proficiency.

What are your favourite sites or online tools that aid your Japanese study?

A report focusing more on economic development and China was published in 2006, and can be accessed via the same website either as HTML or PDF. I must admit, my track record with these kinds of materials tends to be one of good intentions alone. Over the past few years a subscription to The Asia-Pacific Journal: Japan Focus had delivered large volumes of intelligent analysis to my inbox, and I’d rarely got around to reading any of it! Even while researching this post I’ve unearthed what looks to be an excellent offering on China from the Wall Street Journal There’s tonnes of great material out there.

If you’re an avid journal reader, how do you fit them into your busy lives? Do you make an appointment with them once a week? Do you keep it? Do you have a favourite journal or source of reports? Add a comment to let fellow readers know; staying on top of all this fascinating insight is something I’d love to crack!

Many times my study has been aided by resources other people have made available on the web. I’ve always thought that it’d be good one day to put these notes online and “give something back”. This morning Open Office struggled as the document teetered towards seventy five pages, and I decided to split the file into two parts. The split is after Unit 16, since that’s the last unit in the conversational edition.

So today is a mini-milestone; almost two years after I started using the Pimsleur course, I finally have some notes to share with you! You can download them here.

My target is to have my transcribed notes for Pimsleur Japanese 1 and Pimsleur Mandarin 1 in electronic form and online before Christmas. Never let it be said I don’t give you guys Christmas presents!

Update (13th December 2008): The second half of these notes has now been completed and can be downloaded here. Enjoy!

Update 2 (22nd September 2009): Some readers on the original website had written to highlight errors in these notes, or to ask when further notes will be published. Over the past year my approach to language study has changed substantially, and it is now unlikely that additional notes (or revisions to these) will be published. That said, you may still want to bookmark the site, follow CL on twitter or subscribe to e-mail updates, because next spring I hope to share what I’ve learned which should be far more useful!

This year’s “Blog Action Day” aims to draw attention to poverty. Government and think-tank research over the decade has highlighted the correlation between poverty and literacy, both within generations and between parents and children (through environmental factors). Literacy affects opportunity at many levels. Without basic literacy, it is impossible to read warning labels, understand machinery instructions or manage finances and commercial transactions; all basic activities fundamental to modern life. Children from literate backgrounds benefit from support with homework, encouraging environments in which to develop their own literacy skills and easy access to books and other reading materials. Tackling both adult and child literacy is key to supporting individual and community efforts to improve their economic prospects.

So what can be done to address gaps in literacy? Fortunately there are some agencies and charities that empower you and I to directly influence literacy, by supporting their work. Here are a handful I have found while researching this post:

• Room to Read – partnering with local communities throughout the developing world to provide quality educational opportunities by establishing libraries, creating local language children’s literature, constructing schools, providing education to girls and establishing computer labs.
• Shine – setting up literacy schools in the heart of poor African communities, offering free basic education to under-privileged children
• Mercy Corps Education “Mercy Kits” – Give the gift of learning with a Playground Kit, School Supplies Kit or Classroom Kit
• Marine “Toys for Tots” Literacy Campaign – offering the USA’s most economically disadvantaged children the ability to compete academically and to succeed in life by providing them direct access to books and educational resources
• National Literacy Trust – linking home, school and the wider UK community to inspire learners and create opportunities for everyone

There’s bound to be plenty more resources out there; if you know of a great way to get hands-on with tackling literacy, why not leave a comment so other readers can help out too? And don’t forget, there are plenty of people all around you – family, friends – who may benefit from you taking an interest in their literacy and opportunity. Sometimes making the difference can be as simple as asking the question, or offering to a little time and support to those around us.

The other day, I read a news article about the “sacrifices” some Wall Street traders were having to make due to the financial turmoil. One of the cutbacks highlighted was no longer getting coffee from Starbucks.
Now, I’m as much a fan of my caramel (coffee) frappucino as anyone, but we’re talking about a shot of expresso with some milky foam which in some cases costs more than spaghetti bolognese for a family of four. Frankly I’m stunned that reputable media organisations consider this a newsworthy deprivation. But a greater concern is the likelihood that their reports are only mirroring commonplace expectations in our society. In the affluent west, we have come to expect luxury as standard.

Where did we find such expectations? Are they realistic? Do they make us happy? We used to be just as happy with much less, at least when we didn’t think anyone else in our position had much more. Today we’re bombarded with commercial messages telling us that the “average” lifestyle has an abundance of indulgence and an absence of compromise. We’re encouraged to believe we can expect better (if only we work hard enough).

If there was honour in encouraging hard work with the reward of a better lifestyle, there was much less amongst the organisations prepared to offer us a short cut – credit (for just a small fee). Human nature loves a short cut. To fulfil our new found expectations we’ve handed over our financial security – abandoning savings – to accumulate more stuff. This is why the “credit crunch” can hit us all so hard; we’ve become accustomed to having more than we can afford.

So what does all this have to do with language? By learning another language, you learn to see things from another perspective. The insight broadens your mind, and often exposes you to different expectations. There are many people in the world who would regard even a moderate western existence as the stuff of dreams. English is the worldwide language of business; you will probably have to step outside of it to reach those who have remained untouched by the benefits and corruptions of major commerce.

With so many materials now available on the internet, learning a language requires only the investment of your time and effort. Seize the opportunity presented by the economic downturn to develop a new, marketable skill and broaden your perspective. Listen to those who have different expectations. You never know; you might stop resenting having to “miss out” on that daily latte and start to appreciate more than ever the comforts you still enjoy amidst the financial frenzy.

It may not be the most effective approach in all situations, but I’m pretty sure most youngsters would find languages more relevant and engaging if they were taught this way in schools. Encouragingly, the National Centre for Languages has published case studies of both immersive language teaching, and Content & Language Integrated Learning (CLIL) on their website. You can watch an interview with one of the teachers involved in a study integrating Geography with an immersive French language environment here.

What are your thoughts about immersive methods, integrated learning, and the traditional approach to language teaching in schools?