Learn a silent language

Advantages: The sense of achievement and the chance to help people
Disadvantages: It's hard work

...would expect to have to speak Spanish not have them provide facilities for me to continue speaking English! That’s got one of my pet hates out of the way, now I’ll start on my opinion! The language that I have chosen to learn is British Sign Language. I have always been fascinated ever since I used to watch Vision On as a little girl. I have always meant to learn but have never made the time to do it until last year. Two things contributed to me making the effort, the first of which was the fact that I have more time now that I have left work. Secondly a specific incident happened in April last year that made me finally seek out the information to get started. I went into Walsall town centre on Good Friday to watch the procession of witness, the re-enactment of Christ’s journey to his crucifixion, during which we sing...

SusanLesley 01.07.2001 · Read review
Ciao members have rated this review on average helpful
Review of Member Advice on Learning a Language

How to learn a language

Advantages: Communication, Added enjoyment, A new skill
Disadvantages: None.

...Scorpio2 is quite right in all he says about learning another language. The problem is how best to go about it. My hobby is learning languages. I speak five with a good degree of fluency, and three more adequately. I have tried just about every system going. I have also taught French and Spanish at evening classes. It may sound strange, but evening classes I do not really recommend. The class tends to travel at a speed which only suits the average student, so the slow ones will be left behind, and the quick ones will be bored. There are certain ways of compensating for this, but none is very satisfactory. You can pay someone to teach you privately, but this too has disadvantages. You will be having your lessons at a set time, and they will last about an hour. Languages are best tackled in short, frequent sessions : ten...

Schmutzie 18.09.2002 · Read review
Ciao members have rated this review on average helpful
Review of Member Advice on Learning a Language

Learn another Language.

Advantages: Widen your view on life, live with and understand your fellow man.
Disadvantages: None that I can think of.

...Language is everything - by this I mean that you are nowhere at all without it. If you want to be understood in your own country and even in your own area of that country then you must understand the language, the dialect, the local idiom. In English Schools we do not start learning another language, other than English until about the age of eleven. Far too late: By now the majority of children have learned their own local idioms and their learning curve is inextricably set to their own local dialect. They find that learning any language, even another English dialect is too difficult. We all know that attempting to learn anything at all which is difficult leads us to one conclusion. I can't learn that! (I don't personally believe that there should be such a word as can't or even cannot anyone who tries to do...

Scorpio2 29.06.2001 (01.07.2001) · Read review
Ciao members have rated this review on average helpful
Review of Member Advice on Learning a Language

Language Learning for Dummies/Intelligent People

Advantages: Impressive, stimulating, useful
Disadvantages: Hard at times

...In my opinion learning a language is one of the most entertaining and worthwhile things someone can do. Even if you think you're useless at learning, or even if you think you're great, I hope this guide will help you decide on a language and get you on a course to fluency. --WHY LEARN A LANGUAGE?-- Well, why not? It's probably the most useful hobby you can have. Apart from being a great addition to a CV, it's a real talking point. If there's anything that impresses strangers more than being able to ride a unicycle (sigh, one day), it's being able to reel off some French poetry, or a Hebrew proverb, or to sing a few lines of a Spanish song. Language learning can also help keep your brain fresh. Well, anything that involves you getting thinking like doing crosswords, or Sudoku, or having a game of Chess helps your brain as you aren...

kaledrina 08.08.2007 · Read review
Ciao members have rated this review on average helpful
Review of Member Advice on Learning a Language

Learn more than just a language.

Advantages: Brilliantly comprehensive.
Disadvantages: Bit dry and academic sometimes.

...The Loom of Language - Frederick Bodmer Long review warning!! This is going to shock some folk. I am reviewing a book that was first printed in 1944, and has been regularly reprinted since. I am on my third edition, having acquired my first in 1982 when I started studying German. The book is in four parts, and with appendices is nearly 700 pages long. I recommend 'dipping in'. Many reviews on the internet for this book suggest it is to be utilised to help people learn languages, to me this is a very shallow view. It is much, much more than that. It is an academic (sometimes a little dry) attempt to go on a language 'journey', if I list the chapter titles and give you a brief overview, you will get an idea. ~~Introduction~~ The first words in the book drew me in; "What language we speak depends on a geographical accident...

paulhanton 24.08.2008 · Read review
Ciao members have rated this review on average very helpful
Review of The Loom of Language - Frederick Bodmer, Lancelot Hogben

The Only Way to Learn a Language

Advantages: includes a recommended list of films
Disadvantages: need to own a DVD player

...The Only Way to Learn a Language There is only one way to learn a foreign language if you are not able to move to that country. Watch as much television in the language as possible! All language teachers will sneer at any film that has been dubbed, but according to my experience these actually teach you more (and are often more enjoyable!). They say you should only watch films in the original language. And yes dubbing is horrible; watching the actors lips move completely out of sequence from the speech, but let me say it is worth getting used to! I am currently learning yet another language at University and this time round I have discovered a wonderful new invention? The DVD! These must have been designed for language students! Most of the first DVDs were produced with multi-lingual soundtracks. This way I can learn Italian...

velcrogirl 07.10.2001 · Read review
Ciao members have rated this review on average helpful
Review of Member Advice on Learning a Language

Rules for 'minding your language' ability

Advantages: Good for the soul, community, CV etc. etc. etc.
Disadvantages: Can be difficult (just like anything can)

...Sorry folks but I’m going to do my standard ‘language teacher op’ thing here within this article (as per!) and try to implicitly convince you/encourage you to learn a language! You have been warned (ok?) but it’s a tough job and somebody’s gotta do it and I suppose I’ll do! My mental framework for trying to persuade you to do all this comes from another typical day in the secondary school ‘language’ classroom where half of the kids I teach turn around (almost continually) and say “but Miss, why do we have to learn French/German?”, and to be perfectly honest, sometimes I’m fed up of having to convince them of a reason – they just won’t take anything above face value but you (dear customer) are a different, more-mature matter! In hindsight though, I think...

julietta 25.09.2001 (26.09.2001) · Read review
Ciao members have rated this review on average helpful
Review of Member Advice on Learning a Language

French Language Learning for children

Advantages: It's easier when you're young.
Disadvantages: Resources aren't always easy to find.

...It is never too early to start learning a language. A child that grows up hearing two different languages, one from the mother and one from the father, will be fluent in both. It is the easiest, most natural way to learn, but if you are not able to put it into practice, you can still expose your child to French from a very young age and establish a basic knowledge. If your family is planning to move to France and your children will be attending a French school, they obviously need to learn French before they go. Hearing French all the time at school and mixing with French children will enable them to become fluent, often surprisingly quickly. However, if they are unprepared initially to understand mathematics and science in a foreign language, life will not be easy for them. If you cannot teach them yourself, try to arrange for some...

denella 19.02.2008 · Read review
Ciao members have rated this review on average very helpful
Review of Everything that starts with F ...

Mountain Language

Advantages: Clear and important political message
Disadvantages: Direct, dim, and disturbing

...Mountain Language (1988) By Harold Pinter (1930- ) Mountain Language is a very short one-act play by the English playwright Harold Pinter. The first scene shows a young woman and an elderly woman as they go to visit one of their relatives who was accused of speaking the forbidden mountain language. The older woman was bitten by one of the dogs in the prison, and yet the officer and sergeant torture her and her companion with stupid questions and harass the latter sexually. We see in the second scene that the elderly woman was in the prison to visit her son. The woman tries to talk to her son with the mountain language she is used to, for she doesn't know the capital language, yet the officer starts jabbing her with a stick. Still, she manages to tell her son that his wife and three kids are waiting for him. In the third scene...

sottovoce82 26.12.2007 · Read review
Ciao members have rated this review on average helpful
Review of Mountain Language - Harold Pinter

Bible of English language teachers

Advantages: packed with information on almost any possible TEFL scenario
Disadvantages: not so great if you're teaching on a 1:1 basis

...Learning Teaching was one of two set books when I began on my CELTA (Certificate in English Language Teaching to Adults) course back in 2007. The other set text was Michael Swann's Practical English Usage. I ordered my copy of Learning Teaching from Amazon and can't now remember the exact price that I paid, although I know that it was notably below the RRP of £19.50. Even at full price, this book is very reasonable as it is very useful and more importantly to me includes a good range of photocopiable materials suitable for use in loads of classroom situations and sometimes you have to pay separately for this. Learning Teaching is written by Jim Scrivener and published by Macmillan Books for Teachers. My copy is the second edition, published in 2005, the first edition was published (according to my book) in 1994. Jim Scrivener is...

M.Newcastle 20.09.2009 · Read review
Ciao members have rated this review on average helpful
Review of Learning Teaching - Jim Scrivener