The Linguist - language learning should be fun

An interesting discussion of the economics of online language learning

Check out the comments on this article from European Tech Crucnh about Babbel's decision to cut out the free.

LingQ has a group at Youtube. It is called LingQPlaza

I created a group at Youtube for people to make videos of themselves using LingQ or to talk about their experiences at LingQ. I have put up a few videos in a few languages. I and others will be adding to it. Please go and have a look. Why not join our group?

Babbel.com no longer free

I received an email today announcing that Babbel.com is no longer free. They recently received a million Euros in government financing and no doubt feel they can strike out in a new direction. I wish them well.All online language sites are colleagues creating new ways to learn.

We, at LingQ rely on the contributions of our members to our growing language libraries in different languages. We hope to make it more and more attractive to be a paying member, but the free use of LingQ's resources will remain. I cannot see that changing.

Hello,

We wanted to let you know: Today Babbel.com (http://www.babbel.com), the language learning platform, is releasing a new version, Babbel 2.0. This includes completely revamped content and technology for learners of English, Spanish, French, German and Italian.

We've also abandoned the "freemium" model in favor of quality, and have now become a paid service.

Some words about why from Managing Director Markus Witte at:
http://blog.babbel.com/limits-of-the-free-internet/

You also can find further information about the new Babbel, plus our press release, images and videos, here: 
http://www.babbel.com/home/PM20091110_eng

If you have questions, and/or would like access to the new version to try it out, just let us know at press@babbel.com

Thanks and best!

Mara Goldwyn

press@babbel.com
+49 30 346 55 93 87
Lesson Nine GmbH
Großbeerenstr. 81
10963 Berlin, Germany
http://www.babbel.com

LingQ meets The Link (on Radio Canada International)

Tomorrow I will be interviewed on The Link a radio program for immigrants broadcast by Radio Canada International. I am being interviewed live at 9.15 am Pacific time which is 12.15 pm Eastern Time.

I am still angry at government language waste. A letter to a newspaper

Government language waste in Canada is colossal. It really rankles me. Here is a letter I wrote to a columnist at a leading Canadian newspaper. Probably a waste of time.

The Gun Registry gets a lot of media attention. What about the language waste that exceeds a billion dollars a year and produces fewer and fewer bilingual Canadians, and more and more immigrants whose English is so poor they cannot function effectively in our society?  Should this not be of interest to Canadians?

There is much discussion today about the wasteful gun registry, which is finally being disbanded. There is another field where bureaucracy is wasting billions of dollars with little benefit to Canadians. This is the publicly funded official language teaching industry. I am not against language learning, far from it. I speak 11 languages. I am against the deliberate waste of billions, where teachers and translators are able to hide their ineffectiveness and wastefulness behind an unassailable and lofty ideal. This is the same pattern as  the case of the gun registry.

Official language instruction, whether for immigrants or in the pursuit of bilingualism for Canadians, is controlled by the established language teaching industry, who want all learning to take place in a classroom. In fact, as someone who has learned 11 languages, I know that you do not learn a language in a classroom. But you can try to teach a language in a classroom, or get paid to do so, and that serves the interests of existing teachers.

A recent report by the US Department of Education, indicates that elearning is more effective than classroom learning. The Internet abounds with language learning resources that are more effective and cheaper than government subsidized classrooms. But government inflexibility wants to shut off innovation.

Here are some examples.

1) The Feds introduced a voucher system for immigrant language learning. I approached the Immigration department  (CIC) to find out how our own online language learning community, LingQ, could qualify under this voucher program. I was told that ALL immigrant language learning has to conform to the Task Based Language System approach. This form of language learning is not particularly effective, nor widely used elsewhere in the world, and can only be carried out in a classroom.

2) Recently the government announced a Canadian Language Portal, ostensibly to "provide Canadians free access to the language tools that will enable them to use and understand both official languages more easily". In fact, this portal is a 16 million dollar white elephant, of no use to Canadians who want to improve their language skills. It is just a place to promote the publicly funded Canadian language industry. When I applied to have LingQ listed on this site, I was turned down because LingQ charges a fee. In fact all of the public institutions listed on the portal charge a fee or are funded by government. On the other hand, most users of LingQ do so free of charge. Only our elite users pay.

It rankles me that the fact that I have invested a large amount of time and money, and never dipped into the public trough, should disqualify me from participating in any government funded language learning initiatives. It also rankles me that an outdated "1990s vintage portal", that should cost a few thousand dollars to put up, apparently had a budget of 16 million dollars. This is all part of a billion dollar plus boon doggle called the Roadmap to Linguistic Duality.

The issue is not whether immigrants should be helped to learn our official languages, nor whether bilingualism is a worthwhile goal. The issue is the power that is given to the public sector to shut down innovation in an important field, language and the Internet.

I know that I have a vested interest in this, Of course I do. On the other hand, I have been a lumber exporter for over 35 years. I have developed markets for Canadian lumber in the Far East. I have paid millions in taxes. It is only because of my interest in Canada, and in the integration of new immigrants that I got involved in this venture. I did not need it. But now my entrepreneurship and innovation and willingness to take risks, without clamouring for funding, makes me a pariah?
 
The parasitical bureaucracy is choking off, and not encouraging, innovation in Canada. In the future it will be innovation, not natural resources, nor politically correct smugness, that will determine the success of countries and economies.

I have attached a brief description of LingQ, and a recent comment that I received on my blog about LingQ for your reference.

Thanks for your patience.


Steve Kaufmann

Hi , Daniel Poole (danielpoole06@gmail.com) has left you a comment: Personally, in finding LingQ I truly believe I have saved myself a great deal of time..and possibly even failure. It just works, and the podcasts and advice from Steve have made me aware of the fact, the FACT, that at no time during the course of the aquisition of a language does it have to be a chore. ALL the time, if one choses the right method for themselves, can be enjoyable and be classified a 'leisure' activity. That is now my personally philosopy in regards to languages.

LingQ is both a language learning system and a dynamic community of people with a serious interest in languages. The learning methodology is based on Steve Kaufmann's own experience in learning to speak 11 languages, as well as considerable evidence from research by Stephen Krashen and others on the advantages of focusing on input based activities in language learning.

LingQ is unique in the way it takes advantage of the Internet and enables members to acquire vocabulary and language skills from relevant and interesting language input, wherever they may find it. This way of learning is enjoyable and not stressful, and therefore, for many people, represents the first time they experience success in language learning.

The main learning activity is simply listening to interesting language content on an iPod or MP3 player. From time to time the user needs to read the transcript at LingQ in order to save words and phrases from the text to his or her personal database. As the database grows, it generates Flash Cards, special highlighting of words in new texts, statistical records of activity and achievement, and many other effective learning functions, all of which are customized to each learner's situation.

Learners can interact with native speaker tutors via Skype and can also submit writing for correction.  After each online discussion with a tutor, members receive a discussion report, listing the words and phrases that were not used correctly and these are added to the learner's  database. Similarly learners can submit writing for correction and will receive a detailed report with the corrected text and explanations of errors. Again, the corrected words and phrases are added to the learner's database.

Members are not only involved in learning one or more foreign language themselves, but also can create content and provide tutoring services in their own language for other members.

Registration at LingQ, and use of many of the resources at LingQ, are free of charge. To use all of LingQ's functions costs $10 a month. However, members have the opportunity to earn much more than this by creating content and providing tutoring services in their own language to other members of the community.

The term LingQ is a play on the word link. Language learning is considered a process of creating links; between words, sounds, meaning and people,and eventually between neurons as new language skills are acquired.

Steve Kaufmann has written a book about language learning called The Way of the Linguist, A Language Learning Odyssey. He maintains a blog called The Linguist on Language, and has a channel at Youtube explaining his language learning philosophy.

Multiple intelligence, learning styles and the like.

I have always considered theories of multiple intelligence and differential learning styles to to be unconvincing. We have differing aptitudes and different tastes, but I know what intelligence is, and I think that our brains learn in essentially the same way. Here are two articles that support this view.

Multiple intelligences

Learning styles bunk

The fact that these theories are so popular, definitely mainstream, among education theorists and teachers makes me suspicious, since these people are very fad oriented. On the other hand these articles from doubters within the education community are refreshing. Independent thought exists!

The LingQ Podcasts, a series of podcasts in ten languages

I should bring people's attention to the LingQ series of language podcasts, which are available for free download. These podcasts consist mostly of casual conversations, and the transcripts are to be found in the LingQ library. 

If you visit the EnglishLingQ website you will find links to the individual podcast series, for English, French, Spanish (mostly from Argentina), Mandarin, Japanese, German, Swedish, Italian, Russian, and Portuguese (mostly from Portugal). 

We are constantly looking to improve these. All comments are welcome. There are natural conversations and not lessons, so to speak. When studied in combination with LingQ, it is possible for intermediate and better learners to use these podcasts to improve their language skills.

Forgetting and learning languages

Here are a couple of videos I did on this subject recently.

Forgetting languages and German

Forgetting and learning languages

Great English language podcasts for advanced speakers, I fixed the links.

I referred you to a site with great podcasts in English intended for native speakers. The links on the site did not work. I have searched the individual links and put them up. Enjoy.

What are the leading language learning blogs in languages other than English?

I would like to follow some blogs on language learning in other languages. Any suggestions on the best ones to follow? I would also like to ask these bloggers to review LingQ.

How about doing a review of LingQ?

We have made a number of changes at LingQ over the last few months.We would like to know what people think. 

A number of you have your own blogs, and some are about language learning. I would be very interested in hearing what you think of the evolving LingQ.

Would you be interested in doing a review of LingQ on your blogs?

iPod resources for advanced English learners or anyone who understands English.

There was an interesting article in today's National Post by Robert Fulford where he discusses some very interesting podcast services on a variety of subjects. Here are the links to the podcasts. It is less trouble for everyone if I find the links and put them here. One of the benefits of the internet. We can easily do things for each other.

Melvyn Bragg

New Yorker

Scientific American

Selected shorts

New York Review of Books

Hardcore History

Philosophers Zone

National Post

I would love to see a list of similar resources for other languages. I am already using some great resources for Portuguese(TSF) , (Cafe Brasil ,)Spanish (COPE) and Russian (Echo Moskvi). There are no doubt others. The problem is always the lack of transcripts for those people who cannot quite follow along. Maybe one day these sites will realize the benefits of providing transcripts.

Anyone out there with some more good podcasts in different languages?

Why save dying languages?

The NY Times had an interesting article on dying languages today. There were lots of interesting comments. I had this to say. I would love to be able to offer dying languages at LingQ one day. If people want them to survive they will.

"It should be up to the speakers of these languages to decide their fate, not for armies of moralizers and linguists. Often the complicated grammar books and committees of experts that seem to be required to maintain a language end up killing it. All we need is the speakers, some recording devices, some transcripts and some internet sites that everyone can access, as well as a good online dictionary. No UN committees, academic studies or other diversions which just end up feeding wealthy western academics looking for something exotic to do."

Explaining why LingQ works. Which video do you like?

LingQ is a powerful language learning platform because if has a lot of functions. But this sometimes makes it  difficult to explain the system to a new user, especially since most people do not like to read manuals or watch detailed demo videos.

The manual for my new camera is complicated, or seems so to me. But at least I know what the camera is supposed to do. I am motivated to figure out how to use it, so I struggle with the manual and try things out.

We need to help our new learners at LingQ understand the reasons behind LingQ and motivate them to try to figure out what to do at LingQ and why. And we need to do it in few words and in an interesting way.

We have played around with two versions of the same script. Let me know which one you like the best.

The Dawn of Language

Og and Thag

The London Language Show, some initial reactions.

I visited the London Language Show on Saturday. Here are some initial reactions, with more to follow once I get home. ( I fly home from London to Vancouver tomorrow)

First of all there was not the rush of eager young language learners that I had seen at similar shows in Prague and Berlin. This show was not as well attended.

Second of all, Chinese, Spanish and English dominated other languages to a greater extent than the two previous shows I visited.

My third observation was that the world of language learning still consists largely of grammar based instruction. There are various twists and variations on this theme, like computer systems, or a special emphasis on making languages fun or cool or otherwise worth doing, but the core method of instruction represented here was more towards traditional approaches than to an input based learning model.

There were a few interesting booths and interesting discussions and I will get to them later.

London meet up on Saturday, at the Language Show.

Just  reminder that I will be at the London Language Show in the main entrance to the Olympia at 12.00 noon on Saturday.

Let me know if you are going to be there? I would love to meet some language keeners.

Youtube groups - baffled by technology again

I tried to create a youtube group for LingQ, where LingQ members could post videos about how they use LingQ, in whatever language they want. I even thought we could have a competition or something. Rather than trying to explain LingQ, I thought it would be great to get users to talk about it in their own language/

Twice I thought I had followed the instructions and started the group, and yet the new group does not show up in my account and there is no place that I can see to search for it. Has anyone tried to create a youtube group? I am reluctant to go through all of these steps if the group just vanishes.

Canadian language waste in another form, court cases.

In Canada, people are forever going to court to claim language rights. I believe this is a waste of money, although great for lawyers and people who make money of court cases. The recent Supreme Court decision, described in this article in the Ottawa Citizen is just another example.

To me it is simple. The majority French speaking society of Quebec, through their elected representatives, have decided that immigrants who want to their children to attend publicly funded schools will have to send them to French language schools. That is the deal in Quebec. If you do not like it, do not emigrate to Quebec.

I understand why the Quebeckers have the law. They want to maintain their society as a predominantly French speaking society, in this vast English speaking continent. That is their wish. It is not for others to moralize or wag fingers. And these court cases are tiring and just another example of language waste in Canada. We spend a fortune on language and are generally poor at speaking other languages (except for the French Canadians).

Er excuse me, excuse me, please, can I just get by, con permiso?

The old town in Seville is just a maze of narrow streets, most of which are just wide enough for one small car. We stayed near the Plaza del Pozo Santo and had to park 20 minutes away by foot. The day we left I had to try to bring the car near our hotel to load our luggage. Suddenly I came upon a street market. The people at the market were none too pleased to see me trying to drive through the market, but all the other streets there were one way, the wrong way. I had only one way to go, through the people.

There was a policeman there and he said that they should have blocked the road off, but because they had not, I had no choice but to drive through the market, slowly, "despacito".

Can we create a real Canadian Language Portal? I am looking for advice.

The public sector has a choke hold on official language learning in Canada. I recently posted about the Canadian Language Portal, which has cost the tax-payers of Canada 16 million dollars. This is just a small part of the billions that have been spent in Canada in the last few years, in the name of the twin noble causes of immigrant language learning, and bilingualism. This funding is controlled by public sector teaching institutions and immigrant service organizations. They decide how the money is spent....on themselves.

When I have approached these institutions about using LingQ, or even listing LingQ as a resource on the Canadian Language Portal, I have been told that LingQ cannot be considered because it charges a fee, or it is not an established college, or its teachers are not all certified. I learned recently that all government funded immigrant language instruction has to conform to a system called "Task Based Language Learning", in other words it has to take place in the classroom. There is no room for LingQ.

Or is there? I am trying to think of a way to persuade our government that things are changing. Language learning is happening on the Internet as a recent CNN article points out.  A study by the US Department of Education concluded that online learning is more effective than classroom instruction.

The Canadian government has even started a small pilot project, where immigrants will receive vouchers to spend on the language learning method of their choice.  If the public sector language industry controls the decision on which language learning services will qualify for vouchers, LingQ will be out of luck.

I wonder if the government can be persuaded to provide a little recognition for the fledgling private online language industry, including LingQ. Maybe not funding, but just some  acceptance and publicity. Communities like LingQ are thinking outside the box, and finding new solutions. As one idea, LingQ could be a language portal for Canadians, or could be part of another portal, only available to companies that are privately financed and not supported by tax-payers or charitable foundations.

LingQ may not be the answer for everyone, but there are no doubt some people, just a few, who would be happier improving their official language skills with LingQ, rather than sitting in a classroom and doing "Task Based Language Learning". And maybe that option should be there for them.

I am going to be thinking about what to propose to government and would appreciate any advice and suggestions.