learning foreign languages

Ist means is, while Gut means good.

Milch is milk and Kaffee is coffee.

Here’s another one. Bett is bed and Braun is brown.

Do these words have almost the same spelling? Yes they do. Although different in pronunciation, the German and English languages came from the same language lineage. There are words which have translation from German to English and some words have not even been translated at all. These words are still used today by English speaking people around the world.

This just proves that the idea of learning the German language is possible. Even the idea of memorizing the complete language can happen no matter what age you are right now. You read it right; you can learn the German language anytime. Children are not the only ones who can learn and memorize a completely strange language. Although it may not be entirely too easy for adults to learn compared to children, the brain works completely the same.

Online sources for learning different languages are popular nowadays but you don’t want to spend your money on inaccurate software learning programs issued today by many language-learning websites. Before you join the club of learning german enthusiasts, get as many information as you can regarding the software program.

Another reason why learning German is easy it’s because in memorization, different methods can be used. You can use a CD to learn German lessons while you jog or cook dinner. You may also watch German movies and listen to the dialogue and take down notes of the words you don’t understand. But of course, in learning your main lessons, you can memorize the words easily by linking the words together in one image or situation.

A man rises up early every morning. His dog wakes him up everyday and to return the favor, he gives his dog spinach bone as he tells the dog to “spin it” to give the dog an idea that the treat is for him. Did you spot the words? In the example given above, we used the word spinach from the English language and linked it within the same situation to the German word Spinat by putting in the phrase “spin it” for easier recognition. Go ahead, try another one, pick a word and picture them in one idea. You’ll see how easy for you to remember it.

Learn other German words by visiting the site http://learn-german-program.com.

Shareen Aguilar
http://www.articlesbase.com/advertising-articles/why-learn-german-76773.html

Studying a (new) foreign language is a time consuming process and with the fast paced lives we’re living in today, time is not a commodity we can often spare. A lot more popular in the past, local language centers are losing more and more students due to the sheer waste of time it takes to go to and come from the actual center as well as the preset hours in which the courses take place. Fortunately, the Internet has an alternative to this that can save you a lot of time and will allow you to study the language of choice whenever you want and how much you want.

Free online language courses

Free online language courses can be found on hundreds if not thousands of sites that deal with foreign language teaching and their quality may vary from extremely poor to high quality ones. It’s up to you to see how these language courses fare, but then again there’s no harm in trying more than one, since, after all, they’re free.

Online educational games

Online educational games can also be found in abundance and their main advantage over other language learning methods is that they provide a relaxing, fun study environment which in most cases will be more efficient. The downside is that a learning process based on online educational games will take much more time than with conventional methods, but, as stated earlier, the information you get through games will stay in your memory longer and it will be easier to access and use.

Media and foreign websites

Over the last few years, the Internet has become a great platform for all sorts of media elements and you will need to use this to your advantage when studying for your new foreign language. For example, streaming or downloading audio or video files in the particular tongue you’re studying can be extremely helpful in building your vocabulary as well as getting used to the pronunciation of words and characters.

Similarly, reading through websites written in the foreign language you’re studying (assuming you already have a basic ground to work upon, otherwise you won’t be able to understand what you’re reading) is also a good method of assimilating vocabulary, spelling and grammar rules.

Video conference lessons

Although this is a newer concept to the language learning world, live Internet video teaching is becoming more and more popular. Studying with a teacher that’s miles away, through your Internet connection is quite a new milestone in the above-mentioned field. Although video conference lessons might be a bit costly, they do allow you to benefit from the same advantages that a local language center would offer you, but you will able to benefit them from the safety of your home and from the comfort of your favorite chair.

As you can see, the Internet offers a great variety of language learning methods, but it’s up to you to choose which ones will suit you best and which ones you have the time/money for. Check out a few sites offering online language learning services and only take a decision after a solid think-out.

Michael Gabrikow
http://www.articlesbase.com/education-articles/studying-a-foreign-language-online-98192.html

The answer to this question is “Yes”, Japanese is one of the most difficult languages to learn and to master. Regardless of what you’ve heard, regardless of what you’ve read and regardless of how many “Learn Japanese in 10 days” book titles you’ve seen at the library, the Japanese language is extremely hard to handle for most of the Western world using Anglo-Saxon or Latin lexicons. The Japanese alphabet (which is a combination of 4 different alphabets and scripts), the Japanese grammar, high pitched Japanese pronunciation of words and the distinct speaker – listener status that is specific to the Japanese language are all factors that can guarantee you’ll have a harder time learning this language than say, German, French, Spanish or any other language that at least shares some common attributes with English.

But then again, if you’ve set off to learn Japanese, you’re either very ambitious, or you’re forced to learn it because you’re moving to Japan, visiting Japan, your business needs to handle contracts with Japanese firms or any other similar reason, so you can’t let the detail of the language being “hard” to stop you. After all, you’re part of a select group of foreigners learning japanese. Why I’m calling you “select” is that studies show that only around 2.5 million people learn Japanese in institutions (1.5 million being South Korean and Chinese, with only 300,000 Australians, 150,000 Americans and 200,000 Europeans) and another million studying it on their own. Although we’re talking about millions of people, the numbers are still low compared to other languages such as English, French, Spanish or German, which are being studied by hundreds of millions at a time.

Depending on your language learning skills, on the quality of your teachers, courses, books and the amount of time you spend on learning Japanese, it could take you between 2 and 4 years to say that you’ve mastered it. Visiting Japan or staying there for a longer period of times obviously helps a lot and makes your task easier, as is with most languages. Also, if you’re studying Japanese for a business purpose, you’ll have to handle specific terms which most general Japanese courses don’t cover. For these, you either need specialized courses or you need to fill in the gaps by reading on the subject.

Whenever you think you’re ready, you can try taking the JLPT (Japanese Language Proficiency Test) or JETRO (Japanese External Trade Organization), offered by the Japanese government. These tests are paid and they are quite hard for even an intermediate Japanese student, so they’re not worth wasting your time unless you’re 100% confident on your Japanese language skills. If compared, you can say that the JLPT is similar to any other high level language certificate such as the English CAE (Cambridge Advanced English) and TOEFL (Test of English as a Foreign Language), the French DALF (Diplome Approfondi de Langue Francaise) and DL (Diplome de Langue) or the German GDS (Groses Deutsches Sprachdiplom).

Michael Gabrikow
http://www.articlesbase.com/education-articles/is-learning-japanese-really-that-difficult-68630.html