My native language is English, could you teach me Japanese?
If you want to improve your foreign language skills or to learn a foreign language, maybe the best way is to travel to that country in which people speaks that language and then, interact to natives so that you start to familiarize with them and without notice it, and finally you become into an excellent speaker at the end of three months.
Nevertheless, real life is other, normally we have no time or no money to spend in travels and visit another cultures, it could be expensive and unfortunately complicated, but now internet give us a gamma of solutions in which we could start to learn a foreign language just having contact with people who want to make an interchange, for example, learning German of people from Germany who is learning English.
Many English courses are using now Skype as a mean to interact with people and emulate the custom classes. My ideas are to use Skype™ as a mean in which you could try to teach a person to improve his/her language skills by making slides in Powepoint and show it to that person sharing your screen using Skype.
However ¿Is that true that you are going to learn a foreign language in that few months?, the answer is definitely yes, if you follow all the advices here, I can promise that before you notice, you will be a “proficient” speaker. But the next question is ¿Will you spend a lot of time studying that language? It depends, but I can sure you that with only 15 minutes a day, you are going to have a really impressive progress.
Fantastic! , How can I start? First at all, you must follow some advices in order to maximize your skills, to optimize time and to familiarize with the foreign language.
TEN TIPS:
1. Observe the mouth movements of those who speak that language well and try to imitate them.
When you are watching television, observe the mouth movements of the speakers. Repeat what they are saying, while imitating the intonation and rhythm of their speech.
2. Speak slowly.
Until you learn the correct intonation and rhythm of that language, slow your speech down. If you speak too quickly, and with the wrong intonation and rhythm, native speakers will have a hard time understanding you.
3. Listen to the 'music' of that language.
Do not use the 'music' of your native language when you speak that language (German or Japanese for example). Each language has its own way of 'singing'.
4. Use the dictionary.
Try and familiarize yourself with the phonetic symbols of your dictionary. Look up the correct pronunciation of words that are hard for you to say.
5. Make a list of frequently used words that you find difficult to pronounce and ask someone who speaks the language well to pronounce them for you. Record these words, listen to them and practice saying them. Listen and read at the same time.
6. Buy books on tape.
Record yourself reading some sections of the book. Compare the sound of your foreign language (German)with that of the person reading the book on the tape.
7. Pronounce the ending of each word.
Be aware of your pronunciation and try to vocalize every phoneme in the foreign language, be sure that you are making all perfect and slowly. That could make your brain to associate the phoneme with the syllable or the symbol –if we are trying to speak in a different alphabet language such as Chinese, Japanese, Arab or Russian-
8. Read aloud in your foreign Language for 15-20 minutes every day.
Research has shown it takes about three months of daily practice to develop strong mouth muscles for speaking a new language.
9. Record your own voice and listen for pronunciation mistakes.
Many people hate to hear the sound of their voice and avoid listening to themselves speak. In spite of that, this is a very important exercise because doing it will help you become conscious of the mistakes you are making.
10. Be patient.
You can change the way you speak but it won't happen overnight.
People often expect instant results and give up too soon. You can change the way you sound if you are willing to put some effort into it.
Finally, If you want to start finding foreign friends and potential teachers and to begin to make a mutualistic symbiosis. Go to the following websites and enjoy your new Project.
Websites:
To Learn multiple Languages:
To talk with people around the world
To make a language interchange
To know people around the world and contact face to face in your city
A website to start since the beginning…
The place in which you could download Skype…
That’s all Folks…
Ah, if your intention is to learn Chinese, Skype will not help you so much…
There is a software called QQ . QQ is the messenger from China, the most popular one.
You must create an account in QQ and DOWNLOAD QQ.
I hope you enjoy your new PROJECT.
The Stranger
