Saholy

It is nice to meet you. Thank you for sharing your language learning experience. That is amazing that you were able to learn a language fluently by using your laptop. That gives many of us hope. When you meet a native speaker how far can you go before having to refer for help? I'm just curious. It helps to know others progress and the techniques they use.

Will she be able to use her music lessons as a college credit? If she is not going to college, it does not matter. But many colleges will accept a foreign language taken in high school as a credit for their college program. Some colleges want the student to have taken a foreign language before they can apply. I think lessons in the arts are just as important as language, however, you might want to ask her guidance counselor what she will need for any future classes she might be taking.

Yes! Many people have kept up with language learning watching a variety of different television. I think it is important to keep up your studies, practical application with any you meet, as well as read. But T.V. will give you a variety of different settings that will keep your mind interested in what you are learning. It is much harder once you leave the native country of that language, but not impossible.

It depends on the skills of the translator. Much of the feeling of the language is often lost. However, this is often a subject of debate. For one language, you might not say something in a way evoking emotion like the other language would. Translators have some licence to translate either literally or according to the meaning. But they always need to be careful they are not just paraphrasing. Some might even choose to change illustrations used to better fit the native knowledge of the audience. But this can backfire if the subject comes up again at the end emphasizing a particular point that only fit to the situation described.

I have done it for sign language before. It can be challenging if you have no background information but it is always recommended to have some. For example, before going to a political rally, you would want to know on what issues the person running might speak about. This will help you be able to know where he is heading because in some languages the grammar structure and the way to emphasize the main points may vary. Word for word translations are never clear, which means at times you have to pause and listen to make sure you have the complete though. But for those very familiar, like a person who has the same interpreter all the time, the audience might not even notice that there is any delay at all. The speaker never pauses for the Terp though, but the Terp might have to pause and take in some information before continuing to make sure they have down the concept of what the speaker is going to say. You can just practice in your home while watching the news to a pretend audience. Also, you can have a mentor, someone who has a higher skill level than you, who can watch you and then critique you when you are done with a pro-bono interpreting session.

Malagasy: Matihanina English: Competence, Civility, Dedication to ones work, thorough I think it would depend on the type of job. Some companies have an ethical principle that must be adhered too. The ability to support this can be seen as being professional. To those in customer service, the ability to make the client feel at ease while not falling short of the companies ideals would be considered professionalism.

Many people feel language is a barrier to close friendships. Have you found this to be so? Have you found a close friend who speaks the native language yet? Are they also fluent in your native language? What do you think can help to bridge the gap? This is something I am still trying to improve upon. I do have one or two close friends who do not speak my native language. But I know that they have to simplify their language to a great extent to speak with me so I'm not sure if they feel the same. They have given me the impression we are close but I have noticed when more complex problems have occurred in their lives, they couldn't come to me and fully express themselves. I'm hoping that one day my language will improve so that there is no barrier. But some of my friends say that culturally speaking, there will always be one. What do you think?

With the main language I'm trying to learn it is immersion. But when we first began, we had 3 months of learning Mon-Friday every morning for 4 hours and then we would go out in the afternoon and practice what we learned. (I was doing volunteer work that allowed me to practice so this is a unique situation not everyone has). But now that I am working on a secondary language within the country, I'm not yet satisfied with my study schedule. It is very sporadic and therefore I easily forget what I have learned. Your post has me realizing I need to sit down and really make a schedule where I am doing a specific amount of language learning each week.

Sorry, I was only able to find the sub-titles of the show on You Tube ( ) which you probably already found. But the theme song is not translated! I hope we find someone on the forum fluent in Japanese that can help you. If you could get it in the characters of the language maybe it would help to translate it.

If I knew the sign language of this town then I would use that to communicate with the nearest deaf person I find, if they are blind deaf then they can speak in my hands. I had the privilege of hosting a deaf/blind man from NJ once in our home and it was an amazing experience to watch him access the situation in our apartment. It took him about 30 minutes and he knew the ins and outs. He never needed help with anything after that first 30 minutes. What he did do though was begin with a point like the bathroom. He would return to that point and then go to the kitchen, he would return to the point and then go to the office, the would return to the point and then go to the front door, and so on. Afterwards he then went around the room feeling everything along the way and asked us to please not move any of the furniture. We did this and he never had a problem the entire weekend. I know it would be harder for me than it was for him, but this is what I would do in your scenario. Point B would be called, Nightmare St.

Google translate now uses the Malagasy language! This is so awesome for us because the Malagasy words change in their spelling according to noun circumstantial, circumstantial/relative, passive voice, active voice, and imperative. If you know how to spell the word you're looking for in English, then we have a dictionary that will show you all the variations of the word. But most of the time you need to find a word in Malagasy and that is when it is difficult because the dictionary we have may only have it on one place. So if I am trying to look up the passive word, then it might not be there because they have placed it in the noun circumstantial place. But Google translate detects the meaning! So you do not have to spend that much time searching. I suppose the search was part of my language learning as well but sometimes if something takes too long you do not do it. I will give you an example of what I was talking about: To Turn Ones Head: Miherika, herika, iherehana, fiherehana, iherikerehana, fiherikerehana

Here it is: lainga sy ny fanendrikendrehana that is the official language of Madagascar: Malagasy.

I am always looking for new ways to properly assess the progress of my language learning. Of course, if people are understanding what you are saying this is one way to note it. However, in my experience we do not like to be corrected on every detail of our efforts and therefore out of politeness people will not always correct us when we are wrong. I am enrolled in a public speaking course in the secondary language and have asked a native speaker to assess my overall language and write notes in an notebook. When our sessions are over, we get together and talk about my language use. I have found this to be very helpful. What about you? Do you have anything to say on the subject of language assessment?

I'm sorry for replying to this so late, for some reason I thought I would receive a message when one of my posts got a reply, but I never got one! I wonder how many others are out there? Anyways, Malagasy is the official language of Madagascar. Madagascar is off the continent of Africa and nestled in between the Mozambican Chanel and the Indian Ocean. It is felt that years ago, people immigrated here from the island of Borneo. Some language similarities have been found to prove this theory true. But since the original inhabitants came there have also been Arabic, Indian, and African immigrants which also added to the language making it unique to the island.

I took the survey. It was very interesting but for those who might not understand the meaning of ownership of a language, I found this article that I will add here. Maybe there will be future threads from those who can help educate on us on its deeper meaning. http://www.ugr.es/~portalin/articulos/PL_numero22/3%20%20IAN%20POPLE.pdf Also, the survey was very good but I think question 7 (if I remember correctly) might need edited. Two of the questions were identical but the question after them asked about confidence levels changing when writing verses speaking and I think this means you wanted to have one question ask about our confidence when writing and one when speaking but they both said speaking. Just an FYI.

I really appreciate hearing your perspective. This is something I struggle with on a daily basis. The local language where I am currently living is very difficult. And the 2nd language of the country is also not my native language. So i struggle with accent. Either the native user uses a local dialect, the official accent, or they may have been schooled in the 2nd language and their accent has been affected. Yet, they seem very strict with me on how I speak - even correcting how I say my own name. This is hard for me at times because when they speak to me in my native tongue, if the meaning is correct and understandable then I believe it is accurately said. Of course, we should all try to speak with the accent of the language but one native user of the countries 2nd language recently said to me, 'You will never be able to loose your accent, so do not make that your main focus'. In some ways, this gave me some encouragement to keep going. That being said, there are those whose accent is obviously very strong and others who have worked harder at it. I want to be one of the latter but I still maintain that native users need to know the difference between speaking the language with an accent and speaking the language incorrectly. It is not always the same thing in my opinion.

Yes, it is very difficult for me to express myself in a 2nd language when I'm angry. The reason might be that in my culture when you are angry you often use sarcasm or idiomatic expression to get your point across (not just high voice modulation). But in other cultures that may not use sarcasm the same way, when we literally try to translate what we are thinking, the thought does not come across like we want and we end up getting looks like: :confused: If I am angry and it is due to the difference in culture (meaning something that has happened between me and a person that uses the native language) I try to step back and access if it was really the situation that made me angry of if it was a lack of communication that caused the situation that made me angry. In this way I try and humble myself by realizing I have not yet mastered the language and it was probably just as much my fault as the other persons. By asking lots of questions to make sure we understand what people are saying we can do much to squelch the meanies: But sometimes there is nothing we can do about it but:

We are in a similar situation but also different. We have been learning a language for the past 5 years (and some change) and feel we have hit a plateau. This is within the country where it is spoken though so imagine our shame! I had some issues with the language teachers we had for years and now we have relocated and I'm hoping the change in culture will provide us with a fresh perspective. We definately needed an attitude adjustment if we were going to improve. Here's to a new chapter of language learning.

Wow! that was pretty impressive and your accent is very good! It almost seems like you have some native influence your accent sounded so good. That is one of the hardest things to master in my opinion - speaking like a native, so well done. And you did all that in a very short period of time. Hopefully, you are also able to progress in your comprehension.

I just finished it. What an interesting concept. Awhile back they tried to start a universal sign language so that deaf people from all over the world could easily communicate with one another. I don't think it took off so much though. It is still talked about in some circles.

I think you make some great points. Everytime we have tried to learn a new language we have learned just how close minded we were about certain subjects. Then afterwards, we feel like we became aducated and brought closer to the native users. Learning language takes much humility. If we go into it thinking our culture is the 'best' we will fail to grasp the beauty of the language and culture.

To remember the African name of an elephant, I named my wood carving 'Kukupo' and it has stuck for over a decade now. So I suppose if you could sentimentally name things in your house after their actual name you would remember. I believe this is what Disney did in the animated film Lion King and or Jungle Book. I think Ballou is actually the Swahili name for bear and so on and so on.

We lived in Iowa for awhile too and so I am familiar with some of those towns. Iowa has alot of towns that were also originally founded by the french, the same as my home town in Detroit, Mi. We have alot of towns that have French names but the locals have long mispronounced them. I had no clue until I met some French speaking natives who told me 'Dee-troyt' is not the right way to say 'Dee-twah' which is the way the original word was meant to be pronounced. There are other towns with a similar sad story. I'm not on a hunt to find out how to properly say these names and am curious how many foreigners might recognize them upon hearing them said correctly.

Yes, after over 5 years living in a country that speaks our 2nd language, I am now code switching when we travel home on vacation. I find that certain words in the 2nd language are just better in that language and it is hard to come up with an alternative word in English. Some say this is a good sign that language learning is becoming ingrained. Oddly, I rarely do it in English though so your explanation of when we code-switch and why makes sense. I would have learned all of my English words first. So the words I code switch must be new words that I learned or the application of them after i learned my secondary language. And example of this is the word 'mahay' which is translated 'capable' in English. It is used here in Madagascar in a variety of different contexts that we do not use in English. I find we use alot of idiomatic expressions when it comes to the usage of this word. So now I often find myself when speaking with other foreigners in the country inserting that word and my meaning is understood. There are other situations where I code switch. For example, I have some co-workers who are French/English speakers. But their Malagasy is now much stronger then their English. However, if they begin speaking in English to me, I will continue in that language but if I reach a point in the conversation where I know it might become unclear, I insert the Malagasy expression and then carry on in English again. As an example, if relating something that recently happened I might say, 'the bus driver told me I wasn't 'mahay' and so we should hire a driver to go on vacation.'

To add to this great list, there is a Swedish MRI study that showed physically changes in the brain when a second language was learned! While it wasn't clear what the brain growth would mean long-term, it would seem that it is a promising discovery. Brain imaging might eventually help us tailor language learning methods making it easier for those learners who are not able to fully immerse themselves in the language but would still like to benefit from the above mentioned things because of their language learning.