Episode 2: At the Bar, A Russian Lesson

Welcome to the second installment of ALTA’s Beyond Words Podcast. Our podcasts provide listeners with the latest language news, language-related interviews, and language lessons that can be applied to real-world situations. They’re always brief, always informative, and always entertaining.

Today’s language lesson deals with Russian phrases for ordering a drink at a bar. You can listen to the lesson on our website or download it for later playback on any standard MP3 compatible device. We hope you enjoy listening!

Listen to Episode 2: A Russian Lesson

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ALTA has provided language training to government agencies and corporations for 30 years. To learn more about our programs, please visit Online Language Training.

All music and sound effects were provided by The Freesound Project.
Thank you to the following people for use of their field recordings and samples:
Genghis Attenborough, Djgriffin, Robinhood76, Fogma, Mich3d, Afterguard, Bauhaus2006, Tr4ck3r, and Dobroide

For the last 30 years, ALTA has provided language training to corporate clients and government agents whose relocation to foreign countries requires them to achieve high levels of proficiency in a new language. High proficiency includes the ability to communicate in an advanced way with native speakers of the new language — a range of people from professionals who use specialized terminology, to everyday people encountered while navigating a new culture: grocers, neighbors, taxi drivers, lawyers, and doctors. Our experience has taught us a lot about language acquisition: the best methods, how long it takes to become fluent, the most helpful exercises, and the importance of going beyond words to learn the nuances of the culture.

If you’ve decided to learn a new language but don’t know where to start, here are five tips that will get you going in the right direction.

1. Self-guided Programs versus Instructor-led Programs

Our experience has taught us that the best way to acquire a new language is through personal customized training led by a professional instructor who is a native speaker of the target language.

There are also many self-guided language programs that may be a good place to start for individuals with zero knowledge of the new language. These resources are unlikely to guide learners beyond basic proficiency levels — greetings, basic requests, and so forth, but many of them do provide good introductions to the new language, and a bit of a foundation before starting intensive training. Self guided options include mp3/cd and book based courses by the Foreign Service Institute and, for free, the Massachusets Institute of Technology’s Open Courseware, a collection of activities, notes, and audio/video lectures.

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Over the past few decades, the United States has seen a steady increase in college enrollment. With higher education readily accessible to more and more people—from 1987-1997 college enrollment increased by 26%, and, from 1997-2007, college enrollment increased by an additional 18%–the ability to learn a second or third language is available to a broader audience. Given that in order to graduate from most higher education institutions a student must take at least two introductory semesters of a foreign language, and that, for many jobs, the ability to know certain languages is an asset, the percentage of students enrolling in both introductory and advanced foreign language courses has skyrocketed over the past twenty years. With that increase, there’s been a decided shift from some languages to others, but overall, the number of foreign language learners has steadily increased.

While the data from the Modern Language Association (MLA)’s 2006 study, “Enrollments in Languages Other Than English in the United States Institutions of Higher Education” is a few years old, there is still much to be gleaned from the report’s findings. From 2002-2006, the number of foreign language learners, in languages other than Greek and Latin, increased by 175,734 students, or 12.9%. Interestingly enough, during that same time period, college enrollment dropped by 48,000 students, according to the Digest of Education Statistics. So while postsecondary enrollment has increased since 1960, when the MLA began its analysis, in recent years the number of students enrolled in foreign language classes has increased while college enrollment has fluctuated by 50,000 students or so.

But what does this say about enrollment in specific languages—are certain languages like Spanish and Arabic more popular now than before?

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Episode 1: Landing in Morocco, An Arabic Lesson

Welcome to the first installment of ALTA’s Beyond Words Podcast. Each episode will provide listeners with the latest language news, language-related interviews, or language lessons that can be applied to real-world situations. They’re always brief, always informative, and always entertaining.

Today’s language lesson deals with Arabic phrases for getting from an airport to a hotel. You can listen to the lesson on our website or download it for later playback on any standard MP3 compatible device. We hope you enjoy listening!

Listen to Episode 1

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Download

To download Episode 1 for playback on any MP3 compatible device, simply right click and “save link as” or “save target as” — DOWNLOAD .

Subscribe on iTunes

You can subscribe to the Beyond Words Podcast on iTunes. Every time we release a new episode, your iTunes library will automatically upload it. Just follow the link — SUBSCRIBE.

____________________________________________________________________________________________
ALTA has provided language training to government agencies and corporations for 30 years. To learn more about our programs, please visit Online Language Training.

All music and sound effects were provided by The Freesound Project.
Thank you to the following people for use of their field recordings and samples:
Genghis Attenborough, Djgriffin, Bram, Acclivity, Corsica_S, CGEffex, Burkay, and Afterguard

My Podcast Alley feed! {pca-d1f907415ea19550131e6912f9582dbd}

Language learners experience a blow to their confidence when they fail to comprehend a native speaker. Many students have experienced something like this: after months or even years of diligent study and practice, they fail to understand someone during a casual conversation, and are too embarrassed or frustrated to ask that person to repeat what was said. Sound familiar? Many language learners try to hide the breakdown in communication. The problem, however, is not something to be embarrassed about — it is often the result of never having practiced speech perception.

Speech perception is the process by which we hear, interpret, and understand the sounds that make up language. While most people think first of the tongue when acquiring new language skills, the ear should not be forgotten. The auditory perception and comprehension of sounds specific to the foreign language you study are vital to communication, and these skills need to be practiced. For instance, many English language learners have trouble distinguishing between l and r sounds in spoken English. This difficulty doesn’t suggest that they are slow learners or lacking in language abilities, but that they have not spent sufficient time practicing listening comprehension with the speech sounds of English.

Research by CDT scientists specializing in hearing and cognition shows that speech perception practice makes learning English easier when paired with existing language training methods. Emeritus Professors James Miller, formerly of Washington University School of Medicine and Charles Watson, former chair of the Department of Speech and Hearing Sciences at Indiana University, have drawn from their many years researching speech perception and computer-based training systems, to develop the most comprehensive speech perception training program: Speech Perception Assessment and Training System for students of English as a Second Language (SPATS-ESL).

The SPATS software system, originally developed for the hearing-impaired, was modified for use with ESL. The program works by helping learners to recognize syllable constituents: onsets, nuclei, and codas, as well as sentence recognition. Syllable constituent and sentence tasks are interweaved throughout training. In constituent training, SPATS uses an innovative training algorithm, Adaptive Item Selection (AIS), which focuses training on specific sounds.

From Communication Disorders Technology:

SPATS-ESL is not designed to teach English grammar, vocabulary, or idioms. It is designed to teach International Students with a basic knowledge of English to be able to accurately perceive naturally spoken English sentences and to be able to identify the basic sounds of spoken English accurately.”

According to data from CDT, a vast majority of SPATS-ESL users said that perceptual training should be used in all ESL programs, that perceptual training improved their participation in every day conversation, and that perceptual training improved their pronunciation of English. CDT’s research and perceptual learning products indicate that speech perception training may significantly aid non-native language learners.

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ALTA Language Services, a leader in customized language training for 30 years, has entered into a cooperative arrangement with Communication Disorders Technology, Inc., developers of computer-based speech training systems for persons with hearing impairment and for students of English as a second language. To learn more about the program, please visit our Speech Perception Training page.

A language acquisition study published in the journal Cognition in 2008 suggests that listening to and singing along with music may play an important role in learning a language. Reported by Cognitive Daily , the study supports that singing in a foreign language can help a student learn that language faster. The concept isn’t unusual. Over the years, several friends have told me they practiced their French listening to Serge Gainsbourg, their Spanish listening to Cafe Tacuba, their Mandarin listening to Carsick Cars, and so forth.

You can test the study’s findings with the 10 Foreign Language Cover Songs we compiled here. When able to, we included the original English language song so you could compare the two versions. We posted the English language streams via the free online music service Lala. You’ll notice the YouTube video directly followed by a smaller gray and blue Lala player.

In order to stream the original English versions through Lala, you may need to start a free account. Signing up for Lala is easy, and once you have an account, you’ll be able to stream tracks from their music catalogue of more than eight million songs. You can also follow ALTA on Lala so you can hear what we’re listening to in the office and suggest new tunes to us!

Johnny Cash performing I Walk the Line in German

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There are three teaching methods that dominate the business of language instruction: the Direct Method, the Grammar-Translation Method, and the Audio-Lingual Method. Deciding which is the best method is difficult because each has strengths and weaknesses, and the nature of a student’s goals will determine which is best for that student. Although many language-training sources may speak about exclusive or unique approaches, with few exceptions they are using one of these three methods. We conducted extensive research on the subject of teaching methods for our online language training programs. Here is a description of the three primary language teaching methods along with our analysis of the strengths and weaknesses of each one:

The Direct Method

The Direct Method is also known as the Oral or Natural method. It’s based on the active involvement of the student in both speaking and listening to the new language in realistic everyday situations. The process consists of a gradual acquisition of grammatical structure and vocabulary. The learner is encouraged to think in the target language rather than translate. He or she hears and uses the language before seeing it written.

The Grammar-Translation Method

This method grew from the traditional method of teaching Latin and Greek. The method is based on analysis of the written language using translation exercises, reading comprehension and written imitation of texts. Learning mainly involves the mastery of grammatical rules and memorization of vocabulary lists.

The Audio-Lingual Method

This self-teaching method is also known as the Aural-Oral method. The learning is based on repetition of dialogues and phrases about every day situations. These phrases are imitated, repeated, and drilled to make the response automatic. Reading and writing are both reinforcements of what the learner practices.

Comparing the Language Training Methods

This comparison graph shows the expected results for a typical student applying the same amount of time and motivation to the learning. We scored the value of each method from 1 to 10 in the following aspects: Speed of Learning, Listening Comprehension, Speaking Capability, Writing Capability, and Grammar.

The Direct Method gives the student the ability to communicate quickly because she is encouraged to be creative during practice. It gives, by far, the widest range of capability to understand what another person says to you and in developing your capability to speak. This is the method of choice for instruction with a live trainer and where speaking and listening are most important.

The Grammar-Translation method requires the learner to spend a lot of time understanding the language structure. Listening and speaking suffer because of this. Understanding the structure is helpful in reading and particularly in writing. Grammar and vocabulary are emphasized throughout. This is the method of choice when the student’s goal is to achieve a high level of writing and reading ability in a foreign language, versus speaking and listening.

The Audio-Lingual Method also allows the learner to communicate quickly but within the limited range that the repetition allows. It improves comprehension only if the speaker uses phrases that the learner has studied. Reading is limited, and an understanding of how to use the language is very limited. This is the method that is used when a live trainer is not available.

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ALTA creates customized online language training programs based on the Direct Method and the Audio-Lingual Method. ALTA lessons include initial, interim and final language testing to verify progress. All testing is on ALTA’s 1 through 12 scale or the U.S. government’s ILR scale (Interagency Language Roundtable). The Audio-Lingual Method is used for specialized programs that are not trainer-led, particularly at the lower levels of initial skill.

Since the earthquake in Haiti, thousands of medical workers, translators, and interpreters have organized for specialized relief efforts. Translators Without Borders will soon offer a medical triage dictionary for use with Haitian Creole, and ALTA has enlisted our resources to translate and record Haitian Creole medical phrases for aid workers and volunteers. Based on selections from the Emergency Multilingual Phrasebook published by the Red Cross, we hope that the phrases are useful for those who want free Haitian Creole pronunciation practice.

Haitian Creole sometimes has more than one term or phrase to describe a medical condition or English term. In those cases, our translator was asked to choose the most common Haitian Creole variant in order to be understood by all speakers despite regional and cultural differences.

You can listen to the phrases directly on our website or download them for later playback on any standard MP3 compatible device. Each sound clip contains a recording of the English phrase followed by the Haitian Creole pronunciation, and finishes with the Haitian Creole phrase repeated for emphasis. We hope that this resource is helpful and we welcome any feedback.

Haitian Creole Medical Phrases:

1. What is your name?

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2. I am a nurse.

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3. I am a doctor.

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4. I am a disaster volunteer.

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5. I am a social worker.

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6. May I examine you?

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7. How old are you?

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8. Were you recently injured?

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9. Did you lose consciousness?

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10. When did you become ill?

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11. Do you have any pain? Where does it hurt?

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12. Does it hurt when I press here?

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13. What is your level of pain, rating it from 1 to 10?

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14. Are you bleeding anywhere?

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15. Do you have a cough? Are you coughing anything up?

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16. Are you having trouble breathing?

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17. Please take a deep breath.

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18. Please open your mouth, stick out your tongue, and say “aah”.

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19. Please hold this under your tongue.

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20. I’m going to take your temperature.

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21. You have a high fever.

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22. Do you have diarrhea?

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23. Are you constipated?

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24. Do you have any swelling?

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25. Do you have trouble seeing?

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26. Do you have trouble hearing?

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27. Do you have trouble swallowing?

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28. Do you have trouble walking?

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29. Are you pregnant?

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30. When was your last menstrual period?

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30 (b). Alternate phrase using a common idiomatic expression for ‘menstrual period’:

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31. Do you have a history of cancer, heart disease, or diabetes in your family?

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32. Do you have any chronic diseases, such as asthma, diabetes, or epilepsy?

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33. Are you taking any medicine right now?

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34. Are you allergic to any medicine?

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35. I need to take your blood pressure.

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36. I need to listen to your chest.

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37. I need to give you an injection.

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38. I need to take a blood sample.

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39. I need to give you some stitches.

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40. You have a broken leg.

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41. You have a broken ankle.

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42. You have a broken arm.

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43. You have a broken wrist.

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44. You have a broken shoulder.

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45. I need to put a cast on your broken leg.

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46. I need to put a cast on your broken ankle.

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47. I need to put a cast on your broken arm.

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48. I need to put a cast on your broken wrist.

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49. I need to put a cast on your broken shoulder.

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50. Please urinate into this container.

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51. Do not eat or drink anything. (Note: Haitian Creole recording separates this into two phrases: Do not eat anything. Do not drink anything)

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52. You are going to be okay. Don’t worry.

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To download these Haitian Creole Medical Phrases for playback on any MP3 compatible device, simply right click and “save link as” or “save target as” — DOWNLOAD .

Related Articles

Beyond Words Podcast Episode 4: Emergency Medical Phrases, A Haitian Creole Lesson

Other Online Resources

Byki Haitian Creole for iPhone and iPod Touch
English – Haitian Creole Medical Dictionary
Haitian Creole Phrasebook
Translators Without Borders

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The Help Heal Haiti graphic T-shirt by Bruno Postigo can be purchased online. Proceeds go to Red Cross.

ALTA is an Atlanta based Language Services Provider celebrating 30 years in business. In addition to providing Translation Services, Language Testing, and Language Training, ALTA participates in various charities, from raising money for AIDS research, to offering free language training programs to non-profit organizations. For more information, please call 404.920.3800.
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Whether it’s a matter of difficult spelling or multiple meanings, these ten words pose a degree of difficulty to a great many English speakers. Below you will find their definitions, with a rundown of ways to make sure you will never have a problem telling them apart.

SYMPATHY and EMPATHY
The word “sympathy” has been used in the English language far longer than has its sibling “empathy.” For centuries, “sympathy” meant the ability to “feel with” another person – to understand and to be affected by his circumstances. In the early 20th century, “empathy” worked its way into English as a term utilized in psychoanalysis. Whether being empathetic helps or hinders the agent is up for debate, but having such a quality does imply a great deal more effort than merely being sympathetic. Being empathetic entails not only “feeling with” another entity, but also projecting oneself onto that entity to fully comprehend its state of being.

FLAUNT and FLOUT
Here we find another case of similar sounds and wholly different meanings. To flaunt a quality or object is to put it on display, to parade it around in order to impress others. To flout something is to scorn it and treat it with contemptuous disrespect. The latter has a surprising etymology, most likely form the Old English flouten, meaning “to play the flute.” Apparently the flute could make a fairly derisive-sounding whistling sound.

DISCREET and DISCRETE
Most of the time when we wish to utilize discretion, we mean the first term, Discreet: prudent, cautious, and not in plain sight. The second word, discrete, is typically used in the field of mathematics to refer to distinct and separate entities.

STATIONARY and STATIONERY
When you are standing in one spot, you are stationary. When you write a letter on fancy paper and stamp it closed with wax, you are using stationery.

VENAL and VENIAL
Though they sound similar, these words could not be further apart in meaning. A “venial sin” is a small peccadillo – pardonable, easily excused, and quite minor in nature. The word originates in the Latin venia, meaning “forgiveness.”

“Venal,” however, indicates something far graver and more reprehensible, stemming from the Latin, venum, meaning “sale.” This term came to indicate a person susceptible to corruption, who could be bought or bribed if the price was right.