Parleremo - Where Languages Live

Parleremo is a language learning community based on members helping each other.

[parleremo]

We are moving!

For all those that have followed us here, thank you!

We are moving to a WordPress blog system with our own domain here:

http://www.viewfromthetown.com

We hope you will continue to follow us there and subscribe to the blog.

Again, thanks!

[parleremo]

Finding Your Way to Languages

Scriveremo Publishing presents

Finding Your Way to Languages Six Methods of Language Learning

Erik Zidowecki is a computer programmer and language lover. He is a co-founder of UniLang and founder of Parleremo, both web communities dedicated to helping people learn languages.

So you want to learn another language? Great! You've chosen the one you want, and are ready to jump in with the learning? Fantastic! Now the REAL question: What is the best way to learn a language? This is one of the most asked questions by those in your position. It is also one of the most difficult to answer in a definitive, useful way. Most people who ask it are looking for the secret "trick" that will enable them to learn a language quickly and easily. They see the titles like Mastering Ancient Tibetan in 39 Seconds and are anxious to do just that! Those who have more experience (that is, have been learning languages for a while) are likely to answer with: it depends. Since each person learns in a different way, is no method that works the best for everyone. This book is designed for those that don't yet know what their way is. It examines six common methods of studying a language: through audio, like audio courses and podcasts; by books, ranging from phrasebooks to full textbooks; classes, with a teacher and other students; software, using computer programs to help train you; internet, utilising the potential of some of the other methods on a global scale; immersion, in which a person is completely surrounded by the language and must learn it to survive. This book won't teach you any secrets, any overnight paths to fluency. What it will give you is a solid understanding of what the strengths and weaknesses are of each approach, allowing you, the reader, to find your own way to languages.

http://www.parleremo.org/promo_page.php

[parleremo]

Speaking with Aliens

We study languages so as to communicate with other people, but what about other species? What happens we we go beyond our planet? How do we communicate then? Here we look at some of the linguists and translation devices of science fiction.

Entertainment media which deals with people from other countries often has the problem of different languages. We've all seen movies like "The Hunt for Red October" which has an entire Russian submarine crew as the main object of the story. While it would make sense that the crew would all speak Russian throughout the movie, that would mean that much of the film requires subtitles. Sadly, movies with extensive subtitles are often shunned by the general population, so an excuse has to be made, or we are expected to just "suspend our belief" as the Russians all speak English to each other with proper American accents (except for the captain, of course, who is played by British actor Sean Connery).

In the science fiction genre, this can get even worse, since often completely different alien species are involved. Even if we pretend they are really speaking their own language while talking to each other, there has to be a way to show how Earthlings speaking English can understand beings from other worlds.

So writers come up with ways to at least attempt to ease this confusion without having to create new languages all the time for new races, using subtitles, and having long scenes explaining how the two races learn to communicate. In a few series, they include linguists which can then quickly learn the new language and interpret for the rest of the people. In others, they include a device that does all the work for us, and we just ignore that there is any problem in communications at all.

Of course, we still sometimes laugh when we realize that all aliens somehow speak modern English, using slang and accents which match the homeland of the series.

In this article, I look at a few of the linguists of science fiction as well as some of the devices employed to explain away any language barriers.

Read the whole article here: http://www.parrottime.com/index.php?i=8&a=82

[parleremo]

Words and Worlds of New York

A survey of language-learning tools for the do-it-your-selfer http://ellenjovin.com/language-learning-survey

[parleremo]

Parrot Time - Issue 8

Parrot Time Issue 8 is now available! You can read the web version, flip through the PDF version online, or download a copy for yourself! We hope you enjoy it and share it with your friends!

http://www.parrottime.com

[parleremo]

Watching Videos with Two Language Subtitles

Some of you may practise a language using subtitles. Have you ever tried having two different languages on them at once? Chris Broholm shows how to do that! http://actualfluency.com/guide-watch-video-2-sets-subtitles/

[parleremo]

Ok people! It's Friday and as a special treat, Actual Fluency will soon release their podcast with Ellen Jovin, the owner of Words and Words of New York. Look for the podcast here: http://actualfluency.com/actual-fluency-podcast/ and be sure to "like" their Facebook page https://www.facebook.com/actualfluency !

[artinparsi]

Dear Friends and Followers, wherever you live and whatever language you speak, Happy Spring and Happy Norooz to all of you. Wishing you all the best, happiness, hope and good fortune. 

[parleremo]

Great post!

[ruhumuncumhuriyeti-deactivated2]

[parleremo]

"Words & Worlds of New York"

We found another brilliant language blog today, "Words & Worlds of New York". Please check it out and if you like it as much as we do, tell your language friends! http://ellenjovin.com/

[parleremo]

Syndorea - A new RPG game for learning

There is a new language learning project that needs your feedback. Syndorea is a 2D RPG video game dedicated to making learning fun, using vocabulary testing to complete certain aspects of the game. They have a website where you can download a demo and learn more: http://syndorea.behemyth.com/. Reddit users can talk to them on their subreddit "syndorea" and Twitter users can follow them @behemyth. The project is still in it's very early stages, so they really want your suggestions and feedback to improve it. Keep it positive!

[parleremo]

World Arabic Language Day

UN Arabic Language Day - December 18th

The event was established by the UN Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO)in 2010, seeking "to celebrate multilingualism and cultural diversity as well as to promote equal use of all six of its official working languages throughout the organization". December 18 was chosen as the date for the Arabic language as it is "the day in 1973 when the General Assembly approved Arabic as an official UN language ". The related webpage for it is http://taghreedat.com/ and you can discuss it on Twitter https://twitter.com/Taghreedat

[languageguru-blog]

5 Reasons the English Language Makes No Freaking Sense

[parleremo]

As much as we might judge people for their bad spelling, the truth is that English spelling doesn’t make any goddamn sense.

[parleremo]

Native North American Languages

We are always trying to add more languages and resources to the site. One of the hardest groups to find things for is the Native North American languages. So many of them are on the brink of extinction and rarely have any kind of media produced in them, like newspapers, radio or TV. Even finding images to represent them, like pictures of their communities, is very difficult.

Still, we have to try, for every language deserves to be recognized and passed on. We hope that any of you wanting to learn some of these languages or already know something of them will help us finding and producing materials for them.

Some of the ones we are trying to add are Arapaho, Mohawk, Inuktitut, Cree, Creek, Lakota and Lushootseed,

[parleremo]

Help Us Spread the Word

We would like your help to spread the word about Parleremo. Please add a link to us in your social bookmarking groups like StumbleUpon, Delicious, Digg, Diigo, etc. Also post to your Twitter feeds and Facebook groups. The more people joining and contributing to Parleremo, the better the whole community becomes. Thanks for your help!

http://www.parleremo.org/

[parleremo]

[parleremo]

Welcome!

We have been building Parleremo for five years and are now opening this blog to share with others some of our thoughts on language learning as well as post updates about the site.

We hope you check out the site and let us know what you would like to see.

http://www.parleremo.org