Free Glide

Imagine a child sitting in front of a desk, his head in his hands, and mumbling various lists of words over and over. Does this child remind you of your own experience? If yes, I bet that “list of words” does not sound appealing to you. You are almost ready to swear that they do not work. Before you mortgage your part of paradise, it may be wise to make sure you are right.

You can open a dictionary and begin to learn it by heart (a dictionary is no more than a list of words). There are many illustrated dictionaries that offer you the same resources as plenty of websites do by displaying colorful pictures with captions. You know that these tools exist because you have already tried to enrich your vocabulary that way. The scope of the task curbed your enthusiam.

Though, it is not a bad way to learn vocabulary, it is even the best way for one person: the author of the list.

Why?

You are unique. Your memory is unique, not only because your memories are yours, and only yours, but also because the way you store them is yours and only yours. For a large part, memory is about association of ideas and the associations you make depend on your experience.

Let’s study an example to make it clear. Ask anyone to give you a word in relation with the common word “horse”. You will get mare, race, chivalry or Trojan, etc, depending on the person who answers.

He who answered “mare” might go on with stable, foal and even cow and other farm animals; he who said “race” would probably go on with racecourse and tote. Obviously, their experiences of life are quite different. “Chivalry” would lead to King Arthur, coat of mail and tournament while “Trojan” would meet Homer, odyssey, god and goddess.

If you are a linguist, it is very likely that you associate horse to horseback, horsehair, horseman and horseplay and think that your list is easy to remember. On the contrary, if you are not interested in the Middle-Age History, the “chivalry” list will slip your mind.

The more personal the links between the words, the easier the way to learn them. That is why a list works at its best for its author. The connections between the words pre-exist in the author’s head.

So, pave your way, prepare your own list!

1. It will fit in with your way of thinking
2. It will meet with your center of interests
3. It will meet with your requirements
4. It will be half-learnt just by looking for the words you want to know

In the third issue, we will see how to take advantage of scientific studies about human memory. There are many ways to learn a foreign language. Why would you choose the hardest one?

Gabrielle Guichard
A French teacher who can be reached on GabrielleGuichard.com and listened to on FrenchPodcasting.com

I realize that we here in the United States consider ourselves at the top rung of the educational ladder, if only for the fact that so many foreign language
students are breaking their necks to come here to both study and live English.

But, on second glance, we should not deceive ourselves. On this board, we read
one teacher complaint after another pertaining to the impossible conditions of
Asian ESL schools, while we fail to remember - or, perhaps, admit - that right
here in the good old US of A, ESL instructors are pretty much in the same leaky
boat! In fact, was it not this very realization that originally induced so many
of us to leave our country to seek better professional pastures elsewhere? On
these shores, after having met the oft-times rigid academic and certification
standards of most US ESL institutions, for the mere sake of gaining employment
experience, we’ve often found ourselves accepting as little as $12 per hour for
part-time and $15 per hour for full-time employment. That, I would guess, is not
that far above the national poverty level for … say … a family of two. But,
provided one is willing to accept the all-too-often shoddy living standards of
an underdeveloped foreign land, not to mention the gross disregard of apathetic
management sources (with a salary to match), there’s ALWAYS employment to be had
… that is, until which time one finally decides enough is enough!

In the interim, we fans of the eslteachersboard.com are literally besieged by
critiques which become sadder and more desperate by the day. We KNOW all too
well what you are suffering, folks. It’s not exactly been a picnic here on this
side of the tracks, you know. What I have trouble figuring is WHERE one might
locate any regard for an ESL instructor as a “professional,” let alone his/her
financial needs as a human being. And if we residents of this more “sanctified”
side of the Pacific are forced to utter such concerns, HOW in hell can we dare
sit in condemnation of the lesser-developed ESL situations in Asia? After all,
is it not WE whom they are attempting to emulate? WHY, in fact, should we cringe
at the discovery of dishonesty and misrepresentation over there when right here
it’s so often identical? Once you’ve realized it’s pretty much the same on
either side of the Great Ocean, it’s a small wonder WHY teachers flit between
continents in search of their educational Mecca and, in many cases, eventually
wind up frustrated enough to seek other careers.

I, for one, love the theory of English as a foreign language - especially the
preparation of students for entry into American universities for pursuit of
advanced degrees. However, it’s the reality of it all that serves to disillusion
me no end. There can be no denial that ESL is a business. However, when such an
ambition becomes the sole purpose of a school’s existence, and academic and even
human values seem scarcer to come by, it’s high time to rise up and reform the
bloody system … or leave it! I pray that I’ll not eventually be forced to opt
for the latter choice. Amen.

Love to all,

The Arrogant One

About The Author

Ellis E. Seamone is an Veteran ESL teacher with 13+ years of experience. Ellis publishes articles at the http://www.eslteachersboard.com/ (free access to ESL resumes, jobs and materials). See more articles by Ellis by visiting: http://www.eslteachersboard.com/

When a business goes global, there is a risk of being not properly understood in other languages, or, even worse, misunderstood. That is why, when you are going to expand your business, your success can depend on the person who translates your website, documentation, ads and so on.

Don’t insist on translating your text word-by-word or sentence-by-sentence. Contrary to the popular belief, the translation won’t be more accurate this way. Just the opposite is true: a translator who translates word-by-word is a BAD translator, or a mediocre one — at the most.

A MEDIOCRE translator will diligently substitute words, word-combinations and idioms of one language for those of another language. He searches piles of dictionaries for various lexical units. He will be really proud of the result. Don’t blame him — he probably is conscientious and hard-working. The only drawback is that his translation won’t work.

A GOOD translator will care for the MESSAGE of your text. He realizes that good translation isn’t just finding right words. He will try to find right linguistic means to convey your message; what’s more, he will leave your style intact. He will be proud of the result, too — and he has the reason to think so. Your message will be conveyed — in every respect. Will it work? That’s another question.

The difference between a GOOD and an EXCELLENT translator is the following: an EXCELLENT translator will care for the GOAL of your message. Before he stats the work, an excellent translator asks himself simple questions: does your message fit into this particular culture? Will the audience accept it? If the answer is “no”, he will always warn you about it.

Will you appreciate his advice? You’d better do. It might be not too pleasant for you to learn that your text is not perfect (especially if you thought it was). Of course, you can put this smart Aleck down. You are the Client, so you’re always right. He will translate the text he is given the way you want. As a result, you will get what you ordered — a MEDIOCRE translation.

That is why it is reasonable to listen to an expert (an excellent translator will always serve you as an expert on the culture of your target audience — even if you haven’t asked for it and are not going to pay extras for such a consultation.) Sometimes these advice might seem a bit odd to you; that’s because such a translator is able to think like a person who will be visiting your website.

Be prepared to throw some expressions, phrases, or whole paragraphs away or re-write them - working perfectly in one language, they won’t do in another. Be ready to change photos and illustrations, sometimes redo the graphics and alter the whole style of your website if necessary.

Cooperate with your translator — it pays. Do this work now and you’ll be rewarded with success of your business in a foreign country.

Linguist by profession, Alexandra Gamanenko currently takes part in a design studio project. It offers localization and translation of websites into Russian and Ukrainian, as well as lots of other useful services.

Learn more — visit the website www.clever-crayon.com