Saturday 10 September 2011
Monday 5 September 2011
Learning a Foreign Language is an Art
1) Spend the time!
By far the most important factor is how much time you are immersed in the language. The more time you spend with the language, the faster you will learn. This means listening, reading, writing, speaking, and studying words and phrases. This does not mean sitting in class looking out the window, nor listening to other students who do not speak well, nor getting explanations in your own language about how the language works. This means spending time enjoyably connected to the language you are learning.
In real life the brain is going be triggered to remember something that is either tragic or fun and comical. The brain is not as interested in the medium stage of something being just satisfied. Think of it this way for example. When you go to see fireworks are you more interested in the little firecrackers and is that what you most remember or do you remember the grand finale at the end and all of it's greatness? Most likely you will remember the grand finale and even the approximate time it lasted.
2) Listen and read every day!
Listen wherever you are on your MP3 player. Read what you are listening to. Listen to and read things that you like, things that you can mostly understand, or even partly understand. If you keep listening and reading you will get used to the language. One hour of listening or reading is more effective than many hours of class time.
Watch short films on the youtube with subtitles so you can get used to the language. Read newspaper articles. Read short blog articles. Comic books are always very helpful and fun in remember and trigger the brain with funny expressions just as cartoons also are. Watch the news in a foreign language of which you are learning.
3) Focus on words and phrases!
Build up your vocabulary, you’ll need lots. Start to notice words and how they come together as phrases. Learn these words and phrases through your listening and reading. Read online, using online dictionaries, and make your own vocabulary lists for review. Soon you will run into your new words and phrases elsewhere. Gradually you will be able to use them. Do not worry about how accurately you speak until you have accumulated a plenty of words through listening and reading. It may be even helpful for you to place a sticky note on a few objects are the house or office with the name of the object on the note written in the foreign language you are trying to learn.
4.) Write but make it fun. Many people now these days enjoy blogging. Write a short blog article (post) on a subject that interests you or something you enjoyed doing in your native language. Then rewrite (use google translate to help you) the article in the foreign language you are trying to learn. Now for one week read that article to yourself of which you have written in the new language. Don't forget the mind remembers a lot when listening also so listen to it being read to you on google translate. The following week write another one.
5.) Take responsibility for your own learning!
If you do not want to learn the language, you won’t. If you do want to learn the language, take control. Choose content of interest, that you want to listen to and read. Seek out the words and phrases that you need to understand your listening and reading. Do not wait for someone else to show you the language, nor to tell you what to do. Discover the language by yourself, like a child growing up. Talk when you feel like it. Write when you feel like it. A teacher cannot teach you to become fluent, but you can learn to become fluent if you want to.
6.) Relax and enjoy yourself!
Do not worry about what you cannot remember, or cannot yet understand, or cannot yet say. It does not matter. You are learning and improving. The language will gradually become clearer in your brain, but this will happen on a schedule that you cannot control. So sit back and enjoy. Just make sure you spend enough time with the language. That is the greatest guarantee of success.
By far the most important factor is how much time you are immersed in the language. The more time you spend with the language, the faster you will learn. This means listening, reading, writing, speaking, and studying words and phrases. This does not mean sitting in class looking out the window, nor listening to other students who do not speak well, nor getting explanations in your own language about how the language works. This means spending time enjoyably connected to the language you are learning.
In real life the brain is going be triggered to remember something that is either tragic or fun and comical. The brain is not as interested in the medium stage of something being just satisfied. Think of it this way for example. When you go to see fireworks are you more interested in the little firecrackers and is that what you most remember or do you remember the grand finale at the end and all of it's greatness? Most likely you will remember the grand finale and even the approximate time it lasted.
2) Listen and read every day!
Listen wherever you are on your MP3 player. Read what you are listening to. Listen to and read things that you like, things that you can mostly understand, or even partly understand. If you keep listening and reading you will get used to the language. One hour of listening or reading is more effective than many hours of class time.
Watch short films on the youtube with subtitles so you can get used to the language. Read newspaper articles. Read short blog articles. Comic books are always very helpful and fun in remember and trigger the brain with funny expressions just as cartoons also are. Watch the news in a foreign language of which you are learning.
3) Focus on words and phrases!
Build up your vocabulary, you’ll need lots. Start to notice words and how they come together as phrases. Learn these words and phrases through your listening and reading. Read online, using online dictionaries, and make your own vocabulary lists for review. Soon you will run into your new words and phrases elsewhere. Gradually you will be able to use them. Do not worry about how accurately you speak until you have accumulated a plenty of words through listening and reading. It may be even helpful for you to place a sticky note on a few objects are the house or office with the name of the object on the note written in the foreign language you are trying to learn.
4.) Write but make it fun. Many people now these days enjoy blogging. Write a short blog article (post) on a subject that interests you or something you enjoyed doing in your native language. Then rewrite (use google translate to help you) the article in the foreign language you are trying to learn. Now for one week read that article to yourself of which you have written in the new language. Don't forget the mind remembers a lot when listening also so listen to it being read to you on google translate. The following week write another one.
5.) Take responsibility for your own learning!
If you do not want to learn the language, you won’t. If you do want to learn the language, take control. Choose content of interest, that you want to listen to and read. Seek out the words and phrases that you need to understand your listening and reading. Do not wait for someone else to show you the language, nor to tell you what to do. Discover the language by yourself, like a child growing up. Talk when you feel like it. Write when you feel like it. A teacher cannot teach you to become fluent, but you can learn to become fluent if you want to.
6.) Relax and enjoy yourself!
Do not worry about what you cannot remember, or cannot yet understand, or cannot yet say. It does not matter. You are learning and improving. The language will gradually become clearer in your brain, but this will happen on a schedule that you cannot control. So sit back and enjoy. Just make sure you spend enough time with the language. That is the greatest guarantee of success.
High School Art Reunion!!!! Do you have any Art from High school?
Angela Pari Dominic Chumroo
"Soooo exciting!!!! I got this in an email today :) from my high school friend. So I decided it was time to restore the little crab :) LOL I did not even remember drawing this for her until she showed sent it to me today.
I drew this 19 years ago in my good friend Amy's yearbook at the end of our freshman year in high school. Today August 20,2011 Amy scanned it and sent me the file. In my next piece of art you will see where I digi painted it and restored it. This is the only yearbook that survived a house fire Amy had. What a treasure to have old high school art I drew that many years ago!" ~Angela Pari Dominic Chumroo~
"A year in the past is treasure box in itself but a piece of art from a yearbook in the past is a chunk of gold from that treasure box "©Angela Pari Dominic Chumroo
Jeffrey Campbell in response to Angela Pari Dominic Chumroo statement above
"How thoughtful of your friend to send it to you! We just had our 30th reunion last month - where have all those days gone?"
Please follow the link to visit Jeff's galleries:
http://fineartamerica.com/profiles/jeffreycampbell.html
Andee Photography in response to Art from Highschool
"My art from high school was lost in the move over 20 years ago! Sigh....I do have a few poster board drawings that my grandfather had hanging on his walls and when he past I was able to have them. That is all I have left. I wish my kid could have seen them. The yearbooks seem to have be lost as well! Sigh again! Although I do have 3 elementary yearbooks and the year I was in 1st grade out local team won the Super bowl and they had a photo of the team. In 2004 or 5 I had a chance to meet the Football Hall of Fame QB of that era and had him sign by his photo. He had never seen one before and so he took time to look at it. Very cool he took the time to look at it. Odd he never had seen one before that.
I had a couple portrait drawings that made it into an art magazine book for those two years or maybe one..anyway I can not find those either. Sad to loose the cool stuff!"~Andee Photography~
Please take the time to visit Andee's Art
fineartamerica.com/profiles/andee-photography.html
Roger Swezey
"The only class reunion my school had was the 35th year reunion, 23 years ago.
I recognized all the females, for they started out as fine young ladies and remained as fine young ladies.
With the guys, I didn't recognized any of them, for they started out as little boys and ended up as little old men.
Now, with high school artwork, the work I can readily get to, is my work in the year book.
This design was created for a poem about the beauty in decay....I saw paint peeling and felt it was perfect...The poem never made it but the background remained.
(by the way, the author of the top poem, Nina Castelli, is the daughter of Leo Castelli) "
"Here's other work I did for the yearbook...More in keeping of what they might expect...cartoons."
"By the way, the "Negative" was done by filling in with black ink...I thought that using a negative print was cheating." ~Roger Swezey~
Beth Akerman
"I have all my artwork from high school in my garage, and all the artwork of both my children too. This is one that I painted back my senior year of high school in the early 80s." ~Beth Akerman~
Warren Sarle
"I was a yearbook photographer for three years in high school, taking about half the photos. Those yearbooks are online. We did artsy-fartsy things like solarization and montages and fisheye photos. But I think my sports photos are better. So here's 2/3 of a solarized football photo (it was spread over two pages):" ~Warren Sarle~
To view the work of Warren please visit the following link:
http://ufdc.ufl.edu/UF00065812/00033/3j
Carla Carson
"This was my first drawing in art class my senior year of high school. I still remember the boy next to me saying wow, thats really good. I dont remember who the boy was as it was a loooooooooooooong time ago. I just remember being happy that he liked it & said so." ~Carla Carson~
Shasta Eone
"OMG --- 1954 .... The Glendale ... " Dynamiters " ! I was the one who did the cartoon character on tons of posters through high school along with all the prom posters, banners and theme decorations. But all my albums, year books, etc. were lost in a fire. The only thing left are the seven gold key awards won ( 1st place ) through four years of L.A. city wide school district competitions.
But this thread sure stirred up .... a whole LOT of delightful memories. Thanks for that."~Shasta Eone~
Shasta's galleries can be viewed here :
http://fineartamerica.com/profiles/shasta-eone.html
Roger Protsman
"High school stuff LOL Now this is cool and so very interesting :-)
For me the earliest stuff that I still have (no idea why I keep it around) is from 1967/8 from art classes in high school.
From an old (ok very old LOL) sketch pad they are not all on one page I just put em together for show n tell here :-)" ~Roger Protsman~
Betsy Jones
"The only image I could find that was already photographed... my parents saved EVERYTHING... and are still displaying a good bit of my work from High School, lol... This would have been from 1998, my Junior year in HS. Was just a doodle I did during a lecture in my Latin IV class HAHA"~Betsy Jones~
Marlene Burns
"nothing from high school left..including the newspa;ers from kennedy's assassination and the last year of life magazine the first time it stopped.
my mom turned my bedroom into an upstairs den when i left for college....i came home to a lime green and turquoise striped room with lounge sofas and a disco ball for a light!
ack!"~Marlene Burns~
To visit some of Marlene's Art please follow this link:
http://fineartamerica.com/profiles/marlene-burns
"Soooo exciting!!!! I got this in an email today :) from my high school friend. So I decided it was time to restore the little crab :) LOL I did not even remember drawing this for her until she showed sent it to me today.
I drew this 19 years ago in my good friend Amy's yearbook at the end of our freshman year in high school. Today August 20,2011 Amy scanned it and sent me the file. In my next piece of art you will see where I digi painted it and restored it. This is the only yearbook that survived a house fire Amy had. What a treasure to have old high school art I drew that many years ago!" ~Angela Pari Dominic Chumroo~
"A year in the past is treasure box in itself but a piece of art from a yearbook in the past is a chunk of gold from that treasure box "©Angela Pari Dominic Chumroo
Jeffrey Campbell in response to Angela Pari Dominic Chumroo statement above
"How thoughtful of your friend to send it to you! We just had our 30th reunion last month - where have all those days gone?"
Please follow the link to visit Jeff's galleries:
http://fineartamerica.com/profiles/jeffreycampbell.html
Andee Photography in response to Art from Highschool
"My art from high school was lost in the move over 20 years ago! Sigh....I do have a few poster board drawings that my grandfather had hanging on his walls and when he past I was able to have them. That is all I have left. I wish my kid could have seen them. The yearbooks seem to have be lost as well! Sigh again! Although I do have 3 elementary yearbooks and the year I was in 1st grade out local team won the Super bowl and they had a photo of the team. In 2004 or 5 I had a chance to meet the Football Hall of Fame QB of that era and had him sign by his photo. He had never seen one before and so he took time to look at it. Very cool he took the time to look at it. Odd he never had seen one before that.
I had a couple portrait drawings that made it into an art magazine book for those two years or maybe one..anyway I can not find those either. Sad to loose the cool stuff!"~Andee Photography~
Please take the time to visit Andee's Art
fineartamerica.com/profiles/andee-photography.html
Roger Swezey
"The only class reunion my school had was the 35th year reunion, 23 years ago.
I recognized all the females, for they started out as fine young ladies and remained as fine young ladies.
With the guys, I didn't recognized any of them, for they started out as little boys and ended up as little old men.
Now, with high school artwork, the work I can readily get to, is my work in the year book.
This design was created for a poem about the beauty in decay....I saw paint peeling and felt it was perfect...The poem never made it but the background remained.
(by the way, the author of the top poem, Nina Castelli, is the daughter of Leo Castelli) "
"Here's other work I did for the yearbook...More in keeping of what they might expect...cartoons."
"By the way, the "Negative" was done by filling in with black ink...I thought that using a negative print was cheating." ~Roger Swezey~
Beth Akerman
"I have all my artwork from high school in my garage, and all the artwork of both my children too. This is one that I painted back my senior year of high school in the early 80s." ~Beth Akerman~
Warren Sarle
"I was a yearbook photographer for three years in high school, taking about half the photos. Those yearbooks are online. We did artsy-fartsy things like solarization and montages and fisheye photos. But I think my sports photos are better. So here's 2/3 of a solarized football photo (it was spread over two pages):" ~Warren Sarle~
To view the work of Warren please visit the following link:
http://ufdc.ufl.edu/UF00065812/00033/3j
Carla Carson
"This was my first drawing in art class my senior year of high school. I still remember the boy next to me saying wow, thats really good. I dont remember who the boy was as it was a loooooooooooooong time ago. I just remember being happy that he liked it & said so." ~Carla Carson~
Shasta Eone
"OMG --- 1954 .... The Glendale ... " Dynamiters " ! I was the one who did the cartoon character on tons of posters through high school along with all the prom posters, banners and theme decorations. But all my albums, year books, etc. were lost in a fire. The only thing left are the seven gold key awards won ( 1st place ) through four years of L.A. city wide school district competitions.
But this thread sure stirred up .... a whole LOT of delightful memories. Thanks for that."~Shasta Eone~
Shasta's galleries can be viewed here :
http://fineartamerica.com/profiles/shasta-eone.html
Roger Protsman
"High school stuff LOL Now this is cool and so very interesting :-)
For me the earliest stuff that I still have (no idea why I keep it around) is from 1967/8 from art classes in high school.
From an old (ok very old LOL) sketch pad they are not all on one page I just put em together for show n tell here :-)" ~Roger Protsman~
Betsy Jones
"The only image I could find that was already photographed... my parents saved EVERYTHING... and are still displaying a good bit of my work from High School, lol... This would have been from 1998, my Junior year in HS. Was just a doodle I did during a lecture in my Latin IV class HAHA"~Betsy Jones~
Marlene Burns
"nothing from high school left..including the newspa;ers from kennedy's assassination and the last year of life magazine the first time it stopped.
my mom turned my bedroom into an upstairs den when i left for college....i came home to a lime green and turquoise striped room with lounge sofas and a disco ball for a light!
ack!"~Marlene Burns~
To visit some of Marlene's Art please follow this link:
http://fineartamerica.com/profiles/marlene-burns
Inspiration from the Ground Up ~All at the Touch of the Fingers~
Amazing what one can conquer by touching something. I have developed a love for touching what I am painting. Many may say that touching a piece you are painting with your fingers is a big no no.
When I paint with my fingers I feel the magic of the piece come to life. I often feel my fingers are guiding my eyes to go into the right direction.
As I look through my portfolio of what I have accomplished this year my eyes is most attracted to the pieces that are more bold and beautiful.Those which I have painted by fingers happen to be the most bold and beautiful.
I love feeling the magic at my fingertips when I create a piece.
Inspired by Carla Carson to try charcoals I today created my first ever charcoal piece. Although I was nervous working with charcoals I managed to conquer the media well with the use of my fingers.
Here is the piece I created from charcoals:
Here are a few from Inspiring Artist: Carla Carson
To my dear friend Carla: "With delicate emotion you have way of bringing to life a season" © Angela Pari Dominic Chumroo
Thank you Carla for Inspiring me!!!
When I paint with my fingers I feel the magic of the piece come to life. I often feel my fingers are guiding my eyes to go into the right direction.
As I look through my portfolio of what I have accomplished this year my eyes is most attracted to the pieces that are more bold and beautiful.Those which I have painted by fingers happen to be the most bold and beautiful.
I love feeling the magic at my fingertips when I create a piece.
Inspired by Carla Carson to try charcoals I today created my first ever charcoal piece. Although I was nervous working with charcoals I managed to conquer the media well with the use of my fingers.
Here is the piece I created from charcoals:
Here are a few from Inspiring Artist: Carla Carson
To my dear friend Carla: "With delicate emotion you have way of bringing to life a season" © Angela Pari Dominic Chumroo
Thank you Carla for Inspiring me!!!
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