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Barry Farber’s HTLAL and Language Clubs | ||
Tags: Language Club | HTLAL | ||
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 Language Learning Forum : General discussion |  | |
 meramarina Diglot Moderator United States Joined 5969 days ago 1341 posts - 2303 votes  Speaks: English*, Spanish Studies: German, Italian, French Personal Language Map | Message 1 of 10 15 January 2010 at 5:43pm | IP Logged | ||
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So I have finally read this site's namesake book--I found it in the public library the other day. He has very helpful, efficient ideas. But the most intriguing thing about the book was the mention of his Language Club. That is such a good idea! Language learners meet together just to practice speaking. There's a table for each language and you can go where you like and work on your conversational skills. So, of course, I was wondering: is his Language Club still active?
A Google search brings up a link to the Westchester Language Club. This is a little too far to go, for me, so I asked about others in the area. I sent an email to the club's contact person and received an answer this morning. It seems that Mr. Farber's Language Club is still going in New York City; I don't know if he still participates, but the lady from Westchester gave me the groups's contact information. Should I go? This is so interesting but now I feel a little shy . . . Well, I have to find out first if they will accept new people. But whether they do or not, the idea of Language Clubs specifically for learners who want to practice languages is very exciting! Has anyone ever attended a Language Club? I am curious for hear about it. Do any exist in your part of the world? 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| Cainntear Pentaglot Senior Member Scotland linguafrankly.blogsp Joined 6013 days ago 4399 posts - 7687 votes Speaks: Lowland Scots, English*, French, Spanish, Scottish Gaelic Studies: Catalan, Italian, German, Irish, Welsh | Message 2 of 10 15 January 2010 at 6:55pm | IP Logged | ||
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Here in Edinburgh I'm aware of one group that meet up biweekly (I think) in a café, but I've never gone along. I think it's full of native English speakers, and in a city like Edinburgh, I've got plenty of opportunities to speak to natives of most languages I might want to learn. The same probably goes for NYC.
So sadly, the only places where there would be enough people for a language club are likely to be the places they aren't needed! 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| Sprachprofi Nonaglot Senior Member Germany learnlangs.comRegistered users can see my Skype Name Joined 6472 days ago 2608 posts - 4866 votes Speaks: German*, English, French, Esperanto, Greek, Mandarin, Latin, Dutch, Italian Studies: Spanish, Arabic (Written), Swahili, Indonesian, Japanese, Modern Hebrew, Portuguese | Message 3 of 10 15 January 2010 at 10:08pm | IP Logged | ||
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Berlin has regular language parties, which work in a similar way. There are weekly ones on a boat on the Spree river, and monthly ones at the English-language cinema at Potsdamer Platz. However, the locals are still the majority. The best way to find fluent and native speakers of your target language is to go to a big Esperanto meeting. It's about the only place where locals will be less than 30% of the participants.
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| microsnout TAC 2010 Winner Senior Member Canada microsnout.wordpress Joined 5473 days ago 277 posts - 553 votes Speaks: English* Studies: French | Message 4 of 10 15 January 2010 at 11:11pm | IP Logged | ||
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You can find many language practice groups on the site http://meetup.com
A quick search for 'German Language' in the USA found over 3600 groups. I have attended several French groups here. I find it almost useless however to practice talking with other students at the same level. Its kind of like chess where you need to play against better players to improve. Fortunately there were speakers of all levels including native francophones at these meetups. Edited by microsnout on 15 January 2010 at 11:16pm 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| Chung Diglot Senior Member Joined 7158 days ago 4228 posts - 8259 votes 20 sounds Speaks: English*, French Studies: Polish, Slovak, Uzbek, Turkish, Korean, Finnish | Message 5 of 10 15 January 2010 at 11:20pm | IP Logged | ||
I've heard about (but haven't attended) meetings organized by polyglot-learn-language.com. As far as I can tell they're in larger cities only. Like microsnout, I have had some experience with Meetup.com and it's the nearest thing to a language club as you describe it. I find that a Meetup group's focus on one language works quite well, since people who attend aren't often language geeks but just people who can speak the language (albeit to varying degrees as microsnout noted). For example one evening I can go to the meeting for Czech-speakers, but another evening I can go to the meeting for German-speakers. In all cases I've found that fluent or native speakers of my target language usually form the majority of attendees, and it also allows my mind to focus for that evening on just one foreign language at a time. If you look at Meetup.com's offerings of language-related groups in some cities, you'll see that there are groups for ESL students, French, German, Russian, Japanese, Italian, Spanish, Arabic, in addition to a few for lower-profile languages such as Afrikaans or Laotian. In some cases, speakers of "smaller" languages are accommodated by "regional" groups such as "Scandinavian Meetup" or "South African Meetup". 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| s_allard Triglot Senior Member Canada Joined 5432 days ago 2704 posts - 5425 votes Speaks: French*, English, Spanish Studies: Polish | Message 6 of 10 15 January 2010 at 11:42pm | IP Logged | ||
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I'll be attending my first Spanish language meetup in Montreal tomorrow. Part of my initial plan is to make a list of maybe ten specific idioms, lexical items or grammatical constructions that I want to use. Sometimes I feel my Spanish is in a rut, so I try to make an effort to use a form that I'm not too familiar with. I'm a big fan of flash cards. I'll take a few with me. Let's see what happens. Edited by s_allard on 15 January 2010 at 11:44pm 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| datsunking1 Diglot Senior Member United States Joined 5587 days ago 1014 posts - 1533 votes Speaks: English*, Spanish Studies: German, Russian, Dutch, French | Message 7 of 10 16 January 2010 at 2:49pm | IP Logged | ||
I heard about this also in New York! I wasn't sure if it still existed, but I got REALLY excited. I live in Pennsylvania, so it's only a 3 hour trip for me. If there are any meetings this summer I will probably be heading up there! There aren't any limits on what languages are there? Is there a certain Spanish group, a French group etc? Or is everyone mixed together? It would be VERY cool to meet more people like me :D and also vert efficient in my opinion (Hey what does this mean, how to you say this, etc) :D -Jordan Edited by datsunking1 on 16 January 2010 at 2:50pm 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| jmlgws Senior Member Canada Joined 7104 days ago 102 posts - 104 votes Speaks: English* Studies: French, German, Spanish, Mandarin | Message 8 of 10 17 January 2010 at 2:12pm | IP Logged | ||
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I'm another person who goes to Meetup.com groups from time to time. I'd echo the comments above, it isn't as useful talking with students below your level, so eventually you want to find the native or advanced speakers in a group. Usually the Meetups I have attended are at a restaurant or bar, sometimes there are special events (e.g. tours in a given language). Also sometimes the Meetup group is a "front" for classes from a given language school, e.g. I go to "drop-in" classes offered by one Spanish Meetup group here in Toronto.
To find other language clubs, you could check with a local college or university. Also you might check with local language schools, they might have "drop-in" classes or "special events", which can be sort of like a language club. If there are newspapers or websites on a given language community they may have something similar as well; so here in Toronto, there is a small weekly French newspaper called "L'Express de Toronto", which advertises a weekly French group similar to a "restaurant" Meetup. 1 person has voted this message useful |
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