|
 |
Language Profiles / Resources Update? | ||
Share with:
| ||
 Language Learning Forum : General discussion |  | |
| jtdotto Diglot Groupie United States Joined 5232 days ago 73 posts - 172 votes  Speaks: English*, Korean Studies: Spanish, Portuguese, German | Message 1 of 5 23 December 2014 at 6:03am | IP Logged |
|
I think this site is a great virtual meeting place for languages lovers all across the world, and I feel like
I've clicked on just about every link there is (outside of the forum). I enjoy reading about different languages, their relative difficulty, resources, culture, etc. Whoever put this together did a fantastic job. Some of the information put together for languages like Spanish, Arabic, and French is quite expansive. While perusing the language profiles, I couldn't help but notice that some languages don't have that kind of wealth of information that others do, and there's some parts that have notations like: "Portuguese - Culture: Brazilian music and a few great writer (please help me on that topic !)" Having studied Portuguese for 8 months now, and being a songwriter and guitarist, I can already volunteer a number of just fantastic Brazilian singers and songwriters, and some great writers as well. The other language I know well, Korean, has some incredibly daunting and almost discouraging information regarding conversing with native speakers. "In Korea, a command of Korean is not as useful as you would expect . Many Koreans speak English and are eager to practice it with foreigners, which makes practicing your Korean quite difficult." It may have been the case when Prof. Arguelles was in Korea in the last 90's, but nowadays, you can absolutely find Koreans who are ready and willing to share their language and culture with you. I'd be happy to volunteer writing some extra information for both Portuguese and Korean. Now I realize if everyone put their two cents into these profiles, it'd be way too much for one person to organize and assemble. If we could get one or two people per language to write up some extra information regarding things like highly acclaimed writers and books, music, movies (for example, literature would be Rubem Braga and Fernando Sabino for short stories in Portuguese, Paolo Coelho - The Alchemist, Jose Saramago - Blindness, for music Tom Jobim / Joao Gilberto - Girl From Ipanema, Jorge Ben - Mas Que Nada, Tom Jobim / Elis Regina - Aguas de Marco, Raul Seixas - Metamorfose Ambulante, for movies City of God, Central do Brasil, etc.), I think it would really offer a great resource to future language learners and current ones looking for the cultural greats each language has. Now, in addition, I think the resources section in general and for each language could benefit from an update. Every language has it's own hidden online or printed gems in terms of resources, and to make an ever expanding list would make it fascinating for potential learners of XYZ language to see what there is at their fingertips, right from the start. For example, Portuguese has Brazilpod, a superb resource for beginning and intermediate students with audio, video, and written material. Korean has TalkToMeInKorean.com, Sogang University's online textbook, and UBC's online literature cache with translations, grammar notations, and vocab lists for some of the very best Korean short stories out there. All this stuff is free and just begging for people to use it, but I feel like we are constantly remaking the wheel by asking for resource suggestions (not that there's anything wrong with that!). The internet is a dynamic, fast-changing animal, and I think trying to extract and showcase the very best it has to offer for language learners would be an invaluable resource for years to come. I just took a look the resource section for Arabic and French. Arabic has none, which is a perfect place to begin because I know there's some first rate stuff out there for Arabic. French only has Pimsleur and FSI, which is a great start, but I'm thinking something like Tex's French Grammar (http://www.laits.utexas.edu/tex/) or French in Action (the French Destinos basically). Things like these are free and incredibly helpful, and they are different and unique for every language. Lastly, I mentioned general resources. Some sort of master list of multi-language resources in the first section, or even a dedicated and pinned thread in one of the forums would be helpful I think. Off the top of my head, I can think of: SCOLA.org (audio, video, lessons for just about every language you can think of) GLOSS (Defense Dept. language site full of tailor made lessons with tons of information) SBS Radio (Australian media company that produces radio and podcast content in dozens of languages) And I know there is plenty more out there. I like finding new resources, because it puts a variation on the same old material, reworking what I already know to learn it even better, which is what language learning is all about, right? To summarize, I'm proposing we try to fill out the language profiles a bit more with highlighting the artistic and linguistic greats each language has to offer, such as writers, singers, and films, and add that into the language profile section, as well as come up with some specific language resource lists composed of the hidden gems in book and virtual form. Additionally, some sort of master list of multi- language resources that seemingly everyone could add to and benefit from. Does this seem like a good idea to anyone? Edited by jtdotto on 23 December 2014 at 6:22am 1 person has voted this message useful | |
| jtdotto Diglot Groupie United States Joined 5232 days ago 73 posts - 172 votes Speaks: English*, Korean Studies: Spanish, Portuguese, German | Message 2 of 5 23 December 2014 at 7:03am | IP Logged |
|
I'll volunteer some information right now for Portuguese and Korean, just to give an example of what
I'm thinking of. This is in no way exhaustive, but just a place to begin. I imagine this could be an ongoing project. Having well-written paragraphs for each section is ideal, but sometimes just a quick compilation of names with a tagline can do the trick. Portuguese - Culture Brazilian Music: Joao Gilberto (considered the father of bossa nova music, sang the classic "Garota de Ipanema" with his wife) Tom Jobim (prolific songwriter who wrote the music to "Garota de Ipanema" along with dozens of other classics, including "Águas de Março") Chico Buarque (political and poetic, he's had a long and successful career, two great songs are "Roda Viva" and "Cotidiano") Jorge Ben (he wrote the anthemic "Mas Que Nada") Elis Regina (considered one of the Brazilian singing greats, sang "Águas de Março" and "Arrastáo", along with many others" This is one template. It could even be a more condensed version? João Gilberto - Gartoa de Ipanema Tom Jobim - Águas de Março Chico Buarque - Roda Viva Jorge Ben - Mas Que Nada Elis Regina - Arrastão Raul Seixas - Metamorfose Ambulante Literature: Rubem Braga (reporter, journalist, short story writer) Fernando Sabino (journalist, short story writer, novelist) Paulo Coelho - O Alquimista José Saramago - Ensaio sobre a cegueira Films: Cidade de Deus (City of God) Central do Brasil (Central Station) Orfeu Negro (Black Orpheus) Resources: Brazilpod http://coerll.utexas.edu/brazilpod/ (University of Texas, resources for beginners and intermediates) Crônicas Brasileiras (book of short stories for intermediates, University of Florida) BrazilianPodClass.com (podcast for beginners, intermediate, and advanced) Café Brasil Podcast (native level podcast with 400+ 30 minute episodes with transcripts) Korean - Culture Music K-Pop is the term for contemporary pop music out of Korea, and is made up of groups such as Girl's Generation ("Gee") and Shinee ("Juliet"). Older Korean music has a number of highly regarded singers, such as 김광석 ("사랑했지만") and 이문세 ("옛사랑"). A knowledge of both the contemporary and the classics will lead to great conversation opportunities, as well as bring out respect and pride from Koreans. Literature (in addition to what is already there): The short story 소나기 by 황순원 is read in middle school by Koreans, and thus is widely known and highly regarded. This is a great place to start for Korean literary study, as are other short stories by him. Films: Old Boy Mother The Man from Nowhere Memories of Murder The Host Resources: TalkToMeInKorean.com (starting with the alphabet, this website takes you through step by step audio and visual instruction to learn the basics and beyond) Sogang's Online Textbook http://korean.sogang.ac.kr/ (online textbook with audio and exercises) UBC's 410 Course http://www.korean.arts.ubc.ca/main.htm (this online textbook is really just a compilation of short stories with translations, grammar notes, and vocabulary lists for each story) You Speak Korean! textbook series www.paradigmbusters.com (I used this to learn Korean and I use it to tutor - some of the best grammatical explanation you'll find for this language, a true contribution) For me, collecting the unique resources for each language, and having them in one spot is most important. As I said, first-rate language specific resources exist for every language, and compiling them into the language profiles could be very effective. From there, the cultural additions make for some great exploration for current and future students. 1 person has voted this message useful | |
| Serpent Octoglot Senior Member Russian Federation serpent-849.livejour Joined 6600 days ago 9753 posts - 15779 votes 4 sounds Speaks: Russian*, English, FinnishC1, Latin, German, Italian, Spanish, Portuguese Studies: Danish, Romanian, Polish, Belarusian, Ukrainian, Croatian, Slovenian, Catalan, Czech, Galician, Dutch, Swedish | Message 3 of 5 23 December 2014 at 7:24am | IP Logged |
|
Unfortunately only the administrator can edit non-forum parts of the site (and he's not been around for a long time). There's more updated information in Collaborative writing. Edited by Serpent on 23 December 2014 at 7:25am 1 person has voted this message useful | |
| Cavesa Triglot Senior Member Czech Republic Joined 5012 days ago 3277 posts - 6779 votes Speaks: Czech*, FrenchC2, EnglishC1 Studies: Spanish, German, Italian | Message 4 of 5 23 December 2014 at 2:13pm | IP Logged |
|
However, there are some good news as well and an your experience and time would be very
welcome on our wikia. It is a kind of a crossroads with links to various threads and ovrviews of things often discussed. And there are language overviews and material and culture lists as well :-) http://learnanylanguage.wikia.com/wiki/Learn_Any_Language 3 persons have voted this message useful | |
| Nieng Zhonghan Bilingual Tetraglot Senior Member Antarctica Joined 3674 days ago 108 posts - 315 votes Speaks: Portuguese*, Japanese*, Spanish, Galician Studies: Finnish, Icelandic, Armenian, Mongolian Studies: Old English, Russian, English, German, Korean, Mandarin | Message 5 of 5 24 December 2014 at 10:49am | IP Logged |
|
I find jtdotto's idea very interesting.
There are not many language profiles available and some of them indeed seem to be outdated. Since the administrator has not been around for a long time, we can contribute writing in Wikia as Cavesa suggested. I think I can contribute in Wikia writing (more) about Brazilian Portuguese, Portuguese, Galician, Mandarin Chinese, Korean, Estonian, Finnish, Lithuanian, Latvian, Italian, Spanish, among many others. I will consider writing about Tupi Guarani languages (Tenetehara, for instance) and Panoan languages (spoken in the Brazilian side) in the near future. There are also few unclassified languages in Brazil, but I guess not many people would be interested in so I can ignore them. I was surprised to see only few information about major languages such as German and Russian. I guess many people could edit them. How come one suggest only FSI and Duoling for German?! Edited by Nieng Zhonghan on 24 December 2014 at 10:57am 2 persons have voted this message useful |
If you wish to post a reply to this topic you must first login. If you are not already registered you must first register
|  | 
Printable version
|
| Copyright 2024 FX Micheloud - All rights reserved No part of this website may be copied by any means without my written authorization. |
