The reason that some languages are so similar to others is that the two are somehow related, and as they say, “the apple doesn’t fall far from the tree.” The different families of languages share the same or very similar words or word combinations often because one language was partially derived from the other. Languages change over time, they borrow words, sounds and ideas from other languages and melt them into their own – this has been going on since the dawn of the spoken work.

Thousands of years ago, as these languages were being developed, explorers where traveling to new lands and picking up nuances of communication from the people that they were interacting with and in essence changing or newly developing the language that they were speaking. Languages are constantly changing and evolving and in essence turning into different languages.

If an English speaking American from today could be transported back in time to the year 1900 and tried to communicate with someone speaking English as it was spoken at that time, the two would have a very difficult time understanding each other due to all of the words, ideas and phases that have been borrowed and absorbed into the English language over the course of the last thousand years. If the English spoken in America continues to transform itself at the rate that it has over the last few hundred years, they may have to start calling it “American English”, because of all of the alterations will have created a real separation between it and the English spoken in England – though the two would still be from the same “family” of languages.

Spanish and French seem so similar to one another because they are so closely related, despite the fact that there are many differences present with individual words and vowel sounds, the two languages have enough similarities in terms of pronunciation and structure that someone who is fluent in one can often understand at least some of the basics of the other without having had any formal instruction.

The Borrowers

Even when two languages aren’t directly “related” there can be a connection that leads to some glaring similarities. When two previously unrelated languages come together, as could be the case with war occupation or invasion, one language will often borrow any number of things from the other – adding potentially hundreds of new words to the borrowing language. This is precisely the reason that there are so many similar words in the English language and the French language. French speaking Normans had at one time occupied a portion of England, the English speaking natives borrowed several words and phrases that stuck and effectively altered the language from what it had been and made it much more similar to a language from another language “family”

Purely by Chance

The least likely reason of all of the potentials for a similarity among different languages is the fact that it is so purely by chance. Things can certainly happen by chance or by accident, which may be why two words from otherwise entirely different languages, having the same meaning, may sound similar, but when there are several similarities of sounds, pronunciation or grammar, often either the languages are related or there has been some other reason for borrowing.

Author: A Nutt

Probably, you would say that the above is far from enough to convince you. Alright, there is another encouraging and definitive proof with me for you. A couple of days ago I fortunately came across one piece of inspiring news when reading Beijing Times. Now you can be allowed to read 90% of the current Chinese publication with less than 1,000 Chinese characters as per the survey conducted by the Education Ministry and Language Commission of China. The survey’s claim is based on 900 million characters used in more than 8.9 million files selected from newspapers, magazines, the Internet and television. Nowadays, the Chinese media is using fewer characters, and to understand 90 percent of the content in publications, you need only to know about 900 of around 50,000 individual characters that are made up of Written Chinese. On the other hand, how many words are there in English? Nearly 100,000 and still increasing. There is one significant reason for this and that is Chinese characters focus on meaning, not pronunciation like in English, and further, many characters are primitive and a few are found only once in the entire history of the written language . Only about 6,000 are known by an average graduate of Chinese university.

Now, would those all above relieve you a little bit in your Chinese language study? Hope so, but do not misinterpret this. I do not intend to convince you that Chinese is very easy to learn or other languages like English are much harder. What I mean is that Chinese is not as difficult as you imagined or heard about, but different from your mother tongue, but difference does not mean tough necessarily, Isn’t it?What it means is that Chinese is certainly simpler than you imagined or heard about, it’s just very dissimilar from your mother tongue, but dissimilar does not mean difficult necessarily, Doesn’t it? And that hard Chinese idea won’t be of any help in your study. Trust yourself, once that fear factor is overcome, the language is actually not that hard to learn. Wish you good luck with your Chinese language study.

Author: John Abraham

A vast and varied vocabulary of the Japanese language clearly reflects a strong presence of influence of various other languages on it. Words with high frequencies of use are derived from the Chinese, Indo-European, Portuguese and Dutch languages, the latter two having strong commercial relationship with Japan. Each syllable of the Japanese language has an even, metronome-like beat. The words and phrases become distinct through differences in pitch, stress and emphasis, much of which is typical to English. Despite the presence of dozens of dialects, there is a standard form of the language which is known as the Hyojungo or Kyotsugo being used proficiently by the elite classes of Tokyo and was separate for writing and speaking.

The literary language, Japanese translation “Bungo”, was widely used for writing before the 1900′s but, with time and evolution of the language the spoken form or “Kogo” became more eminent and was used for writing as well, the former being reduced to a measure of adding emphasis and effect by the modern Japanese writers.

Japanese is spoken in a number of ways depending upon the social state of affairs. The ‘intimate style’ is adopted for ordinary everyday conversations while the ‘polite’ form is used delightfully with cultured company. The ‘honorific style’ confers pride and reverence for the superiors and the ‘impersonal style’ finds a prominence in public discussions, meetings and speeches.

Japanese language consists of both inflected and uninflected words which end in either vowels or the letter “n”. All sentences come with the verb at the end and there are no exact expressions for “yes” and “no” i.e. the entire subject has to be repeated with the verb at the end in order to answer a particular question. The Japanese use two tables of syllables in writing symbols, its Japanese translation being known as the Kana.

The kana can be hiragana and Katakana, the rounded and square shaped forms respectively and Japanese is ordinarily written with a blend of the kana and Chinese characters called kanamajiri. Development of Japan as a powerful economy, the interest of researchers and students in its rich history and culture and the presence of great works of literature has resulted in widespread popularity of the Japanese Languages.

Author: Nakata

It is not as difficult as you may be thinking. Let me show you my method for learning French or any other language of your choice.

The truth is that there is only one way to learn a new language, but there are several methods for doing so. I am a French native, and speak and write in several languages. I am fluent in English, Arabic, French (my mother tongue), and Creole. We also speak Spanish.

So, how do I do, and most importantly, how can do this too?

1. Think outside the box

I know that many people trying to learn a new language, but not because it is doing what everyone is saying that they do. You need to understand that they are different and that some work of John Doe might not work for you. You need to review the various forms of learning French, and then go with that works best for you.

2. Immerse yourself in a French ‘environment’

I really do not need to travel to Paris for a complete immersion. You can do this without any French at all natives. For this to work, you need to have friends who are also passionate about French, just like you. Do it now. Pick up the phone and tell your friends that whenever they meet, we speak French during the first ten minutes.

Believe me, this is powerful. Imagine doing this every time you see your friend. If you see every day at work, it deals almost an hour of French in real life situation.

But what is even more powerful is that when you can not find the word you need to speak French, all you need do is look in the dictionary. And believe me, if ever, move pretty fast.

There are some things you can do to help you learn a new language. Reading an article one day it was written in Japanese can help you understand the language. Similarly, two and listen to news radio in Japanese can help you learn the pronunciation of words and the context in which words are normally used in. See the videos YouTube can also help you learn Japanese meaning of certain words .

More Japanese word meaning, they learn, the more you will be able to understand the language. Soon you’ll be able to understand and speak the language fluently and easily. The language of Japan is very interesting to learn and understand this language is secure in the shoe in all aspects of their lives.

Be there – College is expensive and if you don’t show up you’re going to only be wasting money. You want to make sure you go to every class when you have a foreign language. If you miss one day you will most likely be missing out on a lot. It’s like math you have to learn the basics before you can go any further.

Textbook – Any kind of book in college costs an arm and a leg these days so you want to make sure you read it. Go through the textbook and go page by page and chapter by chapter. If you keep up with reading the textbook you will go much further than you think.

Sounds – You want to make sure you get a feel for the sounds. When learning a foreign language we often get confused at first with the different sounds. Try to pick them up and speak with the accents. It will take some time but it will flow much nicer and make you feel a whole lot better.

Verbs – To create good sentences in a foreign language you need to make yourself aware of a lot of verbs. Take a few days a week and just study verbs for 20 minutes each time. The more verbs you know the better your speaking will get.

Tenses – Be sure that you familiarize all the tenses. You want to make sure you know the past, present and future tense. If you don’t learn these properly your sentences won’t make sense. Once you get the feel for the tenses you will be on a roll.

Conjunctions – Learn all the conjunctions of the foreign language. Be sure you understand the subordinating, coordinating, and verb conjunctions. Once you know these a foreign language will make much more sense to you.

There is a lot to know about learning a foreign language. The most important thing is to have patience, have fun with it and have motivation. Foreign languages can be very frustrating but once you get the gist of it you’ll be glad you took the time to learn it.

Author: Tom Tessin

If you are having fun learning something, chances are that your children will wish to learn as well. Keep reminding them how fun it will be to travel to the land of the language and speak like a native or go out to dinner in a new town and pretend to be foreign by only speaking to each other in the language you’ve learned. Not to mention the fun they will have on the school bus when no one else really understands what they are saying.

Raising a bilingual family in today’s world has many benefits that go far beyond knowing a second language. In addition to the languages learned you are increasing their ability to learn more languages, as each subsequent language is easier to learn. While at a young age, children may have a tendency to mix languages or switch back and forth that is something that will occur less frequently in time.

The process of creating a bilingual household also requires a considerable amount more effort on the part of the parents. Not only are you learning a new language and committing to learning it well enough to teach to your children and speak on a regular basis, but you are also committing your child to another language as well. This can be confusing to him or her at times and overwhelming at others. Be careful that you don’t overload them, which may cause them to stop speaking all together and that you are patient with them offering support and kind words when needed. This is one of the greatest gifts you can give your children and they will understand that in time.

Author: Michael Gabrikow

*Version 1

The sky is blue today. I’m sitting on the beach. A bully kicks sand in my face. Too bad for him! Here come my bodyguards!

*Version 2

One, two, a sky so blue. Three, four, a sandy shore. Five, six, a bully kicks. Seven, eight, he’s sealed his fate. Nine, ten, here come my gunmen!

Now go back and re-read the verses.

Did you notice that you have already started to anticipate what comes next in the second version?

Conclusion: It is easier to memorize rhyming poetry than to memorize prose.

So what implication does this have for learning a foreign language?

If you memorize well-written *modern* foreign language poetry, you can accelerate your learning curve. (Notice the keyword ‘modern’.)

Poetry written in the 18th Century may have deep cultural and educational significance. However, words penned to page over 300 years ago will utilize obsolete vocabulary, spelling, and grammar formations.

As an example: consider the popular King James Version of the Bible. If you started using ‘thee’ and ‘thou’ in your daily speech, people would understand you – but they would treat you like an alien in a time warp.

You can search the internet for poetry written by contemporary authors. Try searches like:

parallel translation poetry

parallel translation poems

parallel translation poems German English

parallel translation poems French English

parallel translation poetry Italian English

parallel translation poetry Spanish English

Substitute search terms as necessary with the name of the specific language you are studying. Review the webpages you find with a tutor, professor, or knowledgeable person to determine grammar and vocabulary suitability.

Attempt to have the poetry dictated and recorded by a native language speaker. Softly recite the poetry while you listen to the recordings. This will improve your verbalization skills. With luck, you may find online audio for some of the poetry.

Are you a budding poet? Try creating foreign language poems yourself.

No poetic talent? Attempt the following simple approach. If you are learning German, for example, you might produce a ‘poem’ like this:

the dog – der Hund

the mouth – der Mund

the air – die Luft

the scent – der Duft

to buzz – summen

to growl – brummen

little – klein

clean – rein

to brood – grübeln

to iron – bügeln

You don’t have to worry about grammar – just definitions, pronunciations, gender, and spelling. Alcor (alcor.com.au) has several rhyming dictionaries that can assist you with this process.

If you have an audio dictionary on your computer, listen carefully to the pronunciation of each word. There are also excellent online dictionaries with audio.

Now produce your own poetry recording using audio capture software.

- First, dictate each English word or phrase and save as an individual file.

- Next, save foreign language audio clips from your dictionary or from the internet.

- Now load your audio capture software and play the files in the correct order. Try to create short productions of a minute or two in duration.

- Edit if necessary to eliminate excessive pauses or add definite articles.

- Finally, convert to MP3 or WMA. Now you can use your iPod or portable media player for something besides music.

The 21st Century is a wonderful time to be learning a foreign language!

Author: Kathy Steinemann

There is now a growing international movement which teaches babies to “talk” to you even before they can actually talk! Did you know that infants’ gross motor skills (ability to grasp objects at 3-4 months) much develop faster than their fine motor skills (articulation). As such, babies can actually use their hands to “communicate”.

One fundamental reason for using sign language with your child, is not to miss out on positive two-way communication during the periods when babies’ articulators are not fully formed yet.

Laura Dyer, Speech Pathologist, in her book “Look Who’s Talking: How To Enhance Your Child’s Language Development Starting At Birth”, states that typically developing children ages 8 to 22 months benefit from learning sign language because these children can use signs to represent words that are too difficult for them to say.

Recent research has proven that teaching your baby sign language will provide dramatic benefits to both children and parents:

INCREASED IQ

Dr Linda Acredolo and Dr Susan Goodwyn compared babies who used sign with babies who had not. Their research shows that the babies who used sign had a faster rate of cognitive development than babies who didn’t sign.

Later, when the same two groups were compared at two years of age, the signers knew about fifty more spoken words than the other babies who hadn’t learned sign.

At the age of three, the same signing group was found speaking and comprehending words at levels almost compared to what is normally expected at the age of four! They also scored well on tests of memory, mental development and fantasy play.

In fact, a ten-year study at the University of California at Davis found that seven-year-olds who signed as babies scored an average of twelve points higher on the standard IQ test than members of a control group who didn’t sign as babies.

Marilyn Daniels, who has done extensive research on hearing children who have been taught sign language, explains that this is because there is increased neuron connectivity when babies use sign language. As such, there is increased stimulation and brain activity resulting in denser brain development.

INCREASED VOCABULARY

Marilyn also performed studies to determine whether adding sign language to the curriculum in pre-kindergarten classes would improve the students’ comprehension of the English vocabulary. Research concluded that the children who received sign instruction showed significant improvement in English vocabulary for students who received the sign language instruction.

In fact, the National Institute for Child Health & Human Development studied 140 families with eleven-month-old babies for two years. They compared families who used signs with their babies with families who did not. The children in the families that used signs performed better in all tests, scoring higher in intelligence tests, had larger vocabularies and engaged in more sophisticated play.

Sure, learning sign language is going to take effort, especially for hearing adults. However, after enduring nine arduous months of child-bearing, many parents will want to give the finest education to their children.

Teaching your children sign language when they are babies will help to lay a good foundation to their success in future.

Author: Tani Lane

#1 Easiest Way To Learn A Language

Having parents that have different native languages. This is the most effective way to learn a language as the child will grow up and become perfectly fluent in both of the languages. If one parent is Spanish and the other English then there should be no problem for the child to become perfectly fluent in both of these languages. The important point to remember is that both parents must use their own native language when talking with the child. This truly is the easiest way to learn a language as it requires no effort.

#2 Easiest Way To Learn A Language

This is to move to a country that speaks the language you plan on learning and then spend a prolonged amount of time there. Make sure that you take part in the local culture and get as much speaking practice as you possibly can.

#3 Easiest Way To Learn A Language

This involves finding a girlfriend/boyfriend that speaks the language that you want to learn. It gives you the perfect opportunity to practice and improve and obviously there are some other benefits beyond just that of just learning a language. This is another easy way to learn a language.

Now we have seen that there are some great methods which enable you to learn new languages easily. While these methods are the easiest ways to learn a language they may not be options that are available for you. However, you need not despair. The most important thing is to get started and work at your own pace.

Basically you need to find the quickest way to learn a language for You! Attend some lessons and get some good learning materials and look for every opportunity available. Do this and you really can’t go wrong!

Author: Kenny Lindsay