The learn2lingo blog

We often start learning languages with the goal of becoming fluent and reaching an advanced level but there’s really something to be said (no pun intended) for being a beginner in a new language. Here are seven reasons why being a beginner rocks.

1. There’s no need to be afraid of making mistakes. When you are an intermediate or advanced learner, making silly mistakes can be embarrassing. When you’re a beginner, however, people expect you to mistakes so you can try your best to express yourself without worrying about the occasional slip.

2. You can really see how much progress you are making. When you’re a beginner, each new thing you can speak about is a sign of how much progress you are making, you can count the new words you are learning and it’s easy to see how well you’re doing.

3. Sense of achievement - Making progress with a new skill and being able to do something you couldn’t do before is something you really can, and should be proud of!

4. Making new friends. Learning a new language is a great way to make new friends and often the people you meet as you move along your linguistic path can become lifelong friends. Teachers and classmates share a special bond with you that only discovering an new language together can bring.

5. Learning about the culture that goes along with your new language is exciting and interesting and could lead to new taste in music, art or food, too!

6. Falling in love. You might meet a new partner through learning a language but even if you don’t, learning a new language is like falling in love in lots of ways: it’s exciting, frustrating, and once you’ve fallen for a language, almost impossible to stop thinking about it!

Have you just started learning a new language? If so, let us know about it below.

Today’s image is by Ilco.

For advanced learners of a language, it can be difficult to know how to keep on developing your language skills. Once you are able to construct accurate sentences and express yourself freely where can you go from there?

In lots of languages, idioms and collocations form the main challenge for advanced learners. They can be difficult to understand at first, especially when presented out of context in lists and exercises in textbooks.

Wehn you see them in real life, though, it’s difficult to remember them. They get lost in newspapers and books, and it’s difficult to keep track of what you’ve learnt.

That’s why keeping a vocabulary notebook is such a good idea. Whenever you hear a new piece of vocabulary, just make a note of it. That way you will be able to refer back to it if you every want to review it in the future.

Keeping a vocabulary notebook is also a really good way to make the most of your private language lessons. Looking up the meaning of va piece of vocabulary in a dictionary is a handy way to get an idea of its meaning but even the best learner’s dictionaries only have space for a couple of examples.

Asking a teacher about your new words and expressions is the perfect way to really understand them because the teacher can make up as many examples as you need and help you understand how to use your new word or expression.

There are loads of different ways of organising your vocabulary notebook. Some people sort it out alphabetically, others prefer it organised into parts of speech and many people prefer it organised chronologically according to when they first encountered the word or expression. If you’re not sure on what works best for you, you could use index cards rather than a notebook and try organising them several different ways.

Why not give it a try today and see how much new vocabulary you can learn this week?

Today’s image is by Nicole N.

On New Year’s day, bleary-eyed and reaching for a cup of coffee to help clear your hangover, you make a resolution to give up alcohol, cut out the fatty food and stop vegging out in front of the TV. By the afternoon, you’ve finished off what was left of the chocolate mousse from the party last night, cracked open a bottle of wine and are sitting down watching a movie.

Sound familiar? If so, maybe this year your resolutions need to focus on taking up something new rather than giving up bad habits.

Learning a new language is an ideal resolution for the New Year. It won’t give you a perfect body but we all know that being able to use the local language well is much more likely to really impress people when you’re on holiday this summer than having perfect abs!

A linguistic workout is less painful than a physical one, too. Speaking to a live teacher online is going to exercise your brain but it won’t make you too stiff to sit at your desk the next day.

If you want, you can even combine your favourite old habits with your new resolution, too. With live online lessons from learn2lingo, you can learn from the comfort of your couch and even bring a nice glass of wine along with you!

Today’s photo is by Marmit.

If you want to be one of the first people in the world to see in the New Year, Kiritimati (Christmas Island) is the place to be. As part of the Republic of Kiribati, English is one of the official languages so ‘Happy New Year!’ is the most common greeting.

Next up, it’s time to crack open some coldies (beers), fire up the barbie (barbecue) and have a corker of a New Year with your cobbers (friends). In the opposite hemisphere, the residents of Kamchatka will be greeting each other by saying ‘S Novym Godom!‘ (’Happy New Year’ in Russian).

We’ve already seen a little about how people celebrate New Year in Japan and just across the sea in Korea, there will be shouts of ‘Sae-hae-bok ma-ni pa-dŭ-se-yo!‘ as people welcome in the New Year there.

Although lunar new year is the biggest celebration in China, there will still be spectacular fireworks in Hong Kong on December 31st. People in the same time zone further south in Indonesia will be saying ‘Selamat tahun baru‘ (Happy New Year) to their families as the 2011 reaches them.

As the New Year moves west, Hindi speakers will be saying ‘Nav varsh ki subhkamna‘ and Arabic speakers will be saying ‘Kul ‘am wa antum bikhair‘ as 2011 continues making its journey around the world.

Once it gets to Europe, the New Year will have to say ‘Eutychismenos o kainourgios chronos‘ to our friends in Greece, then save a little time by learning to say ‘Bonan Novjaron‘ (’Happy New Year’ in Esperanto) to greet the rest of Europe.

People celebrating Hogmanay in Scotland will be saying ‘Bliadhna mhath ur‘ as they start their New Year and enjoy the first footing.

The last continent to join 2011 will be the Americas and many people in Brazil will enjoy it at the beach, dressed in white, saying ‘Feliz Ano Novo!‘. A few hours later, the New Year will reach Spanish speakers in Mexico with a warm ‘¡Felíz año nuevo!‘

Where are you celebrating New Year this year? Can you say ‘Happy New Year’ in any languages not mentioned here? If so, let us know in the comments below.

Today’s image is by Calderilla.