Home

2011年10月5日 星期三

Have Fun With Rocket Spanish

Would you like to learn Spanish and have fun at the same time? Did you ever had a nightmare that you were traveling in Spain and no one could understand your English? There are many inconvenient situations when you could benefit from your Spanish knowledge, so don't hesitate. The best way to learn this Latin language may well be very different for all of us.

There are many ways to do it. First of all you can learn to speak with the help of a friend. This method ensures that you have a support structure as you learn together. In case you do not have a friend to help you, don't give it up right away, because with the help of online courses you can learn on your own. These courses are created to make your learning easy and fun. Learning Spanish with software is a great way to learn and it will often get you better results than traditional textbook methods. Learning online is one of the best ways to get your language skills from where they are to where you want them to be.

Rocket Spanish is a very helpful software for those people who wish to learn Spanish in an efficient way. This tool may be the only interactive online Spanish learning software program that you can purchase an at a cost way beneath the competing products. Rocket Spanish is a program made for those who need to learn Spanish quickly and don't have much time to learn. It is one of the best language courses available online. It is designed with the intention that anybody who wants to learn to speak Spanish can use it easily. Rocket Spanish is also very effective as it is a structured and relevant course. It is probably the most popular of the online courses nowadays. Rocket Spanish will definitely suit learners from newbies to any person needing to enhance their Spanish knowledge, or perhaps fresh up on it. This tool is a very user friendly Spanish learning program.

Learning Spanish is becoming increasingly popular with both Americans and Europeans. Learning this language does not have to be a difficult process. Learning to speak can be not just simple and easy, but exciting too. By using Rocket Spanish, you will learn Spanish in an exciting way, using technology and focusing on communication. These types of language courses are loaded with visual images to help you retain what you've learned. They also have interactive games and quizzes to keep learning fun.

Visit LanguageCourseReview.com for a complete review on Rocket Spanish and make sure you read about Learning Spanish Like Crazy too.


View the original article here

2011年10月4日 星期二

Hungarians in the World - Where Do Magyars Live Now?

Today, Hungarians live in many countries of the world, and, as such, the Hungarian language is spoken across the globe.

Hungarians were the last major ethnic group to arrive in Europe during the time of what is known as the "Great Migrations." Today, more than 10 million Hungarians reside within the country's borders. More than five million residents live outside of Hungary. With more than two million Hungarian residents, Transylvania has the second largest national minority in Europe, after the Albanians in Yugoslavia.

According to the 2001 Census, most Hungarians inside the country live in or near major cities. This report says two million residents live in Budapest, 220,000 in Debrecen, 211,000 in Miskolc, 185,000 in Szeged, 179,000 in Pecs and 130,000 in GyA?r. Of course, these numbers are likely to have changed since the report was published.

It has not been solely in modern times that Hungarians have been "on the move," however.

The land of pre-World War I Hungary was slashed by more than 72 percent following the Trianon Peace Treaty of 1920. At this time, the total land mass of Hungary was drastically cut, from 325,111 square kilometers prior to the Treaty, to 98,073 square kilometers. The land which previously the Hungarian Empire is now part of some of the seven neighboring countries, with most of the prior land now in Romania, Slovakia, Serbia and Ukraine.

Following this land acquisition, many Hungarians were forced to flee the country, choosing a variety of "new homes" across the world. In fact, the country lost more than 64 percent of its previous population, from nearly 21 million residents to just fewer than eight million.

More than two million Hungarians settled in Romania, 730,000 in the United States, 700,000 in the Czech Republic and Slovakia, 220,000 in Israel, 200,000 in the former Soviet Union, 140,000 in Canada, and several thousand Hungarians moved to various other countries across the world.

Another historical instance, the 1956 Revolution, saw a large immigration to the United States, Canada and other countries. Many Hungarians have now settled in various locations within the European Union, citing financial decisions, a desire to be closer to family who have relocated, and other reasons.

Hungarian lawmakers recently decided that, as of January 01, 2011, any ethnic Hungarian living outside of Hungary can claim dual-citizenship (or 'second-citizenship'). People seeking to make this claim would have to prove their Hungarian ancestry, show a proficiency in speaking the Hungarian language, and have no criminal record whatsoever. The move has been largely controversial, even though lawmakers stress ethnic Hungarians living outside of Hungary will not be able to vote in Hungarian elections, and will not be granted any 'sway' as it pertains to the inner-workings of the Hungarian government.

Hungary has a literacy rate of 98 percent. The country has a compulsory education mandate in place for all students up to the age of 16.

Nanda Dyssou is a Hungarian language teacher in Los Angeles and she also offers online classes that are delivered to her students' mailbox via her website, http://www.hungarianclasses.com/. Her free eBook, "How To Learn Hungarian" can be downloaded at http://www.hungarianebook.com/. On the same website she also offers a 10-day free Hungarian course.


View the original article here

2011年10月3日 星期一

Learning Korean: 3 Important Differences Between English and Korean Grammar

Korean and English have very different grammar structures, which can make learning Korean challenging for native English speakers. How should you overcome this challenge? The best way is to tackle the problem head on, by directly comparing Korean and English sentence structures. This article will give a very brief review of basic grammar concepts and then discuss the three main grammatical differences between Korean and English.

Quick and Easy Grammar Refresher

To get the most out of this article, you must understand some basic grammatical concepts. Most importantly, you need to understand subjects, objects and verbs. Simply put, a verb is a word that expresses action or being, words like eat, walk, and tell. The subject of a sentence, on the other hand, is the word that takes the action of the verb. Finally, the object in a sentence is the "thing" involved in the action. It often answers the "who," "when," or "where" kinds of questions.

For example, in the sentence "Ryan wrote a letter," the verb is "wrote." Ryan is the one who did the writing, so he is the subject, and the letter is what Ryan wrote, so it is the object. Do you notice the order in which those words were placed?

Word Order: Korean vs. English

The order of the words in the sentence above is subject + verb + object. In Korean, the order of the words in a sentence is subject + object + verb. So, in this case, using Korean grammar, the sentence would read like this:

"Ryan letter wrote." Or, in Romanized Korean, laieon eun pyeonji leul sseoss-eoyo.

Laieon = Ryan (there is no "R" sound in Korean)

pyeonji = letter

sseoss-eoyo = write

This is the most important part of Korean grammar that you need to know. You'll have to fight all of your natural instincts, but you must place the verb at the end of the sentence when speaking Korean.

Korean Subject and object Markers

This is an easy comparison. In English, there are no subject and object markers. In Korean, there are. Take a look at the example sentence I wrote above. Did you notice that there are 5 words in the Korean sentence but that I only translated three of them? The two words I didn't translate are "eun" and "leul." I didn't translate them because there is no direct translation.

Notice that the word "eun" follows the word "Laieon" (Ryan). Laieon is the subject of the sentence; therefore, it is marked with the subject marker "eun."

The word "pyeonji" (letter), on the other hand, is the object, so it is marked with the object marker "leul." These markers can be confusing at first, but don't worry. They come naturally once you begin to use them regularly.

Articles

Articles specify the grammatical definiteness of nouns. In English they are the words "a/an" and "the." Look at the sample sentence above one more time. You may have thought that I made a typo when I wrote the sentence, "Ryan letter wrote?" Actually, however, the sentence is correct when written in the Korean form because in the Korean language there is no use of articles at all.

Summary

Korean and English have very different grammar structures, which can make learning Korean a bit difficult for native English speakers. You can make the process much easier, however, if you understand the difference in word order, the difference in the use of subject and object markers, and the difference in the use of articles.

Best of luck in this and all of your learning endeavors.

Want to learn Korean online? Check out my Rocket Korean Review.

Also, be sure to grab a copy of my FREE (for the time being) new book called "Ordinary Ways to Learn a Language Extraordinarily Fast" at http://www.liveinasiablog.com/learning-a-new-language/

Have a great day.

Ryan Wiley
Founder
The Live in Asia Blog


View the original article here

2011年10月2日 星期日

World Language Services

In this era when almost all aspects of life are pushing for globalization, proficiency in different languages is a great advantage. English remains the universal language, yet an encounter with people or information that speaks foreign cannot be avoided. In reality, the word "foreign" is hardly ever used to refer to a citizenship other than one's own; on account of the growing respect towards diversity. This in result paved the way for world language services, an industry that provides language tutorials, transcription and translation services, -both live and online.

World language services, as the term implies, offer sophisticated modes of instruction with reference to verbal and written communication in French, Korean, Italian, Japanese, Mandarin, Russian, Spanish, among others. Language instructors are expected to demonstrate expertise not just in the language but also in the art of teaching.

Learning a language takes time, and the course generally consists of modules for beginner, intermediate, and advanced lessons to cater to the specific needs of participants. The service can be adjusted in accordance to the customer's purpose may it be personal or business. In addition, there are some service providers that are available 24 hours daily, 7 days a week to offer assistance at any time zone, to attend to customers from all walks of life.

You will find countless service providers of this type, and some may have what seem to be the most convincing promotional campaigns. As there are costs associated with the service, it is imperative that a customer makes a wise decision based on a number of considerations such as fees, service quality, certifications and experience of the instructor, and the course outline. Service providers are more than happy to discuss these matters with the customer; some who markets online even posts these on their website.

One way to find the best service provider is by reading blogs. It will help to hear from people who actually had first-hand experiences with world language services. Check out which appears to have the most number of satisfied customers, or the least amount of unfavourable issues.

Also, do not forget to compare prices. Those highly-priced do not necessarily warrant better services than their counterparts, and may just be overcharging. Examine closely which offers the deal that is most suitable to your needs, time, and budget. And finally, make sure that the terms and conditions are clearly explained by the provider before any contract whatsoever is signed and payment is made.

The Marketing Analysts are language professionals specializing in language translation. They specialize in French translation, German translation and over a hundred other language translation services.


View the original article here

2011年10月1日 星期六

You Can't Learn Chinese in 5 Minutes

You might be able to put down a full meal in 5 minutes, but everyone knows that it still takes hours to digest. The same goes for learning Chinese. Anyone who thinks that learning it will be a walk in the park is seriously mistaken - you can't learn Chinese in 5 minutes!

Why can't I learn Chinese in 5 minutes?

Learning Chinese is like a fine dining experience. You start with a light appetizer, working your way through to the main course and end with a sweet taste in your mouth.

Learning to listen is the appetizer. Chinese has some unique sounds that are not made in other languages and while pronunciation is very important, it can be difficult if you are not used to making these sounds.

Chinese is also a tonal language which means tones affect the meaning of a words they are connected with. It takes time and practice not only to hear the tones but to pronounce words correctly while using them.

The Main Course.

You must work your way through the main meal, (the grammar) and learn the subtle nuances of language which relate to culture.

Although some people are satisfied with just being able to speak Chinese, in my experience it is not nearly enough! Learning to speak without learning to read and write is like paying top dollar to eat a gourmet meal when you have a cold. You can't even taste the flavor, so what good is it?

Icing on the Cake.

Learning how to read and write characters is essential. There is no question that Chinese characters look hip and writing Chinese characters has become an art form; but unless you learn to read and write characters, you will never really have a true understanding of China.

Many of the traditional characters tell the story of life in ancient China and carry with them the cultural history of the Chinese people.

Writing is difficult but systematic. Small pieces of a character called radicals, are put together in different ways to make different characters. Every character is formed by using specific strokes in a specific orders.

While some characters are simple and contain single radicals, some are exceedingly complex and contain several combinations of radicals and can have 15 different strokes!

Do you now think you can learn Chinese in 5 minutes?

There are no shortcuts in learning Chinese. To learn Chinese in 5 minutes is an ideal that every opportunist tries to sell to those who are willing to buy it, but it is a fantasy. The sweetness of the success can only come after the hard work of language learning is accomplished. It's not easy, but it's so worth it.

Quentin Sallis is an expert in Language Education and Language Curriculum Design. For an enjoyable way to learn Chinese please read his Chinesepod review. For other tips and strategies for improving your Chinese please visit http://www.checkoutchinese.com/


View the original article here