This is our 200th blog post. Every January, we'll publish our 10 most popular blogs of the previous year.
2014 has been a wonderful year at GamesForLanguage, not just because we've grown our number of followers on Facebook and Twitter, but - as of December 2014 - our blog has gotten over 36,000 views.
Thanks for your interest and support! That's what fuels us - as well as the thousands of monthly visitors that come to our free language learning site.
We started GamesForLanguage 4 years ago as an experiment combining (fun) games and (serious) language learning for adults - and enlisted native speakers of French, Italian, and Spanish to our team.
Yes, language games are very popular with kids, but we've been delighted by the positive and constructive feedback that teens and adults have given us about our approach. We always want to hear from you, and we'll get back to you quickly.
We look forward to another great year. It'll include creating new courses and lots of new Quick Games.
Last but not least, we're both going for a spurt to fluency in Spanish and for a fresh start with a new language - Swedish for Ulrike and Dutch for Peter. It's a good way to stay sharp and humble, language learning wise.
While several of the posts date back to previous years, it's surprising that #10 "Not enough time? Really? Language Learning and Setting Priorities" made it on the list, as it was only published on December 17, 2014. Apparently this post hit a nerve.
The La Paloma post has been a front runner since it was published in June 2013. Learning a language via well-known songs is clearly compelling. There are several other websites using this idea.
We recently published a post on French Social Media terms and are interested to see how it does this year. Social Media sites continue to be great places to practice and improve a language and being familiar with social media language is a good tool.
We welcome your comments and suggestions for new blog post topics! Wishing you an excellent and fun new language learning year!
As lifelong language learners - by necessity and passion - we've used different methods for learning a new language. - English and French classes during in school - Assimil records, tapes and books - Immersion French courses in France - Pimsleur CDs to learn Italian and Chinese - Various Online courses for difference languages
We've also lived and stayed in various countries, sometimes for an extended time. It gave us the chance to use and practice the language in daily life. We also took courses there, and learned with local tutors and language exchange partners.
Classroom courses also involved reading novels and newspaper articles (activities that online add-ons can now also make more accessible for more advanced learners.) And for us, a story or interesting text made language learning both relevant and effective.
Overcoming Boring and Frustrating Beginnings
But beginning to learn a new language with CDs or online was often boring and frustrating. Many courses start out by teaching vocabulary and word combinations that seem useless and nonsensical. (Even Duolingo, a program we like a lot ourselves, started out with strange sentences, but is now constantly improving!)
While various grammar points, word order, etc. can obviously be practiced with out-of-context sentences, it's been our experience, that we recall vocabulary much better, if (a) we learn vocabulary in context and (b) we learn useful, everyday language.
With our Gamesforlanguage courses we are using a travel story right from the start. The vocabulary grows from a few simple words in an airplane to phrases and sentences that describe a young man's experiences as he travels through various European cities.
A Mystery Story for Non-Beginners
For our German 2 course, ( the full 76-lesson course is online and can be played for Free with simple registration), we are using a mystery story.
Michael, the young traveler from our German 1 course, returns to Berlin. The young woman who sits beside him in the airplane gives him a book, “Berlin Alexanderplatz,” which she does not want to finish. Without giving away too much, let's just say that this book plays a key role in the story.
Each lesson is built around 4-8 dialog or story sentences, which are broken up into words and phrases - then heard, read, practiced and, re-assembled again, and finally recorded by the learner.
German 2 will add another 700 NEW words to the 700 words of German 1, many of which will be recalled in various games of German 2. Learners will again have to exceed certain point thresholds with each lesson, before they can unlock the next one.
We believe that getting “to the end of the story” will not only be a worthwhile incentive to learn, but will also make learning more fun AND effective.
We're often asked why we believe that learning with our GamesforLanguage stories is particularly effective. There are 5 simple reasons:
1. Relevant Vocabulary helps you remember
When you start out learning a new language, every word is new and you need to remember it. You remember a new word or phrase more easily when it relates to items, activities, feelings, etc. that you know or use yourself frequently.
Many language courses ask you to memorize lists of words, many of which you may rarely hear or say.
Our travel story uses real-life vocabulary, words, phrases, and sentences that you are likely to encounter when you travel, meet people, and interact socially with them. For example, for our young traveler, practicing his foreign language begins in the airplane as he flies to Europe.
2. Interactive Games engage multiple senses and speak to the whole brain
Video games are non-linear, they use color, sound, and movement.You can hear, see, say, and type words and phrases and do so in various combinations of the four skills (reading, writing, listening, and speaking).
Games get you to identify and imitate foreign sounds, find the correct foreign or native word, translate English phrases and sentences, spell words and phrases. All of this makes learning more effective.
3.The Story Context helps you recall phrases and sentences
Rather than trying to translate each word from English into the foreign language, you'll learn phrases and sentences in the context of a story. You'll not only remember them, but you'll be able to use them without even thinking. Here's an example:
Suppose someone asks you what you would like to drink, let's say in French. Rather than trying to find the translation for “I would like a ...”, you'll remember the phrase “j'aimerais un/une...” which you practiced, and you can apply it without even thinking about the first person subjunctive form of “to like.”
Also, to both train your ear and memorize expressions, you can download the conversations as MP3 audio files or listen to the Podcasts. Learners who like a hard copy can download the PFR file of each lesson's vocabulary.
4. Games and Memory drills are fun
There's no way around memorizing vocabulary. For vocabulary acquisition, an inverted cone is a good analogy: You start with only a few words, but as you listen, read, write, and speak more and more of the story, the number of words you'll learn and remember will increase dramatically.
Various memory and recall games make - what could be a onerous exercise - into a fun practice, with scores that let you know when you are perfect.
5. You want to find out “the rest of the story”
Our travel story has a young man traveling to several cities where he meets with relatives and friends. Rather than using unconnected and often unrelated dialogues and topics to introduce new vocabulary, each scene of our travel story builds on the previous one.
The 16 new words of Scene 1 will grow to over 100 new words by Scene 6 and to over 700 by Scene 36. As a user completes one Scene she or he wonders what the next one will bring, and the story sequel adds more motivation to continue to the next Scene.
Practicing and improving a new language can be challenging, even for motivated learners. But with regular, ideally daily practice, learners will progress rapidly. We believe that combining games with a story – the German 2 course uses a 72 lesson mystery story sequel of the German 1 course, which we'll replicate for the other languages – we are making language learning fun, interesting, and effective.
Bio: Ulrike Rettig is the co-founder of Gamesforlanguage.com. She is a lifelong language learner, growing up in Austria, the Netherlands, and Canada. You can follow her on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram, and leave any comments with contact.
Recently a post reminded me how important it is to maintain and improve my foreign languages.
Native Language vs. Languages Learned Years Ago
My native language is German, but I've been living in the US for many years. Without reading German newspapers almost daily, I would not stay current with the changes in the German language.
And, while I rarely have to look up any words and I'm not afraid of forgetting my German (I still speak it at home every day), I know that keeping up my French is more of a challenge.
I learned French as a young man when I lived in (French-speaking) Switzerland. I now read it quite regularly online, have conversations, and e-mail with French speaking friends and family members.
But with French, I am more aware of the need to constantly maintain it. If I don't have an opportunity to speak it in a while, I find that it takes me some time to recall vocabulary and to get comfortable again with my pronunciation and sentence structures.
New Language Improvements
Having started to learn Italian and Spanish only a few years ago, I am still working on improving both my proficiency and fluency. I can read both languages quite well now and my fluency is improving.
However, I am very aware of the fact that my vocabulary has to increase. I regularly play our own Italian 1 and Spanish 1 games and have recently started to use Lingohut to help me grow my vocabulary, especially in Spanish.
(I loved to practice with the browser extension Lingua.ly, not only get the translation of words I don't know, but also to practice & recall those words later. However, Lingua.ly had to close its doors and disappeared.)
We're planning to do a more detailed review of Lingohut later, when we have gained more experience with it. But for now, I'll just enjoy maintaining and improving "old" and "new" languages! Postscript: In March 2017, Ulrike did a review of Lingohut Portuguese.
You may have heard this French song: Et si tu n'existais pas before and always wondered what the lyrics really meant. Here is your chance to learn them and brush up on your French negations and conditionals!
For anyone who likes music, songs are a versatile and surprisingly effective tool for language learning. Songs support your language learning in many ways. They help you to:
• build your vocabulary and provide context for words and phrases • improve pronunciation • boost your memory • internalize grammar structures • distinguish word boundaries (see also our blog post Gibberish or language learning)
Si tu n'existais pas (If you didn't exist)
This 1976 song by the American born, French singer-songwriter Joe Dassin has become hugely popular and is one of my favorites. Dassin (1938 - 1980) was a talented polyglot and recorded songs in Spanish, Russian, German, Greek, Italian, as well as in French and English (many of which you can find on YouTube).
Below are the French lyrics, and you can find another English translation here.
The Lyrics of "Si tu n'existais pas"
Et si tu n'existais pas, Dis-moi pourquoi j'existerais. Pour traîner dans un monde sans toi, Sans espoir et sans regrets.
Et si tu n'existais pas, J'essaierais d'inventer l'amour, Comme un peintre qui voit sous ses doigts Naître les couleurs du jour. Et qui n'en revient pas.
Et si tu n'existais pas, Dis-moi pour qui j'existerais. Des passantes endormies dans mes bras Que je n'aimerais jamais.
Et si tu n'existais pas, Je ne serais qu'un point de plus Dans ce monde qui vient et qui va, Je me sentirais perdu, J'aurais besoin de toi.
Et si tu n'existais pas, Dis-moi comment j'existerais. Je pourrais faire semblant d'être moi, Mais je ne serais pas vrai.
Et si tu n'existais pas, Je crois que je l'aurais trouvé, Le secret de la vie, le pourquoi, Simplement pour te créer Et pour te regarder.
French Nouns in the Song
In Dassin's song there are 14 nouns, here listed in the form they appear:
• un monde (a world) • sans espoir (without hope) • sans regrets (without regret) • l'amour (love) • un peintre (a painter) • ses doigts (his fingers) • les couleurs (the colors) • du jour (of the day) • des passantes (passers-by) • mes bras (my arms) • un point (a point, dot) • le secret (the secret) • de la vie (of life) • le pourquoi (the why)
Negative Structures
It's well worth internalizing the various forms of French negation, three of which appear in the song:
• Si tu n'existais pas (ne ... pas - not) • Que je n'aimerais jamais. (ne ... jamais - never) • Je ne serais qu'un point de plus. (ne ... que - only)
The Conditional "if-then" Structure
This structure is the backbone of the song. Of the 20 different verbs, 8 are used in the conditional tense. Memorizing the lyrics and singing them is a great way to internalize one of the common "if-then" (conditional) structures:
The "if-clause" (which comes up 6 times) is in the imperfect tense:
• si tu n'existais pas - if you didn't exist
The "then-claus" is in the conditional tense:
• dis-moi pourquoi j'existerais (*exister) - tell me why would I exist • j'essaierais d'inventer l'amour (*essayer) - I would try to invent love • je ne serais qu'un point de plus (*être) - I would only be one more dot • je me sentirais perdu (*se sentir) - I would feel lost • j'aurais besoin de toi (*avoir besoin) - I would need you • je pourrais faire semblant d'être moi (*pouvoir) - I could pretend to be me • je crois que je l'aurais trouvé (*trouver) - I think I would have found it
Just imagine, when you are memorizing the lyrics and singing along, you're practicing the language. How much fun is that!
And why stop here? Edith Piaf's "Non, je ne regrette rien" (see our previous post) is another great French song to add to your language learning repertoire.
I recently came across Sidney's post Learning through song made easy, which suggests four steps to improve both your listening and speaking (maybe even singing!) skills. It's fun AND effective and it not only works for Italian, but for French and other languages as well!
If you want to get better at something, you have to practice. That goes for sports, yoga, singing, playing an instrument, etc. It also holds true for becoming fluent and proficient in a foreign language.
I belong to an online group of polyglots. The enthusiasm and talent of most of the members is high and I find this very inspiring. Many of us are fluent in several languages and are shooting for several more.
It's a great goal to have, but even talented polyglots need to practice in order to learn and get better.
Practice takes time, which is a limited resource. So it's a good idea to have a plan to make your learning most effective. Some, but not all of the seven “ingredients” below are typically provided by traditional classes, online or self-teaching courses, CDs, books, etc.
You can greatly enhance and accelerate your learning, if you include them in your own, personal Foreign Language Practice Plan. Generally speaking, these three (3) basic ingredients belong to "practicing" a skill:
- doing something regularly - doing something with focus - doing something with the goal to improve over time
And then there's the whole question of how practicing can be both fun and effective. Here are my 7 ways which I've been using for my fifth and sixth languages:
1. Practice in Small Chunks
Devote some of your time to practicing your new language in small chunks (also called "chunking").
Take individual words, phrases, idioms, set expressions, and go over them with focus and intensity. Do them multiple times and use different ways to practice: listen & repeat, see & say, listen & write, say & record, listen with eyes shut, etc.
2. Practice All 4 Language Skills
It will come in handy to know all four skills - reading, listening, speaking, and writing.
If you connect with others on the internet, you'll be using all four skills. And, interestingly enough, with time the individual skills will begin to boost and strengthen each other. [See also our blog post: How the 4 Language skills boost each other]
3. Practice at Different Levels
Vary the level of difficulty. What you learn with easy texts is different from what you learn with texts that are highly challenging.
So, for example, alternate between reading a simple text and puzzling out a tough grammar structure. Or, listen to a basic audio after practicing speaking and recording yourself. Changing around is also a way to keep things interesting.
4. Engage Your Senses
The more senses you can involve when you're acquiring a language, the more effective you'll be.
Listen to the audio of a story or song, watch a movie or YouTube clip, read aloud or record yourself, write things out by using the motion of writing or typing, play interactive games on touch screens, etc.
5. Always Think of the Context
Why the context? Because in communication words take on different meanings in different contexts.
Even when you practice your small chunks, you should have the context in mind. For example, is it a formal or a casual situation? Is the tone serious or humorous? Does the word have another meaning that doesn't fit the context? To communicate effectively, you need to practice with more than simple word lists.
6. Practice often and regularly
We may not all have the time and opportunity for long daily practice sessions.
But, if you can set aside some 10-15 minutes for language practice every day, you'll progress faster than committing the same 60-90 minutes every week. The reason may be that daily practice helps move foreign words and phrases from short-term to long-term memory.
7. Reward Yourself
Practice takes discipline and isn't always fun.
You need to keep your focus, challenge yourself, as well as tolerate a certain amount of boredom. Rewarding yourself after a good practice might just help you stay motivated.
For some people, a gamified program works nicely. Others may want to give themselves points that add up for a special treat. For those with a serious goal in mind, the ultimate reward could be a trip to the country where you can experience the language and culture first hand.
The seven practices described above overlap in many ways, similar to what a physical exercise plan may do to the muscles in your body. Keeping them in mind as you develop your personal Language Practice Plan will help you select your practice materials.
In fact, just as you may use various exercise equipment and activity - weights, machines, running, etc., you should experiment and try out different practice materials - books, audios, online programs, CDs, or traditional courses, apps, etc. For the best results, you need to tailor your Personal Practice Plan to your own needs and goals.
A recent blog post "Learning Grammar with WordDive” reminded me that indeed there are many ways for adults to learn a foreign language.
The author notes: “WordDive is primarily about 'diving' into language through its vocabulary” and “When studying with WordDive, you are exposed to grammar structures integrally in the course of the learning process.”
We agree that adults can learn grammar structures “integrally,” somewhat similar to the way children learn them "through numerous repetitions and imitations.”
Games and “The Story”
Our approach at GamesforLanguage is different: We teach vocabulary and grammar structures with short games and “The Story” - a sequential and connected series of dialogs and short narratives that tell of a young man traveling in European countries.
While the various games help the learner to practice all four skills (listening, reading, writing, and speaking), the dialogues and narratives introduce and repeat grammatical structures, which he or she will recognize and/or, at times, be alerted to.
For example, already in the second Scene (lesson) of our French 1 course, we bring in the subjunctive, with the sentence “Je suis contente que vous parliez...” in our dialogue. We then briefly explain it in our“Deal no Deal” game.
Twenty Scenes later, the expression “je suis contente" is used again, but with the subjunctive of another verb. Will we teach all subjunctive forms of these particular verbs? No, but the learner is alerted to the context in which such forms are used and will start to recognize new subjunctive forms as they come up.
Context Learning
Learning the vocabulary, i.e. the foreignlabels of objects, actions, feelings, etc. (see also our post: Language Learning with Pictures and/or Words) is clearly important and necessary.
Romance and Germanic languages have many similarities to English, which help English speakers to remember words and phrases, even if certain grammatical constructions are different. For example, in our story our traveler is asked : “Do you also need something?” and he answers: “I need a travel guide.”
In Spanish one would say: “¿Necesitas también algo?” and “Necesito una guía de viajes.” And in Italian: “Hai bisogno di qualcosa anche tu?” and “Ho bisogno di una guida turistica.”
Rather than drilling the conjugations for “necesitar” and “avere bisogno,” the learner picks up the second and then the first person singular as part of the question and answer.
And he or she remembers the meaning of “you need” and “I need,” because it is connected to the “travel guide” of the story, with “guía”/ “guida” (guide), “viajes” (voyage), and “turistica” (tourist) being closely related to their English meanings.
Based on our own experience of learning several foreign languages as adults, we know that we can best retain and apply words and phrases, when they relate to objects, actions, feelings, etc. that we encounter in our own life. (That's why we chose a travel story.)
And while our approach is somewhat different from WordDive's, we agree that the discovery of grammatical structures during the learning process is rewarding and more effective than drilling conjugations, tenses, etc.
For some learners, more detailed explanations are necessary, for others explanations are just confirmations of their own discoveries. The extensive offering of free or inexpensive apps and online courses allows learners to choose and combine different approaches that fit their needs and learning styles.
The French pronoun "en" may be short, but it's not to be ignored! It's a very common and useful word, and worth the effort to get to know better.
In a recent Facebook post, we listed the following uses: Meaning "from there" / "from it": - Tu as été à Londres? Oui, j'en arrive. - You've been to London? Yes, I just came from there.
Meaning "about it" / "of it": - Il parle beaucoup de son voyage. Il en parle beaucoup. - He speaks a lot about his trip. He speaks a lot about it.
Meaning "some" / "any": - Je viens de faire du café. Tu en veux? - I just made coffee. Do you want some?
With expressions of quantity: - Est-ce que tu as vu beaucoup de films de Truffaut? Oui, j'en ai vu beaucoup. - Have you seen a lot of Truffaut's films? Yes, I've seen a lot of them.
Our Quick French: "On y va" introduces you briefly to "y." Check that one out, too and you'll know two of the most common words of the French language!
When you're learning a new language, how much do the four skills – reading, listening, writing, and speaking - boost each other?
For example, how much does reading help your listening or speaking? Or, when you practice listening, does that help your reading or writing? The answers are yes, and quite a bit. But there are limits. No doubt, reading will increase your vocabulary and your understanding of how the language works. Still, reading alone does not make you a fluent conversationalist. By the same token, listening alone will not make you a brilliant Facebook chat partner in your new language.
READING
Many adults today start learning a new language by reading, and listening to corresponding audios. Apps and online language courses are ideal for that, with hard-copy textbooks, classes, and tutorials providing support and/or alternatives.
Once you've mastered the basics - essential words and phrases and the fundamentals of grammar - reading will certainly accelerate your progress. Reading is a fast and pleasant way to increase your vocabulary and internalize the structure of the language.
Most of all, reading sharpens your ability to guess the meaning of unknown words. When reading new texts, you'll encounter unfamiliar words, and often it's the context that helps you guess what they mean. This ability will get better the more you read.
To keep you reading, it's crucial that you read books and articles that genuinely interest you. And whenever you can: Read aloud. The Internet has become a huge resource for foreign language materials. Besides online courses, you can find an endless supply of newspaper articles, social media posts, books for downloading, etc.
Reading is clearly essential for learning a language. However, reading alone is not sufficient if your goal is also to speak and write fluently, and to listen to fast speech and understand what you're hearing.
LISTENING
Understanding foreign sounds and words seems initially more difficult than reading: by correlating the sounds of the words to their spelling one tries, at the same time, to understand what they mean. If you're part of a conversation, you can ask for something to be repeated. Aside from that, as with a rapid-fire conversation in a TV episode, you can't double-check and analyze what you hear.
For the beginner, spoken language always seems fast. But with a little patience, you can build up your listening skills right from the beginning. Start with listening to individual words and phrases, then songs and short podcasts, and eventually, TV episodes and/or radio.
As you're training your ear to distinguish the end of one word and the beginning of the next, you'll notice the fast stream of words gradually slowing down.
You'll need good listening comprehension when you're in a conversation with others. Practicing to just listen is an excellent way to sharpen this skill. And once you have progressed beyond the basics, reading will increase your listening vocabulary, and speaking will help you apply it.
WRITING
Writing freely in a foreign language may be harder for some than speaking.
If you want to exchange Facebook chats or emails with foreign friends,or even post comments in the language you're learning, you have to be able to spell and put sentences together that others can understand.
A good first step for writing is to copy suitable words and phrases, and to start using these when you write.Then continue doing this with full sentences, or even longer texts.
The point is to write a lot and to write often. When you're ready, begin keeping a simple, daily journal in your new language. It's okay to make mistakes. If you can get your writing corrected - either by an email friend or on a foreign language writing site - you'll make progress fast.
SPEAKING
If you want to learn to converse in a foreign language, you have to practice speaking. It's as simple as that. Of course, listening with understanding is necessary too. However, conversing in a language presupposes that you can produce the foreign language in a way so that others can understand you. This involves mastering the correct "mouth mechanics." And, it's not enough to remember the vocabulary, you also have to be conscious of the underlying grammatical fabric – and what's different from writing – you have to do so in real time, without consulting dictionaries and grammar books.
Practice speaking by listening and repeating words, phrases, and short sentence. Then record your own voice, play it back, and compare yourself to the native speaker. Do this until you have acquired a series of common, useful expressions. In addition, read aloud whenever you can (see above).
But nothing beats engaging in real conversations. So once you've mastered the basics of pronunciation and intonation, find a "practice" partner to converse with over coffee, on the phone, on skype, etc. Don't become one of those people who say: "I learned French for four years, I can read Harry Potter in French, but I can't really speak; all I can say is 'Bonjour' and 'Au revoir'."
THE BOTTOM LINE
I've only touched on some of the ways in which the four language skills are both distinct and related. Each person may experience language learning somewhat differently or want to practice one skill to the preference of another.
But the bottom line is that a language learner who wants to master all four skills will need to practice each of these - reading, listening, writing, and speaking - with a certain amount of special attention.
Let's have a quick look at the Spanish expression: Que tengas ... (May you have ...) It's a set phrase and it's used frequently in daily conversation.
In English, when you say to someone: "Have a good day!" you're not ordering them to have a good day, you are expressing a wish: "I hope you have ...." or "May you have ..."
When you wish someone a good day, etc. in Spanish, you are saying something similar: "¡Que tengas un buen día!" (familiar) and "¡Que tenga un buen día!" (formal) both mean "[May you] have a good day!"
The verb form that is used in such wishes that start with "Que tengas ..." is the subjunctive mood.
Look at the difference in the following Spanish expressions: •Tienes un buen día. - You are having a good day. (a statement) • ¡Que tengas un buen día! - Have a good day! (a wish)
Note: The combination "que+subjunctive" implies "may ..." or "I hope that ..."
A few other common wishes in Spanish:
• ¡Que tengas una buena estancia! - Have a good stay! • ¡Que tengas suerte! - Good luck! (May you have luck!) • ¡Que tengas buen viaje! - Have a good trip! • ¡Que te mejores! - Get well soon! (May you get better!) • ¡Que (te) vaya bien! - Good luck (to you)! / I hope it goes well (for you)! • ¡Que aproveche! - Enjoy your meal! (Spain)
Getting the feel for the context in which the subjunctive is used (rather than learning a bunch of rules) is a good way to start learning this verb form. ¡Que te vaya bien!
This is our 200th blog post. Every January, we'll publish our 10 most popular blogs of the previous year. 
reading, listening, writing, and speaking - boost each other? 
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