So I finally had the guts to go ahead and make public my YouTube channel. My hopes are to better my Spanish speaking abilities, inspire others to improve their own spoken abilities in foreign languages, and to go forward in learning other languages, as deep down I have always wanted to speak more than just Spanish and English.
I'm hoping to find more people interested in reading my blog here and hopefully interested in offering their own stories and advice here, or on Facebook, or wherever we can find a forum to express ourselves.
I've been nervous abut posting videos of myself for some time. It's quite a bit scarier than posting a blog. Suddenly my face is out there for everyone to see and all my mistakes are a lot more obvious. I still have to record and post my first official video, as what I posted today was only an introduction. I would like to post weekly and focus on topics that pertain to how language learning benefits us. I'm not so interested in learning grammar or focusing on vocabulary, there are plenty of sites for that. Here, I want to just talk about how languages effect us all and hopefully I can build a following based on that premise. My videos, at least right now, are very basic as I really don't know much about editing, but hopefully that too ill improve over time.
I'd love to hear your thoughts here on how I can best offer an entertaining channel while at the same time improving my own speaking ability. (Of course I will be speaking in both English and Spanish. I want everyone to be able to follow along.)
OK, that's it here for now, but hopefully the comments will start rolling in soon. Hasta luego!
Showing posts with label growing. Show all posts
Showing posts with label growing. Show all posts
Monday, April 17, 2017
Monday, April 10, 2017
Going Forward
It's been sometime since I've posted on this blog, but I wanted to take an opportunity today to discuss a project I have in mind and hopefully will bring to fruition over the next few weeks. As always, my goal here has been to share my own personal stories about language learning in the hopes I can inspire others in their quest to expand their language capabilities.
I have been studying the Spanish language for several years and I am lucky enough to now be living in Spain where I can speak the language everyday. Unfortunately, sometimes simply living in the country isn't enough. In order to really develop fluency in the language it takes more than a simple stroll through the neighborhood to gain that fluency. One has to interact and really immerse themselves in all aspects of the language; reading writing, speaking, and listening. That being said I have decided I really need to do more if I want to truly speak with the confidence it takes to be fluent.
For many months I have been trying to develop a plan that would not only help me to increase my level of fluency in Spanish, but a plan that would also allow me to assist others and potentially gain new friends and acquaintances. I'm not a professor nor do I plan on giving lessons on Spanish or any other language for that matter. There are literally hundreds of websites available out there for those who are interested in learning a second or third or fourth language and I'm sure those sites would do a better job teaching them than me. What I want to do is simply start a dialogue. It can be in English, it can be in Spanish, and once I start working on other languages, (Italian, French, Portuguese, German, and Mandarin are just a few I have in mind) it can be in those languages in well. I would like to start a multi-faceted community if you will where I can go to share my thoughts and hopefully receive feedback from those of you out there in situations similar to my own.
The first part of my plan is obviously this blog. I plan on continuing writing here when I have the opportunity on topics involving languages and how they have impacted my life. The second part of my plan, and this is the more difficult aspect, is that I would like to develop a YouTube channel where I can periodically upload videos of myself speaking in well, whatever language I feel like babbling on in. The idea is not to offer lessons, because as I said, I am no teacher, however I would like to use the videos as a way to practice my own speaking abilities as well as receive feedback from viewers. What they like, what they don't like, how they go about learning, and maybe even challenges to me on how I can further improve and expand my language abilities.
In addition to the blog and YouTube, I am hoping to use social media like Facebook and Google + to get the word out and grow my audience. I'd love to have groups set up where we can discuss our thoughts and ideas in whatever language we feel comfortable with.
I would like to turn Learning To Live Through Language into more than just a simple blog. I would like to expand to a wider audience and hopefully help myself to become a better language learner as well as help others to achieve their language goals. My hopes are to get my first videos uploaded by the end of the month and hopefully start to grow a following. I should point out that I know very little when it comes to creating YouTube videos and my little experience will certainly show through initially, but my hope is to improve as I go and make better videos just as I improve on my language skills.
All right that's all for now, but hopefully this will inspire some readers to come forward with their own language learning stories. As always, talk to you soon!
I have been studying the Spanish language for several years and I am lucky enough to now be living in Spain where I can speak the language everyday. Unfortunately, sometimes simply living in the country isn't enough. In order to really develop fluency in the language it takes more than a simple stroll through the neighborhood to gain that fluency. One has to interact and really immerse themselves in all aspects of the language; reading writing, speaking, and listening. That being said I have decided I really need to do more if I want to truly speak with the confidence it takes to be fluent.
For many months I have been trying to develop a plan that would not only help me to increase my level of fluency in Spanish, but a plan that would also allow me to assist others and potentially gain new friends and acquaintances. I'm not a professor nor do I plan on giving lessons on Spanish or any other language for that matter. There are literally hundreds of websites available out there for those who are interested in learning a second or third or fourth language and I'm sure those sites would do a better job teaching them than me. What I want to do is simply start a dialogue. It can be in English, it can be in Spanish, and once I start working on other languages, (Italian, French, Portuguese, German, and Mandarin are just a few I have in mind) it can be in those languages in well. I would like to start a multi-faceted community if you will where I can go to share my thoughts and hopefully receive feedback from those of you out there in situations similar to my own.
The first part of my plan is obviously this blog. I plan on continuing writing here when I have the opportunity on topics involving languages and how they have impacted my life. The second part of my plan, and this is the more difficult aspect, is that I would like to develop a YouTube channel where I can periodically upload videos of myself speaking in well, whatever language I feel like babbling on in. The idea is not to offer lessons, because as I said, I am no teacher, however I would like to use the videos as a way to practice my own speaking abilities as well as receive feedback from viewers. What they like, what they don't like, how they go about learning, and maybe even challenges to me on how I can further improve and expand my language abilities.
In addition to the blog and YouTube, I am hoping to use social media like Facebook and Google + to get the word out and grow my audience. I'd love to have groups set up where we can discuss our thoughts and ideas in whatever language we feel comfortable with.
I would like to turn Learning To Live Through Language into more than just a simple blog. I would like to expand to a wider audience and hopefully help myself to become a better language learner as well as help others to achieve their language goals. My hopes are to get my first videos uploaded by the end of the month and hopefully start to grow a following. I should point out that I know very little when it comes to creating YouTube videos and my little experience will certainly show through initially, but my hope is to improve as I go and make better videos just as I improve on my language skills.
All right that's all for now, but hopefully this will inspire some readers to come forward with their own language learning stories. As always, talk to you soon!
Sunday, June 29, 2014
Changing How You See Yourself
Anyone who has known me for more than say a day or so would probably describe me as a fairly quiet, rather tame individual who leans towards the more serious side than playful side on most occasions. While I am not always proud of it, I tend to be rather shy in social settings and gravitate away from the center of attention. It's not that I don't like to have fun or that I don't enjoy being around people, it's just that I am not always comfortable in the limelight. It's something I have been working on changing about who I am, but it's not always easy to simply change the person you have been since birth. Then again, what if you give birth to a new you?
OK, that sounds a little silly, and maybe even a little contradictory, but hear me out. I've noticed that as my level of fluency in Spanish has grown, so has my so-called Spanish personality. No, I don't jump out of a phone booth wearing a Mariachi hat nor do I suddenly start dancing the tango when I attempt to speak Spanish with a native speaker, however I do find that some of my actions and even the phrases I use are slightly uncharacteristic of the me who only speaks English. I didn't notice it immediately, but I found I felt much more daring or even risque when joking with some of my Spanish speaking employees. When I finally did see how my Spanish personality acted, I decided to sit down and figure out why it was I could suddenly liven up the room when using Spanish but I still hid in the shadows when speaking English.
First, and foremost, without a doubt, confidence plays a huge role in all of this. I may only know 25% of the Spanish language, compared to what I may know in English, so when I attempt to converse with a native speaker and all goes well, my confidence shoots through the roof. I get an adrenaline rush from my success and feel like I'm on top of the world. Suddenly, my jokes are funny, the ladies find me attractive, and I can order my burritos with extra hot sauce. I wish it were this simple when it came to speaking English, but unfortunately, I'm not breaking any new ground when I speak in my native language.
Getting that surge of confidence allows me to take a chance to try to say things in Spanish that maybe I'm not 100% sure about. Sure, I still make a lot of mistakes, but when I see that I am being understood, I just want to keep talking. I suppose the opposite is true if I really start stumbling along but usually once I get going, it's hard to stop. Of course that leads me to my other discovery. Sometimes, knowing less is actually more helpful. In English, I always want to say the perfect thing and often that leads me to hesitate when I speak or simply not speak at all. Any native English speaker knows there are a million different ways to say so many things. Well, since my vocabulary in Spanish is quite condensed, I only know how to say a lot of things in one way. To a native speaker I may sound silly, but to me, I'm getting my point across. I may not sound quite like my eloquent English speaking self when I am speaking Spanish, which I've decided just adds a little to my Spanish speaking personality.
Instead of worrying that I don't know enough or that I won't be understood, I have allowed myself to be comfortable using what I do know and that has really freed up my personality to come out and express itself a bit. As I said, it's a shame I can't do the same in English, but I'm working on it. In the meantime, I'll continue exploring the Spanish side of me and maybe someday it will teach the original me how to have some fun!
I'd love to know more about anyone else's foreign language personalities and if they have helped you come along as a second language speaker or even if it has helped your native speaking self! Keep me posted and I'll add more soon.
OK, that sounds a little silly, and maybe even a little contradictory, but hear me out. I've noticed that as my level of fluency in Spanish has grown, so has my so-called Spanish personality. No, I don't jump out of a phone booth wearing a Mariachi hat nor do I suddenly start dancing the tango when I attempt to speak Spanish with a native speaker, however I do find that some of my actions and even the phrases I use are slightly uncharacteristic of the me who only speaks English. I didn't notice it immediately, but I found I felt much more daring or even risque when joking with some of my Spanish speaking employees. When I finally did see how my Spanish personality acted, I decided to sit down and figure out why it was I could suddenly liven up the room when using Spanish but I still hid in the shadows when speaking English.
First, and foremost, without a doubt, confidence plays a huge role in all of this. I may only know 25% of the Spanish language, compared to what I may know in English, so when I attempt to converse with a native speaker and all goes well, my confidence shoots through the roof. I get an adrenaline rush from my success and feel like I'm on top of the world. Suddenly, my jokes are funny, the ladies find me attractive, and I can order my burritos with extra hot sauce. I wish it were this simple when it came to speaking English, but unfortunately, I'm not breaking any new ground when I speak in my native language.
Getting that surge of confidence allows me to take a chance to try to say things in Spanish that maybe I'm not 100% sure about. Sure, I still make a lot of mistakes, but when I see that I am being understood, I just want to keep talking. I suppose the opposite is true if I really start stumbling along but usually once I get going, it's hard to stop. Of course that leads me to my other discovery. Sometimes, knowing less is actually more helpful. In English, I always want to say the perfect thing and often that leads me to hesitate when I speak or simply not speak at all. Any native English speaker knows there are a million different ways to say so many things. Well, since my vocabulary in Spanish is quite condensed, I only know how to say a lot of things in one way. To a native speaker I may sound silly, but to me, I'm getting my point across. I may not sound quite like my eloquent English speaking self when I am speaking Spanish, which I've decided just adds a little to my Spanish speaking personality.
Instead of worrying that I don't know enough or that I won't be understood, I have allowed myself to be comfortable using what I do know and that has really freed up my personality to come out and express itself a bit. As I said, it's a shame I can't do the same in English, but I'm working on it. In the meantime, I'll continue exploring the Spanish side of me and maybe someday it will teach the original me how to have some fun!
I'd love to know more about anyone else's foreign language personalities and if they have helped you come along as a second language speaker or even if it has helped your native speaking self! Keep me posted and I'll add more soon.
Saturday, June 21, 2014
The Trip To Spain
The idea came to me mostly as a lark last November. I had often said in passing that I would like to see another country but I had never made any real attempts at actually going through with it. The "old" me was very good at talking the talk but never walking the walk. I would say all kinds of things to my friends only to back out at the last minute. One day I let it slip out that I would like to see Spain someday, not with the intention of going on vacation, but rather to spend time there totally immersed in the language. I had become frustrated with my progress in speaking the language despite becoming rather good at reading and writing. If you don't believe me, check out my blog written entirely in Spanish! My one struggle was still with speaking confidently. While I do not subscribe to the notion that one must live in a foreign country in order to learn the language, I did feel dropping myself in the middle of Spain would force me to speak the language and therefore increase my proficiency. That being said, there was a lot more going on in my head besides simply going to Spain.
I'm 33 years old and I have never left the country. In fact, I have never done much of anything daring. I allowed myself to become content with a life that was fairly plain and uninteresting. I made excuses not to do things and found myself often hidden inside a shell, afraid to face the world around me. Around the same time the idea of travelling to Spain bubbled up inside my thoughts, I had reached a low point in my life. I was unhappy with who I was and who I had allowed myself to become. Those around me saw me as a grumpy, rigid, unhappy person. Instead of countering those notions, I let it define who I was and it brought me into a deep depression. Thankfully, I saw what was happening and through a series of events, I climbed my way out. Part of my resurrection came when I decided to make the trip to Spain a reality instead of a fantasy. Going to Spain became more about challenging who I was and who I wanted to be. It was about more than taking a vacation. It was about putting myself in the most uncomfortable position I have ever been in and telling myself that I can do this. Originally, I planned on making the trip immediately after my 35th birthday in 2016, but thanks to some wonderful inspiration I have decided to go in May of 2015. I will spend the entire month in Spain, dividing my time between Madrid and Valencia and my goal is not to speak Spanish, rather it is to NOT speak English. You see, speaking Spanish is easy enough, but I can always fall back on English. If I make the goal to not use a single word of English, it forces me to find other means of communication.
There are so many other factors that are going to play into this trip. I used to say I was afraid to fly. Well, there aren't too many ways to reach Spain from The United States without a plane. I am quiet in social crowds. If I am going to improve my speaking skills, I'm going to have to talk, and I imagine it will be uncomfortable for me to start conversations with total strangers, especially those who don't speak English. Despite living alone, I have never been comfortable going places on my own where I don't know people. I am fairly certain I do not know a single person in Spain. This trip is about so much more than seeing a foreign country. This trip is about challenging myself and every aspect of who I am.
So what I want to know is how those of you out there have used a new language to overcome any fears or reservations about life you may have? Has speaking a new language offered you the confidence to do things you wouldn't have otherwise done? I still have months to prepare for my trip and it has given me a new reason to wake up with a smile on my face every morning. How about you? Let me know and I'll be sure to add more here soon.
I'm 33 years old and I have never left the country. In fact, I have never done much of anything daring. I allowed myself to become content with a life that was fairly plain and uninteresting. I made excuses not to do things and found myself often hidden inside a shell, afraid to face the world around me. Around the same time the idea of travelling to Spain bubbled up inside my thoughts, I had reached a low point in my life. I was unhappy with who I was and who I had allowed myself to become. Those around me saw me as a grumpy, rigid, unhappy person. Instead of countering those notions, I let it define who I was and it brought me into a deep depression. Thankfully, I saw what was happening and through a series of events, I climbed my way out. Part of my resurrection came when I decided to make the trip to Spain a reality instead of a fantasy. Going to Spain became more about challenging who I was and who I wanted to be. It was about more than taking a vacation. It was about putting myself in the most uncomfortable position I have ever been in and telling myself that I can do this. Originally, I planned on making the trip immediately after my 35th birthday in 2016, but thanks to some wonderful inspiration I have decided to go in May of 2015. I will spend the entire month in Spain, dividing my time between Madrid and Valencia and my goal is not to speak Spanish, rather it is to NOT speak English. You see, speaking Spanish is easy enough, but I can always fall back on English. If I make the goal to not use a single word of English, it forces me to find other means of communication.
There are so many other factors that are going to play into this trip. I used to say I was afraid to fly. Well, there aren't too many ways to reach Spain from The United States without a plane. I am quiet in social crowds. If I am going to improve my speaking skills, I'm going to have to talk, and I imagine it will be uncomfortable for me to start conversations with total strangers, especially those who don't speak English. Despite living alone, I have never been comfortable going places on my own where I don't know people. I am fairly certain I do not know a single person in Spain. This trip is about so much more than seeing a foreign country. This trip is about challenging myself and every aspect of who I am.
So what I want to know is how those of you out there have used a new language to overcome any fears or reservations about life you may have? Has speaking a new language offered you the confidence to do things you wouldn't have otherwise done? I still have months to prepare for my trip and it has given me a new reason to wake up with a smile on my face every morning. How about you? Let me know and I'll be sure to add more here soon.
It Has To Start Somewhere
My name is James, and as you may already know, I have a small obsession with speaking Spanish. I've been hanging about Google+ since its inception, but never really found my calling when it came to involving myself in the Google community; that is, until now. While there are truckloads of pages devoted to language learning and just as many devoted to self-improvement, I am not so sure there are all that many associated with using foreign language acquisition as a means of self-improvement. Well, OK, maybe they exist, but I haven't found them, and this was an idea I had the other night, so I decided to run with it.
I thought it best in my first entry to offer a little background of who I am and what brought me here today. Also, I thought it might be nice to give you an idea of how I would like to run this blog so you know what to expect. First of all, a little about me.
Like many students throughout the world, years ago I was forced to learn a foreign language in high school. It was dull, it was confusing, and it was in no way helpful in learning how to communicate with other people. I learned the most basic phrases and spent most of my time trying to learn the most common Spanish swear words. Once I graduated, I mostly forgot what little I had learned. That was until I was confronted with a reason to actually speak the language. You see, I work with a lot of Spanish speaking people and I found it a little uncomfortable to see such a divide among the English speaking employees and the Spanish speaking employees. Some time around 2008, I decided to refresh my memory and start talking with the Spanish speaking members of the staff. I made a promise to them that June that in three months I would be able to communicate with them conversationally. Today, nearly six years later, I am still learning, but I am proud to say I have really impressed them with my progress and have reached a point where I can discuss almost any topic in Spanish without feeling totally lost in the conversation. I'm not perfect and I still have a lot of progress to be made, but it has opened up a new world for me.
That brings me to the second part of this blog. Speaking Spanish has not only made it easier for me to speak to my employees, but it has given me new found confidence in myself. I have always been a shy person and often times avoided talking for fear of embarrassment. I'm not entirely sure what it is about Spanish, but I get a tremendous high anytime I can talk with another Spanish speaker and feel like we understand one another perfectly. I watch my favorite movies in Spanish and I read some of the best novels in Spanish. Learning a second language has truly enriched my life, and I decided I wanted to start this blog as a way to share my experiences as well as learn from others who have found such pleasure in a new language. I'm going to attempt to write it both in English and in Spanish, but I have also included the Google Translate button for anyone who wants to read along in any language. I welcome comments and stories of both success and failure when it comes to learning a foreign language, because anyone who has attempted to learn a new language knows all too well the struggles that come with it. I'm creating this blog in the hopes of inspiring others to fulfill some of their life's dreams and it doesn't necessarily have to be through a new language. It just so happens that's how it worked out for me.
My plan is simple, but to be honest, I haven't looked all that far down the road. I am hoping to structure these entries around the responses I get from others, but I will of course use this page as a way to share my experiences and offer my thoughts. I hope to make some new friends along the way, so if you're interested, jump on board, because away we go.
I thought it best in my first entry to offer a little background of who I am and what brought me here today. Also, I thought it might be nice to give you an idea of how I would like to run this blog so you know what to expect. First of all, a little about me.
Like many students throughout the world, years ago I was forced to learn a foreign language in high school. It was dull, it was confusing, and it was in no way helpful in learning how to communicate with other people. I learned the most basic phrases and spent most of my time trying to learn the most common Spanish swear words. Once I graduated, I mostly forgot what little I had learned. That was until I was confronted with a reason to actually speak the language. You see, I work with a lot of Spanish speaking people and I found it a little uncomfortable to see such a divide among the English speaking employees and the Spanish speaking employees. Some time around 2008, I decided to refresh my memory and start talking with the Spanish speaking members of the staff. I made a promise to them that June that in three months I would be able to communicate with them conversationally. Today, nearly six years later, I am still learning, but I am proud to say I have really impressed them with my progress and have reached a point where I can discuss almost any topic in Spanish without feeling totally lost in the conversation. I'm not perfect and I still have a lot of progress to be made, but it has opened up a new world for me.
That brings me to the second part of this blog. Speaking Spanish has not only made it easier for me to speak to my employees, but it has given me new found confidence in myself. I have always been a shy person and often times avoided talking for fear of embarrassment. I'm not entirely sure what it is about Spanish, but I get a tremendous high anytime I can talk with another Spanish speaker and feel like we understand one another perfectly. I watch my favorite movies in Spanish and I read some of the best novels in Spanish. Learning a second language has truly enriched my life, and I decided I wanted to start this blog as a way to share my experiences as well as learn from others who have found such pleasure in a new language. I'm going to attempt to write it both in English and in Spanish, but I have also included the Google Translate button for anyone who wants to read along in any language. I welcome comments and stories of both success and failure when it comes to learning a foreign language, because anyone who has attempted to learn a new language knows all too well the struggles that come with it. I'm creating this blog in the hopes of inspiring others to fulfill some of their life's dreams and it doesn't necessarily have to be through a new language. It just so happens that's how it worked out for me.
My plan is simple, but to be honest, I haven't looked all that far down the road. I am hoping to structure these entries around the responses I get from others, but I will of course use this page as a way to share my experiences and offer my thoughts. I hope to make some new friends along the way, so if you're interested, jump on board, because away we go.
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