Weekend Links: Pentecost Crafts, the Schwa, and more!

Some good reading for your weekend:

"Pentecost Crafts, Songs, Activities, And More!": some fun ideas for celebrating this week's feast with kids.

"The Reason for the Divorce*": I can't spoil this one by quoting any of it. It would give it away. But, rest assured: this one is funny, not sad (and doesn't really have anything to do with divorce).

"The Schwa Is the Laziest Sound in All of Human Speech":

Some languages are syllable-timed, like Spanish, where each syllable is roughly the same length, giving the impression of a steady "machine-gun" rhythm. English is a stress-timed language, meaning that the rhythmic impression is based on the regular timing of stress peaks, not syllables. If you want to speed up in Spanish, you shorten the length of all the syllables. If you want to speed up in English, you close the distance between stressed syllables. How? By greatly reducing the unstressed syllables. What vowel do unstressed syllables tend to get? Schwa.

"The Biggest News at BEA?":

Just got back from a week in New York, seeing all the books and publishers and figuring out what direction the industry is moving. There was a great spirit at Book Expo this year — none of the angst and worry that has dogged the show the past few years. They tried something new this time at the Javits Center — opened up the floor to the public on Saturday, sold tickets at $20 a pop, publicized a ton of author signings, and watched 10,000 people buy their way into the show. (For the record, it was apparently all teen girls, looking to get their YA and romance novels signed, or to catch a glimpse of a celebrity like Cary Elwes signing copies of his latest tome.) But the biggest topic of conversation? The dispute between Amazon and Hachette. No question. 

"What if Your Child is Gay?":

Every child, whether gay or straight, is oriented toward sin, and so are you. If your child or grandchild says he or she is gay, you shouldn’t act shocked, as though you are surprised your child might be tempted toward sin . . .

"The Sticky Little Ball . . . and 9 more tips for successfully learning a language (almost) all on your own"

Hi folks! Today I'm delighted to have a guest post from a globe-trotting friend who's written a little book I thought y'all might be interested in. He wants to keep his identity for a surprise at the end, so I won't introduce him here, but instead just say: read on! This is good stuff. :)  -Jessica

When it comes to things you and your kids can do to sharpen your minds, open new worlds, pimp your resumes, make travel more fun, be hilarious when you least want to be, and meet a whole new set of friends, hardly anything beats learning another language.

However, let’s face it: for most people, learning another language isn’t the exhilarating adventure it’s cracked up to be. What most people learn from trying to learn another language is that they can’t learn another language, which isn’t exactly the objective. I hate that about language classes and courses.

“I can’t learn another language,” you say.

“How do you know?” I ask.

“Because I tried it and I couldn’t do it,” you say.

“AAAAAAAAAARRRRRRRRRRRGGGGGGGHHHHHH,” I mutter at the top of my muttery voice.

The thing is, most language learning courses promise too much too soon, so when you fail to meet your heady expectations, you decide you can’t do it. Think diets that promise you’ll lose 10 pounds a week for a year until you are nothing but a shadow with a big smile. Or exercise equipment that promises you a bronze 6-pack in three weeks if only you will do this one little thing. Those are marketing lies, but they manage to create expectations that make you feel like an abject failure when you can’t meet them. I will resist yelling ‘aarrgghh’ again.

I’ve learned several languages fluently. I’ve taught other people to learn languages fluently. My wife Tammy learned to speak Spanish on her own so well that she became a nationally certified healthcare interpreter for the hospital where she worked, without ever taking a class. I’ve worked with many people who are learning other languages, and many who have taken my classes in English and Spanish.

The thing is, the spirit is willing but the tactics are weak. Most language learning happens outside a classroom, but no one thinks to tell you what kinds of things are most helpful when you have snatches of time to work on it during your day.

So I wrote a Kindle book just for you: “The Sticky LittleBall …and 9 more tips for how to learn a language (almost) all on your own.” It’s a short, easy read, but the tips I give you pack a punch and will escort you all the way from beginner to advanced.

Whether you want to learn a language or you want to inspire your kids to do it, The Sticky Little Ball is a resource you can revisit often. It walks you through motivation, planning, listening, reading, packing a sticky little ball, rewarding yourself, interacting and more. It shows you how hot fudge sundaes and temporary tattoos are an integral part of language learning. It offers you a way to see the Scriptures in a whole new light through bilingual Bible reading.

Most of all, I hope it inspires you to sally forth again, eager to discover new worlds one palabra at a time. Bon voyage, y vaya con Dios.

Ron Snell lives and works in Costa Rica, where he teaches English to Costa Ricans, teaches Spanish to gringos, and guides real estate clients to properties that are beautiful in any language. Currently one of his great blessings is that he’s Jessica Snell’s father-in-law. Didn’t see that one coming, did you?


This post contains Amazon affiliate links. (See full disclosure on sidebar of my blog.)

side-by-side reading: a foreign-language-learning hack

I honestly think this is a kind of brilliant idea - at least, I would think so if it hadn't taken me so stinkin' long to come up with it when it's really sort of obvious.  In other words, I'd think I was brilliant except for that I'm slow and oblivious. (Also? I'm guessing this has been done before. Which makes me slow, oblivious and behind-the-times.)

Anyway. One of the things I'm doing to work on my Spanish is reading novels in Spanish. At first, I tried El Leon, La Bruja y El Armario, thinking that because I was so familiar with the story, I wouldn't have to resort to the dictionary that often to figure out words I didn't know.

This turned out to be half of a good idea. It did work, to a limited extent. 

But I discovered something even better: if you're reading a novel in translation (and I'm hoping to get to Spanish novels actually composed in Spanish eventually, but I'm starting with the training wheels on by reading novels in Spanish that I've read before in English), the simplest way to look up words you don't know isn't to have the dictionary by your side, it's to have the English version of the novel by your side.

So I'm over halfway through Harry Potter y la Piedra Filosofal, and the way I'm doing it is by reading the Spanish version, but keeping the English one open to the same chapter (see header picture for an example), so that when I come across words I don't know, I can re-read the paragraph in English and figure out what they mean. Then I usually re-read the Spanish paragraph, to cement the unknown words+meanings in my mind.

I do have to be careful to direct myself back to the Spanish version! I read so much more slowly in Spanish than I do in English, and I'm enjoying the story so much that it's tempting to just go for The Sorcerer's Stone instead of La Piedra Filosofal, but the fact that I'm enjoying the story is really what makes this work for me. I'm motivated to find out what happens next (I haven't read the book in about ten years, and I've forgotten a lot of the plot) and that keeps me nose to the grindstone. It's the carrot.

Hope this is helpful to someone else! It's really a low-pain way to get in some extra practice in the foreign language of your choice. To break it down:

1) Pick a novel you've read before and really like. Something fun, so that you'll be willing to keep going when it's hard. Something you haven't read for awhile, so you want to hear it again. And, most importantly, something that's been translated into your target language!

2) Get a copy of the novel in both your target language AND your native language.

3) Read the books side by side. As much as possible, read only in your target language. But when you come across words or phrases you don't know, reread the paragraph in your native language. Then reread it in the target language, so your brain can practice understanding the unfamiliar words.

4) Be a bit hard on yourself. Before you go to the English translation, try really hard to figure out/remember the definition of the target-language phrases. You might surprise yourself.

Anyone else working on a foreign language out there?

Peace of Christ to you,

Jessica Snell

What I've Been Reading Lately: a catch-up list

Now that the 15 books in 15 days challenge is over (wow, what a ride!), I wanted to post a few mini-reviews of books I read but didn't manage to review before the challenge started, plus the one I read since it ended (because it was Lee and Miller, and I just couldn't help myself):

The Two Towers  – Tolkien, J. R. R. - This was via audiobook; it's what my husband and I have been listening too in the evenings while we do clean-up and dishes. This is still just so, so good. 

How to Learn Any Language: Quickly, Easily, Inexpensively, Enjoyably, and On Your Own  – Farber, Barry. - I quoted this one here. This book really does live up to its title, and I'd recommend it even if you don't want to learn a second language, just for the stories Farber tells! He's a great character, and he's used his gift for languages to travel all over the world and meet all sorts of interesting people. Practically, what I took away from this book was the truth that flashcards are not a bad, boring idea. I've been using them ever since I read this book, and my Spanish vocabulary is growing in leaps and bounds. He also encouraged me to use multiple methods to learn my target language, and I'm finding that that is paying off to. He encourages you not just to listen to tapes or to only do the exercises in your grammar book, but to listen to tapes, do the grammar lessons, listen to the radio, talk to people, read the books, use the flashcards - in other words, the more ways you can get the target language into your head, the better. I'm finding that he's right. Great book.

The Kitchen Madonna  – Godden, Rumer. - This one was a big surprise. It's beautiful, it's wonderful and it won't take you long to read. Go for it. (But make sure you get a copy with the Carol Barket illustrations.)

The Host  – Meyer, Stephanie. - After reading the Twilight series, and enjoying it almost as much as I enjoyed criticizing it, I thought I'd give her adult sci-fi a try. It was entertaining, though I had huge problems with the ending, which might or might not be her fault. I thought she was going to end it one way, and she chose another way - a way that felt like a bit of a cop-out.* Much like happened in Twilight, it felt like the characters didn't have to pay for their happy ending. But it was certainly a fun read - she really is good at world-building.

Fledgling – Lee, Sharon and Miller, Steve. - Oh goodness, this ruined me. I read it after the 15/15 challenge, and now I want to read nothing but Lee and Miller! They just write exactly what I want to read: fun, swash-buckling sci-fi, full of nobles and alien etiquette and mystical heritage and futuristic societies and spaceships and dancing and coming-of-age stories and adventure and . . . and everything. They're just fun. This is hands-down my brain candy of choice. More, more, more!

So, what are you reading?

peace of Christ to you,

Jessica Snell

*SPOILER: I thought she was going to have the alien parasite end up living in her lover's head, which would have made sense. But instead she magically procured another body for her, solving our heroes' problems at no cost to them. Okay . . . 

the grammar stage

I just finished an excellent book called "How to Learn Any Language" by Barry Farber. It's a great encouragement as I continue to work on my Spanish.

But when I read this bit, I was reminded of nothing so much as theology, and how we perceive dogma early in our Christian walks, and then how that perception changes as we grow to know the Lord better:

You don't have to know grammar to obey grammar. If you obey grammar from the outset, when you turn around later and learn why you should say things the way you're already saying them, each grammatical rule will then become not an instrument of abstract torture disconnected from anything you've experienced but rather an old friend who now wants you to have his home address and private phone number.

Isn't that great? It's exactly that way as we learn the creeds, or struggle through some of the early fathers, or try to understand Romans the first time around. But, more and more, the more you live it and actually obey the Lord's instructions, the more what was obscure becomes clear. As Proverbs says, the path of the righteous is like the first gleam of dawn, growing ever brighter to the full light of day.  Farber continues, saying that a foreign language's grammar, once you've got a bit of the language in you, 

becomes a gift flashlight that makes you smile and say, "Now I understand why they say it that way!"

Grammar eventually is revealed to be common sense, much like Christian dogma. Once you understand it, it's not weird and convoluted, rather it's beautiful and useful, and you understand why "they say it that way": because it's the only way it can be said while still preserving all the meaning intended.

peace of Christ to you,

Jessica Snell

7 Quick Takes

1.

I have a cast-iron skillet that I use regularly, but I was having a horrible time keeping it nicely seasoned. Even though I did all the good wash-with-water-0nly-and-heat-till-dry-and-oil thing. 

But then I stopped oiling it with vegetable shortening and start oiling it with real lard. My skillet? Is now staying beautifully seasoned.

Only downside is the faint aroma of too-hot pig fat.

2.

I think the spam-bots would have more luck with me if they stopped addressing their emails to "Mr. Jessica Snell".

3. 

As I keep trying to study Spanish, I'm amazed at the difference between my receptive language facilities and my productive language facilities. For instance, here's a sentence I read recently that I had no trouble understanding (forgive my lack of accent marks; I haven't yet learned the keystrokes for them):

-Veo que eres idiota, ademas de ser lo que seas-

Could I understand it? Sure. Could I come up with it myself? Not even close to possible. The first part maybe, but if I had tried to say "whatever else you may be", I wouldn't have been able to even come up with "ademas" and there's no way I would have come up with "of to be it that you might be" (which is the literal translation - as far as I can tell - of "de ser lo que seas"). Nope.  

Man! I have such a long way to go.

4.

I'm checking out a local umbrella school as a homeschool option next year. It would let me school Bess at home four days a week, and then one day a week she would get to go to school and do P.E. and music and stuff like that. It'd also give us an opportunity for field trips and other extracurriculars with other homeschoolers. I'm kind of excited about this and hope it works out! Anyone out there have experience with something similar?

5. 

Yesterday, I was working on my novel and my hero did something completely unexpected, proving himself much more heroic than even I thought he was. I can't tell you how happy that makes me. It's been over twenty-four hours and I'm still tickled pink. This is why I love writing: because as awesome as it is to read a book that picks you up and carries you away, it's even more awesome to read a story that does that same thing but that came straight out of your own fingertips. The fact that it can still pick you up and carry you away, still surprise you and leave you baffled . . . I don't know. It's just a high like no other. 

6. 

When in doubt about how to occupy your kids, give them each a wet rag and let them loose in the kitchen. You'll have to go in afterwards with towels, but it's amazing how clean it'll get and how happy they'll be.

7.

Um, seven, seven . . . um, here! Something funny! ("I'm sorry, are you speaking Scottish now?")

For  more quick takes, go visit Conversion Diary.

learning Spanish

I'm really not starting from scratch, and that's nice. But inside there is a growing sense of awe as my small efforts at studying another language reveal how much I don't know. I'm beginning to get that delicious feeling that you get when you enter a new library and gaze at the shelves, and realize that this is just the first room and there are stacks and stacks and stacks of books that you could read that you've never read before. That undiscovered-country, whole-new-world feel.  (Um, to totally mix my metaphors. Sorry.)

I'm slowly reading through "El Leon, La Bruja y El Ropero"*. I know it's a bit lame to read, as my first attempt to finish a novel in Spanish, a book that was actually written in English, but I figured if I chose something I was super-familiar with, my familiarity with the story would carry me over the gaps in my vocabulary, and it would actually be a very efficient way to learn new words. So far, so good.

I'm reading lots of Spanish picture books to the kids. And I've got a workbook on Spanish verb tenses, so that I can regain the knowledge I had when I passed the AP test back in high school.

But do you know what's really drawing me on? Stuff like this:

Yep. Spanish music. I've found about four songs that I really, really like, and I'm learning the lyrics. Listening to Spanish music is making me fall in love with the language. Listening to Shakira's older stuff reminds me (don't laugh!) of reading John Donne. Not because it's as deep as his stuff, but because both Shakira (in Spanish) and Donne (in English) had a masterful grasp of the strengths and weaknesses of their language - their media - and exploited those strengths. I can especially hear it when I listen to one of Shakira's songs in the original Spanish, and then listen to the English translation. The music's still good in English, but you miss the rhythm of the words.

So, eventually, I want to get to where I can appreciate Spanish literature, and to where I can readily understand Spanish conversation. But for now, I'm really grateful for Spanish music, because it's showing me how this language I'm trying to learn is supposed to sound (something I wouldn't get if I all I heard was my own halting reading of "Huevos verdes con jamón"**). And it's making me excited about learning it, and given the mountain of work that lies in front of me if I'm going to get anything like competent in this - well, I'll take all the motivation I can get. 

I have lots of the "this will be a useful skill" motivation, but the music makes it fun.

peace of Christ to you, 

Jessica Snell

p.s. I am not recommending all of Shakira's stuff, btw. I'm sure you can use your own good judgement there. But a lot of her older stuff is really good. And I apologize for the cheesiness of the embedded music video - it's one of the cleaner music videos I've ever seen, but I know that's not saying much! And if you're curious about why he's saying "Ave Maria", well, as I'm translating it, it sounds like he's taking advantage of the fact that he's in love with a girl named Maria, but someone who knows Spanish better than I do told me he's saying he'll say a Hail Mary when he wins his love's heart. Either way, I love the enthusiasm of this song; it so perfectly captures that newly-in-love, young, excited feeling.

p.p.s. Also, as I'm teaching my five-year-old to read English, I am more and more in awe of anyone who learns English as a second language. Spanish, in contrast, is remarkably easy to read. It's so consistent phonetically.  But English! I knew English was supposed to be a hard language to learn to read, but now that I'm actually teaching someone to read it, I'm beginning to understand that on a whole new level.  And I'm teaching someone to read in English whose first language is English! Gracious. I guess that's what happens when your language is the bastard child of Latin and German.  It's strong and interesting, but it sure doesn't have the simple elegance of a Romance language.

*"The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe"

** "Green Eggs and Ham"

Going to CHEA and languages ancient and modern

This weekend I got to spend a few hours at the CHEA convention in Long Beach. It was huge and overwhelming, but happily I had a kind friend there who was willing to take a good chunk of time out of her day to show me around.

I got to attend a session with Andrew Pudewa, who was insightful and hilarious (it didn’t matter that the subject of the lecture was spelling, because the theories he brought to the subject could be applied to any number of things) and got to wander ‘round the exhibition hall.

I came home dehydrated and exhausted, but after being very lazy on Sunday afternoon, I woke up this morning excited again about homeschooling. I think going to that convention reminded me of all the reasons I thought that homeschooling was a good idea: chief among them that my kids and I will get to read lots of really good books together.

(Okay, that’s not all there is too it, but that’s what I’m excited about right now.)

I’m also once again diving into figuring out how we’re going to start this adventure out. I know there’s lots that I don’t have to decide quite yet, but one of the things I’m pondering is whether it’s possible to teach not just two languages well, but three.

(I pause to quote from the excellent Sports Night:
Casey: I speak four languages –
Dan: You speak three languages.
Casey: I speak four.
Dan: You speak three languages: you speak French, Italian and Spanish.
Casey (drily): I dabble in a little English.)

English comes first, of course, and we’ll be working on reading and writing that this year. I’d also really like our children to learn Spanish. While I’d like them to be able to read and write it, even more than that I’d like them to be able to speak it and to understand it when they hear it. Given where we live, this is pretty important.

But I also am attracted to the idea of teaching the kids Latin. I’d be learning it too. In this case, while speaking it and understanding it when they hear it would be nice, reading and writing it would be the primary goal. Exactly the opposite of our priorities in learning Spanish.

Of course, Spanish and Latin are very related, so I’m hoping that the one would aid in learning the other. But are they so close there would be a lot of confusion? From reading The Bilingual Edge, I’m guessing that there wouldn’t be, especially if they were taught in different contexts and different ways.

I’d also probably start teaching Spanish in Kindergarten (well, before that, actually – we’re already working on it informally by reading Spanish picture books), and not start Latin till 3rd grade (after the kids have learned to read and write with some competence).

But does anyone have any experience with this? I know lots of my readers are experienced homeschooling moms, and I’d be really interested to hear if anyone has combined learning a modern language and an ancient language (while of course also promoting greater and greater mastery of English) and how you did it, and if you like it – or if you specifically have avoided doing so, and why. Thanks for any advice you can offer!

Peace of Christ to you,
Jessica Snell