Move out of your comfort zone
When I say move out of your comfort zone, I literally mean move. Get up out of your chair, hop on a bus, hop in your car or put on you walking shoes and just go.
‘Where to?’ you may ask. Where people are speaking the language you are learning, and that doesn’t count your classroom!
Now this may sound strange if the whole reason you are learning a language is to travel to the country of origin. But have you considered there may be people using that particular language in the town or city where you live?
For example, if you are learning Vietnamese because you plan to travel to Vietnam one day soon, see if you can find a Vietnamese restaurant or supermarket and go there frequently.
Take what you have learnt in class and try and put it into use by ordering something to eat or even exchanging a simple greeting. It may feel awkward at first but you will be amazed how people will open up and help you when they see you are making an effort to speak their language. You may even find a new friend.
It’s a win-win for everyone!
Learning Language Through Song
I know I am giving away my age here but I’m going to just say it – I grew up to the tunes of Abba.
For those of you who are too young to know…Abba was a pop band from Sweden who sold hundreds of millions of records worldwide throughout the 1970s and 1980s.
They sang in perfect English but when it came to interviews, well, they were less than fluent. Now, I’m not judging them here as my Swedish is non-existent but I remember that at the time it shocked me. How could they sing fluently and speak, well, not so fluently?
This thought came back to me the other day when my daughter sang the traditional Japanese frog song Kaeru No Uta fluently. I would just like to add here that my daughter learnt this song at primary school and knows no other Japanese.
What a wonderful learning tool singing can be! The only problem with it being your only tool is that I don’t think you could actually sing your whole way around a country or through a job interview. Still, you may be able to impress your friends or serenade your love one!
How to improve your IELTS Writing Skill
Some IELTS students often feel that editing an essay is a waste of time, or sometimes they cannot afford time to do this although they know it is necessary. This is a serious mistake as most writers, however excellent they are, still need to do editing to remove redundant ideas, or some simple mistakes. .JPG)
The purpose of editing is to make sure your essay is well-structured, logically developed, precise, focused and cohesive.
• You should go through every sentence line by line slowly. Take your time to check every single noun and verb in your essay to make sure they are written with correct grammar.
• Check the structure, the logicality and the flow of your essay. Make sure it has no redundant sentences or repeated ideas.
• Make sure that each topic sentence is followed by adequate explanation and example.
So please never forget spend at least 5-7 minutes at the end of IELTS Writing Test to edit/check your essay.
IELTS: Some hints to improve your reading skill
How to Improve your Reading Skills?This is something which every student strives for but many don’t know how to achieve this.
My task as an Ielts Reading teacher is to instruct and show you how this is done .
There are four (4) main skills that you need in order to do well in the Reading Module.
Firstly one of the main difficulties that students face is not having enough time to complete the test, it is therefore essential to read both efficiently and effectively. Previewing approximately 2 minutes per passage.
Study Key parts of the passage by skimming .Read the first paragraph which often focuses on the main idea.The first sentence of each paragraph usually expresses key points of paragraph known as the topic sentence ,generally the concluding paragraph provides a summary of the passage.
Secondly Interpreting the questions and questions – When you are looking at the questions, you need to recognise – what type of question you need to answer -gap-filling, multiple choice. Whether the questions requires a specific or a general answer. What form should the answer take – a number, date, reason. All this should take approx 2 minutes.
Thirdly, scanning text for specific answers approx a minute per person. Use time wisely. Locate key words, synonyms. The sentences around these words are likely to contain the answers.
Lastly, check your answers approximately 3 minutes. You need to check your answers after you have completed them if you have time return to the questions you have marked because you were unsure and decide which answers the best one .
So all these tips refer to time management how to spend your time wisely.
Some more helpful hints: there may be some words in the passage with which you are unfamiliar, check the context, look for a definition, identify the words place and purpose, look for connective words. Be aware of the use of connective words.
I guess this is for now, each week i’ll give you ways, tips and strategies on how to improve your Reading skills .
Sticky notes for new words?
On a recent visit to my friend’s house I noticed that everywhere I looked she had sticky notes (or Post-It Notes) with large letters and pictures to accompany them. When I asked why, she explained that her young child was having a few problems remembering some of the new letters she was learning at school. Apparently this method was working a treat.
It took me back 20 years to when I first started to learn Japanese. I would attend class each week and try hard in between lessons to extend my word list before the next class. It was a struggle.
Why didn’t I think of the sticky notes back then as I am sure they have been around since the late 1960s? I am a visual person and need to write things down for them to sink in. I should have stuck those little guys all over the house so everyday I could improve my vocabulary list. Somehow I don’t think one would have stayed on the cat for too long!
Learning a New Language
There are many reasons why people choose to learn a foreign language: for work, for travel, for study, for fun or for love. The list is endless. 
But what is the best way to learn? Now that depends on you. To find the answer you need to stop and ask yourself a few simple questions like, do I have time to commit to months of study or should I just get a taste of a language in a four-hour workshop on the weekend? Am I comfortable trying to speak a new language in front of a small group of people or am I too shy and would rather study one-on-one with a teacher instead?
We understand that everyone’s needs are different and so too is the amount of time and energy they have to commit to something like learning a new language. That’s why we have options. Check out our Courses page here http://www.sydneylanguagesolutions.com.au/courses and see if something takes your fancy. And remember what Italian film director Federico Fellini said, “A different language is a different vision of life.”
Is it necessary to learn Vietnamese tones at the beginner level. Why?
Tone is the use of pitch in language to distinguish lexical or grammatical meaning. Although some languages use pitch to express emotion, to emphasise, to compare or contrast ideas, tones in Vietnamese are used to distinguish words. That means the very tone attached to each word can fundamentally change the meaning of that word. Tonal phonemes in Vietnamese are called tonemes.
For example, one word with exactly the same spelling with a rising tone conveys a completely different meaning from similar word with a low – broken tone.
As a result, in learning Vietnamese, it is very crucial that the learner must try to memorise all the tones, how to pronounce them and write the tone correctly.
If the learners try to memorise the words in Romanised version (as in Lonely Planet), it may help the learner a bit in the first few weeks, but will not help in the long run. When the learner cannot remember to record the tones in the writing system, it is also very difficult for him/her to recollect the pronunciation and how to say the word correctly.
As each change in the tone will carry a different meaning of the word, the incorrect tone will seriously affect the meaning and the listeners’ comprehension of a sentence.
Therefore, always remember to memorise your tones if you want to learn Vietnamese seriously and not for a few weeks just to survive in the country 😉
Some facts about Thai Language
Sa-wad-dii ka! Hello!
My name is Shaye, I’m teaching Thai in Sydney Language Solution for while now and here’s my first blog on this Website. I used to write several blogs before I moved overseas and maybe it started my interest in language.
For my first blog entry, I’d like to tell you several facts about Thai Language.
1. Thai is a tonal language
I’m pretty sure many people and schools talk about this. Getting the tone right is very important in our language. It’s not just about the accent but it’s about the actual meaning of the word. We have many jokes about how people get the tone wrong and it got translated into something totally weird (or extremely funny). The most common one is:
maa1 (มา) means to come
and
maa5 (หมา) which means dog.
Now that you know about this fact, you better not get the tone wrong – ever!
So, if you are thinking of getting your own lessons, make sure those books have tone marks on them.
2. Thai words are repetitive
I did not realized this until one day; I got a requested from a friend to translate a beautiful Thai song. The translation was so cheesy and repetitive in English and it just sounds awful. My students also pointed this out, and so what I told them was…
“Thai language is very repetitive and exaggerative.” – it’s true, we love it!
In Thai, you can repeat adverbs and adjectives as much as you want until you are happy with how you want to exaggerate the situation or story. Such as;
I am so so so so so so so so so so so so so so so so so so so hungry – and more. Also, sometimes we drag the word longer, in order to exaggerate it.
3. Speaking Thai and Writing Thai are not the same – mostly.
There are many reasons why you should learn Thai with a native speaker and not with books or recorders but one of the most important reason why is because the way we write and speak are not the same. You could still use any books out there to learn Thai or from many clips on Internet these days, but after a long search I’ve found that over 90% of them are not useful for speaking.
You will be able to understand, but you will hardly hear us speak that way – so why waste it in learning those?
4. Thai language is all about culture, emotion and respect.
Now, since I talked about speaking Thai and writing Thai, I cannot miss talking about what our language is based from. If you know a little bit about Thai language, you’d know that we have a polite particles (ka – for girl and krap – for guy) we put in the end of sentences (there are many others ending particles but polite particles are only these two). We will change the way we speak (wordings and sentences structure) depending on who we are talking to or the situations we are in. Casual talk, is one thing, Family talk is another thing and talking to Monk is totally different. But mostly, all of them based on respect you have towards another person.
Once you learn it, you’d be amazed in how many cultures we’ve putting in our language. Personally, I’d say that people who able to learn Thai effectively are people who understand our culture base.
So, learning in class together with other students are the perfect way of learning Thai effectively. I enjoy explaining the class about our cultures and situations a lot. It’s probably one of the best parts about teaching Thai to foreigners. If you’re gonna learn it, I hope people would learn them right. If there’s any questions about Thai language, I’m more than happy to answer and explain to you!
That’s it for now! Bye-ka!
Shaye.
Tips & Tricks in Learning Persian
Im the Iranian Persian teacher at SLS, born in Tehran the capital of Iran and Im happy to be the first one writing on the SLS blog 🙂
Here is some tips about Persian Language:
There are 4 skills in every language
1-Writing
2-Reading
3-Speaking
4-Listening
Try to improve the four skills at the same time…
Why?
Most of the language learners are more interested to improve their speaking skill, but the right way to learn a language is to learn how to communicate with others sufficiently by knowing and using all of the skills when you need.
For instance you may need to write a formal letter to a company or an informal letter to a friend of yours, or simply a short sentence like "I love you" 😉 on a birthday card! Then you need writing skill, besides it helps you pronounce a word or phrase correctly.
You need reading skill when someone writes a letter (or that "I love you") to you. Moreover, you can learn more words and phrases by reading new articles and improve your language more and more. On the other hand, it helps you not forget what you have learnt.
Just imagine you can speak a language very well but you cant understand what others say, funny, innit?! Then you need listening skill as well.
Formal and Informal:
Tell your teacher (whether Im your teacher or someone else) to teach you both formal and informal communication. Sometimes it looks funny if you use a formal word or phrase when you should use the informal one and vice versa.
Farsi Dari, Persian, Farsi OR Parsi?!
Generally I could say that all are the same but you can find more information here
If you have any question about Persian course at SLS just ask me. I`ll be happy to help you find the answer 🙂
Kian
The OET speaking task – becoming a good communicator
Welcome to the OET speaking test. You have 5 minutes to complete your task. Begin.
Nurse: Good morning, I hope you had a good sleep. Could you please take your medication now?
Patient: Please go away. I am tired. I just need sleep, I do not want to take the medication.
Nurse: But I need you to ta-
Patient: I said leave me alone.
Nurse: (on the verge of tears) – ok… bye.
A significant factor for success in the OET speaking test is to be prepared for situations such as this. While your grammatically spoken English may be excellent, you are also being tested on your ability to communicate, especially with difficult patients.
As health professionals, it is part of our job to approach these circumstances with tact and professionalism, while at the same time displaying assertiveness and confidence. And in the OET test, it just might be your job to communicate with a role player who has been instructed to refuse all your advice and act upset.
This can make you nervous. This can make you forget your lines. This can make your face flush beetroot red and wish that you were at home in the safety of your blanket, away from the OET test. But there are many strategies you can use to turn this type of situation to your advantage, and instead showcase your excellent communication skills.
Remember – practice makes perfect!
For more information about the OET test, feel free to contact any of the SLS OET teachers. We are always happy to help.
Jaime
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