Uma descrição da situação no que estou a falar com um amigo e preciso duma palavra. Tenho certeza que sei esta palavra mas neste momento não posso lembra-la.
“Eu baixo o meu balde para ao fundo do poço de vocabulário mas quando vem para cima o balde está vazio”
Totes planning to use this often in the future. It’s strangely easy to remember, pleasing on the ear and has two new (to me) words in it.
*Uncorrected Portuguese Klaxon*
Just eight days now. It’s scary! I’ve been having extra lessons to raise my spoken language game from “horrifying” to merely “awful”. One of the things I’ve found helpful is Amolto Call Recorder for Skype. I’ve been using it to record my calls so I can listen to them later and get a second shot at my teacher’s wisdom (with her permission of course!)
Unfortunately, the results have been a little demoralising. I can’t believe how much time I spend just saying “Ummmm”.
So… there’s a long way to go.
Sample files working up phrases for use in the exam…
2. Fale sobre o seu trabalho
3. Fale sobre as vantagens e desvantagens de ter animais de estimação em casa
I eavesdropped on a webinar by Lindsay Dow and Shannon Kennedy in which they talk about how to start speaking and producing language when you aren’t ready to actually go head-to-head with another human yet. It’s something I’ve written about in an earlier post, because there is so much emphasis on speaking straight away in a lot of the language learning advice out there, so it was reassuring that two badass polyglots had dealt with the same issue too. They give some useful tricks for coaxing language out of yourself and developing some confidence.
The seminar is here for now but sadly it won’t be up for very long. Hi ho. You might be interested enough to follow up Shannon’s course on the subject, which is called “Say Goodbye to Shy“
Ouvi o Hugh Laurie dizer que na sua idade, ler livros é como encher uma banheira quando o tampão não está no ralo. Estou de acordo com ele (or “concordo com ele”). Na minha idade também, derramo português dentro da minha cabeça mas tudo drena depressa.
*suspiro*
…which, for those of you who don’t speak Portuguese means…
I heard Hugh Laurie saying that at his age, reading books is like running the bath with the plug out of the plughole. I agree with him. At my age too, I pour Portuguese into my head but it all drains away (quickly)
*sigh*
The word “quickly” wasn’t part of my original intent but both people who corrected it seem to have thought that’s what I was saying so I’ve left it in.
Thanks again to Sophia and also Rubens for their help with the corrections.
I just sat in on a taster webinar for Lindsay Dow’s Successful Self Study course. It was really interesting and her enthusiasm is definitely infectious. It sounds like a course I could have used a couple of years ago when I was struggling to do anything at all. I’m sort-of in the zone now, but I can definitely see the benefit of it for new starters. If you need a motivating force to get you on the right track you might like to take a look (*points* at the link in the first line).
I’ll jot down my answers to the quiz questions here so I don’t forget.
A big tip to boost my language-learning self-confidence: try not to get hung up on one point. I think in my lessons I often spend time making sceptical noises if I don’t understand something, as if the entire nation of Portugal is playing some elaborate practical joke on me. While I haven’t completely ruled out this theory, I can see how that is probably a bit unnerving for the teacher and creates awkward pauses that don’t help anyone.
Three things I can do to achieve this:
Four tips for working around words I don’t know:
I thought I knew a few tricks already but there are always more, so
There were some other hot tips too, both from Lindsay and the other students, but I won’t give you too many spoilers – go and have a look.
“Every Day” tem uma muito ligeira pausa entre as palavras. Sublinhar a primeira sílaba em “every” e a palavra “day”. Isto significa em português “cada dia”
“Everyday” é uma simples palavra. Sublinhar a primeira silaba somente. Isto significa em português “quotidiano”
(This is an explanation of an English phrase for a Brazilian student of English who asked on iTalki)
Bored of looking at textbooks? Don’t know how to break out into the real world and talk to some actual humans? Well, this is my real-world guide to taking the first steps.
Celebrity language learners like Benny Lewis of Fluent in 3 Months will tell you what you need to do from the outset is to start talking to other people. That’s cool, but if you’re anything like me, that seems a bit daunting. So why not start by talking to yourself. Get hold of a CD or set of tapes or whatever technology you prefer. I really like the Michel Thomas Method. Its Portuguese course starts from zero and bootstraps you into forming pretty complicated sentences in half a dozen tenses within a few hours. It’s a very clever system and the teacher is brilliant. There’s a basic version called Start Portuguese
Check you out! You’ve spoken some actual sentences! Hopefully by now you’re starting to feel a little more confident. Not Colin-Firth-in-Love-Actually confident, but… OK, OK, you’re probably not confident at all because speaking to foreigners in their own language is – for a British person – absoflippinglutely terrifying, but trust me, you’ll be fine. You’ve started well, and the next stage is speaking to someone else in a controlled, predictable, pressure-free setting. That predictability is key, I think, because a lot of people find the main thing that stops them speaking other languages is a lack of confidence. So here’s how we do it…
The next thing to try is speaking to a language partner. This is going to be someone who is trying to learn English so they will be patient with you in exchange for you being patient with them while you both practice.
iTalki is a language-learning website. If you register there you can find people who are trying to learn your language and arrange to speak to them via Skype or Google Hangouts. Aim to get a native speaker, ideally from the target country – so in my case, Portugal, although I had to settle for a Brazilian in my first conversation because there were so many of them and I got tired of running away. Contact someone who looks nice and invite them to be a language partner, then ask them if they would be interested in a Skype session for five or ten minutes so you can both practice. It’s surprisingly tiring to speak an unfamiliar language, so keep it realistic.
Before you start, try to plan out a few fragments of conversation, or even a whole spiel that will get you through. Jot down some phrases you plan to say: who you are, where you live… that sort of thing, and maybe a few questions too. Also, think about some handy phrases for when you get stuck. For example
Open a couple of browser tabs; most importantly for Google Translate, which you will probably hit pretty hard, and one for any other online resources you might need like Conjuga-me or an online dictionary in case you need them.
If you’re anything like me, you’ll have more butterflies in your stomach than Jeremy Fisher after his lunch, but don’t worry, it’ll be fine. Your language partner is probably nervous too. They are a language learner, and you are helping each other so you can bet they will be patient and understanding.
When the session starts, make good use of the statements you have written down. If you go off-piste and get stuck on a word, type it into google translate.
If your partner says something you don’t understand, no worries, use some of your set phrases to ask them to say it again more slowly. If you still don’t understand, ask them to type it into the Skype chat window, then copy and paste it into Google Translate which will translate it into something approaching English. If you don’t know how to reply, type your answer, in English back into Google Translate so you can answer. If it takes a little while, refer to the list above so you can say “one moment please…”
As you can see, there’s some “cheating” involved here, but it doesn’t really matter: you’re speaking, and as you go along, you’ll find it comes a little easier, and you might even find by the end of the session that you’ll be able to say the odd sentence off-the-cuff by arranging some of the words you have used easier in the session. Don’t be afraid to repeat – it’ll help you remember the words, and that can only be a good thing.
I would love to pretend these are all original ideas, but while I put some of it together myself, I have shamelessly nicked a lot of these ideas from celebrity polyglots, notably the aforementioned Benny Lewis, who you can see here demonstrating the method in Polish, just to show how it works in the real world.
Olá! Isto é um passeio virtual da minha área local. Desde o museu da música – aqui – ao jardim botânico real, que fica no outro margem deste rio – o rio Tamisa.
E o que podemos ver aqui? Posso ver um avião, umas nuvens, e um pouco de céu azul, o que é muito raro na Inglaterra. E há uns barcos também.
Bem. Começamos aqui, e continuamos em frente, ao longo da estrada. Desculpe, é muito lento, mas…. mas aqui, isto é um outro museu – o museu de máquinas velhas. Tem um comboio – um comboio muito pequeno, e várias bombas e outras coisas como estas. Aqui, perto do prédio novo, vire a direita e estamos aqui na Ponte de Kew – não o Ponte de Cu. Kew é uma região da cidade de Londres, na oeste. É famoso pelos jardins botânicos. Podemos ver aqui a ilha na rio, com varias árvores e arbustos. Vamos continuar. Desculpe. Muito lento também. Aqui, além da ponte, vire a direita muito lentamente (desculpe). Esta relva é uma área para jogar Críquete. Críquete é o jogo nacional da Inglaterra. Não jogo Críquete mas é bastante popular. ….Carros, carros em toda a parte. Acho que todas as cidades têm demasiados carros. Há uma igreja aqui também. Não sei o nome da igreja. Olhe! Aqui podemos ver a entrada dos jardins. E aqui terminamos o passeio.
Os jardins foram fundados no ano 1759. É um sítio turístico muito popular, e dentro dos muros do jardim são feitas investigações cientificas no campo da botânica. Abriga o banco de sementes do milénio. Muito obrigado pela atenção.
Luso 