Ella's Chinese Happy Hour

Problem Statement I was very ambitious when I watched the first video from Super Easy French. Not only did I want to understand every single word, but I also pushed myself to memorize each sentence. I believe I'm not the only person who has taken this approach during the early stages of learning a second language. The idea of "knowing every word, speaking every sentence without prompts, and retaining this passage in memory forever" brings a sense of thrill and motivation. But I failed. Despite the video being only five minutes long, as an absolute beginner, it became a marathon for me to understand each word, memorize each sentence, and work on my pronunciation. My patience and passion began to wear thin. After one week, I had only memorized two minutes of content. I changed my strategy after that attempt, and so far, I am very happy with what I have done. In brief, I started to make my own illustrations for chosen content from each video and reused them in future...

As addressed in the title of this post, my solution for learning tones is to hum them.  Here's a breakdown of this approach: Find a video that teaches how to pronounce tones. Ensure that the pitch of the speaker is relatively within your daily vocal range. For example, I have a low voice, so I chose a male teacher for the Thai tone tutorial video. (If you're learning Chinese tones, you can use the one I created on YouTube. I read the tones in both higher and lower pitches:  https://youtu.be/PneCbH_Araw) Grab a pen. Listen to the tone-drilling part of the video, and simply hum the tone you hear. Draw curvy lines on the paper for each tone. Keep in mind that many tones have different pitches and may have "short" and "long" sounds. Your curvy lines should indicate this. Watch the video two or three more times to confirm what the tones sound like. If you want, record your humming. If possible, play your recording for a native speaker and confirm the accuracy of ...

I can't read or write Thai, but I can speak and understand most of what people say to me for life needs. This happened from 2012 to 2017 while I was living in Bangkok, Thailand. Sounds too good to be true, eh? To make this post most pragmatic, in the following sections, I will share how I learned listening and speaking Thai, and in what circumstances we do need to learn reading and writing.  Section One: How I Learned Thai without Learning Reading or Writing  I started learning Thai by mimicking how my friends spoke. In the first week when I moved to this country, I had a chat with one of my neighbors. She is a wonderful person who showed me the local groceries and took me to the downtown area. During those trips, it was hard to ignore how she communicated with people, especially for very functional purposes (e.g., telling the taxi driver where to stop and asking about prices in night markets). I always have a habit to carry a small pad with me, so I started to jot down some s...

If you did click open this blog post, we can all agree that there's no need to address how important learning vocabulary is. Skipping the preamble on  "hello everyone, this is why we need to learn vocabulary, and then this is what we do", let's dive straight into my first hand experience of building vocabulary in second language learning.  Learning Vocabulary Meaningfully: Learn and Produce In this part, I'll demonstrate how I learned the word "congenial":   Do: Step 1. I wrote the word in a Microsoft.doc, including its pronunciation in IPA if unsure, highlighted in green . Step 2. I checked the dictionary to clarify the meaning, especially especially distinguishing it from synonyms. Step 3. I did a quick research on the stem, prefix and suffix of the word, and I set the font of words that are closely relate to the "core" meaning of  "congenial" in bold . Step 4. I noted down one example sentence given by the dictionary, and created o...

My French Journey: What I have Done in the First 5 Months This blog is for you, and me What are we REALLY looking for when we decide to read someone talking about their language experience? My answer would be "I want to know any tips/tricks that will make me a fluent speaker under 6 months."  Although this blog may not provide a direct answer to that , but hold your horse! While the "6 months fluent in XYZ language" may not be promised here, but you will witness a good range of language learning methods being truthfully praticed in this authentic experiment. You will see the direct uses and adaptions of these approaches in my French learning. And I would like to discuss with you about what worked well, what didn't, and why.  If that is not a strong enough reason for you to stay with me. In this blog, I will also share how knowing other languages (Chinese, English, Vietnamese, which has some subtle connection with French, and Thai) boosted my learning. If that is...

I have taken a course from National Gallery of Art via Edx, and the name of the course is called Teaching Critical Thinking through Art with the National Gallery of Art . I really liked the approaches they took in teaching, in particular, See, Think and Wonder. This is how you integrate any images into your own speaking practices: Get a picture from Google or your phone. Here, we use 'The Derby Day',  by William Powell Frith as an example. Put a see/think/wonder chart nearby and look at the picture: Take a general look at the whole picture. Take looks at different parts. Noticing the color, the lines and structure. Go back to the chart and fill each box. You can look at the art again any time when you are filling the chart. (As you can see, we are developing our output on this stage)   This is an example of learning English using this method. You can adapt this to any language that you are learning currently.  Then, you can retell what you see, think...