By MDub - Image via Wikipedia

Learning French Language using terms in science is very easy. And when I say that it’s very easy, it is indeed easy!

Why did I say so? Because if you get to see and compare the following terms below, you will notice that most of the English terms in the branches of science makes no or little differences with its French translation! Take a look!

Amazing, isn’t it? Your knowledge towards French learning will even be more expanded once you decide to learn French in France!

Enjoy your basic learning in French language using the terms in Science!

Image via sxc.hu

Moving to a country where you have no idea how you are going to live there is such a common but frustrating uncertainty. Whenever someone migrates to a totally different place or country, one of the movies I really take as an example was the recent movie of Jaiden Smith and Jackie Chan’s Karate Kid.

Moving from the United States to an Asian country called China seems to be so frustrating for the young Jaiden. Some Chinese citizens might have knowledge in speaking English language, but he has to adopt whatever is in that country: culture, society, influence, and of course, its hard to understand but has to learn Chinese language.

Karate Kid movie may be fictional but his experience as an immigrant is factual. Just like this young girl in the person of Josselyn Reyes, who, when she was just ten years old, moved from Honduras, s Spanish speaking vicinity to the United States. When she came to the U.S., she could hardly speak even a word in English; and for a kid, so vulnerable and innocent, suffered a commonly know as “language barrier”.

It was a tough adjustment for someone like Josselyn. Her pioneering years of learning was on the fifth grade. I’m sure, she undergone pressure, intimidation, or perhaps even bullies from someone older or bigger than her.

But like the other examples we have been detailing for you from the previous articles in this blog, Josselyn stood on her ground and showed that she can adjust to her environment regardless of her vulnerability. She was able to learn English and in fact, displayed incredible excellence in both her academics and school activities.

Through the years, she “conquered the hurdling language and cultural barriers that daunt many other children of Spanish speaking immigrants.” With all her efforts and great adjustments, she was able to finish what she has started. “She had some things to overcome,” said Richard Sutton, the school’s principal, “but Josselyn is one of those people who realized that light was at the end of the tunnel and went for it.”

All her efforts were never in vain. At age 17, she graduated from Richland High School and is planning to go to College. She was actually the only child of immigrant who graduated in this school this year, and it was a recognition she really deserves to be acknowledged.

See how incredible people rise up to their potentials and learn Spanish language and other foreign languages? You too can be like Josselyn. Learn English at language school and enhanced your knowledge.

Image via sxc.hu

Yes, you’ve read the title right. A certain study inducted by Professors Brian Coux and Raoul Germanix made it possible to learn language while sleeping. As it was said in the article written by Arthur Reagan, it was a “ground-breaking discovery”.

The said research was conducted within a two-year period located in Berlin Germany on 100 teenagers from different linguistic backgrounds. As they took time to observe them with scientific studies, they have found that “the brain responds well to learning languages while sleeping.” Can this be true? How is this possible?

Quoting the news posted by Reagan, it was said that the scientists found that students who slept on their dictionaries were 60% more likely to retain new vocabulary than those who didn’t. Similar studies in the United States have shown that students are more likely to retain foreign vocabulary, should they sleep with a dictionary under their pillow. Even Professor Coux himself was amazed. It was certainly a ground-breaking discovery that will help language learners improve their skills, even if they’re just “counting sheep and snoozing”.

Their discovery was not really that instant as it seem easy to to be. The big turning point only occurred when the professors initially came about the idea whilst working late in their laboratory with French technology. They simply fell asleep at that time while they hold their own dictionaries. Surprisingly, they were able to speak French fluently the next morning as both professors questioned orthodox learning techniques.

I know that it seem like it doesn’t make any sense at all that learners could actually learn languages just by simply sleeping. I’ve always thought that it would only be a cartoon fantasy like one Dexter’s laboratory episode. It was an episode when he got lazy learning French language, so he learned the language by just “simply sleeping.” Care to watch this video for a while.

It’s so funny how Dexter’s way of learning the language ended up learning only one French phrase Omelette du fromage. Nevertheless, the scientists’ discovery of learning languages by sleeping is actually proven out of scientific researches. We cannot really question is credibility because it’s conclusion is actually based on facts.

What do you think of this discovery? Do you think it’s worth practicing for? Feel free to comment.

Image via Wikipedia

We all know that English is applied to almost all aspects of life: Music, Medicine, Communication, and Business– name it all. And of course, mathematics is included to add up the list. Today, our textbooks are translated in English and it is also taught using the English language as well. No wonder, even in Mathematics, English reigns for quality teaching because it allows mathematical terms to be expounded and expressed in a more understandable manner.

Yet regardless of how English is being used to explain Mathematics, there are some, or even most students who find Mathematics too difficult to understand. The dilemma is brought up particularly when school pupils encounter numbers that cannot be conceptualized as quantities in an obvious way. Therefore, “clarity is required in terms of the language used by both teachers and textbooks. One significant risk is that the explanatory models and metaphors used by teachers are over generalised by pupils or create contradictions.”

This concern is actually taken heed by a thesis studied by Cecilia Kilhamn. To be specific, she details on a risk that the explanatory models and metaphors used by teachers are over generalized by pupils that results to create contradictions. For example: The learner’s insights such as zero in the context of Mathematics is visualized to be nothing when in fact, it is still a numerical figure with numerical value. What’s worse is that with this mentality, young learners tend to have difficulties in understanding “how subtraction works and being able to deal with the number line are important prerequisites for negative numbers.”

If learners have this kind of mentality, they will really have a hard time understanding Math. On second thought, students who excel more in English actually have a hard time coping up with Math; but it doesn’t really justify the issue. If you were the teacher who sees this concern among your students, how are you going to work this out?

According to Kilhamn, it is important that the deficiencies and limitations of these metaphors are also made clear in teaching, and that logical mathematical reasoning is used in parallel with concretized models.

That’s why it is important to learn language in the context. Allow learners to conceptualize the nature of Mathematics different from that of the native language. If teachers are able to convey this thought comprehensively, her students will know the difference. Besides, our English languages have enough words to be used to make Mathematics easier to understand. The ones who are tasked to convey this just have to convey it accurately.

The world approximately contains 5,000 to 10,000 diverse languages. Yet despite the large number of languages, modern technology breaks this barrier and enables people from different places and different languages to understand one another.

If only there could be one common language, the world could never get so complicated.

This issue is actually not new. Rumors about having a common language have already been discussed since long ago. A blog written on August 22, 2008 stated that English was this common language, since this language is the one most spoken around the world. Mandarin Chinese is the second, according to this blog, spoken by one million people.

The article continues by stating that “in practical terms, the world simply will not adopt [Mandarin Chinese because of its] complex  writing and speaking system as a common language. It would also require the redesigning of all electronic systems, from the keyboard to the programs. Additionally, there are a myriad of cultural resistances, especially from the West and, indeed, other Eastern countries. It is, essentially, too complicated and will never happen in my opinion.” says the blogger.

Another reason for English being selected as the common language is because it has already been used as the international language by business people anywhere in the world, whether in Tokyo or Berlin. New York and London, having English as the official language have become the world’s main financial centers.

The issue of having a common language is not to mislay the native language of each nation that represents them. It was clarified that having a common language only makes communication a lot easier. They will be able to express their thoughts, feelings, and points of view in a simpler way, thus avoiding the tendencies of miscommunication. With a common language, perhaps there wouldn’t be any racial or ethnic discrimination. There is neither an American, European, nor Asian favoritism, because all races are speakers of one common tongue.

Now, the matter about English as the chosen common language is not just a perception of a single person. Facing the reality, English indeed is the most commonly used language. This statement is not intended to mortify non-English speakers, neither disregard their native languages, but to create a broader perspective that through better communication, there is a much greater chance to become effective and more successful, especially in the business context.

Discussing the preceding statements, the reality of having diverse languages still lingers in society. It has always been a fact that we do have so many languages. That’s why language schools are established, to make language proficiency possible. Their goal is to bridge the gaps of these diverse languages, enabling learners to be efficient in the near future. Regardless of lingual variation, the possibility to become effective communicators fulfilled the language schools’ purpose.

Through the language schools’ goal in allowing learners to learn diverse languages, they will indeed accomplish the local song we used to sing when we were young: “It’s a small world after all.”