Conquering Babel: a practical guide to learning a language

Hello Claire ,

I just glanced through "Conquering Babel..."

Brilliant work.I would recommend it to anyone desirous of learing a language.
As an admirer of Hermen Gunthurt who learned 13 lannguages and said he would be only too glad learning another on his deathbed, I appreciate your effort in this regard.
In emerging countries like India and China where mastering a foriegn language means a lot in moulding one's career ,the book will be a great success I,assure you.
And I would myself grab a copy if I come across one.
Will be reading your nove at the next available opportunity.
Read whatever you get FROM THE PEOPLE,
Think FOR THE PEOPLE & Write TO THE PEOPLE!

This is ambitious and enjoyable. I commend you.

I noticed a tiny typo in chapter 1 (I think), where it said 'give up something' instead of 'give us something'.

Good luck!

Enjoying this immensely, as a retired TEFLer myself ( London and Thailand), and devoted language-dabbler. No time to read it all tonight as I'm too busy with your WONDERFUL novel. Will comment on both later.

hi claire,

this was a pleasure to read. well done!

i do have a few suggestions...and a question.

re:the smart goals, i think you actually need to delienate them somehow -italics? font? identation?- from rewards, etc. instead of having them run together,

i would elaborate a bit on meetups; some people may not be familiar with them, btw, i have gone to french, italian, spanish and prtuguese meetups here in boston.

i once found two websites where you could sign up and find speaking partners in your target language. i just did a cursory search and couldn;t locate them now but i'll try again. you could just do audio or skype. the biggest problem is the time zone difference, i was planning a trip to portugal and found some locals with whom i could chat but finding times when we were both awake and not at work proved difficult,

i'd say something about language families. you touched on it a bit with romance languages but (and i realize it would take some research) but it might be useful to group the scandnavian languages together, thoough i have no idea if it's easy to learn norwegian if you know swedish, mandarin if you know cantonese,etc. btw, when i was learning spanish, my daughter accused me of speaking "spitalian" because i spoke with an italian accent. btw, i desribe spanish as italian with an accent - they are so similar. you might want to say something like "if you speak spanish try italian.

another tip - making up words. many times, if i don't know a word in, say, Italian, but i do know it in Spanish, i';; take the sp anish root and add the italian ending/. i'd say i'm correct about 75% of the time.

you seemed to disparage pimsleur in your reference to programs that expect you to learn the grammar by inference. i have used pimsleur a lot, and really like it though i suspect i'm unusual in that i always buy a very comprehensive college textbook and use it alongside. i think if you're seious about attaining at least near-fluency, the textbbook is a must, but i think that and pimsleur make a great combo. don't know why you did;t mention rosetta stone. never used it myself mainly because it's very expensive plus i like doing my language learning (pimsleur) in the car on the way to work, and that's a computer based program. anyway, you may want to take a look.

i think your book could be enlivened - and maybe even opened with- some anecdotes. I know you;re passionate about this, but SELL us! you and another american who are taking a jewelry course in florence and stop by an enoteca after class. two italian guys are sitting at the next table, and you end up spending the evening together, learning lots about italian life, politics, etc - all in italian. another story - you're alone in paris on your first vacation post-divorce. you're dining in a lovely cafe on the place des vosges and strike up a conversation with the frebch-canadian family at the next table, who invite you to join tjhem for dinner, and poof! you're no longer alone or lonely. bien sur, both of those stories are about moi.

finally, about reading books in another language. i find this frustratingly tedious. i used to do it exactly as you suggested, reading a few pages, wring down unfamiliar words looking them up (formerly in a paper dictionary, now on the computer,which is a little faster, writing down the meaninmg and going back and reading. ugh. so here;s my question; i want a program or app where you can highlight a word you don't know, and a translation into english or whatever your native language is, just pops up. do you know if there is such a thing?

i just bought a kindle, due to arrive thjis week . i figured i'd see if i could download a spanish dictionary, and then a book in spanish. we'll see how much of a nuisance it is to toggle between the two books.

sorry for the messy typing, still using one finger on left hand due to shoulder injury.

so glad you wrote this -i'm sure it was a labor of love.

happy new year,
andi

I think you've pitched this pretty much dead right. If you want suggestions, some form of bibliography where all books etc mentioned are brought together in one chunk might help, but it's by no means necessary.

Hi
I always felt that I was a bit of a dunce at languages whilst at school, however, I now know that with effort and focus I can if I want to master another tongue.
Your book talks to the reader well and makes them consider their motivation and the depth of it.
You could follow this one up with a practical book that actually teaches the reader, once they have used this one to prepare themselves and thus capitalise on your hard work
:-) Dave

I love learning languages, have been teaching English in Germany for 20 years, and I understand and endorse everything which you say. The problem is, too many people think learning a language is easier than it is, and are put off when reality hits them (maybe you should warn readers to expect this and how to overcome it?). The other problem is, many people just don't see the point of learning a foreign language; this is not just a failing on the part of English speakers, many nationalities think they can use/brush up their school English and that is enough. There is no national group in Europe (not even the Dutch) who can proudly claim that they are polyglots for the love of it. You can use your book to ALSO tell people why they should be learning other languages; and at the same time, promote the survival of these other languages. That's my view, Claire, and good luck!

I'm determined to learn French at the moment (having had several half-hearted attempts in the past) so I'm definitely your target audience. Here are some thoughts.

Firstly, I'm not sure why I should buy a book about learning a language rather than a book that specifically teaches me a language. I'll take some convincing, given that I'm on a very tight budget; plus, I'm allergic to self-help books.

I don't have a Kindle and have no plans to get one at the moment, so I've been alienated by the introduction immediately, but of course I wouldn't normally be reading the introduction unless I did have a Kindle, so that's irrelevent.

Try this. No! Don't make me! Did I mention I was allergic to self-help books? There's no way I'm going to make this list. I'll read your advice, and move on.

Set Goals. Yes, sounds reasonable, but I've no idea what SMART goals are.

Specific. Yes, I want to read Proust in the original. Seems a perfectly reasonable goal to me.

Achievable. This paragraph is stating the blindingly obvious. I'm not sure it needs to be here.

Realistic. Ditto, but funny enough to keep.

Rewards. I don't eat chocolate and there's no way I can afford a day trip to Paris, so you've gone and alienated me again. Not sure how to get round this one. I'm a firm believer in learning being its own reward anyway. I don't give gold stars, and feel mildly queasy if someone gives one to me.

Enjoy your language. Good advice about reading trashy magazines. Bad (in my view) to include a platitude/cliché at the end like 'Language learning doesn't have to be boring. In fact, it shouldn't be.'

Chapter two: I'm going to skim through this rather than commenting on each individual point. Oh, except that you've made a point that needs a comment. 'Recent research has suggested that learning a another language can stave off the onset of Alzheimers' This is science abuse. I think you'll find that for every one piece of research that claims this, there are another twenty pieces of research, at least, that show it's categorically not the case. Please don't use 'scientific research' in this way.

Chapter three: more skimming. Although I'm your obvious target readership, I'm not convinced, at this point, that this is the book for me. In the Self Study section you recommend a specific French grammar book, which is fine, though I'm happy with my pocket Bescherelle for reference, and anyway, what about all your readers who are learning other languages? I hadn't heard of meetup.com, so that could be useful.

As regards classes, I was going to a locally run evening class until recently, but now they've changed the rules on who can get remission of fees, so I can no longer afford it. There is nothing else in my area. No free classes. This is going to be the case for loads of people. Private lessons are completely out of the question, of course. Being told that group lessons are the 'cheapest of all options' is once again alienating me and making me feel like I'm not worthy. As for language schools/universities: nothing like that round here.

This is the point where I give up with the book. I've listed all the negatives above. Now I'll list the positives.

The writing is flawless. It's pithy and to the point; friendly and often amusing.
The advice is good, and for many people it will be extremely useful and encouraging.
The layout is clear and easy on the eye.

Conclusion: not for me, but for some, this could be a very handy and encouraging guide.

Claire,
read all 14.
chapters are short punchy and right to the point.
not sure it would actually motivate someone into learning a new language but it would certainly help someone on the borderline to jump onto the side of doing it.
:)
Diane

Claire,
Conquering Babel: a practical guide to learning a language is a simple and straightforward guidebook which shows the reader that learning a new language can be a fun and exciting experience that will lead them to new experiences in foreign cultures they would otherwise never have without some fluency in the language.

Walden Carrington
Titanic: Rose Dawson's Story

Hello Claire:

Your vast experience in language instruction really shines in this book. I think that one of the greatest strengths of this book is your attention to motivation. Most books of this genre want to jump right into the mechanics of language learning but this book is very good about ensuring the reader is properly and adequately motivated to learn, even after the initial novelty is gone.

Regarding specific feedback:

1. As an American reader, I was, and remain, absolutely clueless as to the B1 classification in chapter 7.

2. In the television section, you might make it a point to specifically discourage people from trying to watch news broadcasts in a foreign language. Why? News broadcasts are scripted for an economy of words to pack as much information as possible in as little time as possible. As such, it can be very, very difficult to keep up or even comprehend what is being said on even the most basic level. This can be extremely discouraging to new language learners.

3. I am sure that you do so, but it needs to be driven home that learning a new language always takes much, much, much longer than one expects or is led to believe. I have been learning Spanish for about 20 years and, though I can adequately communicate, remain far from fluency though I have a degree in Spanish. I cannot count how many times I have traveled to Mexico with the expectation that I had finally "arrived," only to fall flat on my face again.

Overall, this is a wonderfully encouraging work and your cheerful writing style shines through and through!

Blessings.

James Revoir

Hello Claire.
book- Conquering Babel , a practical guide to learning a language.

You have the making of a nice pocket size book, here .
You have it loaded with loads of useful tips and a very useful approach to learning.
Did you mention the idea of having a C D in the car, and listen whilst driving.
Thee is no doubt a market for all learning books, and certainly for languages, now that the world
has become smaller, as they say.
Wish you the best of luck with it,

tom bye
from hugs to kisses'

Hello Claire.
book- Conquering Babel , a practical guide to learning a language.

You have the making of a nice pocket size book, here .
You have it loaded with loads of useful tips and a very useful approach to learning.
Did you mention the idea of having a C D in the car, and listen whilst driving.
Thee is no doubt a market for all learning books, and certainly for languages, now that the world
has become smaller, as they say.
Wish you the best of luck with it,

tom bye
from hugs to kisses'

claire this is a really great book! You have a realist approach which does not put the reader off learning a language and the humour is refreshing for a book of this genre. The chapter headings are logical and the gradual build up of information does not alienate the reader. However, i would recommend that you put the faq chapter at the end of the book as it seems more logical that any unanswered questions would exist after all other information has been given in the book. Also there were a few typos in chapters 2 and 4. Although this is still a very instructive and detailed guide on how to learn a new language.
5 *s and best of luck with this.
Amy :)