HOW TO LEARN THE LINGO...

Light up your mind and learn the lingo.

Scientific research has identified that learning a language may delay the onset of dementia.

Psychologist, Ellen Bialystok, of York University, Toronto, published her findings in the November, 2010 issue of the journal, ‘Neurology’, and has stated that the brain of those who learn a foreign language is “able to cope with the disease” better than those who only speak one language.

 

This is an immediate reason to ignite your interest in learning a new language, right now!

Whichever language you wish to learn, I can assist you with simple techniques. What I particularly love is the creation of clues which make remembering vocabulary easier. To me, they are like fascinating riddles which facilitate learning and reveal amazing links between languages.

English lends itself to ‘Ron’ sitting in the middle of the ‘environment'. Split the tricky sounding ‘conscience’ into a much simpler ‘con science’. Both of these assist spelling.

French also lends itself to memorable tunes, helping verb conjugations. Have a go at rattling off the avoir (to have) verb: J’ai, Tu as, Il a, Elle a, Nous avons, Vous avez, Ils ont, Elles ont, to the Pink Panther tune, for starters. Whether you remember the Pink Panther as: Peter Sellers, Steve Martin or the animated panther, this makes no difference to the tune.

Spanish lends itself enormously to any learner. ‘Cerdo’ (ker-thoh) means ‘pork’ while a very similar sounding ‘cordero’ (kor-theroh) means ‘lamb' - just tell yourself ‘lamb is the longer one’.

‘Pendientes’ (pehn-dyen-tes) is the Spanish for earrings which, like a pendulum, can hang and swing.

‘Cuchillo’ (koo-chee-yo) means knife whilst ‘anillo’ (ann-ee-yo) means ring and, in both cases, visualise double 'll' as two straight lines to create the length of a knife or a finger, reminding yourself that the one beginning with ‘cu’ is the cutlery!

The word ‘collar’ (koyar) means necklace, which speaks for itself, in terms of the Spanish spelling, and ‘pulsera’ (pool-sera) means bracelet; link ‘pulsera’, easily, to checking someone’s pulse.

Have I ignited your interest? If so, please read on...

By the well-known idiom, “It’s all Greek to me,” and due to a completely different alphabet, Greek does pose more challenges than French and Spanish. Thankfully, Greek lends itself to a superb array of: clues, riddles, rhymes, sounds and images.

The question word ‘Bos?’ (bos) means ‘How?’ - simple - if you don’t know how, ask the Boss. ‘Boo?’ (boo) means ‘Where?' - imagine playing hide and seek and finding the person who is hiding by shouting, ‘Boo!’

'Megethos’ (meh-yeh-thos) with an emphasis on the first e, means size, and the word, itself, implies massiveness. Have you ever seen ‘The Meg’ with Jason Statham chasing after a prehistoric, 75-foot long, shark?

Have you already grasped a fair bit? I hope you have and that you have enjoyed this brief (but I hope, useful, interesting and amusing) snippet to the world of language learning.

To coin familar and optimistic idioms, the sky’s the limit and the world is, very clearly, ‘your oyster'. Whether languages have ever been your strong point or not, the ability and chance to learn the lingo is accessible to everyone.

I hope you have enjoyed reading this article and I hope my thoughts have ignited an interest in learning a language. If they have, I would love to hear from you.