Job Discussion Forums

[PatS]

Certainly everyone approaches preparing their move to a foreign country differently, but I'm curious.

How much effort did you put into learning the language of the area you're working now? Did you run down to the local Barnes and Noble and buy language tapes in preparation of the big move? Take a course at the community college? Wait 'till you arrived and just learned by muddling through your day-to-day activities or traded private language lessons with a student?

Those of you who have experience in lots of countries, has your strategy changed? Do you do more or less advance preparation now?

[dmb]

When I first moved to turkey I made a big effort. I guess I didn't have much of a choice as I was the only foreigner in a village of 2000 people. so it was a sink or swim situation. I learned it.

When I came to the Gulf I thought about making an effort to learn Arabic. after 18 months I don't speak it. (i know lots of swear words which I picked up from students though) In Qatar Arabic is probably the third language. The lingua franca is English and number 2 is something like Punjabi. It would be more useful.

[nomadic]

I've only just committed myself to moving to China, so I'm far behind where I'd like to be in terms of learning the language, but that said, I'm determined to find a tutor over the summer (at least once a week), and may try to make it to a local class on Mandarin, but that's unlikely due to my job.

... So I self-study a lot. I recently bought some software ("The Rosetta Stone"), picked up a few books, and have started at the basics - flashcards of the characters. I found a site which listed them by frequency of use (in a certain context, of course), so I figure perhaps I can learn the 400-600 most frequently used characters in the next 15 weeks, and I'll be happy. On top of that, some basic dialogues through the tutor, pronunciation as best I can with the software and tutor, and ideally I'll be good-to-go.

Naturally, I kick myself for waiting so long to begin, but hey, that's part of the challenge!

Anybody else? I'm thinking maybe, in the country-based forums, we could do a textbook listing?

[Shaman]

I had done some preparation before going to Korea. A fat lotta good that did me. Three weeks later it was midnight run time.

I ended up in Japan with two words under my belt. After a year, I was quite functional in communicating (without gestures). I had also memorized hiragana and katakana. Kanji? Yeah... right.

In Paris, my high school french lessons came back to me rather quickly. Now that I'm in Quebec, I'm learning exactly how different joual and Parisian can be.

Shaman

[Atlas]

I've been in China now for what, eight months, and although I have the books and disks, I've yet to start a systematic learning. I've gotten by well enough with my vocabulary of around 100 words. Next week formal lessons begin! I've been speaking Spanish with my gf's family! I never thought that would work here... You just never know how useful something is!

I've spent this time working on a way to make learning language easier by making a system one can use as a cheat sheet with the 343 most useful words, 57 for each category of human motivation (there are 7 according to the psychologist Maslow). By putting all the words in the same order in all languages, if you learn the order you can use the numbers to your advantage (with beginner students or others), communicate immediately and thoroughly before knowing a single foreign word, as well as pick up new languages in a more efficient way than toting around a dictionary and hunting for one word. BTW, it's all for free.

The link is at the bottom of my post.

If you want to translate a language to help, welcome! The community seeks to put as many languages as possible into the system!

[ls650]

My school offered me 90 minutes of Indonesian lessons every week for the first few months.
I found the first 4 months were a real struggle and I learned next to nothing. The next 4 months my learning took off and I started to learn a fair bit.
About the 8th month my learning process started to plateau. At that point I decided I wasn't going to renew my contract and have no need to speak Indonesian, so I became lazy and haven't put much effort into learning more.

At this point my reading is pre-intermediate, which I think is actually not too bad considering the small effort I've put in. My listening is definitely only beginning, mainly because I find locals speak so quickly I have difficulty parsing out individual words. If they speak slowly and deliberately I can follow simple conversations, but when I respond verbally I struggle to recall vocab.

[FGT]

I'm probably being computer illiterate, but I couldn't get to this multi-lingual universe of which you speak. The link took me somewhere else. I'm interested, but...

[Atlas]

Here is the link, hope it helps:

http://seven3.modblog.com/

[denise]

I didn't know that I was coming to Japan until about two months before I got here, and I didn't do much prep. (Finishing my MA, having to deal with moving, other excuses, etc., etc.) I knew maybe 10 words/phrases, including "I don't eat meat" and "I am drunk."

Now, about 10 months later, I've made very little progress. I can read hiragana and katakana (very slowly!), although there are some that I still get confused, and I can recognize a very small handful of kanji. When I go to my weekly flower-arranging class I can bumble through a few awkward conversations, but I still can't communicate on a daily basis. I've got a private tutor (just one hour a week), and self-study, but I know I'm not applying myself nearly as much as I could.

d

[Roger]

I learned quite a bit of Chinese on my own, and that was before I found employment. A phrasebook and a dictionary were of invaluable help, especially with the phonics.
Thus, my first day on the job saw me already equipped with the basics of the local tongue even though it would have been of zero importance in my classroom work.
However, since then, little progress has been registerd. Motivational poverty? Perhaps. It is fascinating to see someone writing Chinese, and even more fascinating to know how these characters came into being; but it's another matter training your hand on them.
This said, I find my Chinese counterparts unhelpful. As Chinese teachers they are unreliable and they don't know modern techniques or even useful theorites.
None of my employers has offered formal Chinese classes. I find this delorable. Our university has had foreign teachers for years, and we made it a very well-defined point on our part to be given such a benefit; all we heard was to "make friends with your Chinese English teacher friends". I don't know what's going on in these folks' brains, but you can't just exchange a piece of English for a piece of Mandarin. This, of course, also reflects on how they perceive our work here - we are simply here to "give" a little more English than Chinese teachers do, but it's optional for the students to acquire anything new from us.

[khmerhit]

Turn left
Turn right
More ice in the beer, please
Which way
Shes crazy as a can of newts
Oh, very pretty indeed
No, I dont have any money
No, Im not a journalist
Which way to the toilet?
Why does she want him topped?
Where are we now?
How much, you say?
You must be mad.
If he's a bank robber fugitive, why does he where a silly hat?

That's about the limits of my Khmer.

el Khmer Heet

[naturegirl321]

I try to study Chinese for an hour a day. But usually get side tracked. I'd like to learn it though.

[lostinparis]

I studied French pretty intensively at university for two years before going to France a couple years later. I found my comprehension was pretty good when I arrived, but since I am kind of shy and never spoke in class, speaking to people was very difficult the first year I was here. add to that, that I was speaking English all day long for work... and you can see how it's difficult to make progress.

Now after two years here in Paris, I handle pretty much every situation with ease (even sweet-talking French administrative officials!). There are still times when I see a movie, and I don't feel like I understood very much or every once in awhile I get flustered making a phone call because the person is rude or not helpful, but in general I manage very well.

I recently took an official timed, graded test to do graduate studies at the Sorbonne and my oral skills were actually better than my grammar and writing skills, which means living here has had some effect, I guess!

In any case, I think it depends on the language you are learning too. I took one year of Japanese in college and don't remember a thing. I had three years of high school Spanish too and can only say "donde esta el bano?"

I'll return to both of those languages someday... but there are so many... so little time.

Happy studying!

[Lynn]

I had studied Japanese for 2 years at college and I had lived in Japan as an exchange student for one year. So, I was already fluent before I started my teaching gig. My level skyrocketed having lived in a village. I've since passed the level 2 of the JLPT.

Before going to Korea, I studied by myself from the books/tapes at the library. I was able to pick up a lot of Korean for my brief visit. (Korean is a lot like Japanese). I just said Japanese things with a Korean accent and I was understood.

My favorite line was getting into a taxi and saying in Korean,"Excuse me mister, are you a safe driver?". It always got a laugh because the Korean drivers never expected such a sentence to come out of me. haha.

[foster]

Before going to Japan, I tried to learn a bit...I learnt the hirigana, katakana and some very basic kanji. I can ask directions and for help but I would never be able to understand the response!

Now, in HK I am lazy as all get out!! I know thanks, please, have you eaten yet, my name is, biaytach and I can count to 5...can't quite get past number 6! Yes, I wish to learn more but HK is the lazy language persons paradise as I feel I don't really need to learn it. I just ordered from KFC for a few people who are coming over an dI spoke English. Could have never done that in Japan!!!