KAMMS World Wide Blog

“Culture, the acquainting ourselves with the best that has been known and said in the world, and thus with the history of the human spirit.” Mathew Arnold (1822-1888)

Learning about another’s culture allows us to learn about the people of the world and in the process, we gain valuable knowledge about ourselves. Culture affects every aspect of our lives: from the way we raise our children, how we treat one another, the foods we eat, the language we speak, the way we think, to the celebrations we enjoy.

We are fortunate to have so many easy and inexpensive opportunities available to us every day. Here are 10 easy ways you can get started today:

1. Visit local museums and cultural centers. Many times they have exhibits that correspond with a specific geographical area or an artist from a certain country. You can learn a lot about a people’s culture, by the type of artwork that is created in that region.

1. Visit the library. Libraries have a plethora of travel books and journals to read through. Many have elaborate pictures of the country and its people. You can almost imagine yourself there by flipping through these books.

1. Explore the Internet. If you want an endless supply of information about other countries, just tap into the internet. You can read newspapers, local websites, blogs and forums from other countries. This is also great practice if you’re learning the language of that country.

1. Go to a Local Cultural Event. We are so privileged to have hundreds of different cultures right here in the U.S. In any given month, you can find a local cultural event in many cities across the country. Get out and enjoy the food, music, people and customs of that culture.

1. Get an Email Pal. There are many sites on line that will help you find an email pal to converse with about the community in which they live. You can compare and contrast with your own experiences. This is another fun way to practice a new language, as well.

1. Volunteer to Help English Language Learners. Learning English is essential to improving an immigrant’s life, here in America. You can help someone practice their English, while learning more about their native language and culture.

1. Take a Class. Local schools and community colleges offer inexpensive adult classes at convenient times. You could take a foreign language class, a French cooking class or a Spanish dance class. What could be more fun than learning a new skill and meeting new people, while experiencing a new culture?

1. Make a Friend from Another Culture. Many of us have neighbors or co-workers who are from other countries. Invite someone to share a typical American holiday or celebration with you and your family. Then, attend one of theirs. Maybe you’ll have the opportunity to go to a Quinceañera (an elaborate birthday party for a 15 year old Latina) or a Diwali (a Hindu festival of lights).

1. Go to an Ethnic Restaurant or Grocery Store. Eat good food and enjoy a new culture! Many ethnic restaurants and grocery stores hire people who are natives from the country where the type of food they offer originates. Start up a conversation with them about the food and their native country. Don’t be shy; everyone likes to talk about themselves.

1. Travel to Another Country. You can find inexpensive all-inclusive trips to many popular destinations. You could also volunteer or attend classes in a foreign country. While you’re there, make sure to find out where the locals go, not just the tourists. Talk to natives and ask them about their culture and their country. Who knows, you might just make a friend you can correspond with, when you return.

Now, you can start learning about another culture today! There are so many easy and affordable opportunities awaiting you. Remember, the more we learn about the world and its people, the more we learn about ourselves. Enjoy the journey!

A few years back, I decided I wanted to set a “big” goal for myself. I know goals help me to accomplish more things in my life. So, I decided I was going to attempt running a marathon. Back then, I was only running a couple miles at a time and the marathon was over twenty-six miles. I knew there was no way that I’d be ready overnight. It was going to be a long process and I was going to need a lot of training, but I really wanted to accomplish this goal.

The first thing I did was to buy a book called, “Four Hours to a Four Hour Marathon”. It took me step by step through the process of training for a marathon in four months. Each week, I had to run a certain amount of miles per day and then increase incrementally. I also had to run different types of terrain and various drills; i.e. up hills, stairs, speed drills, etc. Needless to say, I’m proud to report that I succeeded in accomplishing my goal of running the marathon after four months of training.

So what does this have to do with language learning? It’s a very similar process to running a marathon, only without the sweat, sore muscles and exhaustion (hopefully).

Just like it’s impossible to run over twenty-six miles without training for it; there is no way someone can learn a language overnight (unless you’re a super genius). It’s a long process and you need a lot of training. And you have to really want to accomplish your goal. So, if you’re ready to embark on language learning with the same determination and resolve you would need for any “big” goal in your life, I can help you with my rendition of the, “Four Months to Speaking Another Language”:

Set Yourself a Goal.

Start with figuring out exactly why you want to learn the language. Are you learning for work, for travel, for school or just for fun? The reason you are learning will guide your decision making about the materials you will use and the type of learning process you will begin.

Then, set yourself a clear and definable goal. Don’t just say I’m going to speak Spanish. It’s too general. You won’t know if you clearly accomplished your goal or not. State a goal such as: I will be able to communicate with natives on my trip to Cancun. Or, I will be able to speak to my customers in Spanish about our products.

Choose the Right Method.

So, you’ve got your goal and you’re ready to begin. Now, you need to choose the method that will best help you to reach your goal. Just like any other aspiration, you need to make certain the method you choose is something that is effective and will keep you motivated.

Do you typically like to learn in a class setting, with a private tutor, with an on-line or computer program, with audios, iTune applications, etc? Or maybe you like to change it up a bit and learn with a combination of a few of these. Whatever you choose, make sure it’s something you enjoy and will keep you motivated for the long haul.

Choose the Right Materials.

Here’s the decision that will get you where you want to be within four months. The materials you choose have to draw a straight line to your goal. In other words, you have to choose materials that are specifically relevant to the reason you are learning a language. If you’re learning in order to ask questions of your patients at the doctor’s office, there’s no sense in using materials that teach you travel or general conversation vocabulary.

That would be like walking miles to prepare for the marathon. If you walked long enough and fast enough, I imagine it’s possible that you may be able to run a marathon eventually (a very slow one). But, you would spend much more time on the training process. By the same token, if you choose the wrong language learning materials, you could spend years and years learning the entire language, but may never learn the vocabulary you need for your goal.

Plan the “Training”

You’ll want to plan your “training”. As I mentioned, for the marathon, I had to follow a strict training schedule to be able to run over twenty-six miles. Every day, for four months, I did some type of training in order to reach my goal. You have to do the same for learning a language in four months.

Make a plan that you will do a certain amount of practice, i.e. a lesson a day or a certain amount of time, i.e. thirty minutes a day. Plan when you will do it as well, i.e. in the morning before work, during your lunch break, etc. Be sure to pick a time that won’t be interrupted or replaced by another activity you need to do. Even make a plan for how you’ll make up the time if something does come up, as it inevitably will.

Finally, reward yourself for sticking to your plan and your goal regularly. Give yourself a pat on the back with that special latte or lunch out with friends. This will help keep you motivated week after week.

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Learning a language is an admirable and highly valuable goal to set for yourself. Just go about the process like you would any “big” goal for your life. Set a goal, get the right information, plan how you’re going to stick with it and go for it! I wish you great success on your language learning journey!

I was recently training a group of world language teachers on language acquisition and methodologies when an interesting topic arose: How can teachers integrate life lessons into daily language instruction?
After an interesting conversation with the group of teachers that day, I returned home and reflected on the language theories I had just taught. I realized that the ways we teach language are actually intertwined with the way we conduct our lives as social beings, regardless of what language we speak. The process in itself is a life lesson.
Let me explain. There are three ways (called strands) in which we teach a language. They are interpretation, interpersonal and presentational.
Interpretation
Interpreting language and situations is what we do as humans from the time we’re born. Before we can speak, we communicate with facial expressions, body language and sounds. We then interpret people’s responses as good, bad or indifferent. As we learn to speak the language, even though we hear the words the same as everyone else, we may interpret what is being said differently. So, in essence communication is dependent on the interpretation of the message. It is the same when we are listening to someone speak another language; we must interpret the meaning, not just the words.
Interpersonal
Interpersonal activities consist of the interactions that occur between individuals or groups. Again, we begin this activity (verbal and nonverbal) at an early age: with our families, at school and with friends. We continue these interactions for the rest of our lives. As second language learners, it’s imperative to use the new language with others as much as possible, to really understand how to communicate well and be interpersonal in the target language. Interpersonal skills are important for all aspects of our lives, regardless of what language you speak.
Presentational
Presentational activities assume there is an audience to whom you are presenting. This happens all the time in our daily lives; whether you are asking your boss for a raise, writing a blog post, sending an email or text, giving a toast, or actually presenting to a group. These are all life skills that are considered presentational. When learning another language, we need to be proficient in this ability as well. Taking into consideration that there is or may be an “audience” for your message is an important aspect of how we use our language. It’s also an important facet of life.
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Learning a new language is good practice for learning life lessons. The skills that you learn can be carried over to all aspects of your life. Not only do you gain a new ability (speaking another language), but you also hone your life skills.
It was an interesting revelation to see how entwined life skills and lessons are with language learning. I never really considered it before. But now I’ll be certain to let the teachers know that they are integrating life lessons everyday that they teach.

“Anyone who doesn’t make mistakes isn’t trying hard enough.” Wess Roberts

It’s only natural to make mistakes when learning a new language. It’s not only natural, it’s essential for improving your Spanish. You should consider that mistakes are opportunities to learn. They allow you to gain knowledge and accelerate your learning (in any circumstances). The important thing is to view mistakes as a useful stepping stone to speaking and understanding Spanish better. Be proud of yourself for embarking on something new, challenging and rewarding!

“Learn from the mistakes of others. You can’t live long enough to make them all yourself.” Unknown

Fortunately, after more than a decade of teaching Spanish to children and adults, I’ve recognized many of the same mistakes occurring again and again. This list of the most common pitfalls for English-speakers learning Spanish should be very helpful for your learning process. Read through the many errors below and keep a mental or written note to help give you a boost to communicating like a native speaker.

Gender Confusion of Nouns

All Spanish nouns are either feminine (la casa – the house) or masculine (el sombrero – the hat). English nouns don’t have a gender, so it’s confusing for English-speakers to assign an object with a masculine or feminine quality. The standard rule in Spanish is that nouns that end in “a” are feminine and the rest are masculine. If only it were that simple. Just like in English, there are exceptions to the rules of grammar. For example, many words that end in “ma” are usually masculine despite ending in the letter a.

Unnecessary Pronouns

In Spanish, the verb form tells listeners about whom they’re speaking; so actually saying the pronoun (yo, tú, él, nosotros, etc) isn’t necessary. In fact, using pronouns often gives away that you’re not a native speaker and you’ll also sound too formal. It’s understandable, because in English a sentence wouldn’t make sense without the pronoun, i.e. wants to learn to play piano. Who wants to learn to play piano? But in Spanish, the verb tells you the who.

Backwards Adjectives

Basically Spanish is “backwards” from English with regards to where adjectives are placed. In English, we put most adjectives before the noun. For example, we would say “the black bird”, but in Spanish, many adjectives come after the noun. The correct way to say the black bird in Spanish would be: el pájaro negro (the bird black).

Adjective/Noun Non-Agreement

In English, adjectives do not agree (masculine or feminine) with the nouns. This makes it difficult for English-speakers to automatically think of matching the adjective to the noun, as in Spanish (you also need to agree with the noun with singular or plural). For example, las casas blancas (the white houses) matches the noun gender (a) and number (s) with the adjective.

Using “False Friends” (False Cognates)

Cognates are words that sound and look similar in Spanish and English, i.e. clase and class. There are many cognates, but some are “false friends”; they seem to mean the same thing, but they actually don’t. For example, you may think that asistir means to assist, but it actually means to attend (as in to attend a college). Be careful of false cognates because you could say something you really don’t want to, i.e.: estoy embarazada sounds like – I’m embarrassed, but it really means – I’m pregnant.

Pronunciation Errors

Spanish vowels are easy for English-speakers because they’re the same sound in English and they never change. Consonants are another story. Most are similar, but some are completely different in Spanish. For example, with words that begin with the letter “h”, the “h” is not pronounced (it’s silent). When you see “ll” it’s pronounced like a “y” (in most countries). Also the “j” is said like the “h”. There are many more like this, so make sure you practice the correct pronunciation!

Forgetting to be Respectful

The cultural influence of Spanish-speakers is built into their language usage. Hispanics show respect for elders and people in authority with the language they use to communicate with them. For example, in Latin America they use the tú form of a verb (informal) to speak with an “equal” or the usted form (formal) to show respect to another person. English-speakers may become confused on when to use which form and might unknowingly insult elders or be too formal with friends.

Confusing Ser and Estar

This is probably the most confusing aspect for English-speakers because ser and estar mean exactly the same: to be, but they are used in different circumstances. In general, ser is used for permanent states of being, like how someone looks, their career, their personality traits, etc. while estar refers to temporary states of being, like a location or a feeling. There’s much more to learn about ser and estar, so you’ll just have to learn the rules and do your best.

Remember to keep note of these common errors in hopes of avoiding them. And never feel embarrassed that you’ve made a mistake. Learning Spanish is a process that takes time, patience and persistence. If you learn from your mistakes, they can be your best teachers. Mistakes will propel you forward on your language learning journey. Be patient and gentle with yourself and you’ll surely get to your Spanish-speaking destination!

There are so many wonderful assets to knowing a second language — from being able to communicate well with friends, co-workers and clients, to obtaining a better job, to lessening the affects of Alzheimer’s, or to be reinvigorated about life because you’ve learned a new skill.

I believe it’s important that people aren’t fooled by myths to keep themselves or others from obtaining a skill that can so greatly improve their lives. Here are some of the myths I’ve heard about language learning over the years:

In the Past, Immigrants Learned English with the “Sink or Swim” Method

Many people argue that we shouldn’t give any special treatment for immigrants to learn English in America. They believe that, in the past, immigrants learned the language quickly and without any help, so current immigrants should do the same. This theory has some flaws.

It’s highly possible that many adult immigrants of the past did not learn English well, for quite some time, if at all. People moved into ethnic neighborhoods, socialized with each other and worked in entry level jobs where little English was needed.  Think about how multilingual the country must have been during the European immigration years. For example, there were newspapers in many different languages in all the major cities.

In addition, immigrants of the past had fewer reasons to learn English than they do today. Today many jobs require at least a high school degree. You’ll need more than that, if you want to actually support a family. Not to mention, the myriad of forms you’ll have to fill out (in English) to get a job, deal with insurance issues, government papers, enroll your children in school, etc.

It may have been possible to “get by” without English a hundred years ago, but this is not true today. We need to help immigrants learn English, so that they can have a better life for themselves and their families and contribute to the society as a whole.

Children Learn Languages Quicker & Easier than Adults

A child is exposed to a language for at least a full year before he ever utters a word. Then when he does, it’s very elementary. He may start with one word at a time and then add others, but without using the correct grammar. We don’t even start teaching grammar formally until the second grade; after a child’s been exposed to the language for about seven years with parents helping his progress along the way. I wouldn’t say this is considered “learning a language quickly and easily”.

Then, when we start teaching a child a second language, we do it more naturally than we do for adults. We teach children simple vocabulary and phrases, with pictures, short stories and fun activities. Conversely, we typically start teaching older students with grammar first. This is the complete opposite of how we learned our first language. It’s much harder than gradually being exposed to the language naturally. This is another reason why we think it’s easier for children to learn, but it’s definitely not true.

The Best Way to Learn a Foreign Language is to Live in another Country

Living in a foreign country for a substantial period of time, will help you to understand the everyday language of the country and learn basic speaking skills. But, you’ll have to support your learning with formal instruction or independent study. Otherwise, you will just learn what you need, in order to survive.

By living in a country where you don’t know the language, you’ll be forced into a position where it’s inevitable that you’ll make many mistakes, because you’ll have to speak. Natives won’t correct you, because they’ll try to be nice and understand you, even if your grammar or pronunciation is horrendous. Then, your mistakes can turn into bad habits, which are hard to break.

Learning in your own country may be a better option, if you can find a good language school, can motivate yourself and can find opportunities to practice the language you’re learning. After you’re confidently fluent in the target language, then going to another country can help to improve your language proficiency. Not to mention, it will be great fun, to be able to speak well to the natives.

Unfortunately, these and many more myths surrounding language learning keep people from embarking on an exciting adventure of learning a new language and culture. Now that you know some of the truths, I hope you won’t let any myths stop you from benefiting from all the great assets you could obtain from being bilingual!

Recently, I saw a short video about a man who was given ‘magic’ glasses. When he put on the glasses he was able to see phrases over people’s heads that showed their current life concerns, like: “just had a fight with my girlfriend”, “just found out I have cancer”, “struggling at work”, “can’t pay my bills this month”, etc. The purpose of the video was to show that we can’t see what struggles someone may be going through, just by looking at them.  It suggested that we should consider there may be more underneath a person’s daily façade than you could possibly know. Basically, that we shouldn’t judge without really knowing someone and we should be kind to everyone no matter what the circumstances.

The video reminded me of how people judge others who speak another language without even thinking about the struggles that person may be going through.  What if there were ‘magic’ glasses that translated the thoughts of others? When you put on these glasses with non-English speakers, you might see: “feeling insecure because I can’t speak English well”, “wish I could talk to them”, “trying to get a job so I can support my family”, “miss my family in my native country”, etc.

Millions of people in the U.S. speak more than one language and approximately 337 different languages are spoken in the United States. It’s inevitable that everyone in this country has come across someone who may not speak English well. What do you think when you see or meet someone who has difficulty speaking English? Do you speak a little slower, so they can understand you? Are you patient with them, as they try to think of and pronounce the words they want to say to you? Do you realize how insecure they feel speaking in their second language? Do you think about how hard it is for them to find a good job or get promoted?

From a human perspective, we all want to be understood; whether we speak another language or not. We all have similar worries, dreams and hopes swimming around in our minds. No one lives their lives without joys and struggles. Moreover, our lives and the difficulties we experience are not any more or less important than the people we meet. Neither is there a time when we should consider ourselves better or less than any other human being. It’s a shame to see examples of times when people don’t realize this and put themselves on an exalted level at the suffering of someone else.

Unfortunately, I experienced an example of this when I was standing at the end of a line at an airport fast food establishment. A gentleman was placing his order and the counter person (being from India) had difficulty understanding what he was saying, because her English skills were poor. He loudly and angrily repeated the order. The poor woman behind the counter was so shaken by his yelling and obvious aggressive nature she ended up giving him the wrong order. He kept yelling at her and he finally said: “You dumb $%#@! You can’t even speak English! Go back to your country!” Believe it or not, things turned worse from there.

The people behind him in the line started to get aggravated that they had to wait, (it was only a few minutes that had passed). They started saying things, like: “Come on!” “Hurry Up!” “What’s taking so long?” Now, with everyone making the matter worse, it was as if the woman behind the counter was faced with an angry mob, all because of a lousy cheeseburger and fries.

Everything happened so fast, I felt I was almost in a state of shock. Looking back, I wish I had reacted faster to help this woman. Just as I started to go up to the counter and defend the woman, another worker came to her rescue. The Indian woman retreated through a back door. I imagined she went somewhere and cried or went straight home. Who knows how that experience affected her life?

I was so distraught after seeing this happen. I couldn’t believe that people could be so cruel, just because someone had a little difficulty understanding the language. If the counter person was having trouble understanding because of her language difficulties, the customer could have spoken slower or wrote down what he wanted. Instead, he automatically felt he was better than the worker and used his false sense of superiority to abuse the woman.

In reality, she may be fluent in more languages than the man at the counter and may even have an advanced degree from her country; but has to take an entry level job because she is still learning English. Maybe she fled her country due to violence or poverty. Maybe she works two jobs and studies English every day, so she can provide a better life for her child. Without the ‘magic’ translation glasses we never know what struggles someone may be going through (without asking).

What if everyone had these ‘magic’ translation glasses? Wouldn’t it be nice if we all had empathy or sympathy for others? Whether it’s how we look, how we speak or what we say. There would no language or other barriers between us. We would never judge others or be judged. It seems it would be a kinder world in which to live.

It’s all about communication! We humans just want to understand each other. No matter what language we speak, the goal is always the same: communication. It seems that most language learning companies forget this simple premise.The majority of companies out there, like Rosetta Stone and Berlitz have this silly idea that the general public wants to learn the entire language and all the boring grammar rules that go along with it. The truth is that less than 4% of the population enjoys learning a language in this way. The result is that most give up or don’t even try.It just seems so simple to teach people what they need to communicate and nothing more (unless they’re part of the 4% mentioned above). If you agree, please help us spread the word that learning a language CAN be easy and fun!

KAMMS’ programs don’t bog people down with useless vocabulary or boring grammar. You learn what you need to communicate ~ and that’s all!

Please give us your feedback or questions in the comment section below. We will promptly reply. Thanks!

You may be familiar with someone I admire greatly and the Nobel Peace prize winner, Muhammed Unas. Dr Yunus created the concept of micro-finance. He started the Grameen bank that gives small loans to low-income women and men to start and build businesses. His guidance and inspiration has empowered thousands of poor people to create small businesses which take them out of poverty, ultimately promoting peace in the world. I strongly believe that we all have unique gifts that can help people in many different ways and (in the big picture) promote peace in our world. The reason I’m so passionate about what we do here at KAMMS is because I feel communication is the essence of humanity. It’s an innate desire we all possess: to communicate with other human beings. I also believe that bringing people together through language and understanding each other’s culture will promote peace in the U.S. and around the world. And I’m not the only one! Here are a few examples of others who share my sentiments about the importance of languages and culture:

• The top official for the United Nations stated that “multilingualism is a means of promoting, protecting and preserving the diversity of the world’s languages and cultures.”
• Under-Secretary-General for Communications and Public Information said: “Languages, which ones you understand or speak, read or write, whether on the Internet or in your society, can make the difference between knowing and not knowing”.
• The UN Coordinator for Multilingualism said: Knowing languages can also make the difference between “being able to participate and being excluded.”

I think we can all agree that it’s crucial to learn other languages and understand other cultures, given our ever growing diversity, instant connectivity to around the world, and opportunities it would afford us. So why then do so many of us choose not to gain this knowledge. Let’s explore one of the responses I receive when I ask this question:“I’m no good at languages. I tried in high school (or college) and just couldn’t do it.” This one bothers me the most; considering I was a high school Spanish teacher and I witnessed the many antiquated teaching methods still in use today. It’s more than likely you were taught with the following:

• irrelevant vocabulary you’d never use (my school taught vocabulary for going fishing, scuba diving and skiing)
• grammar rules first (you learned approximately 50 ways to conjugate a verb – good luck figuring out which one to use when you’re trying to have a conversation)
• vocabulary out of context (you learned a list you had to memorize, so you know a lot of words, but you can’t put them together to form a sentence)

First thing first: You have an innate ability to learn languages. As many as you want! You learned your first language easily and without stress. The problem is that most educational institutions don’t teach you the way you learned your first language. They start with grammar. You didn’t learn the grammar of your first language until you were in second grade. At that point you had already heard the language for seven years, you were able to communicate and you could put sentences together on your own. The reason you weren’t able to learn easily in high school or college was because most of their teaching techniques go against every law of language acquisition methodology I know. Because of my experience watching and using these techniques as a grade school and high school teacher, I know they don’t work. This is why, after 10 years of research, I created the Spanish on the Job and English on the Job programs; so that learners can understand and speak the relevant language they need immediately. I have watched people learning with my programs be able to converse within three months. I’m very proud of this, but I’m also frustrated that more people don’t know that they CAN learn languages easily.So please, when you meet me, please don’t tell me that you can’t learn languages. AARGHH! I know you can! If you’d like to check out the programs or to contact me, please go to our website: www.kammsworldwide.comI wish you great success! Stacey Kammerman CEO KAMMS WorldWidePlease give us feedback or questions in the comment section below and we will reply promptly. Thanks!