5 reasons to learn a foreign language abroad

There are many ways of learning a language and some are more effective than others. One technique will not suit all (probably even 20 different techniques wouldn't suit all) since the ‘best’ way to learn something is very subjective. Before I came to Salamanca many of my friends asked me why I am going to Spain to study Spanish while I could ‘just as easily’ learn it from the comfort of my own home in Slovakia.  Although I understood where they were coming from (some of them have never studied abroad), I couldn't really agree and little by little I have ended up with a list of reasons why I think it is a good idea to study Spanish in Spain and I would like to share it with you now.

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1. Immersion is key. The main point I couldn't agree on with my friends that I could learn Spanish ‘just as easily’ in Slovakia as I could do it in Spain (or any other Spanish speaking country).  Since I have tried to learn a few languages before, I know how my mind works and I know that ‘full immersion into the language and culture’ works best for me. I find it easier to learn a language when I am surrounded by it 24 hours a day, 7 days a week rather than 2.5 hours once a week.  When you are in the country full of native speakers you listen to the language all the time, whether you are using public transport, walking on the street or doing groceries (I am not mentioning being in class because that’s a given when you decide to join a language school).

2. Personal growth. The second reason is that although it is nice to stay somewhere where you are already know the environment and the people, most of personal development occurs while you are out of your comfort zone. Being out of your comfort zone is not always the most pleasant of experiences (hence the term), however, once the things outside of your comfort zone become part of it you will feel better and there’s a big chance you will have changed as a person too (for the better, of course).

3. Meet new people. The third reason is that whenever you move into a new place you will meet new people, however, that doesn’t always mean you will also make new friends. On the other hand, when you go to study a foreign language abroad you are very likely to meet a lot of like-minded individuals who are also looking for new friends and are eager to get to know you.  And because you are more or less in the same situation it is likely that you will bond faster than in ‘normal’ circumstances and that your friendships will last longer.

4. Once you are there, travel around. The forth reason is maybe the strongest incentive for some and that is travelling. Especially if the person lives rather far from the country where the language is spoken, it is cheaper and more comfortable to travel around the country once you are in it than if you have fly there every time (not to mention that you will visit many interesting places that you would not otherwise). For example, I have visited places such as Segovia, Ávila, La Alberca and Ciudad Rodrigo that I would not have otherwise visited (or even known about).

5. Good for work. And last but not least, if you are thinking about your future, studying a language abroad may help you gain a competitive advantage whether you are considering applying for a university programme or looking for a job. University admissions and job hunting are becoming more and more competitive and the importance of being able to differentiate yourself is increasing. Being able to speak one or more foreign languages is always advantageous, however, studying the language in its country of origin is even more than that. It shows that you are independent, able to take care of yourself, that you like challenges and that you are not afraid of getting out of your comfort zone and personally develop.

As a person who has studied abroad a relatively long time, I dare to say that all of these things are true. If you feel that you are have lived in a bubble then learning a foreign language abroad is the right thing to do. It will broaden your horizons by getting to know a different culture and language and new people who are likely to be from all over the world, and by bringing some new challenges that you have not expected. And most importantly, when all is said and done you will feel like a new person who has accomplished a great lot of things since you left home. 

In Search of the Best Quote About Foreign Language Learning, Results!

Three weeks ago we started a basic game about famous quotes about languages and the learning of languages entitled: "Looking for the best quote about languages and their learning". It was simply to choose the best quote about this theme from those that were shown in the article (if you haven't read the article we invite you to do so right now!) As we said, it's something that we are very passionate about, famous quotes about languages and the learning of them, because as you can see in the list of quotes from the article, there are some marvellous quotes that really make you think. And now we have a winner!(The photo above might give you some clue!) There were teachers and members of Tía Tula staff, students of the school, writers of this blog and some of our followers on the Tía Tula Facebook that had voted in this game, thank you for your contributions!

To pay tribute to the second and third place quotes, which may be less well known, but for some hold a greater meaning, here is the top three quotes!

1. “If you talk to a man in a language he understands, that goes to his head. If you talk to him in his language, that goes to his heart” - (Nelson Mandela, South African politician and Nobel Peace Prize laureate in 1993)

2. “To learn a language is to have one more window from which to look at the world” – (Chinese proverb)

3.  “Speak a new language so that the world will be a new world” – (Jalaluddin Rumi, Persian poet)

The winner, the Mandela quote, was the clear favourite from the start. The truth is that it swept the floor with votes with a great distance between first and second place. As is well known by everyone, Nelson Mandela (1918-2013) was an activist, a lawyer and a South African politician in the twentieth and twenty first centuries, though the main reason people know him is due to his peaceful fight against racial segregation. He was the first black prime minister of the republic of South Africa (1994 and 1999). He established a democratic political model for his country and was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize for his work against racism in 1993. In his quote Madiba-a nickname he was known as by many in his country which has now become a fashionable way to refer to him- he speaks to us about the power that words possess, and how that power is multiplied when you know a language of a different culture. Power that in one way you feel in your heart directly, power of communication without filters or barriers. A beautiful and brilliant way of thinking that creates cause to reflect.

In search of the best quote about foreign language learning

We love quotes about foreign language learning. What can we do about it? It’s a weakness of ours. So we have thought: “Why don’t we put up a list of the best ones?”. No sooner said than done, here you are. Please, read them all. You will see why we love foreign language learning quotes.

We ended up with 14 quotes. A bad number, a number we don’t like. Your typical list post has 10, 12, 15… points: “The 10 best quotes about foreign language learning”, “12 inspiring quotes about languages”… But we came up with 14, so we have decided to get rid of two of them. Now, which two? We also need to figure out how to arrange them… Here’s our solution: the ‘ask the audience’ card. We are going to ask everybody in the school –teachers, students and staff- to vote for the three favourites: the most voted one will be the first, followed by the next two. This way we will be able to use this title for our next post, which will feature the results of our survey: “The best quote about foreign language learning”. Who can resist such a title?

Are you game? The more people join, the merrier. You can submit your vote (your three favourites) via Facebook, Twitter, or the comments sections below.

The results will be published in a few days.

“If you talk to a man in a language he understands, that goes to his head. If you talk to him in his language, that goes to his heart” - Nelson Mandela, South African politician and Nobel Peace Prize laureate

“A different language is a different vision of life” – Federico Fellini, film director and scriptwriter

“To learn a language is to have one more window from which to look at the world” – Chinese proverb

 “You live a new life for every new language you speak. If you know only one language, you live only once” – Czech proverb

“Language is the road map of a culture. It tells you where its people come from and where they are going” – Rita Mae Brown, American writer

“To have another language is to possess a second soul” – Charlemagne, medieval emperor

“Our language is the reflection of ourselves. A language is an exact reflection of the character and growth of its speakers” – Cesar Chavez, American civil rights activist

“Learning a foreign language not only reveals how other societies think and feel, what they have experienced and value, and how they express themselves, it also provides a cultural mirror in which we can more clearly see our own society” – Edward Lee Gorsuch, former chancellor of the University of Alaska

“Those who know nothing of foreign languages know nothing of their own” – Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, German writer and statesman

“You can never understand one language until you understand at least two” – Geoffrey Willans, English author and journalist

“One language sets you in a corridor for life. Two languages open every door along the way” – Frank Smith, American psycholinguist

“If we spoke a different language, we would perceive a somewhat different world” - Ludwig Wittgenstein, Austrian-British philosopher

“Knowledge of languages is the doorway to wisdom” – Roger Bacon, English philosopher

“One who speaks only one language is one person, but one who speaks two languages is two people” - Turkish proverb

“Learning another language is not only learning different words for the same things, but learning another way to think about things” - Flora Lewis, American journalist

“Language is not a genetic gift, it is a social gift. Learning a new language is becoming a member of the club –the community of speakers of that language” – Frank Smith, American psycholinguist

“Learning a new language is like starting a new life” – Michel Bouthot, teacher and multidisciplinary artist

 “Speak a new language so that the world will be a new world” – Rumi, Persian poet

“Langague shapes the way we think, and determines what we can think about” – Benjamin Lee Whorf, American linguist

“We should learn languages because language is the only thing worth knowing even poorly” – Kató Lomb, Hungarian interpreter and translator

 “It is literally the case that learning languages makes you smarter. The neural networks in the brain strengthen as a result of language learning” – Michael Gove, British politician

“The most intimate temper of a people, its deepest soul, is above all in its language” – Jules Michelet, French historian

Check out the Spanish version of this article

10 tips for effective language learning

Learning a new language opens the door to other cultures, knowledge and places; however, the study process sometimes becomes boring and complicated, which may result so demoralizing that one loses all interest. A non-optimal learning method is often to blame: timewise inefficient, focused on topics uninteresting to the student, or centered on theoretical aspects.

At Tía Tula we want you to be successful in your learning and to enjoy in the process, too. Here is a list with 10 useful tips on how to accomplish these goals:

1. Take it calmly and be tenacious. Miracles don’t exist and neither do miraculous methods. Learning a language well demands time and effort. This may sound hard, but it is actually the best part of the process. Remember, big efforts lead to big rewards. 

2. Make mistakes. Don’t be afraid of getting some things wrong when talking to native speakers or your language teacher. You will be learning something new every time they correct you. This is, without a doubt, the best way to make a new word, expression or gramatical structure stick. Repetition is key. 

3. Take advantage of new technologies. A great load of materials can be found on the Internet for you to deepen your learning. For instance, online media, forums, documentaries, podcasts… Smartphones also make a great study tool; there is a good number of useful apps ready for you to download. 

4. Don’t despair. If you can’t remember something, don’t get demoralized, you will have more chances. Language is learnt by means of repetitive and contextualized usage, resulting in a much more fluent and natural ability to communicate.  

5. Converse with native speakers. Sound is the most primitive form of language; babies transmit their first words through their voice. Consequently, speaking is the most natural way to learn a language. Also, conversing with natives helps expression and comprehension and improves your accent and rhythm in the language. 

6. Organize your time wisely. If you study a little bit everyday, rather than studying for long periods with a lot of inactivity time, you will assimilate more. This is firstly because the human brain has a concentration span of about a couple of hours; therefore, after that time, your study becomes less fruitful. And secondly, the less time between sessions, the less you will forget what you have previously learnt; in other words, this way you will get a deeper immersion in the language.

7. Know the culture. According to Rita Mae Brown: “Language is the road map of a culture. It tells you where its people come from and where they are going” (Starting from Scratch, 1988). We are convinced that it also works in the opposite direction: knowing a culture, its customes, and way of thinking is great for learning a language in depth. 

8. Don’t worry about your accent. Your goal doesn’t need to be sounding like a native, but managing to be easily understood. This has to do with the rhythm and intonation of the language. Pay attention to the ‘melody’ of native speech and try to mimic it.  

9. Stay away from literal translation. Don’t look for an absolute equivalence between two languages, not even when it looks like a ‘literal translation’; for instance, ‘breakfast’ doesn’t have the same meaning as desayuno in Spanish since the concept draws differently in the minds of native Spanish speakers and native English speakers (it has different cultural implications: time, what it consists of…).  That’s why, as we mentioned on tip number 7, we advise you to learn a language from its roots.

10. Have fun! We encourage you to read, write, converse and listen to the language you are learning; but most of all, have a good time and enjoy the process. 

So what are you waiting for to put these ten golden rules into practice?

In case you haven’t noticed, one can easily draw the conclusion that the best way to learn a language, or to work towards its mastery,  is a linguistic immersion, of shorter or longer duration, in a country where your target language is the only or main one. It’s not us saying it: experts agree. And deep down everybody knows…

International Day of the Book

As every year, we’ve celebrated the International Day of the Book (23 April), we’ve taken the opportunity to ask the school staff which book of the Hispanic literature they will read again. The literary works could be of any genre but originally written in Spanish.

The purpose of this poll was to create a list of our favorite books, by Spanish or Hispanic authors, to recommend to students and of course, enjoy ourselves. Throughout this work, we were able to confirm what we were already suspecting: the school staff has an exquisite literary taste!

Here is the result of this small public opinion poll (in strict alphabetical order, though...):

Aline : ‘Sin noticias de Gurb’  by Eduardo Mendoza.

Ana Andreu : ‘La tabla de Flandes’ by Arturo Pérez-Reverte.

Ana Cortina : ‘El manuscrito de piedra’ by Luis García Jambrina.

Ana Fernández : ‘El maestro del Prado’ by Javier Sierra and ‘La verdad sobre el caso Savolta’ by Eduardo Mendoza.

Ana Sáenz : ‘Retahílas by Carmen Martín Gaite.

Beatrice : ‘La sonrisa etrusca’ by José Luis Sampedro .

Carmen : ‘El tiempo entre costuras’ by María Dueñas and ‘Como agua para chocolate’ by Laura Esquivel .

Cristina Martin : ‘Cien años de soledad’ by Gabriel García Márquez, and ‘Retrato en sepia’ by Isabel Allende.

Cristina Ramos : "La Celestina" by Fernando de Rojas.

Elena : ‘Poesía completa’  by Alejandra Pizarnik .

Enrique : ‘La ciudad y los perros’ by Mario Vargas Llosa, and ‘Olvidado Rey Gudú’ by Ana María Matute .

Javier : ‘Los renglones torcidos de Dios’ by Torcuato Luca De Tena.

Lourdes : ‘Espantapájaros’ by Oliver Girondo .

Macarena : ‘La sombra del viento’  by Carlos Ruiz Zafón.

Montse : "Bichos" by Miguel Torga .

Nela : ‘Poeta en Nueva York’ by Federico Garcia Lorca.

Rosa: ‘La Tía Tula’ by Miguel de Unamuno, and ‘Marianela’ by Benito Pérez Galdós.

 

We’ve also included the list of the 100 best novels in Spanish published by El Mundo newspaper in 2001, in which they’ve taken into account the opinion of both 20,000 critics and readers:

Top  100 novels in Spanish by “El Mundo” - 2001

We hope you come over just as well as us with these magnificent works. In addition to, we'd love to know your opinion. What book of Hispanic literature would you like to read again?

Learning a second language before speaking

There is no minimum age to begin to delve into the linguistic richness of a second language. According to scientific evidence, the sooner you hear the new language, the better. From birth would be more advisable. Advantages for the growing infant are it would be easier for them to speak the language; it will help in concentration and even delay Alzheimer's.

The brain of the early born is like a blank journal. If we wait to have all the pages written to learn another language, there will not be enough space remaining and we will have to write on the side, said Jose Antonio Portellano, neuropsychologist and professor at the Faculty of Psychology of the Universidad Complutense de Madrid. This is a perfect metaphor to understand that "the earlier you learn a new language, the more effective it is," he stresses.

This is due to neuroplasticity (ability of the brain and the nervous system to adapt itself to changes), namely, "the reverse plasticity rule: the younger you are, the more ability to learn in general and, therefore, the less it costs to assimilate a new language". The cognitive flexibility is not the same depending on the age

This theory is supported by the scientific literature, in which as quoted by Portellano "we couldn’t find a single drawback associated with early learning of a second language. Quite the opposite, we have seen that it makes a person smarter. Not because it increases the number of neurons but because it improves neuronal connections, the quality of the circuits and cerebral density. All this helps the brain to build itself better. There is more of myelin (a substance that protects the axons), and the learning is more fluid. "

It changes the structure of the brain and this positively affects memory, attention ability and delays dementia. According to a study published in the journal “Neurology”, being bilingual can delay Alzheimer up to four or five years. Furthermore, those who handle several languages use more brain areas, are accustomed to exercising the brain and move with more ease when performing different tasks at once.

Ultimately, neuropsychologists recommend starting as soon as possible the immersion in a second language. Some claim that the benefits can begin even before birth, in the womb of the mother. Whether or not this is the case, the truth is that neuropsychologists recommend taking advantage "from time zero".

It is not enough to put only the cartoons in another language, there must be another element of support: family or day-care. The new language has to 'coexist' naturally with the young child, ie,  some songs are sung in English, others have to be hummed in the other language, and stories also have to be read in that language. Parents should, as well as speak in the native language, also use this second language."

When learning starts from time zero, since everything is yet to build into the brain, it shows in phonology, ie a person gets an accent that is more original. Although the benefits are numerous, the problem is that parents who do not know another language feel it is difficult to make the new language an element in the home. However, they have other options, such as television with the various language learning programs, day-care with or even a foreign nanny. The important thing, stresses Portellano, is not to rush learning with academic rules. This can come later. Instead enjoy the freedom of conversing and expressing oneself while learning the joys of a second language.

Make the most of your immersion experience in Salamanca!

There are many opportunities open to you on a daily basis now that you are in Salamanca, to improve your Spanish Language skills. Take as much advantage as you can in your new country by putting yourself in situations where you have to speak the language. Instead of reverting to your native tongue, practice with your fellow students after class. You may stumble across the words but this is part of the journey to improvement!

 

Stop off at a fruit stall and have a conversation with the seller on the produce for sale or go to the grocery store, where you have to read labels and talk to cashiers. Think of as many public situations as you can that will compel you to interact with locals so that you can practice speaking to help expand your vocabulary. It may seem intimidating or frustrating at first but the more you practice the better you will get.

 

 

Keep a small notebook handy to make notes of new words or frequently used phrases. Use it as a reference guide. Eventually you would keep referring to it less and less.

 

Label up! Using some brightly colored Post It Notes, walk around your apartment or your room and label the things you use or see. Constantly seeing the labels in Spanish will help to imprint the names of these objects in your memory.

 

Keep a record of your daily activities by writing in Spanish what you’ve done or experienced and how it made you feel. This will help improve your writing skills and expand your vocabulary.

 

There are plenty of different ways to maximize your language learning skills while studying abroad but the most important thing to remember, however, is to step out of your comfort zone. Language learning necessitates making mistakes constantly, but this is all a part of the journey to improvement. If you have any tips that have worked for you and you would like to share with the other students feel free to leave a note in the comment section. Buena suerte!

 

 

Debra, Student in Tia Tula

My stay in Salamanca

I have been in Salamanca for a little more than one month and here I am, already halfway through my internship. Time goes by so quickly here! Between work, activities and travel, I do not have time to get bored. 

 

My internship in the office is very interesting and rewarding. My colleagues always take the time necessary to show and explain new things to me and the work matches well what I have to do as part of my studies of personal assistant. What I also appreciate is that there are always things to do, whether ad frequent tasks as welcoming new students, responding to emails or going to send mail or tasks over the long term as marketing tasks ...

 

Regarding activities, Tia Tula offers a variety of activities every week. These are always a good opportunity to spend time with other students and to get to know new ones that have just arrived. During these activities, we speak in Spanish, which allows everyone to practice outside of class; those who have a good level helping those who have more difficulties. 

Last week, I enjoyed climbing to the Clerecia towers. We were eight students of Tia Tula and got to see the whole city from the top of the towers, a gorgeous view! 
 

I also take the weekends to visit this region of Spain: on Saturdays I go visit surrounding cities or villages. As you will see if you search a bit on the internet, there are many places to go by bus. The rest of my free time, I hang out with students of Tia Tula or with other people I've already met. 

 
It is impossible to come to Spain and miss the famous Tapas, which are a very friendly way of eating. There are also regular events in Salamanca which you can attend for example these days there was the FACYL festival, you can also watch film in VO subtitled, or go to listen to concerts in bars ... 

 

For me, Salamanca is a city where you never get bored. As a foreign student, it is very easy to meet people and there is no better way to improve in Spanish!

Claire, Intern