YouTube Draw My Life videos

One day I came across a "Draw my life" video on Youtube and watched it, and was almost in tears. It was by Michelle Phan, whom I wrote about before here. The video was very touching and it got me addicted to watching more of these sorts of videos, made by people I'd never heard about before..

Here is her video:



And then I came across this one, by a young 18 year old French girl, Horia AKA UnMondeAuFéminin.



These days my French is definitely not progressing at all. In fact, I am ashamed to say that I hardly ever use it :( I don't really need to use it much for work and all of my friends speak English so I speak English the majority of the time.. but anyway, I'm happy to report that I can understand everything in this video, even if I do feel that she speaks super fast (like all teens do). Check out her video for some listening practice.

If there's something these videos have shown me is that no matter how happy and wonderful someone's life seems on the outside we all have the same problems, worries, fears, and ups and downs, and that's what makes us real and human.

Happy watching!

Learning a foreign language: Surround yourself with the people, culture and context

I came across this interesting article and agree with what it says.
Basically they're saying that not being surrounded by the context and culture of the language you're learning affects how fluently you speak the language.. pretty much common sense really! ;)

Pertinent quotes

• The findings could help explain why cultural immersion is the most effective way to learn a foreign tongue and why immigrants who settle within an ethnic enclave acculturate more slowly than those who surround themselves with friends from their new country
• Previous studies have shown that cultural icons such as landmarks and celebrities act like "magnets of meaning," instantly activating a web of cultural associations in the mind and influencing our judgments and behavior

Check it out!

Picking up patterns in languages

Interesting article..

linky

Some research suggests that learning a second language draws on capacities that are language-specific, while other research suggests that it reflects a more general capacity for learning patterns. According to psychological scientist and lead researcher Ram Frost of Hebrew University, the data from the new study clearly point to the latter:

"These new results suggest that learning a second language is determined to a large extent by an 

individual ability that is not at all linguistic," says Frost.

In the study, Frost and colleagues used three different tasks to measure how well American students in an overseas program picked up on the structure of words and sounds in Hebrew. The students were tested once in the first semester and again in the second semester. ...