A blog about languages and linguistics

Archives for August 2020

Language learning tips

How You Can Learn a Language Through Music with 3 easy exercises

I decided to share how you can learn a language through music with 3 easy exercises with you because this was my faaaaavorite way of learning back in the day! I got a kick out of it and it really didn’t feel like a task – I just enjoyed it so much.

So, why wouldn’t you? As far as I know, all of like at least some sort of music. Make the most of it!

What song do I choose?

There’s no ”best” answer to this question. If you don’t like Michael Jackson’s songs, why would you all of a sudden start listening to his music just for this task? Your brain will recognize it as a chore – you’ll be more motivated if you choose a song you like. I used to listen to rap songs…can you imagine what that was like?! Trying to get all the slang right was a pain in the neck, but still, I had fun and it helped me learn – and that’s what learning a language through music is really about.

1) Write your own lyrics

Get out your pen and paper (laptop/phone) and start writing! The best way to do this is by pausing the song after every sentence or 4-5 words so you’re not overwhelmed.

Look, it doesn’t have to be correct (and it won’t) so stop judging yourself. Like you already know, you NEED to make mistakes first in order to make progress and get better at your target language. No need to replay the parts you didn’t hear right, just write what you hear and with time you’ll get better.

NEXT, check the original lyrics at https://www.lyrics.com/ and compare the right one with yours. Pay special attention to the words you didn’t get right and listen to the song one more time with the right lyrics.

2) Underline and learn the new terms

This is not too demanding because most songs have a pre-chorus and a chorus that are repeated! Plus most mainstream songs are generally repetitive which doesn’t speak well for today’s mainstream music BUT repetition is AWESOME for language learning, so THANKS, mainstream music! 🙌 Of course, you can opt for something super sophisticated as well, you cool cat!

3) Sing along!

Karaoke mood ON, self-consciousness OFF! Be the star of your own concert and your Number 1 fan. You can also sing for someone. I was brave and used to post videos of me singing French rap on Instagram and Facebook. Yeah, I won’t be posting the link to that, no worries!!! Although honestly, the ones that spoke French loved the effort and all the other ones were like, woooow you speak French. Ummm I just learned the lyrics, guys. Which eventually led me to speak French so there you go!

Make sure you’re reading the lyrics as you sing along. You can even go a step further and learn the song by heart! If you do, I respect you and you’re the real boss of this language learning game.

A very important note😊:

NO need to analyze the song in regard to its meaning and know EXACTLY what it’s about (unless you want to). I mean, it’s probably only the artist who knows what the song is exactly about. For example, in Smooth Criminal by Michael Jackson, he keeps repeating: ” Annie are you OK?”. No need to know who Annie is. I don’t think anyone does. Remember that singers are artists, after all.

Hope this post about learning a language through music inspired you. Let me know what songs you’re listening to in the comments.:)

Language learning tips

Free Labor Day Vocabulary List You Need for your French Class (including slang)

Salut! Comment ça va?

Labor Day’s coming up! Are you wondering how to use work-related Labor Day vocabulary in French for your cours de français? Today, I’ll share my list of some of the essential vocabulary and slang when talking about work.

TRAVAIL – work/job

Travail is a masculine noun so you need ”le”, ”un” or ”au” ( à + le) before it, depending on the structure. Here are some example sentences:

J’ai trouvé un travail! Je commence lundi. ( I found a job! I start on Monday.)

Je (ne) peux pas rester longtemps car je dois partir au travail. ( I can’t stay long because I have to go to work).

Travailler – to work

Travailler is a regular verb ending in -er, so you can treat it accordingly.

Personne ne travaille le weekend-end. (Nobody works on the weekend.)

J’ai travaillé toute la journée, je me sens fatiguée. ( I worked the whole day, I feel tired.)

Les horaires- work hours

Les horaires is the plural of l’horaire, but we usually use the word in plural.

Quels sont tes horaires d’ouverture? (What are your opening hours?)

Mes horaires varient du jour au lendemain. ( My work hours depend on the day.)

Le salaire – salary

Est-ce que tu es satisfait(e) de ton salaire? (Are you happy with your salary?)

Quand est-ce qu’on reçois notre salaire? (When do we get our salaries?)

La journée de travail – work day

Notice how ”work” comes after the word ”day”, literally, it would translate as ”day of work”.

Les docteurs ont des journée de travail longues. (Doctors have a long work day.)

Combien elle dure ta journée de travail? ( How long is your work day)

La grêve – strike

Qui a organisé la grêve d’aujourd’hui? (Who organized today’s strike?)

Le congé – holiday/day off

FYI: We use this word to talk about ”maternity leave” for example ( le congé de maternité) as well.

Combien de jours de congé as-tu? ( How many days off do you have?)

Gagner de l’argent – earn money

Je dois travailler pour gagner de l’argent. ( I need to work in order to earn money.)

Le CV – résumé ( Le CV is in French!)

How weird that the French actually usually le CV and not résumé, which is also a French word but means something else!

If you’d like to know more words in English that the French don’t use, check out: https://accentavocado.com/5-french-words-in-english-that-are-used-differently-in-french/

Il faut fournir le CV et une lettre de motivation. (You need to submit a résumé and a motivational letter.)

If you want to sound cool, here’s some slang:

Le boulot – work

Il n’y a pas besoin de venir la semaine prochaine, il y aura pas de boulot. ( No need to come next week, there won’t be any work to do.)

Bosser – to work

Dis moi quand tu finis de bosser, d’accord? (Let me know when you get off work, OK?)

Avoir du pain sur la planche – To have a lot of work.

J’a du pain sur la planche. (I have a lot of work.)

Le blé/le fric – money

On n’as pas assez de fric pour aller au *restau. ( We don’t have enough money for a restaurant.)

*restau – restaurant (informal French)

Le richard – a rich man

Il (ne) le semble pas, mais c’est un richard. (He doesn’t look like it, but he’s rich.)

Le smic – the minimum wage

Il faudra augmenter le smic. (The minimum wage should be raised.)

Être viré – to be fired

Je n’ai jamais été viré. ( I’ve never been fired.)

Would you like to make your own sentences? Feel free to do so in the comments below! I’ll be more than happy to read them and comment back.

Á la prochaine!

Language learning tips

How to Remember Vocabulary? 5 Simple Steps

Today I’ve decided to share the only 7 tricks you need to remember vocabulary! It’s your lucky day!!!!!!🌈

Are you struggling with trying to recall all those new words for your test next week? You’re traveling to a foreign country and want to communicate with locals but you can’t without those pesky expressions that don’t even make sense? Or you just want to improve vocabulary in your own language because you want to be the king/queen of eloquence? I understand!

Let’s learn how to remember vocabulary so that it MAKES SENSE and to ensure you don’t forget it. If you’d like to know why you shouldn’t remember vocabulary by heart, make sure to check out my other article: https://accentavocado.com/learning-vocabulary-by-heart-the-truth-about-it/

OK! Ready? Let’s start with the first step (duh):

1) Study the meaning

You can’t learn something unless you know what it MEANS, right? For starters, simply look at the first dictionary entry, just so you get the overall idea. I’ll take the word ”rate” as an example. After a very quick glance at a dictionary we see that it means ”the speed at which something happens”, that is enough for the moment. In step 3 we’ll get into more detail.

2) Listen and repeat

Most of the time, my students are hesitant to use new vocabulary because THEY CAN’T PRONOUNCE IT! And it makes sense, why would you want to a) go to the trouble of saying something you don’t fully understand and b) embarrass yourself seeing as the pronunciation is incorrect ?

DON’T LET THAT STOP YOU. As kids, we’d say a lot of funny things but did that stop us from speaking our native language? NO! Consider yourself a kid that’s learning a language, all over again.😊 This time, unlike 20+ years ago, you’re a kid with a looooot of resources.

My favorite one is https://www.wordreference.com/ (for all languages) and you can even choose the dialect you’d like for the word to be repeated in.

Click PLAY and repeat the word after the speaker. And again, and again, and again. Until you can say confidently.

Keep Word Reference open, you’ll need it for the third step.

3) Study at least 3 dictionary entries (and read example sentences)

We all know that a word can have several meanings, so we need to familiarize ourselves with them because we may hear/need the word in different contexts. For example, the word ”rate” can mean:

a) measurement, ratio

”The birth rate is steadily increasing.”

b) price, fee

”What is your rate for this service?”

c) It can also be a VERB: (book, film: give a rating; evaluate; be ranked)

‘‘ She rated the book 4 stars.”; ”The boss will rate your performance.”, ”She rates second in the world.”

4) Put the words into the right context

Here comes the fun part!😊 Let your creativity shine.

You see the example sentences in part 4? You’ll be substituting them with your own ideas! Nothing crazy and not difficult at all, as you’ll be using the similar/same context. EVEN BETTER, try to make them true for you.

For example, ”I finished reading The Woman in the Window yesterday and I would rate it 5 starts because I didn’t find it predictable at all.” (I totally recommend the book, too!)

In this step, you only need to WRITE the sentences.

5) Record yourself using the word/s.

OK, your favorite part, you get to use your smartphone! You can record your voice, OR what I personally recommend – try recording a VIDEO of yourself.

Also, feel free to use all the words you’ve learned by following steps 1,2,3 and 4.

You can: make up a story you’ll tell your ”audience” or interview yourself by writing out questions you’ll answer in the video.

Did you like the tips? Let me know in the comments!

Language learning tips

Six mistakes you make in English as a Spanish speaker

Have you ever wondered what are the common mistakes you make in English as a Spanish speaker? Keep reading to find out and learn what you should say instead.

1) People is

This is an obvious one. Even my highest-level students would occasionally say this. The thing is that, like you know, we use ”is” for singular and ”are” for plural. In English, the noun people is considered to be plural.

What are people? People just are, because they’re so cool like that!

2) Is interesting/nice/etc.

Is what interesting?

In English sentences we need a subject (except for imperatives i.e. keep reading!) , and we usually put the subject first and then the verb.

In Spanish, ”es bueno” is definitely something people would say because ”es” acts as both the person and the verb. If you’re not sure what the subject is, more often than not, it’s ”it”. We LOVE using IT in English. In fact, we also call it a dummy subject in sentences about time, weather and dates. So, you would say: ”It’s raining.”, or ”It’s 7 o’clock.”

Why do we call it a dummy subject? Because it doesn’t refer to anything. But we still need it as it has a very important grammatical function and that is to act as a subject.

3) To can

To can or not to can?

Honestly, you better not! 😁

So, you know that ”can” is a modal verb, just like could, may, must, might, shall, would and will. WE DO NOT USE ”TO” either after or before them.

These modals have always been special, eh? If you’d like to know more, check out: https://dictionary.cambridge.org/grammar/british-grammar/modal-verbs-and-modality

4) My sons/My fathers

If you really have two male parents and all your children are boys, this doesn’t refer to you.

But more often than not, my students mean ”my parents” when they say my fathers (a mother and a father), and ”my children” when they say my sons.

5) I born

In English, you’re supposed to say I WAS BORN, because ”born” is actually an adjective that means ”existing as a result of birth”. I’m guessing that the mistake happens because in Spanish, nacer (to be born) is a verb.

The bottom line is – treat ”born” like any other adjective, grammatically speaking.

6) Putting adjectives in plural

In most cases, this WON’T work. Adjectives that are put before nouns are always singular, and that is how we tend to use them. For example:

Correct: These are my favorite pants.

Incorrect: These are my favorites pants.

So, even if the noun is in plural, the adjective STAYS in singular. HOWEVER, IN SOME CASES you can put the adjective in plural if you’ve mentioned the noun earlier. Examples:

These yellow flowers are my favorites.

Some employees were satisfied and others weren’t.

Language learning tips

5 French Words in English: Their Real Meaning Will Surprise You

Oh la la! French is such a sophisticated language. Want to know what 5 French words in English are used differently in French? Keep reading!

As you may know, not ALL the expressions we use in English are completely the same in French. Honestly, they’ll leave you thinking your local French people can’t speak French very well – they are FRENCH, aren’t they SUPPOSED to understand it?

Anyway, let’s move right onto the words:

1) Touché

Never ONCE did I hear a French person in France say Touché, not in the sense of ”an acknowledgement of a good or clever point” anyway. In fact, the one time I ventured to use it, my French speakers all looked at me and one of them said: ”T’as touché quoi? (what did you touch?)”

Ermm, oh no worries, I washed my hands. You know, with the virus and all…

After doing some research, I see that the word comes from fencing and is used to acknowledge a hit. Makes sense, right? So unless you want to get into fencing, do NOT use this word with your dear Francois and Francoise.

2) Connoisseur

  • I’m not exactly a connoisseur. (when pronounced in French it sounds completely different – something like kon-wa-sir)
  • Um, connaisseur, right?
  • Um, yeah, that’s what I said.

My French friends and family corrected me SO MANY TIMES because I just refused to believe I was pronouncing (and writing) it wrong. Wait, I’m going the extra mile to say this complicated word and it’s not even correct?

The thing is that connoisseur WAS something people would say in 1835, so unless you have a time machine, stick to ”connaiseur” in French.

3) Matinée

English: a dramatic performance held in the afternoon
French: morning

  • Je vais arriver chez toi dans la matinée. (I’ll arrive at your place in the morning.)
  • Umm sure, but I’m not big on theater and I’d like for us to go to a restaurant this afternoon instead.

Wait, wait, wait – so, matinée means MORNING in French, whereas in English it’s a musical performance in the AFTERNOON? Guys, what’s going on here and who’s giving definitions to these words??

4) Soirée

English: an evening party, typically in a private house
French: evening

What’s with all these parties and performances? Is this how the English see the French?

Anyway, you can use soireée as a regular word that means evening. Nothing fancy and no need to have party if you use this word. You can wear your new party dress another time!:)

5) Encore

Guess what this one is related to…

A performance! You got it right. What else could it be? All they do in France anyway is talk about what show they’re going to see next or what party to go to.

In English, encore is an extra piece of music that is performed at the end of a show. You can say: ”The audience wanted an encore”, whereas in French it is NEVER used as a noun, but always as an adverb. For example: ”Est-ce que tu veux encore? (Do you want more)?

However, both in French and English you can shout ”Encore!” at the end of a performance.

That is IT!

Hope you liked the list and that you learned something new! 😊✔ Are you interested in learning vocabulary? Here’s why you shouldn’t learn it by heart, and what to do instead.

Language learning tips

Learning VOCABULARY by heart (the truth about it)

I see a lot of students learning vocabulary the wrong way. Here’s exactly why you should stop learning vocabulary by heart and what to do instead.

You know when you’re studying a list of words to try and learn them by heart and then you can’t remember them at all? Here’s why: your brain does not CARE because it can’t connect the words to anything. That ”anything” is called context and let me show you why learning a list of words can’t and won’t work.

For instance, you want to say that your phone ran out of battery but you want to keep it cool. So, you say: ”My phone died.” OK, that makes sense. But doesn’t died mean the same as deceased?

It does, but not in this case.

In fact, I’m pretty sure anyone whose ”phone has deceased” would make everyone laugh. Don’t be THAT person! We use ”died” both for people and phones for example, but we NEVER use ”deceased” for phones.

What to do instead:

That’s right! That should be your mantra from today on!

Let me give you an example. Let’s say you’re learning the word: ” epiphany”, meaning ”a moment of sudden great revelation or realization”. So, try to come up with an example of when you had a sudden realization. Here’s mine: ”I had an epiphany this morning and decided to write this blog post.”

Another thing you can do:

Look for a magazine article on the internet containing the word ”epiphany” so that you can see the word in context. This way it won’t be just ”one of the words I have to learn” but you’ll see real people using it in real situations.

Something that I also love doing is to go to https://dictionary.cambridge.org/ and scroll down to ”examples”. Let’s look at one of these examples for our word:

”In other words, an epiphany occurs where the words and music ‘speak to you’, becoming something more than the sum of their parts.

How poetic, right? Well, now you can see that an epiphany can occur while listening to music as well so you may opt for using it in that context! This way you’ll feel more confident while sharing your ”epiphanies” with others, as you’ll know for sure that somebody before you – most probably a native speaker (we love native speakers!) – used the word in the same context.

Help your brain connect the new words instead of tiring it out for nothing.

CONTEXT IS EVERYTHING.

Introduction

Hi there, language learners! 😊

Welcome to accentavocado.com! Did you know that most avocados you and other people that want to learn a language ate came from Mexico? Neither did I!

But guess what, I won’t be teaching you how to go to Mexico and grow your avocado, sorry!

OK so what the hell is this blog about then?

Actually, what this blog will be about is helping you (and me!) get better at and discover the beautiful world of languages. Yes, that’s right, I wrote ”and me” because I am absolutely confident that, despite being a language teacher, I don’t know everything. THERE, I SAID IT!

Remember: Teachers are constantly learning, too!

Oh OK. I thought teachers knew everything. I feel let down. But who are you? A fruit? A vegetable?

My name is Jovana and I am fluent in English, French, Spanish and Serbian. I know that sounds amazing (thanks!), but I’m here to tell you that, like you, I’m just an ordinary human being (my mom says I’m amazing though, just saying) -unless you’re an avocado, in which case you’re super extraordinary, OK!!!!!

Seriously, I’m just a 25-year-old old language loving teacher who’s here to tell you that YOU TOO can get better at English, Spanish, Mandarin, or whatever it is and master those conjugations, have that extra boost of confidence to reach out to foreigners, ace your exam, and more:)

Yeah, right…

Seriously! Plus, if you sign up today, you’ll get an avocado for free! And then you can put your avocado pit in water and wait 10-15 years for it to grow into a tree. Easy peasy!

Jokes aside, this blog will be about all things language – so that you’re not only successful at learning them, but that you’re having FUN in the process! It IS possible! And I promise it takes less time than growing an avocado tree!

Who are you writing for?

I’ll be writing for all the language learners out there! Hopefully, I’ll spread my love for languages to you! You must be thinking like OMG I suck at languages. You know, my students often tell me that. And I understand. I really do. But when you’re resolved to do something, NOTHING can stop you.

More often than not, I also discover that they don’t really suck at learning languages. All they need is the right method and motivation...and a bit of fun!

You bet! Can I write to you in case I want to grow an avocado?

Absolutely. Not only that, but the goal of this entire blog is that we can all be able to grow our own avocados and make an amazing guacamole.

Now seriously, please DON’T ask me any avocado related q’s as I won’t be able to help, but all your feedback, comments, and questions about my content are highly appreciated! Therefore, feel free to reach out.:)

What are your plans?

I want us to grow into a wonderful community of me sharing content and you LOVING it.

I’ve just realized I’ve just interviewed myself and I gotta say, those were some great questions! Haha – more than anything else – I’m just so excited to start this journey with you!!!!!!!!!

Love,

AA

P.S. Check out my Pinterest Motivation board (https://www.pinterest.com/AccentAvocado/motivation/) because I have some beautiful pins that’ll keep you motivated. 👍