When Did You Get Lost in Translation? - Assignment

Please post your discussion and story for the Podcast Assignment as a comment.

I am sorry if somehow I thought or assumed that you would. I should have specified it to you. So please post your comment to this entry!

I have posted a discussion on Chatroll called "When Did You Get Lost in Translation?", asking anyone chatroll subscriber/fan to share their story with us! You will then have to contribute your story to the Chatroll discussion after I send it back to you with my corrections if you want the full marks for this assignment!

If you have any further questions, MIO me or post a comment to the specific assignment that you need clarifying with. I will answer it as quickly as possible and the whole class will benefit from your question!

Quote and Lesson Goal for Week 2

"Fitness is always changing and never stagant. Right now, your race-specific physiology is either improving or deteriorating depending on what you have done recently."

                                           - Joe Friel
                                             "The Triathlete's Traning Bible"

The same applies to your English, and everything else in life I guess!


The goal of the lesson was that you leave class with a renewed optimism in your capacities of learning English!


Did it work? Are you pumped about the course? Post your comments!

Someone Has an Idea for the Title of the Blog?

I used the course code (604-101-03) for the title of the blog for now but it somewhat reminds me of some online income tax invoice or something...

I am looking for another one. Any idea will be considered.
Post your comments.

Assignments Posted Online!

I will post your assignements and homework online and not in class. That way, if you UNFORTUNATELY miss a class for some very good reason I am sure, then you will know what you need to do for next class!

I will write ASSIGMENT in CAPITAL LETTERS so you don't miss it!

ASSIGNMENTS

1. Reading/Writing

This week, you have to respond to the "My Idea of What it is to Learn a Language" entry with a 50-75 word comment. You will find the instructions at the end of the entry!

2. Listening

Download DNTO's "When Did You Get Lost In Translation":

Directives:

Listen to the following excerpts from the show (below). Choose one story from the 6 that you will listen to and:

1. Discuss (explain) how the culture and/or the wrong tones, or both have had an effect in the people getting lost in translation (how culture/wrong tones contributed to the misunderstanding).

2. Tell the class about a similar story that happened to you, a friend, or that you have noticed in your life!!!

(There is no word limit, as long as you put your point across clearly. Make sure it is clear to everyone that will read your comment which story you are talking about.)

Also look out for the unfamiliar vocabulary that I highlighted for you from each of the excerpts and remember Teacher Joe and pay attention to English rhythm! The vocabulary is in chronological order, so if you hear the 2nd word without hearing the 1st one, it means that you have missed it...

Remember to use howjsay.com to hear what English actually sounds like and practice or see for yourself the stressed and unstressed pattern of the English Language!

**note: If you downloaded Google translator that comes with the Google taskbar (see Useful Links section of the blog to the right), simply put your mouse over the words to get a translation! In the case of phrasal verbs or compound nouns (verb and nouns that have more than one word), first highlight the group of words that you want to translate and then put the cursor over to get a translation! Otherwise you only get part of the answer! For longer expressions, Google them!

Listen to these passages:

1. Swedish Cornflakes? (0-2 mins.) 2 mins
Helpful voc: rudimentary, show off, taken aback

2. Chinese Tones (2-4 mins) 2 mins
Intro by host Sook-Yin Lee
voc: Lazy Susan, stunned, I have eaten enough, death (tough/fast pronunciation)

3. Virgin Slovak Marie (21:45-24:20 mins) 0:30 mins
voc: mother-in-law, polite Slovak, fiancé, turned out, future mom-to-be, ouch!

4. L’Homme Qui Vit Dans... (21:45-24:20 min) 1 min
voc: try as she may, bless her soul, bring over, Rene Levesques, ambled over, nasty French

5. Ukraine Poop! (21-54-24:20 mins) 1 min
voc: shorten version, I thought (ought sound like “aut” in the French word “auto”, translator

6. Moving back to Pakistan! (24:20-28:00 mins) 3:40 mins
voc: move to Canada, share of loss, melt down, sleep over, rite of passage, you’ve made it, Pakistani immigrant, slang phrase, take English literally, broke down in tears, flush that out with her, language taken literally, thinking back, navigate through cultural references, take for granted.

Total Listening Time:

Only

10 mins 10 secs!!!

The directives look scary but it's only the first time you do this. Give yourself a chance, be optimistic, and do it. You will see that it is easier and more fun than it looks like!

3. Speaking/Pronunciation

Check out the video/youTune clips that are in the SPEAK UP! section to the right of the blog. Teacher Joe is somewhat of a corny guy but what he says makes sense! Practice as much as you think you need to in order to be ready for next Monday with Anita! It's all about English Rhythm!

4. Azar

I will notify eveyone by email and on the blog when I will have set up a student profile for you in Azar and I will give you more details then. You will probably have to do the whole first section. It's all review stuff that should be easy and help you get back into it!

Podcasts!

Podcasts are amazing!

What it is.
Hey! Podcasts are amazing! You can listen to them anywhere: in your car on your way to school, while brushing your teeth or even on the treadmill while pulling a hard workout! Then, there is the endless possibility of pressing pause and rewind until you finally understand what is going on. Fill up those little gaps in your life with great conversations on great topics, learn English, and work on your assignents at the same time! Now that's what I call being EFFICIENT!

I have landed upon a gold mine of free podcasts with the CBC Radio. They are real live shows that discuss current topics ranging from news, arts, politics, technology, the world, music and more! Nothing like the overformatted-miserably acted-English as a Second Language (ESL) tapes that we usually use in ESL classes.

Weekly Feed.
I will try to link each of our weekly readings and opiniated discussions to a discussion on a similar topic that one of the radio shows broadcasted! I will add a few questions for you to answer and fuel the debates that started in class! Although some shows generally are lentghy, I will direct your attention to a specific time in the podcast (and limit it to 5-15 minutes max!) where you will have to focus your listening, maybe get some help (chat with me and classmates online) and post comments.

How it works.
We will only work with the CBC Radio Podcasts. In the "Podcast Me Away" rubric to the right of the class blog, you will find a link to the CBC Radio Podcasts Website. There you can see all the shows that have podcasts (all of the CBC show have them).

The easiest way to get a podcast is to subscribe to the specific show that made it using iTunes (If not everyone in class has it you can download it for free on the Apple website). Just click on the iTunes icon under the description of the radio show featured that week and it will automatically upload the content that you can download in iTunes. Then (on iTunes) all you have to do is look for the show assigned for the week. Click GET, put it on your iPod or other Mp3 device, and let yourself be taken away!

You can also individually download each podcast using the web page (not in iTunes) but they take forever to download and you cannot always take them with you on your iPod or other Mp3 player.

This Week's Podcast. (ASSIGNMENT)
This week we will listen to DNTO's "When did you get "lost in Translations"" that hit the air January 2nd, 2010!

I will give you further information about the specific interviews that I want you to listen to shortly.

Live Chat!

Hi everyone!

I am thinking of holding a live chat hour each week so that you can ask me questions live and get timely feedback during the week and not only on Mondays when I can be at my office at the College. We will have to set a time that will work for everybody.

How it Works!
All you have to do is use the Insight Live Shoutbox! above and chat away! You will be able to ask me questions, read my replies, and I think that you can also drop in on conversations and join me and other students as we converse on a particular subject that might be of interest to you! So watch from a distance and drop a line whenever you feel like it, or when you see someone online! Talk about the assignments at hand and help each other when I am offline!

You can pop-out the Insight Live Shoutbox! to a new (bigger) window by clicking the "pop-out" icon (furthest to the right) under the Live Shoutbox!

The Quality of English During Live Chat!
I will accept internet/text/msn lingo such as "lol", "sup", "u", "r", and "ttyl" (that respectively stand for "laugh out loud!", "what's up?", "you", 'are", and "talk to you later"), etc... I believe that the Live Chat Shoutbox should be used to promote communication in English and these expressions are very contemporary, culturally rich, and a good way to learn the phonetics (sounds!) of a language!

What About Skype Office Hours?
Would holding my office hours on Skype be a good idea as well? Skype is a free online video phone for those of you who didn't know. Downloading the app is free and you can call anyone in the whole world, anytime, for free provided that you have a Skype account, that your computer and the app (the Skype app-lication or program) are turned on!
Any thoughts?


Post your comments about the Insight Live Shoutbox and Skype Office hours and let me know what your think about it, honestly.

My Idea of What it is to Learn a Language.

Learning a second language is a very humbling experience. In fact, the word “second” in “second language” should be omitted to purify and humble the process of language learning. I explain.

My Definition
To me a language (with the help of a my buddy Merriam-Webster) is a system of symbols or codes or signs: pictures and sounds (words) that, when put together in a coherent way, represent the idea of something, the something as perceived by the mind, the something as perceived by the culture.

The ultimate goal when using a language is to communicate. When put together the symbols of a language act and interact in a coherent and meaningful way so as to communicate ideas.


Language is a Cultural Product – It’s All Rhythm!
The “putting together” is important rhythmically, grammatically, and culturally. A language is a cultural product. It needs an audience that understands its rhythms, grammar (syntax), and cultural ideologies.
In other words, you need to get the codes (sounds) right, and how to put them together in the existing cultural linguistic system of the listener or reader (your audience) for him or her to understand. What is important is not that you understand, but that your audience does. It’s all rhythm!


You Are Your Language and Your Language is You...
As you communicate your ideas through a language, you create and communicate an identity within your cultural world: from how the language comes alive through you you tell your story, who you are and where you stand. You embody the language as much as the language embodies you and is you: you are culturally and socially through the language.


Translate Yourself?
It scares anyone to leave one's strong language and identity to try and communicate in another language that you do not know! Can you translate yourself? Actually, I doubt that you can fully translate yourself. I believe that as you experience the new language, the new culture, and play with the words, you inevitably create another identity for yourself! If not, a least you are not to the native speakers of your second language what you are to the speakers of your own language, be it only the cultural difference! Hey, that does not mean that you lose the other identity! It's just a plus!


Try Modesty!
To learn a language one must be modest or humble though. If we look at the natural way we learn a language when we are children and compare it to learning a language as an adult, we come to very different processes but often we want the same results and we are frustrated when those results take time to happen.

ASSIGNMENT!
Think about the differences between learning a language as a child and as an adult (This information is not in the blog, although some points I discussed can help, you have to come up with your own ideas!). Highlight the most important ones (2 or 3 differences) and discuss how they affect the adult learner of a second language in a 50-75 word comment to this blog entry!

Do it fast so that you can put your ideas forward before others do. Remember they need to be your ideas and not those from your classmates' comments.

Good luck!