Well it has certainly been awhile since my last update and I really don’t have any excuse except for a complete lack of motivation that seemed to hit me a few months ago and I am still struggling to overcome, but I am almost there! I figured I’d write at least a little post here just to get myself back into it and to really apologize for disappearing without a word! I’m still around and I this blog will be BACK (and maybe better than ever?) sooner rather than later! I wish you all the best of luck with your language learning!

Hey guys! I’m still around but since life has been all over the place for the last few weeks it’s honestly been hard to find motivation to work on my languages or to write here. But don’t worry, I’ve been getting some good ideas and should be ready for a “big comeback” sooner rather than later!

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I am a native English speaker who lives abroad, it is almost written in stone that I should be working at least part time as an English teacher. I did this a bit last year in Madrid at a really bad language school who didn’t end up giving me my last paycheck, so that kind of put me off of the idea of teaching for awhile, but now that I’m looking for a part time job, English teaching seems to be the best option. I’ve already got the most amazing part time job ever (I will write about this soon!) but unfortunately they don’t have much for me to do at the moment. Also, I probably will not be able to begin studying this semester (more on this is yet another post…) and so this has left me with a lot of free time! I would like to start working part time as an English teacher, but my question is, should I get certified first?

There are an overwhelming amount of options to get certified as an English as a Foreign Language teacher, and while it is possible to get work without one, it seems that you can get much better opportunities with one. I’m currently trying to figure out what the difference between TEFL, TESOL, and CELTA are, which one is best (if they are even different things at all!), if doing an online course is viewed equally as an in-class course, and if it is worth it at all to get one? Since I will most likely be spending the next few years here completing my degree, English teaching will probably be my best bet for a job, and since I have way too much free time now, it would be the ideal time to do a certification course.

Is it worth it? I’m looking for those out there who may have experience with this stuff. If you do, please leave a comment!

I’m not sure exactly how personal this blog is but I guess I will write a little something about where I’ve been.

My boyfriend and I have decided amicably to split up so of course that has been a pretty huge thing to deal with. I also completed and loved my first week of classes at University and gotten a really cool job at a German language school, proof reading English texts that are translated from German that they use for parallel reading activities. I check them to make sure they are well translated into English and are also as close to the original German text as possible. I’m so glad I found this job as it is the perfect side job for me right now.

So as you can guess, I will be staying in Austria although I am no longer with my boyfriend. I’m going up to Vienna tomorrow and will be looking for a room in a Wohngemeinschaft (shared apartment) next week.

I will use this time to think of some great post ideas. I hope you are all having fun learning languages!

It’s almost time… My books are on their way from Amazon.de, my computer is slowly but surely getting organized, my timetable is made (and even posted on unilang!) it’s almost time for my first week at the University of Vienna! I am really excited! My documents are still being processed but luckily I can start attending classes before I am officially registered. My first class is a Spanish grammar class on Tuesday at 8am, followed by linguistics class, a language technology class, and then a translation theory and practice class.

I think all of my classes sound really interesting (yes even grammar, but that’s mostly because I love that the class is taught in Spanish), but it’s not just the classes themselves that I am looking forward to. I am also looking forward to the following opportunities that studying abroad are going to offer:

- Daily immersion in German (unfortunately Spanish is only once a week) in situations where I will have to focus completely. I will be exposed to different accents (not all professors are Austrian), different topics, and I will have to take notes and remember things! It will be like hours of hardcore input.

- I will be able to meet a whole bunch of (German-speaking!) people in my classes who are also interested in languages! Finding people to practice with is a huge part of language learning so I will definitely be taking advantage of this.

- My homework will always be language practice since all of my classes are in a foreign language!

There’s not much I can say on any of this since I have no idea how it is going to be, but at around this time next week I will be able to offer some insight on studying abroad or attending class in a foreign language and will definitely write a blog post about it!

I give complete credit of the word “mission” in regards to language learning to Benny the Irish Polyglot. I think it is a great word to use to describe the language learning journey and that the word itself can be inspiring because it helps you invision the language learning process as a fun challenge, a mission that you are set out on the complete!

I am going to pick 2 and only 2 resources (preferably one self-study course, either online or off, and a podcast) for each language and will resist all temptation to use other resources until I am finished with the original ones!

As a quick reminder (to you guys AND to myself!) My current language missions are:

German – C2 by the end of the year
Spanish – C1 by the end of the year
Hungarian – be able to have a conversation with my boyfriend’s grandparents next Christmas.
French – reactivate my dusty French to as high as a level as possible by the end of the year. (Ideally be able to converse easily in most daily situations)
Italian – be able to get by on a trip to Italy. (basic conversational level)
Swedish – be able to get by on a trip to Sweden without speaking English. (basic conversational level)

(from my language log at How-to-learn-any-language.com)

and here are my selected resources:

German
Audio: Alltagsdeutsch
Course: Hugo German Complete (start from the [near] beginning and use it as a review and complete it to the end)

Spanish
Audio: Show Time Spanish
I’ve got the premium materials from the second season so I am going to start from the first episode from the second season and do the entire second season (including materials)
Course: Hugo Spanish complete
(start from the near beginning and complete the whole thing)

Hungarian
Audio: Let’s Learn Hungarian!
Course: LiveMocha

French
Audio: Walk, Talk and Learn French
Read the Canadian news on radio-canada.ca. I won’t worry too much about understanding everything and looking up every new word but more about getting a lot of reading/listening practice.

Italian
Audio: My Daily Phrase Italian Podcast
Course: LingQ Italian

Swedish
Audio: SwedishLingQ Podcast
Course: LiveMocha

I will stick with these ones and not be tempted to search out new ones until I am finished with these ones!

Hello readers! Just wanted to write a quick update on why there hasn’t been very many updates for awhile! I usually don’t really like it when people write blog posts about why they’ve been away and how they’ll be back soon but it’s all language related, and I really do want you to know that I will be updating soon!

This is the last week of my hardcore, intensive, ridiculous C1 level German class at the Sprachenzentrum of the University of Vienna. We have our final test tomorrow and I’m sad to say, I’m not sure how well I will do because I think it will be REALLY hard. Oh well, I have definitely learned a lot these past three weeks! If someone had told me two years ago that I’d be reading original texts by Immanuel Kant and Sigmund Freud I wouldn’t have believed them!

This week has also been the apartment hunting week. My boyfriend and I are staying at a friend’s house in Vienna so we can (hopefully!) find an apartment by the end of the week! We tried this last September without any luck (everyone and their dog were also looking for a one-bedroom apartment in Vienna…) but it seems to be better this time. Wish me luck!

I had the great opportunity this week of being interviewed by Mark from Radio Lingua over Skype. I offered some tips on language blogging and language learning and the interview will be available in a few weeks through the Radio Lingua club!

I’ve also been working on my schedule for University which is incredibly exciting! Even though I’m having more and more setbacks with my application, I still think I can manage to start studying this semester because the deadline is only on April 30th and I can attend classes without registering (you only register for the end exams)
So far the classes I will be taking are:

- Sprachtechnologien, Informations- und Wissensmanagement
Language technology, Information and knowledge management.

- Transkulturelle Kommunikation: Theorie und Praxis
Transcultural Communication: theory and practice

-Translationsrelevante Sprachwissenschaft
Translation relevant linguistics

- Transkulturelle Kommunikation: Probleme und Lösungsansätze
Transcultural Communication: Problems and solution approaches

- Grammatik im Kontext: Deutsch
Grammar in context: German

- Grammatik im Kontext: Spanisch
Grammar in context: Spanish (this class is taught entirely in Spanish, so exciting!!)

This list may or may not change, I’m still not exactly sure how many classes I should take on at once!

During the next few days as I finish up the things that are making my life a bit busy I will be doing something along the lines of what Fiona from Baby Steps to Fluency did last week: a short break to collect thoughts, ideas, and inspiration for this blog. I will hopefully come up with some good stuff!

Bis dann!

I can only imagine what it would have been like to learn a foreign language a hundred or more years ago.
Resources would’ve been scarce. Any book that you found in the language you were learning would’ve most likely been treated as a treasure, and hours would’ve been spent memorizing, absorbing and appreciating every word and every sentence. Immersion would’ve been very difficult unless you lived reasonably near an area where the language was spoken and any native speaker you happened to come in contact with would’ve been like winning the lottery!

Today the situation is very different. There is an overwhelming amount of options for langage learners. Websites, blogs, twitter accounts, phrasebooks, grammar books, books in the language you’re learning, books about the language you’re learning, books about language learning in general, Skype, forums, Lang-8, LiveMocha, Pimsleur, Assimil, Hugo, Michel Thomas, Hueber, Langenscheidt… Ahh!!!

When I find myself sitting in the midst of Hugo this, Schaum’s Outline that, dictionaries and grammar books all over the place… I almost wish I only had that one old book that would’ve been a treasure to a language learner hundreds of years ago. I collect podcasts, phrase books, grammar books, vocabulary books, website bookmarks, self-study courses… and a big bulk of it goes unused.

I can’t really offer any advice on the topic, but I’d like to know how you guys as language learners handle information overload? Do you limit yourself to one podcast, or one self-study course, or one grammar book at a time? Or are you also finding yourself in a similar situation to mine where you’re getting caught in a whirlwind of information and ending up not using a lot of it?

Jim Morrison, one of the frequent commenters here at ich estudio langues, is the creator of “My Language Netbook“. My Language Notebook (MLN) is a program to help people learn languages.

MLN can be used in the following ways:

- download the program to make your own language lessons to that can be shared with others
- embed the lessons you have made (or existing lessons from the MLN website) onto your website or blog using the code provided from the MLN website
- practice various languages using the My Language Notebook player directly on the website! There are many language lessons available including not only the “usual” Spanish, German and Japanese, but also “less popular” languages like Navajo, Manx and Cornish!

My Language Notebook is free to use and share for all language learners! More information can be found on the MLN website.

See where Catalan and Basque are spoken: A graphic of the different languages and dialects found in Spain.

I learned something important about language learning last week, you have to find that thing in the language you are learning that makes you say “Ok just one more!” or “…5 more minutes!” something that you feel you should feel bad about because you should get back to “real” studying, or something that you end up doing for hours without even realizing it. It was something that I already sort of knew (and an idea that is promoted on language learning websites such as Spanish Only and All Japanese All The Time) but I found two solid examples that applied to myself last week.

I lived in Madrid with my boyfriend last year while he was working as a “Linguistics Tester” at EA. He tested the German versions of video games to check for errors. (Pretty cool job, huh? ) One of the games he worked on was Mass Effect 2. He even ended up doing some actual translating and changing of the written parts (and prides himself on being the mostly likely reason that the “Schimpfwörter” (swear words) warning appears on the box! He bought a copy for his brother for his birthday and I was playing it the other day (in German of course) and before I knew it, three hours had passed! I had spent three hours immersed in German input (Mass Effect is a very dialogue heavy game!) without even noticing it, because it was fun.

Example number two:

I was on podcast.de the other day looking for new German podcasts. I was checking out some of the top voted podcasts and found that I really enjoyed the highhest rated one, Wissen vor 8. It is a series of short videos, each one answering a cool science-y question like “Why does a whip crack?”, “Why is glass see-through?”, “Why does hair turn grey?” and so on. I went through nearly ten videos the first time, always having that “Ok, one more!” feeling, because it was interesting!

What are your favourite fun things to do when you are practicing a language? If you haven’t found something fun then think of things you like to do in your native language, and find out how to do them in the language you are learning!

My least favourite word right now is beglaubigen. It means “to legalize”, “to certify” or “to notarize”. Why is it my least favourite word right now? Because it is standing in the way of my University entrance! Let me explain…

So I received my B2 level Österreichisches Sprachdiplom Deutsch the other day and was extremely happy! It was the final piece missing from my University application kit which is comprised of my UK Passport (which I received thanks to my Scottish father and it lets me study for only 16 Euros!), High School Diploma, High School transcripts, Unversity transcripts, application forum, passport copy, etc. etc.
So I was doing one final check on the Unversity of Vienna website the other day and found this.

Documents from countries with which Austria has no agreement have to be fully legalised. A certification from the Ministry of Education and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs from the issuing country is necessary for the required document.

What. What?!? Why??? My documents are all official! and signed! and stamped! and dated!

So I e-mailed the University of Vienna and asked if this could possibly be true and they told me I wouldn’t have to do this if the documents were originals (check!) and in English (double check!!)

This morning I went and waited in line at the Admissions office, super excited about finally being registered at the University of Vienna, only to be told that, well, I do need to go through the month long process of getting my already official documents legalized. I have to start by sending them back to Canada with a courier and then hoping for the best.

I’m really angry about this! I’ve been in contact with the University and they’ve never mentioned this! Maybe I just missed it, but still! I think I can still start studying this semester, but this whole thing really bugs me! Oh well. I guess I should’ve expected an eventual hiccup in the foreign University application process, but I just wanted to vent a little, and what better place than on here.