Humberto - The Linguist's blog

This morning I had an experience that I'd like to share with all of you. When my first class was over,  I started to  argue with a Canadian classmate about the way how we should analyze a math problem. 

While he was trying  to convince me that his approach to solve the problem was better than mine, he started to  behave  in a way that  made me feel a little bit confused.  I am not talking that he was kind of aggressive or something similar, but he seemed to be a little bit excited. Actually, he is a very nice guy.

Suddenly, I realized that  the cultural differences between us was erecting a communication barrier. Then, I  understood a bit better what Steve pointed out in one of his last posts  regarding  "joining a group". 

Living abroad means to deal with people who both do not  speak the same way, and also behave in different way.  I am not just talking about a different language but literally the way that we use non-verbal communication. I mean the body language, the gestures and the things that we do as part of our communication. 

This morning, I also understood that how well I put up with this cultural differences will affect how good my learning experience will be.

Hi, guys! Nice to talk to all of you again. Just this afternoon, after I got back home from college, I was feeling a little bit guilty as I have not worked on my English learning plan for almost a week. So, I decided to get in The Linguist  website and to study a new context.

As I had just already read the new monthly version of the Linguist Digest, I acknowledged about the new contexts Sean had very diligently added to The Linguist library. I looked a little bit  trough the new contexts list and  one of them, immediately, caught my attention. It is called "Shannon Nelson, Funny Name for Privates Parts, Part 1'. It is a radio talk show.

Of course, I went for it! Let me tell you I could not stop laughing since the first minute I started listening to it. What a funny moment I had!

So, I decided to put this post here. Maybe, some of you would like to hear  this context too, and then comment about this theme. What do you think? Enjoy the context. It is really great!

I think Sean would be an excellent host to reply all this comments! After all, he was the one who put this context on the Linguist Library.

Anyway, I am looking forward for the second part!

PD: Right now, I am thinking of some funny name for the private parts of our body. I will write it down when I come up with a real funny one! Of course, coarse language is not allowed!

Hello guys! You know, yesterday was a great day for me and my family. The last week I had schedulled an appointment to renovate our Venezuelans passports at the Venezuela's Consulate office in Toronto. They set me an appointment for Monday, Sept 28 at 11:00 am.

We set out at 8 am for Toronto, we got to Venezuela's consulate office at about 11:00, and finished everything around noon. At that moment, we were deciding where to take lunch when I just told my kids that we should go to the CN Tower. Of course, they cheered about that. So, we grabbed some hamburguers at Mc Donalds and headed up to the CN Tower.

It was amazing.  We took what they called the Total Tour (it meant we were able to see everything), and it

CN Tower

was great. We spent almost five hours there and I can say that it has been the most wonderful day I have spent in Canada. I experienced why Canadians say very proudly that the CN Tower is the Canada's wonder of the world.

You know, when I took the elevator to get to the highest point of the tower, The Sky Pod, I was asking myself

"What high up am I?" Well, as soon as I got off the elevator that question was answered. Just on the wall in front on the elevator, there is a phrase that quotes,"you are about 147 stories up"  (around 450 meters).

Wow! You can imagine the wonderful views you can catch from this level. It was amazing!

I am going to try to put some pictures here! (I wonder if I can!)

Bianca on the Glass floor!

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Humberto is really up

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Humberto Jr in the look out level!

Soto family at the CN Tower

We are up!

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Just two days ago, Friday afternoon, I had a very nice conversation with Anne (another Linguist member from Japan) and AJ. AJ asked us about education. How would a good school be like?.  How is the best way to educate our children? It has been, by far, my best conversation since I joined The Linguist in terms of my English fluency. I felt very comfortable talking about the topic and sharing my points of view regarding this theme.

However, this is not the reason which is making me write this note. After our conversation finished, I kept thinking a little bit about it, and I suddenly felt that I have left something important behind.

 I remembered my father telling me, when I was entering university, that I would need to study hard and get excellent grades as the only way to access a high-paying job and a good life.  Today, twenty five years later, I find myself repeating the same message to my kids. So, would this message be still appropriate for the new young generation? I think that traditional education is essential and important, but I also think that something else is missing, that traditional schooling is not longer enough.

The world is changing almost everyday, but it seems that the educational system is not moving along with it.

I just remember a friend of mine who would always complain, while drinking some beers during weekends, about his decision to work for a company. He used to tell me that the problem was he had decided to work for money while wise people would usually choose to have money work for them. He would also emphasize that the problem emerged because the university did not teach him anything about money for their future financial success. He believed that everyone needs to understand about money and how it works.

Well, I do not know if he was right or not. What I know is that nowadays there are no more secure jobs, most of the companies keep announcing their downsizing  and  a lot of people end up their careers struggling financially.

So, what would it  be my best advice to my kids?

Hi, guys!

I would like to share this information which may be of interest for those who are learning English and also like sports. I am a big sports fan, and I am used to getting everyday on ESPN  web page to read about sports events all over the world.

Yesterday, I decided to get on TSN web page,  I guess TSN is the Canada's biggest sports network, and  found  that they offer a section called TSN Podcasts. TSN Podcasts are audio files posted online in MP3 format, and can easily be downloaded for playback on a personal computer or transferred to a portable MP3 player. It is all free.

I already listened to avidly the last Steve's podcast related to learning English vocabulary.

Well, I have to admit that I am also having a hard time trying to figure out how to improve my vocabulary acquisition . There is no way I can memorize the huge amounts of words and phrases I have already saved on my Linguist database from the contents I have already listened to and read.

Even though I have spent a lot of time reviewing all my saved words and phrases, there is no way I can retain all of them. I just forget them very easily. It is something that sort of irritate me.

It does not mean that I do not recognize that my English skills have improved a lot. I am also very proud of all I have achieved until now. However, I feel that I have to keep improving at a faster speed.

Anyway, I am going to follow Steve's advice. I will continue to listen to and read on new interesting  subjects and contents. I will keep writing my samples for correction. I will be following my English learning plan with strong intensity.

I am not going to put many pressure on myself. So, I am going to keep learning English having fun!

After all, I am pretty sure I am going to succeed at this!   

I am going to take just a little moment to write a few welcoming words to Tom! I sent him an invitation to join VOX last week, and finally yesterday I was notified that he has already  registered in VOX.

Tom, Steve's  brother,  has been a terrific Linguist events host! The way that he handles the conversations is amazing. He knows how to bring funny comments into the conversation at the appropriate time in a very professional way. He has  made me both practice my English speaking and laugh a lot at the same time. It has been  an amazing and enjoyable experience.

He is always pointing out his belief of how wonderful it is to smile and how a simple smile can change everything.

Tom has also written very interesting contents about cold calling techniques on The Linguist library. After our last conversation,  he also sent me an audio file with its transcript, where he simulates a job interview. It is a great example of how to manage a job interview in order to make a good first impression to the employer!

In my view, I believe that there are two main reasons why I enjoy this English learning method: The Linguist's emphasis on students having fun while learning English, and The Linguist staff members' involvement in helping all the students succeed in achieving their English learning goals.

I am really looking forward to meeting each one of the Linguist staff members personally and giving all of them my sincere thanks for their help!

I am sure that I am going to do that very soon! 

It seems that The Linguist team will never stop giving me both great surprises and wonderful ways to improve my English skills.

Mark sent me an email three weeks ago, letting me know how to blog on VOX and inviting me to run my own blog and to join the Linguist VOX community.

When I read Mark's email, I did not think of blogging as something special. Truth be told, I first thought that blogging would be just a little big boring and too time consuming. After all, The Linguist has several on-line forums where all Linguist members share their concerns and ask questions about their English tasks.

However, after starting to run my blog, I realized that this is a terrific idea in terms of not only encouraging Linguist members to practice their English skills, but also allowing all Linguist members to get in touch and actively help each other. I am greatly impressed how fast the Linguist VOX community has spread so far.

By the moment I am typing this entry on my blog, I have already posted about another six entries on it, and I have to acknowledge that I have become a blogging fan.

Running my own blog has given me the opportunity to practice my English writing, to share my feelings and thoughts with other members and tutors, and even to help other members on occasion. Blogging is a big  chance for me to improve my English skills, no doubt about it! Now, I must say, "Thanks a lot Mark for your  invitation".

In addition, like a bonus, this powerful tool is also giving me the opportunity to spread my experience as a newcomer to Canada to other people.  I hope that trough this blog I can touch some of my colleagues who feel and believe firmly that there are neither hopes nor ways for Spanish speakers to speak fluent English.

Hispanic people just keep blaming themselves for their failure to learn English. They  do not visualize that the English learning method they were forced to follow at ESL schools does not work.

The ESL schools, and their inefficient method of teaching English, have been a sort of silent killer of the hopes of new Hispanic immigrants around Ontario. Indeed, ESL schools are not helping new Hispanic immigrants at all to achieve their most important goal in Canada: speaking fluent English!

Yesterday evening, during my daily visit to Steve's On the language blog, I had the opportunity to study his last post there. I listened to an audio file (chp.mp3) where Steve interviews Mr. Chip Noonan regarding a survey that Mr. Noonan did on some Chinese people to find out why some Chinese people learn English better than other.

Even though Steve only posted the first part of this interview which only lasts about 8 minutes, I found it very interesting.

Mr. Noonan compared in his speech the ways of how people should learn to swim and how people should learn fluent English. For some reason this statement caught my eyes (or maybe my ears?).

Mr. Noonan stated that if you want to swim you do not spend hours and hours a week diagramming what kind of physicals is involved in swimming, you just have to GET IN THE WATER!

If English learners want to learn fluent English they do not need to spend hours and hours a week studying plain grammars rules. They have to be very motivated to study English. They have to expose themselves to the language. They have to extensively read and listen to comprehensible and natural contents. They have to immerse themselves in the language as much as they can.

Listening to this, I jumped to the conclusion that English learners, metaphorically speaking, also have to GET IN THE WATER!

Immediately, I thought that all my Hispanic friends learned to swim very well, so why can not they learn to speak fluent English?

Interesting!

By the time I was posting this entry on my blog, I realized that Steve had already posted the rest of the interview with Mr. Noonan. As soon as I read this new audio file, I may be posting some more of my thoughts about this interesting issue (at least it is very interesting to me!).

En la tarde de hoy, en mi frecuente visita al blog de Steve en la pagina de "The Linguist  (On language)", tuve la oportunidad de escuchar la entrevista de Steve y el Sr.Chip Noonan acerca de un trabajo de investigacion que el Sr Noonan realizo referente a las razones del porque una persona aprende ingles mas rapido o mejor que otra.

Aunque Steve solo incluyo la primera parte de esa entrevista, con una duracion de solo 8 minutos, el topico me parecio realmente interesante. Y la parte que mas me llamo la atencion fue una comparacion que hizo el Sr. Noonan entre aprender a hablar ingles y aprender a nadar.

El Sr. Noonan explico que para aprender a nadar tu no necesitas solo pasar horas y horas diagramando en una pizarra las brazadas y el esfuerzo fisico que debes efectuar en una piscina, tu tienes necesariamente que LANZARTE AL AGUA para practicar y aprender.

El Sr. Noonan explico que igual pasa con el aprendizaje de ingles.

Si tu solo pasas el tiempo de tu aprendizaje de ingles estudiando reglas de gramatica en un salon, llenando espacios en blanco para  verificar tu conocimiento de dichas reglas gramaticales o simplemente presentado test,  no conseguiras nada a la final excepto un debil conocimiento teorico del idioma que estarias perdiendo en un corto tiempo.

El estudiante de Ingles tiene que EXPONERSE al lenguaje, utilizarlo,  dedicarle tiempo a escribir en ese lenguaje, dedicarle bastante tiempo a escuhar y leer contenidos que le interesen,  contenidos que lo motiven y le faciliten  la  adquicision del idioma a traves de la adquisicion de vocabulario en forma natural, y por supuesto tambien a  hablarlo cuando tenga la oportunidad.  Mientras el estudiante efectua todas esas actividades, el ira adquiriendo el idioma en forma natural sin saber al detalle el porque las palabras vienen de una forma y no de otra.

En otras palabras, el estudiante de ingles tiene que LANZARSE AL AGUA!

Todos mis amigos hispanos saben nadar, entonces por que no pueden aprender ingles? ......

Esperemos las otras partes de esa entrevista para seguir el tema .... Interesante!