Learning a New Language

by | Jul 11, 2015 | Learning

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Gracias, William Alexander.

“Very few adults who who tackle a foreign language achieve anything resembling proficiency,” he wrote in his New York Times piece, The Benefits of Failing at French.

That might be enough to dissuade me from my ever-present goal to learn to speak Spanish.

But if you persevere, he concludes, you’ll not only learn a new language, but you’ll also bulk up the synapses in your brain. You’ll do mental gymnastics that will enable to you speak a new language and increase you brain power.

This week I was inspired by the courage of an English-speaking colleague who welcomed a packed room of people in three different languages.

Having endured the good-natured ribbing of my family members when I studied Spanish a few years ago, I had great respect for this person. His pronunciation wasn’t perfect, but he moved beyond his comfort zone to show his dedication to welcoming a multi-cultural group.

And as I wrote in a recent post about working globally, learning a new language is critical to building bridges cross culturally.

For some time, “learn Spanish” has been on my list of annual goals. And every December in my year-end ritual of evaluating my progress, I haven’t yet been able to mark it as compete.

Why do I want to learn Spanish?

For starters, I live in Southern California. Close to half of the population speaks Spanish, and I should too.

If I’m speaking at a local event, I want to develop enough confidence in my pronunciation that I can at least say a few opening and closing words in Spanish.

And half of our company’s business is in Latin America, so learning to speak Spanish makes good business sense.

Spanish is the world’s number-two language based on the number of speakers, which puts it ahead of English. So it’s a logical place to start.

And I want to set a good example for my children, one studying Spanish and the other studying French.

So what’s my plan?

Over the years I’ve scoured the web, tried a class in my community and asked people for advice. Here’s what I’ve come up with.

  1. Rosetta Stone. This is how I started my studies before, and it’s come a long way with mobile options for my laptop, tablet and phone. I started my first module today and I’ll do 30 minutes daily. Maybe I’ll go for a stacked win from time to time and combine it with my treadmill time. At the end of each month I’ll evaluate how it’s going.
  2. Radio. During my commute time, I’ll listen to Spanish radio stations.
  3. TV. A colleague recommended watching favorite TV shows and movies in Spanish. Easy and fun to do with DIRECTV.
  4. TED talks. This is a good time to turn on the Spanish subtitles when I listen to new TED talks.
  5. Travel. My daughter went to Spain last year and said it was a life-changing experience. With my family, I’ll plan where our next trip will be. Argentina? Chile? Costa Rica?

Now there are even more reasons to learn Spanish.

Deséame suerte . . . or, wish me luck!

How is Social Media Changing Language?

by | Mar 7, 2015 | Corporate Communications, Social Media

A  = 1K wds

And ampersands are awesome in company names. P&G. H&M. A&E.

Not so much in copy.

Unless you’re trying to fit a complete thought into a 140-character tweet. Or about 100, to leave space for a retweet.

When you’re trying to economize on “spaces” (a shorter word than “characters”), using the ampersand symbol “&” saves 2 spaces over “and”

So “and” becomes “&” – “for” becomes “4” – and “creative” becomes “cr8v”

And sayings become acronyms. LOL. OMG. IDK.

Or emojis.   

Need guidance on using these “picture letters” that originated in Japan? If you have teens in the house, you already know. Otherwise, check out Emojipedia.

And who needs punctuation? That period at the end of a complete thought becomes extraneous. It might even be the character that puts you over the limit.

Conversely, as the NYT recently reported, “punctuation on steroids” could be just what you need in place of actual words!!!!!

And in my quest for brevity as I substitute “calm” for “serene” or “luck” for “serendipity,” I wonder if longer words will fade away over time. They take up too much space in our world of limited character counts and attention spans.

Yet this would be a huge loss for the human experience. Words have nuance. They spark emotions. And tug on us in different ways.

That’s why my well-worn copy of the Dictionary of Synonyms is just as important as my dictionary.com app.

And speaking of limited attention spans, while I was linking to the app, I noticed 7 Words the Internet Reinvented.

It also made me wonder if some of the most beautiful words in English could be facing extinction.

What about serendipity, mellifluous and effervescent? Or insouciance, labyrinthine and denouement? Are they just too long in our evanescent and ephemeral environment?

Yet there’s upside to all of this. My fervent hope is that jargon-like words such as “utilize” will fade away, and we’ll simply say “use.” Maybe Strunk and White will finally get their wish to see “prestigious” truly become “an adjective of last resort.”

Parts of this are difficult for someone who prefers clean and clear copy, free of abbreviations and other affronts to the eye. To someone who has a hard time with the AP Style convention of abbreviating states – Calif., Colo. and Conn. There’s much more majesty in California, Colorado and Connecticut.

Like everything in life, it’s a balance. And it’s about your audience. Whom are you writing for? Whom do you want to influence? What form of the language do you need to speak to do that?

IDK, wht do u thnk ?!?!? . . .