Keep up with me on Twitter! @blangblog

By kevin | Published: May 3, 2011

Hey there! This is a heads-up that, as you probably have seen, time has been tight lately, and I haven’t been keeping up with Haiku Tuesday as I should have. Rather than leave you totally high-and-dry, I will be using Twitter more actively to micro-blog about the things that interest me. I still encourage you to subscribe to my blog and get notified about updates. You can do that in the right-hand menu.

However, also follow @blangblog on Twitter and check out my updates whenever you like. I use Twitter rather frequently, so this is easier for me for now. Once time permits, I’ll be sure to post more actively on the full blog here.

So Know Your Social Media isn’t dead, but Part 2 may take some time. I’ve also started thinking about the topic of the language of memory. In fact, I think I’ll tweet about that first! Keep an eye out!

I’d love to know the topics you’re interested in. Leave me comments.

Talk soon,
Kevin

P.S. What is taking up my time? Mostly, it’s client work under WizOne Solutions and improving and selling subscriptions for Fill PDF Service. The latter is starting to take off, and that should help free up my time some, but it’s not quite there yet. If you are a Drupal Developer or have Drupal Developer friends, spread the word! Stop generating PDFs from scratch! Make fill-in templates where you can and use Fill PDF to fill them in! And then offload the processing to Fill PDF Service, which still is only a one-time fee for life…which won’t last forever. OK, time to end that advertisement to the entirely wrong crowd ;)

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From HTLAL – Improve and encourage yourself with the Language-Learning “Pact!”

By kevin | Published: March 24, 2011

Someone made me aware of a pact that the user futurianus made here: http://how-to-learn-any-language.com/forum/forum_posts.asp?TID=25814&PN=1

It has to do with a few guidelines you can follow to stay motivated and learn effectively. It is written with Chinese in mind, but it applies to any language.

Without further ado, here it is: Read More »

Posted in Language Learning Tips | Tagged , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

Haiku Tuesday – Income Tax Return

By kevin | Published: March 9, 2011

Those of you in countries where you actually have to fill out your own income tax return will appreciate this haiku.

Like glass in the sand
Strike two words, spiting your time
“Standard deduction”

So much for all those records you kept, eh? At least business expenses still take a nice chunk out of that dreaded taxable income :)

Posted in Features, Language, Original Haikus, Poetry | Tagged , , , , | Leave a comment

Fun Language Learning Tips – Know Your Social Media – Part 1 – Introduction

By kevin | Published: March 5, 2011

(Since this post has been a draft in my blog box for nearly a month, I decided to break it into several parts and blog little by little. Hope you’ll like the approach)

A recent mistweeet by yours truly led to a suggestion that I write a blog post so that you don’t have to make the same mistake. You could also think of this post as, “How to Avoid Foreign Language Oopses in Social Media.” That said, you’ll be able to apply these tips to many other areas as well.

What I want to do in this post is walk you through how I find out the right way to say “hashtag” – you know, #TheseThingsYouEitherLoveOrHateOnTwitter, in Norwegian, French, and Spanish. What’s extra cool is that I haven’t done this yet, so I’m going to do it in real time and take you with me. Screenshots included! Ready? Let’s go.

First, Norwegian. Messing up the Norwegian version of this was what led to this post, so it makes sense to start here.

Naïvely, I’ll first search in English: “what is hashtag in Norwegian?” Let’s see what comes back…

Picture of Google search results for "what is hashtag in Norwegian?"

Ehh…that doesn’t look very promising. But while I was typing the query, I saw something good…let’s see if I can back up a bit and find it…OK, this is what I thought might be it:

First result for "hashtag in Norwegian" on Google

When I clicked, through, though, it was just a description of the actual hashtag #spill, and how spill in Norwegian means “game.” So that wasn’t quite it.

It seems like English isn’t working so well! In part 2, I’ll try searching in Norwegian…stay tuned!

Posted in Features, Fun Language Learning Tips, Language, Language Learning Tips | Tagged , , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

Foreign Language Oops – English (native) – Sweek

By kevin | Published: March 5, 2011

This is one from yours truly, but I think it would make an awesome dictionary word. I think I was trying to say “sweet” and “sleek” at the same time. Sweek came out. I think it’s a pretty sweek word.

Merriam-Webster, are you reading? Word candidate right here.

Incidentally, Urban Dictionary seems to have a different idea. I find their definitions a little “sweek” though. Comment if you get the joke!

Posted in Features, Foreign Language Oops, Fun With Words, Language | Tagged , , , , , , | 1 Comment

Haiku Tuezzzday

By kevin | Published: March 2, 2011

*yawn*

Bad sleep patterns are
The sun rising in the north
And then in the east

Before this becomes true for me…good night!

(P.S. I still owe you guys a post about how to learn specific terms for things like social media, basically walking you through what I would do. I’ve got it as a draft and will complete and post it as soon as I can. “Thanks for being patient.”)

Posted in Features, Language, Original Haikus, Poetry | Tagged , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

Haiku Tuesday?

By kevin | Published: February 22, 2011

The, “Oh yeah, it was Tuesday yesterday,” gag may be getting old, but I’m continuing it one more week!

As the sun touches
The earth, so  touches my pen
pa…wait, what’s today?

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Foreign Language Oops – English – Don’t even go there…

By kevin | Published: February 22, 2011

This one was so awesome that it needed to be preserved on the blog itself: “Your manlihood is on steak.” Note that I’m transcribing it this way, but it was spoken, so I’m embellishing a bit to make it funnier :)

All the guys reading this are probably one part laughing, one part cringing. But one thing’s for sure; it was a pretty good Oops.

Chime in with your thoughts! Also, can anyone decipher the original phrase?

Posted in Features, Foreign Language Oops, Fun With Words, Language | Tagged , , | Leave a comment

Do you understand more Spanish than you speak? (or any other language)

By kevin | Published: February 21, 2011

There used to be a longer impromptu blog post here. Here’s a summary!

  • My Spanish comprehension is better than my ability to start speaking from a cold start now. This is different from before. I’m still fluent.
  • I think it’s because I’m in L.A., where I hear it more and speak it relatively more. I also listen to it on the radio about once a week.
  • I usually find that when starting out with a language, my speaking ability is better than my ability to understand speakers.
  • I’ve heard the opposite from others; for them, it’s easier to understand than speak.

Have you had the same “shift” as me happen to you in a language? Why do you think it happened?

Are you from the other side? Why do you think that’s the case for you (understanding more than you can speak)?

Even more interestingly…are you from the other side and have had the “shift” happen in the opposite direction?

Looking forward to hearing back.

Posted in Language, Linguistic Opinions | Tagged , , , , , , | 1 Comment

Haiku Tuesday – Haiku Tuesday

By kevin | Published: February 16, 2011

From hibernation
Come bears sooner than Haiku
Tuesday. Late again.

Want to share your own haiku about Haiku Tuesday being late? The comments are always open to you! If you want to have your haiku featured AS Haiku Tuesday, please get in touch.

Posted in Features, Language, Original Haikus, Poetry | Tagged , , , , | Leave a comment

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