And computer-generated translations are not the only culprits in the logic-defying, “What were they thinking?” goofs and miscues that aggravate our ability to understand other cultures.

Case in point: WGN TV in Chicago compiled a gallery of “Horrible Translations” that proves that communication comes from understanding, not from word substitution.

Enjoy these examples of “Translations gone wrong.” Look for the faulty Spanish to English translations among these gems.

Horrible Translations Gallery

Book Title: How to Learn any Language

How to Learn any Language

Book Title: Side-By-Side Spanish & English Grammar

Side-By-Side Spanish & English Grammar

Articles…

Flash Card Technology: A Low-Tech How-To

Flash Card Technology: A Low-Tech How-To

Communicating with Hispanic and Minority Students: You can get by with Limited Language Skills, but Learn the Culture

Communicating with Hispanic and Minority Students: You can get by with Limited Language Skills, but Learn the Culture

Don Quijote.Com: Why Learn about Spanish Culture?

Don Quijote.Com: Why Learn about Spanish Culture?

Bilingual Programs: Short Shrift as Usual for a Double-Barreled Opportunity

Bilingual Programs: Short Shrift as Usual for a Double-Barreled Opportunity

Miami: Now a Majority Spanish-Speaking City

Miami: Now a Majority Spanish-Speaking City

Link to Spanish Blogs:

Clase Chevere Blog
Spanish Toolkit Blog

You want to learn another language, but the details that you have to learn and the vocabulary that you encounter seem overwhelming.

Applying this secret is a paradox. Instead of having to learn something or instead of struggling to memorize something, you just have to “unlearn something.”

Your language learning success will accelerate if you manage the resources of a certain part of your mind by deactivating it.

The part of your mind that you need to de-activate is your “perception filter.”

Your “perception filter” is a hidden part of your mind that filters unneeded and irrelevant stimuli. Your mind does this so that you can focus upon important tasks, and avoid distraction from countless and endless array of sights, sounds, smells and sensations.

If you ever had the experience of buying a car, and suddenly seeing that make and model of vehicle that you bought is on every street? It now seems that the same model car is everywhere you look…on the road, in parking lots, in magazine pictures…

We have this experience because of the work of a part of our brain called the “Reticular
Activating System” (RAS). The RAS is responsible for filtering unimportant information, data, input…stimuli that we don’t need to attend to.

If all this stimuli reached your conscious awareness, you would be too bogged down to function. So, the RAS functions to keep you productive, and sane.

In the car buying example, your brain now knows that recognizing this car is important, for example finding it amid the other cars in a crowded parking lot. So, the RAS becomes sensitized, and notices this type of car. It is not that there are mysteriously more of this one make and model of vehicle now on the road. This make and model was already there, but, you did not have a reason for noticing it.

In language learning, you need to train your brain to hear new sounds…to hear new nuances of sounds, to notice little word details.

Your goal is to train your reticular activating system to look for and hear these nuances. And, the way that you do this is to…

• Pay attention sounds
• Look at yourself in a mirror as you create the sounds
• Feed back the sounds to yourself with a tape recorder, voice recorder
• Watch sounds of native speakers and yourself in audio editing software to see the different patterns

One cool trick is to piece together some PVC pipe elbows and a PVC sleeve of the right size to form a loop that you can talk into an listen to your own voice.

In your study of Spanish, you need to be able to hear several things that are different than the way that you hear English. Then, you have to adjust your mouth and tongue to different positions to speak your new language.

With Spanish, your tongue needs to be more flexible, and your tongue needs to feel free enough to “almost escape your mouth.” Think of this as the reason that native Spanish-speaking women seems so alluring and intimate. Think of this mouth and tongue movement as revealing a warmth and openness that others find attractive.

Your mental attitude and your mental imagery play a role in how you create and express words in a target language. Focusing on mental imagery, sensation, sound, sound production all help you reset your brain so that you are become aware of important small differences that might have been filtered otherwise.

Another technique is to write out the words, sounds, accents that you want to become more aware of. Then draw pictures of these words, sounds and accents…or just doodle. Anything that you can do to create in internal curiosity will help.

The technique that you use doesn’t matter, but the act of calling attention to these nuances will convince, reset, reprogram your brain to work for you in a new way.

What you are doing is telling your brain that these words, sounds, accents are important. Then, your RAS will start to notice and pay attention to these signals. Once this happens, you will start to perceive the formerly invisible, silent clues that were always there.

And, as you practice the target language, you will notice all kinds of things that you didn’t notice before.

After that, you need to practice until you can make the same sounds. But, don’t try to strain and make the sounds in different ways than the native speakers do. The reason that native speakers make the sounds the way that they do is that these are the easiest, most natural, most effortless ways to produce the sounds. Easy, most natural, effortless translates into “most fluid” and most fluent.

You will also notice native speakers, and pick up on the nuances of their conversation. After a time, you will build enough confidence to make comments and speak a few words in the target language to them.

What will be happening is that your mind is filling in all the words, sounds and accents that it once automatically blanked out for you so that you would not be distracted by them. But, now that these words, sounds and accents have meaning for you, you become able to pay attention to them.

So, take these few, easy steps, and train your mind to work with a few new words, sounds and accents. Your RAS has been on the job all along, and will respond quickly to unfilter the new information for you.

Just project a clear picture of what you want to be able to do. Project that image in a confident and grateful manner, thank yourself for the improvement, and enjoy the ease and excitement of learning in a better way.

And, remember to treat yourself well. Reward yourself for your progress at learning and speaking Spanish, day by day, more closely speaking like a native speaker does.

Related Links:

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There are about 40 million folks of Hispanic origin in the US, and the US is rapidly overtaking Argentina and Spain for second place as the country with the most Spanish speakers. Only Mexico will have more Spanish speakers thant the US in a few more years.

And, our country is next door to the largest Spanish-speaking country in the world. Further south is an entire Continent (South America) and subcontinent (Central America) of Spanish-speaking coutries. Besides, lots of native speakers of Spanish from this hemisphere live in the US.

Spanish is easier for Americans to speak than French because it is a more phonetic language than either French or English. Correct Spanish pronunciation also is less difficult than correct French pronunciation.

You can find Spanish speakers in most urban areas of the US, and Spanish language radio and television is also avaiable in major US cities.

Then there are the countless Internet Spanish resources.

The problem with learning Spanish is the problem with learning any new language…you have to devote time and effort to the task each day.

The easy, effortless learning of language by toddlers is a myth. We send children to school for 12 or more years because their language learning is incomplete.

Children learn how to pronounce words correctly (mostly, except for some regional quirks), but they do not learn concept vocabulary, spottless grammar and academic conventions.

But, after attending school, you have these mental infrastructure tools to learn a new language.

Of course, there are other learning tasks.

You have to learn to think in the new language because translation is too slow and translating between personal interchanges produces awkward (rapport-less) communication.

You also have to retrain your mouth and tongue (and maybe some other body parts) to make the distinctive sounds of the new language.

Although the sounds may be similar, it takes practice to produce the exact sounds that a native speaker makes. This difference is called, “Accent.” But at first, do not fixate on the accent, just focus upon communicating well enough (Note: If you would have used the word “good” here, this proves that you needed those 12 years of school, or maybe proves that you weren’t paying attention) to make your messages understood.

So, Spanish is a top choice as a new language for you to study.

Practice every day, and when you look back over several months of study, you will be amazed at how much you will have learned.

P.S. Don’t try to say this last sentence in Spanish until you become a fluent, advanced speaker.

Related Links:

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But, what happens if you are only partially paying attention? Of course the answer is that you only have a partial memory of what you studied.

So, what does it mean to be paying full attention when learning a language?

And why do you struggle to remember the meaning of words when you did study with full attention?

Repetition is the “Name of the Game”

The problem with language learning memory strategies are that they require repetition. And, your brain starts to filter shut down stimulation that is the same. This is a built in survival mechanism.

In the old days, you would visit a doctor’s office and you could smell the alcohol and other chemicals. In fact, the waiting room and examination rooms were thick with these smells.

However, after you sat in the room for awhile, you began not to notice the smell. And it was only later, when you left the doctor’s office and emerged into the open air that you smelled the smell again.

Language learning by repetition, while needed to move words from your “short-term memory” to your “long-term memory,” suffers from same fate. That is, you repeat and repeat, and after a while, your brain starts to filter the words. You begin to be paying only partial attention, and the impact of your study fades.

Making Language Learning Input Different

Fortunately, the cure for reversing you brain’s tendency to filter out repeated words is easily fixed. All you have to do is change the repetition style. For example, in repeating words to increase your memory of them, your can:

• Say one word loudly
• Say the next word in a whisper
• Say the next word in a normal tone of voice
• Say the next word in a falsetto voice
• Say the next word in a base voice
• Etc.

This is a technique that was advocated by the folks that developed the “SuperLearning™ System” a few years ago. The SuperLearning™ method relies on soft background music, timed to a repetitive, slow beat (about one beat per second); and words that are spoken over the tape in altering voice loudness.

The relaxing music eliminates stress (another enemy of memory and learning), while the alternating tones of voice provide stimulus change to keep your brain active and engaged in the study period.

Here are examples of the SuperLearning™ products…

Related Links:

Clase Chevere | Clase Chevere Blog | Spanish Toolkit Blog | Spanish Conversation Web 2.0 | Language Study Lab Web 2.0 | Clase Chevere Web 2.0 | Spanish Toolkit Web 2.0

Language Learners won’t learn Spanish just by listening to CDs, or by reviewing flash cards.

A grammar book, plastic review cards, or a Spanish phrase book won’t lead to language fluency or proper pronunciation, either.

Language learners need to apply a combination of strategies and tactics to learn Spanish.

Consistency is the key.

Daily practice, repeated practice, study content needs to be shuffled and reviewed.

And, content needs to be reviewed on a gradually lengthening schedule.

This strategy moves the language learning function from short-term memory to long-term memory.

Language learners also need to move some learning from the conscious mind to the unconscious mind, because a substantial component of language learning is habit and automatic responses.

Language learners rely on a concerted effort, a slow and steady pace, a stress-free and relaxed pace, and creative imagination to excel in increasing their Spanish skills.

Your ability to learning Spanish will amaze you if you approach the journey as an experiment in learning, rather than a study in frustration and memory.

Memory is important in language learning…but that memory is long-term.

Plan carefully, work slowly and steadily, and commit to a process that will support your language learning over “the long haul.”

Related Links:

Clase Chevere | Clase Chevere Blog | Spanish Toolkit Blog | Spanish Conversation Web 2.0 | Language Study Lab Web 2.0 | Clase Chevere Web 2.0 | Spanish Toolkit Web 2.0

The “Textbook Syndrome” is the study of a language as if it were a class in history, biology, or government. In this inefficient and ineffective method, you…

• Memorize Vocabulary
• Memorize Grammar Rules
• Memorize Word Spellings
• Memorize Verb Conjugations
• Memorize Exceptions to Everything

Major problems are associated with the “Textbook Syndrome.” The “Textbook Syndrome” strategy…

• Is Boring
• Relies on Short-Term Memory
• Is Subject to Rapid Decay in the Amount of Retention
• Promotes Cramming and Focus upon Grades for the Next Test

The “Textbook Syndrome” is a “One Trick Pony” in a “language circus” that needs a menagerie of “entertaining and colorful attractions.

The “Textbook Syndrome” fosters the technique of reading through a textbook (with novel, strange words) and trying to pronounce the words as if they were English words.

The “Textbook Syndrome” also takes you through a series of vignettes such as coffee shops, classrooms, bus stations, whatever. These windows into the world of the foreign language don’t portray learning as it really takes place.

In fact, the “Textbook Syndrome” produces results where the student earns a grade of “A” for three years of high school Spanish and two semesters of college Spanish, yet cannot communicate with people on the street in Mexico City, Buenos Aries, Lima or Panama City. In fact, this level of skill isn’t enough to speak Spanish to America Citizens in San Juan, Puerto Rico; or to Cubans in Miami, Florida, or Mexicans in El Paso, Texas.

This is because the “Textbook Syndrome” relies on “paper and pencil” demonstration of language skill, while the real world relies on…

• Habitual Responses
• Dynamic Personal Interaction
• Culture
• Slang and Idioms

Real language is communication-smart. “Textbook Syndrome.” language is test-smart and communication-dumb.

Grammar lessons and workbook homework are accomplices in the misdemeanor of the “Textbook Syndrome.”

But, real language learning produces accomplishments, not accomplices.

The steps to real language learning include:

• Listening
• Speaking
• Reading
• Writing

But you do not have to become proficient in writing in Spanish before you can communicate in Spanish.

In fact, you need to jump right in and communicate the best that you can, right from the start.

In the real world, you will find that the “Grammar Sharks” and the “Pronunciation Tigers” don’t exist. These are the mythical beasts that the “Textbook Zealots” have scared you into fearing.

In reality, Spanish speakers come from a culture of warm, friendly, caring and supportive people…people that feel pleased that you are bothering to learn their language, even though you “don’t have to.”

Continue visiting Spanish Toolkit at every opportunity to pick up skills and tools for learning Spanish in a practical and rewarding way.

Related Links:

Clase Chevere | Clase Chevere Blog | Spanish Toolkit Blog | Spanish Conversation Web 2.0 | Language Study Lab Web 2.0 | Clase Chevere Web 2.0 | Spanish Toolkit Web 2.0