Remember when I said earlier that being an affiliate gave me perks and benefits that I would be able to share with all of you out there?  In their generosity, Rocket Languages has provided me with a free report that I am welcome to share with you called "Ordinary Ways to Learn a Language Extraordinarily Fast".  It is an absolute must for any serious language learners. Inside this booklet that I am offering to you free as a way of thanking you for visiting this site, it contains all the secrets to mastering learning another language from the experts. As a language learner, I actually have not see anything like this before that accurately gives language learners the lowdown on what exactly your mind needs to successfully learn another language. And it is only available through an affiliate like me, you can't get it anywhere else on earth.

Here is the link to the booklet. You are welcome to download it for your own personal use.  It is a great read and I highly recommend that you keep it as a resource. I really wish that when I was first starting out as a language learner that there was a booklet like this for me to refer to. But I did have help from a fantastic website called "How to Learn Any Language" and it is another resource that I want to recommend to you. Between this marvelous booklet and the website I have listed above, you'll find enough information that will get you well on your way to mastering another language.

Ordinary Ways to Learn a Language Extraordinarily Fast

In celebration of the Japanese culture and language, I've posted a clip here from a famous Japanese movie that was done many years ago called "Shall we dance?"  The story is about an unhappy accountant who secretly takes up dancing as a hobby.  Back in the day, the idea of men taking dancing lessons were frowned upon.  But everything changes one day when he looks up and sees an ad for dancing lessons while riding the train home....

"Waza waza"

No, I'm haven't taken on some new native tribal language. The actual phrase here is "Waza waza domo" and it is an ultra polite way of saying "thank you" in the Japanese business culture. This blog is the third part installment to a series of blogs I have been writing to review Rocket Japanese's program. There is a part of the course that teaches you a way of speaking when you are doing business or in ultra formal situations. This type of Japanese is called "kaigo" and the interactions and words you must use in formal situations is culture all on it's own.

 I am so thankful out there for a program like Rocket Japanese that gives me a mini culture course on phrases I must use and the expectations of me in those settings. Let's see if I can remember some of what I just learned....watashi becomes wakushi. Koko (here) and soko (there) becomes "kochira" and "sochira". When giving a gift I must present it with both hands, bow, and then say something like "I am very sorry for this boring and worthless gift".

I'm glad that I'm not planning to do business in Japan anytime soon! So many things to remember when dealing with an ultra formal situation. But Japan has a booming economy and you never know where life may take you so i think that knowing business Japanese is a valuable tool to have for the future.  Rocket Japanese will have you conquering "kaigo" in no time!

Ganbatte! Good luck!

Betcha that many of you out there don't know that as a language learner, I have a pet peeve. And unfortunately, alot of people outside the language learning world do often end up petting my pet peeve unintentionally.  And ironically, their comments to me were often times meant as a compliment so taking that into account, I have to let it go and understand that they meant well.

But what bothers me as a language learner is when I am talking to people about being fluent in a language, I will get a comment like "Oh, you're just naturally good at languages."  Yes and no. This is something that I would like to explain.  Yes, there are some people who naturally pick up languages faster than others. It is possible to not study at all and go to a country and pick up the language. But even if you plan on doing that, you have to commit to spending time with the locals and with people that don't speak your native tongue.

And the part that many people don't get is that I am where I am because of commitment. While in Canada, I had the option of choosing to do many other things but I chose to be with my spanish grammar books and my audio lessons. When it came to movies, I chose spanish language films instead of the latest hollywood blockbuster. When I was in Argentina, I chose to go to church events and cell group on thursday where there were no english speakers.

Although there are some of you out there that would be able to go to a country without much study and pick up the language, understand that there are many levels of fluency. If you do your homework right and commit time to studying, you will have a so much more enriching experience and will be able to engage in a deeper level of conversation with the locals than you ever dreamed of.  You'll be able to get more done and any problems that may arise you'll be able to solve them faster. And trust me, there were several occasions in my early days where I ran into some problematic situations that would have cost me several hours more of my time if I did not know the language as well as I did.

I think people almost get this idea that me having natural language speaking abilities, that I just woke up one morning and foreign words starting popping out of my mouth. Well every so often I do get up on the wrong side of the bed and the words that pop out of my mouth are alot closer to foul than foreign LOL  But my point is that it all boils down to choice. It's not up to fate whether you succeed or fail as a language learner.

On that note, I also want to balance it out by saying that commitment is one part of it and the other part is finding the appropriate resources and methods of teaching and learning. Don't even get me started on how much marketing junk there is out there claiming to get you speaking a foreign language in your sleep. If you're reading this and you've been one of those who has spent hours studying and learning and you haven't had success, don't take this blog the wrong way. It is likely that you just haven't been paired up with the right resources.  Which is why I continually Rocket Languages and their products as well the website "How to Learn Any Language" is an excellent resource that I highly recommend.

Buenas suerte!  Good luck!

Image by weegolo via Flickr

I admit that as a language learner who is now fluent in one language, it is easy to get prideful at times when you hit this level where you can flow in and out of speaking and understanding two different languages. It's hard not to get a little puffed up when people around you are telling you how amazingly well that you speak and that they don't encounter alot of foreigners that can speak as well as you.

If you fear getting too prideful in your language learning abilities, then I have a cure for you. There is no better way to eat humble pie than to spend an evening trying to conquer learning the Japanese writing system of hiragana. Fortunately, Rocket Languages has an amazing program that comes with their audio language program. It is called Mega Japanese and basically it is these words and picture games that you can play on your computer to increase your vocabulary skills and build your audio comprehension. Every Rocket Language product comes with this game that is free as a download once you've purchased your chosen language.

In the case of Rocket Japanese, there are three types of games available for me to play. One that helps with my audio skills, one for my vocabulary, and the third game is to help me learn Hiragana. The way the game works is that I will be shown a symbol and to the right, I have 4 different sounds to choose from. Only one of them is correct and I have to pick the sound that corresponds with the hiragana symbol.

The first time I played the game, I came out with a whooping score of 60 out of 150.  Which is gentle reminder to me that when it comes to Japanese, as a language learner I am basically at the bottom of Mt. Fuji.  I don't think that anyone at this point is going to be rushing to book tours to Japan with me. Having a tour guide that cannot read the signs properly does not leave much peace of mind for the people on the tour!  But I'm determined to scale this mountain at all cost (I mean in a metaphorical sense of language learning. Fitness-wise, I'm going to need a few more centuries before I'm in any shape to be actually scaling Mt. Fuji)

I was very pleased that after taking some time out one evening to practice MegaHiragana, my score improved drastically and by the end of the nite, my average score was 96 out of 150. It was at a point that I could guess the right sound for the majority of the symbols in two tries or less.  And I swear that this game must have some kind of intelligence because at once point it seemed that everytime I started to recognize alot of the symbols, new ones would get thrown at me that I had never seen before in my life.

One of the greatest dangers and language learner can face is getting satisfied with their level and not feeling the need to pursue more. I was in Argentina when Rocket Spanish Platinum came out, the third level in the series. Part of me just wanted to be like "My spanish is good enough already. I can get around, have conversations, make friends etc." But I shook off that feeling and bought the program and made myself explore new levels of the language and I am so glad that I didn't settle where I was. Buying the third level of the series really gave me the ability to accent my language skills nicely and resulted in deeper, richer interactions with people while I was down there.

 Now with learning Japanese, I feel like I am in that place of humility all over again where I am starting at the bottom with the most basic level of skills. But I am glad that trying to tackle this language is helping keep me on my toes.  It is a humbling place to be and an awesome place to be at the same time.  Looks like learning the Japanese language and culture is gonna have me eating humble pie with my order of sushi......

So this is supposed to be my review of Rocket Japanese but truth be told, I have no idea where to begin. The Japanese languages has got just as many intricate and complex layers as the culture itself. Even the country Japan conjures images of peaceful shrines and snow capped mountains while at the same time is also a land of bullet trains, karaoke and high tech gadgets.

I'm not even sure at this point that I can review Rocket Japanese in one blog posts so I may have to branch out and do a series of blogposts related to this theme. I guess if I am looking for a place to start, I should start at the beginning. This is a language that I felt pretty excited to review because of my previous experience with other Rocket Languages products. No matter how difficult the language is reputed to be, Rocket Languages has somehow always finds a way to break down even the hardest of languages into something that is feasible and fun. And Rocket Japanese was no different.

Due to the complexity of the japanese language and culture, I decided to develop a learning plan for tackling this language. For those of you who aren't familiar, Japanese has 3 writing systems. The three writing systems are hiragana, katakana, and romanji. I decided for now to just focus on romanji and when I felt comfortable with that, I would then set aside a season and a time for tackling the other two writing systems.

What I love about Rocket Japanese is that with each unit, they also have grammar and cultural lessons as well. So you can actually create a plan on how you're going to map out your language learning. For now I've decided just to focus on doing the audio lessons with a sprinkle of cultural units on the side. I'm not planning a trip to Japan anytime soon so there is no rush to try and learn everything as fast as I can. The way that I see it, Japanese is a big beautiful steak that I can just cut into tiny pieces that is meant to be chewed and swallowed nice and slow (and perhaps washed down with a good dose of sake? LOL)

In true Rocket Languages style, you have your two hosts who take you through the program. For Rocket Japanese, our hosts are Kenny and Sayaka who led the way with humour and heart. Together the help you digest some of the more difficult aspects of Japanese grammar and culture. Bit by bit they help unravel the mysteries of this ancient culture and it is amazing how with just a few sprinklings of wit and wisdom, a language and a culture that once seemed foreboding is now friendly and feasible.

This may just seem like a very general review but in the coming weeks and months, I'll be updating you as my journey unfolds to learn this fascinating culture and language and will be able to give you more detailed blogposts on the technical aspects of what it is like to learn Japanese using Rocket Japanese.

Mata ne!

This summer I decided to experiment with some of the other popular products that Rocket Languages had available. Awhile ago I had actually purchased "Rocket French" but had never gotten around to using because at that time, my focus was on becoming fluent in spanish. Now that I'd achieved my goal of fluency, I was ready for a new challenge. So I couldn't think of a better way to make good use of my time other than to lie in the summer sun listening to Rocket French audio lessons on my ipod.

As for my consensus, I would have to say that Rocket French can be summed up in three words: fast, fun & funny.  French is a complex language. There is no doubt about it. This language has a notorious reputation for putting off potential language learners with it's multitude of irregular verbs and rules broken. As well as having words that are just as hard to pronounce as they are to read.  There is just no fast way to fluency with french.....or is there?  Rocket French proved that there is.

With your Rocket French hosts Marie Claire and Paul Martin, they take you on a journey that will navigate you pasts all the previous traps that ensnare language learners and take you on the fast track to fluency. In terms of grammar, you'll only learn what is relevant and what you will need to know for real life encounters in France or any french speaking country.

They take you through real life situations and only role play conversations that you can use practically. And while doing so, they've even found a little bit of time during each audio course to talk to you about french culture so that you walk away from each lesson with some travelling tips as well as a better understanding of the language itself.

Topics that they role play and cover are themes such as buying wine, going to the grocery store, booking a hotel room, taking the tram, meeting and greeting family, skiing on the french slopes and SO MUCH MORE!!!!!  And Paul's sense of humour throughout the entire course is an added bonus. Learning a new language is going to be work even with a course as simple and practical as Rocket French so it is important to keep things fun for the learner.  But the banter between Paul and Marie Claire certainly kept things entertaining and amusing throughout the entire course.

Rocket French will have you soaring as a language learner like those birds from the clip "Winged Migration" could be seen soaring over France. Although I spend a majority of my time in the latin american world, I never know where the journey of life will take me next. It is comforting to know that no matter where I go or whom I may encounter, there is a program out there like Rocket French that will put me on the road to fluency in a manner that is fast, fun & funny.