Against Closed Eyes In Marketing

An active life can make it troublesome to squeeze in all the books you might like to enjoy reading. Extended journeys to work and other activities may be taking up enormous amounts of your time everyday. Favorite pursuits take a back seat to making a living, dealing with children, or even housework. If you’re a keen reader who finds it troublesome to find any time, commuting may provide an opportunity to enjoy listening to an audiobook. Thanks to media files, it’s simple to indulge in Sea Glass by Anita Shreve available from Download Audio Book Online, or audible books recounted by without ever lifting a book. In today’s fast paced world multi-tasking is an essential strategy. Audio-books like Mary Mary by James Patterson by Download Audio Book Online occupy the dead minutes in our daily routine, it may be waiting time in a doctor’s office or perhaps buying groceries. Audiobooks are now available to download as mp3 files these include Walking the Bible by Bruce Feiler, so grab your mp3 player and hook it up to your car’s audio system and use the opportunity to discover the current best seller, such as audiobooks penned by Faye Kellerman without carting cumbersome books with you. A further benefit of audio-book is renting or purchasing the instructional title of your choice and savoring it in your own time. Do you wish to study a new language? Why not give audiobooks a try? Maybe the latest sales techniques are your thing, you can even find out about religious or spiritual trends.

An enormous selection of literary genres and titles are obtainable. Whether you like natural history, mad over biographies or even interested in self help, it’s easy to access most titles at once. Choices are wide open; you can easily take a subscription to a program and rent or else make a purchase.

Fervent readers will always seek out a place to read, nevertheless a more convenient way might be the thousands of audio titles available today. Some narratives, such as audiobooks recounted by Lois P. Frankel, are even better when narrated by the author or an illustrious actor. Reading a book is not quite the same as enjoying an audio title narrated by Joyce Meyer, with the additional subtleties presented during a performance. Listening to audio-books performed by Brooklyn Porter will give more depth to the story and go far beyond the words on a page. So the next time whenever you think about purchasing the hard copy of a book you will in all probability never get around to reading, think of audio-books as another choice.

Visit and review our splendid site for Pimsleur French I Part 1 by Dr. Paul Pimsleur advice…

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Mind-maps are the creation of Tony Buzan, the memory expert. The basic principle is that the mind dislikes traditional, linear note taking and thus anything we write should start in the centre of the page with related ideas branching out in all directions. This tool has been successfully used by managers to organise, brainstorm, and even to prepare notes for speeches. Do a search for mind-maps on the Internet and you will find plenty of good examples. I think that mind-maps can be an important and effective asset to anyone who wants to learn a language.

Why traditional note taking is ineffective

I observe my students in class writing down the new vocabulary that comes up in class. More often than not, a student will write down the new word with the translation in his own language next to it. Of course, writing things down is necessary if you want to review later. But at the end of one lesson, the student has a couple of pages of new words that are completely at random - apple, happy, gun, gloat, keyboard, violet, etc. Impossible to retain a list of words like this. Even if you tried to memorise them, the fact that they are irrelevant to each other makes it difficult to remember them.

Mind-maps - a better way

Use mind maps to make “vocabulary networks”. This involves writing a single word, your theme, in the centre of the page and linking words that go with it. Let’s take “theft” as an example. Draw a line from the word “theft” to a new bubble with a description in it - “Theft from a bank” -then write the word “robbery” next to it. Then the word for the person, “robber”, the verb, “to rob”. You can continue to fill the page with “shoplifting”, “mugging”, “pick pocketing”, burglary”, etc, noting all the related words you can think of. Use a dictionary to find the words in the language you are studying. Now you have a page of words that are relevant to each other, thus making them easier to recall when you are talking in your new language. Mind-maps are even more effective if you add little drawings and lots of colour - your brain likes to be entertained!

By the way, this exercise is great in your own language to improve your vocabulary. Use a good dictionary of synonyms (like Roget’s Thesaurus) to get a richer vocabulary.

Jonathan Lewis is a teacher of English as a foreign language in Provence, France. He learned to speak French the best way - by living in the country and practising everyday. He has a site about that helps students to improve their learning abilities, apprendre anglais and a blog about learning English. The advice he offers is invaluable for anyone wishing to learn a language, not just French.

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Now, you decide to learn how to speak English. There are many online resources that can help you improve and practice you English. Now if you are like most other ESL students reading this article then you already have a fairly good notion of the English language. You most likely are looking for a place to practice and enhance your English skills. So, here are four easy steps to do just that.

1. Preparation
There is no need to start from the beginning, since you already a fairly good notion of English. Take stock of your current skills and find out where you are weak. Once you know what you need to learn…all you have to do is learn it.

So, pick out something from your list of things that you know you need/want to learn. Take a few minutes to analyze why you want learn this information, and make sure you focus on that particular point while studying. It is super easy to get side-tracked onto other topics.

If you do see something of interest while you are on your search for information…make sure to take note of it so you can come back at a later time. But for now…FOCUS on the task at hand!

2. Practice
Now that you know what you know what you want to learn, jump over to Google or Yahoo and do a quick search on your chosen topic of interest. From there you should be able to find sites that will provide you with tools and resources such as audio files, video files, exercises, and tests to practice what you want to learn.

3. Use
Alright! You are ripping, raring, and ready-to-go! You studied what it was you wanted to learn, and now you need to put it into use in real life situations. Use what you just learned on your friends and acquaintances. Hit the forums and try out what you now know. Try to use it at least thirty times to really assimilate it well and make it a part of you.

4. Evaluate
Once you are done for the day, sit down for a few minutes and evaluate how you did. Did you learn everything that is required? Are you still weak in certain areas of this topic?

If you have a strong determination to learn English, take note of these things. Start making plan now and start practice it tomorrow. Make sure to do these four steps everyday, and you will steadily see your skills progressing. So now…just go do it!

George Williams maintains many translator websites, including Language Translator, Latin Translator ,and Online Translator.

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When it comes to mastering the uses of POR and PARA in Spanish, there is a very simple, yet powerful approach that can help you in 95 to 98% of the cases and even more.

Rather than teaching all the uses of POR and PARA as all teachers do, I prefer to narrow down my teaching. Does that mean I am teaching “less” than I should? I don´t think so.

After all, my experience has clearly shown me that students are presented with so many rules, patterns and uses that they are not able to use them well in most cases. What do I do? I cut to the chase as I am going to show you.

When do we use PARA?

1. To express PURPOSE: Any time that in English you can use “in order to,” in Spanish you must use PARA.

I work to make money (or.. in order to make money)

Trabajo PARA ganar dinero.

2. To show who the recipient of an action is:

I bought these flowers for you.

Compré estas flores PARA tí.

3. To show destination:

I am going to Spain.

Voy PARA España.

4. When I want to say BY or FOR a SPECIFIC TIME.

I need your answer by Monday.

Necesito tu respuesta PARA el lunes.

These are all the instances when PARA is used. When do you use POR? In all the other cases. Just that! Any time you want to say something and doubt whether to say por or para, just go through this checklist mentally: a) IN ORDER TO b) RECIPIENT c) DESTINATION D) SPECIFIC TIME.

If what you want to express fits any of these possibilities, then the word to use is PARA. If it doesn´t, use POR.

Simple enough, right? I challenge you to try to find and do as many exercises on the Internet as possible and see for yourself how useful and accurate this approach is!

Enjoy!

Julio Foppoli is a teacher of English as a Second Language and a teacher of Spanish as a Second Language. He is the creator and owner of http://www.esaudio.net/Spanish/online_classes.html, an online educational website with a technological edge, specialized in the teaching of Spanish as second language via audio-conference to native speakers of English from all over the world.

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There are more than 39 million Hispanics live in the United States making it the fifth largest Spanish-speaking nation in the world. It is estimated that within five years, only Mexico will have more Spanish-speakers than the U.S. Schools are offering bilingual courses and fully integrated bilingual curriculum. In some areas of the country , Spanish even exceeds English as the first language of the residents. Families are integrating languages into their neighborhoods regularly.

We propose bridging the language gap with bilingual picture books that both educate and entertain. The presence of both English and Spanish in the same book allows cross-cultural access and language development. Reading is a wonderful family experience which allows children to explore character development, expanding imagination and develop problem solving skills. The addition of another language educates and the illustrations in a picture book support the learning in an entertaining way.

Raven Tree Press offer bilingual books in a variety of styles and choices.

Full text translation—Full text translation means the text of the story is presented in English and then again in Spanish. Both texts are generally placed on the page with an icon separating the two for ease of reading. A different ink color is also generally used to further offset the two languages.

Embedded text—Take a story in English and sprinkle in a little Spanish. We call it embedded text. The word that will be embedded is usually first introduced in English and then reiterated in the sentence, or at least in the same paragraph in Spanish later. Once the word is introduced, it can be used again and again in context of the story. The context of the story and the illustrations are of utmost importance when using embedded text as they aid in making the leap from one language to another.

Wordless—Can a wordless book be effective in learning language? Definitely! Wordless picture books and picture books with limited words are both beautiful and educational. They help children develop language, creative thinking and enhance future reading and writing skills. Using wordless picture books, children learn that reading follows a left-to-right pattern. They learn that stories generally have a beginning, a middle section and an ending. They also learn to identify details, see cause and effect, make judgements and draw conclusions. We present an instruction page in both English and Spanish for creative uses of our books.

Concept Bilingual—In concept bilingual books, we take one concept of language and focus strictly on that. Counting, for example. The story is presented in English, but the concept (numbers in this case) are presented in both English and Spanish. Keywords are easily learned using this format.

Raven Tree Press includes an English/Spanish vocabulary page to help readers with keywords in either language.

Raven Tree Press children’s bilingual picture books are available at favorite bookstores, online booksellers and at the publisher’s web site www.raventreepress.com.

Publisher Note: Book excerpts and artwork can be imbedded in this article easily to clarify points if interested. Please contact me for further details.

Raven Tree Press is an independent book publisher specializing in bilingual picture books in English and Spanish.

Contact: Raven Tree Press
Dawn Jeffers, Publisher
www.raventreepress.com
dawn@raventreepress.com
920-438-1605 phone
920-438-1607 fax

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As language teaching professionals, we’re constantly on the look for ways, tips and techniques to improve our craft and our teaching. Here are two notorious areas where teachers may fall prey to practices which can actually have a highly negative impact on the learners’ language learning and acquisition and cause them serious problems. In the article, “Three Mistakes Language Teachers Make That Cause Learners to Fail”, we discussed three of the principal ways teachers can derail their learners’ progress. Here are two additional practices that need to be avoided on the part of ELT and other language teaching professionals.

Don’t test what you teach

If you write your own exams be sure to include only what learners have actually been taught and the way it was taught and practiced if possible. If you don’t write the exams your learners take, know exactly what has to be covered, the style of the exam and the types of questions and make sure to cover and practice the materials accordingly. Use the materials adapted as necessary for the learners to acquire it, then expand your reviews to practice it in ways similar to the exam style. Give exam simulations which match, as closely as possible, the conditions learners will have when actually presenting the required exam. This will do a lot to help overcome their initial anxieties on exam day. You will in fact, as prominent ELT author Stephen Krashen says, “significantly lower their affective filter” in relation to the evaluation process.

Use Too much Teacher Talking Time

On occasion we’re all guilty of this one, but if you’re a frequent or constant offender you can be doing more damage than good in your classroom. Since you’re the teacher we’ll assume that for the most part you’re not the one who needs the language practice. (And perchance, if you DO need the language practice, your classroom isn’t the time or place to get it) Many teachers just won’t shut up and let the learners communicate. It’s the learners who should be doing the bulk of the speaking, reading and otherwise communicating in the target language. Have a trusted colleague sit in during a class session to track your TTT.

I’m sure your Director or Language Coordinator will do it for you too, but you may be less than happy with the feedback. Either way, review your results. If you need to make an adjustment, then you know what to do. (If you’re not sure how to plan and execute a TTT tracking session or you don’t know how to minimize the problem, contact me for some ideas and suggestions) Remember the learners will always communicate more with clear instructions, opportunity for guided and unrestricted practice AND if you zip your flytrap and let them speak.

So, are you a stumbling block to your students’ progress? If you are guilty of any of these problem practices in ELT or language teaching, make the needed adjustments to your teaching practice. Then watch your teaching and results improve like never before. And by all means, please feel free to contact me with your questions, comments or requests.

Prof. Larry M. Lynch is an expert author and photographer offering Web Content Writing Services for top-quality articles on: Education, Language learning, Salt and Fresh water fishing, exotic foods, South American travel and culture, Ethnic issues – Blacks, Latinos, Indian native tribes, Health, Internet business resources and more … His work has appeared in Transitions Abroad, South American Explorer, Escape From America, Mexico News, Brazil magazine and hundreds of sites online. For fr*e*e sample articles and available web content e-mail: lynchlarrym@gmail.com

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More and more website owners are now trying to reach people who speak other languages. Russian is now among languages most often translated into. It’s no wonder. For any e-business reaching this
audience means new clients and business partners, higher profit, as well as more recognition and publicity.

But before you achieve all this, you should make considerable effort and investment. To begin with, your website, advertisements, and other texts should be written for your would-be audience and translated.

What if you don’t have much money right now? Translation is a pretty expensive service. Prices start somewhere from 12 cents per word, so translation of a middle-sized website can cost you up to a thousand dollars. Even if you manage to find some really cheap freelance translator from Russia, a site in Russian will cost you several hundred dollars anyway. Can you do something with less money? Of course.

You can:

• Apply machine translation (MT)
  It’s usually the first that comes to a Webmaster’s mind. Free (or dirt-cheap) and very quick, MT is a great help where the goal is to merely understand what some text is about. But remember - a computer program, however complex, is not a human brain… Don’t expect too much.

  Most machine translations from Russian into English are better than from English into Russian. It might seem strange, but it’s really so. It happens because of the huge difference between English and Russian grammars. To have a general idea of what your translated Web page will look like, take any page in Russian, machine-translate it into English and try to read, keeping in mind that MT into Russian will be worse.

  Online website translators are very easy-to-use. The results can vary. In my opinion, PROMT (http://www.online-translator.com/translator.asp?lang=en) produces the most understandable machine translation into Russian. Maybe, it’s because Russians originally made it for their own market.

  If you use MT a lot, consider buying special software.

  Pictures can be also very helpful if a site will be machine-translated. If your website is for selling goods, you’d better let the merchandise advertise themselves. Most Russians understand common icons and pictograms pretty well. Make the site navigation as simple as possible and less dependent on words — it can be crucial for your customers who visit pages of your website, machine-translated into Russian.

• Look for a Volunteer
  This probably is the most suitable way for organizations, especially for non-profit ones. There can be people who know Russian in the staff, among their friends, or in their families. Why not ask, say, a Russian-speaking student to translate website of the university he is studying at?
• Pay for Translation with your Product or Services
  Why not look for somebody in your target audience who can translate your website? Products you produce and services you provide do cost money. Both parties will receive what they want - and everybody will be happy.
• Offer Translators Free Advertising — a Link or a Banner
  Advertising on your site – that’s what you can offer instead of money. Translation agencies (mine included) and freelancers sometimes offer such an exchange — translation of a webpage for a permanent banner or a link to the translator’s website.

  Look for such offers in the Web or suggest it yourself. Translators can consider it a good idea. An ad — especially on a popular web page — could be the very thing they need.

What you had better NOT do:

• Don’t hire a freelancer and cheat him or her when it comes to paying for the work. (No, I don’t believe you’ll ever think of such a dirty trick. But such things do happen sometimes)

  First, it’s immoral and against the law. Second, translators don’t like to be cheated and can hit back. It’s true that Russians don’t like to sue even most unscrupulous clients. But such a “client” will very soon appear in numerous blacklists and forum messages (in English as well) all over the Internet, where this info will stay for good. So, if somebody googles the name of this trickster or his company, here it is – a dirty little secret. Not a nice reputation for a businessman…

• Don’t make your website out of free test translations from different translation agencies. First, it’s unfair. Second, such a website most likely will be quilt-looking. High-quality translation is possible only when a translator sees a website as a whole, knows what every piece of text is for, how these pieces connect, even what pictures there will be.

So, even if there isn’t much money, there always are opportunities to do the same (or almost the same) cheaper or even for free.
Good luck to you!

Alexandra Gamanenko is a senior translator and editor of the Literary Translation Department, which is a part of a Web design studio. It offers localization and translation of websites into Russian and Ukrainian, as well as lots of other useful services.

Learn more — visit the website http://www.clever-crayon.com

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