This video clip does a great job explaining how to learn a new language with Google Earth, an amazing tool that’s able to show the satellite imagery, maps, terrain and 3D buildings of a geographic location.
Archive for April, 2008
Learning English with Google Earth
April 8, 2008In India, Dreams Unfold in English
April 6, 2008How big deal is it for Indians to learn English? The Washington Post has an interesting article, In India, Dreams Unfold in English, on Sunday that offers a few clues:
India has a reputation as a nation of fluent English speakers, but by many estimates, only 5 percent of the population merits that description. Now, a five-year-long economic boom has triggered a rush to bring the reality into line with the lore. Once the preserve of big-city elites, English is spreading to the hinterlands.
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Helping to drive this trend is the sense that financial success isn’t enough; the perception lingers that social status comes only with true comfort in English.
“You are judged differently as soon as you speak English in India. My students’ inability to speak in English dwarfs their self-confidence,” said Uma Shanker, who runs the academy. “Everybody has a dream now in India, and English is central to that dream.”
Considering India’s population is over one billion, that’s a lot of dream to be built around English skill.
Learn with a Pitcher’s Mind
April 3, 2008The New York Times columnist David Brooks wrote about Pitching with Purpose, citing a sport psychiatrist’s book called “The Mental ABC’s of Pitching”. Brooks is not a sport writer. The article goes beyond how to master the craft of pitching baseball.
Mastering a second language is very much like mastering a craft of any sport. When studying a new language, you can learn as much as, if not more, from the mental game of a pitch than from an ESL teacher.
As it turns out, talent or courage has less to do with the greatness of a pitcher. It’s the discipline. The book author asserted this way:
“Self-discipline is a form of freedom. Freedom from laziness and lethargy, freedom from expectations and demands of others, freedom from weakness and fear — and doubt.”
Now, go after that freedom relentlessly.
Learn English or Lose Your Government Job
April 1, 2008In America, the Judge rules; in Russia, the government official rules. The New York Times reported:
Before the fall of the Soviet Union, people would often make pilgrimages to Ulyanovsk, the city about 600 miles east of Moscow that birthed Lenin. These days, the Lenin museum struggles while the city tries to lure foreign investment with an unusual plan.
The Moscow Times reported that the regional governor, Sergey Morozov, has ordered all high level government officials to learn English so they can do a better job of selling the region to foreign companies. The officials will have to take an exam to show their proficiency. And keep taking it, until they pass.
Learn English, or risk of losing your government job.
You can read the whole article at the NYTimes.com.
