Acquiring Another Language - Pain or Pleasure?

Does this strike you as a leisurely activity?

Knowing another language is a highly prized ability, right?  Don't we identify polyglots as really smart, well educated, super intelligent, and in general, superior human beings?  So if knowing another language is so desirable, why don't more Americans (and we are not alone in this) make the effort to break out of our monolingualism?

You've heard the old joke: "What do you call a person who knows three languages?  Trilingual.  What do you call a person who knows two languages?  Bilingual.  And what do you call a person who knows only one language?  American.

The old excuses for English Only immediately rear their heads.  Europeans live closer to other countries, so they have more language learning opportunities.  European schools begin language study at an early age. Isn't English becoming the universal language, so aren't I lucky that I already speak English?  If anyone wants to do business with me, they had better speak English.  And on and on...

I would like to offer a new perspective.  How about plucking second language acquisition out of the realm of really serious stuff and nestle it into a category of fun things to do with my life?  Let's think about language acquistion the same way we do learning to play a musical instrument, conquering a new piece of software, mastering making homemade flour tortillas, or training to run a marathon.  Challenging, but intriguing and rewarding.

I'm in the midst of trying to recoup some of the knowledge of the French language that has been stuffed into my head at various points in my schooling.   Instead of approaching this task (oops, I didn't mean to say task), rather, opportunity for creativity, with an intense desire to succeed, how about if I take a more relaxed approach?

The first baby step I took to ween myself away from language learning as pain rather than pleasure was to sign up for a free online course with no feedback from an instructor.  If you are a language instructor reading this blog, please don't get out the rotten tomatoes just yet.  I spent my teaching career in second languages, so I think we still can play a vital role in language learning.  More about that topic in a future blog.  

What, a course where no one will tell me if I am right or wrong?  No homework, no tests, no one to encourage me, just me and my computer?  Yes.

In the weeks that follow, I want to share my experiences with learning a language through an open, online course.  And I hope to  investigate and evaluate other alternative ways of acquiring a language.

Wish me luck!  And send me a comment about language learning in your life.

Can I trust Google Translate? It's the wrong question!

Pandora's box or a can of worms?  I certainly opened up a larger question than I intended to when I decided to do an informal investigation into the accuracy of Google Translate (GT).  I'll state right up front that my experiments with using GT to convert the same ten English phrases into Spanish, Portuguese and French (see past three posts) convinced me that GT does provide accurate translations at the level of communication of travel phrases.  Neither of us was perfect, but GT and I scored about equally on the number of translations we could have improved on.

So my admonition to students for using GT to do their homework based on GT's lack of accuracy was (to use an idiom that GT might have trouble translating), barking up the wrong tree.  I really wasn't concerned about GT's accuracy.  I was convinced that overuse or misuse of the service would prevent students from acquiring another language.  And I am still convinced.  It is an issue that needs to be resolved in language education as GT is adding more features (seductive features, I might add) and becoming more accessible to more students.  It and other online translation services are not going away.

The bigger question is how to incorporate GT into what we currently believe about language acquisition. Let's assume that a person has made a commitment to acquire a second language. I'm ignoring the argument that  acquiring another language is so last century because GT can translate anything you want it to. That's a topic for another blog post. Maybe I'll tackle it in sometime.

Language acquisition has to happen in the learner's brain.  In simple terms, the brain is a language-making machine, taking information heard or read in the new language, making hypotheses about how the new language works, and testing the hypotheses by creating spoken or written language.  The road to accurate language use is strewn with errors.  And that's a good thing.   Errors are positive indications that the learner is cerebrally working out generalizations and exceptions to grammar rules .

If a learner immediately turns to GT for a quick translation, the goal of getting an accurate translation may be achieved, but, and this is crucial,  nothing has happened in the learner's brain. In other words, just informing someone how to say a phrase in another language is missing the brain activity necessary for language acquisition.  This argument may seem counter intuitive, but think about it.  Have you ever asked a native speaker of a language how to say something, maybe even repeated it, and a few minutes later, tried to recall it and couldn't?  No brain activity took place.  Memorizing language is not the same activity as creating language in the head.

Did you have to do any thinking?

Now I want to daydream about techniques that accept the reality that learners are going to use GT but encourage them to use it in a manner that will lead to language acquisition.  Has anyone come up with ideas for creative uses of GT? I'm all ears!  (How would Google translate that, I wonder?)

Can I Trust Google Translate? - French

Today is the acid test.  You may remember this experiment was the result of my husband gently reminding me that the academic French I was trying to recover wasn't going to be very useful on our upcoming trip to Canada.

It's one of the age-old dilemmas of language acquisition - Do you practice saying "my aunt's pen is on the table" (good practice for possessive adjectives, agreement of articles, and prepositions), or do you learn "where is the restroom"? (inelegant but potentially very useful)?

I knew I would be resorting to Google Translate to turn my ten top useful travel phrases into French.  But are Google translations accurate?  I still have enough ego remaining from being a former language instructor to want to be correct when I speak any language.  I experimented with first Spanish and then Portuguese, writing my translations and comparing them with Google's (see last two posts).  At this point, I am feeling pretty confident in Google, but I did have some background knowledge in both Spanish and Portuguese to help me out.

Now for the French!  I pulled my old Amsco French dictionary off the shelf, and I'm ready to go.

My favorite  publisher.  Wish I had this dictionary right now! 

My translations are in red, and Google Translate's are the second in blue. Differences in the two translations are underlined.  Discussion follows each travel phrase.


1.  Where is the restroom, please?
Où est la salle de bains, s'il vous plaît?
Où sont les toilettes, s'il vous plaît?

[Of course!  Google's translation for "restroom" much better]

2.  I have a (room) reservation for tonight.
J'ai une réservation pour ce soir.
J'ai une (chambre) réservation pour ce soir.
[Okay.  I shouldn't have put the (room) in.]

3.  My name is Linda.  What is your name?
Je m'appelle Linda. Comment vous appelez-vous?
Mon nom est Linda. Quel est votre nom?
[Both are correct.  Two ways of saying the same thing.]

4. When does the train leave/arrive?
Quand est-ce le train part/arrive?
Quand le train partent / arrivent?
[Both question forms are acceptable, I believe.  But why did Google use a plural verb?]

5. How much does it cost?
Combien est-ce que ce coûte?
Combien ça coûte?
[Oops.  I had "ça" and then changed it.]  

6. Pardon me.
Pardon.
Pardonnez-moi.
[Both okay.  Google gives my translation as an alternative.]

7. Do you have a vegetarian dish?
Est-ce que vous avez un plat végétarien?
Avez-vous un plat végétarien?
[Okay.]

8.  May I have a glass of water please?
Est-ce que vous pouvez me donner un verre d'eau, s'il vous plaît?
Puis-je avoir un verre d'eau s'il vous plaît?
[Two different question forms.  Google's more literal]

9.  I want to buy a ticket please.
Je voudrais prendre un billet, s'il vous plaît.
Je veux acheter un billet s'il vous plaît.
["Acheter" is certainly the general word for "to buy", but my dictionary specifically gives "prendre" for buying a ticket.]

10. Where is the restaurant (bus station, train station, museum)?
Où est le restaurant, (la gare routière, la gare, le musée?
Où se trouve le restaurant (gare routière, gare, musée)?
[Both verbs work, but I like Google's more.  I'm going to use it.  The definite article needed to be included with each noun, because some take "le" and others take "la".]

Whew!  I'm glad that's done.  I felt like I was turning in a test paper to Google and waiting for my grade.

At this point, Google is very helpful but not perfect, but then neither my transations from personal knowledge or dictionary help have been either.  Next week, I'm going to look at some recent opinions about using Google Translate and compare my findings.

Have you used Google service to translate?   Did you find it useful?

Can I trust Google Translate - Portuguese?

This week I'm going to compare my translations of ten common travel phrases in Portuguese with Google Translate's rendering of the same phrases. My ultimate goal is to decide if Google Translate can be trusted in a language in which I don't have a lot of experience. That language will be French for next week's post.

For Portuguese translations, shall I imagine myself in Brazil, attending the 2014 FIFA World Cup Finals, or in Portugal, exploring the scenic Douro River Valley?

Sites for FIFA World Cup Finals in Brazil

Douro River Valley in Portugal

It's a tough decision, but I'm going to choose Brazil. Here are the English phrases, my translations in red, Google's translations in blue, and discussion in purple.


1.Where is the restroom, please?
Onde é o banheiro, por favor?
Onde fica o banheiro, por favor?
[I originally thought that fica sounded better also, but the grammar police got to me, and I thought I remembered that fica was more commonly used for permanent buildings. Google wins this one.]

2. I have a (room) reservation for tonight.
Tenho reserva para esta noite.
Eu tenho uma reserva para esta noite.
[Yes, subject pronouns are more commonly used in Portuguese than in Spanish, depending on the context. If there had been several preceding sentences using eu as the subject, the eu could and probably would be omitted.]

3. My name is Linda. What is your name?
Meu nome é Linda. Qual é o seu nome?
Meu nome é Linda. Qual é o seu nome?
[No disagreement here.]

4. When does the train leave/arrive?
Quando sai/chega o trem?
Quando o trem sair / chegar?
[Ah-ha! I caught Google! In the question above, the verb would have to be conjugated in the present tense. Google interpreted the sentence as needing a future subjunctive verb, sair/chegar, which would require a main clause to be added, as in "When the train arrives, I'll call you"]

5. How much does it cost?
Quanto custa?
Quanto custa?
[We've got it!]

6. Pardon me.
Com licença. Desculpe.
Perdoe-me.
[Different translation here, based on the multiple meanings of ''pardon me" in English. The Google translation matches the meaning of " forgive me" rather than just " excuse me."]

7. Do you have a vegetarian dish?
Tem um prato vegetariano?
Você tem um prato vegetariano?

[See discussion under 2 above.]

8. May I have a glass of water please?
Pode me dar um copo de água, por favor?
Posso ter um copo de água, por favor?
[Basically the same meaning. Google's translation more literal.]

9. I want to buy a ticket please.
Queria comprar um bilhete, por favor.
Eu quero comprar um bilhete, por favor.
[See discussion under 2 for use of eu. I think queria sounds a little less direct, but Google's translation was accurate.]

10.Where is the restaurant (bus station, train station, museum)?
Onde fica o restaurante (a estação rodoviária, a estação ferroviária, o museu)?
Onde fica o restaurante (estação de ônibus, estação de trem, museu)?
[Both translations for bus and train station work. Mine perhaps a bit more formal, but Google's work as well.]

Conclusion after experimenting with two languages: I can trust Google, but not completely. I''m really anxious to see how French goes next week. Comments welcome!