My 6 Tongues

Even though English is my 'best' foreign language I try to keep improving a bit every day. I struggle sometimes when I have to write something in a formal setting. Fortunately I found a book in one of my local libraries. I like checking the space they devote to language learning and I find some times little gems. This time the gem is a book called 'Writing Skills' by Anne Laws. It is designed to help non-native speakers to write business texts effectively in English. Even though you have a good level of English, it is still probable that some meaning gets lost in translation. You can find reliable sentences/expressions about stating understanding, making references, generalising, explaining, giving opinions and recommendations, expressing obligation/necessity, expressing degrees of certainty, focusing attention, contrasting... Here you have some examples from the book: About focusing attention... I should like to draw your attention to Clause 12

Currently I use English everyday, it's my preferred language for reading, watching videos and so on. Anyway,  I try to improve my English just using it as much as I can. I have conversations with teachers twice a week in order to reduce my accent. I have also started some routines to keep learning French and German. My goal is to consolidate my B2 (French) and my B1 (German) before summer. French is a lot easier for me, I find that written French is very similar to Catalan. German is more challenging even though my English helps me sometimes while studying it. I think you have to follow some kind of system that covers the language as a whole (grammar, basic sentences and a good deal of vocabulary), for this purpose I like Assimil even though I have tried other methods. I try to keep in contact with the languages on a daily basis. This is my current routine.                                     Instagram   @My6Tongues

Kató Lomb (1909-2002) was a Hungarian translator and a simultaneous interpreter. She has had a great influence  on how others learn languages. She herself spoke 10 languages and was able to "translate technical documents and enjoy fiction in 6 more, and understand written journalism in 11 more or so". I've found her book "Polyglot - How I Learn Languages" very interesting, I like her point about how useful is to know a language even at a low level: "We should learn languages because language is the only thing worth knowing even poorly ", because "well-intentioned sentences full of mistakes can still build bridges between people. Asking in broken Italian which train we are supposed to board at the Venice railway station is far from useless". About her METHOD , some main points are: devote 60-90 minutes a day time spent in language learning is lost unless it reaches a certain -daily and weekly- concentration "one sh

Today I've learned an expression I didn't know: " Spring Forward - Fall Back ". Most countries change their official time after summer and after winter. Depending on the season, the change implies moving clocks one hour forward or one hour backward. I'm one of these people who year after year can't recall if you have to change your clocks one hour forward... or backward?... but there is a phrase most often heard in the US and Canada that can be of help in this situations... The saying " Spring forward - Fall Back " is meant to trigger your memory in order to set your clocks correctly, one hour forward in the spring ( spring forward ) and one hour back in the fall ( fall back ). Facebook   fb.me/My6Tongues Instagram   @My6Tongues Tweeter   @MTongues

Reading is an essential tool for... getting new vocabulary revising/increasing your overall knowledge in your target language having a good time " Private India " is my current reading. I got the book in a book-crossing spot in a hotel on the Catalan coast. The plot is set in Mumbai, a city of over thirteen million people!. The main character is a P.I. (private investigator) who works in a case related to the killings of seemingly unconnected people, strangled in a chilling ritual... " nine nights, nine bodies, it's the season for murder in Mumbai "... OMG!!! I'm enjoying the book, maybe I will read another one from the same series... Facebook   fb.me/My6Tongues Instagram   @My6Tongues Tweeter   @MTongues