Are You Overusing Adjectives?

I read a text recently in which almost every noun was accompanied by at least one adjective.

Are you wondering why I mention this, or are you groaning now?

If the latter, you are probably an experienced writer. If the former, you likely need to learn some more about writing (or are simply not interested in it, which is also fine).

It is a common mistake among rather unexperienced writers to think that everything and everyone needs to be described as accurately as possible. Whereas the right adjective at the right place can help readers to visualise and understand the story, too many adjectives destroy the flow.

Yes, a story full of adjectives is tedious to read!

It leaves no room for imagination and forces me to visualise every little thing. If I read a story, though, I want to relax. If my mind produces pictures and images for certain details or scenes, fine, but if it doesn't, I just want to keep reading. I'm not missing out on any reading pleasure if I don't have an accurate picture of everything in my head. Furthermore, my mind may already have formed a specific image for someone. Let's say, my mind pictures the protagonist as a fair young lady, and the book suddenly tells me she's a gingerhead with lots of freckles. It will throw me out of the story for sure. It may be that you visualised her as a gingerhead with lots of freckles, but as long as this information is not necessary for the story, please don't tell me how I have to visualise her (or at least be merciful and give me that information early enough before I form a different picture of her in my head).

The point I'm trying to make is this:

Use adjectives sparingly and doublecheck whether you need it of not for each one.

Sometimes, a little more description can add to the story and the atmosphere, and is welcome. Most of the times, however, it is simply not necessary and will not add anything for the reader at best and throw him out of the story at worst.

Of course, there are different "rules" for the use of adjectives and descriptions for each genre, but one thing stays the same for each one: overusing adjectives and descriptions is considered bad style.

The Importance of Foreign Language Skills in Business

In our modern business world, foreign language skills become more and more important. Trade and commerce has become international. Clothes from China, computer systems from Japan, coffee from South America...the list is endless. However, international business relationships can't work without communication.

Employers often require foreign language skills from their office workers nowadays. Which languages are most sought after depends on where in the world the company has business connections. In Germany, for example, it is almost impossible to get a decent office job without English skills. French and Spanish can also open doors to new jobs and exciting new positions.

In general, Asian languages will become more valuable as the influence of Asian countries continues to grow. China is on its way to become one of the major business nations, and Japan has always been one of the market leaders in the videogame sector.

Although many people working in international businesses speak English to a certain degree, not everyone does. Furthermore, it is a sign of respect to talk to new business contacts in their own native language, even if the language skills aren't enough for a fluent conversation yet.

If you want to get an interesting position in today's international economic world, foreign language skills might be your most valuable assets when applying for a new position, even more important than experience in that particular field. Start planning your career early enough, and take language courses if you have the possibility.

Learning Tips ... I

Never learn in long sessions, but rather break the stuff up in shorter sessions. It helps a lot more to learn three times a day in short sessions than in one long session. The reason behind this is the learning capacity of our brain. If we learn too much at once, we tend to forget everything but the beginning and the end of what we learnt. So take a break in regular intervals, get some fresh air, drink a glass of water, walk around the block...anything to get your mind free again.

Ugh...Sorry!!!

Oh my...the past few days were so busy that I completely forgot to schedule a post for today.... I'm really, really sorry, guys!

I haven't really been online much at all today and yesterday. Honestly, I think the only thing I did was checking my emails twice. Between clients and tutoring students (I'm teaching again!!!), and planning my own language courses, there wasn't much time for anything else. And now, I'm almost falling asleep sitting in front of my laptop after a long work day (although it started with a nice business breakfast). 9 am just isn't my time of the day, I guess (especially if it is followed by a day of running from A to B, with breaks for giving tutoring).

Anyway, I hope you forgive me. I will answer some emails, do some more research, and hopefully chat for a bit with my sweetheart, before my eyes close for some desperately needed sleep. Tomorrow will be more running around....

Listening to Newspapers

Today, I have read about a project in Germany which enables the blind to enjoy newspapers and current news. They started in 1972 and have risen to a nationwide society.

Their concept is as simple as intriguing: Volunteers choose and read newspaper articles which are recorded and then sent out to their clients on CD or can be downloaded as MP3s. They record various collections: regional news, nationwide news, political or health-related collections. They are released weekly or monthly and currently reach 5,000 people in Germany.

Of course, their collections can't be offered for free; they have expenses for equipment, CDs and such. However, they are offered at a reasonable, rather low price.

The idea came about when the founder's wife (who is blind) read newspaper articles to him back in 1972. He thought, If we recorded her, others could enjoy the article as well. One of his friends suggested that the church's youth organisation could help with recording, so they set to work. Since their humble beginnings, they have come a long way. They changed their medium over time to stay up to date with current developments and have slowly increased the amount of collections to reach out to listeners throughout Germany.

I am awed by this project. They have been providing blind people with a medium which allows them to stay up to date for four decades, without having to depend on their spouses, children or friends to read to them. I think this is a great example of how language can connect people in an attempt to make other lives a little bit better.

Word of the Week ... XXIV

This week's word is

"power"

You might wonder why I chose such a simple and commonly known word. The reason is that I had to use it in a completely different context and was wondering how many non-native English speakers know about this other context and meaning.

Meaning: 1. control, strength, authority; 2. used in a mathematical context: 10² = ten to the power of two

Examples:
1. It wasn't long before the new king's power was questioned.
2. Ten to the power of two equals one hundred.

About Textbooks...

In the near future, I need to choose textbooks for teaching. So what will I look for in the textbooks?

Since I am not the only one who needs to be able to work with them, it is more difficult to find the right ones. On the one hand, of course, I need to be able to work with them since I am the one who will explain and teach its contents to my students, but on the other hand, it would be no use if I thought the books were perfect to work with and my students had no clue what to make of them.

One thing I will definitely be looking for is whether the publisher offers an audio CD to go with the textbook. Usually, those audio CDs include all the units' texts and dialogues, and often some exercises for listening comprehension.

Apart from that, a good textbook needs to have a good balance of texts, grammar, and exercises. It should guide the teacher through the units and make it easy to prepare lessons. It should also have a good grammar section so that students can look up new grammar on their own, for example to repeat it at home.

Last but not least, the contents should be age appropriate. Younger students need young characters and settings that reflect their lives in the texts and dialogues. School settings are popular for textbooks used in regular schools. Adult learners, however, would soon be bored by those texts. They need to be able to relate to the characters and their lives. Settings could range from work environment, travel and family life to more serious topics like history and politics.

I am sure I will find the right textbooks for my purpose, but it may take some time and leafing through a great amount of available books. Thankfully, we have a big bookshop with a huge language department in Berlin.

Teaching vs. Tutoring

You may wonder whether there is any difference at all between teaching and tutoring. Believe me, there is. Teaching is a lot more free than tutoring. You see, when you give tutoring, you usually focus on the things your student did at school. His textbooks and his teacher determine what you do with him in the tutoring lessons. When you teach, however, you are the one determining what you do, and how you teach it.

Both jobs have their rewards. If you give tutoring lessons and your student looks at you at the end of a lesson to tell you, 'I wish my teacher could explain as well as you do', well, that's definitely a keeper. Or if a student manages to get his first passing mark in a test because he actually learnt something from you which his teacher couldn't teach him. A teacher on the other hand is the one guiding and encouraging his students to learn. He is (or should be) the one to show his students the wonders of books, of science, or numbers.

Both jobs have their drawbacks. Many children who need tutoring don't want to spend their free time with a tutor and their most hated subject. The tutor doesn't have the power to give marks (and to punish destructive behaviour during tutoring lessons that way). The teacher, though, needs to give marks whether he likes it or not. He has to make decisions (and to defend those decisions against parents' arguments every now and then). If a student feels discriminated, the teacher will become the target of parent attacks and complaints. Some teachers are even badly bullied by their students.

Maybe only one of the two jobs is for you, or none; they are quite different although they are both about the same goal: Help others to increase their knowledge. I like both.

New Language Project

Hey guys,

I am sorry I am late today, and I don't even have my usual Word of the Week or My Two Cents for you. The reason: My mind has been occupied with a new project, a big project I have been dreaming of for years, for the past days. It may finally come to life!

I won't tell you details yet (don't want to jinx it), but it has to do a whole lot with languages. Promised, I will tell you more as soon as my plans get hand and foot!

Love,
Saoirse

Dyslexia and ADHD: Advice for Tutoring

Some children have both dyslexia and ADHD--a difficult combination for tutors. How can you teach a dyslexic child how to read and write properly if his concentration only lasts for ten or fifteen minutes at a time?

First of all, keep the lessons short! Yes, children with ADHD need breaks, even if the tutoring class only lasts 45 minutes. Try to break everything you teach into short sections of maybe ten to fifteen minutes each. Rule of thumb: If you notice your student's concentration is getting worse, give him a short break.

Diversify the type of exercises you do with your student! Say, you started with making him write a short text. When you notice his concentration is wavering, stop it and give him a short break, then have him do something different for a short while (yes, even if the text wasn't done). You can come back to the first exercise later.

Make his tutoring lessons fun! This is even more important with dyslexic children, and with children who have ADHD. If you can find a way to make learning fun for them, it will be a lot easier for them to stay focused and to practise difficult skills.

Be positive! Your student concentrated well on the task but still made a few mistakes? Praise him nonetheless. He did something well, after all. Let him know that you noticed even the slightest improvement. Your goal should be to motivate him, not demotivate him by always pointing out every single mistake. Chances are, your student will never be able to produce a text without any mistakes, so just a few mistakes instead of many is a great achievement for him and should be treated accordingly.

Tutoring children with both dyslexia and ADHD can be very rewarding if you have enough patience and heed my advice.

Translating Difficult Words

My sweetheart sent me a link to an article some time ago which was about the ten words which are the most difficult to translate. It made me think about words I found difficult to translate during my previous years of translating.

There have been quite a few words, especially in my children's stories about Miro the Dragon, that gave me headaches. Sometimes, I had no other chance than to slightly rewrite the sentence in order to make it work in another language.

What makes some words more difficult to translate than others?

First of all, it is due to the different cultural backgrounds. If a concept does not exist in the target language, it is difficult to translate that concept. You need to catch the essense and rewrite the sentence to get as close to the essense as possible in the target language.

Another reason is the difference in common idioms from language to language. Sometimes, it is hard to recognise an idiom at first glance since it is so rooted in our everyday language that we don't notice it normally; once you have recognised it, you need to find the equivalent in the target language. You can easily spot bad translations by word-by-word translations of idioms.

Tricks for Translating Difficult Words

In a first step, I always translate carefully from the source text into the target language. Whenever I come across a difficult word or phrase, I look up possible translations in various dictionaries and try to find the one with the closest meaning. I often cross-check the possible translations to see if they really fit the context in my case.

In a second step, then, I put away the source text and basically edit the translation. My goal is to produce a text that can't be spotted as translation at all.

A common rule among translators is: As close to the source text as possible, as far away from it as necessary. In other words, I try to translate close to the source text but change phrases or sentences when I have to in order to convey the meaning or because it would sound awkward in the target language.

Language Love Junior

I created another blog in the Language Love family, this time for children. You can find Language Love Junior here: http://languagelovejunior.wordpress.com

There will be lots of short posts with vocabulary, grammar, interesting facts, funny jokes, and more, all related to several languages. Furthermore, every month will feature a new children's story or poem on the website, free to read for everyone.

I also run a monthly contest, and I could need some help spreading the word, so please take a look at the Contest page and tell children who might be interested in participating. Thanks!

German Tenses--An Overview Part IV.2

Here is the last part of my little German Tense Guide. I hope you enjoyed this excursion into German grammar.

Konjunktiv I == Subjunctive

Konjunktiv I (all time forms) is only used in indirect speech, wishes, religious and mathematical phrases. In indirect speech, both Konjunktiv I and Konjunktiv II are used without difference in meaning.

Examples:

Er sagt, er sei krank. = He says he is ill.

X sei die Zahl 4. = X be the number 4.

Mögen sie ihr Glück finden. = May they find their happiness.

Konjunktiv II == Conditional

Konjunktiv II is used in indirect speech, for wishes, irreal conditional sentences and comparisons, and especially polite requests.

Examples:

Würden Sie mir kurz helfen? = Would you help me for a moment?

Wenn die Sonne schiene, würden wir schwimmen gehen. = If the sun shone, we would go swimming.

Imperativ == Imperative

The Imperativ is used to give orders, recommendations or prohibitions, just like in English.

Infinitivformen == Participles

Präsens == (present)

The Partizip Präsens can be used as an adjective or adverb.

Examples:

der lachende Junge = the laughing boy

Er schrie sie wütend an. = He angrily screamed at her.

Perfekt == (past)

The Partizip Perfekt can be used as an adjective or as part of a verb.

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