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200 Words a Day! Newzine14- Nov13, 2004 November 13, 2004 |
Hi -------------------- 200 Words a Day Newzine #14- Nov13, 2004 -------------------- Contents 1. CD-Rom Winner of the Month 2. The Language Show - an 11 year old scores 93% - learning rate 375 words a day…. 3. Language Show Draw result 4. Radio Interview on LBC Radio, London 5. Spanish Tip: Reflexives - ‘se’ 6. French Tip: Reflexives - ‘se’ 7. German Tip: Sich - Reflexives -------------------- In this issue we announce the results of TWO draws, as we are giving away two CD-Roms. One is part of the monthly draw, and the other is the competition we ran at The Language Show, London.
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The first person to be drawn for the ‘200 Words a Day CD-Rom’ is Dina in USA. An email is on its way to you, Dina, and you will need to tell us which language CD-Rom you’d like, and the address for shipping. Looking at that, it sounds a bit funny just ‘Dina of USA’, but that’s all the info we take to enter the draw! A first name and an email address. To enter this month’s draw click on the link Enter the Draw. You'll need to answer some easy questions (we even give you the answers...!). You can re-enter every month if you want to!
-------------------- We (me, Odette, Tom, Maria, Eduardo) spent three hectic days manning our booth at the Language Show in London, England. Over 6,000 visitors attended and we got to talk to hundreds of people interested in accelerated learning techniques. One lady teacher insisted that it is IMPOSSIBLE to learn more than 10 words a day! Wow! And that is something that many language teachers have been taught, and some have accepted as fact. We know that this is simply not true, and it was pleasing to watch an 11 year old girl, Genevieve, sit at the PC, at our booth, in public, do a lesson, score 93% on the first attempt, and learn 24 new Spanish words (and genders) in minutes. The PC calculated and declared her learning rate at 375 words a day (for an 8 hour day - doing about a 12-15 minute lesson per hour). Not only however did she learn something, get instant positive feedback, plead with her mum to buy a CD-Rom (not a shoot-em-up PC game….), but she was BOOSTED with a shot of confidence and joy at learning more about language. How many parents would prefer their kids to learn a few words of a language instead of blasting more victims in ‘Grand Theft Auto 3’? So, it is not just the fact one can learn a big batch of useful information from the 200 Words a Day technique, that can fit the giant language jigsaw puzzle, if one gets positive feedback so quickly, one also gets spurred to do more. Most of our visitors were very receptive and had their eyes open for new ideas and concepts. Many, many teachers and schools were very interested in our ‘Managed Learning Environment’ version of the software. This can link 100+ PCs to a teacher, who can monitor all the students’ progress. The teacher can also see which words the students are finding most difficult, and build a lesson of just those words for the class. (‘My Worst Words’). Loads of people asked if we had an ‘Italian 200 Words a Day’ CD-Rom, (….not yet…) so it seems that we’ll have to put in some energy to such a project for a mid-2005 launch.
-------------------- I presented a seminar, which was well attended. The organiser said that my seminar was the first to ‘sell out’ with all the fr=ee tickets being snapped up before all the other seminars. Luckily the organisers were able to remove the side walls to allow others to stand around the outside and listen.
-------------------- On Sunday evening, 7 November, I was invited to a radio interview after the Language Show, with LBC Radio and was with announcer Brian Hays for 30 minutes discussing our 200 Words a Day language learning techniques, on air. One interesting point we discussed was the research of the Michel Thomas Learning Centre who said that 97% of respondents in a survey of dating agencies thought that an ability to speak another language made someone more appealing. Another research finding was that people with a second language earned higher average salaries than those with just one language. Interpolated over a lifetime of work the polyglot was up to $200,000 better off in earnings!
-------------------- We also ran a competition draw during the Language Show London, and the winner of that is announced here also. Anyone visiting the stand was invited to enter for draw for a CD-Rom of their choice. The winner has been drawn out of the basket and it is: Jane Williams of Stroud, Kent.
-------------------- I received an email last week from a user, Mark in the UK, a clip from which I’d like to share with you. “……..main positive+ is definitely the high RETENTION levels after long periods without learning --- almost "subconscious", I would say. “ ------------Yes, the pics do embed in the subconscious and are there for you to pluck when you need them.
-------------------- Reflexive verbs are verbs where the action is directed or reflected back to the subject as in the following sentence: ‘He kicked himself.’ The action is reflected back to the subject (he). A handy hint is to remember that many reflexive verbs refer to PHYSICAL actions one does to oneself. One can recognise them by the suffix -se being added to the end of a verb. levantar - to raise becomes levantarse - to raise oneself, to get up, to get out of bed. More Spanish examples are:
peinarse - to comb (oneself)
Some non-physical examples are:
llamarse - to call (oneself)
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se lever - to get oneself up (out of bed)
-------------------- German reflexives are recognised by the word ‘sich’ before the infinitive, for example:
sich anziehen - to dress (oneself) For the ‘sich’ words in the 200 Words a Day German courses, we incorporate a SIKH man from India. For example for the words ‘sich befinden’ ( to be situated) we have a picture of a SIKH who BE FINDING himself meditating in the mountains.
-------------------- That is it for this newsletter. See you next time. Hasta la vista...À bientôt...Bis bald.
Kevin Crocombe & the 200 Words a Day Team School Programmes are available worldwide. Words in our courses cover the syllabus in most English-speaking countries.
UK Schools qualify for e-Learning Credits.
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