Learn languages the 200 Words a Day way. . . about us . . .

I've always loved languages and the tools to learn languages vocab at the rate of 200 Words a Day! are a result of that...

... but it was not until later in life that I learnt the tools to quickly acquire words and vocab.

Using these tools and techniques makes my job as an airline pilot flying around Europe, quite a lot more fun, as I regularly get the chance to put new phrases, words and quips to use in my daily work life. . .

... and people are always happy to help you out when you are speaking their language.

Going to boarding school in New Caledonia, a French colony at age 11 I learned that the best way to learn languages was the ‘total immersion’ approach, where you are totally immersed in the language.

As nobody spoke English at my boarding school, I HAD to learn French, and with everyone chattering in French, plus living 24 hours around French people exclusively in a boarding school environment I was soon communicating in French. Within a few weeks I was writing my daily diary in French.

As kids are less worried about making mistakes, they tend to learn languages quicker, in the total immersion situation. They also quickly develop a native accent. And of course they pick up the slang!

A couple of the lads made sure I learned every swear word they knew, and took great delight in teaching me them.

For most of my childhood I lived in countries where different languages were spoken, in particular in Fiji where half the population, the indigenous Fijians spoke Fijian, and the other half of the population, the Indian descendants of indentured labourers, spoke Hindustani.

While I developed a full command in both languages of all the profanities, swear-words and insults plus a basic repertoire of colloquialisms and day-to-day phrases – “how are you?”, “ what’s the time?”, “how much is it?”, “where are you going?” . . . I never gained any degree of fluency.

Why?

Because everyone spoke English (…well the very colourful Fiji English complete with unique local accent).

And also learning the vocab was just so much hard work, and boring. I took some lessons in both Fijian and Hindi but had only limited success… and no doubt many of you can relate to this . . .

In my thirties I wanted to learn some German, my wife being fluent in German, but not having the time or ability to drop everything and go off and live somewhere to learn languages meant I had to resort to traditional methods.

The result, not much learning went on. Trying to learn vocab was boring and difficult. Mind numbing....

.... but then I then came across.....

....Paul Daniels’ Magic Memory casette tape learn languages courses which first introduced me to the concept of using visualizations and word associations to learn languages.

It had some great techniques and concepts but there were some areas that I felt needed changing (which I outline on the page you can access by clicking on the button labelled '200 Words a Day!' on Navigation bar on the top left side of this page).

I later starting working on the 200 Words a Day! concept to help more quickly learn languages.

From there we developed and refined the techniques, putting them together with Tom, our IT programmer, to come up with an easy-to-use package to help learn languages so. . .

200 Words a Day! CD-Rom programmes are now available for the public at large!

If only the 200 Words a Day! Language learning techniques were available when I was a kid in Fiji I would have grabbed more than just the functional smattering of Hindi and Fijian that I did. . . . it has never been so easy to learn languages with the huge proliferation of products and books.

These techniques and tools to learn languages are not just easy, they are fun.

During development of the course my then 10 year old Max would 'play' the Spanish course as a game.

He would sit there going over a lesson and test until he got 100% for the test in one hit (without doing the re-test).

He would get upset when he made a mistake like missing out an accent, or a mis-spelling, but was even more miffed if I offered an answer.

He wanted to do it all on his own. . . and what's more he could.

And by the way he has never studied Spanish at school, he just started 'playing' with the course software because it was here and he liked the fun definitions.

Of course, you don't have to set standards as high as Max did and try to get 100% on each test!

Among its many features is that it constantly ranks all the words you are tested on, and compiles the ones on which you score the lowest, in to a separate lesson called 'My Worst Words!' so that you can concentrate on hammering away the weakspots as you learn languages.

To give you a bit more of my background. I am an airline pilot by trade and have always been involved in many other activities, running businesses and projects.

I have published books, magazines, collectible products, cards, sticker books, and owned kiwifruit orchards. In 1992 I invented and organised an Air Show at Auckland International Airport where over 100,000 were reported in attendance.

When I sold out of my last business venture it freed me up to invest the resources in to producing the 200 Words a Day! Learn Languages projects - which I had been wanting to do for years...!

To see it come to fruition is just great!

What's even better is that we have numerous new techniques and technologies that we have developed, and are continuing to develop for future releases and updates.

Subscribe to our free learn languages ezine to keep up to date. (Click on the button on the Navbar on the left).

But it took a great deal more than just myself to develop these courses to help you learn languages faster - IT programmers, language specialists, artists and voice talents as well.

I'll introduce them to you.

I do hope you find our courses useful. And we are always keen to get any feedback, suggestions and comments so please feel free to contact us anytime.

We are always busy working on the next project and soon to release is Spanish 2, French 2 and German 2, as well as other languages.

Be sure also to subscribe to our free email newsletter ezine by filling in your email address in the box on the left side of the page. The free 200 Words a Day! ezine will keep you updated.

Kind regards

Kevin Crocombe,
Director, 200 Words a Day!

For more on the background to the course and how it developed click here:

How the 200 Words a Day! learn languages courses developed.

Meet the team:

Tom WHITE / IT Director

Originally from Newcastle, Tom is in charge of programming our innovative software for all languages.

Tom also designed the networked Managed Learning Environment, which enables larger institutions to have 100 or more students networked, while the teacher is can monitor how the students are performing, what words are giving them most difficulty and such like.

. . . he's our resident IT whizz and computer programmer.

He's been programming for over 20 years, from the days when computers filled a whole room, and employed a team of engineers ( . . . and a stoker to shovel coal in to the boilers to keep the steam pressure up. . . )

He has spent five years working with me, in business, and spent many a year as Chief Accountant, and other accounting roles with various companies including Vickers.

And just what does Tom love to do . . .?

Programming, programming, programming . . .

. . . and the 200 Words a Day! programmes to learn languages speedily are all supervised by him.

....and always there to help is his son Chris White, who is also a programmer!

Odette Crocombe . . .

. . . co-ordinates everything, all the time. . .

. . . the artists, the sound recordings, the database management, editing, inventory and all things to do with the 200 Words a Day! programmes to learn languages . . .

Bi-lingual having been brought up speaking English and German, Odette studied Spanish at University of Auckland . . .

. . . Odette also teaches English as a Second Language to new migrants . . . when we allow her to be unchained from the computer in the office . . .

...and we are supported by a whole team of language specialists, graphic artists and voice artists that all have worked so hard to make the 200 Words a Day! programmes to learn languages a reality . . .

Maria Llorente - Spanish
Eduardo Aceto - Spanish
Mariana Averza - Spanish
Albin Vidal - French, Spanish
Maud Wojcik - French, Spanish
Germain Tottet - French, Spanish
Sophie Leroy - French
Antony Bellon - French
Julia Wilson - German
Marius Kiemer - German
Chihiro Mitsusuna - Japanese
Yuya Sakamoto - Japanese
Jon Carter - Artwork
Rico Marcano - Artwork
James Stewart - Artwork
Simon Adams - Artwork
Penny Galloway - Sound
Bill O'Read - Sound
Andrew Harmon - Sound
Maureen Witkowski - Sound
Chunkit Cheung - Artwork
Chris White - IT
Dominic Crocombe - Artwork
Ken Van Der Voort - Artwork
Allan White - Sound and Music
Pavel Kasperovics - Artwork
Rocio Cangas-Martinez - Artwork & Animation
Catherine Fournier - Artwork & Animation

FOR THE FREE SECRETS ON HOW TO LEARN 200 WORDS A DAY OF A FOREIGN LANGUAGE CLICK ON THE UNDERLINED LINK BELOW.

Click for more about how to learn languages the 200 Words a Day! way.

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200 Words a Day!
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Learn Langauges the 200 Words a Day! way.

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