parrot time - issue 17 september / october 2015

Parrot TimeThe Thinking of Speaking Issue #1 7 September / October 201 5

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EEkkaatteerriinnaa MMaattvveeeevvaa ssaayyss ““DDrreeaamm,, DDeecciiddee,, DDoo””

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EEaassiieerr WWaayy ttoo LLeeaarrnn LLaanngguuaaggeess FFaassttTTeeddddyy NNeeee sshhaarreess ssoommee ooff hh iiss ttiippss

LLooookk bbeeyyoonnddwwhhaatt yyoouu kknnooww

Parrot Time is your connection to languages, linguisticsand culture from the Parleremo community.

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Contents

Parrot Time | Issue #17 | September / October 2015 3

32 At the Cinema - Cambio de Ruta

1 6 Review of Polyglot Workshops: BrazilGuest writer Patrick Lencastre gives us his thoughts andexperience, as well as sharing some tips he learned, at thePolyglot Workshop in Brazil.

44 Book Look - Language Master Key

39 Where Are You?

28 Dream, decide, do - tips from a polyglotPolyglot and CEO of Europeonline gives us her list of tips on howto learn languages and become inspired for life!

Parrot TimeParrot Time is a magazine

covering language, linguisticsand culture of the world around

us.

It is published by ScriveremoPublishing, a division of

Parleremo, the language learningcommunity.

Join Parleremo today. Learn alanguage, make friends, have fun.

Departments

Features

05 Letter From The Editor

Editor: Erik ZidoweckiEmail: [email protected]

Published by Scriveremo Publish-ing, a division of Parleremo.This issue is available online fromhttp://www.parrottime.com

The editor reserves the right toedit all material submitted. Viewsexpressed in Parrot Time are notnecessarily the official views ofParleremo. All rights of reproduc-tion, translation and adaptation re-served for all countries, exceptwhere noted otherwise. All copy-right material posted in the public-ation retains all its rights from theoriginal owner. Parrot Time, Par-leremo, officers and administra-tion accept no responsibilitycollectively or individually for theservice of agencies or persons ad-vertised or announced in thepages of this publication.

Cover: Holding on to yourmoney by getting freeresources and materials forlearning a language is a goodidea, but not if you are the onedoing the creating.

40 App Review - Tandem

36 Languages in Peril - Talysh

24 Easier Way to Learn Languages FastThere are a few tricks you can use to learn a language easier,as guest author Teddy Lee shows us. It is all in the family.

6 The Cost of Free Language ResourcesWhen learning a language, it is great to find so many resourcesavailable which do not cost anything to use. However, nothing isever truly free, and someone gave up something to make thatfor you.

48 At A Glance

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LLeeaarrnnaallaanngguuaaggee,,MMaakkeeffrriieennddss,,HHaavveeffuunn!!

wwwwww..ppaarrll eerreemmoo..oorrgg

Letter From The Editor


WWe are living during a wonderful period of technologygrowth, in which we are able to find a multitude of freelanguage learning resources and materials. We cancommunicate directly with people all over the world topractise our languages, at no cost to us.

In Parrot Time, we have started a section of the magazinecalled “At A Glance” which highlights some of the free sitesavailable online. We also have advertisements throughoutthe magazine for various sites and other stuff, some freeand some not.

Reviews of products, like books and apps, are alsopublished inside. This month we are reviewing both RonGullekson’s book Language MasterKey and the learningapp Tandem.

Even this magazine which you are holding (figuratively) isfree, which is a really good value, especially if you arereading the digitally superior PDF version. If you arereading the common web version, then that is fine too.Both are free.

I have personally worked for over 15 years creating free stuff for languages, but it has its owncost in time and effort, plus I have spent my own money to maintain what I create.

There is always a cost to someone, and the main article this month, “The Cost of FreeLanguage Resources”, looks at some of the underlying issues with always using free resources,mainly in the toll it takes on the creators and eventually on the community itself.

You can always help the people who make stuff by sharing with others what you have found. Alittle word of mouth not only helps those bloggers, writers, and programmers get theircreations to the people who need them, but you are helping your fellow language learners aswell.

And be sure to share Parrot Time with everyone!

Free Things

Erik ZidoweckiERIK ZIDOWECKIEDITOR IN CHIEF

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The Cost of Free Language Resources

8 Parrot Time | Issue #17 | September / October 2015

ou are going to learn anew language. You have

talked with others, done theresearch, and made thechoice of which you want totackle. That is the first part ofthe process. Now you need tostart gathering the variousmaterials and resources youare going to use for studying.

In the pre-internet days,you would most likely belooking at courses beingoffered in your area. If youfelt more independent, youwould be browsing yournearby stores for coursebooks, dictionaries, and au-dio lessons. What you wereable to find was limited towhat you could obtain locallyand what you could afford.

In the modern age, youare given full access to mater-ials from all over the world.You can find books and audiocourses for sale on huge siteslike Amazon and Ebay, or youcould buy directly from com-panies like Pimseleur, RosettaStone, or Living Language.

If taking a course is moreyour style, you can accessclasses in universities and in-dependent companies on aglobal scale and engage inlong-distance learning.

The added bonus is thatthese courses and materialscan be found for a much lar-ger variety of language, so theproblem of availability is al-most completely eliminated,although you may still have a

problem finding stuff for less-er known languages.

Cutting the CostSo the only other major limit-ing factor would be the cost,and even that can be largelydismissed, because the inter-net also gives you access to amultitude of free learningsources and aids. Not onlycan you find inexpensive orfree language books and au-dios, but there are alsocountless free websites andprograms to make learningyour chosen new language abreeze.

Two of the most popularfree learning websites thatpeople adore are Memrise andDuolingo. Here, they can se-lect from tons of languagesand lessons created by otherlanguage lovers to pick-upthe vocabulary and grammarthey need. Other sites likeLang-8 give them a chance topractise their writing skillsand have others correct them.

There are other ways youcan learn without spendinganything. People meet on so-cial networks and in com-

munities to converse invarious languages, so youcan easily find a partner whowill help you. Language ex-change or tandem sites, likeWeSpeke and My LanguageExchange are great places tofind partners to learn fromand practise with.

In short, you can findways to learn, all for free. Andfree is good!

LegalityThe methods I have men-tioned so far for getting re-sources are all quite legal andencouraged. But what if youreally want that Living Lan-guage French course or a Ja-panese Pimsleur course butcannot afford it, there areplaces online you can getthose as well without payingfor them. Because the inter-net is global and actuallycreated to be impossible tocontrol, there is a lot of piracyof music, movies, and evenbooks. Think of it as thebiggest Black Market in theworld.

People who get their ma-terials from such places al-

Pre-internet language learning: paid classes

When people take it forgranted that people willproduce something forfree, they often startdeveloping the attitudethat the person nowowes it to them.



ways have ways to justifywhat they are doing. Somewill explain that they wouldpay for the stuff if they couldafford it, but since they can-not, they have no choice butto just take it.

Others will take on an at-titude that the companiesthat produce such stuff aregreedy, and therefore deserveto be stolen from. Or perhapsthose companies just makeso much money that they willnot possibly miss you notpaying for a copy. It is notthatmuch, after all.

Now, I am not trying topreach anything, since manyof us have probably usedsuch materials before andmade similar justifications. Itis important, however,to re-cognize that our society haslargely accepted an entitle-ment mentality. We wantthings for free, and if they arenot free, then we feel justifiedin taking them.

Nothing is FreeThe problem with the viewpoint that we want all ourmaterials to be free (or we

find a way to get them forfree) is that nothing is evercreated or produced withoutsomething going into it, liketime, effort, and money. Siteslike Memrise still requirepeople to build not only thecourses but the site itself, aswell as paying for the com-puter that runs the site.People have given much ofthemselves so that you canhave a language learning re-

source at no cost to you.We can see the same

things in books. Even if youcan get a free book or a bookfor free (one legal, one illegal) ,someone still spent a lot oftime writing that book, andthat time has value, as doesthe knowledge and experiencethey used to create it. In fact,there is nothing worth havingthat did not involve someonedoing work in its creation.

Now the argument can bemade that many peoplechoose to do this on theirown. The are creating thematerials and making themavailable to everyone, withoutasking to be paid, soeverything is fine, right?

I would have to give that atentative answer of “yes”, butthere is an underlying prob-lem with that which is rarelyspoken about. It is the hiddencost of using free materials:motivation.

Why Create?Despite what we might wantto believe, the adage “Money

Even if something is labelled as free, someone is paying for it

Modern language learning: choose your app



makes the world go around”is true. Unless we find a wayto get by on almost nothing orhave the luxury of having allour expenses paid for bysomeone else, we all needmoney to buy what we needto survive.

That is true even for thepeople who create languagestuff. They can make thatmoney either by selling whatthey create or by getting paidfor other work they do. Youalso want to be paid for workyou do because without thatmoney, your own needs andwants are not met.

So we come to the para-dox of wanting everything wehave to buy as being free, butalso feeling like we should becompensated for the work wedo. In a utopian world, per-haps everything would becompletely free, and we wouldnever have to worry aboutmoney at all. Sadly, that isunlikely and even if it were, itstill has the problem of mo-tivation.

Working, creating, build-ing - these are all things wecan do purely because wewish to. There are alwayspeople that want to help oth-ers and will do it without

thought of compensation.They will write books, createcourses, set up websites, allto add to the knowledge col-lective, just because it makesthem happy to do so.

The individuals that willengage in this sel flessnessare part of a very smallgroup, however. Most peoplerequire a greater motivationthan simply “makes mehappy”. How many timeshave you taken on a largeproject for someone else’s be-nefit in which you got nothingin return? Probably few, ifany at all.

This is not because peopleare greedy (although somemight be focusing just onmoney, I admit) . It is becausewe want to feel needed andappreciated, at the very least.Above that, we need somekind of compensation for ourwork so that we can afford toalso live the lives we want.

Rise and FallLet us look at some examples.Say a woman, we will call her“Linda”, decides to use herknowledge of Norwegian tocreate very comprehensivecourse for it, covering everyaspect of the language. Shethen gives it away to anyonethat wants it.

Now, let us say Linda is astudent, and can only workon these courses in her sparetime, which as any studentknows, there is little of. It isalso harder for her to do oth-er languages, because shedoes not have the same levelof knowledge as she doeswith Norwegian. As a result,it takes a long time for workto progress, while there aremany people eagerly waiting

Creating materials takes a lot of work and planning

Linda, working on a free course for people



for her next free resource.They try to be patient, but in-variably they start askingwhen it will be done. Somewill be polite but others willbe demanding. After all, shesaid she would create morecourses, so she owes it tothem now.

Even while Linda hasevery intention of creating thestuff, she feels pressured andguilty and begins to regretever making the originalcourse. Her own life and hap-piness is now being hurt bypeople wanting her free stuff,and her motivation to do thework vanishes.

Perhaps instead of beinga student, she is employedfulltime. The same problemoccurs. Since her job providesher with the money she needsto survive, it is her priority,while creating free courses,no matter how much shemight love doing it, is not.The same resentment and re-gret builds up, and she nolonger wants to be doing it.

When people take it forgranted that others will pro-duce something for free, they

often start developing the at-titude that the person nowowes it to them. We go fromseeing something as a favourto it being something we areentitled to, and we get upsetif we then do not get it.

Continuing with our ex-ample, let us say that Lindais neither a student nor em-ployed. That would give herplenty of time to build thesefree courses, and so natur-ally, no resentment, right?Well, she will eventually feel

the pressure of not creatingenough courses or makingthem fast enough, becausethere will always be peoplewanting more from her. Evenif there are hundreds ofpeople who thank her andsay there is no rush, all ittakes is the one person thatis impatient to make Lindafeel bad.

So, realizing she needshelp, Linda reaches out tothose around her, probablythe friends in the languagecommunity she has met on-line. She asks them to workwith her on creating the re-sources. Most are likely toreject her plea outright,claiming they do not knowthe languages well enough, orthey do not have the time.Some will be more honest,explaining they do not do thatkind of work for free, andsince she is not makingmoney herself from these, shecannot pay others. A fewmight say they will help, andLinda will feel relieved for awhile. They might even form agroup and start trying toproduce more of these ma-

Linda, spending even more time and effort, none of which is free

A group of people working on creating materials



terials. It is a bold endeavour,and one done out of love oflanguages and the desire tohelp others.

Sadly, the same issueswill always return. No matterhow much they enjoy doingit, they still need to live in thereal world which requiresmoney. So, they start think-ing they should charge atleast a little for what theycreate. A few people who havegotten the materials fromthem have even suggestedthey do so, claiming “I wouldpay money for these!”. So“Linda’s Language Resources”is born, and a complete web-site is built with all thecourses they offer now beinglisted, with prices. They havefound a way to take whatthey love doing and turning itinto something the can keepdoing.

At that point, they havebecome the vilified “commer-cial company”, and peoplewill be angry at them for ex-pecting payment. Some willpay and encourage others todo so, but in the end, mostwill turn away from Linda,

saying she “sold out” and is“greedy”.

Despite all the help sheprovided and the love she hadfor doing it, Linda has nowbecome a bad person in theeyes of the others. Her groupdisbands and she stops cre-ating, her enthusiasmcrushed when she sees howquickly her fans turn on her.

Paid ContentSome free websites have an-other way of covering thecosts of operating. For theusers who are willing to paysome reoccurring fee, like afew dollars every month, theyget access to other parts ofthe website. These might in-clude more advances lessons,more languages, or special-ized learning tools.

Memrise offered all of itsresources for free until a fewyears ago. Then it started of-fering a “premium” levelavailable to people who paid$10 a month (or $60 for ayear) . This would give usersaccess to, among otherthings, better tools for track-ing their progress.

As you can imagine, thatstarted discussions all overon whether or not it wasworth paying for. Somepeople felt that even if theydid not use the extra services,they would be willing to join,just to help Memrise withtheir expenses. Others ex-

Advertising has been around for centuries, and still people complain

Money is always an issue, whether you have it or not



plained that they did notneed those extras and sowould not be paying for theupgrade. Some people gotangry at Memrise for offeringanything that had to be paidfor. After all, it should all befree, right?

Some even went on tocomplain about Memrise inorder to justify why theywould not be paying. Theytalked about the quality ofthe courses not always beingthe best (they are membermade), there were featuresthey did not like as well asfeatures they wanted butwere not available, and basic-ally just saying that Memrisewas not good enough to payfor. These are also likely to bethe same ones that will notbuy a language resource byclaiming there are plenty offree resources which are “justas good”.

AdvertisingThere is an alternative tocharging people for a productor access. A person mightplace advertising for otherproducts on their site, andthese advertisements eithergive them a small amount ofmoney when a visitor clickson them or a bit more moneyif a viewer buys the product.

Perhaps Linda steps backand decides that instead ofselling the courses, she canput advertising on her site, sopeople who come to the sitecan help by clicking on ads.Then they do not have tospend any money and Lindacan still make at least somemoney off what she does.

However, this just getsmore people angry, becausenow they she is shoving ad-vertising in their face, upset-

ting their browsing pleasure.At least some are upset. Therest have ad blockers, so theynever see the ads and there-fore can never help Linda.

Even though this is acommon step to take now,many people are still com-pletely opposed to any kind ofadvertising, saying itcheapens the experience,even if the ads are related tolanguage products they mightactually like. After all, thestuff on the site is free, sowhy should they be subjectedto anything asking for money.

And the Point?The point of outlining all ofthis and giving examples is tomake you, the learner, awareof the hidden problems frominsisting on only getting re-sources which are free. Whenyou do this, you are actuallycontributing to the decline ofthose resources, as well asfailing to help other languagelovers who are trying to helpyou. While you might thinkthat people who ask money

for the work they do and thethings they create, thinkabout how you would feel ifpeople wanted you to work forfree. These people are usuallynot greedy but rather justtrying to survive doing whatthey and you both enjoy.

I am certainly not advoc-ating that people stop usingfree resources or feel badabout doing so. I love free re-sources and have personallyspent over fifteen yearsbuilding them for others. Butwhen we use those, we needto remember that they cameat a cost to someone else insome form, be it time, effort,money, or all three. Ifsomeone asks for some kindof compensation for theirwork, whether it is helpingwith some of the work, shar-ing and promoting it, clickingon ads, or paying a small feefor it, we should all be mak-ing an effort to be supportive.After all, these people areworking to help you. PT

All of these materials cost money to make and buy, so why cheat others?

Alex Rawlings giving alecture to a group ofworkshop participants

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bbyy PPaattrriicckk LLeennccaassttrree

Review of Polyglot Workshops: Brazil


id you ever feel that youreally want to learn a

language, but something isblocking you?

If yes, then don’t worry; itis completely normal to feelthis way. But a few monthsago, in Brazil, we had aWorkshop that could changeso many lives of languagelearners.

The lectures were dividedbetween three experts of lan-guages: Alex Rawlings, themost multilingual studentfrom UK in 2012, RichardSimcott, one of the most fam-ous polyglots nowadays, fromSpeaking fluent, and theBrazilian Polyglot, JimmyMello, founder of the revolu-tionary Mello Method.

In case you don’t knowany of them, brace yourselfand look them up becausethey will inspire your lan-guage learning process.

The first fear to beat:Don’t hesitate to make mis-takes!

Alex starts, telling usabout to speak with confid-

ence, but when we thinkabout this topic, some peopleimagine that speaking withconfidence means speakingwithout mistakes, like a nat-ive speaker, and that’s a trapthat can stop you!

As Alex said: Rememberwho you are. You are an edu-cated person, you know a lotof things. For example, you

can be a doctor, a teacher, oranything else; you just don’tknow how to manage yourtarget language perfectly.

The main reason why youdon’t speak that language isbecause you are not fromthat country! It is not an un-usual thing, so stop watch-ing native speakers likejudges, because they aregreat teacher but if you beafraid of them, you will fail.

As I said during the event,“For me, when I see someforeign person trying to speakmy mother language, I do notsearch for mistakes to puthim down. Instead, I becomehappy, because this person istrying to learn my languageand I do all my efforts to helphim to learn from their mis-takes.”

With these kind ofthoughts in mind, next timeyou will speak with a native,remember just one thing: it isok if I make mistakes, be-cause I am a learner!

Alex told us an inspiringhistory. When he was in the

Jimmy Mello presenting to a group of listeners

Several participants meeting and talking



university, studying Germanand Russian, they knew a lotof grammar but he couldn’tspeak, because every time hemade a mistake he lost somepoints, and it is a way to de-velop the fear of making mis-takes.

So, we all need to fightagainst it, because if youmake them, you will learn,but if you are afraid and quit,you will not make mistakes,but you will never learn.

Dealing with TimeWell, there are a lot of peoplewho always give excuses forthemselves, like “I don’t havetime”. They are right, theydon’t have a lot of free time.

Who says you need a lotof free time to learn a lan-guage?

If you think you needmore than 10 – 20 minutes tolearn a language, I can showyou that you are wrong.

Actually, not me, but myfriend and “mentor” JimmyMello, the Brazilian Polyglot.Do you know him?

Well, he speaks morethan 10 languages. So, hehas a lot of free time, right?

Wrong! First, he is ateacher almost all day long.What else? He runs a weeklypodcast, a weekly online TV,and he runs his own courseof languages. I am not kid-ding. He could say: I’m done,I don’t have time to learnmore and still maintain mylanguages.

How does he do it? First,he keeps the level in eachlanguage he speaks, and heis learning Polish and In-donesian.

How many hours does hehave in one day?!

The technique is: 10minutes to each old languageand 20 minutes to each newlanguage. So, he has theseminutes totally free? No!

One of his techniques isto use flashcards around hisneck wherever he goes. He isalso always listening to apodcast in another language.

In the moments of a dayoff, he learns while watchingTV in another language withsubtitles in a third language.

The point is not to have alot of free time, the point is touse your time better.

Because of his tech-niques, I decided to startlearning languages and inone year I learnt five. Now Iam studying three more. So, Iuse his techniques and I cansay that it works!

Finding ResourcesWell, what kind of thing

should I do to learn? Findtime, lose the fear and now:change your mind. If you aresick and want some medica-tion, then, the best doctor ofthe city shows you one, youshould trust and take it,right?

So, Richard Simcott, apolyglot who speaks morethan 40 languages, sharessome tips and tricks and. . .some apps! Ah, awesome!

The first tip: do you watchnews? Do you read newspa-per? Forget it. Now you willdo it in the language youwant to practise.

How? Well, use theamazing app called Eur-onews, and then, the Chromeextension Readlang and a lotof websites of news in differ-ent languages.

You should use LingQ toimprove your language and tomake your conversational



skills better, use the Hel-loTalk app.

Practising at the EventOne of the best parts of theevent is that you can startpractising there! There were alot of polyglots, a lot of lan-guage lovers, and the perfectopportunity to learn, to talk,and to make friends. In theend, the best part of learninglanguages is to make friends.

During the event, I couldtalk with a lot of interestingpeople, including my newfriend Sarah, and now we arelearning Romanian togetherin a 3 months challenge. It isall you need to learn. Be com-fortable speaking and enjoymake new friends, to learnnew cultures and as Jimmyalways says, “Languagelearning will change yourlife”. PT

My name is Patrick Lencastre,

from Brazil and my passion for

language started just 18 months

ago, when I was monolingual. Now,

using own methods and motivation,

I learnt English and Spanish until

fluency and German plus Russian

until advanced. Now I study a lot of

another languages and run my own

site. www.workout4brain.com

Pictures (Left to right, top to bottom):The presenters: Alex Rawlings, Richard Simcott, and JimmyMello; Patrick and Alex; Richard, Patrick, and Jimmy; SergioRodrigues (translator for those who doesn't speak English),Alex, Richard, and Jimmy

http://www.workout4brain.com

sseekkrreettyyppoolliigglloottooww..ppll

Easier Way to Learn Languages Fast


or some learners, learning one language isalready a mission impossible. What about

learning more than one? Although it maysound impossible to do, there are tips andtricks on learning languages faster and easier,which you do not learn in school.

Languages as a groupAll languages belong to their own languagefamilies. Some of the popular families are Ro-mance, Slavic, Germanic, and Sino-Tibetan.Languages are grouped together because oftheir historical relationships, grammaticalstructures, or geographical places of origin.

There are languages named differently orusing different scripts because of politicalreasons, such as Hindi and Urdu. There arealso several variants of a language because ofgeographical differences, such as Hokkiendialect spoken in Fujian Province, Taiwan,The Philippines, Medan City, Singapore, andMalaysia.

From here you can learn that languagelearning is not only about learning the gram-mar or vocabulary, but also learning aboutthe story behind its evolution.

Same family, same genesThroughout my years of language learning ex-perience, I have come to realize that learninglanguages of the same family that you alreadyknow is the faster way to excel. As an ex-ample, in general, European speak betterEnglish than Asian.

A Spanish speaker will recognize manyPortuguese words even without learning it be-cause both languages are from the same fam-ily, Romance language. I mention this basedon my personal experience of acquiring Por-tuguese in a short time because of my know-ledge of Spanish.These languages are like human beings wherethey “share” the same genes from their parentlanguage, which might have become extinct.

For Romance languages, Latin is the par-ent language. I read once an argument claim-ing that Latin is not dead, but it had evolved

into French, Spanish, Portuguese, Italian, andRomanian.

However, please note that these similarit-ies could cause confusion at the same time.Imagine when you are speaking in language Aand thinking in language B. That’s horrible!To be honest, I often make that mistake, butsoon after that, I remember it so I will not re-peat the same mistake again.

Practice makes perfectOn top of everything, regular practice plays amajor role in language learning. Believe it ornot, you will forget any languages, even yournative language, if you don’t use it for a cer-tain period of time.

Internet de finitely has changed our wayof life and way of learning. You can navigateyour browser to any news websites, listen toradio, or even watch TV online, in any lan-guage. I do it all the time, every day. There-fore, I don’t have learning schedule, I useforeign languages all the time.

Don’t be frustrated when you do mistakesbecause it is completely natural. It is totallywrong if you have never made any mistakes inyour learning. That just against natural law.

Finally, which language are you learningand what are in the same language family?PT

Teddy Nee began his languagelearning journey at an early age.He learned 3 foreign languages,namely English, Chinese, andGerman, in high school. His pas-sion for languages continuesthroughout his time studying inthe university where he is enrolledin an international program. Formore information about him, please visit www.neeslan-guageblog.com

Facebook: www.facebook.com/neeslanguageblogTwitter: www.twitter.com/tdnee

http://www.neeslanguageblog.com

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MARKETPLACE

Dream, decide, do - tips from a polyglot


There are lots of tips on how to learn a language, I’ve come to my scheme, and I’ll share

bits of it with you.

Dream, decide, do! - this old formula works for success, why not to apply it to our language

learning success?

Dream:

- dream about what you really want, what makes you wake up every morning and be

passionate to conquer the world

- link this dream to a language of your choice. Imagine this language as a tool to achieve your

dreams

- practice positive thinking coming back to your dream while learning

- work with your imagination that later on will help you to create vivid stories with fresh

vocabulary

- get inspiration from people you meet: e.g. try to compose poems in a new language

Decide:

- once got a motivation, you must find your learning regime

- identify your milestones and concrete goals within a time framework

- share with your supportive friends your decision

- choose an approach/system/book which will be your guide

Do:

- breathe and let yourself speak from day one

- get a habit of learning a little everyday - set up an alarm

- pick up phrases in the context watching your favourite movies

- first learn phrases with the form “I” like “I do” not “to do”

- go with the flow, learn phrases that come to your mind naturally, not what is written in books

- pick up basic grammar and keep practicing

Dream, decide, do –

ttiippss ffrroomm aappoollyygglloott

rreepprriinntteedd wwiitthh ppeerrmmiissssiioonn bbyy EEkkaatteerriinnaa MMaattvveeeevvaa

Dream, decide, do - tips from a polyglot


- change language settings of your phone and social networks

- start writing your to-do-list in a new language

- keep your diary with your thoughts in a new language

- find a buddy with whom you can practice

- use schemes and mind-maps to store more vocabulary

- sign up for traditional craft/dance/martial arts of a chosen language - get absorbed by

cultural beauty

- sing in this language to catch the phonetics

- go to the country of the chosen language - get out of your comfort zone!

Fall in love and make mistakes! - this will transform your world!

Ekaterina Matveeva is the CEO of EuropeOnline, a polyglot with 8 spoken languages and another dozen

comprehended, and a first Russian memory sportsman. After 7 years of studying and travelling she has gotten

multiple MA in linguistics, cross-cultural communication, education, cultural socioanthdopology. Fulfilling her

dream, Ekaterina launched her language school Europeonline, enabling people to speak a language they want from

day one, using a blended approach and cutting-edge techniques. Visit her at http://www.europeonline.me/ or on

Facebook at https://www.facebook.com/europeonline.me

Original post: http://www.europeonline.me/dream-decide-do-tips-from-a-polyglot/

http://www.europeonline.me/dream-decide-do-tips-from-a-polyglot/

http://www.europeonline.me/

https://www.facebook.com/europeonline.me

Book Look - Language Master Key


At the Cinema - Cambio de Ruta


he theme behind this month’sfilm is “Always pursue your

dream”. It is also “Take a chanceon love”. There is also a third one:“We must learn about the naturalworld around us, respect it, andalways protect it”.

That’s right. Cambio de Rutahas three themes, which it at-tempts to address equally, and itmore or less succeeds.

Nicté (pronounced “Nik-tay”) isa tour guide for Tours Tours onthe Riviera Maya in Mexico. Actu-ally, she is the best tour guide, asshown by her earning the “employ-ee of the month” eighteen times ina row. Her tours are magical andloved by everyone because of herpassion and devotion to nature.

It comes as no surprise thenthat after the little tour company issold to a larger company that sheclashes with the new owners whoare more focused on profits andcorporate image than they are onthe people and the environment.After several confrontations withJulia, the woman in charge of cor-porate image, Nicté quits, andends up in the local bar where herfather’s band plays, getting drunk.She tearfully tells her father thestory, but he is eternally optimist-ic, as is Nicté’s mother, and they

push her to start her own tourcompany. The next morning, sheconvinces her long time friend Di-mento to also quit and be herpartner.

Meanwhile, the new owner ofTours Tours has sent his son,Cristóbal , to make sure everythingis being handled properly. The wo-men handling it have plans todestroy the local mangroveswamps to build a huge touristcomplex, which Cristóbal findsout about, but Julia works to con-vince him that is for the best foreveryone. Cristóbal decides to callhis father for help with the de-cision.

While on the phone, however,Nicté and Dimento invite Cristóbalto be their first customer, notknowing who he is. He has a won-derful time on the tour, which ismostly him and Nicté being along

CCaammbbiioo ddee RRuuttaa

Cambio de Ruta94 minComedy / Romance23 May 201 4 (Mexico)

Country: MexicoLanguage: Spanish

“Cambio de Rutahas threethemes, which itattempts toaddress equally,and it more orless succeeds.

Julia teaching Nicté and the other Tours Toursemployees the new way to handle customers

AAtt tthhee CCiinneemmaa



in many beautiful spots while she constantlytells him how important nature is. Naturally,they fall in love with each other.

Both Julia and Nicté see an upcomingcompetition by the magazine “Tour Guide” asbeing the key to their future success. Juliafools Cristóbal into signing a form which re-vokes Nicté’s tour guide license, so Nicté can-not win the contest. When Nicté finds out, sheis furious at Cristóbal and believes he wasjust trying to get close to her so he could dothis (which doesn’t make sense, since hecould sign the paper without ever even meet-ing her, but this is a romantic comedy), andrefuses to talk or even listen to him again.She and Dimento enter the contest anyways.

There is a single judge for the Mexicobranch of the contest, Telenovela star Eric delCastillo, and after he takes a tour with ToursTours (now Arroyo Tours), he takes the tourwith Nicté. He naturally has the best time ofhis life, but when Nicté admits she temporar-ily doesn’t have her license, he says he has toadhere to the standards of the contest, tellingher he will try to sway the panel towards her.

The plot is straight forward and obvious,and you can no doubt already guess the end-ing. The film was entertaining, but unfortu-nately, I never really got drawn into it. Nicté istoo perfect, and she is never really in anyhardship. Even when she thinks thatCristóbal had betrayed her, you already knowthey will make up at the end of the film, sothere is no real tension.

In fact, the entire film has more of a“made for television” feel to it, with musicplaying over almost every scene. The sceneryis fantastic, being shot on location in various

spots of Mexico, but the characters are allvery one-dimensional. Nicté is adorable andfragile. Dimento is her supportive sidekick.Cristóbal is the handsome pawn who gets thegirl. Julia is the manipulative rival who willget what she deserves in the end. I was sur-prised the whole thing didn’t have a big “Dis-ney” stamp on it, since nothing ever reallyrose above a teen level of drama. Nicté is hurt,but never devastated. Cristóbal never reallyshows any passion for anything. Julia is arich snob, but not menacing. The only char-acter who really seems to have actual passionis Eric, playing himself.

There were a few other problems thatbothered me in terms of the plot. Tours Toursis bought by Arroyo Tour Associates, a majorcompany. Tours Tours’ previous owner retireswith plenty of money (he calls himself a bil-lionaire) , so the company must have alreadybeen very successful, as Arroyo Tours mustalso be. So why is winning a contest in a

Julia trying to seduce Cristóbal so he won't ask morequestions about their activitiesNicté and Cristóbal having a perfect time on the beach

Nicté and Dimento discussing how to build their newtour business



magazine the key to future success for them?Until Nicté starts her two person tour busi-ness, they are the only ones in the area.

Second, as I already mentioned, ifCristóbal could revoke Nicté’s license withouteven meeting her, why does Nicté believe hehad to get close to her to do it? Indeed, whydoes Arroyo Tours have the right to simply re-voke the license of a former employee? Surelyshe must have to be licensed by some largerorganization, or else her license would havebeen automatically revoked when she quit.

Lastly, Nicté takes her tourists to thesame locations she did as part of Tours Tours,including the mangrove swamps, so it is as-sumed these are open to the public. So howdoes Arroyo Tours have the right to destroythe swamp and build there?

The film takes place in Mexico and is all inSpanish. There is a single scene in it whichmight appeal to language lovers when Nictéinvites a Mayan man and his son onto theirtour truck for a ride back to town. Eric is im-

pressed that Nicté can speak Mayan. But ofcourse she can. She is perfect.Cambio de Ruta is a cute film, worth

watching for the scenery, but that is about it.If you enjoy obvious romantic plots, you mightenjoy it a little more, but it left me feeling letdown at the end. Actually, it didn’t really leaveme feeling anything, because that is howmuch emotional energy it invoked. PT

Nicté and Dimento with Eric, before they take him on thebest tour of his life

Languages in Peril - Talysh


alysh is a NorthwesternIranian language with

somewhere between 900,000to 1 million speakers and isbroken into three main dia-lects - Northern, Central, andSouthern - spoken in parts ofIran and Azerbaijan on thewestern shore of the CaspianSea.

Northern Talysh is spoken

mainly in southern Azerbaijan

and in some regions of Iran, like

the Province of Gilan. The Cent-

ral and Southern dialects are

spoken in northern Iran. The

geographical names might

sound inverted (Northern

spoken in the south, Southern

spoken in the north) because

Azerbaijan is north of Iran, so

the language actually straddles

the border between the two.

In Gilan, Iran, the language

has been influenced by the

neighbouring languages of Per-

sian, Gilaki, and Azeri. In the

southern region, the Talyshi and

Gilaks (the native people of Ta-

lysh and Gilaki, respectively)

live next to each other, and each

language has taken on aspects

of the other, rather than one be-

coming dominant.

The northern region is dif-

ferent, though. While the inhab-

itants of Lavandvil and the

surrounding mountainous re-

gions still speak Talysh, Azeri

Turkic has pushed it out of

areas like Astara. Talysh is par-

tially mutually intelligible with

Persian.

The name of the Talyshi

people can be found in old Arab-

ic text as Al-Taylasân and in

Persian as Tâlišân or Tavâliš.

The northern dialect spoken in

Azerbaijan was historically

known as Tâlish-i Guštâsbi. In

more modern western literature,

both language and people are

sometimes referred to as Talishi,

Taleshi or Tolashi, but docu-

ments about them are rare.

The origins of the Talyshi

people can be traced all the way

back to the ancient Medes, who

were an Iranian people living in

what is now Northwestern Iran

between 1000 and 900 BCE.

Anthropologically, they are part

of the Iranian people of the

Indo-European family. They

identify themselves with the

Cadusians, who were an Iranian

tribe of the western Alborz

mountains and were subdued

by the Medes.

The Talysh region of modern

day Azerbaijan came under

Languages in Peril

Talysh

Talysh people near their house

Languages in Peril - Talysh


Russian control during the 19th

century. At the start of the 20th

century, there was some Talysh

educational outlets in the form

of Talysh high schools, several

Talysh language books, and a

newspaper called “Red Talysh”.

This changed in the 1930s,

when the schools were closed

down and the Talyshi people

were reclassified as Azerbaijani.

Other ethnic minorities suffered

persecutions in Azerbaijan as

well.

While under Soviet rule, Ta-

lysh was written in a Latin-

based alphabet, which had been

devised in 1929, then in 1938, a

Cyrillic-based system was used,

Today, it is written in the Perso-

Arabic script in Iran and using

the Azeri Latin script in

Azerbaijan.

In 1936, Talyshi national-

ists were exiled to Siberia, and

broadcasting in Talysh was ab-

olished, depriving the Talyshi

people of their mass media. Fi-

nally, in 1991 , when the USSR

fell and Azerbaijan was able to

succeed from the Soviet Union,

there was some chance to revive

their language and

heritage.

Even then,

however, the his-

tory of repression

made it difficult to

reconnect, being

held back by the

residual fear of per-

secution. The Ta-

lysh National

Movement (NTM),

formally created in

2007 by Talyshi

leaders who had

been in exile in the

Netherlands, is the

major organisation

representing the

Talyshi people,

with its goal of

working with the United Nations

to get recognition of the Talysh

nation. They want an autonom-

ous region within Azerbaijan

while also demanding the pro-

motion of cultural and linguistic

rights of all minorities within

the country.

Meanwhile, the Talyshi

people face the dilemma of

whether they should follow their

Islamic traditions, an especially

difficult prospect during this

current backlash in the world

against Muslims, or embrace

Western culture and technology.

But it might be too late. The

Talyshi population is in decline

and the language is classified as

“vulnerable” by UNESCO. Be-

cause it is rarely being passed

on to Talyshi children and

young Talyshi more often speak

Persian or Azerbaijani, it may

become extinct within 25 - 35

years. PT

At the start of the 20thcentury, there was someTalysh educationaloutlets in the form ofTalysh high schools,several Talysh languagebooks, and a newspapercalled "Red Talysh". Thischanged in the 1930s,when the schools wereclosed down and the Ta-lyshi people were reclas-sified as Azerbaijani.

Dances of Talysh people in Iran

Where Are You?

39 Parrot Time | Issue #6 | June 2013

This city is both the capital and largest city of its South American country. It was founded over460 years ago, and was the capital even then. The city takes its name comes from a biblical saint.

The first settlers in the basin where the city resides were mainly nomadic hunter-gatherers. Thevillages came under control of the Inca Empire.

Conquistadors from Peru reached the valley in 1540 and met the current indigenous people. Ameeting was held between the groups in which a plan to establish a city on behalf of Spain wasintroduced. The native Indians accepted, and the next year, the city was officially founded.

During the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, the city was the victim of seveal naturaldisasters, including earthquakes, a smallpox epidemic, and the flooding of the major river. In1810, the city saw the beginning of establishing the country's independence from Spain.

By the end of the 20th century, the population grew beyond four million and the real estatemarket was booming. It now has the tallest building in Latin America along with several majoruniversities and a modern transportation infrastructure, including South America's mostextensive subway system.

Where Are You?

Last month's answer: Taipei, Taiwan

Can you name this location and country?

App Review - Tandem


earning a language is an exercise in pa-tience and perseverance; underscored by

its sole purpose: communication. The ideathat communication is and has always beenthe essence of language is sometimes lost tous amidst a tidal wave of software, super-secret learning techniques, audio lessons,mobile apps and other often over hypedproducts or services.

This is why it’s important to remember thatreal communication with a real person is byfar the most effective path to language profi-ciency. Conversing with a native speaker, es-pecially when they may not speak your ownlanguage forces you to communicate to thebest of your ability. The problem with an appis that you can just shut your phone off. Takeout your headphones and say “I’ve hadenough”. With a real person it’s not that easy.

In steps Tandem, an iOS based language ex-change platform designed to connect you, to aworld of other language learners.

Tandem is different from other language ex-change apps or websites in that users mustactually fill out profiles and apply for accept-ance. The wait is very short, but this ensuresthat the folks you’re interacting with aren’tbots, and are usually there to actually learnrather than cause trouble or attempt to useTandem as a dating site. It took me about 3 or4 minutes to fill out my own profile and with-in a short span I was good to go.

Much like a social media site Tandem offersyou the ability to “follow” other learners, afeature not unlike Twitter. You have a feed

that is populated bythe updates, changesof topic and otheractivity of those youchoose to follow. Iusually try to followeveryone I talk to, itgives them the im-pression that you en-joyed your conversations and that you’reinterested in speaking with them again in thefuture. Sometimes I’ll even follow users Ithink I might like to speak to in the future,but perhaps don’t have the time or availabilityfor at that moment.

When other users browse the available part-ners list they are met with a sentence or twothat you write - or choose from a pre-selectedset of questions that might pertain to yourinterests - that describe what you’re in themood to talk about. This is a great way to zeroin on partners with similar interests or to at-tract interesting people with your humor, witor charm.

Engaging with another user is incredibly easy.You have the option to speak to others usingtext based chat or audio/video communica-tion. In addition to these, however, I waspleased to note that Tandem comes fullyequipped with an audio recording feature.This is great for learners who are perhaps stilla little bit out of their element directly enga-ging in face to face conversation but wouldstill like to enjoy the benefits of real audiocommunication.

After I finish having a� voice or video� conver-

AApppp RReevviieewwTandem

By Tripod Technology

www.tandemapp.me

iOS

Reviewed by Brian Powers

App Review - Tandem


sation with another user I’m given the oppor-tunity to send them “good vibes” and evenwrite a review if I enjoyed our conversation.These “vibes” add up as a number on a user’sprofile image indicating their relative recordas experienced or well received language part-ners.

The only really disappointing attribute Tan-dem expresses is its relatively low user reten-tion rate. This seems to be an issue that mostlanguage exchange apps and programs havewherein users are interested in the system foronly a short period of time before either grow-ing bored, fed up or simply apathetic. While Ihave met and continue to converse with a fewawesome individuals, the majority of the folksI’ve spoken with via text never end up becom-ing audio/video chat partners and many arenever heard from again.

Still, this is a relatively minor issue. The usersyou manage to connect with can turn intogreat new friends and with an impressive userbase of over 3 million people I’ve never felt asthough the proverbial well was even close torunning dry.

To Summarize:

Pros:

• Facebook authentication means you alwaysget real people, not robots or (as many) creepypeople trying to get into your digital pants assome competitor apps and programs.

• Real communication with real people - thekey to effective language learning and its ap-plication to real world scenarios, it’s hard toargue with that.

• It’s free, so what do you have to lose?

• Simple to use but fully stocked with all ba-sic needs: text chat, video, audio, the abilityto send pictures from your device along withrecorded audio messages.

• Cool “feed” feature that connects you withthose you follow and keeps you informed oftheir activity, availability and interests.

• A more completeprofile page for eachuser than most com-petitor apps offer.Users can showcasemultiple photos and avariety of interests.User’s timezone is alsovisible - a very usefulthing to have for any-one used to frequentlycommunicating with aglobal audience.

Cons:

• Only currently available for iOS users.

• Seems to have a low overall user retentionrate.

• Extraordinarily minor inconvenience of hav-ing to wait for your membership approval.

While it is absolutely essential to overcomethe fear of using our new languages, Tandemreally does offer a nice way for users to slidemore comfortably into speaking without quiteas much stress as they might face were theyto be hurled headlong into face to face con-versation in an immersion setting, though onecan certainly make the argument that thistrial by fire would be ideal. Considering theextremely small list of cons I think any dedic-ated language learner with an iOS devicewould be doing themselves a disservice to nottake the time to check out Tandem. If you dodecide to give it a shot you should give it atleast a week or so before deciding whether theapp is or is not a good fit for you.

Have you used Tandem before? What hasyour experience been? PT

Brian Powers is the creator and blogger at Languages

Around the Globe, a social media community and

website designed to promote language learning and

cultural exchange. You can check out more of his work

at www.latg.org

http://www.latg.org

Words in Your Mouth - Apple

43 Parrot Time | Issue #16 | July / August 2015



he book in review this month isLanguage MasterKey by Ron

Gullekson. It is available from Amazon asa Kindle ebook.

Ron is a native English speaker who atechnical writer and translator in Florida,USA. He has studied Arabic, German, andSpanish and writes about languagelearning on his popular blog LanguageSurfer (www.languagesurfer.com).

Language MasterKey (or, with its entiretitle Language MasterKey: How to UnlockYourBrain’s Ability to Learn AnyLanguage ) is a guide to how to learnlanguages more efficiently. At just over100 pages, the book is a fantastic read,with both scientific explanations andanecdotal insights to help you, the reader,get the most out of the time you spendlearning.

Ron talks about all four skills required inmastering a language (reading, writing,speaking and listening), but it is thelistening aspect that he mainly focuseson. The book opens with a discussion ofhow language is sound, what is alanguage, and how we learn a language.Stephen Krashen and Paul Pimsleur’stheories of second language acquisitionare put forth, along with scientificexplanations of the learning processthrough listening.

The second chapter is where he startsoutlining the greater focus of the book.

Ron is not merelytalking aboutlanguage learning inan abstract manner;he has laid out a veryspecific program for the learner to follow.He admits that it won’t make youinstantly fluent (which is a false claim byany teaching method) and warns you thatwhile his system is simple, it isn’t easy.

As an aside here for a moment, I wouldlike to note that most language learninghelp books or blogs are often advertisedwith claims that you will become, if notfluent, at least very conversational in alanguage within a short time, using some“secret” method, known only to theauthor. As you probably have learned bynow, there is no quick, easy “trick”. Not inlanguage learning, and not in anythingelse. Anything worth knowing is going totake time and a lot of work, and that iswhy so many resources that promise youvirtually overnight success will eventuallylet you down.

I wanted to point that out because Ron’sbook is not one of those. He isn’t trying tosell you on an express track to fluency.Instead, he is laying out a very precisepath with specific activities and ideas.

And that is where chapter two starts. Ronsays “If you want to make any kind ofnoticeable progress, you’re going to haveto grit your teeth and spend at least 45minutes a day, nearly every day exposing

Language Master Key

by Ron Gullekson

Language: English

I tem Rating:

BBooookk LLooookk

*****

http://www.languagesurfer.com



yourself to the language”, then lays outthe three basic things you need to bedoing: free listening, active listening, andperforming a learning activity. He goes onto describe and develop these in detail forthe rest of the chapter.

Chapter three looks at what makes alanguage learner successful. I really likedthis chapter because he shares severalpersonal experiences to support each ofthe qualities: patient, engaged, consistent,balanced, easygoing, confident.

Those last two are perhaps the hardestideas to implement. When we learn, webecome focused on getting everythingright, to an extreme. If we become soobsessed with having every attempt beperfect, then we will never dare tryinteracting with others in a language. Weneed to relax and let mistakes happen; itis from those that we learn the most.

We also need to build up our confidenceso that we can let the language flow.Otherwise, we will always be afraid to useour new knowledge, which defeats theentire purpose of learning anotherlanguage.

Chapter four covers language proficiencyby not only describing a few systemscurrently used to denote a person’s levelbut also presenting a concise outline ofhow long it will take you to reachproficiency, depending on the methodsand time you use.

Chapter five is all about acquiringvocabulary. Ron talks about how we canbetter absorb chunks of data, rather thanindividual pieces. Great ideas for how tolearn and practise are given to thelearner, including an overview on usingspaced repetition systems (SRS), whichare the popular trend now.

The next two chapters talk about free andactive listening, and chapters eight andnine cover speaking and learning

activities. Throughout this, Ron providesscientific ideas, real life experiences, andprecise instructions on the best ways touse your time to maximum your results.Chapter nine in particular goes into somedetails about a few different self-studycourses, including Rosetta Stone,Pimsleur, Teach Yourself, and Assimil. Inchapter ten, the best ways to learn alanguage through reading are covered.

Chapter eleven is where Ron bringseverything he has talked about beforetogether into his “21 -Day LanguageBlast”. I said before that Ron was notgoing to promise you fluency within acertain time period, and that still holdstrue here. The 21 -Day program is basedon an experiment he did in Germany andis built upon the template he presented inthe second chapter. For me, this is thetrue strength of the book, because it pullstogether the rest of the material into aprecise, easy to follow system whichanyone can use to make true progress intheir learning. It is a cyclic approach, soafter you have followed this for threeweeks, you start again, thereby changinghow and what you are studying, buildingup your capabilities, layer by layer.

The title image Ron has chosen for hisbook is that of a ragged notebook, likethat of an essential handbook that youread and use many times. Indeed, I feelthat I need to read it a few more times so Ican fully absorb and implement many, ifnot all, of what he discusses, and a realbook would then become as battered ashis image suggests.

If you are interested in the process oflearning languages, this book is afantastic read, for both its professionaland personal wisdom. If you are an activelearner, then I heartily suggest you pickup a copy of Language MasterKey foryour electronic bookshelf, read it often,and put it to good use! PT

At A Glance


General Language

Digital Dialects

Digital Dialects features free to use games for

learning 80 languages+. Within are games for

learning phrases, numbers, vocabulary, spelling, verb

conjugation and alphabets. This website runs best

with Macromedia Flash Player.

http: //www.digitaldialects.com/

Multiple languages

Linguistics

The Rosetta Project

The Rosetta Project is a global collaboration of

language specialists and native speakers working to

build a publicly accessible digital library of human

languages. The Rosetta Archive has nearly 100,000

pages of material documenting over 2,500 languages,

making it he largest resource of its kind on the Net.

http: //rosettaproject.org/

Multiple languages

Culture

Australian Slang Dictionary

G'day, mate! Learn these Australian slang words and

phrases and you'll feel at home on your first day

Down Under. Page contains a list of Australian slang

terms and their meanings.

http: //www.koalanet.com.au/austral ian-slang.html

Australian English

Language Course Sites

WorldWideLearn

Online Language Courses - The world's largest

directory of online education, World Wide Learn offers

you 18 categories of online language courses, lessons,

classes, tutorials and learning resources.

http: //www.worldwidelearn.com/language-courses/index.html

Multiple languages

At A Glance


Specific Language

Learning Tamil Virtually

The government of Tamil Nadu established the Tamil

Virtual University (TVU) to provide internet-based

educational resources and opportunities for the

learning Tamil as well as acquiring knowledge of the

history, art, literature and culture of the Tamils.

http: //tamilvu.org/

Tamil

Icelandic Online

A free, interactive, immersive Icelandic language

course (in a total of six sections) provided by the

University of Iceland.

http: //icelandiconl ine. is/index.html

Icelandic

Newspapers

Suboticke Novine

Newspaper offering daily, national, and world news,

as well as weather, sports, entertainment, business,

and travel coverage.

http: //www.subotickenovine.rs/

Serbian

Agora São Paulo

Agora São Paulo is a daily newspaper of the Folha da

Manha group. It has news of politics, economy,

culture, sports, international affairs, technology and

general news.

http: //www.agora.uol.com.br/

Portugese

Credits

50 Parrot Time | Issue #15 | May / June 2015

Letter From the EditorWriter: Erik ZidoweckiImages:Petey: Book stack

The Cost of Free Language ResourcesWriter: Erik ZidoweckiImages:Finger Lakes Community College Modern Languages @ FLCC: Free Internet area; Group of women writingPetey: Money girl (splash); Students in class; Apps on iPhone; Woman writing; Keyboard and woman writing fromabove; Woman writing more; Wallet with coins; Man posting advertisement; Materials for learning

Review of Polyglot Workshops: BrazilWriter: Patrick LencastreAll images are property of Jimmy Mello and are used here with permission.

Easier Way to Learn Languages FastWriter: Teddy NeeImages:Teddy Lee: Teddy Lee (copyrighted)Petey: Language clouds

Dream, decide, do - tips from a polyglotWriter: Ekaterina MatveevaImages:Ekaterina Matveeva: People in shop (copyrighted)Petey: Girl reading on grassSources:• "Dream, decide, do - tips from a polyglot" EuropeOnline <http: //www.europeonline.me/dream-decide-do-tips-from-a-polyglot/>

At The Cinema - Cambio de RutaWriter: Erik ZidoweckiSources:• "Cambio de Ruta" Internet Movie Database <http: //www.imdb.com/title/tt23291 88/>All images are copyright Bazooka Films, Salamandra Films, Bazooka Films, I taca Films

Credits

Parrot Time | Issue #14 | March / April 2015 51

Languages in Peril - TalyshWriter: Lucil le MartinImages:ArnoldPlaton: Talysh language dialectsPetey: Heiran (title); Talysh people near their house; Dances of Talysh people in IranSources:• "Talysh language" Wikipedia <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Talysh_language>• "Talysh people" Wikipedia <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Talysh_people>

Where Are You?Writer: Sonja KrügerImages:Petey: Mystery image

App ReviewWriter: Brian PowersAll images are property of Tandem

Book LookWriter: Erik Zidowecki

At A GlanceWriter: Erik ZidoweckiAll screenshots are property of their respective website owners

All images are Copyright - CC BY-SA (Creative Commons Share Alike) by their respective

owners, except for Petey, which is Public Domain (PD) or unless otherwise noted.

For long centuries, the history of the Minoan culturehad been lost in the realm of Greek tradition andmythology. At the beginning of the last century,however, the history of Minoan Crete was actuallypieced together and it revealed that the civilizationwas not one of the most advanced and important inprehistoric times. The archaeological site of Knossos,the ancient capital of the Kingdom of Minos,provides an amazing source of knowledge about thiscivilization.

The ancient Palace of Knossos was the origin of thelegend of the labyrinth, which dates back as far as2000 BC. The factual relevance is no less fascinatingas it provided us with the linguistical mysteries ofLinear A and B. The Palace was a multi-storiedstructure with many floors and corridors, excavatedand reconstructed by Sir Arthur Evans in 1900.

Come to Heraklion, Greece for a guided tourthrough this political, economic and religious centerof the glorious Minoan Dynasty.

TThhee PPaallaaccee ooff KKnnoossssoossTake-A-Tour

parrot time - issue 17 september / october 2015

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