Showing posts with label Languages. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Languages. Show all posts

Monday, December 18, 2006

The Top 7 Techniques of Persuasive Language

No matter what you do and what you want to achieve in your life, there will come a time when you need to persuade someone to see things the way that you do. This doesn’t necessarily mean that they will agree with you, but you will want to understand the basics of persuasive language in order to increase your success in these kinds of situations.

A metaphorical method

Just as in good writing, using other words can help you to persuade someone to your viewpoint. Some of this isn’t meant to be deceptive, but rather it will help to allow the other person to see what you mean if they can not understand it in the way that you are describing it. For example, if you’re trying to explain the benefits of a new water heater, you might want to describe it as the money maker because of its efficiency and better energy consumption.

Change what you mean

Another way to use language to persuade people is to change what you mean what you are talking. This isn’t necessarily about changing what you think, but rather changing what it sounds like by changing the meaning. Better put, when you want to change the way that a romantic or business partner acts, you will try to change your persuasion into seeming to benefit the relationship itself, rather than to change the behavior. You don’t talk about what they’re doing wrong; you talk about what you want them to do so that the relationship can be better.

The words you choose

People can become persuaded by the details rather than the bigger ideas. When you see a commercial for the newest technological advance, don’t you find that you get swept up in the new features rather than the overall use? When you’re trying to persuade someone into seeing something the same way you do, you can try to use more descriptive words in order to make them see the situation the way that you do.

Sales techniques

When sales people want to persuade someone to do something or buy something, they use various forms of persuasive phrases and words. For example, you can say something like, ‘Well, that’s good, but this is better’ or something like, ‘That’s not all.’ Think about your favorite commercials and advertisements and slogans that they might have used. Try to see how you might be able to incorporate their slick moves into your next argument.

Punctuate for them

When you’re writing something down for your partner or in a business situation, using important punctuation can help to signify the parts that are most important to you. However, you can go overboard with this as well. Too many exclamation points can show that you might be a little over-anxious or excited. They can also look like you don’t know what words to emphasize so you just emphasize them all with these pieces of punctuation.

Words that convey emotion

When talking with someone that you know well, you will want to use words and phrases that they already associate with something good. For example, in a romantic or personal relationship, you can allude to inside or private jokes as a way to make your current points. Or you can use words that have special meanings to you in order to make the rest of your argument seem relevant to their needs.

This will take planning on your part to consider what the other person wants to hear from you and where they are coming from in your conversation.

How you put your words together

If you’re trying to make someone feel comfortable, you will want to use more casual language, while if you’re trying to impress someone, a formal kind of syntax will yield the better results for you. Realize who you are addressing and what they will be looking for when you are speaking. This method can also backfire when you aren’t comfortable with the words that you are using. You will need to become comfortable with what you are saying in order to show that you are confident in what you are trying to tell them.

Persuasion is really about what you say and how you say it. If you take the time to fully understand your audience as well as what you want to achieve, you will be successful.

Sunday, May 7, 2006

Speaking Japanese

The Japanese language is considered by many to be easy to learn. Whether you wish to speak Japanese for personal reasons like travel or for professional reasons, it is important for you to consider that learning Japanese etiquette is as important as learning commonly used words and phrases.

Why is it that learning to speak Japanese is relatively easy? To begin with, there are only 5 vowel sounds:

· A is voiced as “ah,” or the way English speakers pronounce the a in “la;”
· I is pronounced as the English e in words like “need” and “tea;”
· U is vocalized in much the same way as “oo” in words like “cool” and “soon;”
· E is spoken with the same sound of the first e in the word “letter” and the e in “set;”
· O is expressed as it is in the word “told.”

Knowing how each of the vowels sounds phonetically makes speaking the Japanese words less difficult.

In addition, the Japanese language is less complicated than many others because nouns are not tied to gender or number - the same word is used for one tree or many trees - and verb remains the same regardless of the subject. Unlike English, Spanish and French (and other Latin-based languages) in which you must learn different ways to conjugate the verb based on the subject, when learning Japanese, the verb will be either past tense or the present tense (ongoing actions or the suggestion of what may happen in the future are expressed with the present tense verb).

While pronunciations can be simple once you know how the vowels are spoken, and nouns and verbs are relatively easy as well, one way in which you may stumble with the language is word order. While in English sentences are typically in a subject - verb - object format, in Japanese they are presented in the order of subject - object - verb. Of course, just as we have prepositions in English, there are a number of articles in Japanese. One article used often is “ka,” which is used at the end of the sentence to ask a question (which is important because the question mark does not exist in Japanese).

Though challenges like punctuation exist in the written language, learning to speak and understand Japanese can be accomplished. There are many resources available online, books and flashcards, as well as computer software. By finding the one that will be most beneficial to you and practicing often, you will surely be able to learn the language.

Once you have learned the language, and even while you are learning, it is important to keep etiquette in mind because how you act has as much of an impact on how you are received as the words you use to express yourself.

Make sure that you keep the following in mind:

· Unless you are very familiar with the person you are talking with, you should avoid using casual phrasings;

· Avoid being loud to get someone's attention. It is better to wave or to approach them with a bow and then speak;

· Use a quiet tone when speaking;

· Be cautious with your body language as much of the communication that takes place is unspoken;

· Always show respect for the person with whom you are speaking.

By maintaining respect for the people and cultural etiquette - you will find that beginning to communicate in Japanese is simple and, in time, you will become quite good at it.

Thursday, March 30, 2006

Learn French Online

Ever wished to visit France? Walk through the Champs Elysees? Climb upon the Eiffel Tower? To sail on the Seine? Did you really think to realize that without knowing a scratch of the French language? Come on. Stop kidding me!

Everywhere around the world people speak different languages but it seems that we are a little bit behind that kind of technology. Doesn't that makes you wonder? We should prepare ourselves to get educated. We always send our children to the best schools to master a lot of things like French language but do you even know a little bit about it?

This is just a sneak-peak of where you should start.

Greetings: Monsieur Dupont meets Madame La Baronne.

Monsieur Dupont: Bonjour Madame! (Hello Madam!)
Madame La Baronne: Bonjour, Monsieur Dupont! (Hello, Mister Dupont!)
Monsieur Dupont: Comment allez vous? (How are you?)
Madame La Baronne: Très bien, merci. Et vous? (Fine, Thanks. And you?)
Monsieur Dupont: Je vais bien, merci. (I'm well, Thanks.)

Well is it that hard? No, you see! We really need to get started to be educated before to try to educate others.

This is my 3-T Formula to learn French and much more: Tools, Tips and Techniques!

• Learn a lot and master what you've learned.
• Take action by listening, reading and writing what you've learned.
• Rehearse it with your partner by using all of your knowledge.
• And be patience to understand and to make understand.

A lot of people think that by hanging some name cards on door knobs they are going to learn French but it isn't that easy. Believe me. Personally I speak fluently four languages and that all with confidence.

I learned two of them at home because my mother spoke Dutch and my father French. I learned English by watching American television for a couple of years with French and Dutch subtitles. And the last year I've just learned to speak Arabic by living and working in Egypt.

So now you see that this is the proof that your brain is unconsciously working while you're wasting your time like a lazy … in your sofa watching TV, or listening to your parents or just living in another culture with another language.

Thus this will be your lethal weapon to learn French and other languages because your brain is really unconsciously working.

So now you know all that you just need to take the right steps to advance and become a real educated citizen in this wide wide globe of multi-lingual cultures.

Saturday, February 25, 2006

The Road To Your Child’s Success Goes Through Reading

From the first day your child enters this world and hears the sound of your voice, they begin their foundation for understanding the language and becoming a reader.

From that first moment on, each time you speak to your child and respond to the sounds that they make, you are their teacher helping them to improve their understanding of the language that surrounds them in their new world.

Reading is the foundation from which all other education is built upon, and the spoken language is preparation of the surface on which this foundation will be laid.

With language as the surface for the foundation, and infants being such natural sponges soaking in everything around them, every opportunity you have to communicate with your child should be taken advantage of.

Talk, listen, and respond to your child. Sing and read to and with your child and you’ll be mapping a course of success.

A child’s early experience is, of course, language. They take in and very soon begin to imitate that which they see and hear. Soon to follow will be the recognition of the individual characters that make up the language. From there the individual characters morph into words, words then become sentences and onward. And as reading continues to develop, so does the child’s vocabulary as they encounter, recognize, and master even more new words. Then there is writing that soon develops and builds as it all ties back to reading.

With all of this going on, it’s easy to understand that becoming a reader is a step by step process for children. Not all learn at the same pace and some children will need more practice and attention than others.

However, by the age of about 7 most children are on their way. During this time frame, even the children experiencing difficulties can overcome them and become a very successful reader when given the proper attention. Your active participation in this early development of your child’s reading skills is vitally important.

It will be a time not only filled with wonderful moments of bonding and celebrating successes, but it is a foundation you are building that your child will benefit from for their entire lifetime.

Although this timeline is greatly condensed in the form of this article, you should easily see the importance and the direct correlation reading has to the long term success that your child experiences.

When your child is but a baby, read aloud to them regularly throughout each day. Cuddle up with them and read them a story in the afternoon. And by all means don’t forget about the tried and true bedtime story.

Make reading to your child a quiet, comfortable, and loving time for them; one that they look forward to and enjoy. If they are restless, energetic, and in play mode, save the reading time for when they unwind and ready to snuggle up.

Generally speaking, try to spend at least a half hour a day reading with your child. Keeping their natural attention span in mind, early on your reading time will be shorter and more often.

Needless to say, with young children, a set schedule is tough to follow as each day is such a new adventure for kids this age.

Don’t worry if your reading times don’t consistently come together at the same times each day. The key is to look for those quiet opportunities for reading and bonding time. Your child will begin to associate reading with something that is fun and enjoyable and not something that is an interruption to the rest of their day.

Doing this will keep reading fun for both of you, develop good reading habits with your child, and lay the foundation for a lifetime of successes.