One Minute Catalan

It's now official: one of the main reasons I'm involved with Catalan at the moment is because we're going to be launching what I think will be the very first "teach yourself Catalan" podcast. It will be part of our popular One Minute Languages series which aims to equip learners with the absolute basics of a language, primarily to make travel more enjoyable and to impress native speakers. I feel really strongly about the value of the One Minute Languages series: from my personal experience I've found that even knowing a couple of well-chosen phrases in a language can go a long way and can immediately give a good impression to a native speaker.

The first time I spoke in broken Norwegian to a Norwegian the reaction was one of surprised delight. Since then I've learned much more Norwegian and the ongoing reaction helps to encourage me further. The One Minute Language courses teach learners to say the standard basics like "hello", "goodbye", "my name is...", etc., but they also teach learners how to say "I don't speak much (Norwegian) - I'm learning it. Please help me with it!" and it's this kind of interaction with a native speaker which will demonstrate a learner's willingness to learn the other language.

I'm looking forward to working with Ana on One Minute Catalan, and we're delighted that we'll be launching it live in Barcelona on 26 September.

Comments

[Lisa]

Bones notícies!
Lisaxx