Hi, and welcome to another video from
Coffee Break Languages. My name's Mark,
I'm your "Coffee Break teacher"!
In this video, we're talking about language-learning
and language practice, and trying to see the ways in which you can fit language-learning
into your day, regardless of how busy it happens to be.
We believe, at Coffee Break, that it's possible to fit language-learning into those times of the day
when you're doing something else, whether that's driving to work, having a coffee,
or walking the dog, or at the gym,
and it's possible to fit language-learning into these times, and also be inspired
and also be inspired by what you see around you, to learn more of the language.
So today, you're coming on a walk with me, in the park. So let's get going!
We're heading to a park in South Ayrshire, on the Ayrshire coast,
which is called Culzean. This is in the west of Scotland.
Culzean itself is an interesting name, because Culzean is written C-U-L-Z-E-A-N
but it's pronounced "Cullayne". Very often Scottish placenames are pronounced entirely differently
from what you would expect,
and in this park there's lots to do, lots to see, it's a beautiful park.
There's a castle, there's a beach - in fact there are two beaches,
there are cliffs, there is a swan pond, and there are places for children to play.
Now even those sentences there,
I'm beginning to start to think about how I can practise my languages.
I'm thinking of the "there are..." sentences.
Normally that's quite a straightforward construction in another language.
So in French, "il y a...": "il y a une plage"; "il y a un château";
[Italian] c'è una spiaggia, c'è un castello...
[Spanish] hay un castillo, hay una playa...
[German] Es git einen Strand, es gibt ein ...
what's "a castle" in German?
"ein Schloss"
I think it's maybe "die Schloss" - I need to check that...
and so, as I'm working my way through these words, I'm thinking, "do I know the words in the foreign language?"
do I know their gender, am I able to use them in sentences?
So even at this stage when I'm thinking about how I would describe where I am
or what I'm doing, I can start to think about
how I would say that in whichever language I'm learning.
And that's what we're going to be doing today:
we're going to be looking at different things that we see around us
and thinking about how we would say them in the foreign language,
and you'll hopefully see some words of vocabulary appearing on the screen,
and also some sentences as we work our way around the park.
I'm going to pull in and show you this view, because it's absolutely beautiful.
It's such a lovely day! We can see out to the Isle of Arran,
and also down to Ailsa Craig which is a very interesting place because
Ailsa Craig is where most of the curling stones in the entire world come from.
So there you go: a volcanic rock off the coast of Ayrshire.
I've been coming here for many, many years, since I was a child,
and it's always that first view, just as you come round into the park;
you see Ailsa Craig out in the sea, you see the lighthouse, and you see the park before you
and you know you're in for a great day!
Now even in that, you can start to think about the language because, as I said,
I've been coming here FOR many years, or FOR forty years, and when we use "for" in English in that way,
very often in another language "for" works differently.
So, for example, in French, we use "depuis" plus a present tense.
[French] Je viens ici depuis 40 ans.
You would do the same in German with "seit".
You could do it with "da" in Italian and again use a present tense.
You could use ... different ways of doing it in Spanish.
You could say "I carry 40 years visiting this park":
llevo 40 años visitando este "parco".
¡"Parque"! "Parco"? That's Italian!
OK, let's go and discover the park!
Now sometimes you come across things and, if you know the word, great.
Other times you have to look up a word.
And when you look up a word, you might be thinking,
"well, will I ever need to know the word for, say, 'daffodil'?"
and ok, you might never need to know the word for "daffodil"
but knowing it might come in handy at some point!
That's why I always say, "there's never any lost knowledge".
Every bit of knowledge that you acquire is worthwhile because you never know when it could come in useful.
I did actually know the word for "daffodil", randomly, in French. It's "une jonquille",
and Iooked it up in Italian there and it's "giunchiglia",
so very similar to the French, but the Spanish is "narciso",
and "narciso" obviously linked to "narcissus"
and in German, also linked to "narcissus": "Narzisse".
So there you go, I've learned some new words by investigating just one word, "daffodil", in English,
and appreciating some nice daffodils too!
Now one of the other really important aspects is that you need to take notes.
You need to take notes of the words either that you're going to look up later,
or the words that you're looking up as you go about.
So, two words so far that I've been wondering about, first of all the gender of "castle" in German,
and the word "daffodil" in multiple languages.
Now some people like to take notes in a Notes app,
other people like a good old-fashioned notebook. I'm a bit old-school: I like a notebook!
So I'm going to take a few notes as to what I'm seeing here down at the beach at Culzean.
It's very often the case when you're visiting a place like this, that there are information panels written
normally in English, and what I like to do is try to work out how I would explain the words
on that information panel to someone who speaks the language that I'm learning.
So, in this case we're looking at smuggling whisky and wine and tobacco into the caves beneath the castle,
so I would be thinking about how I can put that into more simple English,
or using words that I do know, if I don't know those words,
and speaking about that to a speaker of Swedish, or Croatian, or Chinese, or whatever language I'm learning.
So it just goes to show that even if you're surrounded by English
there are ways to practise the foreign language that you're learning
by using that English, especially when it's written in such a way
for people to understand, telling stories in this kind of tourist attraction.
Another great thing about visiting somewhere like this is that, very often, there are leaflets
that you can pick up, and sometimes these leaflets are even available in the language that you're learning.
So you can pick up the English one and the foreign language one and compare them at your leisure
sitting in the sunshine, or with a cup of coffee.
It doesn't matter what level you're at in the language;
you can always use this kind of activity to help you.
For example, if you've just started the language, then you can be thinking on a very basic level
at vocabulary level, where you're just thinking about the words for "tree"
or "lake" or "flower" or "cloud", or whatever.
If you're at a slightly more advanced level, then you can be thinking on a sentence level,
so, "there is a swan swimming on the lake"; "there are children playing in the fields".
If you are a bit further on, then you can be thinking about how you would relate what you've done
over the course of your visit to the place to someone else, and perhaps speak in past tenses,
using constructions that are that bit more complex.
And if you're at a much further level then you can be thinking about more idiomatic language,
for example, we're taking "a walk in the park", but we use the expression "a walk in the park" in English
to refer to something that's very easy. How do we say that in Spanish, for example?
It's a different idiom: we can talk about "es pan comido"
It's, literally "eaten bread", when something is "a piece of cake", or "a walk in the park".
So there are always different levels on which you can use this activity,
be it at a very basic level, or a much more advanced level.
It's time to leave Culzean. I hope you've enjoyed wandering around the park with me,
and that it's given you some ideas as to how you can use what's around you
to help you practise your languages, even if you're not
necessarily in the country where that language is spoken.
If you've enjoyed this video, please give it a like; we'd love to hear from you:
post your comments and let us know what your language-learning tips are!
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and if you'd like more language-learning content, tips and tricks
then you can subscribe to the Coffee Break Languages channel here on YouTube.
That's it for now: thanks for watching!