Peacecorp language learning manual

I found the Peacecorp manual for language learning* on the internet the other day. I downloaded it and gave it a read. The manual is filled with good language learning tips, and it is clear that it has been put together by people who have been through the process. It’s not too text heavy, and is pretty practical— there's very little in the way of linguistic theory which was a relief for me.

Developing a learning plan

The manual advises identifying areas of your life where you need to use your target language and developing a language learning plan for these topics. Basically, you should identify something like “sending parcels at the post office” or, like the example they use in the manual, “chatting with other teachers during your lunch break” and prepare for this situation by preping vocab, and developing a possible dialogue that you might have in that situation. You should go over this with a native speaker, the book advises, and practice the pronunciation, register, etc. before going into the situation itself and trying out what you have learnt.

This seems like a pretty sensible way to go about things, so I thought I’d give it a go. Recently, I decided to improve my apartment with a few plants, so I needed to go to a florists to but some flowers. I prepared some vocabulary and a dialogue, (I uploaded the dialogue to lang-8 and got some feedback through that site), then I visited the florists and it seemed to go pretty well. I got to use a few new words and managed to buy myself a nice Chinese Bellflower for my veranda.

Chinese Bellflower:the fruits of language learning

Anyway, I think this is a good tactic. What other areas should you prepare for when you are learning a foreign language? Here’s a list of 5 topics that I think should be top of any language learner’s list:

1. Getting a haircut
A personal one this. I’m not a big fan of getting my haircut, in any language, and I put off going to a proper barber for years in Japan because of this and wrote about it here. But worth the effort, and barbers / hairdressers are great for language practice!

2. Asking for directions
When you’re living abroad, you’re going to get lost sooner or later. (The first time I went to China it took me about 20 minutes. It only took me another 5 minutes or so to find out that your average shopkeeper in Beijing speaks no English whatsoever!) Essential!

3. Asking where stuff is in a supermarket.
This one is another personal one. I’ve a tendency not to ask for help until I’ve exhausted every possible aisle and nook and cranny of the supermarket. Would probably have saved myself a lot of time if I’d just worked out how to ask in the first place. Took me much longer than it should have.

4. Ordering in a restaurant
Pretty obvious and always a favourite of beginner textbooks. But we’ve all gotta eat. This one will get a lot of use. It’s very easy to pick up food ordering language when you live where your target language is spoken, but I think it’s a good idea to cover it anyway, just to make sure you’re getting it right and the waiter isn’t just nodding politely at your dodgy language skills.

5. Telling your favorite story / joke
I’m not a big fan of people who bring prepared stories to the dinner table to be honest, but I don’t think it can hurt to think about a couple of stories that you’ve told in the past and think about how you might go about telling those in a foreign language— you could look up the vocabulary at least I guess.


So to sum up, I think this manual is pretty interesting. The only problem for me is is that it's clearly written for people who have a lot more time to devote to their studies than me. It is time consuming to put these learning plans into action, and is not something I can see myself doing on a regular basis (unless I can get into the habit I suppose).

How about you? When or Where do you think you need to set up a learning plan for? Have you done this kind of thing before?

*I've lost the link for this unfortunately, but I can email the pdf to anyone who's interested in getting it. Just leave a comment below. Or send a direct message to my twitter account.