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Learning with Native Speakers: Language Tandem Possibilities
Learning with a native speaker is the culmination of your personal language studies. In the Internet age, there is no longer any dependency on native speakers available locally.
Powerful communication methods are available to you for a distance language tandem: Teletyping, PC telephony, video telephony, and the exchange of e-mails and read aloud texts in the form of sound files. If you do not have your own Internet connection, prepare your texts and sound files at home, take them with you to a USB memory device and then send them to an Internet café (or a comparable facility), where you can also make PC calls and video calls as standard.
A large number of possible language partners are available via the Internet, and there are also numerous specialized communication platforms on the subject of language. Finding the right language partner, however, requires a holistic inner attunement, which must be preceded by a detailed list of personal (filter) criteria if one does not want to waste unnecessary time in the search. Both aspects will be discussed in chapters 5 and 6 which will be published later*. This chapter assumes that you have already found a suitable language partner.
In the following, all basic aspects of a language tandem on site and via the Internet will be discussed.
* Chapters 5 and 6 will probably appear in the course of 2021. (omitted)
Learning Partnerships (Tandem)
4.1.1 Preparation and Conduct of a
Meeting on Site or on the Net
4.1.1.1 General Aspects
4.1.1.2 Time Coordination for
Meetings via the Internet
4.2 Pronunciation Optimization through
Reading aloud
4.3 Recording Texts on the Computer
4.4 Correcting Written Texts
4.5 Translating together with and
without a Computer
4.6 Direct Corrections during Meetings
and Walks
4.7 Conversation Training and Preparation
of Presentations, Language and Volksgeist
4.8 Creation of a list of places of interest
and excursion destination and video
film list to your hometown
4.9 Foreword to Chapter 5
A language learning partnership, also called a language tandem, is a two-person learning unit consisting of native speakers (first language). Its goal is mutual support in the context of the development and expansion of language skills and abilities. The competence of native speakers enables a mutual check on natural language skills.
Meetings should take place at least once a week, for two hours each, with one hour reserved for each language partner. For shorter or longer meetings, a 50:50 time schedule should always be observed.
Meetings can be held on site or via the Internet. Public places with seating and writing facilities are ideal, e.g. library areas with seating groups and tables, and cafés and restaurants with sufficiently large tables.
From the very beginning, make sure that you have a balanced give and take. There are highly reputable language learners who will call you at 06:00 a.m. if your appointment is unavoidably cancelled or postponed, so that you have enough time to re-arrange your daily schedule. Still others try in a parasitic way to claim advance services until their work is completed. Such character factors can only be estimated in advance to a limited extent. The preparatory search for and selection of a suitable language partner is a holistic undertaking which will be described in detail in Chapter 5 and in Chapter 6.(omitted) Always pay attention to a 50:50 time division ratio, make a note of the hours if you go in advance or if you are granted advance payment.
When meeting over the Internet, two time differences must be taken into account, Standard time and daylight saving time (summer time). The time at a particular location can be obtained directly by entering the name of the location and “time”, e.g: Pasadena Texas time. Many place names occur more than once, even within a nation, you may need to enter additional information, such as country and state. Many Internet services are dedicated to the topic of time differences.
Find out about “Greenwich Mean Time”, GMT (and the term “UTC”) For example, enter as a search term: [Your town] Time GMT. For example: Freiburg i.Br. Germany GMT. You will then see the difference between your time zone and GMT. For communication with U.S.A. pen pals, you can also take the Standard Central Time as a reference point and read it via time.is, for example, to calculate the difference to your local time.
To avoid date misunderstandings, please note that the summer time changeover has been abolished in some countries (for example, Russia) and that it takes place at different times elsewhere.
In Texas (USA), the change to daylight saving time takes place at a different time than in Germany. If you do not observe this, your language learning partner might assume that you are not on time.
Prepare your text and meet with your language partner in a suitable place, e.g. on a park bench.
Now read your text over and over again and have your (mother) language partner correct it and give detailed recommendations for pronunciation optimization. This procedure is one of the most effective learning methods.
Make recordings for yourself or for your language learning partner. If your language learning partner has a book (or a text) written in your target language (e.g. English) that deals with or teaches your mother tongue (e.g. German), you could record individual chapters and send the respective sound file by e-mail.
Create reference texts for your language partner, read to her texts written in your mother tongue. Larger text units can be joined together in two ways. Recordings can be paused and then continued, or separate recordings can be made and later merged.
Finished sound files can also be compressed, for example in MP3 format. If the recording files are very
large, it is recommended to upload them to a (free) file service provider so that your language learning partner can download them from there afterwards (also works with encrypted files). For more information, see ection 1.10.1 File Hosting Services. This is recommended when you have a certain amount of files; check with your email service provider for file size restrictions.
You can also record texts in your target language yourself and listen carefully to them to identify pronunciation optimization needs.
Depending on the level of audio compression, distortions (falsifications) could occur, this also applies to compressed PC telephone calls. The frequency range of classic analogue telephony technology may also lead to the loss of certain subtleties.
When correcting word processing documents on the computer, one or more corrections or options and suggestions can be written in inserted blank lines and, for better differentiation, be kept in italics or in color throughout. Corrected versions of erroneous word or sentence elements may also be highlighted in bold.
Educational institutions such as universities usually give binding guidelines for correction (interline), for example a line spacing of 1 ½ lines for term papers.
Naturally, many good text design or improvement ideas only appear in the mind after the meeting has taken place. Write down these ideas and communicate them to your language partner as soon as possible. Ideally, of course, you should have the opportunity and time to read through the text in advance.
Read the section 3.3, “Methods of Translation Optimization”. Always keep several online dictionaries open at the same time, in separate tabs, so that you can make term queries for several services if necessary.
You can easily switch between the individual opened application programs with the key combination ALT + TAB.
Within your browser, you can switch between the individual tabs at the touch of a button, under Firefox with (CTRL + TAB), under Chrome or Chromium also with CTRL + Tab, as well as under Microsoft Edge.
The joint translation on site or via the Internet enables direct enquiries to be made in the event of uncertainties or possible ambiguities, as well as an immediate check for natural language.
Some programs offer an online whiteboard functionality with which one can draw and write on a common surface during PC telephone calls or telex dialogues.
Always correct your language partner immediately and sharply, right from the start. Example: You're going for a walk and your partner uses a wrong article: “Guck, das schöne Baum.” – “Guck, der schöne Baum!” Correct whole sentences and have your language partner repeat them. Present several possible formulations depending on the situation; pay attention to the correct stress (within) the words
Naturally, there are local and regional differences in this respect, but supraregional tendencies often prevail.
Always carry a mini-notepad or piece of paper to write down words and phrases.
Often, recommendations and suggestions about a discussed text emerge into consciousness with a time lag after the respective meeting; they are worth recording and forwarding to the language partner.
Simulate conversations with conversation partners and presentations with listeners (asking questions, digging in), in your native language and your target language, to determine which words and phrases you need to look up.
Depending on the audience, it requires different comprehensive paraphrases or detours to convey thought processes. Many a German word or linguistic concept, for example, can only be presented in English to a limited extent or not at all. Learning the original language is advantageous when too many facts and concepts are not translatable, but the understanding of a certain (complete) work is strived for as a serious goal.
In some regions of the world there was no external (geophysical) necessity to extend the respective vocabulary by abstract concepts. Consequently, abstract, i.e. non-objective (tangible) facts could (or can) be described in these languages or dialects only to a limited extent or not at all.
Farmers of the colder regions of the earth, for example, were forced to move incessantly along the abstract timeline, practicing basic mathematics: “When should I sow, how much should I sow, when should I harvest?” “What was the weather like this time of year last year?” “What if there was a storm tomorrow?” In general, “What if?” If you can't think your way into the future in a time-based way (or if you are socially underdeveloped), then you drop your garbage on the spot (living and acting as if there is no tomorrow). Time-based thinking allows you to look into the future: what if everyone dropped their garbage in place? Then everything would litter.
In colder regions, an expansion of the language was absolutely necessary in order to be able to express non-physical (time) concepts, to be able to plan ahead and to be able to record mathematical facts (quantities, quantity operations [less, more, etc.]) as well as to record precise spatial locations in language. Protection from the cold and the systematic, planned stockpiling of food, which was essential for survival, forced the development of manual and technological skills. Where these environmental necessities of action prevailed, they led to a precipitation of abstract and mathematical linguistic concepts.
Also abstract concepts like gratitude presuppose the ability to move or to remember on an imagined time axis, to be able to remember a point of time in the past during which good/beneficial things happened to one, by a certain person. Unconscious, i.e. “politically correct” educated people are not aware of these factors and project their own cultural ways of thinking and views onto other cultural groups.
Change and development are of course ongoing, worldwide, but the factors mentioned have had or are having a strong influence on linguistic expression. An American philosophy professor documented these aspects in detail in the linguistic frame of reference, in the Amren article “Racial Differences in Morality and Abstract Thinking”, Gedaliah Braun, February 2009. German translation on Morgenwacht, first published on As der Schwerter: “Moral und abstraktes Denken”.
Where mental processes make it necessary, language spaces are expanded, the linguistic expressiveness, the mightiness of a language, the linguistic power grows. Therefore, with increasing awareness, the FRG-final-phase written German will not last in the long run, since it is only a strongly deformed subset of the actual written German.
The Volksgeist.
There are different interpretations of the term Volksgeist,
see among others the related German-language article of the culture and science encyclopedia
Metapedia*
and the German WP article “Volksgeist”
resp. the section of the English WP article “Geist”.
[*] de.metapedia.org/wiki/Volksgeist
According to Rudolf Steiner, peoples and languages are also shaped by Volksgeister (consciousness folk spirits), according to his description, these are consciousnesses (archangels) assigned to the respective people, which stimulate them, fire them, to deal with certain topics, usually over centuries (see, among other things, (“Die Mission einzelner Volksseelen”, [“The Mission of Individual Folk Souls”]). The realizations won thereby in the different peoples are given to the entire mankind. Central information to this topic can be found in the Youtube channel of Axel Burkart, among other things in the German lectures “Die spirituelle Aufgabe Mitteleuropas - Teil 7” and “Die spirituelle Aufgabe Mitteleuropas - Teil 6”. Of course, these aspects are also reflected in the essence of the respective language.
As a local resident, you know about the most beautiful places and sights of your home. Create and expand a list or text file little by little, which you can optionally publish on the Internet.
List excursion destinations and places of interest and search the Internet, e.g. on Youtube, for video films about the places you describe.
Your language learning partner will know in advance about special destinations, and she can later refer to impressive video films about places she has visited. Use the great video impressions already created and published by other local people as well as tourists to create a comprehensive link list of special movies.
If you use a word processing file (e.g. with LibreOffice), you can insert hyperlinks to the location topic pages and to the video films and then export the whole document as a PDF file. You can then send this to your language learning partner by e-mail, or publish it on the Internet. When you click on hyperlinks in the text or PDF document, an Internet browser automatically opens in the background to load the relevant web page.
Example of a collection of excursion destinations, theme pages and video films about Freiburg i.Br.: “Freiburg Excursion Destinations and Film Recommendations”.
The consideration of internal reality structures proves to be very beneficial in finding a suitable language learning partner. The concepts presented in Chapter 5 are of a worldview nature and may or may not resonate with the readers' worldview.
Superficial approaches to language learning partner search risk wasting huge amounts of time. The authenticity of profiles on language learning sites is not externally verifiable. Some participants claim to be native speakers, even though they are merely passport-Americans, passport-British, passport-Germans, etc., and are not native to the original primary (supra-regional) vocabulary of the respective country, merely have a geopolitical reference, but no native location in the folk soul of the locals. [1][2] When they put thoughts into words, they think in another mother tongue, in another primary vocabulary, belonging to another folk soul; accordingly colored/shaped are formulation, accent and tone melody. In principle, it is certainly possible to formulate several languages naturally and to speak without accent, if there is interest and appropriate learning effort, but probably not by default.
The destroyers of nations and peoples have systematically and forcibly brought about the presently still prevailing state of affairs, so that formal passport holders (in reality company construct affiliation proofs, since unchanged maritime commercial law prevails)[3] no longer have any significance whatsoever with regard to mother tongue competence.
Since all areas of life are interwoven and interconnected, deeper conversations about world events automatically bring out the worldview and political views of the conversation partners. Here, too many diametrically opposed views may prevail.
Such factors cannot be foreseen in an external approach, just as character traits cannot: some language interested people are highly accurate and pay attention to a balanced give and take. Others, on the other hand, exhibit a parasitic nature and request advance payment until they have completed their language work (translation corrections, etc.). A holistic approach is therefore the most effective way to find a suitable language learning partner.
A large part of the concepts described here is based on Jane Robert's Seth material[4], although some aspects have been simplified by the site owner and of course have already been described by a wide variety of authors, past, present and future.[5] Illustrative reference is made to feature films, TV movies and cartoons of the past 70 years, some of which contain excellent introductions to the relevant issues. Numerous authors of the past knew or know about basic reality structures and describe them directly or indirectly in texts and films.
Building on the communication concepts presented here, Chapter 6 will propose an exemplary, holistic “guide” to finding a suitable language learning partner.
[1] English WP article “Heimat”
[2] German WP article “Heimat”
https://de.metapedia.org/wiki/Heimat
[3] In German: “Geschäftswerdung der Welt- USA” (July 04, 2013), Youtube channel “Conrebbi”.
[4] The Seth material, like countless other texts from the Anglosphere, contains the usual anti-German historical lies, which cannot be discussed in detail here, due to the ban on discussion and defense dictated by force by the occupying powers. The attunement to these is possibly based in unscrupulous marketing opportunism on the part of Seth, Jane Roberts and Robert Butts and/or by (((pressure groups))). The remaining 99.99% of the Seth material is nevertheless of the highest quality.
[5] All levels of time and probability exist simultaneously, but not in the sense of predetermination, as patterns of interpretation and language based on linear-time perception may erroneously lead us to believe; creativity and development are not static and never end.
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