So you’re not from a bilingual family and you live in a monolingual area where there’s no one who speaks the language you’re learning, you can still learn a new language.

Aaron Myers and I had a recorded Skype conversation about how “everyday” people can speak a new language when they don’t have the advantages I did of growing up speaking another language at home and hearing many languages around me. Aaron grew up in a rural area of the United States, far from the big cities where one may hear various languages spoken on one street block.

Listen to his advice on how to learn foreign languages from home.

La “r” en inglés es distincta a la “r” en español.

Como pronunciar la “r” en inglés mediante la canción “Cry me a river” de Ella Fitzgerald. Canto un segmento de la canción en inglés y en español (Llorame un río).

Mediante la canción “Crazy” de Patsy Cline, se puede aprender como diferenciar entre la “s” y la “z” en inglés.

In this video interview, Aaron Myers, an expat from the US who has been raising two children in Istanbul for over four years gives advice about how to raise kids in a different country and maintain two languages.

Do you want to know what the Brazilian Portuguese words “nossa”, “balada”, “pegar”, and “galera” mean?

Do you want to distinguish the words “mas” and “mais” and not confuse them?

You can learn those lessons in the latest music video that Luciana Lage of Street Smart Brazil and I made using the super popular Brazilian pop song, Ai, Se Eu Te Pego! by Michel Teló. We explain the meaning of the song, the words that confuse Spanish speakers and some Brazilian idioms.

The song is all over Spanish language radio in the US and is a major hit worldwide.

Follow along with the lyrics of the song.

Aprendi português ouvindo a radio portuguesa e cancoes brasileiras. Sei que e posivel aprender uma nova lingua sem viver no pais onde se fala a lingua. Eu nunca morei em um pais que fala a lingua portuguesa mas, eu falo o português. Falo 7 línguas (ruso, francês, espanhol, italiano, serbo croata, português e inglês).

Nesse vídeo, vou utilizar uns pedaços de uma canção americana para te mostrar como uma canção pode te ajudar com a gramática e pronuncia inglesa.

Compreendi depois de ler o livro, Musicophilia, de neurologista Oliver Sacks, que eu ouvia as línguas como música. Quero ajudar outras pessoas à aprender línguas com bons sotaques utilizando a música e outros meios pra suplementar as suas aulas de línguas.

Estou procurando uma editora ou alguma instituição de ensino que se interesse em traduzir o meu livro e queira publicá-lo no Brasil. Acho que o tema é muito interessante para o povo brasileiro porque a música faz uma parte importante na vida dos brasileiros e as minhas dicas poderia ajudá-los à aprender inglês ou outros idiomas. Também gostaria de ajuda para fazer outros videos, como esse, pra ajudar aos brasileiros à aprender inglês com músicas.

Caso esteja interessado, envie um email para info@kaleidomundi.com.

Here is the second part of my conversation with Aaron Myers of Everyday Language Learner, an expat from the United States who has been living in Istanbul for over four years. We met in November 2011 near in Istanbul, where he told me about some difficulties and advantages of learning Turkish as an English speaker. We spoke again in March 2012 by Skype and I recorded our conversation so that others interested in how to learn Turkish could benefit from his experience.

Here is the segment of our conversation about how to learn Turkish:

I often hear these excuses: “I have no ear for languages” or “I don’t have any musical talent, so I can’t learn a foreign language”.

WRONG!

Here is a very short video I did on Spanish language television (with English subtitles) about how my deaf German friend learned English with the help of the flute. You don’t have to be musically talented to learn foreign languages. If a deaf woman can speak a foreign language, then there’s no excuse for the rest of us to not learn a new language!

Press the “CC” button for English subtitles.

Aaron Myers and I met in Istanbul, Turkey in November 2011. Aaron Meyers has created his project, I-586, to bring free language learning materials to people in languages other than English since so many language learning materials online are only available in English.

Here’s the portion of our Skype call about how he wants to help people worldwide have access to language learning materials for free. Later, I will post the sections of our call dealing with tips to learning Turkish, how to raise kids abroad and advice for “everyday” people who want to learn a new language.

Jon Stewart of The Daily Show made a funny and correct assessment of why Russian speakers sound “evil” in English, although they may not have any bad intentions.

“I wonder if Russia has been our (US) enemy for so many years because everything they say just sounds evil. Maybe it’s all been a misunderstanding of tone and syntax,” comedian Jon Stewart comments on Russian President Medvedev’s statement to President Obama at the recent nuclear summit in South Korea. (The two leaders thought their microphones weren’t on.)

Unfortunately, Russian speakers can sound very harsh in English, especially when they don’t use the definite and indefinite articles correctly and say “I want apple” instead of “I want an apple”. This is why paying attention to details and getting into the music and flow of your target language is important, or else you may sound like a Neanderthal without realizing it.

Before anyone accuses me of being anti-Russian, let it be known that I’m a native Russian speaker and I know all to well how Russian speakers sound like to English ears. I’ve witnessed more misunderstanding and miscommunications between Americans and Russians than I care to remember precisely because of the directness of Russian speakers in the way they communicate in English and their incorrect usage of the English language.