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这是 Alexandre Coutu 写的。如果你会说法语，我推荐他的书《Le Québécois en 10 leçons》。

如果没有实际的对话，是很难或者说是几乎不可能来提高外语的对话能力。 然而，对话可能会是很可怕的，特别是刚开始时。幸运的是有一种方法可以帮助你在说话的时候获得自信：自我对话。你可以随时随地来练习自我对话，即时在你不能找到伙伴或者教练来帮助你的时候。

1. 挑一个故事。挑一个你想讲的故事，它可以是一则报纸上的文章，一个电视节目，一本书的章节，一部电影等等，或者甚至是你生活中发生的事。请确保你的故事包含足够的细节。

2. 理解这个故事。阅读这个故事或者观看视频。注意重要的词语并写下那些你可能会用到的。你可能会对故事中展开的事件来做些笔记，这样做可以帮助你来记住后来你需要讲的内容。

3. 使用自我对话的方式用你自己的话来讲这个故事。（自我对话是这个练习过程中最重要的一部分，你比寻完全只使用口头的方式—不要写下任何的东西）。到了你讲故事的时间了！假装你是对着一个朋友或是一个听众，并确保你说得清楚明白。最好是大声的讲，但是你也可以低声地甚至只是默念，但是最好是发出声音。如果你能多使用一些复杂的句子，请尽量这样做。在你需要表达你自己的时候，你可以随便使用字典甚至是语法书来查询你所需要表达意思的词汇，并把那些资料用到你所讲的故事中。假装你是使用你的母语，并使用你所听到的说这种母语的人所使用的表达方式。不要担心不知不觉中犯错误，这种练习时为了提高流利程度和自信。

4. 改进你的发音。当你在讲故事时犹豫，停止或者暂停的时候，完成你的短语或句子，然后从头开始。不断地重复，可能会需要重复很多次，知道整个句子感觉很舒服并且你对结果感到高兴。这个目标是同时提供流利程度和发音，所以不停地练习这个知道你感到满意。这个部分的联系是非常必要的，因为这种重复的方式在现实生活中是不可能的，只有在你一个人的时候才可以做。请确保使用字典或者在线查询任何你不能确定的发音，或者是询问一个讲这种母语的人，并在重复的时候将这个新的信息融入进去。

5. 把这个故事讲给一个现场观众。如果你有一个语言训练搭档或者教练，向他们当面讲述这个故事是这个练习最有效的方式。允许你自己来重复你不满意的部分或者句子。如果你的搭档看起来不确定，你就用不同的词语来重新解释一下，或者用不同的表达方式，然后询问他们喜欢那种表达方式。你也让他们来就你所讲的故事来提问。请一定告诉他们你希望得到他们的更正，以便利用你得到的更正来重新组织句子。重复那些发音被更正的词语，并注意你的搭档是如何组织你所讲的内容；这将有助于你找到更多自然的语言来表达你自己。不要害怕出错，你不出错的话你将没有机会来更正。

Ceci est un article d’Alexandre Coutu, le polyglotte et traducteur qui vient de publier le cours excellent “Le Québécois en 10 leçons”. Traduction par Judith Meyer.

Il est difficile – voire impossible – de développer sa capacité à parler couramment dans des langues étrangères sans en fait avoir de conversations. Or il peut être angoissant d’avoir une conversation dans une autre langue, surtout au début. Heureusement, il y a une méthode pour vous aider à prendre confiance: le self-talk. Faites-le partout et aussi souvent que possible, même si vous n’avez pas de partenaire pour vous assiste.

1. Choisissez une histoire que vous allez raconter. Cela peut être un article de journal, une émission de télé, un chapitre de livre, un film ou même quelque chose qui vous est arrivé. Assurez-vous que votre histoire contient assez de détails.

2. Comprenez l’histoire. Lisez-la ou regardez la vidéo. Cherchez des mots-clés dans le dictionnaire et notez ceux dont vous pourriez avoir besoin. Il est parfois utile de noter les évènements à mésure qu’ils se déroulent; cela vous aidera plus tard à vous souvenir de ce que vous voulez raconter.

3. Utilisez le self-talk pour raconter l’histoire avec vos propres mots. (Le self-talk est la partie la plus importante de l’exercice et il faut le faire à l’oral – ne notez rien!) Le temps est maintenant venu de raconter votre histoire. Faites comme si vous étiez en train de parler à un ami et assurez-vous de parler clairement. Il est préférable de le faire à voix haute, mais vous pourriez aussi le faire à voix basse ou même en silence, bien qu’il soit préférable de bouger les lèvres pour former les sons. N’hésitez pas de construire de phrases plus complexes si vous pouvez. Vous pouvez faire référence à un dictionnaire ou même des livres de grammaire s’il est nécessaire. Faites comme si vous étiez locuteur natif et utilisez des expressions et des intonations que vous avez entendues de la part de locuteurs natifs. Ne vous inquiétez pas au sujet des erreurs; cet exercice est pour améliorer votre confiance et votre capacité à parler couramment.

4. Polissez votre prononciation. Chaque fois que vous hésitez, arrêtez ou pausez en racontant votre histoire, terminez votre phrase et puis reprenez-la depuis le début. Répétez-la autant de fois qu’il est nécessaire jusqu’à ce que la phrase complète soit confortable à dire et que vous soyez satisfait des résultats. Cette partie de l’exercice est essentielle parce que vous ne pouvez pas vous répéter de cette façon en parlant avec d’autres; ce n’est possible que quand vous êtes seuls. Si vous avez des doutes, notamment au sujet de la prononciation, cherchez la réponse dans un dictionnaire ou demandez à un locuteur natif et puis répetez la phrase en intégrant ce que vous aurez appris.

5. Racontez l’histoire à un auditoire réel. La plus puissante conclusion à cet exercice est de raconter l’histoire à un prof ou à un partenaire de langue. Permettez-vous de répéter une partie ou une phrase si vous n’en êtes pas satisfait. Si votre partenaire semble douter, expliquez-vous de nouveau en utilisant des mots différents ou en disant les choses différemment et demandez-lui ce qu’il préfère. Permettez-lui de vous poser des questions au sujet de votre histoire. Dites-lui que vous désirez recevoir ses corrections et refaites vos phrases en intégrant toute correction que vous recevez. Répétez des mots dont la prononciation a été corrigée. Faites bien attention à la façon dont votre partenaire refait les phrases que vous dites: ceci vous aidera à trouver une façon plus naturelle de vous exprimer. Et n’ayez pas peur de faire des erreurs; vous ne pouvez pas corriger vos erreurs si vous n’en faites aucun.

This is a guest post by Alexandre Coutu, the polyglot and translator who recently published the excellent course “Le Québécois en 10 leçons”.

A tip: read this article in your target language by clicking on one of the flags above!

It is hard and next to impossible to develop conversational ability in foreign languages without actually having conversations. However, conversations can be scary, especially at the start. Fortunately there is a method to help you gain confidence when speaking: self-talk. Do it anywhere you can and as often as you can, even if you can’t find a partner or tutor to assist you. 

1. Choose a story. Pick a story you want to tell. It can be a newspaper article, a TV show, a book chapter, a movie, etc., or even something that happened in your life. Make sure your story contains sufficient details. 

2. Understand the story. Read the story or watch the video. Look up important words and write down the ones you think you might use. You might want to take notes of the events in the story as they unfold; this will later help you remember what you need to talk about. 

3. Use self-talk to tell the story in your own words. (Self-talk is the most important part of the exercise and you must do it orally only – do not write anything down!) It’s now time to tell your story! Pretend you are talking to a friend or an audience and make sure you speak clearly. It’s preferable to do this out loud, but you can also do it in a low voice or even in silence, although it’s best if you actually move your lips to form the sounds. Don’t hesitate to make more complex sentences if you can. You can use the dictionary all you want to look up words you need to express yourself, or even grammar books, if needed, and try to use that information in your story. Pretend to be a native speaker and use expressions and intonations you’ve heard native speakers use. Don’t worry about making mistakes unknowingly; this exercise is about improving fluency and confidence. 

4. Polish your pronunciation. Whenever you hesitate, stop or pause as you tell your story, finish your phrase or sentence and start again from the beginning. Repeat it over and over, however many times you need, until the entire sentence feels relatively comfortable and you are happy with the results. The goal is to improve both fluency and pronunciation, so do this until you are satisfied. This part of the exercise is essential because repeating this way is impossible in real life and can only be done when you are alone. Make sure you look up any pronunciation you are unsure about in a dictionary or online, or else ask a native speaker, and integrate that new information when you repeat. 

5. Tell the story to a live audience. If you have a language partner or tutor, telling them your story in person is the most powerful conclusion to this exercise. Allow yourself to repeat a part or a sentence you weren’t satisfied with. If your partner looks unsure, take the lead and explain yourself again with different words, or say things in different ways and ask them which they prefer. Let them also ask you questions about your story. Be sure to tell them that you want their corrections, and rebuild your sentences integrating any correction you receive. Repeat words whose pronunciation was corrected. Pay close attention to how your partner rephrases what you say: this will help you find more natural language to express yourself. And don’t be afraid to make mistakes; you can’t correct them unless you make them.

A lot of people ask me whether they ought to learn Chinese or Japanese, and a key question for them is which one is harder. I don’t believe that difficulty should be a big factor in the equation unless the language is your first foreign language and you need quick success. It is much more important that you’re interested in the culture and that you see yourself using the language in the future. However, for what it’s worth, here’s a detailed comparison of Chinese and Japanese in terms of difficulty.

Note: I know enough Chinese to read modern novels in it and I started learning Japanese in August 2012. This means my Japanese is still weaker, but I don’t think that has influenced me unduly. If you disagree, write me.

So, without further ado…

Harder in Japanese
* Spoken language. In spoken Japanese, as in many languages, a lot of syllables get dropped, while Chinese speakers usually have amazingly clear pronunciation. When had just learned Chinese for half a year, I would sit on a bus near some Chinese students talking to each other and I could have written down every word they said (in Pinyin and sometimes unsure of the tone). I was far from understanding any of it of course, but still.
* Writing system. In Chinese you need 3000+ characters for basic reading fluency as opposed to Japanese's 2100+, but at that level learning some more characters is not really hard, everything is a rehash of parts you had before. What makes Japanese harder is that every character has multiple pronunciations. Also, Japanese characters have more strokes than simplified Chinese characters. Finally, I find it much harder to memorize the Hiragana and Katakana compared to memorizing an equal amount of Chinese characters because the Hiragana & Katakana are random wiggly lines while Chinese characters have meaning and can at least partly be derived.
* Vagueness. A lot of things are left unspecified. Chinese can do that, too, especially in literary language, but it's less common.
* Politeness. This is a non-topic in Chinese.
* Word order. As others have pointed out, Japanese word order is less like English word order, while Chinese tends to be similar. Actually, Chinese word order is very much like German word order, because we also like to put adverbials at the beginning of a phrase.
* Grammar. As someone who has studied Latin, there is nothing I'd recognize as grammar study in Chinese.
* Measure words. In both Japanese and Chinese you have to remember which measure word goes with which noun. In Japanese however, the measure word can also modify the number, so that you have to learn different words for each number and choose the right one depending on context.

Harder in Chinese
* Pronunciation. Contrary to what a lot of people think, it's not so hard to learn the tones; I've taught people in less than two hours. Recognizing the tones is also not so difficult. However, it is hard to remember which tone goes with which syllable, and it is hard to apply that knowledge when talking at normal speed. Also, distinctions like q / ch, j / zh and consonants like r and x are hard for beginners.
* Vocabulary. Chinese has less loan words from other languages, and there's the matter of memorizing the tone with every syllable, and the character. Japanese words can be longer, which makes them a bit harder to remember, but not enough to make up for this imho.

Equally hard in both
* Relative clauses, possibly the most counter-intuitive grammar chapter for a European
* 4-character idioms (Chengyu / Yojijukugo)

(I originally posted this on Quora at What makes Japanese a harder language to learn than Chinese, but Quora is now becoming a walled garden that requires people to register before they can read answers such as these, so I’m re-posting it here.)

Εδώ και μερικά χρόνια, είχα ταξιδέψει στη Λιθουανία για ένα συνέδριο. Το συνέδριο ήταν στο Κάουνας, τη δευτέρη μεγάλύτερη πόλη της Λιθουανίας. Αν και η γλώσσα του συνεδρίου ήταν η Εσπεράντο, δεν μ’αρέσει να ταξιδεύω χωρίς να ξέρω τη γλώσσα της χώρας, γι’αυτό έμαθα λίγα λιθουανικά πριν από το ταξίδι, ίσως έμαθα διακόσιες λέξεις. Από τη στιγμή που έφτασα στο αεροδρόμιο του Κάουνας μέχρι το τέλος του συνεδρίου δεν μίλουσα ούτε λέξη λιθουανικά, γιατί ήμουν συνέχεια ανάμεσα σε άλλους συμμετέχοντες. Την τελευταία ημέρα, μου εξηγούν ποιο λεωφορείο θα έπρεπε να πάρω για το αεροδρόμιο και μου εξηγούν πού θα έβρισκα την στάση του λεωφορείου. Αλλά όταν έφτασα εκεί, βρήκα ότι γινόταν κατασκευαστικές εργασίες και τα λεωφορεία δεν μπορούσαν να φτάσουν εκεί. Τι έπρεπε να κάνω;

Προσπάθησα να μιλήσω με τον κόσμο και να τους ρωτήσω πώς μπορώ να πάω στο αεροδρόμιο. Προσπάθησα στα αγγλικά, στα γερμανικά, στα γαλλικά, αλλά κανείς δεν μου κατάλαβε. Ίσως θα καταλάβαιναν ρωσικά, μα εγώ δεν τα είχα μάθει. Τελικά χρησιμοποιούσα τις λίγες λέξεις από λιθουανικά που ήξερα και κατάλαβαν ότι έψαχνα το λεωφορείο για το αεροδρόμιο. Δεν κατάλαβα την απάντησή τους, αλλά ακολούθησα τις χειρονομίες τους. Ρωτώντας “Μέχρι το αεροδρόμιο;” στα λιθουανικά αρκετές φορές, κατάφερα να βρω την στάση του λεωφορείου, να αναγνωρίσω τον σωστό λεωφορείο και να φτάσω στο αεροδρόμιο εγκαίρως για την πτήση μου. Οι μερικές λέξεις από τα λιθουανικά μου εξοικονόμησαν πολλά χρήματα, γιατί δεν έπρεπε να αγοράσω άλλο εισιτήριο πτήσης. Γι’αυτό σας συμβουλεύω να μάθετε λίγες ξένες γλώσσες πριν να ταξιδέψετε στον εξωτερικό. Δεν μπρορούμε να βασιζόμαστε στο ότι οι άλλοι θα ήξεραν καλά ξένες γλώσσες.

我去立陶宛参加过一届会议。我去的是考那斯，立陶宛的第二大城市。会议是用世界语的，可是我不喜欢去一个国家而不学习一点儿它的语言。所以我出国以前学了一点儿立陶宛语，大概二百个词。从到考那斯机场到会议的最后一天，一句立陶宛语都没说，因为我总是跟会议人在一起。最后一天他们对我解释到机场应该坐哪辆公共汽车，又解释车站在哪儿。但是我去车站的时候，注意到了有工程，公共汽车不会来。我该怎么办呢？

我试试跟当地人说话问他们怎么到机场。我说英语，德语，法语，他们都不懂。可能他们学过俄语，可是我没有学过。最后我用我的学的几个立陶宛语的词语让他们明白了我的问题。但我不是明白他们的回答，只好按他们的手势走路。我常用“到机场吗？”这样的句子找到了车站，也找到了正确的一辆公共汽车，按时到机场，赶上了我的飞机。我学的几个立陶宛语的词语让我省了很多钱，不必买另一张飞机票。因此，我想劝告你准备旅行时一定要学一点儿当地的语言。

Il y a quelques années, je suis allée en Lituanie pour assister à un séminaire sur les technologies Web. La ville où le séminaire avait lieu s’appelait Kaunas; c’est la deuxième plus grande ville de Lituanie. Le séminaire était en espéranto, mais je n’aime pas visiter un pays sans en connaître un peu la langue, alors j’ai appris un peu de lituanien avant de partir, peut-être 200 mots. De la minute où je suis arrivée à l’aéroport de Kaunas jusqu’à la fin du séminaire, je n’ai pas eu l’occasion de parler un seul mot de lituanien, parce que j’étais toujours avec les autres participants du séminaire. Le dernier jour, ils m’ont expliqué quel autobus je devrais prendre pour aller à l’aéroport et ils m’ont expliqué où je trouverais l’arrêt d’autobus. Seulement quand j’y suis arrivée, il y avait des travaux de construction et les autobus ne pouvaient pas se rendre à cet arrêt. Qu’est-ce que j’allais faire?

J’ai essayé de parler aux gens pour leur demander comment aller à l’aéroport. J’ai essayé l’anglais, l’allemand, le français, mais personne ne m’a comprise. Peut-être auraient-ils compris le russe, mais moi je ne l’avais pas étudié. Finalement, j’ai utilisé ces quelques mots de lituanien que je connaissais pour leur faire comprendre que je cherchais l’autobus pour l’aéroport. Comme je n’avais pas compris leur réponse, j’ai suivi leurs gestes. En utilisant des phrases comme “À l’aéroport?” à plusieurs reprises, j’ai réussi à trouver l’arrêt d’autobus, à identifier le bon autobus et à me rendre à l’aéroport à temps pour mon vol. Ces quelques mots de lituanien m’ont épargné beaucoup d’argent, autrement j’aurais dû acheter un autre billet d’avion. Pour cette raison, je vous conseille tous d’apprendre un peu de la langue avant de visiter un pays étranger. On ne peut pas compter sur le fait que d’autres auront appris des langues étrangères et les sauront assez bien pour vous aider.

Some years ago, I went to Lithuania for a seminar on web technologies. The city where the seminar took place was Kaunas, the second largest city in Lithuania. I knew the seminar would be in Esperanto, but I don’t like to visit a country without knowing a bit of the language, so I learned some Lithuanian before setting out, maybe 200 words. From the moment I set foot in Kaunas airport until the last day of the seminar I didn’t use a single word that I had learned, because I was always with other participants of the seminar. On the last day, they explained to me which bus I had to take to the airport and how to find the bus stop. Except when I arrived at the stop, I found that there was construction work going on and the busses couldn’t go there. What next?

I tried to talk to locals in order to ask them how to get to the airport. I tried English, German, French, but nobody understood me. Maybe they would have understood Russian, but I had never studied Russian. Finally, I used the few words of Lithuanian that I knew in order to make them understand that I was looking for the bus to the airport. I did not understand their answers, but I was able to follow their gestures. By using phrases like “To the airport?” (in Lithuanian), I was able to first find the bus stop, identify the right bus and arrive at the airport in time for my flight. These few words of Lithuanian saved me a lot of money, because otherwise I would have had to buy another flight ticket. That’s why I recommend anyone to study a bit of the local language before embarking on a trip abroad. One cannot expect that others will have studied foreign languages and that they will speak them well enough to be able to help.

It’s no secret that I’m a fan of the Québécois accent in French. It is charming. It is also rather difficult to understand if you’re only used to school French. Speaking French and not being able to understand Québécois French is a shame; it’s like speaking American English and not being able to understand a British or an Australian accent. Apart from not understanding much when visiting French-speaking Canada, you’re also missing out on a lot of great movies.

I’d love to have a slight Québécois accent myself, but I can understand if you prefer a different accent. What I do recommend to anyone is to be able to understand all kinds of French accents – not just the textbook Parisian accent, but also Québécois, Belgian French, even French as it’s spoken in Africa, why not. We can understand a wide variety of English accents and I don’t see why French should be any different, considering it’s also an international language spoken on all 5 continents.

If you wanted to improve your understanding of Québécois French, so far you had to just keep watching Québécois TV programs and hope to absorb some of it. There were a few phrasebooks for tourists, a few dictionaries of Québécois slang, but nothing that would systematically teach you to understand Québécois. Now, I’m very happy that my friend Alexandre Coutu published the first ever course for it, titled “Le québécois en 10 leçons”.

“Le québécois en 10 leçons” covers a broad span of material: pronunciation differences, grammatical differences and several hundred uniquely Québécois terms and expressions. What really makes it stand out from all other textbooks I’ve seen – independent of language – is the awesome humour in the dialogs, and the fact that there are recordings for every single sentence, not just the dialogs, but also the example sentences and even the exercise solutions are recorded. This really helps you get used to the Québécois accent. And the best thing is that you don’t have to buy a set of CDs, you can legally download all these recordings for free off the internet, put them on your iPod and listen to them wherever you go.

I was lucky to be Alexandre’s guinea pig for this course and I can tell you that it’s a masterpiece. I wish all my language courses were like this. See the first lesson for free.

So, learn to understand Québécois; it’s highly recommended. Get your copy of “Le québécois en 10 leçons” here.

Accountability is closely linked to keeping your resolutions and achieving your goals. For example, if you make a resolution to spend at least one hour on Italian every week, and you don’t have a habit of doing so, it’s quite likely you’ll look back 14 days later and find that you haven’t actually spend any time on it. It can be quite surprising actually, thinking back about the past week and realizing how little language study you’ve done, even though you may have the superficial sense of having recently worked on your languages. Accountability is the solution.

You could for example find a language partner or language teacher and make an appointment to meet weekly for an hour; that way you are almost guaranteed to spend an hour on Italian every week, because they expect you to show up.

If you’re enrolled in a class, class times work the same way, and additionally exams hold you accountable for making progress rather than just day-dreaming.

For someone who learns best in self-study however, such as myself, the best solution is to keep track of your study time. You could use a classic agenda, or simply mark all days that you studied with a big green checkmark, but I find it best to keep a detailed account of my studying in a spreadsheet. Having it as a spreadsheet allows me to automatically do some calculations, for example to see how many hours total I’ve studied this year or this week, how many hours I spent on any one language, how that compares to last year, and so on. It’s very neat and motivating. Now if I started studying Indonesian and found that I still don’t know anything 3 months later, I can just look at the spreadsheet and notice that I haven’t actually spent more than a few hours on it. On the other hand, there have been times when I spent relatively little time on a language and made a lot of progress, for example in Finnish. Knowing how few hours I spent on it definitely contributed to the exhilaration of progress there.

So, I highly recommend tracking what you do, to motivate yourself to do more and to get a more objective view of your progress. You can find a copy of my spreadsheet below, with some data blanked out. Just replace everything with your values and you’re set to go. Alternatively, create your own spreadsheet. Start tracking – start achieving your goals!