The world will be a better place if we can appreciate other people and their cultures. Learning a new language helps doing just that. That’s why we promote language learning.
Yago consists of a language course directory and this blog. We try to update this blog 2-3 times a week with posts that hopefully inspire your language learning and give you valuable tips to move your learning forward.
We love to hear your thoughts, tips and tricks so do leave a comment if you can!
Contributors
Guus Goorts has traveled widely and has lived and worked / volunteered in The Netherlands, Ghana, Belgium and Singapore. In descending order of fluency, he speaks Dutch, English, Mandarin, German and some rudiments of Spanish, French and Italian. Guus lives in Singapore with his wife and two young children. He settled in Singapore in early 2006 from his native country The Netherlands. After working in a job for corporate training, he founded Yago Languages in 2008.
Hazel Fajardo is based in the Philippines. She studies chemical engineering and has a broad interest in life around her. She has been teaching English as a Second Language and loves photography and diving.
Mark Stephens is originally from the UK. He has lived in Australia for many years, and is now based in Thailand. With previous experience in teaching English and in business to business sales, he is now a professional writer working on his first book.
Dolly Estrada grew up in the USA as an American of Mexican origin and learned Spanish at a later age. She has achieved fluency in Spanish, and is now living in Mexico, where she puts her language skills to good use. She has a great interest in languages (especially Italian!) and cultures.
Guest authors – being a blog about languages and cultures, we are always on the lookout for new ideas, experiences and perspectives. If you have an idea for a guest post, or any idea at all that you’d like to share, shoot us an email at blog@yagosingapore.com and you can be part of this blog!
Hello,
I have passion in learning German as a new language and understand its culture, purely just for interest. Neither do I have to speak German in my daily life nor friends that can communicate wih me in German.
But I am sure it will benefit me for my Eastern Europe trip in next year. I will be glad if you can advise me further.
1.) For my case, is an intensive full-time course a necessity?
2.) Apart from the Goethe Institute in Singapore, are there any other language institutes/tutors that you would recommend?
3.) How can I improve and practice my German language, in a non-German speaking environment?
Look forward to hear from you soon.
Thank you.
Cheers
Seerping
Hi Seerping,
Thanks for your questions. As I see it:
1. A full-time course will be helpful to kick-start your learning, but it is not a necessity. I am not aware of any full-time German courses in Singapore, so you may have to ‘make do’ with evening lessons. Which will get you started all the same. Or if you can find the time to do a few weeks of intensive course in Europe (I recommend Germany for the accent), that will be a great start. Berlin is a fun city to be in and not too expensive for living – especially now the euro is down.
2. There are several other language schools that offer German classes. Where do you live? If you let me know I can see which one would make sense for you. You can reply me on info {at] yagosingapore [dot} com
3. You are right that practicing the language is important. There are a lot of Germans in Singapore actually. Working expatriates, exchange students and people like you interested in learning German. You could put up a quick ad at the expat singapore forum (http://expatsingapore.com) for language exchange. There are also a few groups for German culture and language exchange, you might drop them a note or give them a call, they are probably open to welcome you at their next event: http://www.discover-germany.sg/clubs.html
I am just loving your blog and unique perspectives on language and issues in Singapore. Just reblogged you.
Just came across your blog yesterday and it’s likewise. I love the sense of wonder that many of your posts have even about very everyday things. Will keep following!
Hey Guus. Just crossed your blog while i was searching for other Chinese speaking bloggers. Hahaha. Interesting site you have. What level of Manderin are you currently at right now? Even though Im a bilingual, I’m currently still trying to emprove my writing in hanzi. So many characters! O___O lol. Anyway, best of luck to you on your journey in learning languages!
加油^^
Thanks for stopping by and leaving a note, JH! 我的中文水平现在是在中级。 Which is most frustrating, I now understand enough to know what I’m missing. Time to 加油!
Nice blog, I’m learning Japanese thinking about learning a second language for a long time but some how things havent worked out yet. stuck betn Korean, Chinese and Arabic. hopefully I could find something useful here. Please include RSS feed for ur blog useful to keep a track.
Hi 3jay, thanks for stopping by and commenting! You can actually subscribe through RSS at yagosingapore.wordpress.com/feed. I’m going to have a look at your blog!