Recording Your Voice

Have you ever tried to read and record your voice when learning new words? This article is about the benefits of this language learning method.

1- It is Fun!

I had read that if it gives you a feeling of sounding unnatural when you listen to yourself, then you are succesful at speaking that foreign language. You will understand what this means when you try it. The stranger you will feel, the funnier and more satisfying it will be!  

2. It is a good way of practice speaking!

We all know that the languages first serve for communicating with others. So it is very imprtant to be able to speak in a way that your audience can understand what you sayand vice versa. In other words, you need to have a proper pronounciation to communicate well.

Let's say you are trying to learn Swedish and you took notes for the new words and phrases you just read on Internet, maybe a notebook or a simple notepad file you used. If you also record your voice reading all those new data then it will give you the opprtunity to practice your speaking skills and also you it will be saved to check it later to review your process or mistakes. 

3. You can review yourself

After a while you can listen to yourself again and perhaps you catch some small mistakes and correct them. 

4. You can share it with your friends

You can send the link of your voice recording to your friends and show them how well you speak your target langauge! You can send it to your friends that are also interested in languages or your language exchange partner who can give feedback for you. Or just have fun and show people how well you're doing!

One of my recent records was in Thai. In Thai, every syllable is pronounced in one of five tones: low, mid, high, falling, or rising. The tone must be spoken correctly for the intended meaning of a word. So it is really so different than any language I studied before and even if I listen to it alone I'm enjoying it. I also had a friend -who is speaking Thai at intermediate level- listen and I was so happy when he said I sounded very well.  

5. Repeat and Memorize

You want to build vocabulary, you opened InternetPolyglot.com, mylanguages.org or Wikipedia and made a list of words you want to learn. What you can do is that you can read those words first in your language and then the target language. In the ends you have your own mini audio dictionary that you can download to your smart phone and listen while walking outside. 

The researches show that we remember more when we hear. So I believe that it would not hurt to make a list of 50 words weekly and listen to it everyday like a song on PC, what you think?

HOW TO RECORD?

There are three ways that I can recommend.

i. Windows Recorder

You can record your voice using the sound recorder of Windows but if you have Windows XP, it is limited with 1 minute.

Windows XP işletim sisteminde 1 dakikadan uzun kaydedilmiyor. Fakat daha yeni bir Windows kullanıyorsanız, muhtemelen o prgram yeterli olacaktır. Dosyalar Wav. şeklinde kaydedilmektedir.

ii. Audacity

You can download it from http://audacity.sourceforge.net and it is completely free.

iii.AudioBoo

On this Website you can record your voice up to 3 minutes and there is no limit for record count. You can record as many as you want. http://audioboo.fm You can also be a premium member if you want to record more than 3 minutes.

This is my favorite. Because in my opinion 2.5 - 3 minutes is already optimum time length to memorize and listen the same words over and over again without forgetting and being bothered. You can also upload your files to your audioboo profile. You can add or share your feed on Google Reader and even on itunes! And if you are a blogger, you can embed your file with the player!

Şimdi sizden iki ricam var! 

I hope this method will help you, too. I would like to hear your opinions and experiences. Happy studying!

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How to Add Facebook Like and Send Button to Blogger 3

1. Go To Blogger > Design > Edit HTML

2. You may like to back up and save a copy of your blog

3. Click Expand widgets templates box

4. Search for <data:post.body/> (first one)

If you want it to appear after the post title, then copy and paste the code before
<data:post.body/>
If you want it to appear at the end of your posts then paste the following code then paste it after <data:post.body/>

<div id="fb-root"></div><script src="http://connect.facebook.net/en_US/all.js#xfbml=1"></script><fb:like href="" send="true" layout="button_count" width="450" show_faces="false" font=""></fb:like>

Live example:
http://fincedersleri.blogspot.se/2013/02/ders-1-fincede-ozneler-ve-temel.html

Cheers! ^^

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21 reasons why English is hard to learn

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Spanish Practice Hangout

Today I joined a Spanish Practice Hangout and I really enjoyed. Our teacher Paulino Brener was great like always. If you are a true beginner, you should watch this video and in the end you will see how much you will learn while having fun in just one hour!

If you also want to participate in free public hangouts, you can join Language Practice Hangouts Community on google plus and practice your speaking skills in a friendly environment. At the moment these languages are available: English, German, Spanish, Turkish, Russian, Italian and Chinese. If you also want to be a host or a participant you can find detailed information here:

http://languagepracticehangouts.com 

If you are interested in Turkish, I am doing the Turkish Practice Hangouts every Tuesday at 5 PM (GMT) and as I have been asked, I will add Friday, too.  

Happy Weekends!

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How to Add Facebook Like Button to Blogger 2

This is a tutorial to add Facebook Like Button to your Blogger posts.
This is my second tutorial for adding Facebook Like button. If the other tutorial did not work for you then this is your solution. Because, if you are using a customized template or if you have made some customizations to your blog, you can see more than two of this code;

<data:post.body/> which you need for the first tutorial

Like my blog which has 4. So we need to look for another code*;

<div class='post-header-line-1'/>

And right after paste this code:

<b:if cond='data:blog.pageType == &quot;item&quot;'>
<iframe allowTransparency='true' expr:src='&quot;http://www.facebook.com/plugins/like.php?href=&quot; + data:post.url + &quot;&amp;layout=standard&amp;show_faces=false&amp;width=100&amp;action=like&amp;font=arial&amp;colorscheme=light&quot;' frameborder='0' scrolling='no' style='border:none; overflow:hidden; width:450px; height:40px;'/>
</b:if>


*Where you will look for the code that you will paste green code after?

• Log into your blogger account
• Go to Layout --> Edit Html.
• Check Expand Widget Templates box.
• Press Ctrl + F and then type <div class='post-header-line-1'/> into the box.

That's all! This is how I added it to my blog. Now your readers are free to like and share your blog entries on their Facebook Timelines with your new button!

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Wallwisher Review

Today I want to introduce you my Website kitchen with the greatest tolls: www.Wallwisher.com

What is Wallwisher?

"We give you a blank page (a wall).

You put anything you want on it, anywhere.

Simple, yet powerful!" with their own words.

And these are the things you can do on your wall.

I use wallwisher as an online notebook. With just a double click you have a post it and you can embed a website or link into it. You can change the size of the notes. When you embed a video, it is like your personal TV and when you add links of the webpages you read, it becomes your RSS reader or newspaper Iwould call it.

I am a language lover. First I started to use this website just to write the new words I learned to memorize them. Then one day I tried to translate a short text and pasted the test there. While trying to translate it for the future study purposes, I started to add small notes as dictionary around the text, then I added a video link from youtube to listen. And finally it really felt like my study desk.

Then I started to use it to take notes for the questions of my students, so I could answer them all without forgetting. And whenever I see some related information with those questions, I just edited the old note  and added the new helper text inside it

What's more?

• You can allow others to add notes! Directly or through moderation.
• You can let people just to view it, make it completely private!
• Who can read? Who can write? Moderate posts? Just answer them as you like.

Imagine a teacher, isn't it great to have questions on an online blackboard?

or before a group/association meeting, let everyone to write what they want to discuss next meeting!

• You can make it your guestbook!

Creativity has no end.

There are some people that use it as a personal Webpage, too. There is no navigation bar but you can give links of your different walls and use them like menu if you like.There is no monetization but maybe you could embed your website link that have ads, if you are really into it.. just an idea.

• There  are nice wallpaper and customization options, you can also add your own photos.

Other Super Features

• First of all you will save the trees and your time. 
• You will have a RSS link so you or other people can follow the updates, in case you let people add notes, it will be inevitable to use I assume
• You can embed your wall into your Website!
• You can share any notes on variouss social networks!
• You can mobilize it with a code and it is in your smart phone in a second!

Now I am leaving a sample page for you to see closer, or directly open wallwisher and start to save trees :)

They are also on Facebook

Created with Wallwisher

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Welcome to Google Communities

Google Plus has a new feature now.

Communities http://plus.google.com/communities

For someone, who has been confused with the circles a little bit, I call it a real solution. So I created one here, for Turkish Learners. https://plus.google.com/communities/110812863755267743355

You can create a community and invite the people who you have in your circles or you follow. Also you can set it to private and approve the people before they can join.

When you choose the option to create a new community, you can

• give a name to your community
• add a descriotion
• add tags for people to reach easily
• and add location information

1. When people navigate the community page, your profile photo will always appear as the owner and if you like to get known for some reasons (maybe you are an author or teacher), then you will like that.

2. You and the community members will be able to share posts, links and videos just like you share on your google plus profile page.

3. You can hang out with the community members.

This last feature is my favorite as I will be able to use it as a Turkish Classroom. This community feature is better than categorizing people into circles. Because people with the same interest will have a place to come together, and it will be easier to find and reach than your profile. Isn't it like an online college?

If we compare it with the Facebook Fan Pages; the hang out opportunity is the first thing that comes to my mind. 

Will Google Plus replace the Facebook, what do you think? Or what else do we need to migrate to Google? or do we?

about.me/gulozturk

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