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Spider Star
The human colony on the planet Argo has long explored and exploited the technology left behind by an extinct alien race. But then an archaeology team accidentally activates a terrible weapon...
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Praise for Star Dragon
"Seldom does a storytelling talent come along as potent and fully mature as Mike Brotherton. His complex characters take you on a voyage that is both fiercely credible and astonishingly imaginative. This is Science Fiction."
-- David Brin"Star Dragon is terrific fare, offering readers a fusion of hard science and grand adventure."
-- Locus Magazine"Star Dragon is steeped in cosmology, the physics of interstellar travel, exobiology, artificial intelligence, bioscience. Brotherton, author of many scientific articles in refereed journals, has written a dramatic, provocative, utterly convincing hard science sf novel that includes an ironic twist that fans will love."
-- Booklist starred review"Readers hungry for the thought-provoking extrapolation and rigorous technical detail of old-fashioned hard SF are sure to enjoy astronomer Brotherton's first novel."
-- Publishers Weekly"Mike Brotherton, himself a trained astrophysicist, combines the technical acuity and ingenuity of Robert Forward with the ironic, postmodern stance and style of M. John Harrison. In this, his debut novel, those twin talents unite to produce a work that is involving on any number of levels. It's just about all you could ask for in a hardcore SF adventure."
-- Paul di Fillippo, SCI-FI.COM
Learning a Language with Rosetta Stone
April 18th, 2008
I worry about learning alien languages and that issue in my science fiction more often than I worry about other human languages.
In preparation for my sabbatical trip to Porto Alegre, Brazil in August, however, I’ve been studying Portuguese. Now, you might expect that since I’m a professor at a state university, we’d have Portuguese classes I could take (one benefit of a faculty position is free classes, at least one a semester). Well, not at the University of Wyoming. I can take Spanish, or Japanese, or even Chinese, but not Portuguese.
Local Portuguese tutors don’t advertise their services very often, either.
So, while I expect to take some classes and/or have some private tutors while I’m in Brazil, I am working on teaching myself in the meantime.
I started a couple of years back with Pimsleur audio lessons just to be able to get around, find the bathroom, order a beer, in conjunction with vacationing in Rio. The basic structure of these lessons is that you listen to a Portuguese conversation, then have an English speaker introduce words/phrases that are then given in Portuguese. You’re given the opportunity to anticipate and/or repeat the words. The lessons increase the Portuguese and decrease the English over time, and review old vocabulary while introducing new words. I learned from them, although not quickly or easily. They did get me started with correct pronunciation and some vocabulary. It also helped that I studied Latin in high school and Portuguese is a romance language.
When I decided to get more serious about the language given I was going to be living in a Portuguese-speaking country for 7-8 months, I decided to check out Rosetta Stone.
I always loved the story of the original Rosetta Stone, the ancient tablet that had writing in Greek and two Egyptian languages that was the key to translating hieroglyphics.
Rosetta Stone, the company, has advertising is all over the place, in airline magazines and late-night TV commercials. You’ve probably seen them. They talk about a revolutionary new approach to learning languages fast and how their software is used by the state department, NASA, etc. The fastest way to learn a language. Guaranteed.
Like a lot of language software, it isn’t cheap, although you get better deals buying multiple levels all at once. Rosetta Stone also offers the option of subscribing to an online version for different time periods (cheaper for longer commitments, of course). I went this route, given that I’ll be immersed in six months, and have to say that the online service works well, quickly, and without issues.
So, what is it exactly? Rosetta Stone lessons involve showing you pictures with some combination of sound/text or prompts for your own spoken input (you need a microphone for some lessons). There is NO English anywhere in the lessons. You learn naturally, the way children learn, more or less. There are regular reviews, and shorter lessons on individual topics like writing, pronunciation, After a few weeks, I realize I am able to think of the Portuguese words for things without first translating in my head. I am becoming accustomed to thinking in Portuguese, at least a little, so far. It’s somewhat frustrating to see a new word and not to be told exactly what it means, but the challenge of sorting it out from context has kept the lessons more interesting. I’m wondering how true that will be when more abstract concepts are introduced.
Rosetta Stone seems like it’s going to work well in the long run for me, if I can stick with it steadily enough for long enough. It hasn’t taught me to order a beer or ask where is the bathroom yet. Pimsleur would seem better for picking up the bare minimum to get by on a short trip. If you’re interested in checking out Rosetta Stone though, you can check out an online demo.
What also strikes me powerfully about this kind of instruction is that it is utterly technology dependent. You couldn’t have this kind of teaching in a traditional classroom. Clumsily perhaps, but not as effectively.
I always admired stories by authors like Philip Jose Farmer that dealt with learning languages. I recall a scene with Kickaha in one of the World of Tiers books where he had to learn his captors language and how he did it. I played with some of those ideas in Spider Star, although took a few shortcuts. I like treating the issue honestly, however, since something like Star Trek’s “Universal Translator” ultimately can’t work, at least not as usually portrayed. I’m going to grok this Portuguese sooner or later, though.
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April 18th, 2008 at 5:37 pm
As China increasingly is seen as a growing business power, interest in learning the Chinese language had rocketed, and dominance of Chinese over English will be a long time coming. More and more people begin to learn Chinese, because here is clear career potential for the future. help you learn easier and faster. Check this site http://www.learnchinese.bj.cn/it may help you learn Chinese easier and faster. Good luck!
April 20th, 2008 at 11:49 am
Rosetta-Stone is a great language tool but also check out http://www.eduFire.com! eduFire.com is an interactive, multi-media focused language website that offers educational language videos, great flashcards in a variety of different languages and one-on-one tutoring via video chat. It’s affordable and convenient for working on conversation skills with a native speaker.
June 3rd, 2008 at 3:42 am
The problem with “learn[ing] naturally, the way children learn, more or less” is that adults aren’t children. Children don’t learn a language, they acquire it. Adults learn languages in a very different way. The Center for Advanced Study of Language looked at Rosetta Stone and concluded that it really isn’t a good way to truly learn a new language - though it’s better for languages in the family you belong to (so for an English speaker, other Indo-European languages) than not. Most adults can’t intuit grammar rules and certainly not the exceptions, nor do they soak up hundreds of new words (I almost said “effortlessly” but of course acquiring their language is the main thing a young child IS doing), and for most of the people in the study (of those who actually stayed with the program, a minority to begin with) the frustrations well outweighed the benefits. Only one person achieved any proficiency. I’d suggest supplementing RS with something a bit more traditional - like a good grammar, say by Routledge, to answer your questions as you get further into the language.
June 3rd, 2008 at 3:04 pm
The Ridger: I have to admit that I’ve been off the Rosetta Stone wagon a few weeks given too much work and travel. Part of that travel was to Brazil, and I leaned more on my older Pimsleur study than my Rosetta Stone, although that had expanded my vocabulary somewhat. I studied Latin in high school for many years, and some of the grammar rules are similar and coming back to me, which has helped a lot. Still, there are a few words in Rosetta Stone that I haven’t quite fully grokked from context, at least not yet. Recommitting to the language study this summer.
June 3rd, 2008 at 3:05 pm
Also a friend of mine already on sabbatical suggested Portuguese Now. I’ll look into that, too, and would welcome information about it.
September 15th, 2008 at 8:33 am
[...] Learning a Language with Rosetta Stone. Here I discuss using this popular software to learn Portuguese and compare it to Pimsleur lessons. I’ll have more posts about learning Portuguese in different ways in the near future. [...]