Language Study Aids
I have been learning Mandarin Chinese for ever, my mother studies Portuguese and my wife (who already speaks 3 languages fluently) wants to improve her Cantonese. Whether you want to improve your holidays in France or Spain or learn something more exotic for personal reasons it seems that everyone values the skill of being able to converse in more than one language. Given the competitiveness of the job market now; language skills are also becoming a key differentiator on your resume.
Learning a language is different for everyone, as we all absorb things differently. I was lucky in Taiwan to find a teacher who was flexible enough to work with me and he helped my progress immensely, most of us however are spoon fed standard text books, websites and audio CDs in the hope that some of it will stick. There must be a better way, and I have even heard English teachers in Taiwan saying that they could write better study aids than are available; they just haven’t done it yet.
If you don’t speak another language you should probably close this now. The truth is that you are unlikely to go and learn one and then write the materials to help someone else do it faster and better. This is actually a shame because if you did that you would be in the best possible position to know how the student feels but the work involved would be enormous.
If you have got to here then I’ll assume you speak two or more languages with some degree of fluency. Your next choice is which one to teach. I would choose the weaker one as it is the one for which you will have the most affinity with the students but the choice is yours and even as a gifted language scholar will not run much more than one choice out of 10 or so.
How you put the material together is up to you. Remember that most students absorb differently using different methods. Reading, writing, speaking, rote learning, listening and conversation all play a part. If you can build all of these into your course then you will have happy students.
Of course the materials themselves are just the start point. You need to sell them and as always the key is in the marketing. We suggest the following: -
Ebay
Website
Forums/Chat rooms
Teachers/Schools
Hotels/Resorts
Ebay has 69 items listed for “Chinese language” and over 400 for “Spanish language”. Narrowing this to “Spanish language course” brings the number of results down to 50. Most items seem to be CD based but clearly there is a market here as there are a further 53 Ebay stores selling products related to Spanish language courses.
Language courses for Chinese and Spanish number in the 10’s of millions on Google so you can pretty much forget about search engine optimisation. You can however build a site containing your materials, or with a shopping cart to allow you to take orders for your product and then promote the website.
Some communities have great forums and chat rooms. I belong to www.forumosa.com which is a Taiwan based community site. As well as having lots of resources for people living in Taiwan there is plenty of advice and support for those learning Chinese. There is a sub-forum dedicated to learning Chinese and one of the sticky posts at the top is about Chinese flashcards created by “Truant”. The product he has developed is great and has been carefully reviewed and criticised by other forum members, hence its success. I note that he now also has a website at http://truant.net/flashcards. Note that the point of this is not to advertise his product for him but to show what can be done.
Teachers come in many flavours, whether they are part time, full time, adult or child focussed, fully qualified or casual. Schools may also encompass a number of different types of institution, not just the government funded place that your kids go for lessons. Schools could include community based schools (Greek, Hebrew, Italian, Arabic, Hindi all spring to mind), adult learning centres, evening schools, and even language exchange groups. You can find all of these in your area by searching on the internet, asking at your local library and reading the local city newspapers.
Hotels and resorts in the country of origin for your chosen language may be an ideal place to market your materials. You could create a free leaflet with basic phrases and how to get to major tourist attractions and include a pitch for why people should try to learn a little of the language to demonstrate respect for the local culture, and to enrich the experience of their stay. Stress the simplicity of learning with your method, and of course cut the hotel in on the profits.
You won’t want to be ripping off other people’s materials, you could end up in court and in truth you can probably do a better job. You should however research what else is available, topics covered, methods used etc. Most text books will cover similar subjects although I would counsel staying away from subjects like classrooms and dormitories which may be useful for students but aren’t for anyone above the age of 21.
You can also join language related websites, forums and chat rooms. Talk to students to find out what their frustrations are and what would help.
There is a lot of work in putting the materials together but once you have done it you can generate semi-passive income from it just by marketing what you have created. This could be as simple as posting adverts in places where potential language students might be looking.