The Goldlist Method

 Uncle Davey's Goldlist Method

This is another method of learning without learning. You just write words in a list, and they somehow magically transfer into your memory.
Now, I really don't believe this, but there are people who swear by this, so who am I to say anything different.

So - how this works.

1. have an A4 notebook. Choose one you think is beautiful, precious, enjoyable.(Though the person who invented this uses an ordinary hardcover composition notebook. Nothing precious about it.)
2. open a page. Write the date on top. Then write 25 words on it. Write them with all the necessary information, like if it's masculine, feminine, strong verb etc. Write them as beautifully and carefully and neatly as you can, slowly and enjoying the esthetic impact and the writing. It is also good if you choose the most comfortable, enjoyable place to write these words, and make it a nice experience, with something good to drink.
3. Read out loud the list.
4. Close the book and don't open this page in at least two weeks.

Next day - or when ever after 20 minutes - you open the book on next page and repeat this - write the date, write 25 words.

And so on. Rinse and repeat.

Step 2.
14+ After at least 14 days (it can be more) go back to your list and distill it.
Write 17 of those 25 words on top of the page 2 of the opening.
Choose the ones that are hardest for you to remember.
Again, pay attention to enjoying the lines and writing.
When you are done, you read up the list out loud and close the book, and forget all about it the next two weeks.

Step 3.
28+ After at least 14 days, go back and distill it.
Now it's 12 words.

Step 4.
42+ After at least 14 days, go back to your list and distill it.
Now it's 9 words

by Berrjod

Step 5.
56+ After at least 14 days, go back and distill it.
Take a new book. If possible, this one should be even more beautiful than the first one. This will be your Silver Book.
Take the first 4 pages, the first 100 words of the first book, and pick 25 words from the 9 words' lists.

Step 6.
70+ After at least 14 days, go back to your list and distill it.
Write 17 of those 25 words on top of the page 2 of the opening.

Step 7.
84+ days after you started 17 become 12

Step 8.
98+ days later, 12 become 9

Step 9.
112+ days from the beginning, you'll be able to start your Gold book.
Start a new book, this time the most beautiful, precious book you can find.
Write the hardest 25 words from the first 4 pages of the Silver Book on the list. Then you repeat the procedure for steps 10, 11 and 12.
And that's it.

For every Goldbook page, you have learned 400 words. It will have taken 155+ days, about 5 months.

Now, I'm not that into this and my math can be wrong, but... that sounds like a huge waste of time. Because all this time I have not been able to use the words. If I had used flashcards to learn those 25 words by heart with the what ever it was called method, I would have learned 3600 words and I would have been able to use them from day 1.

Because day 1 words would have been
1: no
2: hello, hi, good day or some sort of variant of this
3: I
4: no
5: speak
6: -ish
7: you
8: English
9: please
10: thanks
11: what
12: is
13: this
14: yes
15: help
16-25 numbers 1-10


I... find it hard to believe this works, because as Bartosz says, the "science" behind it is total... er... not correct. But - I really don't care about the science babble, I care about if the method works, and there's a lot of people who say it does. I don't need to know why it works, and unlike Bartosz, I'm not ready to throw out the baby with the bathwater. I'm not ready to ignore it just because the explanation stinks.

Also, I find the claim unbelievable, that "you just remember these words, and when this library is activated, you will be speaking the language fluently". And apparently it is activated by someone speaking the language to you. It would be nice, if it worked that way.

Also, I haven't been able to find out how Lydia Machova has learned the languages she speaks. She mentions text books and audio, and Goldlist doesn't use those things, so I don't think she uses it as much as she makes it seem. And that makes me very suspicious.

I sincerely don't think this method is "popular" among polyglots. It is too slow. The only practical application I can think of, is to use it on a language I'm planning to learn, in the future.

But - I'm willing to try. Even if it would only give me 20 minutes of calligraphy time, that would be quite nice. And - so many people say it works, maybe it does work.

Now, the "record" is 15000 lines in 70 days, that's about 8-10 pages a day. Now... if this really works, that would be very nice.  That means I would get a 15.000 words' vocabulary in 225 days, with practically no effort. The only thing it would cost is the composition notebooks (you'll need 18 of the 100 pages ones or 25 of the 70 pages ones), and the time it takes to write 8-10 pages every day.

Updates 5/8 2020
I chose Latin for this exercise, because it's on my list of languages I want to learn, but not a priority, it's easy to find sample sentences, that has been parsed "to death",  and I don't mind not seeing it the rest of the time.
I suppose I did something wrong, because I didn't learn the sentences. I can understand what I read, and when my priority is to read in foreign language, then it's kind of perfect, but Uncle Dave promises we actually learn the language, and that did not happen. I couldn't repeat one sentence from the books. So - it doesn't work for me. It's basically just a waste of notebooks.

Please, stop hating!

Calling yourself a polyglot isn't claiming some sort of unearned prestige. 

Anyone who knows more than 3 languages, can call themselves a polyglot, because that is the correct term of these people. 

There are no requirements or formal tests.

The only quality required is that one is OK using this language. 

One doesn't need to have a perfect accent, one doesn't need to be fluent, one doesn't need to be able to read and write, one doesn't need to not make any mistakes or not search for words. One doesn't need to be perfect or be mistaken for a Native speaker to pass. 

It really is very subjective. 

If YOU think you can speak a language, then YOU do speak it, and if you think you speak several languages, then you ARE a polyglot, and can flaunt it as much as you want to. 

And I just say "Congratulations!" 

Because that's what you are worth. 

And it doesn't matter if you "got those languages for free". 

What matters is that you know those languages.

I call myself trilingual, because I consider myself fluent in only three languages. Finnish, Swedish and English.
But I can read books in French. Some people would say they know French, too. I don't, because I couldn't write this blog in French.
I know more German than French. So - I could add German to my list as well.
I know more Norwegian and Danish than German, and not only because they are very like Swedish.
I understand Spanish and Italian.
I can count to 10 in several languages, and say the common things like "thank you" and "I love you", in a lot of languages. I COULD make a "watch a polyglot count to 10 in several languages" which would last quite a long time. because I can count to 10 in quite a lot of languages. :-D

Now, becoming a YouTube celebrity because you know (or claim to know) several languages is a lot more deserved than becoming a YouTube celebrity because you do stupid stuff or say nasty things about other people or show videos about animals and/or people getting hurt and think it's funny.
(Yes, for example, a cat slips on an icy car and falls. Most of AFV videos. People using gym equipment wrong. I mean... yes, it's amusing, but the risk of getting injured like that is very high, and there should be someone at the gym stopping people from doing that. It would be better if you went to help instead of videotaping the event. Also, it's not OK to videotape people at a gym.)

Then the "polyglot gurus". I haven't met anyone who has named himself that. I have yet to meet the "self-appointed polyglot guru". 

Now, calling oneself a polyglot isn't appointing oneself a guru. It's the exact proper term and name to call anyone who speaks more than 3 languages. So, even if you claim to speak 57 languages, but in reality only speak 5, then you ARE a polyglot.
It might be self-aggrandizing to claim to be able to speak over 10 languages, when one isn't, but it isn't if one does speak over 10 languages. Then it's just the truth.

There's nothing wrong with being proud of being able to use several languages, nothing shameful, nothing one needs to be quiet about. It's a great ability, and it doesn't matter why and how one gained that ability.

So, a lot of the hate comes from how people perceive these people, not how they present themselves. I mean, a lot of "polyglot gurus" don't even call themselves polyglots.

There are people who hate anyone who claims being able to speak several languages. They think these people are showing off, prideful, full of themselves, bragging... so what? Being able to speak several language IS worth showing off, it IS something to be proud of and worth bragging. You are just jealous and should get something worth bragging about instead of hating others.

Learning a couple of languages is one of the easiest ways of getting something worth bragging about. If that "internet idiot" can do that, you can do that. ALMOST EVERYONE ON THIS PLANET SPEAKS A LANGUAGE. If you can learn one, you can learn two, three, 27, 115, what ever. (Now, if you have learned 27 or 115 languages, you probably have forgotten most of the most of them, but what does that matter?)

Then, the motivation. No, you don't need to want to communicate with people to learn a language. ANY reason to learn a language is a good reason.
If you learn 10 languages just to brag, good!
If you learn 10 languages because that one guy does that, good!
If you learn 10 languages just because you can, good!
If you learn 4 languages just to be able to read the Bible in original language, good!
If you learn another language just to be able to understand what the minority people speak behind your back, good!
If you learn another language because your great-great-great-grandmother came from Hungary, good!
You learn a language because you love K-pop. Good!
I mean, ANY reason to learn a language is a good reason. You can't hurt anyone by learning a language.
(Now, what you do with that language after you learned it, that's a different story. Language is a very powerful thing and can be used to hurt people, even a lot of people. Frankly, all genocides were caused by language.)

So if you learn 10 languages just to be a member of the "exclusive polyglot club", good.
Frankly, it isn't that exclusive. It accepts anyone who speaks more than 3 languages :-D

There's nothing wrong with "showing off" that you can speak several languages. It's a good quality. It's a desirable quality. It IS something to show off, be proud off, flaunt and make videos about. 

Making videos about "look at this guy who thinks he is so cool when he's not" and "look at that fat chick how disgusting she is" isn't. Or "look at this cat getting hurt, how funny". 

I'd rather watch some polyglots talking about how they study languages, about all their languages, why they studied this language or that, about their experiences in this country or that, or just chatting with their polyglot friends in several languages.

Or Saara speaking gobbledygook :-D

Láadan, once more

From Láadan Club

It says: "I'm guessing there will be snow" (weather report)
"IT'S APRIL!"

Interesting article about Láadan

 

Navajo

I am tired of hearing people evaluate languages as difficult or easy. It really doesn't matter. All it does is to scare people. :-(
So, no, I don't want to know that Navajo is one of the hardest languages to learn for an English speaker. I am not an English speaker. I'm a Finnish speaker. As far as I know, EVERY LANGUAGE (except Estonian and Sami) is "difficult" to learn for a Finnish speaker. I still get articles and prepositions wrong, and will continue doing so for the rest of my life, because... it's just something that has to be grown into. But, I learned more and more. When I die, I will be making fewer mistakes :-D

Anyway, Navajo.
I found the Wind Talkers story fascinating, so I want to learn Navajo.

Navajo language at Omniglot
It's a bit hard knowing that most non-European languages have been written by Europeans (whether they were born in Europe or several generations later somewhere else), with a European mindset, so they were forcing the language to fit their expectations of what language should be and how it should function, but they were ignoring small details because they didn't understand their importance... :-(
But... let's trust two things here. 1) languages are living things - the literature, grammar, and writing systems can change. 2) as long as people speak these languages as their mother tongue, these languages can survive the abuse from white people.

Navajo resources:
http://www.native-languages.org/navajo.htm
https://navajowotd.com/
Navajo at Forvo
Navajo at Wikipedia
Navajo language learners' community on Reddit
Let's Talk Navajo with some lessons
Navajo at Memrise
https://navajonow.com
Talking Navajo before you know it - booklet and course at Memrise
Some Navajo texts
Navajo language apps

Mastering the more difficult Navajo sounds

Language learning tips

 So... I was studying kanji, and thought about the Chinese word 白 bái. It has over 20 different meanings in English, and how screwed one would be if one learned all the different meanings by heart... and how screwed one would be if one didn't learn any of them, because "one cannot say one knows a language unless one knows all the different meanings of a word and how it is used in context, with other words etc. etc. etc." 
No, you don't need to know ALL the different forms and ways of every word. It is quite enough to learn "白 - snow, white". All the different meanings will come clear (白) in the future as you learn more. And in the future the meaning "白 anti-Communist" becomes clear 白 and obvious. I as a Finn know this already. ;-) We use the word "white" in the same sense.

So, go ahead and learn L2 words as direct translations of the L1 words. It won't harm you, limit you, make it harder to learn a language etc. etc. as all the nay-sayers and fear mongerers say.

30 Incredibly Effective Tips and Tricks to Learn a New Language
(I am posting the list here, because sometimes pages disappear. There is a lot more information on the site, so do follow the link.)

1. Choose a Word of the Day
2. Practice With Native Speakers.
3. Take Notes Whenever You Connect With The Language
(watching television, YouTube, internet surfing, reading, listening, on the bus etc. etc.)
4. Sink or Swim/All or Nothing
(move to a place where target language is spoken and refuse to speak any other language)
5. Learn Cognates
6. Use an App
7. Focus on What’s Relevant/Most Important To You
8. Set up a Routine
9. Find and Attend Local Events
10. Remember why you started
11. Track Your Progress
12. Learn the Phrase “How do you say X?”
13. Learn What You Need
14. Pace Yourself: One Step at a Time (5-15 minutes of intensive studies 10 times during a day is more worth than 3 hours block of studies).
15. Study smarter, not harder.
16. Be kind to yourself - it's OK to make mistakes, you are learning, not mastering
17. Watching, reading, listening, and talking about the news in your new language
18. Food - cooking and eating
19. Use your social intelligence, intuition and natural instincts to interpret social situations; works both in real life social interaction and tv series/movies/videos
20. Watch Movies (Remember, there's the right way and the wrong way of doing this, too. Or the effective, functional way and the ineffective way with little if any results.)
21. Believe in Yourself
22. recreational entertainment in new language
23. Enough.
You have enough, enough time, resources, intelligence, talents, memory, what ever is needed to learn a new language.
Also, five new words is enough. Five minutes is enough. You CAN learn 100 words in an hour, but you don't need to. It's enough to learn five new words every day. Or less. It's enough.
24. Be Kind to Yourself
It's OK to make mistakes.
Slow is good enough.
Focus on what you have achieved, what you do, not on what you might/could/should.
25. role play in your new language, alone or with friends
26. Flashcards
27. Storytelling
28. Learn with a friend
29. Learn Synonyms (Er... I'm not convinced. But try it out.)
30. Immersion - AJATT

Some other ideas:

31. Eavesdrop on Local’s Conversations
32. Re-read Your Favorite Children’s Books in Your New Language
33. Start With High Frequency Words and Phrases.
34. Passive listening
35. Study pronunciation
36. Use all ways of learning; auditory, visual, tactile, reading-writing...
37. Learn Esperanto
38. Set Specific, Measurable Goals. (Instead of "learn French", "Learn 50 French food vocabulary terms and how to use them when at restaurant and cooking")
39. Carry a pocket dictionary
40. Make It Fun - Produce language in a fun way; write songs, comic strips, play, podcast, poem, short story... what ever rocks your boat.

DO NOT use the diglot weave technique. (replacing words in L1 with the same words in L2 - "Do you know where maito is? I need some for my kahvi." Don't mix languages, to support your brain to keep the different languages separate and to automate the language production. If you teach yourself to mix the languages, you will not be learning any new words, because your brain tells you the different language words are just synonyms. You will be talking Frenglish or Farsitalian or something. I know this, because I'm speaking triglot weave. I use the language I remember, be it Finnish, Swedish or English. Because most people I communicate with knows all three. (That is, my family. >:->) It makes it really hard to try to remember the correct word when speaking with monolinguals.)


Other things to think about: Why I Taught Myself 20 Languages by Timothy Doner
Just remember that when you start whining about knowing languages and fluency.

Aklo

"However this idea (of a fictional language) only really began to take proper shape as a literary motif in Gulliver’s Travels and the 1899 short story “The White People” in which the fictitious Aklo was introduced proving so popular, that it was subsequently borrowed by other novelists such as H.P Lovecraft in his two books “The Dunwich Horror” and “The Haunter of the Dark”. It also made a more contemporary appearance in Alan Moore’s “The Courtyard”.
- The Rise of Fictitious Languages by Anantha Anilkumar
in Olavian Duolingo Magazine Volume I Summer 2015

"I must not write down the real names of the days and months which I found out a year ago, nor the way to make the Aklo letters, or the Chian language, or the great beautiful Circles, nor the Mao Games, nor the chief songs."
Mentioning of Aklo in The White People by Arthur Machen 

On the evening of September 2nd the last major barrier gave way, and Dr. Armitage read for the first time a continuous passage of Wilbur Whateley’s annals. It was in truth a diary, as all had thought; and it was couched in a style clearly shewing the mixed occult erudition and general illiteracy of the strange being who wrote it. Almost the first long passage that Armitage deciphered, an entry dated November 26, 1916, proved highly startling and disquieting. It was written, he remembered, by a child of three and a half who looked like a lad of twelve or thirteen.

    “Today learned the Aklo for the Sabaoth,” it ran, “which did not like, it being answerable from the hill and not from the air. That upstairs more ahead of me than I had thought it would be, and is not like to have much earth brain. Shot Elam Hutchins’ collie Jack when he went to bite me, and Elam says he would kill me if he dast. I guess he won’t. Grandfather kept me saying the Dho formula last night, and I think I saw the inner city at the 2 magnetic poles. I shall go to those poles when the earth is cleared off, if I can’t break through with the Dho-Hna formula when I commit it. They from the air told me at Sabbat that it will be years before I can clear off the earth, and I guess grandfather will be dead then, so I shall have to learn all the angles of the planes and all the formulas between the Yr and the Nhhngr. They from outside will help, but they cannot take body without human blood. That upstairs looks it will have the right cast. I can see it a little when I make the Voorish sign or blow the powder of Ibn Ghazi at it, and it is near like them at May-Eve on the Hill. The other face may wear off some. I wonder how I shall look when the earth is cleared and there are no earth beings on it. He that came with the Aklo Sabaoth said I may be transfigured, there being much of outside to work on.”

Aklo in The Dunwich Horror by H.P.Lovecraft

"It was in June that Blake’s diary told of his victory over the cryptogram. The text was, he found, in the dark Aklo language used by certain cults of evil antiquity, and known to him in a halting way through previous researches."

Mention of Aklo in The Haunter of the Dark by H. P. Lovecraft

Wikipedia article about Aklo

H.P.Lovecraft Wiki's article about Aklo

luis-gonza asked:
Hi David! What do you think about Aklo conlang? Do you know where I can learn it?

You know, I did a brief search, and I don’t think there’s one answer to this. For example, I thought you meant the Aklo language created by friend Britton Watkins for Marx Pyle’s Cthulhu series, but I don’t think it ever came into existence, so I don’t think there’s any info about the language on the web. So if it wasn’t that, I’m not sure what you could be after.
If you’re talking about the original stuff in the Cthulhu story, that’s just gibberish; not a conlang.
I’m sure there have been others who have tried to turn it into a conlang, though I haven’t heard of any projects other than Marx and Britton’s.

David J. Peterson's Tumblr

So... how ever intriguing this is, it doesn't exist, and I'm not accepting the idea of someone creating Aklo. There's bound to be people, but you will know they are lying. ;-)

P.S. "Upon discovering Finnish, Tolkien felt a sensation he described later as  "like discovering a complete wine-cellar filled with bottles of an amazing wine of a kind and flavour never tasted before. It quite intoxicated me."
Yes. Exactly. That's the feeling. So go learn languages.

Is it worth it?

Someone asked a question "is learning ------ (language) worth it?"
The answer is "yes". It doesn't matter which language it is.
Now, there are some people who don't understand how languages work, who will tell you it's useless to study anything else than Power languages and come up with idiotic parallels, like "it's like physical exercise, learning an isolated language is like doing some petty little movement with your hand, and learning a big language is like doing whole body exercise, it's obvious you get more use of the whole body exercise". No. Languages are not like a physical exercise in that way. The effect on your brain is the same whether you learn a big, strong, living language or an extinct, tiny language with no relations to any modern language. You will still get all the benefits of the "physical exercise".

Learning languages as a shy introvert misanthrope

Learning Chinese as an introverted student

I don't chat with people, even in languages I know. I hate chatting. I hate talking in the phone. I won't Skype. I hate Skyping even with my family.
I don't do Meetups.
Sure, all these are really great suggestions for people who wish to learn to communicate in a foreign language, because there is bound to be at least a couple of people near you who speak the language you are learning, at least if it's a language with more than a million speakers.

I live in Södertälje, which is a small town in Sweden. In Sweden there's a law that says all the children has to be able to study their native language, if it's
a) an official language in Sweden (Swedish, Finnish, Meänkieli (Torne valley Finnish), Sami, Romani and Yiddish)
b) Nordic language (Swedish, Finnish, Danish, Norwegian, Icelandic)
c) there is more than five children in the school district speaking the language as their mothertongue. The most common immigrant/refugee languages in Sweden are Finnish, Arabic, Serbo-Croatian (Bosnian, Croatian, Montenegran and Serbian), Kurdish, Polish, Spanish, Farsi, German, Danish and Norwegian. Now, they are currently seeking for Mothertongue teachers in Indonesian, Pashto, Mongolian, Somalian, Turkish and Neo-Aramaic.
If I wanted to, there's quite a lot of languages around me.

Language skills consist of four areas; listening, reading, writing and speaking.
Most shy introvert misanthropes aren't interested in learning languages to be able to communicate with other people, but to be able to collect information in that language - possible also to "collect languages", to learn a language just because they can, because it's there and "fuck you, that's why". Now, if this is your motivation to learn a language, speaking it is not interesting at all.
You won't EVER be traveling in a country where people speak this language, you won't EVER be interacting with real people, being polite and social, and using the spoken language to be understood.
So

THERE IS NO REASON WHAT SO EVER 

FOR A SHY INTROVERT MISANTHROPE 

TO LEARN TO SPEAK A LANGUAGE.

Fascinating, isn't it?
99% of language learning advice tells you to start speaking as soon as possible.
But think if you were to learn Latin or Biblical Hebrew. These are "dead languages". There have been no people alive speaking either of these languages as their native language, mother tongue, for some 2000 years. We don't know how to speak either of these languages.
For all practical reasons ANY pronunciation is as good a guess as any other.
Now, some of these pronunciations are PROBABLY better guesses than others, and there are people who use both of these languages regularly, so there is a generally accepted pronunciation. Nevertheless, no-one requires you can speak either language to be able to say you know either language. You just need to be able to read and write.
Now, I wouldn't say you know Finnish, if you can't speak it, but... if you may count Latin just by reading and writing, you should be able to count ANY language is you just read and write it.
(Or if the language doesn't have a writing system, THEN you should be able to speak it. It's a bit irrelevant for this topic, though. Most shy introvert misanthropes won't be learning some languages without written form.)

But - can you learn to SPEAK a language without EVER speaking with another person?
I say, yes. 
1) IPA - the phonetic alphabet actually IS good enough to give anyone good enough pronunciation of words written in phonetic alphabet.
2) You get the intonation right by listening and repeating after native speakers. There is a LOT of languages with at least some sentences spoken in the language. Omniglot has the "Article 1 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights" in quite a many language, both written and spoken. Record yourself and compare to the native speaker, and correct yourself until you can read the text together with the native speaker and you pronounce the words the same.
3) You can converse with yourself. Pretend to be a lot of people and speak for all of them. You can even replay scenes from movies or books.
No-one ever needs to hear you speak. No-one ever needs to correct your speech.

Aaaannd... it's over.

There's still some occasional flashes of fire, but basically the language rush of Spring 2018 is over.

Here's some interesting stuff: 20 slang Malaysians love to use

Made me interested in Malay

Camila Gallardo & Antonio José - No Es Real

Es difícil pensar
Que tu boca y la mía se puedan besar a diario
Que vivamos juntitos, enterito el calendario
Que me arropes de noche y me dibujes con tus manos
Me colorees con tus labios

It's hard to think

how your mouth and mine can kiss daily

how we live together, the whole calendar?

how you tuck me in at night and draw me with your hands,

color me with your lips

Es difícil pensar
Que mañana mi cama amanezca desordenada
Tu piel de desayuno y mil flores en la ventana
Con la tarde esperando en la puerta de nuestra casa
Por tu llegada

how in the morning my bed dawns messy,

your skin for breakfast and a thousand flowers in the window,

with the afternoon waiting at the door of our house for your arrival

Hoy no estarás, tampoco estarás mañana
Nos queremos enredar
Pero te quiero aquí, tú me quieres allá

Today you won't be, not tomorrow either,

we want to entangle

but I want you here, you want me there

Este amor es posible, pero no es real
En cualquier momento se nos va a acabar
Ay, mira como lamento
Quererte así, como te quiero

This love is possible, but it's not real,

at any moment it's going to end

Oh, see how sad

to love you like I love you

Si te digo que no
Que no quiero tenerte tan lejos de mis camelias
Que las flores del jardín se marchitaron sin tu presencia
Ahora busco tu perfume entre la gente con tanta urgencia
Con locura y demencia

If I tell you no

that I don't want you that far away from my camellias

that the flowers in the garden wither without your presence

now I search your perfume among the people with urgency

with madness 

Sé que no estarás
Y también sé que no estarás mañana
Nos queremos engañar
Pero te quiero aquí, tú me quieres allá

I know that you won't be

and I also know that you won't be tomorrow

we want to cheat

but I want you here, you want me there

Este amor no es real
Tarde o temprano se nos va a acabar
Ay, mira como lamento
Quererte así, como te quiero

This love is not real,

sooner or later it is going to end

Oh, see how sad

to love you like I love you

Este amor no es real
Tarde o temprano nos va a lastimar
Ay, mira como lamento
Quererte así, como te quiero

This love is not real,

at any moment it's going to hurt

Oh, see how sad

to love you like I love you

(I don't get this... Is it that they want each other but for some reason can't be together? Why?)

Procrastinating :-)

I have now been procrastinating studying Spanish for two hours - and continue doing it by writing about it. :-D
I'm really clever... I procrastinate by READING about STUDYING LANGUAGES, so I'm kind of still doing what I'm supposed to be doing, aren't I :-D

This was very interesting:
https://www.mezzoguild.com/language-learning-plateau/
Started watching the Arnold video, which is unnecessary, because the guy explains it in the article, but, hey, it was interesting, and... er... *blush*

Then I read this one: http://www.lindsaydoeslanguages.com/guest-post-9-reasons-to-learn-greek-the-best-resources-to-learn-it/

And also wound up thinking about the usefulness of word frequency lists.

Yes, I think they are useful, because they give you the frame to read extensively, and reduce the amount of words one needs to figure out, and considering that a lot of words in most languages are loans which sound similar enough, it won't be too hard.

Also, the point with frequency lists is that it's the BEGINNING, it's a STEP, it's not an end goal. You learn the 1000 most common words to be able to quickly start reading extensively, and WHEN YOU READ EXTENSIVELY, YOU ARE NOT SUPPOSED TO KNOW AND UNDERSTAND EVERY WORD YOU READ. You ARE just supposed to get an idea of what is going on. Get used to reading the language. Get used to the shape of the language. Get used to the correct grammar.

I mean... I have been watching El ministerio del tiempo, and I really don't know much Spanish. But I understand enough of what is going on to be interested and want to see more. I have a general understanding of what the show is about and who the characters are.
I am reading Le secret de Ji in French and I understand what is going on. I'm 100% sure that when reading the books in English, I get even more and perhaps find out things that are going to surprise me, but I don't think there will be many surprises.
I was watching this Turkish series, and now I found the first episode texted in English, and I had understood most of it in just Turkish. Enough to feel confident to watch the rest of it in Turkish without subtitles.

So - now I have managed to procrastinate for 3 hours :-D
Another good way of procrastinating is having a Sunday breakfast with your beloved spouse :-D

Thoughts about Chinese... and some other languages.

Chinese... I have learned the about 50 characters I have encountered so far.
But I just know the characters. I don't know their names and the names mean nothing to me. I mean... xiao? I suppose it means something. I have heard it. I don't know what it means. Or zai. Or ba. I think that might be eight. It might be something else, also. And it's possible it's not just ba, but bai or something else. And don't ask me about the tone. I wouldn't know. Could be third. Or not. (It is ba and the tone is first, which is what I meant, which means that I don't even know what "third tone" is... *sigh* Not good. :-D)
But I like Chinese. I want to learn it. I want to be able to read it and speak it and understand it.

Now, Arabic I don't like. I think it sounds ugly and the writing is stupid - and ugly - most people making notes in Arabic write like 3rd graders just learning to write cursive. Crude and ugly and uneven. My father had the world's most beautiful handwriting, and he is my ideal. I want to be able to write Arabic as my father would have written it, had he known how to write Arabic.
Now, I want to learn Arabic though. Because of two reasons. 1) I started learning it when I was about 15, and I would like to finish what I started, especially when it comes to languages and 2) I have serious problems with the Arabic part of Maltese, and it's easier to learn Arabic than Maltese. I seriously hope it will help me learn Maltese. If not, I'm going to be pretty angry and feel cheated.

Now, most of the reasons people give to why others should learn Arabic are uninteresting to me. I am not Muslim nor will I ever be. I am not planning on living or traveling in Arabic speaking countries. Now, I live in an area with predominantly Syriacs or Assyrians, who speak mostly Arabic or Aramaic (Syryoyo), and understanding them would be really nice... because I'm pretty sure they are saying nasty things about non-Syriacs, including me. It would be nice to be proven wrong about that.
That there is a lot of idioms in Arabic - there's a lot of idioms in every language. Duh.
That the grammar is easy and everything builds on core words, sure. Nice. But that's not a reason to learn a language.

Now, Korean I find very interesting. The writing is simple, easy, logical and looks nice. It sounds... odd. Unfamiliar. The sounds, the way of speaking, the language itself, is unfamiliar, and intriguing. I find it difficult to learn because I can't find a handle... I suppose it's just to parrot sentences until they start making sense, and that doesn't feel good to me.

But, but... too much procrastinating here, already. My 15 minutes pause has long passed :-D Back to studying.

Solresol

I am really in love with this language :-) It makes me so happy!

A Reprise for a 19th-Century Language Based on Music

Sidosi - the official home page for promotion of this language

Mithridates, Master of Languages

"Mithridates VI of Pontus could speak the languages of all the twenty-two nations he governed"
Now… does that mean he could speak 22 languages? And what were these languages? It's a pity Pliny didn't tell. :-D


Mithridates, Master of Languages

There are several speculations about the list of languages, but here’s my suggestion :-D

Probably Latin
Greek
Lycaonian, possibly a Greek dialect
Cappadocian and Phrygian. Possibly related to Greek
Luwian, Lycian, Lydian, Pisidian; Anatolian languages
Mysian, Pamphylian, Isaurian and Paphlagonian (Palaic) – unknown, possibly related to Anatolian languages or Greek
Galatian (Celtic)
Urartian
Thynian and Bithynian (Thracian)
Armenian
Scythian
Median, Gurani, Zaza, Parthian (North-Western Iranian languages)
Persian
Georgian, Meshketian, Mingrelian, Svan, Zan (Kartvelian languages)
Abkhaz
and
Aramaic

10,000 Flashcards in One Month (Guest Post)

April 29, 2017 / by Author Matthew Hawkins
reposted here because the Matthew Hawkins' blog where I first encountered this isn't there any more

And why you shouldn’t do 10,000 flashcards in one month

So I just finished absorbing over 10,000 German flashcards and you know what? It wasn’t too terrible, wasn’t life-changing either. To attempt it you’d have to be insane, desperate or just plain bored out of your verdammt Gehirn! In this fabulous region of this sporadic and, at times, inspirational blog I’ll be talking about my beginner steps to German language acquisition, how successful it’s been and of course, the big 10k.

Of course I’ve been following the fantastiche AJATT/Krashen input-above-all method and have been for 2 months prior to blitzing the cards, which might be the reason for any success at all. For some important background, the deck I used was not of my own creation and has been very popular on the Anki shared decks page for a good year or so. (It is not there anymore)

Now those of you that have any idea of how successful language acquisition works will know that just pulling in other people’s work is much less effective than making it yourself, for clear reasons I will now explain:

    Little to no context to you. A picture of a dog could mean so many things to different people, for example.

    No love or passion went into the cards, therefore you won’t enjoy reviewing them.

    Half of the learning comes from making the cards, by exporting that essential process you lose half the gain.

These are obvious looking back, hindsight is 20/20, but from the view of a language noob (i.e. me before the 10k) having the effort to compose 10 thousand cards placed upon someone else is a dream come true. After all, why should I waste time and energy when I could be enjoying myself playing games or watching movies in my target language?

    Nobody can teach you as well as you can teach yourself 

– Principle #1 of Adam Robinson’s What Smart Students Know.

These wise words of wisdom ring true in all aspects of learning. In my attempt to be efficient and in a way, cheat the system, I had been doing the opposite. Learning has to be an engaging activity in a way that appeals to your interests and personality, using a shared deck is as cold and uninteresting as a textbook.

So it was a complete failure?!

No, but it wasn’t a success either. I attribute the 70% German I acquired over this period of time to films, games and audio content. The remaining 30% could have been thanks to the deck? Perhaps? Maybe? It’s hard to tell. As I breeze through the deck now, I understand the majority with ease and it was like that from the very beginning. This could have been down to previous input, or more likely, the cards are just too simple.

A well known component of the Krashen method is learning at an i+1 level, this basically means that if your competence is at level i then you should be consuming/absorbing/devouring content +1 level higher. The deck I was using had the progression of an African land snail and the slope of Flatland.

But you were rushing it!

Yes, the pace I took was also to blame and why the hell was I doing it that fast anyway?! Well for the little gain I was receiving from these basic cards, I wasn’t getting that feel-good confidence boost that keeps the persistence on. I decided to rush more and more cards each day until inevitably I did the math and found I could do all 10k within a month.

“Sure!” I thought, “That would give me more time for other things and I can be super great at German faster than any man before”. How naive I was, alas my dream of mastering German quickly was crushed when I reached the last card in the deck and thought “Is that all?”.

If you applied the brakes and took your time with a shared deck like this, you might have a chance at picking up more, depending on your proficiency and the quality of the deck, but for me it was all mostly for naught.

Top 5 Tips for getting good the proper way:

    INPUT – Fill your head like a database of random, interesting, natural language and eventually when you need to say something, that smart noggin of yours will find it.

    MNEMONICS – Use the memory techniques proven to work, flashcards are especially known to be effective in language learning and even more so if you do them properly. For a really good read on being successful here, check out Gabriel Wyner’s Fluent Forever.

    FUN – If you aren’t having fun or gaining anything, don’t do it! Find something that is and you will learn a gajillion times faster.

    MAKE IT HABITUAL – Habits are the best way to keep pushing towards success, this ties in with fun. Getting addicted to things in your target language ensures you’re making progress.

    IT TAKES TIME – Don’t be impatient like me, if you want to get good, you have to put in the time.

And that’s all for this absolutely 100% accurate and indisputable post.

Viel Spaß!

B.R.

10.000 sentences... in one month?

10.000 Flashcards In One Month - and why you shouldn't do it

10.000 sentences... Let's say every sentence is five words long. Some are longer, some are shorter, but the average length of English sentences is five words. That's 50.000 words. That's a NaNoWriMo novel... :-D But, an average page in a book has some 300 words. 10.000 sentences give a book with 167 pages. Here's a list of 20 Best Books Under 200 Pages.
I wonder if I picked one of these books and read it every day in the language I'm trying to learn, how much would I remember at the end of the month? And how much language would I learn?

One could take The Alchemist by Paolo Coelho. Or Jonathan Livingston Seagull by Richard Bach, though that's a bit too short...

Black Beauty by Anna Sewell
Bridge to Terabithia by Katherine Paterson
The Lover by Marguerite Duras
To Room Nineteen by Doris Lessing
Boxing the Compass by Sandy Florian
The Giver by Lois Lowry
The Outsiders by S.E. Hinton
The Awakening by Kate Chopin
Are You There God? It's Me, Margaret by Judy Blume
The House on Mango Street by Sandra Cisneros
A Room of One's Own by Virginia Woolf
Sula by Toni Morrison
Speak by Laurie Halse Anderson
The Lathe of Heaven by Ursula Le Guin
Who Will Run the Frog Hospital? by Lorrie Moore
Wide Sargasso Sea by  Jean Rhys
The Yellow Wall-Paper by Charlotte Perkins Gilman
Wilful Disregard by Lena Andersson
The Summer Book by Tove Jansson
The End We Start From by Megan Hunter
Bonjour Tristesse by Françoise Sagan

A lot of children's books have about 200 pages. I think Eva Ibbotson's children's books have about 250 pages each. Quick, short and - IMHO - enjoyable reading. Something I could reread every day for 30 days :-D

En español

Lave los platos.
Dejé caer la tapa del plato de mantequilla en mi dedo pequeño. Duele. Mucho.
Luego agudé el cuchillo. Soy bueno en afilar cuchillos. Estoy orgulloso de esa.

Ahora volvamos a estudiar. Mi dedo pequeño duele. :-(

Thoughts about the 6 weeks' challenge

I have a plan on how to use the six weeks the most effective way. There is though a small problem there. How to learn to read a language is VERY DIFFERENT from how to learn to speak a language. And I want both... :-(

Here's something about how to learn to speak a language

One important difference is that if you want to learn to read fiction, you will get very sufficient with past tense in third person singular. When you speak, you use mostly first person singular in present tense.
The vocabulary is very different from every day speech to literacy. When you speak you use very simple language, ignore grammar, don't give a crap about such things like artistic expression and style, the word frequency lists are your friend and you can manage with phrase  book samples and replacing words in sentences. When you read, you are trying to understand the language of someone who is very adequate in using it, who cares a lot about grammar (or whose editor does), the style, impression and expression are important, the words are much more variable and difficult, and you don't get to ask for clarification, explain anything, or even speak.
So... when people are learning a language, they should actually be getting into hacking the language.
And, I... I just want to read and receive information. And there... there really are no shortcuts. I wish there was some sort of upload pack. :-( I don't do much with phrases and frequency lists...
But... 90% of free language courses are created for people who want to learn to speak the language... that is, not for me.

But, but... my 6 weeks challenge plan is based on all this, and it will make me able to use the language in all possible ways. It just causes some problems, because I have to change my attitude. I have attitude problems :-D

Lazy day today, tomorrow it will be full speed

It's the Eve of Mayday. I should go visit my sisters, and drink sima and eat munkkeja, but - uh. Can't be bothered. It's a lazy day, a "bad day" as I call them, I don't want to do anything.

I have managed to get the Karelian Swadesh list on Memrise. I would really have wanted to add ALL the languages on the SAME list, but that cannot be done on Memrise. :-( So I have to write their own lists.

So, the Chinese R is pronounced "like J in French, but start dragging the tongue backward until it's touching the roof of your mouth". There should be a definite buzz to the sound... sometimes it sounds like SH, sometimes like L

I made a list of animal names in Hebrew to write my Alephbet cards, but my Word ate it. :-( Not happy. So the Hebrew Alephbet card project is frozen at the moment. I need to find the words again. :-(

Láadan needs a better course. Well... every language needs a better course. But, whatever. Beggars can't be choosers, huh? I suppose there aren't that many words in the language, so the amount of sentences to be created is also limited. And also, the Feminist ideal of women being totally void of all negativity, hatred, belligerency, and violence, creates serious problems, which becomes pretty obvious with the "sample stories", that, still, are based on existing Patriarchal stories. X-D

Romanian pronunciation is fun!

You see, I have started copying my favorite book in the Bible, Ecclesiastes, in Spanish, Portuguese, Italian, French, and Romanian, à l'Alexander Arguelles.

BTW, I listened to his speech at the Polyglot Conference and realized that that's what I want to do. (At least right now.) Think of myself as having the job of a Polyglot, and the whole world of languages at my fingertips (because most books have been pirate-copied and available online, especially when I can manage in Russian and Portuguese...:-D)

I need to put in the next Chinese lesson on Memrise. :-(

Uuuuuhh... Errrh...

Decided to use the Ecclesiastes as writing practice sample. I don't want to use the Bible, for principles, and also because I don't like it, but... I wanted to have a long text that's the same in Spanish, Portuguese and Italian, and that's it. Also, it's freely available online.
I still don't like it.

Started putting my Chinese characters/radicals on Memrise. Can't find a good pronunciation of 人 on an MP3 file I can use. :-( On Forvo they all say it like "jen", when it's "ren". I can't produce the Chinese R.

People were 30 years late to the Láadan party. :-( Too late, now.
But, funny, that...

Two days and counting...

6 Weeks' Challenge is starting again on May 1st.
I am really tempted, but... considering that I participated in it a couple of times, and got among three best, and it was for French BOTH TIMES, and I STILL am not good with French... er... I'm not good at 6 weeks' challenge. :-D
I really need to keep reading French literature. *sigh*
It shouldn't be a "sigh". :-D

Today I compiled (yet again) my 50 when 50 list of languages, and decided to give each 15 minutes a day for the next year. It will take 12 hours a day, and I won't be doing it, but as I said, I have nothing else to do. I'm free as a bird all days long.
(Yes, I have a lot of free time, but it's not all fun and games and lazying about. I have a very painful and incapacitating illness, which is why I live on disability pension. But I am free.)

I kind of... well... I'm not quite sure about some half of the languages on the list.

I mean, some of the languages I am not passionate about. I am not especially hot on learning Asian languages, except Chinese, Japanese and Korean... I mean... I have Hindi and Sanskrit on my list, but I don't really want to learn them. Not even to understand Bollywood movies without subtitles.

Then there are the rare languages no-one seems to want to learn... where it is extremely difficult to find any material - or at least any EASY material online. Like... I like Albanian a lot, but try to actually learn the language? Ha! No-one will answer your questions, no-one will correct your texts, you won't find vocabulary, translations, much help at all. I think I should take the Bible approach and learn that, and then see what I can do...  And Suryoyo is about the same. I mean, the only text I have been able to find was all about God and sheep and archaic farming society with very old-fashioned rules. I don't think those two old guys in the bus where the one sang a song to the other and then they laughed, were talking about lambing problems.

And then there are the endangered languages. Not really possible to learn through internet.

And then there are the constructed languages... *sigh* Talk about a guilty pleasure! I would really love the fantasy writers to take an existing language and use that as the language of their imaginary world, it's already created and time tested and historically correct, someone has already created a whole language, and when it dies, it will take with it a whole world view, a whole world! So why not rescue them? Most endangered languages are spoken by so few and probably also isolated, so it won't be like people will get mad with you for misusing their language.
Any way... I would really like to learn Klingon and Sindarin... :-( But it feels like I should use the effort and resources to learn an endangered language. (Which leads us to the material problem with endangered languages)

And then there's the "being in love" effect. It wears off. I know too much of certain languages for them to be interesting enough for me to actually study more of them... I find it really hard to sit down with Spanish, Italian, French, German and Scandinavian languages. *sigh*

"You had one job..."

Or two. :-D
Started working with the Hebrew alphabets. Decided to make flashcards in stead of a poster. Can't find my "card condoms" (Trading card sleeves). Have to buy some.

Can't be bothered with the Karelian. It's easy and quick and I really should do it, but... uh.
I should also continue with my Finnish lesson and add all the necessary pronunciation. I like courses with pronunciation.

There was a language challenge "10.000 flashcards"at Language Learners' forum. One is to add 10.000 flashcards to one's pile and go through them in SRS at least once. (Or twice, perhaps - one initial round and then one repetition round.)
I don't think I have 10.000 flashcards. Speaks to my megalomaniac soul...

I found 50languages.com. Nice. There's my 50 languages easily packaged! Yay.
No, doesn't work like that. I am not that into Slavic languages. I found 28 I might be interested in. That's a great start :-D
There's 100 lessons in Chinese with audio, I assume it's the same for all languages.

Duolingo

So... I have been adventuring in the Duolingoland, and found out that it's VERY hard to switch from one language to another without any space between. I kept thinking in German on my French review, and it went pretty badly :-D

Now, people will tell you it's not smart to study several new languages daily, or even at the same time. I don't find that a problem - if you keep small pauses between languages - but if you are serious, don't do what I do, do what Luca does.

So, today's task with Chinese was numbers 0-10, 100 and yuan.

零 líng (0) = 雨 yǔ (rain) + 人 rén (man) + 卩 jié (seal)
一 yī (1) *
二 èr (2) *
三 sān (3) = 一 yī (1) + 二 èr (2)
四 sì (4) = 囗 wéi (enclosure) + 八 bā (8) (though it looks like 儿 ér (legs)
五 wǔ (5) = 二 èr (2) + ?
六 liù (6) = 八 bā + ?
七 qī (7) = 一 yī (1) + ?
八 bā (8) *
九 jiǔ (9) = 乙 yǐ (the second, the other one, B) + ?
十 shí (10) *
百 bǎi (100) = 一 yī (1) + 白 bái (white)
元 yuán (monetary unit) = 二 èr (2) + 儿 ér (legs or son)

Here's some fascinating data about the Chinese numbers

Now, I really need to do two things tomorrow:
The Hebrew alphabet chart or poster
and
write in the rest of the Swadesh for Karelian at Memrise and publish it.

Also, I need to find some short stories in French, German, Spanish and Italian and read them.

Just not my style...

I just realized something. Yes, I know, really stupid of me, not to get it earlier, but better late than never, huh?

I will never be a polyglot in the normal meaning of the word, because I don't have the tenacity. One just needs to look at this blog to get that.  Last year I made two posts. TWO. I WAS SUPPOSED to take the 6-week challenge in Russian, but... that was about it. I think I managed one week this time around. :-D
(One thing that did me in was the Russian keyboard. I went to https://www.keybr.com/ and got it all set up nicely, but then the program had me typing the same 4-5 letters day after day, never gave me any new letters, and I gave up. Not fun.)
2016 I got into Korean. That lasted a couple of months, I think...
2015 I posted my 52 in 52 plan at the beginning of the year, but if you look at the entries, most of them are empty. 
2014 was also a slow year.
One thing to notice about statistics is that I post mostly during January (New Year's promises... every year I wish I will do better and actually stick to something.) and April (Because of my birthday. Every year I am reminded of my "50 languages by 50" goal.)

It would be wonderful if I just had the determination and perseverance. I mean, one can learn anything in 15 minutes a day, if one just does it for a longer time, like a year or so. The longer one persists, the more one learns. And I have been studying languages for some 40 years now. Had I only stuck to it, it would be more probable than possible that I indeed spoke 50 languages by now.
I do love languages and I learn them easily enough...
I'm OK with my bad pronunciation (good enough to be understood, but is never going to be good enough to pass as a native.)
I am kind of proud of the Finnish influence in my language. I use languages as I use Finnish, and Finnish is very elastic. I know it's a bad habit, but... as long as I am not working with the language, like being an interpreter, translator, or teacher, I don't see the problem with that.

But, anyway, I have decided to allow myself to be just as "airy" as I am and not be serious with my languages. So I will be studying 20 languages side by side 2-3 times a year for 1-3 weeks, and what sticks, sticks, and that's good enough.

So, today's "20 languages" were:
Láadan (conlang)
Russian
Maltese
Spanish
French
High Valyrian (conlang)
German
Welsh
Chinese
Korean
Danish
Japanese
Turkish
Tegirenai or Tigerian (conlang)
Vulcan (conlang)
Walloon
Mari
Karelian
Toki Pona (conlang)
Hungarian
Arabic
Hebrew

I got irritated by the way someone pronounces Láadan, it sounds so... unnatural, forced, fake. So I studied about how to pronounce it.

Russian didn't get much love, I read the "word of the day", and that's it.

Maltese got more love. Still the same problem as every day. *sigh* I managed to find a forum, but it's a disgusting ultra-nationalist, racist forum, and I don't want to learn what they say. I want to learn nice things. I have also decided that I really need to learn the verb basics. This is too difficult, trying to figure out the verb forms without the support of grammar. :-D

Spanish got some proper studies, though if the studies at Duolingo count as that, I don't know.

I started reviewing my 5000 French words. I still remember pretty much, and the last time I looked at it was 2016! I had an experiment going on there, learning the 5000 most common words 100 words a day, and I got to 2900 words.

High Valyrian... it's mostly a joke. It is offensive that there is a course on High Valyrian on Duolingo, BUT NOT ON ARABIC.

I got some German brushed up. I know surprisingly much of German. On the other hand, I should. German is one of the languages I can actually read. It's still like B-level, but still.

Started brushing up my Welsh as well. Though I like the Goedelic branch more.

Continued with my Chinese. Right now that's about the most serious I am with languages. I decided to just jump in and so far it's going great. I am holding the reigns tight and not letting me go gathering information, it's really hard as it is, but I really want to learn the language and not just wish I knew.

I was reminded of how much I like Korean dramas and decided to brush up on my Korean as well. Relearned the letters.

Min mand er dansk, og jeg vil kunne tale dansk med ham. So I started the Danish course at Duolingo as well. I have given up on trying to pronounce it well, and just try to repeat it as it sounds in my Finnish ears. My husband has told me my Finnish accent is great for Danish. :-D The fact that Danish has more vowel sounds than Finnish has ANY sounds - bah. What ever. :-D

Now, that video with the woman speaking Korean, Chinese, and Japanese was inspiring, so I have added Japanese to my list as well. I am going to use Heisig's Remembering the Kanji, so I would like to learn the basics of Chinese and Japanese transcribed... At least until I know the letters. There's quite a lot of them. :-D It's not like with Korean or Hebrew.

Turkish I noticed was on Duolingo as well, and I like the Turkish TV dramas as well, so - let's brush that up a bit, too.

Now, the inventor of Tigerian was expressing himself on Láadan, and as tigers are my spirit animals, I went to see what this Tigerian is. I don't think it's going to get much attention from me in the future though.

They had Vulcan on Memrise, and because I identify myself with the Vulcans, I thought I could just as well learn the language :-D

They also had Walloon, and I suspect our family might have some Walloon roots, though... maybe not. I think I look a bit South European... could be possible.

I was just looking into Mari. It is a Finno-Uralic language, and it would be interesting to learn some of that, just for the nationalist streak in me - and to save the endangered languages

Karelian is on the list because I am writing in Swadesh lists of the Finnic languages on Memrise.

Toki Pona is still waiting. I don't think it will take much time to learn enough of this language to be able to use it. It fascinates me a lot.

I was rereading this blog again, and I just love Kati Wolf. So Hungarian.

I have such difficulties with Maltese, so I decided to learn Arabic to be able to learn Maltese. (Now, Arabic is one of the "brush up" languages, so it's not like I'm beginning from zero here either.)

And my Jewish husband is into his Jewish studies right now, so Hebrew got up on the list.

Chinese

Urk.

I just can't produce the sounds. Learning 4000 characters. Not a problem. Tones. Not a problem. Learning words, grammar, sentences, not a problem. Phonemes? A huge problem.

I am Finnish. Finnish consonants are pretty hard. I find Chinese incredibly soft and... sort of melting... It's the same thing with Norwegian. Some consonants are very soft. I feel like I should make my tongue a snail trying to fill my mouth to be able to produce these letters... The Norwegian N... I just can't.

Now, apparently, this is a problem not only for me.

And R is a problem both in Norwegian and Chinese :-D For different reasons. The Norwegian R is a bit like r^j (consonant y, not English j)

But, but...

I decided to use Duolingo, and learn the characters at the same time, and also learn the radicals. Sounds like a lot, huh? I'm not moving to the next lesson on Duolingo until I have learned the characters, however long time that will take.

Anyway, the first lesson has two... er... what ever to call that. Sentences? Words?

你好 nĭ hăo (hello)
and
再见 zàijiàn (goodbye)

The characters are 你 nĭ (you)  好 hăo (good) 再 zài (again) and 见 jiàn (to meet)
The radicals are  亻 rén (man) 小 xiǎo (small) 女 nǚ (woman) 子 zǐ (child) 一 yī (one) 冉 rǎn (slowly) 目 mù (eyes) 儿 ér (feet)

And I find it extremely humiliating that I cannot copy the Chinese characters. My copy looks awful. And I do calligraphy... (blush)

So, what I have done today is
study Spanish
Read the Russian word of the day and the sample sentences
Write the Maltese word of the day for this blog, and then I searched some Maltese recipes - that is, recipes written in Maltese, and that was pretty hard, and then I stumbled over an interesting blog entry about Christmas, moved that to LWT and now I'm going through it, so I have studies Maltese
Then the Chinese. I went to Duolingo, and found that they have a lot of interesting stuff there, so I have studied Spanish, French, German, Valyrian,  Korean and Welsh :-D
I wonder how the heck they have Valyrian but not Maltese or Finnish.

I like this :-D I don't have the slightest idea if anything sticks, but this is fun. 

Yeah, that too

Constructed languages I find interesting

"Solresol, the creation of a French musician named Jean-François Sudre, was among the first of these universal languages to gain popular attention. It had only seven syllables: Do, Re, Mi, Fa, So, La, and Si. Words could be sung, or performed on a violin. Or, since the language could also be translated into the seven colors of the rainbow, sentences could be woven into a textile as a stream of colors."

I was thinking about the non-verbal Autists. We need to create a non-verbal language they can communicate with, and this might be of some use.

"A professor of linguistics, Dr. Suzette Haden, created Láadan to test the idea that human languages are not adequate for female expression and Western natural languages may be better suited for expressing the views of men than women. One goal was to determine if development of a language aimed at expressing the views of women would shape a culture.
Laadan is designed to allow people to express things in words which in English can only be conveyed by body language or tone. So, for example, a sentence might contain a special word that indicates that the whole sentence is meant to be a warning. Láadan contains a number of words that are used to make unambiguous statements that include how one feels about what one is saying. there are separate names for an emotion that means ‘happiness for a good reason’ and one that means ‘happiness for no reason’, and a single word for expressing the feeling of ‘I’m angry for a reason but nothing can be done about it.’"

More than words; Láadan

Toki Pona
Extremely minimalist but cute little language - totally possible to learn in a couple of days, but has some difficulties in using :-D

How To Learn Any Language By Cynthia Blake

This is from a blog that seems to have been hacked or something.

So, reposting.

Anyone can learn any language – all it takes is dedication and a willingness to just jump straight into the deep end.  Many people think that if they just buy a language learning course they will have everything they need.  But this isn’t really the best strategy.  A good language learning program (such as the Rocket Languages series) should also be supplemented by actually USING the language!

Now, if you’re thinking “Hey I have to learn the language before I can use it,” then pay close attention – once you learn a few words and phrases you can still start using them!  This is the strategy professed by most omniglots.  They got to where they are not by purchasing Rosetta Stone and sitting in their room for two months straight, but they actually used the language they were learning – most often with native speakers if they could.

If you’re looking for some inspiration then I definitely suggest checking out the Speak From Day 1 Language Hacking Guide ebook and course.  It’s not technically connected to any specific language – it’s more of a study technique and philosophy that can be applied no matter what language you are trying to learn.  It’s written by Benny Lewis, a language enthusiast and omniglot, and speaker on TedX.

His main strategy is to make obtainable, specific goals (such as being able to understand most of what’s spoken in a TV series, or being able to converse at least 20 seconds with a native) and break this down into a plan of action.  Usage is his main tool – his mantra is that you must use a language to acquire it.  He explains how he doesn’t really pay too much attention to grammar at first.  Grammar comes later and is often more easily grasped because by then you’ll be at least a bit familiar with it and it’s not an entirely new concept.

Benny’s enthusiasm rings through each sentence in this ebook, and if this doesn’t set you on the path towards a greater acquisition of any language then I’m not sure what will.  This book is an excellent addition to a language learning course such as the Rocket Languages series.  The two together would make an excellent team.  Even if you have another language learning program this book would benefit you greatly and would probably help you make use of any programs that you already have.

Since reading that ebook and implementing the strategies involved I’ve become a much more able learner.  Instead of looking at a language at an enemy to be conquered, with difficulty and strife, you must learn to look on the bright side: see the language as a friend you want to get to know better, with many positive aspects that may make it easier (such as similar sounding words in English).

All in all, the point is that learning a new language doesn’t have to be painful or hard.  However, you must actively participate and make the learning of a language less of a want and more of a need.  This is something that Benny preaches, and it’s utterly true.  If you just “want” to learn a language, that is too vague!  However, if you make a goal and you NEED to be able to learn how to buy an ice cream cone – in the language – in two weeks, then you’re well on your way to success.

It’s ideas like these that enable Benny Lewis to learn any language he wants, and it’s how you too can learn any language.  Maybe you won’t be able to pass a grammar test, but if you can communicate and understand, then that’s the main goal of a language anyway.  Most native speakers don’t care if your grammar is less than perfect – if they can understand you they are thrilled!  Think about it – when a foreigner is genuinely trying to communicate in English and gets his point across but speaks in broken grammar, do you get upset?  I doubt it.

Anyway, if you want some of the best motivational and practical material on how to learn any language, I definitely suggest Benny Lewis’ Speak From Day 1 Language Hacking Guide.

Hrmph!

I was watching Pushing Daisies and in the episode 2 Chuck speaks Japanese and tells Ned she had very little other things to do, so she studied languages. :-D
Well, it was inspiring. I want to be able to say "The Jarlsberg is on the table" in all possible languages, too :-D I wonder how they chose the languages to showcase. Someone who spoke Norwegian? Swedish? something in the cast?

Anyway, my 49th (7x7) birthday was a couple of days ago, and I was reminded of the "I want to know 50 languages by my 50th birthday" "goal" I have. And "52 languages in 52 weeks". I had a list of things to learn... now I can't find it anywhere. I have been going through this blog, and find that a lot of links and videos are unavailable. I should go through it all and fix it, but. Uh.

Also, I have a couple of guys in my circles, one speaks Spanish, another Arabic and the third Wolof. And I'm thinking about the Norwegian guy and how I missed the opportunity to learn Norwegian. :-(
So I'm going to take up my French and German and learn Spanish, Arabic and Wolof properly.
Let's say I'll give this... er... to the end of May. And then I should be able to be comfortable with reading books in French and German, preferably also in Spanish, and be able to have rudimentary discussions in Arabic and Wolof, to have something to build on.