Crispfencer (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
crispfencer) wrote2018-12-23 03:59 pm
crispfencer) wrote2018-12-23 03:59 pm
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Cris has spoken to her pre-recorded SSiW tutor more than irl people this week
Good evening! Let's talk language learning:
I've been going hard on the Welsh recently, since language learning is the only hobby I can do without thinking "shouldn't I be doing something better with my time?" I've always been the bottom of my class in languages at school no matter how many hours I put into studying, but this has never deterred me from trying! Maybe I'm just boneheaded.
I'm following SaySomethinginWelsh, a course which prides itself on being hard as nails. Their ethos is basically 'learning 2 hours a week at an adult education class won't make you fluent quick enough, so let's bash you over the head with verbs until you get concussion'. This would be hellish for my self-esteem, only the man doing the voiceover is kind, reassuring presence who praises you for trying and is well aware that "you've been pausing during these lessons to swear at me". He's a cruel master, but I'd take him over the glassy-eyed Duolingo owl any day.
It's tricky, and I know I'm a lot slower than most, but I'll get there. My reason for learning a language is extremely important to my motivation; if I find no reason why I should carry on learning, it's harder for me to practise. For example, German used to be my main language for about 3 years until I realised I'd drifted away from all my German friends, and didn't care much for German-language TV etc. Similarly with Japanese, I've always wanted to learn because WEABOO but I care a lot less than I used to? Welsh is perfect for me at the moment because there's so much Welsh Language culture that I want to enjoy, I'd like to move there in the future and, uhhhh, Elis. ^^; Which are all reasons that give me the motivation to keep trying!
What I'd like to know from you is this-
I've been going hard on the Welsh recently, since language learning is the only hobby I can do without thinking "shouldn't I be doing something better with my time?" I've always been the bottom of my class in languages at school no matter how many hours I put into studying, but this has never deterred me from trying! Maybe I'm just boneheaded.
I'm following SaySomethinginWelsh, a course which prides itself on being hard as nails. Their ethos is basically 'learning 2 hours a week at an adult education class won't make you fluent quick enough, so let's bash you over the head with verbs until you get concussion'. This would be hellish for my self-esteem, only the man doing the voiceover is kind, reassuring presence who praises you for trying and is well aware that "you've been pausing during these lessons to swear at me". He's a cruel master, but I'd take him over the glassy-eyed Duolingo owl any day.
It's tricky, and I know I'm a lot slower than most, but I'll get there. My reason for learning a language is extremely important to my motivation; if I find no reason why I should carry on learning, it's harder for me to practise. For example, German used to be my main language for about 3 years until I realised I'd drifted away from all my German friends, and didn't care much for German-language TV etc. Similarly with Japanese, I've always wanted to learn because WEABOO but I care a lot less than I used to? Welsh is perfect for me at the moment because there's so much Welsh Language culture that I want to enjoy, I'd like to move there in the future and, uhhhh, Elis. ^^; Which are all reasons that give me the motivation to keep trying!
What I'd like to know from you is this-
- What languages do you know?
- What languages are you currently learning?
- What languages do you wish you knew?
- Your general experience of language learning at school, personally, etc.
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Here in Brazil we start learning English at 5th grade, but because my sister is a few years older than me, I came into school already knowing it, because I used to read her notebook, so I was always top of the class and I even used to help my teacher mark other kids exams... =D
Don't give up, you are not boneheaded and you have the perfect outlook to learn which is "I will get there", is fine that you are slower than others, you don't need to be at the same pace as everyone else. Take your own time, do what is right for you and you will get there!!
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Thank you for your words of support, they mean a lot. And yes, I'll get there!
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I know English (my first language) and I'm pretty good at reading Spanish (but my speaking/listening is wayyyyy out of practice). I did a few years of Italian in college and it's close enough to Spanish that I think I could read there, too.
I've dabbled in a bunch of others, sometimes for tourist purposes and sometimes because I'm like, 'I should probably know some of that,' and sometimes just from interest. So I can get through asking directions and saying hello in French and Icelandic. I did some German but got bored and I don't think I've retained any of it. I also did a year of Arabic in college, but I haven't retained any of that, either.
And I started on the Duolingo Navajo module but it's pretty minimal and the language is complicated enough that I think it needs something more advanced than what Duolingo can provide. I wish I could get more of that, but I'm not sure there is a good source for learning it.
I think in general I'm good with languages, but I struggle with the available online tools. It seems like all the modern methods want you to focus on learning in a real world context of conversation, which I definitely think is useful, but I ALSO want to have a chart of verb forms and be able to memorize numbers in order and so on. Sometimes I just need to recite and drill! Everyone says that's a bad idea, but I think it has its place. So maybe I should take a real class... but that means taking a real class. :/
If I had to focus on one language, I think I'd have to work on getting my Spanish up to scratch just because it's the most useful and I'm the best at it. But if I'm allowed to pick anything regardless of utility, I'd probably say Navajo.
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Duo suits me for the moment, even if it's not perfect, bc it's a start, and it gets those languages into my head a little bit. I would prefer to use babbel bc I liked their German course better, but that's for when I've got spare money tbh bc you pay per language and I'm broke atm. XD If I could afford proper in-person courses, I'd take those up too, because I know they'd help a lot to get me more fluent, but that's money I don't have right now either.
I would like to pick up Latin and Middle Egyptian again though. I've only really dabbled and self-taught myself those languages and there are some translation projects in Middle Egyptian and German that I have on the go, and it's why I picked up German in the first place bc Egyptology is mostly in French and German fml. I don't really want to do French though bc I feel it would just send me mad. XD I go back and forth over whether I want to pick up Japanese again though, but idk. It's not really a big focus for me atm.
Year 12 was the only year at school where I wasn't so keen on Italian bc we got a new teacher and she didn't take kindly to me or my friend, but I still passed just to spite her, so yeah. But our other teacher was much better, she was lovely. She was the reason I kept on going with Italian throughout high school bc I enjoyed her lessons so much.
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The thing about learning Latin and Middle Egyptian is that all your potential penfriends died centuries ago :P
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What I like about babbel is that it teaches you the grammar and verb tables and all that other stuff that Duo tends to skip bc that's not what Duo is for. And I really loved that about babbel. Gods bless me with a job so I can give babbel all my money for language courses in lieu of in person classes.
And, well, for Latin and Middle Egyptian, I really just want to be able to read and write them for scholarly purposes, not necessarily for corresopondence, though there are more people than you think who can correspond in these languages.
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I speak English, Malay and Mandarin Chinese. We're a bit of a cultural hotpot here so children get taught in multiple languages growing up and everyday conversation is a mix as well. There are vernacular schools (Chinese/Tamil) which I attended as a kid, so my primary education was mainly taught in Mandarin.. I got attached to English at a young age though, probably because most of the media I consumed (books, tv, film..) was in that. As a result I increasingly shunned every other language :\ so my Mandarin skills are now well dodgy, with verrry basic reading/writing. There's a lot of guilt over that haha but at least I know enough to get by!
There's also a LOT of different chinese dialects which I've neglected to learn. My parents speak Fuchow/Cantonese/Hainan -- I can sorrrrta understand little phrases but am clueless about them otherwise.
I had a brief foray into French via duolingo a few years ago lol. That and Welsh are languages I'd love to learn someday! I did once consider picking up Latin during medical school too, because so many medical terms are basically just that (I think some med schools in the UK do have basic latin classes?)
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This is really interesting! I live on the border where there’s a lot of French Language schools, but not much else. About 40% of the teachers at my secondary school were French but there was no drive for a bilingual education, which I always felt was a shame. (Probably down to the English suspicion of other languages ahaha)
My best friend at school was Filipino so spoke English and Tagalog with a bit of Spanish thrown in, and we often talked about awkward exchanges with family members who assumed she still had 100% fluency, and the guilt that came with that.
Yes Latin! (Caecillius est in horto, ohoho) Latin was mandatory for 3 years but I took it for 7 since it was the only language which didn’t require speaking/listening exams... that class was literally just me (there for a laugh/laziness) and all the girls wanting to go to Medical school lol.
So, what language do you dream in? :P
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Malaysia's education ministry gets, uh, quite indecisive on the national curriculum. Not sure how it is now, but there was a point in secondary school where all my science and math exams had to be printed in both Malay and English..
(I had to google that latin phrase and, well, i didn't expect that level of memes to pop up)
haha my thoughts are always in english, so same with dreams! can't remember a time when they weren't tbh. do you dream in other languages?!
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Exam papers in two languages?! Oh lordy.
I took my art, history, and strangely german qualifications using the Welsh board, which meant all documents had to be in both English and Welsh. Our noun sheets were trilingual!
Haha, it’s a big meme in the UK! Since there’s only really one Latin textbook, everyone who’s ever studied it comes across that sentence in the first chapter. It’s seeped so much into our pop cutlure that the characters gave their names to the family in the Pompeii episode of Doctor Who!
Aaaaa, I thought it was a bilingual thing?? I remember George Fouracres talking about how he gets the rare dream in Italian, or something. Ignore me :T
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The "W" chapter of Holy Vible is very relevant to this post btw! Absolutely lovely and eloquent write-up by Elis there.
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So that's quite a few languages but I'm really only fluent in German and English - maybe French, but my speaking is crap. :D I would love to learn proper Italian because I love the sound of the language, and maybe some Scandinavian language as well? Welsh sounds so hard, but it's also lovely to listen to.
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So were you a languages student at uni? You know so many!
I'd imagine a Scandinavian language is far removed from the latin-based ones we've familiar with, what a challenge that'd be get to grips with!
Wha- Welsh is hard?! I was drawn in by promises of a no-nonsense phonetic alphabet and straightforward grammar rules, but got blindsided by noun mutations (what even- why???) and unfamiliar mouth noises, so I guess you're right.
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Do you do the Northern or Southern course? Because I've listened to a few of the Northern lessons, but Southern is the one I've done properly, and I ADORE the voice guy :D
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I do the Southern course because it's probably the one that'll be of the most use to me. (Also North Welsh seems to be the butt of a lot of jokes...) The guy who does it is lovely. I wish he was my languages teacher at school!
Noting you down a potential study buddy when I'm confident enough to do conversational practice sessions... :)
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