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Feasibility of polyglottery while abroad | ||
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 Language Learning Forum : Lessons in Polyglottery |  | |
| snovymgodom Diglot Senior Member United States Joined 5714 days ago 136 posts - 149 votes  Speaks: English*, Russian | Message 1 of 4 17 April 2009 at 4:22pm | IP Logged | ||
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Dear Professor Arguelles,
My name is Mark Wayne, a second-year student at the George Washington University majoring in international affairs. I recently discovered your videos on YouTube and was fascinated by your methods of independent language learning, which eventually led me to register an account on this forum and read more of your very insightful posts. I apologize in advance if some of the questions I ask have already been answered in another thread. For the 2009-2010 academic year, I will be studying abroad in St.Petersburg, Russia. My program will involve in-class language study, as well as some classes on politics, literature and culture, all of which will be conducted in the Russian language. I am at a very comfortable level in Russian and am taking an advanced-level Russian class this semester, but I still have plenty of room to improve in overall competency. I have had some experience being in a Russian-speaking country, since I studied the Kazakh language for two months in Almaty, Kazakhstan last summer (this was also my very first trip outside of the United States). When I first started studying foreign languages, I had thought the best method would be to focus on getting one language to a very high proficiency while avoiding dabbling in other languages. However, since then I've become more interested in polyglottery, for lack of a better term, and it seems that many polyglots spend their time learning several languages at a time, since the new information is refreshing and it breaks up the monotony of always focusing on one language. In high school I studied Latin in the classroom and Ancient Greek with a tutor. I've also taken summer classes in Modern Standard Arabic, and throughout all this I was steadily teaching myself Russian (until I enrolled at my university and began taking intermediate-level Russian classes). My main question is about what my goal should be while I'm in Russia. Academically, the program is geared to focus on the Russian language and culture. While I am very passionate about Russian, focusing my energy on Russian all the time, for an entire year, will inevitably become tiresome. As we know, the territory of Russia is full of different languages, and I will inevitably become tempted to dabble in them while I have the chance. Also, I am comfortable using Russian-language materials for language study - I did this when I studied Kazakh, and it ended up being good practice for both my Kazakh and Russian. I am wondering whether I should continue looking at different languages while in Russia (especially those that are within the former Soviet Union), or if I should use my time to do a more in-depth look at the nuances of Russian, the way the language is used in literature, and really perfecting and polishing my speech and writing? I am fascinated by languages in general, and I particularly like languages in the former Soviet Union like Chechen, Georgian, Armenian and most Turkic languages. When I was in Kazakhstan I noticed that the local bookstore had a more interesting (to me) language section than typical American bookstores -- I ended up buying textbooks on Uyghur, Finnish, and the Russian dialect of the Roma (Gypsy) language. When I go to Russia, I plan to do the same, that is, buying materials for languages that you are unlikely to find in the United States. My only fear is that I will become too engrossed in these materials and end up not improving my Russian as well as I should have. I would guess that a large part of it is based on discipline and motivation as well as time management, which are all skills that I could improve in. All in all, I seek your general advice for what I should focus on and how I should manage my time while in Russia. Naturally, my year abroad will have many events outside the classroom - trips and excursions where I not only practice my language but learn more about the local culture. I plan to make full use of these experiences as well. But my biggest fear is coming back from being abroad thinking that I didn't make as good a use of my time as I should have. And last but not least, do you have any thoughts on the shadowing technique in Russia? I like the idea, but I fear that walking quickly and reading aloud in Russian with a foreign accent would make me stand out as an American, and we are generally encouraged not to do things that would call attention to us as foreigners. Best regards, Mark Wayne Edited by snovymgodom on 17 April 2009 at 4:25pm 2 persons have voted this message useful | |||
| Cherepaha Diglot Senior Member United States Joined 6578 days ago 126 posts - 175 votes Speaks: Russian*, English Studies: Spanish, Polish, Latin, French | Message 2 of 4 17 April 2009 at 10:53pm | IP Logged | ||
Hi Mark, Regarding the study of other languages, while in St.Petersburg. I will let others on the forum comment on the reasonableness of splitting the time between Russian and your other languages and will just mention the languages that should be within easy reach for a person residing in the city: St.Petes is within a close driving range of a number of other countries, and if you were to study one of their languages you can easily take weekend long trips to practice: - Estonia – 315 km/196 mi to Tallinn - Finland – 500 km to Helsinki - Lithuania – 656 km/404 mi to Vilnius - Sweden - 691 km / 429 miles to Stockholm - Latvia – 728 km/452 mi to Riga - Belarus – 863 km to Vitebsk - The Ukraine – 1051 km Kiev or 927 km to Odessa (by the Black Sea) - Norway – 1,230 km to Ersfjordbotn - Poland – 1424 km Warsaw [II] You’ve mentioned a particular interest in the languages of the Caucasus. You should be able to find many speakers of Georgian, Azerbagenian, Armenian, Gypsy, etc. languages in St.Petersburg. You should exercise reasonable caution, and it would generally be better to meet the speakers of the language you are studying through your local friends rather than by just approaching people at a local food market. Yet, the point I am trying to make is that all of those languages can be heard in St.Petersburg. As for shadowing, here are a few ideas: The large parks where you’ll be able to avoid crowds: 1. ЦПКиО (Central Park of Culture and Recreation named after Kirov) – go to metro station “Чёрная речка” (the location of A. Pushkin’s duel) then take a tram and exit by the Buddhist temple. This park is located on Елагин остров (Yelagin Island) and occupies the territory of the entire island; one side of it opens to the Gulf of Finland. 2. You will also find large parks in the towns that surround St.Petersburg. Depending on where you will reside it may be more convenient for you to get to one of them on the regular basis. To give you an idea of the distances, it will take you about 20-30 minutes to get to the park in the town of Пушкин, Царское Село or to the one in the town of Павловск from St.Petersburg, while it would take you over an hour to get from one end of St.Petersburg to another. There parks may be crowded on the weekends, if the weather is good, but you should be able to shadow comfortably there during the week days. [II] Smaller parks that are likely to be empty of people in the winter months are in the city’s down town: Mikhailovsky park (by The Russian museum) Alexandrinsky park (by the Admiralty) [III] You may also want to consider shadowing while walking along the embankments in the center of the city. Rivers and canals are covering the entire down town, so it should be easy to find areas where you can freely walk and talk out loud without being overheard. (The stretch of the river bank between the Philological Department of the St.Petes State University and the Academy of Arts on the Basil’s Island is one such area that I can think of off the top of my head). Best of luck in your studies! Varia 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| metafrastria Diglot Newbie Turkey Joined 5691 days ago 20 posts - 24 votes Speaks: English, Russian* Studies: French, Turkish, Ancient Greek | Message 3 of 4 21 April 2009 at 4:29pm | IP Logged | ||
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Hi Mark!
First of all, congratulations on your decision to spend the coming academic year in Russia. I am sure it will prove to be a very productive and exciting time for you, regardless of which approach to polyglottery you choose. I am also very interested in hearing what Prof. Arguelles has to say in response to your questions. Although my situation is somewhat different from yours, I am also attempting to learn several foreign languages while living abroad. In my experience, diversifying my language load has not been detrimental to my acquisition of the language on which I am trying to focus my efforts at the time. In fact, it keeps me from getting bored. On the other hand, I am not actively trying to master the language of the country where I currently reside (Turkish), instead focusing my energies on those languages that are important for my academic work (Ancient Greek and French). Your concern about attracting undue attention is perfectly understandable, and, truth be told, I would also be reluctant to do shadowing exercises while walking the streets of St. Petersburg. In her posting, Varia provides what I believe is excellent advice. I would be careful about walking in deserted parks, however, especially in early morning hours or after dark. This is not to scare you off; as long as you exercise reasonable caution, you should be fine. :) I find that in places used for jogging or other forms of physical activity, people are less likely to stare at someone walking quickly while muttering in a strange (or not-so-strange) language. In addition to places mentioned by Varia, you may try stadiums and the like. I am not sure about St. Petersburg, but in other cities many are open to the public. On a different note, it was great to hear about your time in Kazakhstan. I am originally from Almaty, and although I do not speak Kazakh, I find it admirable that a fellow language-learner would make an effort to learn this highly interesting language. Best of luck, Marina 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| ProfArguelles Moderator United States foreignlanguageexper Joined 7245 days ago 609 posts - 2102 votes | Message 4 of 4 02 May 2009 at 8:58pm | IP Logged | ||
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Dear Mr. Wayne,
As you have a year in Russia, I would advise you to concentrate upon Russian first and foremost, but not to force it. In other words, profit from the immersion experience in the main task at hand until you come to the first real learning plateau. Depending on where you are now, this will probably be somewhere in the area of 3 to 6 months. During your initial time, if you pay conscious attention to your grammar, vocabulary, pronunciation, and command of idioms, you should make great progress. After a point, however, conscious and active effort will provide less and less propulsion, for the next stage is simply to continue to grow into the language. A perfect means for doing that will be to use Russian to begin to learn other languages, using Russian-language manuals, which you may certainly begin collecting earlier than that. As for attracting attention to yourself while shadowing in a public park, well, that is always a judgment call. Just for clarity's sake, however, I will say that at your stage and in your situation of living in the country, it is not Russian itself you should be thinking of shadowing, but rather some of the minority languages that interest you after you have come to the plateau I mention in the first paragraph. Safety aside, that is, from a linguistic perspective, it might actually be advisable to draw attention to yourself - ideally from the speakers of the "minority" languages you are learning - who might then offer you some living conversation, both in Russian and in those other languages. I wish the best of success in the widest range of your studies! Alexander Arguelles 2 persons have voted this message useful |
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