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2010 a Language Odyssey (Team H) - CLOSED

 Language Learning Forum : Language Learning Log Post Reply
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GREGORG4000
Diglot
Senior Member
United States
Joined 5527 days ago

307 posts - 479 votes 
Speaks: English*, Finnish
Studies: Japanese, Korean, Amharic, French

 
 Message 65 of 85
19 April 2010 at 3:19am | IP Logged 
I think that one centralized "Esperanto argument thread" would be beneficial, and all the argumenting can be kept there, rather than decentralized around a bunch of topics. I understand why you're leaving.
1 person has voted this message useful



Sprachprofi
Nonaglot
Senior Member
Germany
learnlangs.comRegistered users can see my Skype Name
Joined 6474 days ago

2608 posts - 4866 votes 
Speaks: German*, English, French, Esperanto, Greek, Mandarin, Latin, Dutch, Italian
Studies: Spanish, Arabic (Written), Swahili, Indonesian, Japanese, Modern Hebrew, Portuguese

 
 Message 66 of 85
19 April 2010 at 11:35am | IP Logged 
Thank you for all your kind words. I'm particularly happy to see that some understand
my motivations - it is not the people who disagree with me on the subject of Esperanto
that prompted my decision (though if there was a week without any such discussion I
should finally be able to spend as much time learning languages as I planned to),
rather I find it insupportable to keep reading statements like Esperanto is a dead
language, people learning Esperanto are deluded, there's no benefit to studying
Esperanto, Esperanto doesn't have a culture, Esperanto haha...

Please replace "Esperanto" with your native language in the above statements and you
will feel what I feel. Do you see why I don't want to hang out on a forum where I have
to read those kind of sentiments several times a week? You may think it's not
comparable, but to me it is exactly the same. I'm sitting at my computer here listening
to Esperanto music, with two other Esperanto speakers in the same room and more
Esperanto books than French ones on my bookshelves (I major in French linguistics &
literature), I personally know several native speakers, Saturday night I attended a
lecture by Wikipedia's CTO in Esperanto and partied in Esperanto afterwards... This is
a lot more than I could say about any other language I'm studying; plus Esperanto
really gives you the feeling of "owning" the language, being able to bend it, knead it,
shape it, take it apart and put it back together - only poets get that license in other
languages.

With Lingvoforumo set up now, I'm
going to discuss most of the things that come to my mind on there, but as I said, I
have been convinced to check back here occasionally and answer private messages or
posts directed at me; if only not to leave my TAC team mates hanging.
1 person has voted this message useful



Emme
Triglot
Senior Member
Italy
Joined 5351 days ago

980 posts - 1594 votes 
Speaks: Italian*, English, German
Studies: Russian, Swedish, French

 
 Message 67 of 85
19 April 2010 at 11:48am | IP Logged 
Sprachprofi, I’m rather new to the forum but I’ve been reading it for years. I’ve always read your posts with interest as they always proved intelligent and informative.
I followed the threads on Esperanto without contributing to them because I simply don’t know enough about it to have an opinion. However, the whole commotion of the past days drove me to search out more information on Esperanto on both Wikipedia and lernu.net so for me it turned out to be a stimulating discussion (even though I must admit I was disturbed by the heated tones and the unreasonable intolerance that characterized too many posts on those threads). Who knows, I may or may not pursue Esperanto further, but I certainly think people should feel free to study any language, be it natural or constructed, and encounter only support and respect from other language lovers.
Even if I think the departure of any voice as interesting as yours is a pity and will leave this forum a poorer place and even if I, like so many other posters before me, wish you will reconsider and go back to contributing to this forum 360° (as we Italian say), I respect whatever decision you make. Good luck!


Edited by Emme on 19 April 2010 at 11:54am

1 person has voted this message useful



Sprachprofi
Nonaglot
Senior Member
Germany
learnlangs.comRegistered users can see my Skype Name
Joined 6474 days ago

2608 posts - 4866 votes 
Speaks: German*, English, French, Esperanto, Greek, Mandarin, Latin, Dutch, Italian
Studies: Spanish, Arabic (Written), Swahili, Indonesian, Japanese, Modern Hebrew, Portuguese

 
 Message 68 of 85
30 April 2010 at 11:23am | IP Logged 
My first TAC update on my blog is out. Week 16 was a really slow one due to depression,
but week 17 looked very good.
Read my
update

1 person has voted this message useful



Teango
Triglot
Winner TAC 2010 & 2012
Senior Member
United States
teango.wordpress.comRegistered users can see my Skype Name
Joined 5560 days ago

2210 posts - 3734 votes 
Speaks: English*, German, Russian
Studies: Hawaiian, French, Toki Pona

 
 Message 69 of 85
30 April 2010 at 7:46pm | IP Logged 
Good log, Sprachprofi. I like your recent move to focusing on 2 languages per quarter, but still doing a little maintenance in the background to keep those other languages fresh.

I try to do something along the same lines, by concentrating on just one language at a time, but aiming to complete a basic comprehensive foundation programme for each (i.e. get up to lower B2 level in all the skills) before moving on to the next language. Hopefully I'll be able to get some to this level by the end of the year, work and other commitments permitting.

It's not so easy of course, as the wanderlust soul in me, like with so many others here on the forum, just wants to hit the road with as many cool languages as possible and all in the same week. The other issue that raises its head is that you can lose that initial "Christmas morning" feeling, i.e. that giddy excitement and motivation, for starting a new language, if it's put on hold for too long. I guess it's best to compromise a little and find a middle path where possible in these things, or maybe to change things about to renew motivation like you're doing.

The ideal situation to keep up other languages would be to be to use them at work or where you live, like I imagine you're already doing. Another idea suggested to me several times is to learn or advance one language via another of which you already have advanced knowledge. I haven't tried this yet due to only recently starting my real travels on this road to acquiring many languages properly, but maybe it's worth trying out some time too.

I'm interested in having a look at this book "Refuse to Choose!" that you're reading... ;)

Edited by Teango on 30 April 2010 at 7:48pm

1 person has voted this message useful



Sprachprofi
Nonaglot
Senior Member
Germany
learnlangs.comRegistered users can see my Skype Name
Joined 6474 days ago

2608 posts - 4866 votes 
Speaks: German*, English, French, Esperanto, Greek, Mandarin, Latin, Dutch, Italian
Studies: Spanish, Arabic (Written), Swahili, Indonesian, Japanese, Modern Hebrew, Portuguese

 
 Message 70 of 85
30 April 2010 at 8:02pm | IP Logged 
Teango wrote:
I try to do something along the same lines, by concentrating on just
one language at a time, but aiming to complete a basic comprehensive foundation
programme for each (i.e. get up to lower B2 level in all the skills) before moving on
to the next language. Hopefully I'll be able to get some to this level by the end of
the year, work and other commitments permitting.

If you notice, I chose my language combos in such a way that I always have a relatively
advanced language and a weak one. This accommodates my learning in that I can study a
new lesson in my weak language when my mental energy is good and otherwise just read
something in my chosen advanced language. Also, I find it's very rewarding to study an
exotic new grammar point at times, while at other times I've had my share of "new" for
the day.

Quote:
The other issue that raises its head is that you can lose that initial
"Christmas morning" feeling, i.e. that giddy excitement and motivation, for starting a
new language, if it's put on hold for too long.

For a long time I didn't feel very interested in Chinese anymore (much like I'm now
dreading French study), but this was solved the moment I found new materials, namely
comic renditions of well-known stories from the Spring and Autumn Period and other
parts of Chinese history. Also, for Greek it was getting a Greek Harry Potter book for
Christmas that re-ignited my interest. Earlier, finding an amazingly good teacher made
me start seriously doing something about Spanish. If you feel the threat of boredom for
a language that you absolutely want to continue studying, just spend more time browsing
around!

Quote:
Another idea suggested to me several times is to learn or advance one language
via another of which you already have advanced knowledge.

I do not like it very much. I'm forced to do so for Assimil Swahili, which is only
available in French. Even though I speak French fluently, I'm often not quite sure
about words that I learn through French, either because French makes different semantic
distinctions than German or because the words are too unusual for me to have
encountered before (e. g. recently "utomvu" = sève = sap of a tree). What I learn
through French does not "stick" nearly as well as what I learn through German or
English.

Quote:
I'm interested in having a look at this book "Refuse to Choose!" that you're
reading... ;)

I can wholeheartedly recommend it to everybody on this forum. I believe that the
majority of people here are Scanners.

Edited by Sprachprofi on 30 April 2010 at 8:04pm

1 person has voted this message useful



Teango
Triglot
Winner TAC 2010 & 2012
Senior Member
United States
teango.wordpress.comRegistered users can see my Skype Name
Joined 5560 days ago

2210 posts - 3734 votes 
Speaks: English*, German, Russian
Studies: Hawaiian, French, Toki Pona

 
 Message 71 of 85
30 April 2010 at 11:09pm | IP Logged 
Thanks for the tips! I've got an Irish Harry Potter book calling out to me from the bookshelf right now, which I need to put on hold for the time being. I just hope one day that I'll be able to read this with ease too - that'd be simply amazing!

Sprachprofi wrote:
I believe that the majority of people here are Scanners.

This would explain the incredible cognitive skills and abilities of many here... ;)

Edited by Teango on 30 April 2010 at 11:13pm

1 person has voted this message useful



Sprachprofi
Nonaglot
Senior Member
Germany
learnlangs.comRegistered users can see my Skype Name
Joined 6474 days ago

2608 posts - 4866 votes 
Speaks: German*, English, French, Esperanto, Greek, Mandarin, Latin, Dutch, Italian
Studies: Spanish, Arabic (Written), Swahili, Indonesian, Japanese, Modern Hebrew, Portuguese

 
 Message 72 of 85
01 May 2010 at 11:53am | IP Logged 
Teango wrote:
Thanks for the tips! I've got an Irish Harry Potter book calling out to
me from the bookshelf right now, which I need to put on hold for the time being. I just
hope one day that I'll be able to read this with ease too - that'd be simply
amazing!

L-R could get you there sooner rather than later, possibly within a month... unless you
are working towards a real deadline like an exam, I'd study whatever calls to you right
now because it boosts your retention and focus. Who knows if it will feel as attractive
once you are scheduled to study it.

Quote:
Sprachprofi wrote:
I believe that the majority of people here are
Scanners.

This would explain the incredible
cognitive skills and abilities of many here... ;)

Haha, I mean "Scanner" in the sense of Barbara Sher's book; for people who find it
gratifying to learn something new and who often have trouble sticking to just one or
two specialty fields.


1 person has voted this message useful



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