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Language study as a doctoral student | ||
Tags: Polyglottery | College/University | ||
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 Language Learning Forum : Lessons in Polyglottery |  | |
| Po-ru Diglot Senior Member United States Joined 5477 days ago 173 posts - 235 votes  Speaks: English*, Japanese Studies: Korean, Spanish, Norwegian, Mandarin, French | Message 1 of 13 25 April 2013 at 3:12am | IP Logged | |||||
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I have personally e-mailed Prof Arguelles this question, but I think I should also share it with the forum. I was wondering how a doctoral student, who was interested in also pursuing polyglottery the manner Prof Arguelles has, could possibly continue pursuing language study if it is unrelated to one's doctoral work? I will be entering a program soon and unfortunately probably won't need to obtain any new language skills, though I greatly want to. I was wondering if anyone has any experience with this or any tips on how to manage a doctoral workload and also continue in one's study to become a cultured polyglot?
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| sehiralti Triglot Newbie Finland Joined 4754 days ago 15 posts - 27 votes Speaks: Turkish*, EnglishC2, German Studies: Swedish, Finnish | Message 2 of 13 25 April 2013 at 8:22am | IP Logged | |||||
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I'm doing a master's degree now. It's not exactly doctorate, but it's a research degree so it might correspond slightly
to the first years of a Grad School in US. I find that one can actually make some time for language learning. What I do is, during the breaks I start a new language (if I want to, of course) and study it very, very intensively. Up to 8-10 hrs a day for 1-2 weeks. During this time, I try to come to a point where I can understand more or less what is spoken (not necessarily understanding every word) and read native material to at least enjoy them somehow. After that, learning becomes natural and I can just work on a language 0,5-1 hour a day to maintain what I learned and go on learning new words as I read. 2 persons have voted this message useful | ||||||
| Cabaire Senior Member Germany Joined 5596 days ago 725 posts - 1352 votes | Message 3 of 13 25 April 2013 at 1:46pm | IP Logged | |||||
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Afer 1-2 weeks of learning a new language, you are able to enjoy reading native material and understand what is spoken?
I am flabbergasted. I myself need 1-2 years to accomplish that goal. Your short term memory must be fantastic! 3 persons have voted this message useful | ||||||
| sehiralti Triglot Newbie Finland Joined 4754 days ago 15 posts - 27 votes Speaks: Turkish*, EnglishC2, German Studies: Swedish, Finnish | Message 4 of 13 25 April 2013 at 6:52pm | IP Logged | |||||
Sorry that I was not very exact with my post. I can come to a certain level where I can enjoy things but I do not understand everything of course, not even close. The level I was talking about is understanding the words that is spoken (i.e., not necessarily understanding the meaning of each word, but understanding what the words are anyway) and being able to read simple materials intended for native speakers and enjoy enough to go on. I did something similar with Swedish recently, although the terms were a bit different: I didn't have enough time to study everyday but I studies for about 1 hour everyday for 1,5 months, and now I have been studying intensively for almost a week (and I have one more free week). I can watch swedish tv, enjoy what I watch, if they have swedish subtitles (usually intended for the deaf) I can understand almost everything. Of course, one could argue that I already speak English and German which are quite similar to Swedish. But what I did in this intensive week is mostly L-R'ing and many people similarly got quick results with L-R. Although it goes without saying that if I were to study a language with a different scripting system it would take much, much more to learn. But I just have a low threshold of understanding, I guess. I don't try to understand every single word and I switch to simple native material as soon as possible, which are usually graphic novels that I already read before. I think I started reading graphic novels in Swedish in my 2nd or 3rd week. And with the second month over now, I'm about to finish the first novel I read in Swedish and I intend to start a next one next week. I will try a similar approach with Finnish in May, where I have 2-3 weeks with almost nothing else I have to do. I am curious to see if I can progress as much as I can. But my advice would still be to study as intensively as possible for a few weeks and to try to switch to enjoyable material as soon as possible. 3 persons have voted this message useful | ||||||
| patrickwilken Senior Member Germany radiant-flux.net Joined 4530 days ago 1546 posts - 3200 votes Studies: German | Message 5 of 13 25 April 2013 at 8:18pm | IP Logged | |||||
It probably depends a bit on your doctorate. I think it's certainly possible to spend an hour or so a day studying languages while doing your doctorate. I would recommend not telling anyone, as they will inevitably think you are slacking off. It depends a lot on your level. If you are B1+ in a language, you can study a lot just by reading extensively, add a few podcasts etc and you are laughing. If you doing something like molecular biology, there is a lot of downtime during experiments where you could just as easily be doing Anki revision as updating FB or doing Twitter. Having done, and watched lots of other people do doctorates, it's not all equally busy. If you have a lot of coursework in the first year or so it might be quite hard to find time to study depending on levels of homework. The middle periods where you are doing only thesis work are relatively stress free, and this period takes up some years, so there is plenty of time to slowly learn a language. 1 person has voted this message useful | ||||||
| tarvos Super Polyglot Winner TAC 2012 Senior Member China likeapolyglot.wordpr Joined 4704 days ago 5310 posts - 9399 votes Speaks: Dutch*, English, Swedish, French, Russian, German, Italian, Norwegian, Mandarin, Romanian, Afrikaans Studies: Greek, Modern Hebrew, Spanish, Portuguese, Czech, Korean, Esperanto, Finnish | Message 6 of 13 25 April 2013 at 8:23pm | IP Logged | |||||
Most people don't think this actually. Think they'd see it as good self-development, especially if you're doing it in your free time. Edited by tarvos on 25 April 2013 at 8:23pm 3 persons have voted this message useful | ||||||
| vermillon Triglot Senior Member United Kingdom Joined 4675 days ago 602 posts - 1042 votes Speaks: French*, EnglishC2, Mandarin Studies: Japanese, German | Message 7 of 13 25 April 2013 at 9:35pm | IP Logged | |||||
I don't know if you have a PhD, but many people (in academia) consider a doctorate as a moment of your life when "free time" is a thing that doesn't exist... if you have fun, it means you're not working towards your PhD, i.e. slacking off. (they think) 3 persons have voted this message useful | ||||||
| Serpent Octoglot Senior Member Russian Federation serpent-849.livejour Joined 6594 days ago 9753 posts - 15779 votes 4 sounds Speaks: Russian*, English, FinnishC1, Latin, German, Italian, Spanish, Portuguese Studies: Danish, Romanian, Polish, Belarusian, Ukrainian, Croatian, Slovenian, Catalan, Czech, Galician, Dutch, Swedish | Message 8 of 13 26 April 2013 at 3:05am | IP Logged | |||||
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@sehiralti all of your languages are actually considered pretty 'clear'. Of course a completely different language would be difficult, but French or Danish are also very difficult in this regard!
@Cabaire enjoyment doesn't always require [much] understanding :) 2 persons have voted this message useful |
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