One year - unlimited funds (General discussion) Language Learning Forum

One year - unlimited funds
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montmorency
Diglot
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United Kingdom
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Studies: Danish, Welsh

Message 17 of 40

13 March 2014 at 11:17pm | IP Logged

Solfrid Cristin wrote:

The ongoing discussion on immersion, made me curious. If you
had a year with no obligations (no family, no job), but unlimited funds to go where you
wanted and learn whichever language you wanted, where would you go and how would you
spend your time and money? What would you consider the most effecient way to learn?

For me, if I were to go right now, I would obviously go to Russia, live in a Russian
family and try to get as many Russian friends as possible. Preferably in Novosibirsk or
somewhere witout too many tourists. I would get 2 or 3 good teachers who would do
dialogues with me, and would ease me into the grammar and writing for 3-4 hours a day,
and then I would spend the rest of the day reading, writing, watching television, and
speaking as much as possible with the people around me. After the first 6 months with
private tutors or studying in a small group, I would try to join some sort of
University programme, to get pushed into doing literature and civilization, while still
trying to be as big a part of every day society as I possibly could.

If I were to do it 5 years from now, I would first do a three month's Mandarin
immersion course at Berlitz either here in Oslo or in Singapore, with 10-12 hours a
day, and then I would go to rural China for the next 3 months to just get a real feel
for the language, untainted by the big city, and then spend my last 6 months in the
outskirts of a nice Southern Chinese city with access to a University so that I would
get the literature as well. I would walk around the city, ask about all the unknown
characters I saw, try to use my Chinese as much as possible, and go to teh cinema,
wathc movies, even try to learn some songs.

Much as I believe in immersion, I doubt that I would be able to go with total immersion
from the very beginning in Mandarin. Much as I admire Benny, and I really like what he
does, I do not know if I would have had the stomach to go all inn and do full immersion
from day one.

I could perfectly well see myself doing that with say, Portuguese, where I know that I
would understand enough to learn only from immersion, but in the languages that are
further away, I do not think I could do that now.

So how about you guys?

I think it would be Deutschland, Deutschland über alles for me, with a bit of Austria
and Switzerland thrown in.

Fairly unexciting by some people's standards, but although I've been studying the
language, culture and history for quite a long time now, I don't really know the
country all that well, and certainly not as well as I'd like.

A talk this evening at our local Anglo-German club rekindled my enthusiasm for Berlin,
so I guess I'd base myself there, at least to begin with, but also certainly travel
around, ideally by train and bike, (and maybe by boat, in places).

Since I wouldn't be learning the language exactly, more activating and improving it, I
don't think I'd use a language tutor as such, but I might try to find some kind of
accent coach. (As I mentioned elsewhere, the speaker at the AGC was German, but spoke
fluent English in an entertaining fashion, but his accent (even after many years in the
UK) was thick enough to hinder comprehension. I was quite surprised, having heard other
Germans who have lived in the UK for any length of time, and have almost no accent.

So, I'd seek help with my accent at least (and I'd always be hoping to pick up new
vocabulary from anyone and everyone, and no doubt the occasional grammar correction.

Although I don't have any particular academic ambitions, taking courses to keep the
mind alive, and also to force oneself to progress in the language sounds an interesting idea.

Also maybe trying to find some worthwhile voluntary work to do, to feel useful, to pay
back a little of what I'm getting out of the country, and also of course to interact
more with people.

Edited by montmorency on 13 March 2014 at 11:24pm
1 person has voted this message useful

chokofingrz
Pentaglot
Senior Member
England
Joined 5189 days ago
241 posts - 430 votes

Speaks: English*, French, Spanish, German, Italian
Studies: Russian, Japanese, Catalan, Luxembourgish

Message 18 of 40

14 March 2014 at 1:41am | IP Logged

With unlimited funds I think globetrotting yearnings would trump language study. How about 8 months doing volunteer work or conservation projects in Brazil, Argentina, Chile and Bolivia, to bring Spanish and Portuguese back to high C-level? Followed by 3 months travel blogging and taking language classes up and down Japan (one of the most expensive countries). You'll notice I have 1 month left... well, it would sure be nice to spend part of the winter in a ski resort working on my Italiano, downhill slalom and passive pasta input skills!
2 persons have voted this message useful

Jeffers
Senior Member
United Kingdom
Joined 4909 days ago
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Speaks: English*
Studies: Hindi, Ancient Greek, French, Sanskrit, German

Message 19 of 40

14 March 2014 at 2:26pm | IP Logged

Unlimited funds? I would cheat a little bit, but for a good reason:

I would hire a team of linguists, tutors, programmers and graphic designers, and make
Linguascape (or World of Languagecraft), the interactive and fun language teaching
MMORPG. This is slightly cheating because I'm spending most of the funds on development
and not directly on language learning. But I would spend most of my time "testing" the
game (and so making sure it is effective for teaching the language(s)), and travelling
within my target language areas to collect and study original native material for use in
the software.
3 persons have voted this message useful

jeff_lindqvist
Diglot
Moderator
SwedenRegistered users can see my Skype Name
Joined 6909 days ago
4250 posts - 5711 votes

Speaks: Swedish*, English
Studies: German, Spanish, Russian, Dutch, Mandarin, Esperanto, Irish, French
Personal Language Map

Message 20 of 40

14 March 2014 at 5:36pm | IP Logged

I'd make sure I had access to the best tutors and the best study material, preferably in an immersion situation. How many languages I would be able to juggle at the end of the year, I don't know. It's a question of depth vs. breadth, but probably a combination of both, say two-three months with a language I've already studied, then three four weeks with a low-focus language, another two-three months... and so on.
1 person has voted this message useful

Josquin
Heptaglot
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Germany
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Speaks: German*, English, French, Latin, Italian, Russian, Swedish
Studies: Japanese, Irish, Portuguese, Persian

Message 21 of 40

14 March 2014 at 9:29pm | IP Logged

montmorency wrote:

I think it would be Deutschland, Deutschland über alles for me,

This sentence sounds very problematic to a German's ear. You should be very cautious with quoting this line, which has a very problematic history. It's not PC to refer to modern Germany with quotes from the unpleasant past, to put it delicately.
4 persons have voted this message useful

Solfrid Cristin
Heptaglot
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Norway
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Message 22 of 40

14 March 2014 at 10:26pm | IP Logged

Josquin wrote:

montmorency wrote:

I think it would be Deutschland, Deutschland über alles for me,

This sentence sounds very problematic to a German's ear. You should be very cautious with quoting this line,
which has a very problematic history. It's not PC to refer to modern Germany with quotes from the unpleasant
past, to put it delicately.

I am so sorry to hear that. Because of our history we are of course acutely aware of its significance, but when
I read Montmorency's words I smiled, thinking that I was happy to see that the expression could now be used
without dark connotations and that we were freed of the burdens of the past.
3 persons have voted this message useful

montmorency
Diglot
Senior Member
United Kingdom
Joined 4828 days ago
2371 posts - 3676 votes

Speaks: English*, German
Studies: Danish, Welsh

Message 23 of 40

15 March 2014 at 12:11am | IP Logged

Josquin wrote:

montmorency wrote:

I think it would be Deutschland, Deutschland
über alles for me,

This sentence sounds very problematic to a German's ear. You should be very cautious
with quoting this line, which has a very problematic history. It's not PC to refer to
modern Germany with quotes from the unpleasant past, to put it delicately.

I didn't mean to cause offence (quite the opposite - it was meant light-heartedly, and
since (theoretically) it was in the context of me spending up to a year in Germany, you
can hardly call me anti-German.

And I think you are being over-sensitive. Unless I have misread this Wikipedia article
Deutschlandlied those are still
the first lines of the Deutschlandlied and I was using them in the true spirit of the
song (i.e. in favour of republican liberalism). It was adopted during the Weimar
republic and not the one that came after it, and initially, Der Weimarer Republik
was a period of hope for Germany, even if things fell apart at the end.

OK, reading further, only the 3rd stanza is now used officially, but everyone still
knows the first line, and the original tune is still used. Intelligent people know that
the first line isn't meant in the nationalistic way that it may sound (to some). Most
national anthems are a bit over-blown, IMO.

If you hadn't made an issue of this, I doubt if anyone would have noticed, so your
comment has perhaps had the opposite effect of that intended.

...ok, reading further, maybe you are getting at this:

Quote:

Use during Nazi rule[edit]

During the Nazi era, only the first stanza was used, followed by the SA song "Horst-
Wessel-Lied".[8] The anthem was played at occasions of great national significance,
such as the opening of the 1936 Summer Olympics in Berlin, when Hitler and his
entourage, along with the Olympic officials, walked into the stadium amid a chorus of
three thousand Germans singing the Deutschlandlied. In this way, the first verse of the
anthem became closely identified with the Nazi regime.[9]

Well, ok, maybe it did, but they didn't write it, and it didn't originate in that era,
and it's a long time ago. We have a saying (source disputed): "Don't let the devil have
all the best tunes". I think that applies here too.

.

However, if I have caused offence to anyone, then it was not intended, and I apologise,
and I'd still (of course) spend my "one year with unlimited funds" primarily in
Germany.
2 persons have voted this message useful

Bao
Diglot
Senior Member
Germany
tinyurl.com/pe4kqe5
Joined 5766 days ago
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Speaks: German*, English
Studies: French, Spanish, Japanese, Mandarin

Message 24 of 40

15 March 2014 at 12:25am | IP Logged

I noticed. I let it slide. If we'd been in a RL conversation I would have shown or told you that it was a rather insensitive choice of words. Remember, a lot gets lost over the internet - sarcasm, lighthearted comments, the context you are thinking of but the reader can't imagine. I, when I hear that phrase in RL, think it polarises the overall point the speaker is trying to make, either they are being sarcastic and they are really unhappy with the state of the affairs here, or they are showing affinity to certain ideologies. There's talk about fostering a 'healthy' nationalism, but ... well, this wouldn't be an expression of it.

Edited by Bao on 15 March 2014 at 12:26am

3 persons have voted this message useful

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