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2010 a Language Odyssey (Team H) - CLOSED | ||
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 Language Learning Forum : Language Learning Log |  | |
| GREGORG4000 Diglot Senior Member United States Joined 5312 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 | |||||||||||
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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.
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| Sprachprofi Nonaglot Senior Member Germany learnlangs.comRegistered users can see my Skype Name Joined 6259 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 | |||||||||||
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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 5136 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 | |||||||||||
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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 6259 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 | |||||||||||
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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 5345 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 | |||||||||||
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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 6259 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 | |||||||||||
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.
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!
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.
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 5345 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!
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 6259 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 | |||||||||||
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.
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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