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Josquin’s Language Symphony (RU, IR, 東亜) | ||
Tags: Gaelic (Scottish) | Gaelic (Irish) | Icelandic | Portuguese | Multilingual | Total Annihilation Challenge (TAC) | Italian | Japanese | Russian | ||
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 Language Learning Forum : Language Learning Log |  | |
| Josquin Heptaglot Senior Member Germany Joined 4625 days ago 2266 posts - 3992 votes  Speaks: German*, English, French, Latin, Italian, Russian, Swedish Studies: Japanese, Irish, Portuguese, Persian | Message 625 of 646 15 May 2015 at 9:21pm | IP Logged | ||
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Okay, what I wrote yesterday might have been somewhat too negative, but I'm going through a lot of things right now and keep re-evaluating the relevance of things. As I have written several times now, the importance of language learning has changed for me, but I think Woodsei nailed it when she said it didn't have to be all or nothing. In fact, that got me thinking. This post is mainly thinking out loudly, just as yesterday's post was, but maybe it's of interest to some of you.
I already said that I don't want to keep studying languages in the same intense fashion as for the last three years. However, I don't want to abandon languages either. In fact, it's mainly systematic, traditional study methods that I'm fed up with, you know the old dialogue-vocabulary-grammar-exercises methods. Ó Siadhail's Learning Irish is the perfect example of that. Of course, they're perfect in the beginning in order to get the basics down, but I've gone through so many of them now that they simply bore me out of my mind. I remember someone writing something similar on HTLAL some time ago. Was it Serpent? I don't recall. Well, where does that leave me? Actually, I love foreign languages, especially when I can do something with them, like reading books or watching TV shows. Just yesterday, I skimmed through the first few pages of Anna Karenina in Russian and noticed that I understood a lot, definitely enough to get the gist. Now, that's where studying gets fun. Next example: podcasts. I love podcasts! You can simply listen to them while you're cooking, running, driving or whatever. Perfect! I don't listen to JapanesePod101 regularly, but I keep coming back to it, while I gave up on Genki a long time ago. Of course, textbooks want to make sure you understand grammar, so you can produce correct language on your own, but I don't need that. I just need to be able to understand. So, podcasts are great for me! The next problem, which I also touched upon some time ago, is my constant wanderlust. As I already wrote yesterday, I'm kind of a scanner person. I love to learn new things and I get bored by repeating the same stuff over and over again. That's why I love new languages. They are so shiny, bright, and interesting that I just keep adding one language after the other. However, that results in studying too many languages at the same time, which causes burn-out. That was my main problem. I was asking too much of myself by studying too many languages in parallel. Now, I'm not the only person on HTLAL who is overwhelmed by their working life, but when your hobby starts overwhelming you, something's seriously wrong. That's why I had to pull the plug and why I keep having problems finding a reasonable attitude towards languages. I was kind of obsessed or even addicted for the reasons I explained yesterday. On top of that, I have so many other interests which demand my time that sometimes my head is spinning and I can't even decide what to do first. For example, at the moment I'm getting into poetry again, something I haven't dealt with for years. So, once again, where does that leave me now? I really like to remind myself of Woodsei's words: It doesn't have to be all or nothing! So, instead of studying regularly, systematically, and sensibly, I'll try to study when I've got the time, when I feel like it, and without any pressure. That might result in a - to my mind - rather chaotic and irregular schedule, but maybe I just need to become more flexible, relaxed, and less strict with myself. I have this tendency of being too hard on myself and demanding too much discipline, so I should probably learn to just do like I feel. This is rather new to me, so I might need some time, but I'd like to try it. Finally, I would like to thank everybody here for the encouragement and for being there in times of doubt and uncertainty! You guys are always there when I have problems and start doubting everything, myself included, and you always manage to cheer me up. The support I get on this forum means a lot to me. Thank you guys! Edited by Josquin on 15 May 2015 at 9:29pm 3 persons have voted this message useful | |||
| Josquin Heptaglot Senior Member Germany Joined 4625 days ago 2266 posts - 3992 votes Speaks: German*, English, French, Latin, Italian, Russian, Swedish Studies: Japanese, Irish, Portuguese, Persian | Message 626 of 646 16 May 2015 at 1:18pm | IP Logged | ||
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SATURDAY, 16 MAY 2015
Okay, I guess nobody finds it very entertaining reading about all my pros and cons for language learning, so I'll just stop whining here. Indeed, I have come to a conclusion how to proceed, so this is what I'll do. As I said, I'm not in the mood for regular, systematic studying right now, so I'll just try to squeeze in some foreign language bits into my daily routine. Русский I still have a heap of Russian books that I haven't read, so I'll simply choose a book and start reading. Also, I want to get started on the second season of Кухня, which is the most fun way to learn a language I know. Gaeilge My motivation to do some Irish is high, but as I said resources are a problem. It's too early for native materials, so I'll have to deal with textbooks. I have a broad selection to choose from, so I'll just pick one and get started. Maybe, I'll start by repeating some stuff from Teach Yourself before moving on to another book. Português Does anybody know good podcasts in European Portuguese? 日本語 No serious studying here, but I'll keep listening to JapanesePod101 now and then. If I ever got serious about Japanese again, the first thing to do would be repeating kanji... 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| Elenia Diglot Senior Member United Kingdom lilyonlife.blog Joined 3637 days ago 239 posts - 327 votes Speaks: English*, French Studies: German, Swedish, Esperanto | Message 627 of 646 16 May 2015 at 1:25pm | IP Logged | ||
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Good luck turning languages back into a hobby :) My problem is the opposite of yours, I
have far too little discipline and sticking power, and I only do the things that are fun. I rarely ever study when I don't want to (even if I need to, for exams and things). But I can still make progress this way. Hope you can reach a point where you are comfortable just doing a little when you feel like it soon. 3 persons have voted this message useful | |||
| Sarnek Diglot Senior Member Italy Joined 3996 days ago 308 posts - 414 votes Speaks: Italian*, English Studies: German, Swedish | Message 628 of 646 16 May 2015 at 6:44pm | IP Logged | ||
That's not true at all... In fact, I rather enjoyed reading about your struggles (that sounds wrong, but you know what I mean)... Of course you're far more experienced than me in this field, but I think it's fairly normal to have ups and downs when learning a language and the beauty of this forum is that you can post about both and bring insight to everyone who is passionate about language-learning and will at some point face similiar difficulties. I think you've made a very wise and brave choise about not leaving language learning, so kudos to you! Edited by Sarnek on 16 May 2015 at 6:45pm 6 persons have voted this message useful | |||
| iguanamon Pentaglot Senior Member Virgin Islands Speaks: Ladino Joined 5043 days ago 2237 posts - 6731 votes Speaks: English*, Spanish, Portuguese, Haitian Creole, Creole (French) | Message 629 of 646 16 May 2015 at 7:39pm | IP Logged | ||
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I can't help you out with Irish or Japanese podcasts but with Portuguese, I can.
You and I have different interests, so I won't list my favoprites, but you are bound to find something you may like on RTP Radio Portugal Podcasts. Your own Deutsche Welle has a series of podcasts of "radionovelas" for Africa called Aprender do ouvido - Learning By Ear intended for a youth audience. Each episode is about 10-12 minutes long and presented in the form of a radio play. The Portuguese is Mozambican but follows Iberian pronunciation and grammar closely. Each radionovela series has about 10 episodes, though some have more. The episodes are downloadable in mp3 and pdf transcripts for each one are there too. By scrolling down the page you will see the full list of categories available- there's over 75 hours available. At the bottom of the page, you will see links to the French and English versions where you can make your own bilingual texts if you so desire. I listen to the 20 minute audio news program for Africa from DW on my morning walks. There's always something interesting. If you care to branch out to Brazilian Portuguese, I have various podcast options I can share with you. Contrary to what some people believe, they are the same language. I listen to both. I forgot to mention podcsasts.com.ptpodcasts.com.pt with a wide selection available (though many are Brazilian). Also, since you are a musician, you might enjoy Portugal Rebelde , only a few five year old episodes are available. Edited by iguanamon on 16 May 2015 at 8:39pm 3 persons have voted this message useful | |||
| Serpent Octoglot Senior Member Russian Federation serpent-849.livejour Joined 6378 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 630 of 646 17 May 2015 at 3:37am | IP Logged | ||
Just saw your posts. Yeah, it was probably me. At least this is definitely true about myself. I enjoyed the regular methods when learning English, Finnish and Latin, and to some extent with German, Esperanto, Romanian and my failed Yiddish attempt. Portuguese was exciting because I finally felt like an experienced learner... but I also realized that the same kind of texts was now boring. I actually had an extremely slow beginning because of that, and only started improving properly when I got interested in football and especially when I started supporting a Portuguese team. Nowadays I can barely use any learning materials that are not GLOSS, lyricstraining, radio Arlecchino or Assimil. oh and sometimes I manage to SRS. It's great for keeping what you already know if you're not motivated to go further. There are surprisingly many ways for keeping your learning fun, although unfortunately Irish seems like a tough case. Good luck! And I agree with Woodsei, it doesn't have to be all or nothing :) Also, I recently found the Mindbloom Tree game. It uses the same tree metaphor as Memrise and ajatt, and basically you have a tree with branches that represent various areas of life (health, career, creativity, spirituality etc). You add actions and inspiration (quotes, pics etc) and you get sunshine and rain for your tree this way. It's kinda like habitRPG but less nerdy/more fulfilling at least for me. Should be helpful for achieving balance in your life and rewarding yourself. Edited by Serpent on 17 May 2015 at 3:45am 3 persons have voted this message useful | |||
| Woodsei Bilingual Diglot Winner TAC 2012 Senior Member United States justpaste.it/Woodsei Joined 4578 days ago 614 posts - 782 votes Speaks: English*, Arabic (Egyptian)* Studies: Russian, Japanese, Hungarian | Message 631 of 646 17 May 2015 at 5:33am | IP Logged | ||
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Josquin,
Regarding your above post, that's not true at all, it's interesting and I truly enjoy following your log. Your thoughts always add a personal touch to it that makes it extend beyond just language learning, so keep it up. I'm glad you are finding what you love about languages and bringing it to the forefront, and I'm pretty sure you'll eventually find that spark that drew you in in the first place. I so get what you mean about a scanner personality. Story of my life. I guess maybe that's why I can see some of what you say in personal way, as it resonates with me. I'm spending time with Japanese the way I enjoy it, even though it's so unstructured. But with everything going on in my life, that works for me now and I'm fine with. I guess my point is, whatever rocks your boat :) If you like podcasts, I'll fish around in my lengthy bookmark list for Japanese and post a few links here for you. It may take me a couple of days because I have an exam, but you'll get it within the next few days :) Great to have you here, Josquin! Edited by Woodsei on 17 May 2015 at 5:38am 2 persons have voted this message useful | |||
| Josquin Heptaglot Senior Member Germany Joined 4625 days ago 2266 posts - 3992 votes Speaks: German*, English, French, Latin, Italian, Russian, Swedish Studies: Japanese, Irish, Portuguese, Persian | Message 632 of 646 17 May 2015 at 1:33pm | IP Logged | ||
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@Elenia: Thank you! Yes, I’ll try to view language learning from a different angle now. Your approach seems to be working for you, so maybe I could learn a thing or two from it?
@Sarnek: Thank you! It’s good to hear that people actually appreciate what I write here. I was facing so many difficulties and thought people might not really be interested in hearing about them, so it’s good to know you liked that. Yes, I guess the ups and downs are a natural process in language learning, just as in life itself. @iguanamon: Thanks for the podcasts! I’ll check them out. I know Brazilian and Iberian Portuguese are the same language, but I’m still working on my pronunciation, so I thought it might be bad to add too much Brazilian accent to the mix. @Serpent: Thank you! Yes, maybe I also need to change my study habits. I have used traditional textbooks for a number of languages now, so they start boring me. I’d give Assimil a try, but unfortunately the recordings are so expensive! I’ll check out your other recommendations though. And yes, Irish is special in many ways... @Woodsei: Thank you! That’s very good to hear. :) I’d love to find some interesting Japanese podcasts although I don’t know if I’ll be able to follow them with my current level of Japanese. "Whatever rocks your boat", I like that! :) Other than that, I wrote a Russian text for the May Challenge of Team Pushkin yesterday and started watching the second season of Кухня. There was some rather drastic humour in the first episode when Max faked hanging himself in order to get Vika back. Nevertheless, the show is hilarious as ever. Это круто! I was particularly delighted by the appearance of a Japanese sushi chef, who spoke nothing but Japanese, in the second episode. 「すみませんが、 あなたの話を分かりません。」 Well, now that I know I’m going to focus on what’s fun, a lot of my interest in and motivation for foreign languages has come back. I sometimes tend to think in extreme opposites and keep forgetting that there is a middle ground where one can have the best of both sides. Thanks for reminding me of that! By the way, this is my 2200th post! :) 3 persons have voted this message useful |
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