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How would you study languages in prison? | ||
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 Language Learning Forum : General discussion |  | |
| Fuenf_Katzen Diglot Senior Member United States notjustajd.wordpress Joined 4163 days ago 337 posts - 476 votes  Speaks: English*, German Studies: Polish, Ukrainian, Afrikaans | Message 17 of 25 23 March 2014 at 8:55pm | IP Logged | ||
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Other than the obvious Spanish, I have to say German might not be a bad one because of the pronunciation. If he's generally going to use solely written materials, the pronunciation will be much more intuitive than some of the other language possibilities.
I actually remember seeing an episode of the show Locked Up Abroad where a girl was in a Bengali prison for several years and came out speaking the language fluently. I can't say I ever hope to be in that situation, but it would be the perfect opportunity to occupy time and learn something new. 2 persons have voted this message useful | |||
| Avid Learner Diglot Senior Member Canada Joined 4456 days ago 100 posts - 156 votes Speaks: French*, English Studies: German | Message 18 of 25 23 March 2014 at 10:37pm | IP Logged | ||
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Can he ask other inmates around him to see if any of them happen to know any other language? He might get a surprise. That would help with pronunciation.
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| tomgosse Groupie United StatesRegistered users can see my Skype Name Joined 3786 days ago 90 posts - 143 votes Speaks: English* Studies: French | Message 19 of 25 23 March 2014 at 11:30pm | IP Logged | ||
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If he should think of something like Latin or Biblical Hebrew and Greek, could he enlist the help of a prison chaplain? That is someone who could verify that his material is what it is, and not some nefarious code.
Are there any educational opportunities at this facility that could help him? 3 persons have voted this message useful | |||
| BrianDeAlabama Groupie United States Joined 4313 days ago 89 posts - 113 votes Speaks: English* Studies: Spanish | Message 20 of 25 28 March 2014 at 7:40am | IP Logged | ||
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If the inmate can have phone calls maybe a friend could buy matching books for he and the inmate. When they
called each other the they could practice some sample sentences over & over until he starts to get it. I'm sure that his interest in Spanish could spark a friendship in jail. I worked as a jailer many years ago & the Spanish speakers were always happy to help me out. Maybe if the warden was contacted maybe the prison library could receive audio course donations. Any educational achievements that took place under his watch could only make him look better. 5 persons have voted this message useful | |||
| Pisces Bilingual Pentaglot Senior Member Finland Joined 4416 days ago 143 posts - 284 votes Speaks: English*, Finnish*, French, SwedishC1, Esperanto Studies: German, Spanish, Russian | Message 21 of 25 30 March 2014 at 11:18am | IP Logged | ||
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In my opinion it hardly matters what language he learns, because without access to audio or speakers of the language, his accent is going to be bad anyway. He should choose what interests him. Probably not a language like Chinese, where a bad accent is an absolute barrier to comprehensibility.
If he can find someone in the prison to talk to in the foreign language, that changes the situation. 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| beano Diglot Senior Member United KingdomRegistered users can see my Skype Name Joined 4416 days ago 1049 posts - 2152 votes Speaks: English*, German Studies: Russian, Serbian, Hungarian | Message 22 of 25 30 March 2014 at 11:32pm | IP Logged | ||
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As far as I know, all UK prisons have libraries and extensive education programmes. I assume this is also the
case in other wealthy countries. I'm sure the vast majority of prisoners would respect one of their fellow inmates for working hard on a foreign language. That's the way it works in normal society, it can't be that different in jail. 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| BOLIO Senior Member United States Joined 4452 days ago 253 posts - 366 votes Speaks: English* Studies: Spanish | Message 23 of 25 03 April 2014 at 3:51pm | IP Logged | ||
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As a person who spent 4 years in a Maximum Security prison as a Guard to pay my way through the university, I can tell you he will have many opportunities to hear Spanish. Even if he is in Administrative Segregation where the inmates are locked up 23 hrs a day, they still can talk to the people next to them and others "down the run" (meaning a few cells away).
On top of that, as long as he is not an A-Hole in his conduct with the staff, he would be able to interact with the staff that speaks Spanish. I know Anglo inmates that walked into prison without being able to speak a word of Spanish, walk out being able to converse in Spanish to the point that most outsiders would consider them Fluent (Whatever that means). Most of them could not read Spanish but neither could many of the Native Speakers they learned from. If it is a State Prison then time will fly by and will be out long before the ten years. If it is Federal time then he will do 11 out of every 12 months sentenced. Many people have changed there lives buy going thru it. I wish him the best. Edited by BOLIO on 03 April 2014 at 3:53pm 3 persons have voted this message useful | |||
| dinguino Nonaglot Groupie GermanyRegistered users can see my Skype Name Joined 4548 days ago 55 posts - 96 votes Speaks: English, German*, FrenchC1, Catalan, Latin, Italian, Spanish, Dutch, Portuguese Studies: Norwegian, Turkish, Russian, Irish | Message 24 of 25 06 April 2014 at 9:54pm | IP Logged | ||
That reminds me of the great film "The Shawshank Redemption", such a beautiful film! http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0111161/?ref_=nv_sr_1 I actually think the problem of not having access to audio material/people around you speaking the language isn't that fatal! I remember the first language I studied beside school was Indonesian and I didn't use any audio material at all. (I was only 16 and I actually just want to get this Indonesian "code" into my head; an algorithm that permits you to make your brain think in a different way from the habitual way you were thinking in all your life.) After some time I was able to write long long emails to Indonesia and understand the answers coming back, but I wouldn't understand anything of spoken Indonesian. The thing is, it never bothered me, as I was happy to read and write it. (Nowadays I still prefer the, let's say, soundless features of a language and oral abilities come second.) He could learn any language he might feel interested in and I find it curious to only read of Spanish, Italian, German, Latin and Greek in this thread. There are so many beautiful languages on earth that go along with beautiful, interesting cultures and one shouldn't restrict oneself to the ~ 10 most spoken or most popular or most learned languages... I suggest you get him a book about the world's different cultures and then he might come up with an idea of what interests him. Maybe it will even encourage him and prod him to go and see this place the day he gets out of prison - let it be Egypt, South Africa, Brazil, Iceland, Madagascar or India or whatever he can't stop longing for! I wish him good luck and I hope he will keep a sound mind by learning new languages - one may be blocked up somewhere, but nobody can ever restrain you from travelling around in your mind and broaden your horizon! 1 person has voted this message useful |
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