More notes on language learning

 

Fitting rooms rendered in Spanish in Bogotá, Colombia

On May 11, 2013, I wrote a post on language learning which you can find at https://latin-caribbean-travelblog.blogspot.com/2013/05/language-learning-in-class-and-on-your.html. Since that time, there are other lessons that I've acquired from experience - sometimes just observing how I react to a given situation - or reading that I've incorporated into my language learning. These are given in no particular order here.

If I feel an inner resistance to moving in a given direction, I don't struggle with it and try to force it to work. Instead, I let it go. For example, I absolutely despise flash cards because I associate them with being in school and having to memorize something to take a test. That feeling is the kiss of death for any of my language learning efforts. If I actually had to, or chose to, take a test, I would consider using flash cards, but overall, my learning is predicated on removing as much stress as possible. If you find that you like flash cards or any other method that I say that I don't like, by all means use them. Conversely, if I say that such and such a method works wonders for me and you find that you dislike it, don't force yourself.

When I write other languages or grammatical concepts of other languages in a notebook, I find that my brain absorbs the content better than when I type it on a keyboard. Certainly, there are times when typing is more convenient or has a benefit because the text can be manipulated, copied and pasted, but part of my language learning has to be done the traditional way for it to really hold.

I may resist doing further language study for a time, but I will know when I'm ready to take it on. This is a natural process that I don't rush.

If I know that I will be traveling to a place where one or several of my target languages is/are spoken, the language(s) move immediately to the front of the line before any other languages, and I practice it/ them more intensely before I go, and of course during the trip!

 

Some subtle ways that Spanish differs from English

 

Over more than 40 years, I have learned many subtleties to Spanish. It is true of Spanish, as it is of learning the guitar, that it's easy to learn poorly but hard to learn well. Here is a random list of differences between Spanish and English that surprised me when I first learned them. Each language apparently has its own logic.

In Spanish, you don't turn on (prender) or turn off (apagar) a faucet; you open it (abrir) or close it (cerrar).

You can't say in Spanish "He almost fell down" (casi se cayó), because people will say, "He already fell down, so he didn't 'almost' do anything." The correct way to say this is "Casi se cae," which literally translated means "He almost falls down."

In Spanish, you don't eat (comer) your soup; you drink it (tomar). The same is true of oatmeal.

There is a curious construction in Spanish that goes something like this: "hasta que no termine" which literally translates as "until I don't finish" where we would say in English "until I finish." 

I will share more of these in future posts.

A sign in Spanish demonstrating how to wash one's hands correctly. I take photos of signs like these to demonstrate both similarities with, and differences between, Spanish and English.

Language Learning in Class and on Your Own

At present I am practicing 20 languages: Spanish, Portuguese, French, Dutch, Haitian Creole, Guadaloupan Creole, Papiamentu, Catalán, Italian, German, Quechua, English Creole, Pennsylvania German, Chinese, Korean, Basque (aka Euskara), Gallego, Sicilian, Japanese and Guaraní. I list them more or less in the order that I know them, with everything starting with Quechua at a very basic level. I had started with Spanish, which I learned in the conventional way in school and then had the good fortune to study in Mexico and Colombia. Afterwards, I dabbled in Portuguese and French with cassettes and books. However, I had an "aha" moment about five years ago when I realized that, after listening to Dutch tapes in the car for two months, I knew that I had made progress. Then I figured out that with just a little time each day, I could do several languages as long as I was consistent. As I have a busy work schedule, I knew that I didn't have time to take classes and would have to do this on my own.  However, if you do have time to take a class, it's definitely a good idea. Even if you do take classes, there are things you can do on your own to supplement the classroom practice. Here I present what I have learned about my own quest in learning languages; it's in rough form now but I hope to edit it in the coming weeks and months into a "philosophy of language learning." These are principles that you can apply to your own language study, though you may find that certain things don't work for you and may have to adapt them to your own learning style. If you Google "language learning," you can find several websites and blogs on the subject. There is also a book by Barry Farber called "How To Learn Any Language," which still has good tips though it was written before the Internet really took off and made language information a lot easier to find. Language Learning Principles: Best advice from others: Talk to oneself in target language. Soliloquies in the long run become repetitive; it's best to get in a situation to respond to recordings as if one were having a dialogue with the speaker. Listen to normal speech in the language even if you don't understand it, so that your ear will get accustomed to it. However, it's not a substitute for the slower grammar and vocabulary building exercises. Use several methods (collectively they cover more vocabulary) Things I have discovered useful: Practice speech and writing with dictionary in front of me; write initial thoughts in English or Spanish if I'm really stuck and then translate.  Repeat phrases to build vocabulary After listening to text for which I have a transcript, schedule regular times to review Create dialogues when speaking to myself Put transcript close to where I listen; if it's buried in text, make photocopy that's easier to read Integrate the language info into my daily routine; one tape player in the kitchen, another where I do my exercises, etc. Listen in the car at least 5 minutes/day/language, ideally with myself speaking and responding to the recording Principles: In speaking or writing to others: Act like I'm walking a tightrope without looking down. Assume that anything is possible. Be fearless or at least control fear. (However, I do like to wait until I feel prepared before diving in completely to speaking or writing to others. Writing is a good start because one has a chance to correct some errors before sending.) Mixing languages in the beginning is not a crime, as vocabulary gaps are natural. Wrong guesses aren't bad either. As a matter of fact, mixing languages in speech, normally taboo, is not so bad as long as I continue to build vocabulary that will gradually allow me to wean myself off the other languages. Fluidity in speech is preferable to stopping because I can't think of a word. Fluidity builds confidence, and practice in fluidity, with feedback when possible, gradually strips away the rough spots in one's speech. No matter how many times I listen to something, when I go to create my own phrases I will need to draw on vocabulary that is not part of the scope of the method (book, tape, CD, computer software). Pimsleur's principle of "graduated interval recall" is good, but a lot of methods are not structured that way, particularly vocabulary building lists. Repeating the same method will approximate graduated interval recall to a certain extent. Studying similar languages at the same time reinforces some of the vocabulary of both languages. E.g. French "fromage" reinforces the Italian "formaggio" (cheese), Catalan "vuit" reinforces the French "huit" (eight). Confusion with similar languages happens, but not as often as I thought it would. Mark down your accomplishments, such as if you successfully wrote an e-mail in the language you're trying to learn; this builds confidence and provides a mental payback.

More insights into Spanish words

Continuing with my theme of Spanish words, I have found the learning of the language a lifelong process. This is not to discourage anyone from learning, but rather to highlight the interesting things that come up as we're confronted with words that we don't recognize, or where our classroom or book learning can't prepare us for all real-life situations. I liken learning Spanish to what a friend told me about learning to play the guitar: "easy to learn badly but hard to learn well." Spanish throws a lot more at a person than the common misconception of Spanish being easy leads us English speakers to believe.

One example is illustrated on this sign that I photographed in Bogota two years ago. It is advertising a new apartment complex that will have two elevators, a garbage chute, and two social halls or community rooms that are also common in some apartment complexes here in the US. If I hadn't sounded out the word "shut" the way a Spanish-speaking person would, I never would have figured out that it meant "chute." "Shut" is the English word spelled phonetically in Spanish, though the "sh" sound does not exist in Spanish except in countries in southern South America such as Argentina, Uruguay and Chile, and where the sound does exist, it is never spelled "sh" except perhaps in a word borrowed from another language. 

Another even more important example is the word "muchacha," where not knowing how the word is used could create problems. If I had only paid attention to my high school Spanish textbook, I would have assumed that the word always meant girl or young woman. However, "muchacha" could also mean maid or servant girl, and maids sometimes dislike the use of the word when referring to them, preferring the terms "empleada doméstica" or "empleada de servicio" (female domestic or service employee).

See my language learning webpage for more tips.

Colombia: Spanish Signs in Bogota, 2007

Spanish classes are very helpful in learning to converse and ask for basics when you travel to a Spanish-speaking country. There are certain words, though, that still surprise the visitor. For example, this photo, taken in front of an apartment complex, has a sign that delicately dances around a common problem by reading "Please pick up the needs of your pet."

Here's another: At first glance, it might seem strange for an apartment building to advertise a "shut" until you figure out that they mean a "chute" (and it's pronounced correctly as well) to dispose of your trash.

Another sign I wasn't able to photograph said "Respect the..." followed by a picture of a zebra. As it turns out, in Bogota zebra doesn't only mean a striped animal that you see at the zoo; it also is used to mean "crosswalk" for pedestrians. (In the US we have that sign that reads "Don't Block the Box" which, unless you can figure out that it also refers to crosswalks, could be equally confusing for non-English speakers. The sign is usually accompanied by a drawing but it's not necessarily clear at first glance what it's referring to.)