I’d like to apologize for my extended absence - life got in the way of tumblin’.
I have not been slacking on my Japanese studies - I have been working hard! - but my internet has been iffy the past couple months, so it’s been hard to keep you guys updated.
I intend to do better this fall - within the next couple weeks I intend to start updating you regularly again, and providing you with a lot more internet resources, tips/tricks and reviews of different language learning programs.
So, again, I’m sorry - and thank you for sticking with me.
I hope we can see a lot more of each other in the coming months. :)
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helpimtrappedontheinternet asked: Good idea for a challenge. :) I don't study Japanese (right now, anyway) but I'd like to learn it someday. I studied Spanish and French in high school and since starting university a couple of years ago I've picked up Italian and Mandarin (which I absolutely LOVE). Right now I'm also learning Irish (sometimes just (incorrectly) referred to as Gaelic) and modern Greek, mostly just because I can. If you're looking for more resources, this guy wrote a blog at alljapaneseallthetime[dot]com about his methods for learning Japanese that I find pretty interesting, and there's a forum at how-to-learn-any-language[dot]com that has a lot of language learners. How are you liking Pimselur?
Thanks. :)
Goodness, you’re working on a quite a few (and quite an awesome mix of) languages! Very cool, very cool.
Check out the sites recommended above, guys. I’ve bookmarked both to explore further at a later time myself (replying to you guys on a friends computer, don’t have much time) but they look like good sites, especially the first one. They look cool - and I will post more about them once I’ve had a chance to really look at them. Thanks for sharing! I’m always looking for resources. :)
Loving Pimsleur. Very, very much. Have you used it? What have been your study methods, for all the languages you’ve been sampling?I’ll be posting a full blog entry on Pimsleur at some point - I’m currently on lesson 32 of the Japanese, and finding it an extremely helpful and effective way of learning the spoken side of the language. ONE THING I RECOMMEND, THOUGH; Listening to a lesson once, often isn’t enough. You’ll remember for awhile - long enough to think you’ve mastered it - but you have to repeat, repeat, repeat, for things to go into your long-term memory, instead of your short-term. :)
I think I did the first ten lessons three or four times each. XD
But perhaps I’m just slow. ;P
cadetpine asked: Hahahaha. It pays to live in a country with two official languages.
I love Japanese because when I first heard it, I thought that it was awesome (and it still is, for me).
My job? It involves proofreading. Clientele are Koreans, so it got me curious about their language. It seems cool too, but the pronunciation kinda got me stuck, so I plan on taking it after learning the bare basics of Japanese and French. It might help. LOL.
That it does, that it does.
AH, me too. I can’t remember a time I WASN’T fascinated by Japanese. :)
Very cool. Yes…I have yet to find a good guide to Korean pronunciation. We just don’t seem to have enough letters in the English alphabet to properly explain it. XD
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TOSKA
Russian – Vladmir Nabokov describes it best: “No single word in English renders all the shades of toska. At its deepest and most painful, it is a sensation of great spiritual anguish, often without any specific cause. At less morbid levels it is a dull ache of the soul, a longing with nothing to long for, a sick pining, a vague restlessness, mental throes, yearning. In particular cases it may be the desire for somebody of something specific, nostalgia, love-sickness. At the lowest level it grades into ennui, boredom.”
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MAMIHLAPINATAPEI
Yagan (indigenous language of Tierra del Fuego) – “the wordless, yet meaningful look shared by two people who both desire to initiate something but are both reluctant to start”
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JAYUS
Indonesian – “A joke so poorly told and so unfunny that one cannot help but laugh”
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(Source: matadornetwork.com, via haetbit)
…about some friends of his, a family from South Korea, who lived in the states for awhile.
My friend (we’ll call him Jon) was recounting to me how he and his wife were often at a lot of the same social and political functions as this South Korean family, often had dinner with them, etc. He talked about how the children took American names, in an effort to fit in and not be made fun of. This I understood, children are vicious. No matter how ‘normal’ you are, they can find something to pick on you for, if they feel like it. A Korean name? Yeah. Guaranteed bullying.
But the parents did it as well, in most circles. They had “American” names, because evidently their Korean names were just ‘too hard to pronounce.’ Jon witnessed people, ADULTS, at many high-end social functions, joking routinely about their ridiculous names, and calling them by their American ones instead.
…I don’t really have a point, and I’m not at all sure where I’m going with this.
It just…kind of caught me off guard. I don’t quite know how I feel about it. I don’t know that Jon quite knew how he felt about it, either. He was stressed, relating it to me, even though for him the experience was a far-distant memory, he had not seen these people in many years. But it still bothered him, deeply, though he couldn’t quite seem to express why. It was the name thing that he seemed hung up on, especially.
We talked about the desire to fit in, and I said I supposed I could understand wanting to take a name native to where you were, if only to save the trouble of constantly having to repeat it and correct people when the pronounced it wrong, and having to spell it five times.
But Jon seemed to disagree. It doesn’t seem right, to change for other people’s comfort and convenience. He seemed to be more of the opinion that, how are we to develop an understanding of other people, if people aren’t being themselves…?
I don’t have the answer.
This was an actual exchange between someone I knew, and a classmate of hers. They were someone who would constantly pick on her English and make fun of her customs - and eventually, she'd had enough. So, if English is your second language....whip this out next time someone makes fun of your accent. ;) (Presuming you're in America.)
A: What do you call someone who speaks three languages?
B: What? Um...trilingual?
A: And what do you call someone who speaks two languages?
B: Bilingual. Duh.
A: So what do you call someone who speaks only one language?
B: ...
A: An American.
Never let someone make you feel inferior. Especially not for trying to reach beyond yourself, and learn something you don't know, and maybe can't do perfect....yet. ;)
Annnnnd, while we're on the subject...let's do what we can to do away with this American Idiot stereotype. XD
