A language learners’ forum

Scenario:

The American Dollar has collapsed taking the US economy and all other currencies with it overnight. The world is in a shambles, no, an economic unprecedented hell hole of no quick return, in short our civilisation has been brought to it's knees. I don't want to dwell on the negative, although it would be a shocking reality in such a situation and there would be much destruction and death. Not to minimise such horror, the language question I'm leading to is this:

For all you language nerds out there, could your language learning survive a collapse of society, ie do you think you have access to enough content or speakers to maintain your language learning post collapse, or if you are not actively learning, then to maintain your language(s)?

(Let's assume you have good shelter be it a house or apartment, you have food, enough bedding and clothing to suit your needs, and you can stay warm if you live in a freezing cold country, but you have no electricity supplied from the power grid so if you have batteries and chargers or solar you are lucky, and you have no natural gas that might normally be supplied via a network of sorts and the internet has gone down, we don't if it will ever come back)

I would be ok. One neighbor who speaks French and Italian, another neighbour who is French and we all have lots of books. On the plus side I could probably learn a little Persian from the 3 Iranian households nearby.

I think one of my neighbours is Portuguese also... I will have to look into this.

PeterMollenburg wrote:
For all you language nerds out there, could your language learning survive a collapse of society, ie do you think you have access to enough content or speakers to maintain your language learning post collapse, or if you are not actively learning, then to maintain your language(s)?

(Let's assume you have good shelter be it a house or apartment, you have food, enough bedding and clothing to suit your needs, and you can stay warm if you live in a freezing cold country, but you have no electricity supplied from the power grid so if you have batteries and chargers or solar you are lucky, and you have no natural gas that might normally be supplied via a network of sorts and the internet has gone down, we don't if it will ever come back)

No electricity would be a problem, but I do have books and dictionaries. Do I need to stock up with an apocalypse proof home library??? How many books are enough??

July 2015 on HTLAL:
Language Learning With No Internet

My reply back then still applies:

I could be busy for years even if I just spent time on my personal and physical collection of language learning material. If electricity all of a sudden was cut off, I'd still be able to read and write (and talk and think).

rdearman wrote:I would be ok. One neighbor who speaks French and Italian, another neighbour who is French and we all have lots of books. On the plus side I could probably learn a little Persian from the 3 Iranian households nearby.

I think one of my neighbours is Portuguese also... I will have to look into this.

I recommend you seek these people out immediately and ask them if they would be willing to dedicate time to your language acquisition projects in a post-apocalyptic world, that is, if they are still around post a whole lot of turmoil.

DaveAgain wrote:No electricity would be a problem, but I do have books and dictionaries. Do I need to stock up with an apocalypse proof home library??? How many books are enough??

I've done the calculations for you: 742 books give or take 2000 books You see, I'm organised! Edit: And precise!

Although I'm sure Peter means this thread as a bit of fun. Taking it seriously for a moment.

If you are going to be without electricity for a long period e.g. the collapse of civilization (or a camping holiday). You might want to consider filling your Kindle (other ereaders are available) with some books on hunting, food prep, foraging for food, mushroom foraging, bow & arrow manufacture, etc..

An ereader is better because you can keep thousands of books in something which will fit into your pocket.

But how to charge it? Solar power! You can buy a solar power charger from $25 US. But if you're really hardcore then you should print out how to create a solar cell (the thing that generates the electricity) either via titanium dioxide and dye, or via heated & oxidized copper plates (or in the event of an apocalypse you could probably just steal some off a neighbours house).

So if you're going to take your apocalypses seriously, then the sun is your friend. (Except in the case where the end of the world is actually because of the Sun in about 5 billion years will to turn into a red giant)

rdearman wrote:Although I'm sure Peter means this thread as a bit of fun. Taking it seriously for a moment.

If you are going to be without electricity for a long period e.g. the collapse of civilization (or a camping holiday). You might want to consider filling your Kindle (other ereaders are available) with some books on hunting, food prep, foraging for food, mushroom foraging, bow & arrow manufacture, etc..

An ereader is better because you can keep thousands of books in something which will fit into your pocket.

But how to charge it? Solar power! You can buy a solar power charger from $25 US. But if you're really hardcore then you should print out how to create a solar cell (the thing that generates the electricity) either via titanium dioxide and dye, or via heated & oxidized copper plates (or in the event of an apocalypse you could probably just steal some off a neighbours house).

So if you're going to take your apocalypses seriously, then the sun is your friend. (Except in the case where the end of the world is actually because of the Sun in about 5 billion years will to turn into a red giant)

Your camping horror-show reminds me that you can charge small gizmos with bicycle dynamos. I have a wind-up torch by the fusebox.

Hi Peter

For a look at how soon you might want to start hoarding language learning materials here is an interesting video on youtube about the prospects of our petroleum based world economy. Its message is a bit sobering but much more optimistic than the title implies.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4_db1XfYA3A

rdearman wrote:Although I'm sure Peter means this thread as a bit of fun. Taking it seriously for a moment.

If you are going to be without electricity for a long period e.g. the collapse of civilization (or a camping holiday). You might want to consider filling your Kindle (other ereaders are available) with some books on hunting, food prep, foraging for food, mushroom foraging, bow & arrow manufacture, etc..

An ereader is better because you can keep thousands of books in something which will fit into your pocket.

But how to charge it? Solar power! You can buy a solar power charger from $25 US. But if you're really hardcore then you should print out how to create a solar cell (the thing that generates the electricity) either via titanium dioxide and dye, or via heated & oxidized copper plates (or in the event of an apocalypse you could probably just steal some off a neighbours house).

So if you're going to take your apocalypses seriously, then the sun is your friend. (Except in the case where the end of the world is actually because of the Sun in about 5 billion years will to turn into a red giant)

Solar power chargers! Great idea! It beats my buying loads of books idea... but hey at least I will have something to light fires with, right? How could you! How dare you suggest I burn my language books! I'll die before burning them... or would I?

DaveAgain wrote:

rdearman wrote:Although I'm sure Peter means this thread as a bit of fun. Taking it seriously for a moment.

If you are going to be without electricity for a long period e.g. the collapse of civilization (or a camping holiday). You might want to consider filling your Kindle (other ereaders are available) with some books on hunting, food prep, foraging for food, mushroom foraging, bow & arrow manufacture, etc..

An ereader is better because you can keep thousands of books in something which will fit into your pocket.

But how to charge it? Solar power! You can buy a solar power charger from $25 US. But if you're really hardcore then you should print out how to create a solar cell (the thing that generates the electricity) either via titanium dioxide and dye, or via heated & oxidized copper plates (or in the event of an apocalypse you could probably just steal some off a neighbours house).

So if you're going to take your apocalypses seriously, then the sun is your friend. (Except in the case where the end of the world is actually because of the Sun in about 5 billion years will to turn into a red giant)

Your camping horror-show reminds me that you can charge small gizmos with bicycle dynamos. I have a wind-up torch by the fusebox.

Another nifty idea

dklinker wrote:Hi Peter

For a look at how soon you might want to start hoarding language learning materials here is an interesting video on youtube about the prospects of our petroleum based world economy. Its message is a bit sobering but much more optimistic than the title implies.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4_db1XfYA3A

Well apocalypse or not, I'm going to hoard language learning materials, I think many of us here have realised that. Serpent has advised I sell off my language learning courses, so that they don't distract me so much from using native content, I think is her reasoning. However, you just don't know when the next apocalypse is around the corner, right? It might not be the end of Peak Oil (or even the very end of oil), it might be a giant dinosaur emerging from the sea or aliens taking over or... Hmmmm, the thing is I just need to, sorry 'want to' hoard because, ummm, because I ummm have heard someone somewhere (mainly in my head) say that the apocalypse is coming.

Seriously now... Agreed, oil might last a while yet. Serious again, you just never know with the way this world is going when we could be facing a dire situation, so my 'just in case' has an element of seriousness to it. I declare myself a "Language Learning Prepper". However, I don't worry about anything else, such as where I might get food from or how to get electricity. Pfft those kinds of serious things are for those other language nerds I've successfully distracted for a minute or two while they pondered the idea. You see? This whole thread is about distracting other learnings while I get ahead of them in the RACE TO LEARN 70 TRILLION LANGUAGES... AHAHAHAHAHAH (evil laugh there, in case you hadn't realised). Now since you are all going to be potentially using kindles and solar devices, how about you all send me your language learning content? Here's my adress: Sorry, must run... need to learn some more. Just send the darn books!