Grayson's Language Log

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grayson
Yellow Belt
Posts: 66
Joined: Sat Sep 17, 2022 1:46 pm
Location: Netherlands
Languages: .
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Re: Grayson's Language Log

Postby grayson » Tue Apr 02, 2024 11:12 am

March 2024 retrospective

No direct language-learning activities this past month. I did enjoy, in the course of my work with refugees, noticing individual words in languages I've studied a little (Mandarin, Russian, French) and being able to hear that the interpreter was being faithful to my words when the language was Spanish. I do feel a frequent tug to start studying again, but I'm not going to jump into that right now, while I'm still in transition to a new career and still recovering from my relapse into the materialism that was my worldview for almost 50 years. (I talk more about that in my Beeminder journal, if you're curious. Link in sig.)

The training program to become a certified teacher of Dutch as a second language starts in September, but there's an introductory course for students without a background in education that starts at the end of this month. We've gotten the first homework to prepare for the first session (of four) and I'm looking forward to diving into that.
5 x
Much madness is divinest sense, to a discerning eye; much sense, the starkest madness. —Emily Dickinson

grayson
Yellow Belt
Posts: 66
Joined: Sat Sep 17, 2022 1:46 pm
Location: Netherlands
Languages: .
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Re: Grayson's Language Log

Postby grayson » Thu May 02, 2024 8:32 am

April 2024 retrospective

No direct language-learning activities this past month, but the itch to do so is growing. I'm low-key musing on how I might reinstate language learning as an enrichment, a satisfying hobby that I enjoy in the moment. I know it's possible; I love learning things about languages, there's this little moment of delight when I acquire a new fact or see a new connection. The question is how I disentangle this positive, hobby-like enjoyable way to spend time from the soul-sucking expectation of progress toward prowess that has always accompanied it for me.

The introductory course for the NT2 (Dutch as a second language) teacher training program has begun. The first lecture was fabulous -- the history of Dutch immigration policy for the past 75 years. The next one is on language learning theories and guess who's in the list? Krashen, of course. He's been hugely influential in NT2 methodology, it seems. I was of course already familiar with his ideas, particularly comprehensible input, but in doing the preparatory reading for the lecture I was struck by his affective filter hypothesis.

I suppose it never struck me before, when I was just a language learner myself, because I am self-confident and motivated and my learning environment is not a source of anxiety. But now, reading his paper as an upcoming language teacher, it jumped out at me. I love his idea that perhaps the critical role of the teacher is to provide an environment where students feel excited, encouraged, hopeful, capable. My students will be adult (and young adult) refugees -- people who have been through harrowing things, many of whom have never been told they are capable but made to believe they are worthless (or worse). I know from my current work with refugees how important it is to reflect their inherent value back to them, simply by listening attentively, explicitly stating that what's been done to them is wrong, and always being happy to see them -- smiling, giving hugs, cheerfully going the extra mile to help them with whatever they currently need to do.

So I'm still very psyched about this new career I've chosen, and the opportunity it will give me to help people heal from their past. I'd started to wonder if it wasn't a step in the wrong direction, to "only" teach them Dutch, surely a superficial skill; thanks to Krashen, I'm reminded that here, too, the real work is to provide a safe, healing space in which the "superficial" work gets done.
9 x
Much madness is divinest sense, to a discerning eye; much sense, the starkest madness. —Emily Dickinson

grayson
Yellow Belt
Posts: 66
Joined: Sat Sep 17, 2022 1:46 pm
Location: Netherlands
Languages: .
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Re: Grayson's Language Log

Postby grayson » Fri May 31, 2024 11:48 am

May 2024 retrospective

Yeah baby, I'm back in the saddle!
In February I decided to put all language-learning activity indefinitely on hold. In March and April I noted that I was starting (and continuing) to miss it. So in May I added Spanish and Mandarin study back in as a test, to see if I could pursue languages in a way that felt enriching instead of dutiful. I am happy to report that, so far, the answer is yes! So 'yes' that I'm adding in five more languages in June. Why?

Languages are...
  • sources of great literature
  • sources of context and history about areas of the world I'm interested in, from a more local, less foreign perspective
  • bridges for communication
  • sources of joy in seeing how things work, discovering new ways to think about the world from very different language structures

Of course I want to study All The Things Right Now but that isn't feasible. So in June I'll be adding in five more de facto lingua francas, mostly to address the second and third points. Of course this leaves lots of uncovered territory on both counts, but it's a start. The main distinction I had to arrive at for June is that I am deferring the study of less-commonly-to-never-taught languages, which are generally the languages most likely to give me a truly different view on how one might structure thought about the world.

With this view to context-and-communication, the seven languages for June are Modern Standard Arabic, French, Hindi, Mandarin, Spanish, Russian and Turkish. They will not all get the same level of focus. Spanish and Mandarin are my priority, and I'll work on them every day (with of course the occasional day that doesn't happen). The rest will be in a pool together, from which I'll choose 3 (or more) to work on, on days when my other commitments allow, generally cycling through them all in a week. To wit:

Spanish: 1 hour per day (or more)
Mandarin: 30 minutes per day (or more)
The rest: 2 hours per week (or more)

I've been doing Spanish and Mandarin on this schedule for the past three weeks, so only "the rest" is actually new.

Not all of these languages are in the same phase. I've worked out this progression for myself:

Image

I'm under no compulsion to move any of the languages further along the pipeline (though I intend to, as long as I can keep my studies in the 'enjoyment' camp and not the 'slog of obligation' camp). Let's see how June goes!

I'll post later on the specific resources I'm planning to use for each language.
9 x
Much madness is divinest sense, to a discerning eye; much sense, the starkest madness. —Emily Dickinson

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MorkTheFiddle
Black Belt - 2nd Dan
Posts: 2191
Joined: Sat Jul 18, 2015 8:59 pm
Location: North Texas USA
Languages: English (N). Read (only) French and Spanish. Studying Ancient Greek. Studying a bit of Latin. Once studied Old Norse. Dabbled in Catalan, Provençal and Italian.
Language Log: https://forum.language-learners.org/vie ... 11#p133911
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Re: Grayson's Language Log

Postby MorkTheFiddle » Fri May 31, 2024 5:29 pm

"Enriching instead of dutiful." Nice phrase. I like it. :)
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Many things which are false are transmitted from book to book, and gain credit in the world. -- attributed to Samuel Johnson


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