Cèid Donn's French and Gaelic SC thread

[Lawyer&Mom]

Irish is my heritage Celtic language, and I know I’m not going to start it unless/until it has some easy beginner materials... Come on Assimil! But I really admire you for going all in with them despite the resource challenges.

[Cèid Donn]

Thank you, Morgana. I am glad it resonated with you. Best of luck to you with your own struggles. We all have our struggles, but life isn't fair, so some of us struggle more than others. I understand this all too well.

***

I've been having really bad wanderlust as of late, for Thai, Vietnamese, Mandarin and Haitian Creole specifically. It's mainly due to stress, I know, but it's irritating. I have more languages than I know what to do with already, and if I do any Southeast or East Asian language it should be Japanese, which I'm currently not doing because I don't have time for a language like that. Besides, I am still committed to doing Navajo next month and starting Darija over the winter break. It's just...I'm being stupid. I should go to bed and get a good night sleep.

[Cèid Donn]

So, last night, instead of googling "Thai language resources" I went and revisited Chanee Kaleweit's channel and had some fun trying a following Chanee speaking Indonesian.



His French is so much easier for me....



One really nice thing I noticed is that Chanee is adding subtitles in French and Indonesian, and sometimes in Spanish too, to a lot of his videos now. I need to remember this because I need to strengthen my skills in translating from French to Indonesian and vice versa.

As I have said before, somewhere, Chanee's the reason I got interested in Indonesian in the first place so when I need a little motivation, I often go back to his You Tube or his website. This time, the You Tube recommendations showed a video for Chanee's appearance on an Indonesian talk show called Kick Andy Show, and I watched some of those videos. While my Indonesian vocabulary is still limited I was able to understand some phrases and sentences. It seems many of the guests stick to more formal Indonesian which makes it easier to follow. This was an episode about people with disabilities--as a disabled person myself I kind of frown on what we disabled folks call "inspiration porn" but is seems, thankfully, the show wasn't completely about that, but ralso gave a rather diverse group of disabled people more visibility and let them be seen as human beings, which I can 100% support:

[Cèid Donn]

The following is a rather honest rant about the current state of the Scottish Gaelic language community, so feel free to just ignore this:

I've been studying Gaelic since December 2007. A few months in, I naturally had a lot of questions so I posted on a language learners forum, asking a fluent speaker who was active on that forum back then for some help. Their reaction to me was basically, "Oh god, another learner who'll just quit in a few months." It became clear to me soon after that it wasn't really about me being a learner, but being the "wrong" kind of learner (in my case, someone from the US). And ever since then, I've had to deal with this sort of caustic negativity from the Gaelic language community towards learners that certain people see as undesirable or intrusive, who they accuse of not learning Gaelic the right way or authentically enough, or not for the "right" reasons, or for lacking sincerity or commitment. You find these kinds of people in any language community, but because the Gaelic one is so small, this attitude is very difficult to escape and in a very King of the Hill manner, some of these people have status and influence, which no doubt contributes to their motivation to keep the Gaelic community a known quantity for them and to keep unknown variables, like more diverse learners nad L2 speakers, out. I feel I overuse the word "gatekeeping" but that is precisely what this is. I've encountered this online on virtually every forum I've been to, on Twitter, on Facebook, even at the Gaelic College in Cape Breton and when I was taking classes with the Atlantic Gaelic Academy. (And that's just for Scottish Gaelic--I've seen just as much negativity towards Irish learners too, which sadly has many parallels to this.)

The problems is, all too often, learners and L2 speakers who are targeted by this negativity get tired of it and scale back their participation and enthusiasm, or just quit completely. I've seen a lot of that too. I'm not sure why such an outcome is deemed acceptable by the Gaelic community. There is so much kneejerk nastiness toward anyone using or learning Gaelic out of the very narrow norms of the Gàidhealtachd, with a lot of shortsighted blame and criticism going on and very little introspection and understanding. There's a lot of fear. Fear that L2 speaker don't know their "place" or presume too much "privilege," fear that the quality of Gaelic is being harmed, fear that the Gàidhealtachd is losing its "Gael" identity by tolerating these tragically misguided interlopers in their midst.

On one hand, they know they need to grow the speaker population so to support broader opportunities to use the language--including more literacy and education so to improve the quality of Gaelic spoken and used--but on the other hand, they are quick to dismiss and invalidate the broader and more diverse ways L2 speakers and learners connect with the language and the culture so to make participating in the community meaningful to them personally. The latest wave of this was inspired by a conference in Glasgow a few days ago where a professor from SMO gave a presentation on the identity of "Gaels" that, from what I saw on social media, left a lot of Gaelic speaker, mostly L2 but also some L1, feeling very discouraged and upset. I logged on to Twitter yesterday to find my timeline flooded with people arguing that L2 speakers are at best "allies" to the "real" Gaels and need to "check their privilege" as if L1 speakers are facing the same level of existential threat as, say, trans women, and we L2 speakers must step up and fight for them before they all perish to suicide or murder. Since I am not geographically close enough to these people to throw a chair at them, I might have yelled a bit on Twitter about appropriating language used by marginalize communities who face threats that the Gaelic community does not, not even close.

Not to mention the people clearly most hurt by this presentation wasn't the status quo "Gael," but everyone else who didn't make the cut, including people whom I've seem participating in the community over many years who I cannot believe wouldn't be considered a full-fledged member of the Gaelic community by now, even if they are L2 speakers, not to mention those of us, like myself, who's interest in Gaelic stems from a desire to reconnect and revive our heritage. There's something to be said about showing up and being someone who inspires others to participate, or being someone who gives the community reason to keep the language and culture alive. But sadly, not even walking the walk was enough for some people to escape the feeling that they are actually not wanted or welcomed. I saw too many comments of people expressing alienation, a loss of confidence or purpose, and just plan feeling arbitrarily excluded. That's never a good sign. I'm personally used to it by now--as I said in the first paragraph, that sense of not being welcomed was basically my introduction to the Gaelic community. Right now, I'm angry for all the other people who are feeling this way. In the 12 years I've been at this, there's no sign of this getting better and it's absolutely discouraging.

I see what happened with this recent presentation as a sadly predictable result of all this reactionary cynicism and lack of cohesion within the community that has gone unchecked and unchallenged for as long as I've been studying Gaelic. But there's nothing I or most other learners and L2 speakers can do about it. The "real" Gaelic community has to sort this out themselves. Do they want "Gael" and the Gaelic language to be defined by reactionary attitudes based in how their community has been minoritized over the past 200 years, or do they want to dig deeper into their history and embrace a more truly Celtic identity that's expansive, joyful, inclusive and fearless? I know what I'd choose, but as much I complain on Twitter and in my log here about all of this, I know I have no power here. I do this for myself, to vent my frustration and my sadness at seeing this beautiful language suffer because its community can't get its damn act together.

I've had a couple big breaks in my studies before, never about Gaelic itself, but always about feeling deeply discouraged by hostility from the community that leaves me feeling I have no opportunities to actually use Gaelic in any meaningful way. Learning a language is hard, time-consuming work that takes commitment, so naturally, I would like such opportunities in return for what I'm put into Gaelic. But they aren't really there. I've managed to continue overcoming my discouragement by reaffirming how much I genuinely love the language, despite how the community has no love for people like me, and creating my own ways to use the language. But after what has been happening recently with this community, I'm back to "why do I even bother?" once again and I'm tired of feeling that way. I'm seriously considering scaling back my Gaelic studies in 2020 a lot so to focus on languages with less fearful communities who are better able to welcome learners and L2 speakers. It saddens me to say that, but I'm on my own here and I have to do what's best for me.

[Radioclare]

I know nothing about Celtic languages, but before I saw your post here I had read a similar rant from one of my friends on Facebook. He lives in Scotland and although he's not a native Gaelic speaker himself, speaks the language to a really high standard. When I first met him, he had a job that required speaking Gaelic and he has since brought his children up as native speakers. He was clearly really upset about what has been said and has since deactivated his social media to take a break from all the fighting. I can't pretend to understand the arguments, but it seems really sad that people who have invested so much time and effort into the language are being made to feel this way

[Cèid Donn]

Thank you, Radioclare. I feel for your friend. I deactivated my FB account a number of years ago, but given how bad it has been on Twitter, I can only imagine how bad it is on FB. Myself, I've unfollowed or muted a good number of people on Twitter, which sadly has made my timeline virtual Gaelic-free.

There are quite a few L2 speakers who are raising their children with Gaelic, which I always thought was a very positive sign for Gaelic's future. I can only imagine how that must feel for them to have someone in a position of authority in the community say their contribution to Gaelic culture is more or less superfluous.

I'm trying to bite my tongue and just move on to more constructive things rather than dwelling on this. But I know that when I finish my Gaelic SC and cut back on the amount of time I spend on Gaelic that I will feel a void. That's the problem when you actually love something--you end up suffering for it. C'est la vie, or rather, Tha beatha na cath (Life is a battle).

[Cèid Donn]

I am very ready for this year to be over. "Be careful of what you wish for" blah, blah, yeah, I know...

With my mom in the in-patient rehab center closer to our house, I am able to spend less time driving and more time resting, which is a definite plus. But the center she is at has 70 beds, is filled to capacity and as anyone familiar with the US' vampiric for-profit health care system would likely guess, is frighteningly understaffed, which considering the vast majority of their patients are elderly or have a considerable disability, has me in a constant state of anxiety because someone needs to be around to advocate for her. And since the center's cafeteria appears utterly incapable of providing meals within mom's dietary restrictions, I have to cook and put together transportable meals she can eat (never mind my anger over how her insurance in paying for her to be fed there). My sibling and I are trading "shifts" throughout the day, and we're both completely exhausted at this point. And my mom has at least one more week there before she can come home, providing everything goes smoothly with her rehab.

Anyhow, about my language studies... I am able to devote a little more time to my SCs again and I managed to finally finish Imposible salir de la tierra, which is a pretty slim book but I found it more difficult than the other Spanish books I've been reading. That was because of the more emotional, internal perspectives of the characters and also, due to my level of Spanish, I couldn't always be sure what I was reading wasn't just flat out insultingly ableist in certain parts. Honestly, I read the book but I don't feel I really read it, if you know what I mean. Nor do I have any desire to return to this book when my Spanish reading is improved. At least it's over and I'll spend the rest of the month reading the Spanish translation of King's Pet Cemetary. Halloween fluff. That's a bit more my speed at the moment.

I feel like I'm neglecting French. I'm not really, in the broader scheme of things. I still use French daily even if only for reading things online, and I'm using French whenever I study Breton. But I miss focusing on French for the sake of practicing it and getting better at it. While being able to use French for access to various things has been a big motivator for my studies over the years, and despite in the past feeling pretty ambivalent towards it, I actually do enjoy French a lot now that my skills are more advanced. Well, except for doing grammar exercises, because that's always a bore. But as I was explaining to someone here in their log the other day, I'm doing the Assimil second wave with Breton by transcribing dialogues from the audio into my Breton notebook, and since I have started doing that, I have been longing to do some transcribing in French. I just don't have the time or energy for that right now though.

So instead, I'm playing Skyrim again with French audio, despite that the French audio for that game is prone to be buggy and a lot of voice actors are difficult to understand. But I know this game so well that it's not an impediment, just an annoyance. I would much rather do a French playthrough of Stardew Valley honestly, but I am holding out for the so-called "Everything" update the dev ConcernedApe has promised us, which is due out whenever he manages to finish it.

[Cèid Donn]

Fun with Flags, Brittany edition:



(The original JPEG is higher quality but was too large to upload to Imgur so I had to settle for a lower resolution.)

Anyhow, if you ever see a picture of a protest in Brittany and people are all waving like a dozen different flags, this is why.

October is nearing its end and I feel I haven't been able to gain any real momentum with my Breton review. I haven't gotten as much done I would have like but at least what I have done seems fruitful in terms of reactivating my rusty Breton skills. I just wish I could get more done, but it's just not possible with my current real life obligations and stress load.

I'm trying to return to a more or less regular study schedule but it's difficult to sit down and work on any language at the moment without my mind wandering. But without a regular schedule I often feel like my studies are more desultory and less productive, regardless of whether they really are. The upside is my house hasn't been this clean in ages, because whenever I sit down to study, after about 20 minutes or so, I get up and clean something just to feel like I'm being productive.

[Cèid Donn]

Among musicians, we have this common wisdom that goes along the lines of "better to practice 5 minutes every day than 5 hours on Sunday"--there are various reiterations of it, but you can get the gist. The idea is that when mastering skills, even short daily practice is far more beneficial in the long run than trying to practice one day in a week for an excessive amount of time. This is because skills require regular practice to be mastered.

Another musician here. While I think that most of my practice time has been spent by playing 5 minutes here and there (for years!), I'm positive that the only times I've "levelled up" have been after intense practice sessions (or regular sessions), say, "5 hours on a Sunday". Last time was last weekend (4+2.5+4+2+1+4 hours = 17.5 hours).

Posting this here so not to clutter Mack's log with this, but if that's Jeff's experience, then I won't patronize him in trying to interpret his experience in any other way than his own words. But all the same, I did spend my years from age 9 to age 30 as a practicing and performing musician, which included developing repetitive stress injuries in both hands in my early 20s due to doing marathon sessions to prepare for juries and concerts as part of my degree (so I've learned this the hard way as well), and this "common wisdom" isn't just people talking out their asses. It comes from a lot experience from people who are masters of their skills and i personally have respect for that.

I will follow this up with saying how doctors often note the high injury rate among "weekend warriors"--people who only engage in sports on weekends rather than practice throughout the week. One should ask how many of those injuries are due to skills and "form" (which is skill, basically) that are under-practiced (as any sensible athlete will tell you, proper form isn't just about better performance but also to avoid injury). This happens with musicians too, by the way.

And while that is primarily regarding physical performance, there is some parallel here mental skills, like with languages, in that under-practiced skills lead to unnecessary amounts of errors. I know this from my own experience of when, 15 or so years ago, when I would use my under-practiced French with expats in Houston and ended up not just making errors, but making habits of those errors, like getting genders of common nouns wrong or not using liaison properly.

I will end with saying from my own personal experience, with times I was able to use my language skills in a "marathon" way like talking with other speakers thorough a single day, it did a lot from my confidence. And confidence is important. But honestly, with improving, refining and retaining skills, I have found no other way besides reiteration and repetition over time, and the best way to really get that done is to get into the habit of at least doing a little work on my TLs every day and if not every day, regularly. I don't do this with all my TLs, obviously. But like with Gaelic, Irish, French and currently Breton, yes, I do as best as I can with reading, listening and practicing pronunciation/prosody every day even if just a little, while with most other TLs, it's Clozemaster and maybe some Twitter until I can make more time for them.

***

Anyhow, while not directly related to my own language learning, have you all seen this video of Indonesia's Aries Susanti Rahayu doing a speed rock climbing course in under 7 seconds?



***

I've been having a lot of dreams in either French or Gaelic lately. The ones I can remember:

In one dream in French a few night ago, I got a job at the hospital where my mom recently had surgery. It was some odd desk job, but everyone was speaking French, yet all the papers I had were in Russian. When I tried to talk to various people, asking in French why everything printed was in Russian and if I could get them in French, they just looked at me like it wasn't their problem. Psst, typical bureaucracy.

In one of my recent dreams in Gaelic I was in Scotland, in a store waiting in line when I overheard a couple talking in Gaelic and saying no one would understand them if they spoke in Gaelic. So I said, "Tha mi gur tuigsinn" to their surprise. I ended up conversing with them, where I stumbled at one point with trying to say the Gaelic equivalent "to just be myself" (which I've been meaning to look up).

Then last night I had a dream when I was playing Skyrim in Gaelic (no it's not available in Gaelic) and my player character had audio dialogue (Bethesda only started adding audio to player characters after Skyrim so this is also anomalous), and one specific thing I can remember is my character talking to a NPC who was asking them to do a task for them and having the dialogue option to say "Dh'fheumainn atharrachadh gu Beurla airson an gnìomh sin a dhèanamh" (I would need to switch to English to do that task). So I guess you couldn't play my dream version of Skyrim in Gaelic entirely in Gaelic. Figures.

[jeff_lindqvist]

Posting this here so not to clutter Mack's log with this, but if that's Jeff's experience, then I won't patronize him in trying to interpret his experience in any other way than his own words. But all the same, I did spend my years from age 9 to age 30 as a practicing and performing musician, which included developing repetitive stress injuries in both hands in my early 20s due to doing marathon sessions to prepare for juries and concerts as part of my degree (so I've learned this the hard way as well), and this "common wisdom" isn't just people talking out their asses. It comes from a lot experience from people who are masters of their skills and i personally have respect for that.

Thanks for chiming in. I'm just saying that I need both, and in fact I find the longer sessions somewhat necessary to get anywhere (especially in music - at least when you have some skills). In a similar way, I've sometimes found longer language activities more beneficial than shorter ones.