Languages and Life: Gary's log (Italian, Spanish, German, Japanese, bits of French)

[garyb]

I discovered yet another event a few minutes' walk from my house: an English/Spanish exchange that's more structured and organised than the usual conversation-type meetups. Groups of 2-4 with native speakers of each language, cards with specific questions and themes to talk about, set times to speak each language, and best of all, a no-beginners rule: B1 or over only.

It was excellent. The structure meant that everyone got a good opportunity to practise their target language, and the themes made for much more interesting and challenging conversations than the usual small-talk although it was also laid-back enough that it didn't feel rigid and there was also space for more normal getting-to-know-each-other chat. It was in a nice bar that didn't have loud music or too much background noise, unlike many of these events. Also unlike many of these events, the attendees were actually quite serious about improving their already-very-good language skills.

I was paired with a guy from Spain and I felt like I was speaking pretty well aside from the usual getting stuck when I didn't know or couldn't remember a certain word or expression, and then an Argentinian joined us and it seemed like I suddenly got significantly worse. I'm not sure if the conversation actually got harder or it was just a kind of mental block where I'm much less comfortable in a conversation with multiple native speakers than one-to-one and I struggled a bit with his accent which made me feel like I had to make more effort to keep up. This should all just improve with practice, and this event should be a great opportunity to get some.

In another attempt to close the feedback loop with some output, I'm writing more regularly in my previously-abandoned Spanish diary rather than just always going for the easier option of Italian. It should help a lot with these moments in conversation when I'm not sure how to say something.

I'm still very aware of the weaknesses in my Spanish speaking, but judging by this event I think it's finally getting into B2 territory and all the recent input has been helping. I might finally be finding the balance between input and output that works for me and gives decent progress without too much stress.

[garyb]

Obviously with the quarantine there haven't been any more of these meetups. So far my language learning has changed very little, aside from a little more time for input and writing which I'm trying to get more consistent with.

I've toyed with ideas like online language exchanges or lessons or picking up German or Greek again with all my extra free time but so far that extra time has been fairly hypothetical since I'm still working full-time, albeit from home, and spending most of my spare time on music, cooking, other pursuits, or socialising (by video call, and between work meetings and that I'm getting a bit sick of them!). I suppose it just comes back to what I'm always saying about my priorities, and having the extra time is making me realise what matters the most and what I want to put the most time into and languages are certainly not at the top of the list.

Overall I'm just trying to slowly add more daily habits into my routine, linguistic or otherwise, rather than make drastic changes. I would like to do a bit more frequent self-talk (how many years have I been saying that now for?) but I'm still seeing where I can fit it in. And then if I manage that I might start to think about exchanges or lessons, et cetera.

One unexpected discovery: this week I did an online presentation for Toastmasters; while at first I was unhappy about having to do it online rather than in a room full of people, my mentor helped me embrace the new format and tailor the talk to it rather than just pretend I was on a stage. That really helped me get more comfortable speaking to the camera and despite my dislike of all the video calls I'm keen to explore the whole thing more. Not planning on becoming a Youtuber just yet, but making some private videos in foreign languages might be a nice way to kill a few birds with one stone.

Every time I consider cancelling my Netflix subscription, something new and exciting comes on. This time it's a few new Italian series (discovered thanks to Learn Italian with Lucrezia): Il Processo, Nero a Metà, Luna Nera. Not checked them out yet but will soon. Also caught the latest Montalbano episodes from RAI. In Spanish, the third season of Elite is out but I'm not convinced so far as they've cranked up the cringe in general and made some of the already-unlikeable characters even more unbearable. Lucrecia especially. I know she's supposed to be a "bitch" but they've overdone it to the point where she makes watching the series unpleasant and less realistic as it's hard to believe that anyone wants to go near her. I might look for something else to watch.

[garyb]

I've started watching Nero a Metà and I quite like it: decent crime drama and not too heavy on the dialect like many more recent examples of the genre can be.

In my last post I mentioned that I'm always trying to get back into the self-talk habit but it never sticks. The other day I downloaded a habit tracker app (Loop Habits - free and does the job) and set it up with various goals for languages, music, exercise, and work-related learning. It's helping for sure, as I can just consult the list when I'm wondering what to do with my time and it gives me gentle reminders. I'd recommend an app like that to anyone like me who has a study routine that involves more activities than just daily Assimil or watching TV series, especially with multiple languages, and also for music it's helping me get in more of the things I always intend to do more of but don't such as ear training exercises.

I've recorded a couple of Italian self-talk sessions and they went better than expected. Pretty fluent, using expressions well, and even decent pronunciation at least when I wasn't trying to go too fast. Incidentally that's also advice I keep getting at Toastmasters: take my time, leave pauses to let ideas sink in, enunciate clearly.

I mostly credit repetitive listening of podcasts, also mentioned a few posts ago, for this success. In particular I've been enjoying Podcast Italiano, especially the "Riflessioni senza trascrizioni" episodes which are unscripted conversations between two educated and well-spoken young Italians. As unscripted conversations go they're very easy to understand (without being unnaturally slow, thankfully!) so don't exactly challenge my listening abilities, but that's not their purpose for me; they're great examples of fairly simple language used well in a natural and spontaneous way, exactly what I'd like to emulate, and the repeated listening helps to drill in the expressions so I can use and manipulate them when speaking. They'd also be a great resource for an intermediate learner who wants to work on listening with something that's a step between easy monologues and difficult fast conversations.

Spanish hasn't had as much attention but I am doing some listening and writing.

[garyb]

In the last couple of days I've had a full-on attack of nostalgia for the many Italian films that I watched to help learn the language back when I was a super-enthusiastic intermediate learner, from modern classics like La meglio gioventù to romantic comedy trash like Manuale d'amore and teen movies like Notte prima degli esami to things somewhere in between like Gabriele Muccino's dramas.

I watched Come te nessuno mai last night and it was a proper blast from the past, being a reminder of both my teenage years and my mid-twenties when I was in love with Italian culture, or rather a romanticised version of it partly fuelled by these films and books. Even if I didn't quite realise it at the time, it was a kind of escapism for me, and I believe that's part of why I've felt the desire to come back to it.

The whole quarantine thing was going great for me for the first few weeks - my introverted side was loving it and I was getting into a very productive rhythm - but I'm now feeling quite burnt out from trying to do too much with the extra free time and suffering the lack of balance that social life, being out and about, and travel provided. So a little break from reality, ci sta...

Even at my current level it was still quite challenging to follow all the dialogue in the film with all the colloquial conversations between young Romans, so coming back to this kind of media could be productive as well as pleasurable. I've been leaning towards repetitive listening of easier podcasts recently because they really help my speaking as described in the last post, but there's definitely still a place for challenging material too since there's always room for improvement in listening comprehension.

I've been getting tempted to jump back into German too, but that would just be adding fuel to the burnout fire. If I manage to find a bit more balance again in the next week or so then maybe.

[garyb]

I've continued the Italian nostalgia with some reading too, and my favourite Italian author at the time was of course Ammaniti. I started re-reading one of his collections of short stories, Fango, on my Kindle. I'm finding lots of highlights that I obviously made first time round and intended to make into Anki cards but obviously never got around to it, and to be honest most of these unknown words are still unknown! That gives me mixed feelings: in one way I feel bad for still not knowing these words however many years later, but on the other I feel vindicated for my more recent strategy of only making an effort to learn vocabulary if I feel I'll need it: if I've not learnt these words by now then they're probably just not very important. It's a similar feeling to what I described with the films in my last post, where things that were difficult years ago are still difficult now and it's a reminder that my level now is advanced but still not that advanced.

I barely remember some of the stories in this book, and while I enjoy Ammaniti's crazy streak he takes it to places that are a bit dark for my tastes in this one. I think I remember Il momento è delicato being a bit lighter.

Amazon gave me a free month of Prime so I've been looking through the video catalogue. The Italian film selection is far wider than Netflix's with a nice mix of classics, modern guilty pleasures, and even some horror/giallo. The Spanish one doesn't look bad either. The navigation has improved slightly since last time I got a trial a year or two ago although it's still quite hard to find things. I don't think I'll continue the subscription as I barely watch enough Netflix to justify the cost never mind another service and Amazon isn't a company I want to give too much money to, but it's good to know it's there. Another point in favour of Netflix is that much more titles have L2 subtitles while on Amazon so far I've just seen English.

I had a video call with an Italian friend last week. The pronunciation and speaking improvements I've been describing do appear to be making their way into real conversation as well as just self-talk as I felt I was expressing myself better than usual and rushing less. I've been writing a lot too, both to friends and in my diary document, and I'm realising that a lot of good, idiomatic language is coming to me quite automatically. Especially compared to when I try to write in Spanish and I still have doubts about how to express almost every idea.

Spanish still feels like a distant second priority but I am keeping up the listening and viewing as well as some writing. I've started using Kwiziq again: it looks like they've been adding more advanced material and it seems to be finding a nice niche as a site focused on teaching and practising idiomatic usage and structures, finding that elusive balance of material that is not too simple for more advanced learners yet still very useful and not falling into the trap of teaching "advanced" idioms just for their own sake. I still don't think their paid option looks worthwhile, but a few free tests and lessons per week could be a great addition to my routine.

[lingua]

Which books by Ammaniti did you like the most? I have only read Io non ho paura and didn't find it very enjoyable. The writing was fine and accessible but I found the book itself rather depressing.

[garyb]

Which books by Ammaniti did you like the most? I have only read Io non ho paura and didn't find it very enjoyable. The writing was fine and accessible but I found the book itself rather depressing.

My favourite was Ti prendo e ti porto via. I found it a gripping and emotional story, although quite depressing like most of his work. Che la festa cominci and Branchie are a bit more light, crazy and surreal. Come Dio comanda is very dark and was a bit much for me, and Io e te is probably his simplest and most accessible novel. If you found Io non ho paura accessible I'd say you're doing pretty well - I remember struggling a bit with all the descriptive language, but that was quite a few years ago now.

[garyb]

Last night I ended up at a kind of socially-distanced garden party with German and Greek speakers so felt a bit of motivation to pick those up again... Greek is still very much on the "someday list" although I was happy at being able to understand some bits of their conversations, but I've been thinking for a couple of weeks now that I'd like to get back into German. As usual though I just don't have the time, but recently I have been realising that I've been wasting a lot of time with distractions like social media and checking my phone and that's been ruining my productivity and attention span. Not to mention my ability to relax, so I'm not properly balancing out the work I am managing to do and I've been getting tired out and restless. I've been trying to change these habits and am already seeing a difference, so if I keep that up I might find a way to fit in daily German time.

I've been watching a lot more Youtube in Italian, on subjects from cooking to travel to yoga to gardening and plants to business and investment to lifestyle and minimalism. It's become a true goldmine for intermediate/advanced learners, at least once you dig out the good content, which I've still not quite managed to do for Spanish...

Keeping up the reading too. I recently finished In other words by Jhumpa Lahiri, the accounts and short stories of an Indian-American woman who decides to learn Italian just for passion and move to Rome with her family. At first I expected the typical romanticised ideas about learning a language and living abroad, and the heavy use of metaphors seemed to confirm that, but as I got further I realised that she tells things as they are and isn't afraid to describe the bad as well as the good. Her story about shopkeepers refusing to take her seriously as an Italian-speaker felt very close to home! A lot of interesting thoughts about cultural identity and belonging too. As a learner of the language I'm surprised I hadn't heard about that book until an Italian recommended it to me a few weeks ago. I'll write a proper longer review sometime soon.

In Spanish finally finished La casa de papel. The third and fourth seasons felt a bit all over the place at times but towards the end the story really gripped me again.. Or maybe that's just my new and improved attention span, since I'm actually sitting down and focusing on it and it's a story that does require some concentration to follow. Spanish still isn't getting as much time as Italian, but enough to keep things moving and that's fine for now.

[garyb]

At the start of this week I had a minor cooking accident and cut a fingertip, which meant I couldn't play guitar for a few days and suddenly wondered: how will I spend my next few evenings?

I had still been feeling keen to get back into German so I did a bit of that. Specifically, revising the the 16 or so Assimil lessons I did a few months ago before packing it in. I've also been re-listening to the Coffee Break podcasts in the morning. I've done my revision now and I'm feeling it all come back to me so I'll try to get back into doing one new lesson per day, although my finger is also looking better so I might have to make sure I get that lesson done before picking up the guitar for the night!

I also did something I hadn't done for over a decade, except for a few times at friends' houses: playing a computer game. When I was 15 or so I completed Metal Gear Solid 2 and decided I needed to play the first edition too. Well, at over double that age I finally decided to complete that unfinished chapter of my youth and I got a hold of MGS, in Italian so I could tell myself that it was somewhat productive.

Unfortunately it has quickly reminded me of why I don't play games now... I sat down to play it a couple of days ago, got into it, and at some point started to feel tired so checked the time and realised I had been at it for over five hours! And yes, some of that was Italian immersion and part of my reason for choosing that game was that it's infamous for its amount of dialogue and cutscenes, but plenty of it was also just grinding away at bosses or wandering around trying to figure out clues.

Overall I suppose it's been a good thing especially as it is an immersive experience and I've been talking about struggling to concentrate on films and series (and generally not doing enough things just for fun in my life, especially since lockdown), although I'm certainly not going to make gaming a major part of my studies in the longer term! It's rather just a wee indulgence that's being made a tiny bit productive by doing it in another language.

[garyb]

I seem to already be reaching a critical mass in German where I'm getting into a daily study routine, I'm seeing slow but steady progress, and even when I'm not studying the language is going around in my head as the subconscious connections are being made. I'm doing what I suppose is textbook Multi-track Approach: a couple of complementary courses and a bit of native input. For the latter I started watching Dark yesterday, with dual subtitles from Language Learning with Netflix.

Seems like a very watchable series even if it does try far too hard to seem "creepy" and just comes off as a little silly and clichéd, and even to my very inexperienced ear the German seems quite clear and neutral. I can only repeat what I said when I tried to watch a few Greek films while I was studying that: even if I don't understand a fair portion of it, there's a lot of value in seeing the language I have learnt so far used in context.

I was just reading Deinonysus's log which mentioned Destinos, and that reminded me that a similar series for German exists: Fokus Deutsch. I might try that instead of or in addition to Dark for now.

Again like with my Greek experience, being a proper beginner again (rather than picking up a second or third Romance language) does put things in perspective and make me reconsider the advice that I sometimes give beginners. I often think that people should just choose one main resource and stick to it, which makes sense since I regularly see beginners try to work through a dozen courses at once which just seems pointless and overwhelming, but I'm now thinking that there is a happy medium and using complementary materials à la Multitrack can really speed up the acquisition of the basics.

More German means less time for other things, and as usual Spanish is suffering. Poor Spanish, but it seems destined to always be my lower-priority language.