A Polymath Focuses on Japanese, 2019

[Xenops]

おはいようございます、

Lately I have been focusing on Japanese study, and I decided to put French aside for the time being. While I prize my improved accent and the ability to possibly read a plethora of French comics, I realize that a key ingredient of my pleasure of language learning is missing from French and Spanish: the bizarre. I really enjoy learning languages that have features that are different from English. Spanish seemed exotic enough when I learned it in high school, but as French grammar is rather similar to that of Spanish with some variations, I didn't have a drive to see "what weird new features there are". Japanese, in contrast, regularly presents me with a grammar or a connotation novelty: "wow, that's so weird". Also not having a need for a Romance language is not helping.

In regards to learning languages to have access to comics or to comic readers, I found some interesting information from the popular Webtoons comic Tower of God. While the official releases are in English, fans translate the comic, and I could see which translations get the most "likes".








I'll have to think about this.

[Xenops]

Heard Indonesian is easy for English speaker so I don't know if there will much 'bizarre' features but I hope to see your experience playing with it x3

Edit: found this so maybe nevermind lol
http://www.bbc.com/travel/story/2018070 ... s-language

Thanks for stopping by. I also considered that Indonesian might be too "normal" for me, especially after reading the Wikipedia article. But thank you for the article link, I didn't know most of that.

[Cavesa]

Hi,
congratulations! You seem to have found out what you want to do, which is something I am still struggling with. I definitely don't think your choice is any less worth it than medicine!

And you seem to be finally taking great steps towards it. I am looking forward to hearing more about your experience in Japan and Japanese learning!

[Xenops]

Hi,
congratulations! You seem to have found out what you want to do, which is something I am still struggling with. I definitely don't think your choice is any less worth it than medicine!

And you seem to be finally taking great steps towards it. I am looking forward to hearing more about your experience in Japan and Japanese learning!

Thank you Cavesa, I really appreciate your kind words. While I might not make a career in medicine, I hope to still enjoy it from the sidelines. At the very least I can write more convincing medical scenes in my comics.

I wish you the very best in your studies and starting a new life in a new country.

[Xenops]

Things are looking optimistic. I had an interview for a part-time ESL teaching position at a major language school, which could lead to full-time. This would work nicely with my mission goals, and plus I could have the benefit of being in *free* classes of 8 or so students, or pay 15$ for a one-on-one session for any of 50 languages. Prayers would be appreciated. Also, temptations galore!

Speaking of which, lately I have been tempted by Celtic languages. I realize that part of my enjoyment of languages is tackling a language that is weird to me. Part of this drive is to discover odd features for my constructed language hobby. Originally Turkish and Persian tempted me in this regard, because SOV languages are different to me, and one has vowel harmony. I wanted to make a conlang that seems "exotic" to my readers of my comics. I had intended to focus on readers from Western cultures. My strategy changed when I considered that I will learn Japanese to a high level, and possibly engage a Japanese audience (or at least try to). Now I have to consider: "okay...what would be exotic to both Europeans and Japanese?" The answer I got was perhaps Gaelic.

There are other reasons that I have been tempted by Gaelic: I remember my sister bringing home a Maire Brennan tape, and that was my introduction to Irish Gaelic and to Celtic music. I love the sound of the language, and the orthography looks like a puzzle to solve (how do you spell it this way and get that sound?) Of course, I have to consider that I thought the same thing with French orthography, and I struggled with it.

When considering whether to study Scottish or Irish, I am leaning towards Scottish:
1. I have Scottish heritage
2. Slightly easier to pronounce than Irish
3. Spelling is more standardized
4. Surprising amount of *free* study materials. I could easily make this my FLC language. Glossika has a free course for example.

Right now I'm waiting it out to see if this interest will fade..Like all of the rest of the temptation languages of the past. I would prefer to focus on a few rather than spread myself too thin.

For other language news, I have gotten back into reviewing Japanese Anki cards, both with phrases and just of the kanji radical (bushuu). I also try the AJATT method of writing the answer on paper along with typing the Cloze answer. I just need to do this more consistently. My July goal is to learn all 200+ bushuu and get it done. I also pick up kanji if I already studied the related radicals.

Since the interview and learning that a large population of the students will be from a Spanish-speaking country, my interest in Spanish is reawakening. I have watched about 10 episodes of Pokemon in Spanish, and have finished the Indigo League session. My comprehension varied: I'm guessing at most 70%. I also thought of using FSI as speech activation, or maybe writing too.

Haven't done much with French. I think back to a friend I had in high school, and how she tried Spanish, and it just didn't "click" with her--but she tried French, and it made all the sense in the world. She flourished in French. I tend to wonder if Spanish makes more sense to me than French. My multilingual cousin, having learned German, French and Spanish in varying degrees, also thought that French made the least amount of sense to her. We'll see how it goes.

[Xmmm]

Are you serious about learning Japanese? It's a Cat 5. What level are you shooting for?

Are you serious about Scottish Gaelic? It's a Cat 4 if it's similar to Irish. What level are you shooting for?

I'm finding it very difficult to juggle learning two Cat 4s and a Cat 1, which is why I'm asking. It requires a bare minimum of 3 hours a day to make progress, which I don't always have. I would be much better off with one Cat 4 and one Cat 1.

[lavengro]

....
There are other reasons that I have been tempted by Gaelic: I remember my sister bringing home a Maire Brennan tape, and that was my introduction to Irish Gaelic and to Celtic music. I love the sound of the language, and the orthography looks like a puzzle to solve (how do you spell it this way and get that sound?)
....

I note your comment: "... the orthography looks like a puzzle to solve..."

A suggested revision for your consideration: "... the orthography looks like a puzzle to solve a particularly devious and extreme method of torture..."

Good luck with your language learning and life options Xenops!

[Xenops]

Are you serious about learning Japanese? It's a Cat 5. What level are you shooting for?

Are you serious about Scottish Gaelic? It's a Cat 4 if it's similar to Irish. What level are you shooting for?

I'm finding it very difficult to juggle learning two Cat 4s and a Cat 1, which is why I'm asking. It requires a bare minimum of 3 hours a day to make progress, which I don't always have. I would be much better off with one Cat 4 and one Cat 1.

Japanese will be my life-long focus, I think. At the very least I would like to have a JLPT level 5 (the lowest level) by next year. It's a dream to make it to the highest level, but I don't know how long that would take. I'm not stressing about it at the moment.

If I decide to take up Gaelic, I doubt I will make it past A2 or thereabouts: aside from my historical and linguistic curiosity, I simply don't have a use for it. Who knows, I might start learning it and fall in love with it...Or I might dabble in it and lose interest, like I do with so many other languages.

My language-learning forecast with the highest probability is focusing on Japanese (Cat 5) and either alternating or juggling two Romance languages (Cat 1).

[Xenops]

Hello friends,

I finished the week-long training, and I got hired to be an ESL instructor at a language center in Boston. The manager also asked if I was available to work from 9:00am--6:00pm. Most of the classes would be one-on-one, which is what I'm most comfortable with, but I will also have opportunities to teach small classes. The method is the same, which reminds me of the Pimsleur method: copying a few words and using them in different ways. I found my previous ESL learning and learning from here to be very helpful, so I must say: thank you all.

Another good thing is that I have been getting spiritual medicine: I didn't know emotional baggage could be healed, I thought you just carry it until you die. As consequence, my mental health has improved as well. An example of this is my participating in the 6 Week Challenge, and currently holding #16 in the target language study time. I was in the top 10 when I started, I swear... Before, I could not set any goals, as my depression would inhibit them. If you want more details about this improvement, feel free to PM me.

Like I said, I am studying for the 6WC, and my language is Japanese. Today I contemplated taking a break to study other languages, but seeing the current Twitter score is making me doubt my decision. A beautiful website my Tae Kim FB group shared is [url]animelon.com[/url], which has Japanese and English subtitles, and you can hover over the Japanese, click on the meaning, and get a pop-up from Jisho explaining the meaning. Did I say that this website is beautiful? I started intensively studying Another, as it deals mostly with contemporary topics, and is only 12 episodes. It's also in my top 5 all-time favorite anime.

I have also made more regular use of Anki, and still using Let's Learn Kanji. Maybe I'll actually finish it during the challenge.

I've watched some episodes of Pokémon in Spanish, but no other study of the language. No studying of French. The recent thread onburn-out was very insightful to me, and made me think. Many of us here (not all, but a good number) study languages for fun, and don't *need* many of the languages they study. Looking at my list of languages, I wondered "if I was trulydoing this for fun, would I still study these languages? " Considering this, I realized that Japanese would make the cut, but for Spanish and French...Perhaps not. I'm no longer considering moving to Europe, so I don't *need* them. They don't have the exotic factor that keeps my interest, and I don't have a drive to dive into their respective cultures. I think also with Spanish I had people strongly encourage me, and myself forcing myself to, study it to the exclusion of all other languages, and thus sap its fun it once had. I think French piggybacks on this as well: "well, I must learn this Romantic language to completion before I can take weird, possibly useless languages".

Thus, I gave myself permission to put Spanish and French aside and explore weird languages. Scottish Gaelic is still on my mind, and I'm considering doing the FLC. Since I'm in Boston and we have a number of Irish speakers, I considered studying that instead: after all, Gaelic is Gaelic, right? Access to native speakers is what counts, right? Still, I cannot do this: when I think of Irish I think "...But I have Scottish blood. I'm not Irish. It's not my heritage." Considering how most of my ancestry is rather distant, I never really thought about The Olde Country: but the thought of learning Scottish, a heritage language, fills me with excitement that I haven't had before.

Which is odd, because I have had more exposure to Irish, and previously I had a fascination with Ireland: now it's like "meh".

For other language candidates, I really want to learn a vowel harmony language...I just haven't decided what. I also have been tempted by Basque: I'm not sure if Basque native speakers would appreciate this, but by my looking at their words, I thought "if space aliens spoke a human language, it would be this."

A few years ago I announced to my family members that I was going to try to learn 6 languages at once, which included Hawaiian, Hebrew, Japanese, and I'm not sure what else. A family member told me that "that's not how it's done. You study one language to the exclusion of the others. Studying 6 is preposterous!"

I wonder, if I had disregarded his advice, how much progress I might have made in those 6 languages.

[Elsa Maria]

Congratulations on the ESL job! I am an ESL volunteer, and might try to find a job in the field once I become an empty-nester (which is soon). I agree that I have learned a lot about teaching a language from these forums.

I was thinking about starting a language teacher's thread. I haven't seen one.
ETA: Here is the thread.