languist's lazy language lunacy - 2019

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nooj
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Re: language lunacy - 2019

Postby nooj » Wed Feb 20, 2019 1:53 pm

ash men loughat kay 3ellem? | which languages are you teaching?


It should be kat3llem (m) or kat3ll(e)mi (f).

Kay3llem means he is teaching.

Btw, in the south of Morocco it is also very common to hear ka- replaced by ta- for the present tense. Kan3llem 'I teach' is said tan3llem. Where is your teacher from?
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languist
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Re: language lunacy - 2019

Postby languist » Wed Feb 20, 2019 2:11 pm

nooj wrote:
ash men loughat kay 3ellem? | which languages are you teaching?


It should be kat3llem (m) or kat3ll(e)mi (f).

Kay3llem means he is teaching.

Btw, in the south of Morocco it is also very common to hear ka- replaced by ta- for the present tense. Kan3llem 'I teach' is said tan3llem. Where is your teacher from?


You’re right! Typo, or mistake, I’m not sure, because I should know this, but thanks! :) She is from Rabat.
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languist
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language lunacy - 2019

Postby languist » Sun Feb 24, 2019 11:01 pm


    TEFL | español | français | الدارجة | ελληνικά | русский | адыгэбзэ | slovenčina
    English | Spanish | French | Darija | Greek | Russian | Kabardian | Slovak


TEFL | italki

    It's amazing. I love it. But last night I went to visit my father's house and ended up in charge of entertaining my small siblings, then stayed up to watch a film with the adults until 4am. Well. Big mistake when you're teaching for 10 hours the next day.

    I have one quite demanding student and have been so proud of myself up til now for meeting her needs and more - until today, when, wow......... my first experience of truly crashing and burning in a lesson. After ~350 lessons, this was the first time I really felt like it went BADLY. Terribly. Awfully. Omg. I would have been able to save it had I not been so exhausted, that I ended up becoming very confused and flustered instead, and just went down a rabbit hole of embarrassment. In the end, the student was frustrated and could see that I was frustrated with myself for the knots we'd tied ourselves up in. She was the one who actually ended up saying "okay, let's do something else". On any other day I wouldn't have started explaining in such a vague way, wouldn't have become so confused, and would have strategically moved on to something else until I was better prepared had I realised that I didn't feel confident in the topic we working on. But today, no.

    At least at the end of the lesson, she said that she appreciated how clearly I (generally) explain things, and that I had taught her things in a way no one else had managed to before, so she would be back for another lesson - but... it was awkward. I'm happy at least that I've learnt a few things about what my weaknesses are and what I have to work on, but I'm not happy to have discovered it at the expense of a learning opportunity for a student. The only solace that I have is that this was maybe 10-20 minutes of a 60 minute lesson, and the rest went well. Eeek. Still shaking from shame.

Spanish | español

    I can barely call it studying, but I'm doing it every day. We did miss our class at the college this week though.

French | français - & - Darija | الدارجة

    This time, my lesson was basically just a yawning match between me and my teacher. Both exhausted, both friendly and mildly engaged but basically wishing we were in bed. A few days have passed and I can't really remember what we did, so I'll have to review my notes. My tutor sent me a video today of an American who speaks darija, "for motivation", which was pretty cute of her. To me (a non-speaker), he seemed to speak well but I didn't hear any production of ayn, which is something I want to master.

    Also, when I visit my little sister (6), I basically annoy her into learning some French. Last night was the first time she used some French unprompted ("merci!" when her mum gave her some water), and she looked sheepishly proud of herself - yay !

Greek | ελληνικά

    I've started Language Transfer's Complete Greek. I'm pretty busy so I think I'll just listen to a few lessons when I can and supplement it with other sorts of material whenever it seems appropriate.

Russian | русский - & - Kabardian | адыгэбзэ

    Other than reading some conversations between Kabardian friends which were written in a jumbled mix of Russian-Kabardian-English ("what can сэ сказать, апхуэди happens!"), there has been no action on this front. Oh - except this: I opened Anki to try to move my memrise decks there (unsuccessfully), and saw that I had a small Kabardian deck from a year ago. Amazingly, I remembered a lot, or got very close (for example, guessing 'Winter', for 'January', 'pain' for 'sickness', and so on).

    I was pretty impressed with how the human brain categorises things and makes associations after this little accidental experiment. My learning methods (when I'm not rolling, chaotically, blindly, lazily, through the dark forest of language study) rely heavily on my perception of how the brain stores memories and creates associations. It's something I plan to develop into a full course for other students one day, so I enjoyed this experience of 'semi-remembering' a lot. And something that's also nice to note is that this was a random list of words, certainly not connected by theme, type, or anything else. ¡ Que quay !

Slovak | slovenčina

    I translated something from Greek to Slovak this morning and was told that my Slovak was like "a Hungarian's". Not very inspiring.


note to self: sleep more or suffer the consequences - even this post was littered with approximately four thousand typos upon the first read-through :/
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Re: language lunacy - 2019

Postby MamaPata » Mon Feb 25, 2019 6:53 am

Don’t beat yourself up about the lesson. No teacher is perfect, there are going to be screw ups. You recognised it, you’re learning from it, there’s no need to torture yourself with it.
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languist
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Re: language lunacy - 2019

Postby languist » Mon Feb 25, 2019 1:57 pm

MamaPata wrote:Don’t beat yourself up about the lesson. No teacher is perfect, there are going to be screw ups. You recognised it, you’re learning from it, there’s no need to torture yourself with it.


Of course, logically, you're right ! Now, tell that to my anxious brain.... No but really, thanks for the nice words again.

I'm over it today but yesterday it was like giving a presentation to a company meeting then suddenly forgetting what the presentation was about. The equivalent kind of confusion and frustration. :oops:

Today I'm meeting my Greek friend and she's waiting for me in town somewhere, so the only Greek phrase I have learnt so far would actually be perfectly relevant - "που με περιμενεις?", where are you waiting for me? - except that my adventures with Greek are supposed to be a surprise ! So I'll try not to get too overexcited. ^^"




EDIT: Almost 24 hours later.

I just had the weirdest experience. Лъагъуныгъэ is a Kabardian word which I am sure that I have never seen or heard before, and do not recognise it from any context (including a random word list). I just encountered it for the first time (as a standalone word in another, unseen, random word list) and I felt my heart jump and the first word which came to my mind was "love" - and that's exactly what it means! Bizarre but fun coincidence, or maybe a sign of some ancient lingua-spiritual link, who knows ! :lol:
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languist
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Re: language lunacy - 2019

Postby languist » Sun Mar 03, 2019 12:10 am


    TEFL | español | français | الدارجة | ελληνικά | русский | адыгэбзэ | slovenčina
    English | Spanish | French | Darija | Greek | Russian | Kabardian | Slovak


    Sometimes I like updating this log even if I have nothing to truly update on.
TEFL | italki

    Teaching basically 12 hours a day now. I still love it, but perhaps I'm approaching burnout in terms of energy, if not motivation. Also, I've been naturally 'fit enough' all my life due to the physicality built into my normal routine. I don't enjoy dedicated exercise. Now I've been sitting at a desk for a few months and.......... well. I now understand how much of a typical girl I was being before when I complained about being 'fat' - it's weird having a wibbly wobbly belly !!! hahaha, help! I need to move!

    I'm having so many ideas each night about this language learning app I want to make, but with no time (yet) to develop them, nevermind begin to learn the basics of coding. I've mostly been a user of free resources, so I've just started to realise that I should probably check out some of the paid ones to make sure something like this doesn't already exist, in which case I don't need to invest my energy (and the rest!) into this project. But I hope not, because I want to !

Spanish | español

    Started watching La casa de papel. The vocabulary isn't too difficult to understand; as usual with Spanish, the problem is the speed. Unfortunately, watching with two Slovaks, I have to use English subtitles with the Spanish audio (or vice-versa, but obviously listening is the most valuable skill here), so I'm not sure if I'm imagining that I'm understanding more than I actually am in real time. What I mean is - am I really catching the Spanish as I hear it, or am I understanding the English subtitles then understanding the Spanish a split second later? Because, I already know that I can make sense of Spanish - that isn't the same thing as being able to follow it in full-flow. I might have to start watching it when my housemates are out, but with my current schedule, it isn't really possible.

French | français - & - Darija | الدارجة

    I decided not to do a lesson this week because I've been too tired and busy to even look over my notes, and didn't fancy another lesson where I could barely keep my eyes open. However, I stumbled upon a Korean youtuber who lives in Morocco. Her videos are mostly in French (with English and Korean subtitles - but I cover them!), and sometimes she makes videos about Darija phrases. She's cute, fun, and easy to follow. Also listening to Khaled & Magic System (who sing together in French and Arabic) and trying to convince myself that this is studying haha. I guess it's not too far from the truth, when I remember that I learnt 90% of my French from Serge Gainsbourg and his 'lolitas'.

Greek | ελληνικά

    Pottering through LT Complete Greek. Still enjoying it. I haven't investigated any Greek native resources yet, but I remember some youtube chef whose recipe my friend and I followed to make traditional Greek Christmas biscuits (μελομακάρονο) a few months ago. We joked that I should learn to cook - because I literally can't even boil pasta - and learn Greek at the same time. Maybe I should.

Russian | русский - & - Kabardian | адыгэбзэ

    This week... I think, nothing, beyond quick translation of simple vocabulary for my Russian students when they're stuck for a word in English. Circassian, nada.

Slovak | slovenčina

    There's a Slovak youtuber I really like called PPPiter, although we (including my Slovak housemates) have always watched his English language videos. We just started watching his Slovak ones, and really, sometimes I understand 100% for a few minutes and sometimes 0%. The same thing happened when they were playing some videos of backstage banter between some Slovak rappers. 100% for a while, then 0%. A Czech student also grilled me for a while on why my Slovak is conversational but not advanced, and the shameful answer is truly, "because I'm lazy" (also, disorganised and easily distracted).



    Aside from this, I went wedding dress shopping with my Greek and Italian friends, and later in the week bumped into other Italian friends (from the mainland, Sicily, and Sardegna), so that's always fun. And yesterday I did an escape room with my family!!! Wow. Crazy fun. And very challenging - we had 60 minutes and managed to finish with only 21 seconds on the clock!

    The language fun from that evening was our tipsy "who can pronounce the Irish shop signs best" competition judged by the only member of my immediate family who actually truly speaks Irish, my stepsister. As an Irish person who has been exposed to Irish signs all my life, I have to say - the Irish spelling system is mental. Anyway, we managed to convince my dad to say "tá mé ramhar", believing it to mean "I am the king". It means "I am fat". Don't feel too sorry for him - he'd just spent the past hour teasing me and my brother for our newfound chubbiness.
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languist
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Languages: English (N)
Learning: Mostly, how to procrastinate + French, Spanish, Darija, Russian, Slovak, Circassian, Greek
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languist's lazy language lunacy - 2019

Postby languist » Sat Mar 09, 2019 12:39 am

Hello if you happen to read my log! Thanks so much. Sorry that's mostly extremely messy these days (or... always?), I'm still struggling to find a structured routine. I have the "new notebook" impulse to start a new log as some sort of commitment to sticking to this incredible productive way of life.... but I'm sure we all know where that will end up!

I'm getting quite frustrated with the lack of progress I'm making - I feel like all of my languages are worse than before, except Spanish. Because there was no "before" with Spanish. :lol:

As to not dwell on that, I'd like to introduce you to two very beautiful songs performed by two singers who happen to be of Lebanese origin, one of whom is based in Canada, and the other in Sweden. I'm unsure if they're singing in the Lebanese dialect or MSA though. I wish the first song could go on forever, it's truly one of the most beautiful and serene things I have ever heard.






French | français

    I had a sudden compulsion to get some feedback on my French pronunciation the other night after I finished teaching, so I decided to get an instant tutor for the first time on a whim. Of those available, I noticed someone familiar to me, who also happens to be a native speaker of Maghrebi Arabic, so I decided to choose him. WOW. Best decision I've made to date. We ended up speaking for two hours, and i feel 100% certain that he can support me in bringing my pronunciation back up to scratch. I worked very hard before to speak French well, and I'm well aware that I'm no longer at that level... but it's so strange with rusty languages. How can we know what we don't know?

    I asked him to be brutally honest about my French level. He said A2. I usually get B2/C1 on any (online!) placement tests, so that shows how much my French 'performance' has been affected. Amazingly, thankfully, he said that I have a "neutral" accent, and he could understand everything I said, but I'm quite obviously just speaking Franglais sometimes. Called out.

    Recently, I've been spending more time on Youtube. As well as the Arabic+French-speaking-Korean, I've been watching a Arabic+French+Spanish+Japanese(+others)-speaking-duo, finally forcing myself to do some French listening practice. Below is another video I watched recently, which is a debate about women wearing the veil in France. I'd never adjusted the audio speed in order to understand a foreign language before - but I'm not sure why not! It's so useful. At full speed, I can understand about 75% of what the man says, and about 50% of the very speedy girl's speech. At 0.75 speed, that's probably 85%+ for the male speaker, and 75%+ for the girl. So I'm sure at least that my passive skills are above A2.

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languist
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Posts: 164
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Re: languist's lazy language lunacy - 2019

Postby languist » Mon Mar 11, 2019 2:35 pm

Okay, I'm really kidding myself with how much I can achieve given my current schedule.... I've been getting frustrated that I'm not really moving forward, and feel lost in terms of what to actually do for each language, and decided to make a strict schedule. I don't mind if I have no flexibility or social life for a few months, for the sake of working on something valuable to me.

And I love a spreadsheet. So here is one of them, showing my attempt at a practical timetable. Well. Nope. TEFL stands for the course I'm starting next week, for the sake of having an accredited qualification. This timetable doesn't include "organise notes, create lessons, reply to messages, EAT!, call family, clean bird cage, etc" haha.... oh dear. How do people do it?

I can and will devote some of those free slots on Monday (my day off!) to studying languages, but I'm at a loss right now on how to organise myself. Clearly, I'm working too much, but at the moment, it's financially necessary. [price student pays] - 15% [italki] - ~4% [paypal] -> currency conversion (- 20% [tax], eventually)... I love it, but it's not the most lucrative job atm.


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languist
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Re: languist's lazy language lunacy - 2019

Postby languist » Sat Mar 23, 2019 2:36 am

My life is really different now. I used to learn and use foreign languages in real life constantly, every day, in some small way. Lots of different ones. It's not for everyone, but this casual and dynamic approach was something that I really enjoyed. I just loved to notice patterns, pick up on things, communicate with people.

Now, really, it's something I have been trying my best not to face up to, but I essentially am agoraphobic at this point. Some pretty horrific things happened to me last year and as a result, I really did lose everything. Anyway, I mentioned that before. But, the truth is, since then, I haven't been able to leave the house for months. I just can't. Maybe for 20 minutes every few weeks, to an appointment, or if I'm smuggled directly to my Spanish class and back, or my father's house. It's really shit, because I'm a very happy, sociable person, despite the anxiety and depression hahaha.

So, italki was already my "dream job", but it now has the added bonus of allowing me to have an income without having to face the world. Actually - I do face the world, every corner of the world! It's so weird. I speak to more foreign language speakers than ever before in my life, but now I pretty much exclusively speak English.

I love to explore and meet people, so it's very debilitating to be unable to cross the threshold of your apartment - or even breathe fresh air! Never mind the lack of casual language use. Yeah. Es una mierda.
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badger
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Re: languist's lazy language lunacy - 2019

Postby badger » Sun Mar 24, 2019 5:16 pm

sorry you're having a tough time languist. have you considered getting some counseling/therapy if it's having this much of an impact on your life?
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