Postby NIKOLIĆ » Thu Sep 22, 2016 12:23 am
Holy cow. I just finished lesson 4 of DLI's MSA course. My progress with MSA has been less than stellar so far, mostly because I've been juggling so many languages and I can't really expect to make progress with such a hard language while allocating so little time to it. But, if you happen to need someone to translate "Syria's army is small." or "That's the Jordanian field marshal, and he's well-know there." into Arabic, I'm your guy.
I've also completed lesson #30 of DLI's Romanian Basic course. I'm running into maybe 2-3 unknown words per lesson, and most of those have been useful military related words.
OK, now I'm gonna write a bit about what's been going through my head these past couple of weeks related to language learning and my own limitations. I've never been a voracious reader nor have I written a lot. I've never talked about complicated issues nor discussed politics, art, music or literature in an academic setting. I'm absolutely terrible at keeping a conversation going and I also can't seem to organize my train of thought in a logical manner. I've always seen myself as a guy that just sits in the back and listens, interjecting or chiming in only when there's something new to add to the discussion, and that's it. When I answer a question, my response is usually just one sentence, and then I'm like: "What's the next question?" while my interlocutor is like: "Is that all?Hmm." This goes both for my native language and the rest of them. I always roll my eyes when I hear somebody (my classmates for example) talking about things that are blatantly obvious. On the other hand, when I hear somebody explain something in a long-winded but crystal clear and eloquent manner, I'm like: "Man, where did they learn to speak like that??"
Here's a stupid thing I used to do. I'd imagine myself taking part in a discussion, spitting lines of wisdom left and right, sentence after sentence, absolutely crushing my "opponent's" arguments and impressing everyone that happened to be listening, and yet I never did that in real life. Maybe I was just looking for some sort of recognition or appreciation in my own little imaginary world? I have no idea why I used to do that.
I want to get better at writing, but I don't want to write. I want to get better at speaking, but I don't want to speak. It's such a catch-22. A part of me always goes: "What's the point? "What are you gonna get out of it?".
I've pretty much come to terms with the fact that I'm never going to be a great speaker or writer. The very fact that it took me a good 30 minutes to write this post pretty much confirms it. I don't have an interesting life story or anecdote to tell and I do the same things every single day.
Maybe this is just something that comes with age and experience?
2 x
How yes no.
