Surface Languages

Sup d00d’s?

I’ve just added five hundred Afrikaans sentences to Surface languages, and random Afrikaans crosswords.

The words for the crosswords use the vocabulary from the sentences as the clues, as a way of re-inforcing the words learnt.

I am, as the saying goes, chuffed to bits.

Besos, baci y pax.

MF.

Sup d00d’s,

I just subscribed to Hebdomada Aenigmatum,  a monthly magazine with Latin crosswords and other stuff.

So why is it called hebdomada?

Maybe I need to get out more … but we all need things to fret about.

Pax,

MF.

Sup?

The CERF language levels are A1, A2, B1, B2, C1 and C2. A1 is the lowest level, and C2 is more or less native.

I read somewhere that it takes twice as long to reach level B2 from level B1, as it does to reach A2 from A1. I also read that it takes twice as long to reach level C1 from B2, as it did to reach level B2 from B1.

In other words, the time needed to move up a level doubles each time.

This has certainly been my experience and I’ve now started on the long, long, long journey from a faltering B2 in Italian to C1. At this rate it will take me another four years … not that there is any hurry.

The good news is that you don’t need to spend any money to do this. Find people to talk to, and listen to pod casts for native speakers. Rince and repeat:)

Just do a little every day, and you will improve.

Or so I keep telling myself … Sono troppo pigro …

Of course, producers of language courses don’t want you to know that you can progress very comfortably without following any course, particularly as you become more advanced.

Baci,

MF

Sup d0ods?

It’s been a while, and I hope you are all good.

I’ve just added a large number of professionally translated Spanish sentences to Surface languages. There is no audio as yet, but it will come along shortly – over the next month or so.  I’m all for learning sentences in different languages. I find it therapeutic and it increases my vocabulary, but there we go.

I intend over time to add sentences in different languages and these are the languages which I will add first (as and when):

French/Afrikaans/Portuguese European/Catalan/English/Russian/Maltese.

You will notice that I’ve included English. All the sentences are the same and there is no reason that with a bit of jiggery pokery, and waving of hands, it shouldn’t be possible to learn Spanish through French, or English through Maltese and so on.

I hope to add this next year.

I’m also adding a new test. I’m not giving any clues, but I’m learning the numbers from one to ten in different languages. If nothing else, this should stave off dementia.

I read somewhere (and I loathe this sort of statistic) that 30% or so of people who set public goals achieve them. Well, this hasn’t worked for me as yet, but just in case :-

I’ve been at a good intermediate level in Spanish for years. I can chat and so on, but really I’ve not forced myself to improve and I’ve plateaued. I’m going to make a massive effort to improve and beak through to the next level.

Besos and baci.

MF

I’ve been learning Polish for two years or thereabouts, and I’m now going to take a break from it. I feel kind of bad about this, as  my progress has been limited and I haven’t learnt very much. It is entirely my own fault, because while it is a difficult language, it is not impossible.

Polish now longer seems unfamiliar or unnatural for me. I more or less understand how the language hangs together, and could (I think) make rapid progress if I started learning intensively.

But …

… I don’t need to speak it, and I haven’t had enough drive or commitment. I don’t have Polish friends, nor live in Poland. I can’t motivate myself to put in  the necessary hours in to be able to use it effectively.  This may change in the future, but for now boh!

Conversely, I’ve fallen for Italian, which I only started learning as a distraction,  So, today (when I should have been learning Polish) I’ve listened to the radio in Italian and read Dylan Dog (in Italian). I like speaking Italian, and have weekly language exchanges. I’ve learned expressions like ‘L’erba del vicino e sempre più verde and how to use brutte parole. I’m improving. Pian piano. Slowly.

And so (relunctantly), I’m going to put my Polish learning on hold for a while and may (or may not) return to it at some point in the future.

There is also the small matter of time. If I’m learning Polish, I can’t play with other languages …

And naturally (as someone who runs a site like this), I have a hankering …

Besos and baci,

Moonfcae

Are you sitting comfortably? I’m not, but that’s a story for another day.

Then I will begin.

But before I do  let me tell you that I’ve just completed a new App which will be here as soon as it has finished the apple approval process. Come on boys. Let it through. Allow the world to feast their eyes on another awesome Surfacelanguages app which is ..

… an Italian word puzzle type game for those of you who like such trinkets and are learning Italian.

For those of you who like such trinkets and are not learning Italian, other languages will follow soon (ish).

As the title of this post indicates, I’m still struggling with Polish. This has again been brought home to me recently as I’ve been doing a large number of language exchanges (scambi) in Italian.  And this in turn has made me think about my progress or otherwise with both Italian and Polish, or more colloquially where I am at. (I know, we are not supposed to write like this, but people say it. Where are you at? Or even where are you to?)

Returning to Italian before talking about Polish. I have reached the point where I really enjoy chatting in Italian. Sure I make mistakes and whatnot but I have fun, and importantly I can generally understand what is said to me. This is crucial (like duh) if you want to have a conversation, chat or meaningfully exchange information about topics.

I’ve made progress, and success breeds success, positive feedback and encouragement encourages more effort in turn leading to more success. And so on.

Back to Polish. It is not that I haven’t made any progress. It is that my progress isn’t very fast. I’m plodding along, like the proverbial tortoise.

In fact, when I was whinging about this, the Boss (who is wiser and more insightfull than me – and also controls the diary) reminded me that I said the same about Spanish. Of course I initially denied this. I was trying to save face. Polish is more difficult than any other language and so on. But the more I thought about it, the more I had to agree that she was correct.

Actually when I think back to learning Spanish (and I’m still learning by the way – it’s not like you can suddenly say I know Spanish …),  it took me years to feel confident speaking the language. If you read my blog regularly, you will see that this is a recurring theme. Learning languages takes me a long time. I don’t mind this, as it is just a fun hobby, a diversion, and a way of learning more about the world.

I haven’t as you may have guessed tried any Polish language exchanges. This is in part because I can’t say much, but more because my Polish comprehension is still very weak.

My experience with exchanges (in general) is that for them to be useful, both people need to have a similar language level. Otherwise most of the talking is done only in one language. This can still be fun, and you can have entertaining conversations but it is not especially useful in language learning terms.

The difference for me is that Italian has become a part of my life.  I have people to talk to, I read and while I try to remember and write interesting (well to me) words and phrases down, I don’t really do any formal ‘studying’.

I haven’t reached that level with Polish. I will and I am looking forward to that point, as that is when the language comes alive and becomes interesting.

Besos and baci,

Moonface.