Surface Languages

What?

Slow language learning? You mean that it is possible to learn a language slowly?

Certain ideas spread through the internet like an epidemic.  In the language learning world, this particular idea is that it possible to learn a language fast and well over a period of weeks.

I don’t think it is helpful. If anything it is discouraging especially when you are starting.

The fundamental idea is that if you are confident enough to speak, and know a handful of words  you can overcome any other difficulties through context and using your few words imaginatively.

No-one seems to challenge this world view.

The biggest (and never spoken of ) issue with this is …

Comprehension

It takes time to understand native speakers talking at a normal rate. Spanish is often used as an example of an easy language. People claim to learn it in eight weeks or whatever.

Well, I didn’t.

Sure, you can learn to put basic sentences together, but you will not understand the replies.

Yes, you can guess a bit from context both from the conversation you are having and where you are. And yes, people are  often helpful and will try and explain and maybe slow down.

But comprehension takes time, which is maybe why it  is never mentioned in the ‘it is easy to learn’ scenario. It takes time and listening before you can understand normal speech. It is much easier to speak than understand.

Of course, it is possible to speak immediately (although not necessarily correctly). Learning to put basic sentences together in another language isn’t hard. (It may be complicated for some languages, but it isn’t difficult to say something).

I could say ‘dog over there’ instead of ‘the dog is over there’  and be understood.

But comprehension takes time once you move away from the simplest of interactions. 

But

there is another way!

Don’t rush. Accept that it takes time to become good at something. Enjoy the journey.

Accept 

that if you are spending 30 minutes a day that your progress will be slow.

Peace.

Moonface

I’ve now being using Assmil Polish for 35 days, so I’m just over a third of the way through the 100 lessons.

The idea is that around half an hour is sufficient for each lesson, and after 100 days you can reach a level of between A2 and B1 on the CEFR scale.

Half an hour a day. Are they serious?

Well, I don’t know if I am particularly slow at language learning, but somewhere after Lesson 20 the lessons increase rapidly in complexity, and I’ve found that 30 minutes is not enough. In fact, it is not remotely enough.

Nevertheless, I’m not spending any longer than this for two reasons.

Firstly, I’m following the instructions as I don’t want to surcharger ma mémoire ‘overload my memory’, as explained in the intro. Who knows what damage that might do? A memory overload? It doesn’t sound pleasant.

Secondly, I don’t have more than half an hour. I’ve got other things to do like Fix taps. Etc.

What level can I (or you) reach?

I don’t know yet, but I imagine it will should be somewhere in the A2 range.

As I’ve discovered with Italian the difference between a weak A2 (almost A1) and a strong A2 (almost B1) is absolutely huge, so this category is not particularly enlightening.

Do you think the Assimil course is good?

In a word. Yes. When, I’ve finished I’ll write about my experience in more detail.

You Fix Taps. Really?

Yes. Although it would be more accurate to say that I’ve now fixed/replaced one tap. Ever. At this rate I’d need to live another 500 years to have replace ten.

I replaced our kitchen tap which had been dripping for months, thus saving the absolutely gigantic sum any self-respecting plumber would have charged us.

According to my wife, who knows about these things, I was stressed and irritable, while fixing said tap. In fact, she said muttered something like ‘if I’d known what a song and dance you would have made of it …’ . And so on. I focused on the job in hand rather than catching the end of the sentence.

Still, one sudden move and our kitchen would have been knee deep in water. Everything was hanging in the balance. Who wouldn’t be stressed? 

And that folks is life in the fast lane.

Peace,

Moonface.

I’ve just added the initial parts of two new language courses to Surface Languages. These are Italian for beginners and Polish for beginners.

The courses are simple,  consisting of short sentences, made up  of a few words only and for absolute beginners.

The reason for this was partly based on my experience of starting to learn Polish, which was that I found the language overwhelming. I didn’t know where to start, and couldn’t see how to progress. This problem is particularly acute when you are looking at a language which is completely unrelated to any others you know.

I wanted artificially simple sentences so that I could build up a very basic idea of how the language functions, before moving onto more complicated materials.

I then looked around at other language resources on the internet, and discovered that although there is a vast quantity of information, a lot of it is too complicated for the initial stages of learning. Obviously, the length of time spent on these initial stages depends on the intensity of learning and how many hours you are putting in a day or week.

I then thought it would be useful to add courses which could be used as a starting point in language studies, before beginning to use more complicated materials.

This should speed up initial progress. At some point, I would like to learn Russian, but before I do, I will add Russian to SL, and eat (as it were) my own dog food.

This is a very long term project and I will add these additional languages, and extend the  existing language courses as and when I can. Time permitting.

I am in the process (although that doesn’t come with a particular time-scale) of adding the initial parts to both French and Romanian language courses.

Peace,

MF

Well, I have been busy. Living the dream and so on…

I’ve also added the first part of the Italian language course that I’ve been talking about for some time.

There are currently twenty lessons and over time there will  (fingers crossed) be many, many more.

But first, I will set add the beginning lessons for Polish.

Peace,

Moonface

Well. I now have translations (and explanations) for the first of two new free language learning courses which I am adding to Surface langs. They are for Italian and Polish.

You can see the beginning of the free Italian language course. I’ve only added the first few lessons and there is no audio (yet). The Italian and Polish audio   will be coming soon.

These will be the best yet that I have added to Surface Languages, and I would love feedback.

So e-mail me with ideas/kind words etc.

Assimil Polish. Update. Lesson 13

Luckily for me,  lesson 13 mainly contained words that I already knew as I have been struggling to remember lesson 12.

I’m writing a list of words that I can’t remember  and glancing at them periodically.

There seem to be one or two in each lesson which flash into and then immediately out of my mind – such as posprzatać  ‘to clean’.  By the way, the a in posprzatać should have a diacritic, but I can’t add it in the normal apple way by holding a key down and selecting among one of several. Strangely, the particular a required in omitted.

Peace,

MF.

Secrets revealed. Part 1!

I have wanted to expand the content in the existing languages on Surface Languages for some time. I have wanted dialogs and explanations making up language courses rather than groups of phrases.

I am only one person, with limited time and resources and so I’ve been considering the best way to do this.

The answer is to satisfice, which is defined according to the relevant wiki entry and is to use ‘a decision making strategy that attempts to meet an acceptability threshold’.

The decision I have made is to add courses bit by bit and incrementally improve and expand on them. To this end, I have written some code which will enable me to *easily* add, change and expand language courses on this site.

You can see it here, although with dummy data.

I am now in the process of obtaining my first set of translations and audio for Polish. These will illustrate some very basic concepts of the language. I hope with time, feedback and experience I will be able to obtain further and more extensive translations/audio and explanations to improve these free language courses.

I intend to do the same with other languages – starting with Italian.

Peace,

MoOnFaCe

Day 7 of Assimil Polish.

Luckily the seventh lesson is a revision lesson, designed to consolidate knowledge.  I’ve used my half hour today to go through lesson 7 and revise the previous six.

Half an hour was not long enough and I ended up spending an hour on this, and also listened to these seven lessons while on the morning dog walk.

I’m starting to understand and enjoy the Assimil method and intrigued to see how much Polish I will  learn during in the next 93 days.

My only gripe is the half hour a day. The introduction to the book ‘Le Polonais’ clearly states ‘En général, une demi-heure por jour suffit’. Now, that might be enough for gifted linguists or anyone who is familiar with other slavonic languages, but for me it is not enough.

I suspect that the half hour is sufficient if you are learning one of the romance languages (as an english speaker), but for Polish it isn’t.

That said I like the short dialogs and will spend in as long as I need to finish this is 93 days.

The Secret Project

The ‘Secret Project’ will be *partially* revealed tomorrow.

Other Stuff

I learnt the Spanish word for toilet today. I mean the white throne within the room itself, not the name of the room which is  ‘retrete’.  The word (used in Spain is inodoro). There is a thread on this on the wordreference forums.

Due to a strange set of circumstances I need to know further and somewhat specific toilet related Spanish vocabulary.

My life is truly wild and exciting.

Peace,

Moonface

It is rapidly becoming clear that completing an Assimil lesson a day in only half an hour is going to be testing.

The difficulty is that Polish words don’t by and large have any relation to English words, which makes remembering them difficult. Lesson 6 which contains by way of illustration the word nadzieja (hope or expectation) and miejsce (place).

My memory is average and without constant reinforcement, I don’t retain new language. Tengo memoria de mosquito 😉

I don’t have time to spend more than half an hour a day on this, and so to increase my chances of success, I’ve made a play list containing all the lessons I’ve completed.

I’m going to listen to this while walking the dog. The next three months are going to be painful – mainly for me –  on the walk.

Well. No pain. No gain. No-one ever said this would be a walk in the park. Apart from said hound.

On a positive note, I like the exercises at the end of each lesson which show how you can combine elements that you have already learnt to make new sentences.

Back in the real world, and as we are having something of an Indian summer, I have the back door open. Cool eh!

But all I can hear is swearing from builders who are working on a roof  some distance from our gaff.

Perhaps they don’t realize how far sound travels. Take note kids!

Peace,

MF