Surface Languages

Sup?

Well, there you are speaking, Spanish (for example) and you want to maybe learn some Russian, but at the same time practice your Spanish …

or you are a native Spanish speaker wanting to learn Romanian …

or a Romanian speaker wanting to learn Bulgarian …

.. and you think what shall I do?

Well, you are in luck, I’ve started to add a language pairing page to Surface languages to let you do this, here.

It’s not quite finished, but mostly works.

I’ll complete it next week and add the link to the relevant places on Surface languages.

Thoughts welcome on this one until it is set in stone – so to speak.

Besos & baci,

MF

Sup all?

I get the fact that the title to this post isn’t very catchy, but it has recently come to my attention that an increasing number of non native English language speakers are using Surface Languages.

Hello, hi, hola, cześć, ciao, salut, bună, привет …

I know this because I periodically check the log files, and I realised that several links were from websites from different countries and in languages other than English. I followed some, clicked, read (via google translate) and was surprised and chuffed to see that SL is being recommended by the non English speaking world …

… which got me thinking.

My next project on Surface languages will be to add an option on the sentences page to allow the sentences to be learnt from any of the existing languages. This will make the page useful for non English speakers, and also for English speakers who for example want to learn French through Spanish etc.

If you are a non-native English speaker, and like the idea, comment and let me know what you think:)

Besos and baci,

Moonface

Sup all?

There was a brief interlude of blue sky this morning which coincided in a lifting of my mood – also brief. Confidence or causally related? I tend towards the latter.

So, that’s me, but how are you? I’ve been busy on other projects recently, and far away (metaphorically) speaking from Surface Languages apart from adding common words in German, which is a work in progress. There is no audio currently.

Even though French is my main focus this year, I’m also hooked on German which is ironic really, as after years of not learning any languages at all, I’m now trying to learn two.

I have an admission to make. On several of my various posts about using Assimil German,  I have sworn that I would not spend more than thirty minutes a day on the language, in part to see how far I can get with using the Assimil recommended time period.

Today I will do lesson 40 of Assimil German. The increase of new words and grammatical constructions is threatening to overwhelm me. I’m not retaining the new information. It is too much for me to do in thirty minutes!

And my admission?

In addition to Assimil I’m watching episodes of the Easy German series (great fun and subtitled) when I have a spare moment.

I only understand about one word in ten, but I’m fairly sure that reading the subtitles in conjunction with the German is re-inforcing some of the new words/constructions in Assimil.

So, I am in fact, according to my rules … cheating 🙁

Three romances etc

I gave this post the title of the three romances, a germanic and one slavic language because some time back, I wondered how many languages that I could learn to speak to a reasonable standard.

My somewhat arbitrary number was five including French, Spanish, Italian, German and an as yet undecided fifth language.

I can only learn languages that I use or have opportunities to use for some reason, otherwise the motivation isn’t there for me (no matter how cool the language may be).  I have opportunities to use French, Spanish, Italian and  sometimes German.

My fifth is likely to be Russian, although I’m not entirely sure as yet.

I have no need to speak (or am ever likely to need to speak) Russian, but what I am interested in doing is reading.In particular, I’m interested in reading Russian media, especially with the political changes currently underway in both America and Europe.

I would therefore learn only to read, rather than speak and understand Russian.

We shall see.

I haven’t actually given this much thought as yet. And Romanian still appeals …

Baci,

MF

Sup?

The icy blast of winter is apparently about to hit the UK.  In the West Country (my part of the world), it is five degrees and raining heavily, so it is totally miserable with no redeeming features whatsoever.

Grump. Grump. Grump.

I’m now on Assimil German Lesson 34, and since my previous post on the subject have done a lesson day, regular as clockwork for thirty minutes.

In my rules for using Assimil German, my first rule was that I was going to study German for thirty minutes a day.

No more than thirty minutes. No less than thirty minutes. This wasn’t an arbitrary time period,  and is as I understand it  the length of daily study recommended for the Assimil courses.

I have stuck to this, and it is hard, hard, hard.

It is hard because each lesson is detailed. There is new vocabulary, a dialog to be studied, grammar notes to be pored over and exercises to be done.

Thirty minutes is it must be said, a bit of a rush. I remember this as being a problem with Assimil Polish.

But, I’m sticking to the thirty minute rule for these reasons:

Lack of time. I live my life, see friends, have a family, job and so on. In short, I am quite busy.

I am establishing a habit. I am establishing the habit of learning German, and I can always find thirty minutes a day to study the language.

My style of language learning is slow and steady, and I’ll tell you why this matters with German below.

My primary focus (this year) is French. My primary focus is French at least until the end of the year, so German can’t encroach too much onto the time I’ve put aside for French.

Curiosity. Assimil courses indicate that you can reach a B2 level (see below) once you have completed the course. I don’t believe this for a minute, but  am intrigued to see how much I can learn using the Assimil method properly.

How long does it take to learn German?

On the cover of Assimil German, there is a little sticker with a B2 on it. The B2 refers to a level within the Common European Framework of Languages (CEFR), and for all intents and purposes means conversationally fluent.

Assimil German with Ease is designed to be completed in one hundred and fifty days.

So, in approximately one hundred and fifteen days, I will be  conversationally fluent in German.

Really?

REALLY?

There is NO WAY IS THAT POSSIBLE with half and hour of studying a day.

I really don’t want to sound negative about Assimil German as I love it. I love the book. I love the audio. I like the explanations. Yadder.  Yadder. Yadder.

I don’t know why language courses feel the need to inflate the level of competence that you will have reached after completion.

My current guess, is that after finishing the course, and having had some conversation practice, that I might be able to have reached a high A1 or low A2 on the CEFR framework.

I would consider A2 a great achievement after six months of half an hour a day studying.

We shall see.

Slow and steady

As promised a few lines ago, I’ll tell you why slow and steady matters for me with German, and that is because …

… German is going to be one of my languages.

I want to reach a B2 level in five languages.

German is a good choice for me, as apart from the inherent coolness of a language with insanely long compound words, and a great literature, I have the opportunity to hear and probably practice on a semi-regular basis.

I have discovered before (with Polish), that if a language doesn’t feature in my life in some way, I can only dabble, which is often ultimately unsatisfactory.

I’d thought that Afrikaans would be my fourth language, but that is not to be as  German (my latest flirt)  Ich liebe dich 🙂

In case you are wondering:

I’ll update you on my progress in two weeks, shortly before the dreaded Assimil active phase!

And I know what my fifth and final language is going to be.  I’ll tell you next time, but I’ll give you a clue, it is romantic …

Besos and baci,

MF

Sup Puppies?

I was woken early this morning, as the Q of My H had to leave early. In consequence, I’ve been rather more productive than normal this morning. I’ve already completed the next lesson in Assimil German, walked my hound (SWP), had breakfast (muesli and yoghurt if you must know) and listened to several French podcasts.

As you can tell from todays weather picture, Jack Frost came out to play during the night. According to my father, Jack Frost is the man responsible for leaving frosty, fern-like patterns on windows on cold winter mornings.

Luckily we now have double glazing. Progress has its merits.

As it happens , I love frosty mornings (especially with double glazing) and so does SWP, so we both bounded out (him literally and me metaphorically) and started our day with a satisfying woof, bark and snuffle though the ice and cold.

But I digress, I am now on lesson 25 of  Assimil German (after a brief hiatus over Christmas and New Year),  and thought it was time for an update as to my progress, and some thoughts on how to use Assimil effectively.

If you’ve read my blog before, you will already know that several years ago, I battled with Polish without much success and I also used Assimil Polish in that particular skirmish.

Although on balance, I like Assimil Polish, I wasn’t totally wowed by the product, and had a bit of a love/hate relationship with it.

In contrast, I’m having much more success, and I am loving Assimil German. I think is to do with how I am using it, rather than with the course itself.

These are my thoughts on how to obtain the best results from German with Ease.

Four rules for using Assimil German effectively

1. Spend thirty minutes a day using Assimil and no more.

This is slightly counterintuitive,  but one of several areas where I went astray when using Assimil Polish. I spent longer on each lesson than I should have, resulting in burn-out and discouragement.

The course lasts one hundred and fifty days, and you need to maintain your motivation during this time period. An easy way to do this is too keep your aims manageable, and thirty minutes a day of learning isn’t much. There are very few people who can’t find thirty minutes a day to do something that they want to do.

If you commit do studying for half an hour and no more, regardless to whether you have fully learnt the days lesson or not, you will make progress.

2. Focus absolutely when using Assimil German

An advantage of only spending thirty minutes studying is that you can concentrate absolutely during this period.

There is no excuse for letting your mind wander, for looking at your emails, for checking the news, sending texts, and all those other, oh so crucial things that we do all through the day.

3. Do the exercises and take them seriously.

The exercises reinforce not only what you have learnt during the lesson, but also in previous lessons.

4. Read the notes with care and attention.

The notes explain the grammatical structures used in the lesson. The idea is that bit by bit you will absorb (assimilate) the various grammatical structures needed to speak the language.

5. A possible fifth rule

I know the title was four rules to using Assimil German effectively, but my ideas, change, evolve and possible improve (like a fine wine) with time.

I’m going use the Assimil Romanian with ease course later this year, and have a fifth rule which I’m going to try when I do so, but with German I’m sticking with these four.

What have I learnt so far?

I know now that Montag (Monday) in German literally means the day of the moon, from  Mond (Moon) and Tag (day).

I look at German words with more care and curiosity. Often learning one word gives you two. Die Wochentage (days of the week) is composed of Woche (week) and Tag (day) or Das Geburtstagfest (birthday celebration) is made up of Geburt (birth), Tag (day) and Fest (celebration).

I’m starting to understand some  basic German grammar, in particular how German articles change in the accusative.

An example would be: Der Student sieht den Professor (The student sees the professor), where the masculine definite article der  changes to den in the accusative.

Grammar is explained bit by bit and chunk by chunk in the notes to each lesson, which is why Rule 4 is so important.

I’m starting to become familiar with some basic German constructions.

Of course, and this should always be emphasised, for passive knowledge to become active, you have to use it!

I’m not doing this with my German for now, as my spare speaking time (as it were) is taken up with French.

Who is Assimil German suitable for?

I am really enjoying German with Ease, but it is not for everyone.

If you don’t like self-study then it is not for you.

If Grammar isn’t your thing, then the Assimil German with ease is not for you. The notes and explanations are grammar heavy.

If you can’t commit to thirty minutes study a day, it is not for you.

Assimil German is, as are so many things in life, what you choose to make of it.

And finally:

Completely at a tangent, I thought that the ending to the New Years Day special of Sherlock Holmes (the Six Thatchers) was a bit brutal. No spoilers in case you haven’t seen it, but I wonder if the plot arc is now heading in the wrong direction.

I’ve always been a big Sherlock Holmes fan, and the way that the new BBC series has updated the original and made it relevant to today is pretty splooshy. However, you can’t beat the originals,  which you can read at the Gutenberg archive for free.

Just so you know, if you click the links and purchase these products, I get paid a commission. Thanks. It keeps Surfacelanguages alive and growing.

Baci,

MF

Sup?

This is a picture of my four legged bezzie on our walk this morning. I hadn’t wanted to leave the house as it was wet, drizzling and not particularly warm.

As you might guess, I didn’t have much choice. It was my turn to walk today (or so I was informed by the Queen of my Heart), and my hound was keen.

New years eve is a perfect time for reflection, planning, and thinking about what went right and what went wrong during the year.  I normally listen to podcasts during my constitutional but today before I switched on my phone I reflected a bit on my year, and talked it through with perfect puppy.

And these are our conclusions:

What went right in 2016

Surface Languages

Surface languages has continued to grow with between 500,000 and 600,000 page views every month.

It has never been affected by Google algorithm changes as I never optimise the pages for SEO, and try and make them as useful as possible to language learners.

Most visitors find the site through word or mouth and links from other websites to relevant pages.

So, if you like my site and want to see it grow, tell people.

I added further sentences in different languages.

My secret website

I’ve finally made the first tentative steps towards building another website which is an exercise in creative writing.

I’m learning French

I eventually made the commitment to learn another language properly, and have been having weekly French lessons using a teacher from italki.com.

Exercise

I am a big fan of body weight exercise (push ups, levers handstands …), and have made considerable progress during the year.

What went wrong in 2016

I set up several sites that were a complete waste of time and effort. I didn’t think about nor plan them sufficiently.

In fact the past several years of my life is littered with half-finished websites that were almost but not quite good enough to continue developing.

I wasted a lot of time and was unproductive both in language learning and website construction. This was caused, as usual, by a lack of structure and organisation in my day to day life.

Plans for the future

I’ve never been a ‘proper’  blogger. Every now and then, I metaphorically, put pen to paper and post something almost at random, generally related to language learning, but not always. I’m going to try blogging ‘properly’. I’m not limiting myself to language learning, but want to talk about the life and times of a fifty something year old living in the UK.

I’m going to use my own voice.

I’m going to continue with My Secret Website. I’m torn as to whether to link to it here or not. The reason for not is that I want to see if it can succeed  entirely on its own merits without being linked to any other site, rather than to hide the content which is quite fluffy and entirely innocent.

I intend to add five hundred more  sentences in other languages to Surface Languages, time and money permitting.

And finally, this isn’t a plan but a possibility.  I use three websites, Italiano Automatico, Français Authentique and Mr Real Polish and was wondering about either creating something similar in English or adding a section to Surface Languages in a similar vein.

Happy new year my puppies.

Baci,

MF