Language Journal

I wrote previously about a month ago about taking up Spanish on top of the other three languages that I’m studying, German, Russian, and French. While it started out well, as soon as other life responsibilities fell into my lap (like midterms), things fell apart quickly. I’ve not so much as touched Spanish in the past few weeks, and indeed, I’ve been slipping on all of my languages to some extent. I’m not happy about the matter, but I suppose I should report failures here as well as successes, so as to give a balanced view of things can go when trying to learn multiple languages.

I’d still like to study all four, but I’ve not quite figured out the best way to do it yet. I mentioned staggering the languages in my previous post, but I doubt I’d stick to a strict schedule (Spanish on Mondays, German Tuesdays, whatever).

For those of you who are tackling multiple languages at once, how do you handle this problem?

No, I’ve not been resting on my laurels!

I’ve been chipping away at my Russian, and truly, I think chipping is the right word. I never make huge leaps with Russian, and I’d be lying if I said the beginning steps have been easy. They haven’t. I knew Russian was considered a difficult language, but I wasn’t quite expecting this difficult. But – by chipping away slowly at the mountain, hopefully, I’ll conquer it some day. And, I dare say, I am making progress. Slow, certainly, but it’s progress nonetheless.

Recently, I’ve gone back to the very beginning of my New Penguin Russian Course, and started reviewing everything very closely. While much of it I “know”, with a lot of it, I’d say I’m “familiar” with it, but I’ve not learned it by heart. Instead of plowing on through the book when my foundation is weak, I’m going back and pouring in more concrete to strengthen things up. I’m finding that things that I found totally baffling on the first go through are easier to grasp now.

Before I dropped back to the beginning to do a full review, I was working on chapter 7, which includes adjectives and the basic declensions of them. I at first found all of the explanations about the declensions to be confusing, but I found some clarity when, ironically, I turned to the back of the book and looked at the table of all of the possible declensions of an adjective. I found this to be rather humorous, as well as a sign that my skills at learning a language have become better (or perhaps just changed). When I started learning German years ago, I hated tables of endings, conjugations, etc. I found them to be too much. I preferred to be introduced to bits of grammar slowly. Now, at least when it comes to declensions, I prefer to look at tables so I can have a bird’s eye view of what’s going on. I will, of course, have to study each declension on its own and learn to use it properly, but I still find it helpful to see the full picture before digging in with the pieces of it.

I’ve also recently added a few more Russian language books to my repertoire. Not because the books I had (the New Penguin Russian Course and Kenneth Katzner’s Dictionary) were bad or not thorough enough, but because I’d like to be able to tackle the language from different viewpoints. As the language addict recently remarked:

Most language textbooks take similar but not identical approaches to language learning, and teach similar but not identical vocabulary.

The two books I bought are:

• Russian for Beginners by Charles Duff – Similar, but far from identical, to Nicholas J. Brown’s Penguin course. I’m finding that some of the grammar explanations in Duff’s book are more thorough and exact than Brown’s book, but Brown’s book has its bonsues as well. I think these two books will play off of each other nicely.
• Dictionary of Spoken Russian by the U.S. War Department – The big lure of this book for me was that all of the words have multiple example sentences, showing the word in real use. It is indeed a bit dated, but I’d say it will still prove extremely helpful, particularly when I start entering the words and example sentences into one of my vocabulary programs. As an aside, Katzner’s dictionary also has example phrases and sentences for almost all of the words in it. Context, context, context – so important for learning new words!

Ah, if I were only a toddler again!

Lately, my toddler has been picking up new vocabulary at an amazing rate (as, I understand it, all toddlers do). While I don’t “catch” this learning all of the time, I’ve seen something he does occasionally when learning a new word, and it brings some interesting images to my mind. I thought I’d share:

Yesterday we were at a local state park. We were going to a lake so he and his mother could play in the lake (I’m not a big play-in-the-lake fan). As we were driving along the road looping around the lake, he pointed at it and said “it’s water!” I said, “Yes, that’s right – it is water. That’s actually called a lake.”

He looked at me in the rear view mirror, all seriousness, and said “lake“, then nodded his head once. I repeated it, then he did it again. He then pointed again and said “It’s a lake”; he continued to call it that the rest of the evening.

When he gets that serious expression on his face, it makes me think of some vast, fast-moving machinery in his head, quickly sorting new words right where they need to go in his long term memory. No real effort is needed on his part; he hears a word, the gears crank (quietly!), and the word is his.

This is in stark contrast to how I often feel when learning new words. I’ll read or hear the word; repeat it; think about it; try to use it in a sentence. If I don’t then put it in one of my vocabulary programs to review later, usually, the word is gone within a day or two (sometimes less). Furthermore, often it feels as if my gears are rather creaky, with a few pieces of broke metal thrown in for good measure. Sometimes my brain machinery gets hung up completely on a word or phrase, and doesn’t want to move anymore at all.

Sigh. If only I could be a toddler again, or at least have their language learning abilities. I suppose I’d be up for passing Barney, diapers, etc.

After studying German off and on for a number of years, along with a variety of other languages, I feel it’s my duty to let everyone who wants to learn a foreign language in on a little secret: learning a foreign language isn’t easy. Despite what dozens of programs would have you think – “Learn [X] in 10 Minutes a Day”, “Learn [X] the Fast and Fun Way”, etc. – slogging through a foreign language is hard work. Sometimes it’s infuriating, painful even, depending on what language you’re studying and what problems you’re facing. I’m not saying that studying a foreign language is hopeless or pointless or anything like that – I think studying a foreign language (or many!) is a rewarding endeavor, one which can often be enjoyable. But do I think that learning a foreign language is a piece of cake, like many language learning programs try to make it appear? Not in the least.

I think programs that try to make learning a foreign language sound like learning to tie your shoes are actually harmful to learners, because they often give beginners a false idea of what will be required of them. “Oh, I’ll be able to learn [X] in a month, studying only 10 minutes a day!” Not exactly. You might be able to get down some basic greetings, farewells – the very basics – but that’s about it.

Let’s be honest, though. We all know why the programs are marketed that way – because we all wish we could learn a language in a month, particularly us Americans. We’re spoiled. We want to know how to do “it”, whatever “it” is, and we want to know how to do it a week ago. I’d say if a program were marketed with “Learn [X] in 3 years, with 1-3 hours of study per day, every day”, they wouldn’t sell many copies…

But if you’re going to really study a language, really try to master a language, you might as well settle down with a similar timeframe. You can become proficient in many language in less time; some languages might take much longer. But with any foreign language, you’re looking at some multiple of years – not months – to become proficient in the language. The sooner you accept that and plan accordingly, the sooner you won’t be let down by having your hopes in the clouds. Don’t be fooled by the “learn a language in a month!” programs.