Last week I got excited as I felt like I was making more progress with being able to ask for a specific dialect. To make sure I kept up that momentum, I took to the language learning programs that I've used to make sure I find people who are willing to work with me using the correct dialect. I took some time and prepared a few phrases to send to people. My hopes was that I would get a few who were willing to respond. That escalated quickly.
I spent a good 10-15 minutes writing that up.... and then I go and get these responses!
I forgot that when you message somebody in a specific language, they believe you can speak that language. Instantly, the level of responses I got back was much higher than I was ready for. This required me to quickly establish myself and try to converse with everything that I had. I'm happy to say that it went better than I originally thought.
Today, I was able to have two different conversations in Arabic with two different people. Both lasted for just short of 20 minutes including about half of it in Arabic. I was happy to learn new words that I will likely become more accustomed to using. My goals were to be able to be understood and to recognize at least one portion that I wasn't expecting. Looking back on both, I was successful!
More than anything, these conversations were a great way to see if what I'm doing is right. They were able to understand what I was saying, would recognize when I needed help, and were more than happy to clarify things that caused questions for me. I'm hoping that they continue into a more consistent language exchange.
Being as I didn't get to record either of the chats, I get to freestyle for a little today. We will see what I come up with. Seriously, I think I mention that I like playing with my dog, Ryan, EVERY week......
So in a previous post I mentioned how Mandarin is actually, in my opinion, not as hard as many people make it out to be. There are some differences than English, but some of those differences can actually be easier depending on how you approach the difference. I've mentioned before that Arabic has been more difficult for me and there are definitely some things that I've done to also increase that challenge.
One of those ideas is to try to spend a small amount of money on learning this language. This was intended to show that you don't need to spend a lot of money to learn a language, you just need the right resources. By limiting the costs, I've limited some of the resources I could use such as professional teaching. This required a lot of guessing and hoping without true direction from the start.
Another issue I had was trying to learn a specific dialect. The typical way people learn Arabic is through "Modern Standard" Arabic which nobody actually speaks. This is taught first because it is the foundation you can build off of for other dialects but to be able to speak, you need to learn a dialect. Trying to speak "Shakespeare-ian" is as close of an analogy to the experience you would have trying to speak Modern Standard to a native. Instead, dialects are more the path you need to take, but which one? At first I didn't know but after reflection I finally settled on the Levantine dialect which is most commonly used in the Middle East countries as opposed to Egyptian Arabic which is actually the most popular but used mainly in Egypt and mainstream media. By choosing Levantine, this required me to be sure I was learning the correct words, so I need to filter through all Modern Standard, Egyptian, Moroccan, Levantine, and all lesser used dialects to be sure I'm learning the material I want. This at times can be confusing.
"Kwayis" "Jayid" "Mniih" are three different ways of saying, "I'm good"......not very similar.
This past week, I was able to find a new resource called Forvo which has recordings of people from different regions saying different translations. This is perfect for me as it shows a map and I can quickly determine if they are using the same dialect and relevant vocabulary for me. I'm really happy with this new resource.
Reviewing what I learned in my lessons I took at the end of last year, I need to focus on incorporating more verb tenses into what I say.
Last week I started one of my goals to read 20 books for the entire year. I felt it was appropriate for me to read a book about language learning so I tried out, "Fluent Forever" by Gabriel Wyner. I won't go into much detail about my opinion of the book but instead will focus on one part that I've really embraced.
A common trend that all learners are adapting to is the SRS (spaced repetition system). This idea is that as you review things more often it will allow you to go longer without having to study it again. This is a common way to transfer short term memory into long term memory. Basically the goal is to bring something back up to review right as you are about to forget it. This allows you to only study things that are absolutely necessary to be more efficient. There are multiple programs that utilize this system which I have used before but this previous week I began making my own flash cards. Instead of using a pre-made deck of cards, I have to go and find the words that I want to learn. This also is allowing me to better understand what each word means to me. This has allowed me to completely remove English from the flash cards and have them entirely in another language.
What does this card mean? Unless you made it (or can read Arabic) it likely won't have the intended meaning.
Not only has this helped me with the spelling, but it has made the experience more fun. Now, I get to choose which picture best represents "sleep" for me instead of just trying to associate the spelling alone. The last few days I have been much more excited to do my flashcards than previously before. I think having fun is important for this. You can't go after a goal if you don't enjoy what you're doing. After a while, that initial excitement will wear off and then you are left with whether you "want" to do something.
A good example for this is my weekly Skype chats I have with my friend, Jing. Being able to discuss things in Mandarin has always been exciting for me. When I first started I was terrified and sat with a long list of vocab words that I needed to use. Now, I'm much more comfortable and just talk about anything that comes to mind. This week I'm including a short 2 minute recording of our chat we had this morning where I talked about what I did over the holiday break. I apologize for the quality of the audio/video combo. Testing out new ways of doing things. Enjoy!
Back when I started, I set a few goals of what I wanted to accomplish this year. Here is a look back on those goals and which I accomplished:
Have a 15 minute conversation using ONLY Chinese
Be able to speak a 5 minute monologue in Chinese
Have a 40 minute conversation using ONLY Chinese
Having a 15 minute conversation with somebody who DOESN'T speak any English
Watch an episode of a Chinese TV show and be able to understand what is happening
Be able to read and pronounce a full page of Arabic whether I know the words or not
Have a 30 minute conversation with somebody that is a mix of Arabic/English
Listen to an Arabic song and be able to explain it in Chinese
Yikes, 4/8 is not too high of a number to be proud of. As the year progressed I learned a lot about what was realistic to ask of myself for these languages. There were times I didn't study as much as I should have but there was also times I studied more than I planned. Had everything gone perfect I feel I could have gotten around 6 or 7 of those goals completed this year, but I'm not perfect nor do I strive to be.
I try not to look at the failures that have happened. Instead, I strive to look at the successes that came about. Here are a few things that I was able to do that was not intended:
Reconnect with old friends who have since started to learn languages as well.
Get in contact with language learners from Europe who are also learning the same languages as me.
Have my blog posted on an international language learning website.
Have a conversation about something that I've never prepared for in another language.
Meet some people from countries that I was learning their language.
Have foreigners trying to help me plan my trip to China.
Now's the time to look forward to 2017. With the new year I'm supposed to make new goals right? I'm not going to be adding any new languages but instead just trying to develop the languages I've started.
Be able to have a 15 minute conversation in three different foreign languages for 15 minutes each (Mandarin, Arabic, and Spanish) without any English
Write an entire blog post without using English (sorry)
Find somebody that I can set up a weekly chat with to have an Arabic/English exchange
Find somebody that wants to learn one of these languages that I can help teach
I'm sure I'll create some more specific goals along the way. Main one is number 4, if you or anybody you know is interested in learning Spanish, Mandarin, or Arabic I would be happy to join them on that journey (I can offer the most tips in Mandarin of the three). For now, here is a video of all three at once!
