How Many Languages Do I Speak

Here is a video answering the question "how many languages do I speak?"

Slacker and Update!

It's official, I have been slacking in my study and in my posting. On the bright side I have been using lanuage in real life...

Here is an update of what I have done in the last few months.

Hindi - I meet with an Indian woman aproximately once per month and we practice speaking. She also corrects my writing practice. In addition there is an Indian man who works at a gas station that I only speak in Hindi with.

I have began watching a TV series on YouTube named Shaka Laka Boom Boom.

I recently met a Punjabi man (maybe I will share this story one day as well). We speak, him in Punjabi and I in Hindi, and sometimes we understand.

Urdu - I have recently met a couple new Pakistani friends.

Português - I have one Brazilian friend in the Tri-Cities. We speak Português when it is just the two of us. I also practice a bit with a friend in Brazil and I have some Brazilian friends that only speak Português, so we all chat as well.

I'm still working through Duolingo. Slowly but surely.

Spanish - I am around it quite often in my city, and try to listen but don't do much of anything. It's very difficult for me to speak as I mix it with Português a lot. 

After I finish Português on Duolingo, I do plan to work through Spanish in Portuguese or Portuguese in Spanish...so I will put them against eachother in hopes of keeping them separate...

until I'm at a decent point in one, I don't think the other will be useful and they say learning Portuguese makes Spanish very easy.

Sign Language - I use sign with a man at Cricket. I also use sign language instead of singing in church. Sadly my sign has deteriorated when it comes to conversing.

Arabic - I'm amazed by how many Islamic friends (mostly Somalian, new to America) use Arabic and I know the words from Urdu.

Somali - Similarly, I'm often surprised to see that many Hindi and Somali words are similar.
Jabati - chapati
Sambusa - samosa

Lakota - not practicing.

Latin - This is a new one for me.  I've considered reading the book of Mark in the Vulgate Bible...I'm researching the best way to learn to read Latin for this purpose.

Cultural paintings from FeliciaFollum.com

Also at Facebook.com/feliciafollumdesign

Hindi Vocabulary Lists

Assorted art from the #TheLilyPadProject

Why recreate the wheel...here are 13 great Hindi word lists to take a look at.

These lists can be used in several ways. You can memorize them or take each word and write a sentence (which I find quite helpful).

1. My First Phrases from Hindi for Christmas

2. Anything Anil Mohato is great! This is one of his vocabulary videos (video below).

3. Common verb list (short but could be learned in a week)

4. Days of the week and directions from linguanaut.com

5. Numbers  from linguanaut.com

6. Adjectives from linguanaut.com

7. Vocabulary from linguanaut.com

8. Survival Terms from linguanaut.com

9. Grammar Tense Practice from Hindi for Christmas

10. Urdu lists from linguanaut.com

11. Hindi Words that come from Arabic from Namaste-America

12. Yet another list of Arabic words in Hindi from Baheyeldin

13. A third Arabic, Urdu/Hindi, Punjabi word list from PakPassion.net

Separation: Tips For Studying Multiple Languages at Once

My tips to avoid language confusion when studying multiple new languages.

Greeting cards inspired by henna designs and Indian culture by Felicia Follum Art+. They will be up on ETSY soon.

1. Stagger languages - practice one language for a few months then add another one in.

For me I confused Hindi with Spanish because neither language was at a good enough level to add more. I also confused Spanish and Portuguese at first. Once my Portuguese became stronger it began to hold its own.

2. Separate place, time, people, activity, etc so your brain will associate these things with that language.

For example practice Hindi in the evenings through texting and Portuguese in the mornings. Watch movies in Hindi and use Duolingo for Portuguese. I've also told friends that I can only practice one language with them at a time.

More of my art inspired by language learning and Indian culture.

3. Don't practice mixing both new languages.

Ex don't try to speak in a mix of Hindi and Spanish at first. It will hurt you in the long run. Form a sentence in one and force yourself to  use only that language. Resist the urge to have conversations in a mix of two incomplete languages even when you find others who mix the same to unrelated languages.

4. Learn Languages that are different from one another.

This will help keep language confusion to a minimum. Some people will argue that working on similar languages is helpful because the work off one another. Though helpful, I found that my precious knowledge of Spanish was more of a hindrance than it was helpful. However learning only Urdu or Hindi would be a challenge.

5. Learn one difficult and one easy language.

I realize this is subjective. One strategy is to pick a language similar to one you already know and one that is very different. One strategy would be to focus maybe 60% or 70% of your time on the more difficult language and the rest on the easy language. I typically prefer to practice the language that I am excited about at a given time.

These are just the things that helped and are helping me the most. I am aware that there are more ideas and would love to hear some of yours. What tips have helped you? Did mine work for you? Do you struggle with mixing languages?

Let me know below...

InshAllah

Pakistani Dinner Night

Mere pati, meri dost, aur main

InshAllah 


Several months ago when I was just beginning to learn Hindi I was messaging one of my friends in Pakistan and she told me 'InshAllah' referring to learning Urdu. I asked her what it meant and she said that

"InshAllah means if God wants you to then you will do this easily"

And though I would not say that this past year of learning Hindi was easy (and I honestly wouldn't say that I have learned it yet). It was full of challenges and stepping outside of my comfort zone but it is certainly seeming clear that God does want me to learn and practice this beautiful language.

Read more about InshAllah. 

They All Speak a Different Language

Felicia Follum
Washed in Blood – Henna
Mixed Media

I have friends from all over India here in the us. One night I was hanging out with about 10 Hindi speaking friends. They were all speaking different dialects, had different accents, and some may have even been speaking Urdu and i would have never known. 

This to me is absolutely fascinating. ugh though I am not quite sure how it will impact my learning. Maybe it will make me more diverse or just confuse...but In reality, I will just accept it as a lot of fun.

I guess my current plan is to keep learning all that I can (and at times filter out what is the most important and the general idea). 

My current tip (to myself) in regard to spelling is to learn from one good resource mainly and take everything else with a grain of salt.  sticking with one source will also help me learn the alphabet and transliterations better... Shyad, I will add more sources/spellings as I become more comfortable.

Since I began this post I have encountered one big problem with the one source strategy but will get to that in a future blog post.

Fun Fact Friday + Pretty Urdu Word

I just spent a few minutes looking at Urdu…Did you know Urdu is a mix between Pakistani, Arabic and Hindi? I absolutely love this script...