October - December Goal - Separation

My 2 Language Study Plan worked alright for a while but I realized that people in other parts of the world are awake when they are awake and there were certainly nights where I was chatting with people in both languages.

I found that changing the times was helpful but even more so is consciously switching off one for one person and switching it back on for another person.

This is easier said than done. I can't tell you how many times I would use a word from wrong language only to notice when my friend responded with "what are you saying?" It typically would happen when I couldn't think of the right word and I was unaware that my brain just replaced it so I would need to look it up the word in the correct language.

Also talking to myself is helpful. It takes a lot more effort to think in Hindi. Portuguese is getting pretty easy to think in. Krio just happens. And French is quite difficult.

My biggest struggle with the Hindi is still the sentence structure because my vocabulary is decent (except I have forgotten a lot) and you can use English and be understood.

I still don't have Hindi and Portuguse figured out, but I think I will be needing to add in some Spanish to the mix. There have been several times people will speak to me in Spanish. I understand and then respond in portunol or just plain old portuguese.

This is not ok. I am around enough Spanish that I actually need Spanish in my town...so I am also working on separating Spanish and Portuguese in my head. This should not be too difficult, except I do fear loosing my Portuguese before I get decent and not getting it back....ever. Will see.

So my goal October - December Goal (or until I re-write goals):
Speak Hindi and to keep languages separate in messages, conversation and my brain.

Thank guys!!! 

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...

Enjoy the Journey

Relax and enjoy the ride...

Seriously this is one of the most significant factors I've noticed making a positive impact on my ability to recall words and think in a language.

When I get tired and really begin to relax is when foreign languages really flow. I remember late nights playing Uno and between 1pm and 4 I understood wayyy more Hindi than normal.

In Brazil mornings were rough but by the time i sat down to dinner with the families I was able to converse quite nicely.

Enjoying the process has helped me to relax. I'm not perfect or even good, but I am much farther than I was a year ago and in 5 years I will be significantly farther than I am now.

I am where I am and that is a beautiful spot to be.

2 Language Study Plan

I think my two language learning strategy for the next month is to practice português in the morming and hindi at night. I want to keep the languages as separate as possible in my brain. We will see how this works....

Hindi - I will watch hindi movies and review vocab. I would like to find a group to practice speaking with. I think there is one where we moved. I will of course chat with my Indian friends at night.

Português - I will text with my Brazilian feiends in the morning. I would also like to study grammar a bit.

Any tips? Thoughts?

This photo from Casa Frida may seem incredibly random but there is both Sanskrit and Portuguese graffiti in the background...

How did I study Hindi? Months 12 - 15ish

The Wyoming Cricket Team!!! 

Well I am taking a short sabbatical from my Hindi learning. June - August.

I will spend this time refreshing Spanish and studying Portuguese.

I plan to use the same first 3 month process that I did for Hindi except will be in Brazil and possibly Argentina :) and I will be much farther ahead when I start and I will have a better grasp on how I learn best...

The first 15 days will be review of Spanish as well as studying Portuguese basics.

The 3rd week will mostly be Portuguese as will the next month and 3 weeks. There is a good chance I will come out of this with decent Portunol. Which is basically a mix of the two (and arguably not a real language, just the reality of what happens when you speak Spanish and end up in Brazil.

 

Going into this I can read, write and speak Spanish (at about B1/B2 level, which is certainly higher than my Hindi) I can't understand Spanish much anymore, but I think this will come back fast. I can also read Portuguese.

I am still debating about whether I want to refresh my Hindi a bit while traveling just so I don't loose all my Hindi or if I should just go 100% into Portuguese...I'm leaning towards taking an actual break and giving my brain a rest and just focusing on easier languages (No matter what Indians tell me Hindi is hard for me and Spanish and Portuguese are much easier for me).

By the time you are reading this I will have already been in Brazil for a month (Be sure to check out my new blog FeliciaFollumSharingLife.blogspo.com, where I will post everything from Brazil) :p See you when I return :) and I will hopefully have some answers to all the questions below (and more likely on FB and YT)...

How did I study Hindi? Months 8ish - 12

After my frustrating spell of not being able to understand anything that was going on around me to the extent that I wanted, which actually didn't bother me for a long time. You can read more about that initial phase in my post, Do You Mind Not Knowing What is Going On?

Henna
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I began to focus on general ideas and let go a bit. I used Hindi a bit more and often times could follow conversations depending on topic. 

My comprehension varied (and still does) based on many things including but not limited to time of day (the loopy exhausted phase right before I should go to bed actually is by far the best), a glass of wine often helps as well, and topic (I understand making food plans, playing cricket, and surprisingly I catch more in political conversations than expected but not pro cricket conversations) etc....

There are several types of people currently in my Hindi learning journey...

People I speak nearly entirely in Urdu with

People I randomly speak Hindi phrases with and they randomly throw in easy to understand phrases. This is where a couple of my closer girl friends are.

People who think I know nothing and over explain everything.

People who are always curious if I know what's going on. I especially have fun when I get to say yes to these people.

People who encourage others to speak in Hindi to me

People who are critical and correct me a lot or tell me just to speak English because it is easier

People who make me speak Hindi

People who simplify their words and speak slowly and make me speak only in Hindi

And people who forget I don't really speak Hindi and just speak it anyways (which are my favorite) and then are shocked when I understand or reply...

I think that having all of these people groups is an excellent way to learn and I would like to thank you all!

Bahut dhanyavaad dosten!!! 

How did I study Hindi? Moths 6 - 8 ish plateau

With some friends celebrating Holi!!!
Holi hai!! Holi hai!!

Well, I spent most of these months being frustrated that I couldn't understand as much as I wanted, 

while simultaneously trying too hard to pick up on every individual word, 

having to ask everyone to repeat what they had said or explain, 

meanwhile I awkwardly and honestly didn't know if I had understood what had been said previously (and I still don't always know if I'm actually understanding or not)
but I had to respond every time someone asked if I had understood...

UGH this was a frustrating time in the process.

Part of me feels this time was wasted but I know it wasn't I just don't know what I learned yet...Maybe patience or maybe how to not spend time when learning a language. Either way I made some great friends and I enjoyed nearly every moment of it.

How did I study Hindi? Months 4 - 6

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For the 4th - 6th month I kept to my daily schedule with more focus on the script...since by the end of 6 months I wanted to be reading.

I used TenguGo a lot for 2 weeks then continued to review and work on conjuncts, which I still need to keep working on.

This time period was less rigid and I spent time making basic sentences in my head.

I also used the audio bible to attempt to follow along. Which I learned was really difficult. It is much harder to follow along than actually read. I have since learned that this is because you actually learn a picture of a word and see the picture rather than the letters. Now there are a few words I can do this with in Hindi but not many. This is why we can R3AD TH1S. We have a general picture of the words "READ" and "THIS" and our brain doesn't really check each letter. Anyways...you can read more about my journey learning to read in "I Can Read Hindi!"

How did I study Hindi? Months 1-4

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How did I study?

For the first 3 - 4 months I had a strict schedule where I checked off my daily assignments. My goal was to become familiar with 30 words a day and learn 10 vocab vocab words and 5 phrases.

I had a flashcard each day.

When I had a rigid language learning schedule I had a you tube culture day or a movie day worked into every week ;) just to switch things up and keep it fun.

You can see my Never Ending Hindi Resource List to see more of the details.
 

What Does English Sound Like to Non-English Speakers?

I found this video many years ago and thought it was really fascinating.

Over the past few months I have been around many languages. Many of these languages I don' t understand a word of. Others I can pick up one or two words, or even a phrase.

Stumbling upon this video after being exposed to all these languages was certainly a new experience. It almost feels normal to listen to as I am, in a way, used to hearing sounds and even associating meaning with the sounds, but when strung together these sounds become gibberish.

What do you think? Do you like the sound of English? Is this an accurate depiction of the language?

Chatting with South Indians

Though my South Indian friends claim to not know Hindi, they really do. I know not all Indians know hindi. I also know many can speak, read, and understand a good amount. Mere accha dost, Ananth** is one example of someone who knows Hindi but does not claim to know it because he doesn’t use it.

Which languages people use when and why is a complex and interesting conversation, but that's for another day.

Check out Ananth’s and my text conversation from a while back as well.

Me: aap aur aapke parivaar ko Diwali ki bahut bahut hardik mangalmay shubhkamanaye (Happy Diwali)
A: Aww Dhanyavaad FF ☺ ☺ ☺ bhagvan ki krupa se aap ke parivar mein bhi such aur shanty

This is where it gets interesting.

Me: tum kya kar rahe haon?

A: just eating
Me: main bhi, actually, main abhi channa masala aur chaval kha rahi hoon…dhanyavaad mera dost for introducing me
A: Cool ☺ its funny u r having Indian lunch and I ate scrambled eggs n toast
Me: aur tum English bol rahe ho aur main hindi bol rahi hoon ☺
A: Lol yes
Me: hehe Aapka din kaise ho?
A: It’s alright…

I am aware that many Indians don't often text in Hindi so it is a bit awkward for them but so many have been great sports about helping me out...Thanks Ananth**

**You know who you are...but no one else does because I changed your name to the name you chose. Miss you yaar.

India inspired Valentines Day cards