2015 Language Goals - Not a Total FAIL

Did I reach my 2015 goals?

General - When people ask if I speak a language, say "Yes, I speak it." And then speak it. Sometimes...But I think I need to continue to work on saying "yes" with confidence.

Right Hand Panel of Unknown God Tryptic - Agyaat Bhagvaan Ke Liye
Felicia Follum
Watercolor

Português - I don't want to get worse and hope to maintain my skills by listening to "Você Sabia?" on YouTube and commenting weekly. I don't think I got worse but I have not been commenting weekly

Hindi - Create speaking videos monthly and practice writing monthly. Nope. But this was a bit of a lofty goal. A extra monthly video is a lot.

Arabic - Listen to speakers. Pick up common words and Urdu words. Yep! I listen whenever I get the chance and I do tend to pick up words.

Somali - Listen when given the opportunity. Practice the few phrases I know. Yes! I even have been able to practice with people in an airport. I will share this story soon :)

Latin - I would love to finish reading John but that may need to wait. Yep, it is waiting. But I hope to come back to this. Not giving up on it yet.

Spanish - I don't want to mix Português and Spanish intentionally. If a Spanish speaker speaks English I will speak English. If they understand Português, I will speak Português. Well I don't mix the two but I am forgetting Spanish. Which I'm hoping will help keep them separated in the long run.  I am also forgetting my Portuguese but I think that according to my understanding of the theory behind the idea of Spaced Repition Memorization, forgetting isn't the end of the world and may help in long term storage. Though I'm not sure how this relates to longer-than-ideal intervals. Either way, I'm sure Spanish will come back and be stronger than ever when it is needed.

Picture credit
See Www.feliciafollum.com
Or www.etsy.com/shop/feliciafollum 

Updated Goals - Final Stretch of 2015

Only a few months left of the year.

Let's get to it, here are my language learning goals.

General - When people ask if I speak a language, say "Yes, I speak it." And then speak it.

Português - I don't want to get worse and hope to maintain my skills by listening to "Você Sabia?" on YouTube anf commenting weekly.

Hindi - Create speaking videos monthly and practice writing monthly.

Arabic - Listen to speakers. Pick up common words and Urdu words.

Somali - Listen when given the opportunity. Practice the few phrases I know.

Latin - I would love to finish reading John but that may need to wait.

Spanish - I don't want to mix Português and Spanish intentionally. If a Spanish speaker speaks English I will speak English. If they understand Português, I will speak Português.

Picture credit
See Www.feliciafollum.com
Or www.etsy.com/shop/feliciafollum

Indian English

Indian English....

Namaste Doston,
How's you doing?

Some people will argue that Indian English is not a language but I believe it is.

Yes, Indian English is British English but is certainly not the same.

The first six months I was able to hang out with a bunch of Indians with little to no side effect of Indian English affecting my talks but I am coming to know that this is no longer true. I am leaving prepositions off of prepositional phrases like "pick" and "drop" and saying things like "my fingers were paining from the cold." I'm also adding na to the ends of sentences.

Here is a quick list of such talks

Pick and drop
X is paining
Do email checking (email check karo, na?)
Let's order for a pizza
Take rest
Cousin Brother / cousin sister
I'm going to overtake this car
Clicking a photo
How's you doing
Maximum
Very much better
Came to know
Aluminium
Next next weekend
No problem
Verry goo.d Verry good
Ve better go
Go go
Come come

Don't get me wrong, I would not consider myself a fluent speaker of Indian English  but I suppose every now-n-then if it so happens I will utter a phrase or two of Indian English.

What Indian English phrases am I forgetting?

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

Chineasy: How I'm Studying

I'm not.

But, my fantasticly perfectly amazing husband gave Chineasy to me for Christmas! This is a book I have been wanting for, for some time now...

Not only is it a lovely approach to a language that quite honestly I was just scared to even begin to attempt but the book is so beautifully and brilliantly designed that it looks like I will be at least learning a bit about the Chinese language and culture.

Sooo, my plan 

My plan with Chineasy is to simply read the book and enjoy it for the beautiful work of art that it is. Ooh the beautiful illustrations just make me feel warm inside.

It's possible and likely that I will want to learn more of and about this language. Our local library has a Chinese children's section and there are a lot of Chinese people in our community. There is even a Chinese church. 

So my contingency plan (if I do decide to study the language) is to read the book a second time and focus on learning the characters.

Then get the flashcards and learn pronunciation, so I can read with semi accurate sounds in my head...to get the sounds I will probably ask one of the many native speakers in the community.

I currently have no time line for Chinese. Since its not really a part of my 5 year plan (which keeps growing).

But for now my plan really is to just let it happen if it's going to happen. As they say in Urdu and Arabic, Insha'Allah.  

Long Term Language Goals

By 2020 in addition to reading and writing, I would like to be able to have an intellectual conversation in Portuguese, Spanish, Hindi/Urdu, and American Sign Language. By intellectual conversation, i suppose I mean that I would like to make it to and pass the checkpoints where you can stumble through basic gramar, understand and eventually think in the language, as well as be able to discuss politics, religion, and philosophy.

In addition, I would like to begin to read Italian and French. I sometimes already can read both but don't know what language it is, it just happens to make sense or once I discover the English I realize the vocab is similar to Portuguese or Spanish, just spelled different.

I would like to have a basic understanding of Norwegian and Lakota in this time frame as well. I think this means different things in the two languages. In Norwegian it means a few bible verses and The Lord's Prayer and in Lakota, it means some listening skills, some more vocabulary, and more cultural understanding.

I would also like to begin looking at vocabulary for Hebrew, Greek or Aramaic mostly for Bible study purposes.

My most important goal is to have fun and just keep learning, while remembering that plateaus happen. It is also ok if I don't achieve all of these goals as long as I keep improving.

I will soon write a post sharing where I am currently at with these language goals.