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.

Describe Your Day in Your Weakest Language

One of people in one of the groups for language nerds that I am in on Facebook posted a challenge. The challenge was to talk about your day in the language that is your weakest. I chose Hindi, which I suppose, if you know Hindi you can see why. So here goes...

मेरे दिन अछा था। पहली मेरी अज art gallery में काम किया। अगली मैं घर   लौट आया और  Christmas के लिए सज (decorate?) कीया। तेसर मैं कुछ खाना बनाया और मेरे पति के साथ खाया। के  बाद हम YoungLife के लिए चल गाये और घर में लोताया (?)। अबी/अबहीं/अभी मैं हिंदी practice कर रही हूं। 

Meri din acchi tha. peheli meri aaj art gallery men kaam kiya. Agli/baad main ghar lout aaya aur Christmas ke liye decorate kiya. Tesra, main kuch khaana banaya (i) aur meri pati ke sath khaaya. Ke Bad, hum YoungLife ke liye chal gaye aur ghar men aaya/loutaya. Abhi main hindi practice kar rahi hoon.

I will gladly accept corrections and questions :)

Mere hindusthani doston corrected it for me...

Mera din achcha tha. Pehle maine art gallery mein kaam kiya. Uske baad main ghar laut aayi air Christmas ke liye sajavat ki. Phir maine khana banaya aur apne pati ke saath khaya. Uske baad hum young life ke liye gaye aur waapis ghar laut aaye. Abhi main Hindi    abhyaas kar rahi hoon.

Henna print making doodles :)

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...

5 People 4 Languages 1 Meal Together

We never thought that cooking Indian food in brazil would be such a challenge. At least not for the reasons it was going to be challenging.

Our group at the Klien Hosten in Foz do Iguassu was a bit of a hodge podge mix of people...

But first let me explain the environment. Out of the entire 6 days I was there I was the only American. It was during the World Cup so there were people from all over the world. I was there by myself so every morning I woke up I never knew if anybody else spoke English. If I wanted to talk to people I usually started off by asking what languages they spoke and sometimes I had to stumble through asking in more than oone language.

There was a group of us one night. We consisted of a French girl who had been living in Brazil, her boyfriend who was visiting her from France, a Brazilian, an Indian who had been living in Canada but was really just traveling the world, and myself.

We decided to cook Indian food one night. So we walked to the grocery store to pick up the ingredients. 

Little did I know this was going to be the most complicated shopping trip I have ever taken part in...We had to somehow get from Hinglish (though our Hindusthani friend spoke English) to Portuguese.

Since I was familiar with the ingredients and my brain was still in Hindi mode, the Indian man told me the ingredients he couldn't find. So I explained them in English to the boyfriend. He translated from English to French. France, the girl from France translated from French to Portuguese and the Brazilian asked the man at the register.

We were not able to track down all of the spices is this small grocery store, but we did get a whole bunch of a couple.

After this we went back to the hostel and cooked the hindusthani meal.

I must say cooking in foreign languages was a blast and it is a great wat to learn language and new cooking skills

...so is joining a dance group...but that's another story. 

1 Year 4 Months: November Hindi Goals

Ok my goals for November (and possibly December if I don't change them) are

1. To practice speaking when ever I get a chance,

2. And to think in Hindi as much as possible (when I'm not thinking in Portuguese),

To achieve the first part I will use Hindi when I am around Hindi speakers, which is not really planned too often as I don't know many.

And to achieve the second one I will continue to watch Hindi movies...i would ideally like to pause them and summarize what I just saw Hindi men.

When I work I will listen to Hindi music, and maybe Pimsleur if I can find them again.

Jan update: so these didn't happen :p

Henna drawing
SOLD

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.