This Blog is No Longer Being Updated

Dear readers,

I just wanted to remind you that this blog is no longer being updated. Comments have been disabled as I cannot guarantee that I will be able to approve them due to lack of free time and the fact that I am concentrating my efforts on my other blog, Dragon Fruit.

I’m very happy to see that people are still expressing an interest in my now dufunct blog. Sadly, I will not be reviving it any time soon so you are more than welcome to stop by Dragon Fruit and continue reading my about my adventures (and misadventures) of learning East Asian languages.

Dragon Fruit

Apparently the demise of Aspiring Polyglot has not stopped me from creating a new blog. Check it out here!

The End…

Dear readers, it’s been ages since I’ve posted. My work and other life committments are taking up a lot of time these days and I just don’t have enough free time to concentrate on my language studies *and* update this blog regularly. So many other language blogs have popped up in recent months and many of them have been neglected soon afterwards. I don’t want my blog joining the ranks of forgotten blogs so I’ll officially say my goodbyes and wish you all success in your language learning.

I do still have one other blog that you could continue reading : Netherlands Newbie. Granted, I haven’t updated that one in a while but I won’t be moving from the Netherlands any time soon so I’m sure I’ll find plenty to write about over the coming months (years?). I also had plans for a Japanese & Mandarin blog but I’m putting those plans on hold until I strike a better work/life/language learning balance.

Thanks for reading and until next time.

Japanese Kanji Dictionary

It’s been a while since I last posted and I know I really should post an update of my language learning but I just haven’t got the time at the moment. My new job is taking a lot more time and energy than expected (even though I am enjoying my new takes) and I honestly prefer to spend my limited free time on learning my languages rather than just writing posts about learning them. That’s not to say I plan to ditch this blog. On the contrary, I am looking forward to posting regularly. I just need time to settle in at work and find a house that’s a bit closer to work.

So instead of a progress report, I just thought I’d bring your attention to a fantastic online kanji dictionary I stumbled across the other day. This Japanese Kanji Dictionary not only gives examples of the kanji in use but has hundreds of audio files to help you master the pronunciation. Anyone who has always had issues with pitch accents may find the audio files extremely helpful. There is also a lot of vocabulary covered so this dictionary may be a good supplement to your Japanese studies. Enjoy!

8 Random Facts…

Despite feeling exhausted after a long week at work (and still one more day to go ’til the weekend!), I thought I’d reply to the meme that the bloggers of Confessions of a Language Addict and Linguistic Mystic tagged me for. I know I’ve promised a couple of updates on my language learning and a podcast review or two but things have been busier than expected at work, especially with half the staff away on their summer holidays.

But anyway…here are my 8 random facts. Enjoy!

1) I currently work as a scheduler for a reality TV channel at a media company based in Amsterdam. I’ve also worked on schedules for other channels in recent months, including National Geographic and The History Channel.

2) My interest in Chinese culture (and subsequently Mandarin) was sparked by a Chinese art exhibition that was held many years ago in Gibraltar. I also remember drawing Chinese characters on a paper fan I made in art class in primary school.

3) I met my Dutch boyfriend via the Internet over 5 years ago (I’m such a geek). ^_^

4) Other jobs I’ve had in the past included a 2-day stint at Burger King, invigilating undergraduate exams for special needs students and working as a freelance translator and proofreader in Taiwan.

5) Before I decided to study Chinese at university, I had considered studying Egyptology. I’ve always been fascinated by exotic writing systems.

6) I broke my front teeth during my 2nd birthday party and have had bad luck with my teeth ever since.

7) I’ve visited the (then) tallest building in the world : Taipei 101.

8 ) Tomb Raider 2 is perhaps my all-time favourite video game, although Sonic the Hedgehog 2 comes a very close second.

And now the rules for taking part in this fun meme. ^_^

1. We have to post these rules before we give you the facts.
2. Players start with eight random facts/habits about themselves.
3. People who are tagged need to write in their own blog about their eight things and include these rules in the post.
4. At the end of your post, you need to choose eight people to get tagged and list their names.
5. Don’t forget to leave them a comment telling them they’re tagged, and to read your blog.

I’m tagging the following 8 bloggers to give us their 8 random facts.

1) Omniglot
2) You Don’t Have to Read
3) The Cunning LInguist
4) The Office Polyglot
5) Polyglot Dreams
6) Journey to Thai
7) Language Geek
8 ) Foreign Language Acquisition

Apologies to those I haven’t tagged. You’re more than welcome to write up your own 8 random facts…just drop me a message to let me know.

It’s So Very Quiet…

Hello everyone.

I just thought I’d let you all know that I haven’t fallen off the face of the Earth just yet. I was away on holiday for a week…enjoying the fantastic sunny weather back home in Gibraltar, to be precise. Things were a bit hectic on the days before I set off on my well-deserved holiday so I didn’t get around to letting you all know that I would be gone for a while. I hope you can all forgive me.

I haven’t got a great deal of time tonight to write a good post as it’s been a long day at work and I’m still tired from all the travelling yesterday. I do plan to post a book review and an update on my language learning adventures later in the week. So watch this space and please don’t feel I’ve ignored you if I haven’t replied to your personal messages. Free time is at a premium these days and I just haven’t gotten around to reading them all yet.

Tata for now!

Review : CSLPod.Com

For my debut post on my new Chinese language blog, I wrote a review for a fantastic Mandarin podcast series I stumbled upon at work. To read the review, click here.

Mastering Mandarin

I’ve recently been reviving my Mandarin studies and started a Mandarin blog, Mastering Mandarin a couple of weeks ago (though I’ve yet to post anything in it!). The blog will be a place for me to practice my written Mandarin (which is very rusty!) as well as share any new vocabulary, proverbs and expressions I come across.

It’s been a long time since I actively studied Mandarin and almost a year since I last spoke Mandarin on a daily basis so I think it’s time to sharpen my skills and improve upon them.

And the Nominees Are…

Aspiring Polyglot has been nominated for the Blogger’s Choice Awards in the category Best Education Blog! While I’ve not entirely sure my humble blog is worthy of such a nomination, feel free to show support for this blog (and vote for others) by clicking on the link below (or, alternatively, the one in the menu on the right).

PS. You may have to register to cast your vote.

Aspiring Polyglot’s To Do List…

There’s a number of things I keep meaning to do with this blog but never seem to have the time for, mostly reorganising links or thinking up interesting new features.

These include :

♦ Organising links to blogs and sites according to the language they deal with (I will probably keep a ‘general’ category for those links that cover more than one language)

♦ Finding a few new podcasts and online courses to review (if you know any, feel free to let me know about them!)

♦ Keeping better track of my progress in language learning (mention what techniques and/or materials I’ve used)

♦ Write more posts in foreign languages (I’d better start brushing up on my written Spanish and Mandarin among others!)

♦ Think up at least one new regular feature for the blog (I might do something related to mistranslation or menu translations as well as revive my ‘Language Spotlight’ feature)

If anyone has any thoughts about the above or has any interesting suggestions that I should consider, you know what to do.

Busy, Busy, Busy…

First of all, apologies for the severe lack of updates in the past week or so but work has been keeping me busy and I haven’t had the time (or energy) to write posts for any of my blogs. An 8-hour working day plus almost 4 hours commuting really is beginning to take it toll on me…

Nevertheless, I haven’t neglected my studies. I finished reading Harry Potter e il Principe Mezzosangue a couple of days ago and feel quite proud of myself. Considering I have not studied Italian formally, I found it surprisingly easy to read and relied on context (and my knowledge of Spanish and French) whenever I encountered new words. È stato molto divertente!

My Dutch is coming along at its usual pace. I still haven’t conquered my lack of interest in the language but I do still make the effort to read a little bit of Dutch each day (usually in the form of one of those free newspapers that are available at the train station) and I hear plenty of Dutch each day at work. I took some comfort last night when I saw a documentary of sorts about a Chinese woman who had lived in the Netherlands for 9 years. Her Dutch was semi-fluent but her pronunciation was far from perfect even after all those years. While I certainly commend her on her ability to learn a language so different to her own native tongue, I feel that there is hope for me yet! My Dutch, while far from fluent, doesn’t seem so bad in comparison, given that I’ve only been living in the Netherlands for about 8 months. I just have to keep up my motivation…

Wish me luck.

Netherlands Newbie

As from today, Nederlands Newbie will be renamed Netherlands Newbie (though the current URL will not be changed) and posts will no longer be limited to Dutch language study but also cover a whole range of Netherlands-related topics, including Dutch culture, society and the occasional restaurant review.

As for *this* blog, I will be restructuring it within the next few days. For those of you who may remember that I was hoping to branch out and start a few new blogs…I have abandoned that idea for the time being as it’s hard to keep track of so many blogs. I was planning Mandarin and Italian blogs, which were going to follow a similar format as my Nederlands Newbie blog. Instead, I will be using Aspiring Polyglot as my primary blog and will post all of my language-related posts here, including posts written in other languages. All Dutch posts, however, will remain on the Netherlands Newbie blog.

Romance (Language) Novels

It’s been a rather multilingual month of reading for me. Thanks to the hours of commuting I have to endure each week, I’ve managed to get through a number of Spanish- and Italian-language novels in the last couple of weeks. I’ve decided not to use any dictionaries to look up unknown words (this applies more to the Italian book) as I feel it’s best to learn words through context and not waste my time making notes about the new words (which I often forget within a day or two anyway).

I’ve yet to tackle a full Dutch novel as I feel that that would be more of a challenge than reading an Italian novel (it’s fairly easy when you already know Spanish) and have often had to resort to using a dictionary when reading Dutch prose as I find it harder to deduce the meaning of an unknown word. As I never studied German, I don’t have much to rely on as far as vocabulary goes. While Dutch has a lot of words in common with English and French, there are also a lot of words that I feel a knowledge of German would help me with. Sometimes I wish German was one of the languages I learnt at school…it would have made learning Dutch a *lot* easier. :p

These are the books I have been reading lately :

La Hija del Ganges : La Historia de una Adopción by Asha Miro :

A friend of mine lent me this one a few weeks ago. A very readable but short account of a woman’s adoption by a Spanish couple and her journey to India to discover her heritage and past. I managed to finish this one in a few hours and was pleased to see that my Spanish reading skills have not deteriorated massively. (Amazon)

Malinche by Laura Esquivel :

I bought this one in a bookstore in Utrecht a couple of weeks ago and got through it in less than a week. Malinche was a piece of historical fiction about the woman who came to be Hernán Cortés’s interpreter and who came to play a significant role in the Spanish conquest of Central America. Esquivel’s work put a lot of focus on the spiritual aspects of Malinche’s life and gave a lot of insight into the lifes of the Nahua people before and during the Conquest. This one was also very readable but I did have a few problems with some of the Aztec/Nahuatl vocabulary used. Maybe the author should consider adding a small glossary of Nahuatl terms in future editions…. (Amazon)

Harry Potter e il Principe Mezzosangue by J.K. Rowling :

My boyfriend bought me a copy of the Italian translation of Harry Potter and the Halfblood Prince for me when he was in Italy on business and it’s kept me busy for the last few days. I’m quite impressed that I’ve managed to read it without any major difficulties. Some words elude me but I’ve managed to work out many of the character names and used my elementary Italian (and background in Spanish) to deduce the meaning of many of the new words I’ve come across. I’m rather happy with myself for being able to tackle an Italian-language novel so early on in my Italian studies but I suppose that my knowledge of Spanish has been a major factor in my success. I certainly cannot claim to know every word I come across but my passive vocabulary is certainly improving each time I pick up the book. (Amazon)

Review : SpanishSense.Com

While browsing through the ChinesePod website, I stumbled across a new Spanish podcast course, SpanishSense.Com. Judging from the site’s appearance and lesson structure, it seems to be made by the same people behind ChinesePod and looks to follow in ChinesePod’s mighty footsteps.

The site is still in its early days but seems to be brimming with potential with its detailed PDF transcripts, vocabulary guides and essential grammar points. The podcasts themselves are of a rather high quality and there are plenty of audio files in the vocabulary sections. It might be worthy noting, however, that the podcasts cover Latin American Spanish (as opposed to standard Castilian). While this should not present any major problems for those studying ‘European’ Spanish, students should be aware that they will be dealing with different accents and, in some cases, slightly different vocabulary and grammar.

As with ChinesePod, students are able to personalise their accounts and make use of the site’s many features to create a study plan which suits them. Most of the useful features are restricted to those with premium membership but you can all try them out for free for a couple of weeks with their trial membership.

While still a newcomer to the podcast scene, SpanishSense.Com still looks set to become one of the better podcast courses on the Net and already has a number of lessons for beginner, intermediate and advanced students covering topics such as health, interpersonal communications and art.

Eurovision Song Contest

Tonight saw the finals of the Eurovision Song Contest which, for those of you who don’t know about it, is a contest featuring some of the cheesiest and downright awful music that the continent has to offer.

In past years, I used to enjoy watching the show to hear songs being sung in a myriad of languages. In fact, it used to be compulsory for countries to sing in their own language but this rule was done away with some time ago and most countries now opt to sing in English (presumably to appeal to a wider audience), which I feel is a great shame. I have to commend Romania for sending in a wacky song that tried to incorporate as many languages as possible in 3 minutes! Latvia also had a lovely song sung in Italian but sadly they didn’t do too well in the voting.

After tonight’s show, I can’t help but feel really disillusioned with the contest. Not only are too many songs sung in English, the voting has gotten more and more political over the last few years. When countries are voting for their neighbours and not basing their votes on the merits of the songs, it makes it hard to enjoy watching the contest. The UK had an incredibly cheesy song this year and while it wasn’t the worst of the bunch, regional politics seems to have condemned the poor British to the bottom of the scoreboard.

Watching the former Yugoslav and Soviet states voting for each other really takes the fun off the competition and makes me wonder whether any of the Western European countries should bother entering ever again. I have nothing against the Eastern European countries and thought that some of the songs were certainly worthy of the votes (eg. Georgia and Hungary) but this bloc voting really needs to stop if they want anyone west of Austria to show an interest in the contest. When there’s a fairer voting system in place and more linguistic diversity, I’ll show interest in the contest again. Until then, I’ll just find something better to do with my evening than torture myself by watching an incredibly predictable and biased competition….

I realise that the post has little to do with languages so I thought I’d just say that my progress with Dutch and Italian are coming along quite nicely. My boyfriend brought back a copy of the Italian translation of Harry Potter & The Halfblood Prince from Italy so I’ll be making my way (slowly) through that. So far, I haven’t found it too challenging and am impressed that I was able to work out what ‘muggle’ was in Italian (for those who are interested, it’s babbano).

As for Dutch, I’m happy that I’m able to pick up a newspaper or listen to programmes on TV and be able to understand pretty much most of it. My speaking and writing skills still need a lot of work but I’m glad that I’m building up a rather wide base of passive vocabulary and that I’m able to follow instructions at work without having to ask for something to be translated. The official company language where I work is English but since many of my colleagues are Dutch, I still get to use the language and hear it regularly. I just wish that there were self-study courses that focussed on Dutch in the workplace as I would like to be able to improve my ‘professional Dutch’. I know that such courses are offered at some language schools and at a number of universities but these are sadly a bit out of my budget….

Podcasts, Blogs and Progress…

It’s been a week since my last update so I thought it was high time for another update! I’ve discovered a few new blogs and podcasts over the past few days that I think are worth mentioning, plus I thought I’d fill you all in on this week’s language learning adventures.

New Blogs on the Block :

The first new blog I came across this week was Chinese Quest by John. As well as using it to track his progress in mastering Mandarin, John uses it to share interesting and useful Mandarin learning resources that he has come across online. Anyone who’s learning Mandarin might want to check out this blog for links to handy websites and translation tools.

Still on a Chinese theme, Learning Chinese is a useful blog for beginners as its author Vincent uses it to list useful words and phrases. The words and phrases are often listed thematically (eg. ‘Office Supplies’, ‘Feelings’) and he uses both the simplified script and pinyin in his posts. Certainly worth a look if you want to push your Mandarin past the bare basics.

Next up is Language Explorer by Roxane. Roxane is currently learning Japanese, Cantonese and French but also seems eager to take on a few others such as Latvian and Korean. Her blog includes links to useful language learning resources and reviews of self-study courses. It’s a fairly new blog but it looks very promising indeed.

Last but not least is Life of an Amateur Tibetan Translator, a blog charting Kent’s progress in translating and understanding classical Tibetan. He focuses primarily on Buddhist texts so it may not be useful for anyone wanting to learn colloquial Tibetan but it might be of interest to anyone who’s passionate about Tibetan culture and Buddhist history. At the very least, you might just enjoy looking at the Tibetan script, just like I do.

Podcasts-A-Plenty :

I remember when podcast courses were a rarity but now it’s becoming much easier to find a podcast for learning pretty much any language (though it’s a shame that no one has made one for Persian yet!). I’ve come across a few this week via other blogs and forums. As I plan to write a full review of each of these podcast courses in future, I will only list them below for the time being…

♦ A Spoonful of Russian
♦ Brazilian Portuguese Podcast
♦ Latinum
♦ Learn Filipino with Juan
♦ The Arabic Podclass

I hope those come in handy!

Kelly’s Adventures in Language Learning, Part 3002 :

♦ Dutch - Am making some progress and have decided to start learning useful idioms and proverbs to use in order to make my spoken Dutch sound a little more fluent. I’ve also tried to make a bit more effort to read the news in Dutch and chat with my two Dutch colleagues at work (even if they do just switch back to English in the end). My other English-speaking colleague is impressed with my level of Dutch but I still think I have a lot of room for improvement. At least my Dutch-speaking colleagues think I’m doing OK.

♦ Italian - I’ve been working my way through the Teach Yourself Italian and BBC Active’s Buongiorno Italia! books. While I can read Italian to a fairly good level thanks to my Spanish (and French), I thought I’d try and learn the language *properly*. That is, learn it as a language in its own right rather than as an extension of Spanish as I would like to be able to speak it and not merely translate. I’m making a concious effort to learn the verb endings and avoid falling into the trap of speaking a weird blend of Spanish and Italian (this is actually harder than I expected due to the huge similarity between the two languages!). I’ve watched some Italian TV and had no problems with understanding the news and commercials. Still, I need to go beyond passive learning and really learn to speak Italian.

♦ Persian - I’ve listened to a few Pimsleur lessons this week and am impressed that things are beginning to make sense. Some phrases and words have stuck in my head but there are still some things I need to memorise. I might make my own transcripts (romanised) as I’m a visual learner and find it difficult to learn a language simply by listening to it. I’m also impressed how I’m able to pick out certain words in basic texts, although I still get a little frustrated that the Persian script doesn’t show the short vowels (this makes learning new vocabulary quite difficult). In addition, I think I am doing fairly well with regards to grammar, although I still have a long way to go before I have mastered the basics. Persian verbs don’t seem to be too complicated and I’ve more or less learnt the simple past and present tenses. Having said that, I still need to learn more verbs as well as tackle all the other tenses and forms.

The 6-Week Challenge :

While I still plan to continue with Persian, I’ve decided to drop out of the How to Learn Any Language’s 6-week challenge as I really want to concentrate on the language a bit more as well as enjoy the little free time I have these days. I’ve discovered that language learning while commuting on busy trains is not the ideal environment for learning a language so I can only dedicate a little time each evening to my language learning. My daily commute and full-time job leave me feeling quite exhausted in the evening so, as you can imagine, I don’t get much studying done.

Nevertheless, I’m still enthusiastic about my language studies…well, maybe not *that* enthusiastic when it comes to Dutch but it needs to be done. I somehow manage to find at least an hour each day to devote to my language learning so it could be worse. Progress will indeed be slow, especially since I’m juggling so many languages around, but I enjoy doing it and feel it will be worthwhile in the long run.

Gheyaspour’s Farhang and a Progress Report

I’m sorry I haven’t posted many updates lately but real life does have to come first.

My Persian studies are coming along nicely, despite the lack of updates. I find it a bit more time effective to just work on the language offline and keep notes than constantly writing updates of my progress. If I choose to continue my Persian studies beyond the 6 weeks I originally set aside, I might start keeping a Persian blog….but I won’t make any promises just yet.

I’ve made some progress with the Persian script. I’ve learnt all the letters but still find it very hard to learn the pronunciations of new words without transliterations or diacritics (no surprises there, I expect). I’m working my way through the Assimil Persan course and have kept a note of any new phrases I have come across. In addition, I will be keeping a little notebook of vocabulary that I can browse through during my daily commutes. Flashcards are a bit awkward to carry around with you but a notebook is a little more compact and less likely to go missing.

The Pimsleur course has been fairly good, though limited, and I think I’ve managed to master at least the first few lessons. I won’t be carrying on with this course, though, as I find the Assimil and EasyPersian.Com courses to be a bit more comprehensive.

One final thing… I’ve found a rather useful little dictionary online called Gheyaspour’s Farhang (’farhang’ can mean ‘vocabulary’, ‘dictionary’ or ‘culture’ depending on the context). The thing I like about it most is the fact that it gives an example sentence for each of the words listed. The drawbacks, however, are that it only covers a limited number of words (good enough for beginners, though) and it doesn’t use the Persian script. Still, it’s good for learning a few new words and memorising a few new sentences.

10,000 Sentences…

Thanks to all the lovely (and unseasonably warm!) weather we’ve had here lately, updates have been a bit scarce….who wants to blog when the sun’s shining, eh?

While the weather is still gorgeous outside, I thought it was time for an update on my Persian and Dutch studies. First of all, I’d like to say that I’m considering using a method I read about on All Japanese All The Time.Com. The author’s method involves choosing 10,000 sentences in your target language from a variety of sources and learning them thoroughly. I’d imagine that this is quite a good way to approach language learning as we *do* speak in sentences at the end of the day (although learning new vocabulary should not be ignored either).

After reading a bit about this method, I’m thinking of using it for my Dutch studies. I plan to choose sentences that cover a range of subjects and which touch upon as many different sentence structures as possible. I don’t think I will use a flashcard approach, though, but will use my time-honoured method of writing these down in my notebook and reading over them again and again until the sentences stick in my head. Whether I can actually write down 10,000 sentences remains to be seen!

So this is something I will seriously consider. If the method works for my Dutch studies, I might make use of it for improving my Japanese and Italian.

Regardless of any new methods I plan to make use of, I think my Dutch is slowly improving again. I’ve been making use of the Nederlands in actie book I bought last week and am glad to see that my reading comprehension skills are improving (there are no translations in the book). I do like how certain words and grammar points are explained with example sentences. It really puts things in context, which I feel is essential when learning any language. The book also has numerous exercises for practising what you’ve learnt in each section. I’m quite found of the substitution drills and conversation practice exercises as these really seem to be helping me build up my language skills. This book claims to push students up to the B1 level of the Common European Framework (the standard by which fluency is measured within the EU) so hopefully I should have a much better grasp of the language after I have finished working through it.

Now, with regards to my Persian studies….At the moment, I feel as if I’m at the base of Mount Everest in terms of how much I need to learn in order to master even basic Persian. I’ve memorised the Persian alphabet (or is it abjad?), though I still get a little confused with some of the letters, and I’ve memorised a few basic sentences and the numbers 1-10. Admittedly, I haven’t done much work on my Persian so far as the weather’s been far too nice for serious study! A rather poor excuse, I know, but I just wasn’t in the mood for rubbing my brain cells together when it’s been so wonderfully warm and sunny outside. I promise I’ll make a bit more effort this week. :p

My plans for the week are :

♦ To work through a few lessons of the Assimil Persan Sans Peine and listen to a few more of the Pimsleur Farsi course.

♦ Make a note of any useful phrases or sentence structures I learn and learn new vocabulary through context (ie. through sentences rather than through vocabulary lists)

♦ Keep on working through my Nederlands in actie book and supplement this with the Dutch Word of the Day (I really recommend this blog to all you other Dutch learners!)

I’m sure I will add to this list later in the week but for now, the plans listed above should keep me fairly busy for the rest of the week. I have to fit in a full-time job and other fun activities in my schedule somehow…

Getting Started with Persian…

The How to Learn Any Language Forum is planning a 6-week challenge where members need to pick a language they haven’t studied yet, spend 6 weeks learning the language and see how much progress they make in that short period of time. This ties in very nicely with my decision to spend some time learning basic Persian so I have expressed my interest in participating in this challenge, although I have no idea how much time I can find in the next 6 weeks to work on yet another language. The good thing is that many of the other members participating in this challenge also have school or a job to attend to so we’re all be in the same proverbial boat.

To keep track of my progress (or lack of it!), I’ll be making regular updates both here and at the forum and I will try to focus of all 4 aspects of language learning, though I will no doubt be spending most of my time on learning to read Persian as I don’t know any Persian natives I can practice with (and I don’t really have the time for Skype these days). I haven’t collected all the resources I need yet but I do have a few useful links and books at my disposal. I’ll also be making use of online media (eg. newspapers, radio) and have a few Persian-language movies I can watch. I doubt I’ll be able to understand much but at least I will get a feel for the sound of the language.

Here is a selection of the resources I will be using in my quest to learn basic Persian :

Reading :

♦ Teach Yourself Modern Persian (I have an older edition of this which focuses mostly on learning the script and basic grammar)
♦ Persian for Beginners by Iraj Bashiri (one of the best courses available, even if a little dated)
♦ BBC : Persian Service (Good for reading practice)
♦ VOA : Persian (More reading practice)
♦ Wikipedia (And yet more reading practice)
♦ Persian Language & Culture (has a number of texts in Persian with vocabulary keys)

Persian Script :

♦ Teach Yourself Modern Persian (I have an older edition of this which focuses mostly on learning the script and basic grammar)
♦ Let’s Learn Farsi (good for learning the Persian script)
♦ Persian for Beginners by Iraj Bashiri (includes a section devoted to the Persian script)
♦ Persian Language & Culture (includes a section about the Persian script and transliteration)

Writing :

♦ Persian for Beginners by Iraj Bashiri (includes a number of writing exercises)
♦ EasyPersian.Com (has a number of lessons devoted to the script and numerous writing exercises throughout the course)
♦ Teach Yourself Modern Persian (offers plenty of opportunities to practice writing words and sentences in Persian)

Grammar :

♦ Teach Yourself Modern Persian (I have an older edition of this which focuses mostly on learning the script and basic grammar)
♦ Persian Grammar by Ann Katherine Swynford Lambton (Only in preview form in Google Books but is still quite handy)
♦ EasyPersian.Com (the best site for learning Persian)
♦ Persian for Beginners by Iraj Bashiri (gives fairly good explanations of core grammar points)
♦ Persian Language & Culture (plenty of information about verbs, expressions and sentence structures)

Vocabulary :

♦ PersianinTexas.Org : Reference (useful for learning basic vocabulary and has audio files)
♦ Persian for Beginners by Iraj Bashiri (has a fairly wide vocabulary base for a beginners course)
♦ Persian Language & Culture (great for learning vocabulary related to Persian culture and society)
♦ FlashCardExchange : Farsi (plenty of flashcards to play around with)

Listening :

♦ Pimsleur Farsi (not very comprehensive but is a good start)
♦ Language 30 : Persian (found this phrasebook via a P2P service and it comes with audio files)
♦ BBC : Persian Service
♦ VOA : Persian
♦ Islamic Republic of Iran Broadcasting (official Iranian media)
♦ Children of Heaven and The Colour of Paradise (two Persian-language films I plan to watch)

Speaking :

♦ Pimsleur Farsi (not very comprehensive but is a good start)
♦ Language 30 : Persian (found this phrasebook via a P2P service and it comes with audio files)
♦ Learn to Speak Farsi (not sure how useful this one will be)
♦ Princeton University : Persian Language (some basic dialogues and readings)

Dictionaries :

♦ FarsiDic (English-Farsi and Farsi-English)
♦ ParsTranslator (handy translation tool)
♦ Persian Online Dictionary (another useful resource)

This should suffice for the time being. If anyone knows of any other resources I can make use of, please let me know.

A Month is Not Enough…

I’ve given some thought to my ‘Language of the Month’ idea and feel that a month is perhaps a little too short to master even the bare basics of a language, especially with a full-time job and other committments to worry about. I’m going to be a bit more realistic and perhaps dedicate 3-4 months to the new target language. It’s certainly not enough time to get past beginner’s level (in my opinion) but it should be enough time to at least learn some key phrases, memorise some key vocabulary and learn some basic grammar. Fluency is not my aim at the moment…I just want to sample some new languages and figure out which ones I’d really like to devote more time to in future.

Now that that’s settled….I’m choosing Persian (or Farsi if you prefer) as my language of the moment. I have several reasons for choosing it and none of them have anything to do with the current political situation (I like to keep politics and language as separate as possible). First of all, I’m attracted by the script. I like the look of Arabic but am put off by its grammar and pronunciation so Persian is definately a good compromise. It’ll be interesting to work with an abjad, especially after working with alphabets, kana and characters! Second, it’s an Indo-European language so it has some cognates and the grammar isn’t as scary as I expected. It’s certainly no piece of cake but Persian seems to be one of the more easily accessible ‘Middle Eastern’ languages in comparison. Third, I’ve been reading a lot of books about Iran lately and would like to learn a bit more about Persian culture and traditions. Learning a bit of the language will definately enrich my knowledge of the country and of one of the world’s most ancient cultures. I’ll be collecting a number of resources for learning the language over the next week or so (I already had the Teach Yourself book in my collection) and I’ll post a list of these later in the week.

With regard to my other languages, I will continue working on my Dutch as well as maintain and/or improve upon my Japanese, Spanish and Mandarin. The latter are not a top priority but I can easily fit in some time each day to work on at least one of them. I spend almost 3 hours commuting each day so listening to a podcast lesson or reading a magazine or book in my target languages is very feasible. I always buy a copy of Mia each week and have taken to reading it on the train. It’s a Spanish general interest magazine aimed at women so it’s easy reading and a fun way to keep my Spanish from slipping. Granted, I make it sound like my Spanish is deteriorating rapidly (and my level of fluency isn’t *that* bad to begin with) but I’m no longer in my normal Spanish-speaking environment so I need to immerse myself in the language where and when I can.

Language of the Month

I’ve been thinking of a new challenge for myself (because learning Dutch and maintaining my other languages isn’t enough :p)…something along the lines of the ‘Language Learning Month’ held by Unilang. I haven’t gotten over my bad habit of dabbling with other languages so I thought I’d dedicate a month to each language I’m interested in and study it alongside my normal language study. Languages like Italian and Japanese may have to take a backseat for the time being but I’m sure I can fit in a couple of hours a week to study another language. I find it hard to focus solely on Dutch so this might be a fun idea.

If I do decide to go ahead with this ‘A Language a Month’ idea, this is what I hope to accomplish in the 4 weeks I dedicate to each language :

♦ Learning some basic phrases and vocabulary.

♦ Learning the alphabet/script involved.

♦ Learning some basic grammar points and learn how to make my own basic sentences.

♦ Listen to some radio or TV in that language (where available) just to get used to the sound of the language (I don’t expect to be able to understand much, if anything, in a month!)

♦ Learn to read some basic texts and making a note of any new vocabulary I come across (depending on the language).

♦ Be able to read at least some of the items on a restaurant menu in my target language (depending on availability).

A month is definately not long enough to get far with a new language so I am not going to set very high targets for myself. This will be for sheer pleasure and to satisfy my curiosity about other languages without distracting myself too much from my formal language study. I don’t see anything wrong with dabbling with a new language and learning some of the basics of another language…in fact, I think that learning about other languages can sometimes help you understand the languages you’re studying much better, especially when you tackle a related language.

I’ve a fairly long list of languages I would like to dabble in in the near future. These include Korean, Arabic (MSA), Tibetan, Persian and Indonesian, among others. I haven’t decided which language I would like to tackle first but I will try and pin one down tomorrow so that I can start straightaway!

I suppose this is yet another crazy idea of mine but I do like to broaden my horizons a little and try something new. Dutch language study is keeping me fairly busy but it does quite satisfy my craving for foreign languages.

Ancient Egyptian

I’ve often wondered why Ancient Egyptian is not normally listed as a ‘must-have’ language for polyglots, aspiring or actual. Coptic and Middle Egyptian both have their charms but you rarely hear language enthusiasts saying that these are language they plan to add to their collection. They may tackle Ancient Greek, Latin or Sanskrit but few dare to touch hieroglyphs, even if they have an affinity for character-based languages such as Chinese or Japanese.

In all fairness, there probably are a number of reasons why many language enthusiasts shy away from the ancient Egyptian language. First of all, the majority of textbooks are either aimed at those studying Egyptology or linguistics (making it boring or less accessible for the average enthusiast) or they provide only a very superficial overview of the language. Second, some find the lack of vowels to be a challenge. While Arabic and Hebrew also tend to leave out some vowels in the written form, students of these languages are at least aware of how the words are pronounced and what vowels are used in certain words. Coptic has an alphabet and Egyptologists and linguists have made ample use of the language to try and figure out what ancient Egyptian sounded like but, of course, this method has its limits. Third, I suppose hieroglyphs can be tricky to work with. As someone who’s studied Chinese and dabbled with Japanese on and off, pictograms don’t send me running for the hills. Egyptian determinatives remind me of the radicals used in Chinese characters as they give the reader an idea of what the preceeding collection of phonograms and logograms represents. Like Chinese and Japanese, they can help differentiate homonyms, something with is particularly useful when working with a language that doesn’t display its vowel sounds!

I’ve toyed with the idea of learning to read basic Egyptian texts (if such a thing exists!) as I’ve been something of an amateur Egyptologist for many years. I would like to get around to Latin and Ancient Greek in future, mostly to satisfy my interest in etymology and word derivation, but ancient Egyptian seems like a real challenge and might be something fun to work on when I want to take a break from my ’serious’ language study. I have a number of books on hieroglyphs in my collection including the best-selling How to Read Egyptian Hieroglyphs by Mark Collier and Bill Manley. The book is a fairly good step-by-step guide on learning to read Egyptian hieroglyphs and, while limited, is a good starting point for enthusiasts.

Has anyone else ever considered learning ancient Egyptian or one of its variants? If any has attempted to do so, feel free to share your tips!

I’m Still Here!

Hello all!

Just a quick message to say I got back from my week’s vacation in the UK but have been too busy this week to post anything substantial. I started my new job (a data-entry position for a big name media company in Amsterdam) on Tuesday and have been too busy getting used to being back in full-time employment to even glance at my language study books! :p

While I haven’t been actively studying this week, I’ve had the chance to use my Dutch at work (although the company language is English) and I read a Spanish magazine on the way to and from work today. It’s all been fairly passive study but it’s better than nothing!

Anyway, it’s past my bedtime (I have to be up again in 6 hours!). I promise I’ll try to post a few updates this weekend.

Language Goal Update

It’s been a long time since I gave some thought to my language goals so what better time to do that than now? As always, I am completely aware of how hard it is to achieve all of these, especially given how many languages I seem to be studying or maintaining, but nobody said I had to achieve these within a short period of time. Priorities and interests also change with time so it’s likely I might change my mind about some of these. And no lecture about picking one or two languages to concentrate on…

Dutch :

♦ Overall Goal - Improve proficiency in all 4 areas and push my Dutch to intermediate or high intermediate by this time next year in order to please the parents-in-law and make life easier for myself. Learn to motivate myself to learn this language even though it holds no interest.

♦ Reading - Will improve reading fluency through reading Wikipedia articles, newspapers and books (both fiction and non-fiction).

♦ Listening - Spend more time listening to Dutch radio and watching TV shows.

♦ Speaking - Spend more time practicing with native speakers and learning not to be so shy around strangers. Might consider joining a conversation group if progress goes too slowly.

♦ Writing - Build up writing skills through writing blog entries and working on personal and professional correspondence.

Spanish :

♦ Overall Goal - Maintaining a high level of fluency and improving upon writing skills. Expanding vocabulary further and working on improving proficiency in ‘professional Spanish’. While Spanish is my second mother tongue, it has become rusty over the years due to lack of use (no longer living in Spanish-speaking environment) and there are some gaps in my vocabulary.

♦ Reading - Broadening vocabulary through reading non-fiction (eg. books on Pre-Colombian cultures) and journals. Looking to read at least one Spanish-language novel every couple of months in order to maintain reading fluency.

♦ Listening - Maintaining high level of listening comprehension by listening to Spanish-language radio and watching Spanish movies.

♦ Speaking - Not much I can do here other than use it as much as possible when phoning family. Might consider joining a Spanish conversation group in future.

♦ Writing - Reading up on professional Spanish and brushing up on long-ignored writing skills. Will practice writing Spanish CVs and blog entries.

Japanese :

♦ Overall Goal - Master the basics, learn not to confuse Mandarin and Japanese pronunciations and aim for JLPT Level 4 (or 3) this year or next.

♦ Reading - Building up reading proficiency and vocabulary base through reading Wikipedia articles, websites and manga.

♦ Listening - Making use of the various Japanese lesson podcasts available, listening to Japanese radio and watching more Japanese TV shows or movies.

♦ Speaking - Getting used to speaking in Japanese by ’shadowing’ the audio courses I have at my disposal and talking to myself.

♦ Writing - Will build up basic writing skills through writing blog entries in Japanese in near future.

Mandarin :

♦ Overall Goal - Maintain high level of reading fluency while trying not to let listening and speaking skills drop below intermediate.

♦ Reading - Maintaining a high level of reading fluency by reading anything of interest that I can get my hands on, including blogs, non-fiction and e-books. This is particularly important in case I decide to return to freelance translation in future.

♦ Listening - Listening to Mandarin radio (including the BBC Chinese service) and making use of the various podcast courses available.

♦ Speaking - Practising with native speakers whenever I get the chance as well as ’shadowing’ and talking to myself.

♦ Writing - No plans for improving writing skills at this moment although I might consider working on a Mandarin CV or writing blog entries if I change my mind.

Italian :

♦ Overall Goal - Getting a good grasp on basic Italian grammar and reaching A2 conversation level. Aiming to push reading skills to intermediate, building up a good base of vocabulary and work on basic writing skills.

♦ Reading - Building up a good vocabulary base and improving reading proficiency through reading Italian newspapers, magazines and websites.

♦ Listening - Building up listening comprehension through listening to Italian radio, watching Rai Uno on TV and making use of Italian language podcasts.

♦ Speaking - Practising through talking to myself. Might consider taking classes in the future and hope to practice once I have the time and money to visit Italy.

♦ Writing - Practising through writing basic messages or blog posts.

Memorising Phrases

I originally got this idea from Bill Handley’s book Fast Easy Way to Learn a Language, where you would keep a notebook of key phrases and sentence structures you find essential or useful to know. While this may encourage learning in parrot fashion and would certainly never make you fluent on its own, I think this is quite a good way to get to grips with basic conversational skills in your target language and is a good first step towards really mastering the language. This is certainly true if you learn how to substitute words efficiently as it allows you to build up your language skills methodically and at the very least you will have a small arsenal of phrases and expressions to use while you struggle towards fluency using other methods.

I have several such notebooks, one for each language I’m working on, though I don’t always have the time to re-read over the phrases I have already entered. In a way, these notebooks are my own personalised phrasebooks and cover those phrases I feel I need for everyday life. My Dutch notebook includes a selection of phrases I feel might be useful to know for future jobs as well as a selection of more ‘colloquial’ expressions.

In creating my own personalised little phrasebooks (which are far from complete), I tend to use a variety of sources. I usually scan my self-study course books for phrases and structures that I feel I will be most likely to use and ignore anything I know I won’t have to use in a hurry. I also keep a note of any phrases or expressions used in podcast lessons or audio courses as these are more likely to be representative of the spoken language (this is not always the case with the language used in textbooks). Sometimes I jot down expressions I might hear on TV or on the radio and occasionally run these through Google to see if I can find some examples of their use. Blogs can also be a good source, although you run the risk of picking up bad language and grammar mistakes this way. One source I often stay away from are the newspapers as the language used in these is more formal and not likely to be used in a normal conversation with peers or colleagues.

Does anyone else use a similar method for boosting their spoken language skills? If so, what sources do you use and how do you record them? Any suggestions for improving upon my method would be most welcome.