The Fun of Self Study

Ever since I left the school environment, I had realized there were things I needed to work on. Math was one of them, but I also enjoyed learning languages. I wanted to learn, so that I could talk with different people and maybe visit these areas.

As a result of my grades during school, I never qualified for an language learning or exchange program. I also had trouble learning in a full classroom. Everyone's pass was so different, but usually faster than my own. Or I was being bullied in front of the teacher or in other areas in school. This affected my confidence greatly and made difficult to focus on my classwork. It also made it hard to be taken seriously in school and classrooms in particular, because I really didn't want to take part half the time. My achievements didn't mean much, and when I struggled and couldn't get the right kind of help, I felt often defeated and quite depressed among other things in my life.

When I decided to seriously take up learning Vietnamese, I search quite hard for reading materials, classroom style sheets or anything I felt that could be easy to latch onto, but alowed me to really put in time and effort. I eventually found a program online, and having Linux as my main OS, so to speak, I needed something that could run in a browser, versus software. Language software isn't very supported on Linux, so browser based was next best thing.

I purchased the low cost program subscription and really put in the effort and time. 4 or more hours a day I would practice, until I felt I was ready for the next. Reading, picture association and speaking, were all apart of what I was doing, and it was the sole focus at the time. I was study until I fell asleep, and then wake up and do it again the next day. I also spent time writing, even though it was not necessary to the course. I could use my time how I wanted, to learn what I wanted to learn.

Eventually I reached a point where I wanted to do language exchange. I had reached a level of confidence to move from the hand-hold on the software and thus I found websites like conversationexchange (which is free and a very good start. I may do a blog about this site at a later date) and italki, which one of the learners I met from conversation exchange introduced me to, which is a big and diverse step-up from conversation exchange.

I can't check all you guys notes!! No!!

I enjoyed some of the experience, but the different way this site is setup compared to the first, is a bit more overwhelming for me. People ask for their writing to be checked, to learn privately or ask questions. It's a bit more open, than conversation-exchange. To which I may use that next time. Both are very good at finding someone to work with, but italki verges on social media and it can be enriching, yet overwhelming when you need a break. Eventually I had so many requests I shut my account down. I did have some people from here who I helped, but the most came from conversationex'.

It was a joy to work with them, but the difficulty was coursework. How do we structured and take turns learning, asking questions and having a little fun. Some people were doing it mostly because of job opportunity, but I could feel there was no passion behind it. That's not bad, sometimes you do what you have to do, but passion helps you absorb it and makes the most of it. The schedule of all our lives also made it hard to collaborate and eventually my own life had come to a screeching halt because of family emergencies. I felt quite sad not be able to continue my exchange. Either my internet was not working properly and I couldn't do a hangouts to learn (which I was actually starting to learn something with this other person), or again family emergencies. The people I was learning with understood my situation and even more, understood my sadness at having to put this on hold. Evenutally I came to start this blog and document some of my journey.

I still wanted to learn, but I realized the best way was to do it on my own with the materials left by by others. They put in their work, and I wanted to put in the work to learn it. The problem is, until now, the materials I found were helpful, but scattered and giving me only one part of what I needed, reading, writing. Speaking was an issue. I was lost.

Then I decided to learn German. one thing I knew for sure, is that military people have to learn different languages, so that they can perform at their destinations and stations, but also to understand what the enemy may be saying, so as to save their own and others lives. I figured that they were doing something to learn languages. They had to be functional courses, and to the point, because they do not have ALL day to learn something. They need to learn as much as they need to survive, and the rest will come in time once they are in the zone.

So I decided to look for language courses that are fast. I originally started with Russian, since that's what I was looking for at the time. I found the FSI course. The website looked super simple and I honestly almost passed it up, but I remember sometimes simple is best, check the work and then decide.

GOLD!

When I looked at the Russian area and saw all the course work AND tape recordings, I knew I struck gold. I downloaded some files, but I had not gotten around to learning Russian from it yet, because..... I ran into an important project that requires me to learn German. I was hesistant as I've mentioned before, because German is one of those languages I orignally didn't want to learn. I've only ever heard people speaking German like they were going to kick your ass! However I did favour the Austrian dialect, and I thought hmm. Even more, the project, these singers sing beautifully in German and I said... ok... I accept this challenge!! And thus here I am today.

I enjoy studying in my own time, doing another activity or not. Trying to say it naturally (German thankfully drops my voice naturally). Trying to say the same thing with different moods, and (unsuccessfully) trying to sing those words. Hmm... not yet huh? I don't have to worry about working with anyone else's schedule on such a grand scale, I don't have to worry about being hungry and or sick and having to slog through a course. If I need rest I can wrap up my learning and rest. If I want to learn at 5am in the morning, I will learn at 5am for a few minutes and go back to sleep. I need a nap? Fold up and take a nap. Studying on my own allows me time to learn at my own pace and make sure I master it.

Does this mean class doesn't have it's place? Of course not! For many people, learning in groups is even more enriching than solo. Some can keep up and even challenge themselves in such an environment. The key is choice. If you struggle in a class environment, take the risk and learn on your own and dedicate yourself to it. Set your own schedule OR be flexible. Say, in an hour I will study this, and prepare yourself to study, and when you want to stop, Do so.

That's what I got for solo learning. No matter what, choose what you feel is best and always have fun!

Happy Learning!

Halt! Das ist nicht gut! : Mastery Review Time!

Halt! Turn Back!

Yesterday or so, I decided I wanted to dip my toe in Unit 6. The beginning stages were not bad, it was the review and then you write. However I got the number
section too and was ok. Null, Eins, Zwei, Drei, Vier, Fu**nf, Sechs, Sieben,Acht, Neun, Sehn. No big deal, just a bit of memorisation needed there. However structures are changing, speed is increasing and most importantly, the Drill got harder.

They started talking about Marks, I got that part. However, when I saw that next section, I had to put my own brakes on. I only have so many marks? I don't have enough marks? And then the combination of the words, the full on speed and complexity. PLUS, they EVEN decided to make it a longer drill too. not just Hello, Hello, How are you?, Im fine.... No. They literally jumped into full on conversatuon territory...... NOPE! Not yet.

I actually have words I still need to strength and Sprechen is one of them. I can say Shp, I can say Rech, Rechen. Shprechen? I still slip into SP instead of Shp, and my lazy tongue gets stuck and says "ken" instead of "hchen"(my own little way of spitting). Slowly I get it, but normal speed I get my tongue caught. Dru**ben is no longer an issues, and in fact Unit 6 helped clarify some sounds for me.

Verstehen.  The new word Vier in Unit six sounds like "feel", because of the force you need for the V. So knowing how to pronounce V like this, I decided to repractise "Ich Vesterhen Frau Kunze" in my head and it sounded much better. That one little pronunciation clarification makes the words flow out of my mouth much easier, than we I was solely using "Vee" instead of a "Fee" sound. I'm still saying a "Vee", but it's close to "Fee" now, with more force behind it.

So did Unit 6 destroy me? No, in fact, dipping my toe into Unit 6 gave me some more tips and words to work on. Those little changes have me needing to go back and just strengthen the words I already know, work on the phrases, and masters these first 5 sections. As I said before, 5 IS getting better, but the mastery is not there. I also have to remind myself to go ahead and slow down and get the accuracy right, first. I have the luxury of learning at home in my own time, and thus, if I need to slow down and replay a part, I have the option for sure.

In fact that's why I enjoy self studying no matter the subject. I can really sit with myself and focus on what I need to correct and strengthen and take as many or less breaks as I need for restroom, to eat, to socialize or get fresh air, and then come back to study with a fresh head. I'll talk more about this in the next blog entry.

Happy Learning!

Moving forward and Hanging Back Unit 5 and Now Unit 6

I've practised a little bit today and I'm starting to feel more confident, BUT not foolishly so. I'm ready to add unit 6 to my line up and slowly easing away from Unit 4.1-4.2. I'll be doing my practise from 1- 4 and only on any sections that ask me to practise without hesistation.

When I did yoga, it was the best time to practise. It helped me focus heavily on yoga, and listening. Listening to my body, and listening carefully with my ears, without my eyes interfering. It's a great experiement and I have also practised quite well doing this.

Unit 5 and 6 require more engagement, and easing away from 4 means, I have a bigger challenge, and the challenge is going well, but not yet ready for complete cutting off. I have to understand and keep a deep diary in my head about sentence structures AND being able to recall : Ich verstehe and Sie verstehen. Das/Es and Der / Er . When I hear sentences i want to make sure I have these down in my head so I can be more automatic in how I respond. But see, they increase the speed and the challenge is recall AND speed and accuracy.

I'm getting better, I'm moving forward!

Happy Learning!

Having a Little Fun, Progress with Unit 5.1 - 5.2

I'm better at saying certain words. I'm slowly catching up to the speed, and able to recall a proper reply in a little less time. Much progress... und auch fun!

Mrs. Kunze has, so far, been a staple in the Frau practice. And the last part of the unit 5.2 was intersting and inspired a bit of "fun". Regular speaking (the FSI style), and then my own way. Awkward and Irritating. Mrs. Kunze, I'm so sorry, but it's practice!

FSI (i added und)

Me: Guten tag, Herr Becker. Wohnen sie hier?
Mr. Becker: Ja, Ich wohne hier.
Me: Wo ist das hotel?
Mr. Becker: Es ist hier rechts und Das restaurant ist auch dort.

Awkward

Me: Frau Kunze? Frau Kunze... Frau Kunze?
Mrs Kunze: Ja?
Me: Guten tag
Mrs Kunze: Guten tag
Me: Wohnen sie hier?
Mrs Kunze: Ja, Ich wohne hier.
Me: Wo ist das hotel und restaurant?
Mrs. Kunze: Das hotel ist hier rechts, und (points) das restaurant ist auch dort.
Me: Danke sehr, Tschu**ss!

Irritating

Me: Frau Kunze? Frau Kunze? Frau Kunze!
Mrs Kunze: Ja!?
Me: Guten tag...
Mrs Kunze: Guten TAG.
Me: Wohnen sie hier?
Mrs Kunze: JA, Ich wohne hier...
Me: Wo ist das hotel und restaurant?
Mrs. Kunze: Das restaurant ist hier rechts, und (points) das hotel ist auch dort.
Me: ....... Es ist?
Mrs. Kunze: JA!
Me:....Danke sehr...........
Mrs. Kunze: Hm....Auf Wedersehen!
Me: Auf Wedersehen...

There it is! Just some fun practice. Though I am getting better so far with Unit 5 as a whole, It will take a few more days, up to 4 or so, before I feel confident enough to move to 6. Before I do that, I will definitely do a quick review of the exercise and make sure my notes are in order.

Thanks for stopping by, Happy Learning!

The Plunge into Unit 5.1 - 5.2

Yesterday I finally took the plunge. I reviewed Unit 4.1 - 4.2 to polish up what I was practising and then I took a breath and began.

How i've been doing these units is pretty simple. The tools I have are a notebook, a pen, pdf file of the coursebook, and my mediaplayer. I put the cassette mp3 files in a the queue and I add calming music in between each unit and subunit. This way, I do all my practising for that cassette file and then give myself a break to write notes, get some water or simply thank myself for a job well done. It's amazing how I've improved, however, unit 5 has been pushing me to the limit. I expect it to take maybe a week or less (depening) to get a solid hold onto rhythm.

Unit 5 includes the review, the practice, the new sentences, sentence structures and a whole lot more information. One of the things I immediately noticed is a subtle speed increase. They are definitely assuming and subtley encouraging you to step up you memory recall and speaking speed and accuracy.

Some of the sentences I've learn such as "Guten Morgen, Frau Kunze." and "Wo fahren sie hin." caught me off guard in the speed. I find myself tongue locking. It's this strange, possibly primal thing where, if I cannot keep up with speed and I lose my thought mid-sentence, my tongue will lock up and I will gently hold it down like a vice. This happens especially when learning the phrase "Ich verstehe Frau Kunze nicht." I know exactly where the bite happens Ische ver  and Kunzeeh nicht. If I don't lift my tongue in time it gets caught and I have to stop and try again.

The other challenge I'm reaching is, Recall. Now respectfully I do expect this recall to take longer than a month to be ingrained, but I was surprised at how long it takes me to recall it. It's not that I don't know it, but my brain has always been a file cabinet, and it has these words filed away too far back. Eventually my brain may bring the file cabinet up closer from frustration of packing it way in the back. Phrases like "Wo ist der Bahnhof?" should not take me 15 minutes to recall after learning it consistently.

So let's talk about "rechts" and "restaurant". Both are new words. The first means to the right, the other... is self-explanatory. No, really it means restaurant!

Totally Twisted!

Wo ist das restaurant? Es ist hier rechts.   (Es ist heer reychts) When you are in the moment and they give you less time to respond, you'll discover how quickly how you'll sound "Esh ish sheer rayss" LOL That's obviously wrong, but that's exactly what was happening at times. My brain is taking too long to synchronize with what I have to say.

There are a lot of interactive writing activities now too. I get to try to write what I hear them say, and sometimes they add new words, I get to determine and listen to see if a sentence is a statement, question, or command.

One of the things I wish I had was like a portable work book I could practice
with when out in the world. Then when I come home, I would have some practice under my belt and then can resume learning from the FSI course.

Respectfully, Unit 5 is literally the beginning of the real deal, and my gluteus maximus is being kicked in trying to learn and assimilate the lesson. However, I am also having a blast. Even though I have a goal in mind learning German, I'm not letting that dampen the fact that, I also love learning languages, and I'm enjoy learning this!

Happy learning Everyone!

Return to learning

Took a small break from learning to focus on other things. Why? It was spurred on by the one-up challenge of Unit 5 and what's to come. More words, more sentences, and a bit more complex. They eased you in, show you what's going to be added to the lessons, and now your at the first real mark on learning.

I only peaked at Unit 5 because that's whats next, and they have the review, the vocabulary, the comprehension, fluency and application and finally the tape script at the end. Admittedly to this point, I've done very well. Better than I imagined with a language I never planned to learn, and now I'm at the beginning of the new.

This morning I offered myself an honest challenge. Something I haven't done when it came to languages. I challenge myself to atleast finish the German Introduction course which is a total of 25 Units. Finish all Units and master them as much as I'm able, not being native.  Then, if I want and feel up to it, I may tackle the next step in the German learning course which is German Basic.

For now I have accepted this challenge and have a deadline of 3 months or less to complete and master the Introduction course. Also I will continue to share important observations, progress, etc along the way. So keep an eye out!

FreeRice.com / A Basic Vocabulary Tool and a Way to Help

While I checking out my favourite blogs, I ran across a poster buddy of mine sharing their experience with a website called FreeRice. What's interesting and fun is, I am learning German and wanted to do a little more outside of the structured course and this is exactly it! But even more, my thirst for knowledge is also helping to feed people.

It's actually free and you can use it the moment you arrive. Explore what they have and get to learning. And as you learn, you earn for others. I'm using the German section to earn, and actually the vocabulary isn't extremely difficult, because I'm finding that with some words, the correct pronunciation gives you a clue to what it means. Plus having listened to Hansel und Gretel for 100+ times, I can easily recognize the words with ease. It's going to be a fun experience! Thanks blogger Anastasia!

I really hope one day we will be able to afford more than just rice for the people who are hungry. Though rice is absolutely better than nothing, it truthfully lacks nutrients this people desperately need in their bodies. And though they are fed, they will still be malnurished in others ways. I pray that somehow there is a way to increase the options for food for others. Rice, vegetables, the ingredients to make bread. This way they can have a nice nutrient filled meal, and enjoy the warmth of kindness and love from people all over the world. This is just a start, imagine what can be!

Happy Learning and Earning !

Dru**ben, Choking and Progress

Dru**ben. This one word, so far, was a little challenging, and yet now I've almost gotten a natural hold over. However, there are a few things about this word the puzzle me. The first, is how I feel like i'm about to choke every time I say the word. The location where this sound U** (** is my way of say that symbol over the “u”) it feels like my whole throat is closing in and I have to literally force the air out or I feel I will choke. And secondly, as a result of the first, there is this very subtle but strange “fear” that comes up. It's actually quite crazy to me how that even works. When I say dru**ben and feel like I'm about to choke, and then my brain kicks in with a fear I'm about to die….. Pardon my language (get it?….ok joke's over) but what in the hell is that all about?

Where is that coming up? Er ist dort dru**ben. = It's over there. Now thankfully…. The better I get at saying that word, the less I feel like I'm about to keel over. However, turn up the speed and I'm choking again. For example, when I need to answer the lady in the FSI course.

[video/audio example of my speaking. The first conversation is based on the FSI course. The second is me combining what I've learned. I apologise if my accent is still rough, but I'm making progress!]

Lady: Wo ist der Flughafen?

Me: Er ist dort dru**ben.

Lady: Wie bitte? Sprechen sie bitte langsam.

Me frustrated (just kidding :P) : Der Flughafen ist dort dru**ben.

Lady: Danke sehr.

Now if I take what I learned so far and I really want to choke while having fun:

Me: Guten Morgen Herr und Frau Kunze, Wie geht es ihnen?

Herr Kunze : Danke gut!

Frau Kunze : Danke gut, und ihnen?

Me: Auch gut, danke. Wo fahren sie hin?

Herr Kunze : Der Flughafen, und ihnen?

Me: Café.

Frau Kunze : Ralph, wo ist der Flughafen?

Me: Er ist dort dru**ben.

Herr and Frau Kunze look around : Wie Bitte? Wo ist?

Me ( I point behind the tree) : Der Flughafen ist dort dru**ben.

Herr and Frau Kunze : Ah (I don't know this expression yet), Danke sehr, Ralph. Auf Wiedersehen!

Me: Auf Wiedersehen!

And thus this is an appropriate view of all I've learned so far.

Frau did not take as long as dru**ben, but neither took more then may 20 or so minutes to absorb and then a few hours and days later to really get the hang of each. Frau does trip me up with th F(igr) very soft, but vibrated.

Soon I will be reviewing unit 3 and 4.1 – 4.2 and then venturing on to unit 5 and maybe six today or some other time. For now, I am through.

Auf Wiedersehen and Happy Learning!

- The FSI German Coursework I have been talking about : FSI German

Lots of Progress and New Words "Teaser"

It's late here where I dwell, the forest as my profile say :P. I have been having fun drilling away with German since 7pm today (Tuesday), and it's currently now Wednesday at 12:44am.

What does that mean? I had fun and I've seriously learned alot. If you want to learn something, get it militarised and make sure it's actually accurate and good. This course is cramming me, but I'm absorbing it, and like I mentioned before, the lady native speaker is really fun to "talk" to. I feel like I'm actually talking with a real person and there's been much much progress.

I'm keeping this brief and will go in depth more tomorrow. Druben (I don't have the keyboard software set up yet), Frau and pacing. These are a few topics I will bring up tomorrow or quite soon.

Thanks for stopping by and Happy learning!

Speaking and Listening : Progress

One of the many challenges I've had  when learning languages is the ability to speak properly. And the reason for this is "making faces". That may seem silly, but if there is one thing I do understand about English, is that the more adept at it you are, the less you tend to express with your face.

How does that work? Ventriloquism. The ability to speak without or barely moving your mouth, lips and teeth. It's an awesome skill, yet I personally don't have the ability to "throw" my voice. It's one of those skills that leaves most people in awe, or it used to anyway. Or even the skill to talk through your teeth. Moving your lips, but not opening your mouth.

While all the cool and awesomes ways to speak are, awesome, the downside is it makes learning languages hard. The skills that look great, in fact tend to lead to a lazy mouth which some languages are unforgiving about. I know for a fact Vietnamese is like this. The ability to move your lips, open your mouth and place your tongue properly, is necessary to get the correct sounds. Otherwise you will not be clearly heard or you're just plain wrong in pronunciation.

This is also true for German. In fact, what I like about this FSI course is it's extremely clear and concise (it has to be, to enable the military to quickly learn languages valuable to communicating at different stations). They explain quite clearly the need to open your mouth and make a certain face, a "screw all" how stupid you look. It's really the only way to make the sounds properly. And so it began.

I finish Unit 1 and finally sharpened up my hearing of words that were given and was confident and curious to see what lay in Unit 2. Let's say, I had a lovely time and will be doing review of those two Units tomorrow.

So I learned how to hear "kaffee  and café" and also I was able to hear the syllables in other new words presented. I will however be reviewing this is unit again to correct so listening mistakes.

In Unit 2 the focus was on hearing, properly speaking, memorisation, and participation.

They start you off with hearing the word properly from the native speaking woman, and then the wrong way with the native English narrator and his awesomely monotone voice. Hearing this was actually quite important. Why? Because it's one thing to always hear how it sound the right way, but when you self-study particularly, it is very helpful to have a comparison of what it sounds like when it's horribly wrong. Otherwise you will be practising your errors, which is really what this whole introductory course is about. They want to get you set straight on hearing and basic speaking, before you start with the Basic Course.

Thankfully I've had exposure to German in my youth from various sources, Are you Being Served: Dutch Week, 31 Languages of the world CD (horribly out of date, but fun to explore all 31 languages), and passively from tv shows or my own searches. So that when Guten Tag, Guten Morgen, came up, I was not surprised. However, I DID better pronounce it compared to how I used to. There is a certain hard and soften that plays out vs fully one or the other.

Guten Tag = sounds like = Goot'n Tahg
Guten Morgen = sounds like - Goot'n Moahr-gen

Gut = sounds like = Goot

In fact it makes me wonder what the key of this languages is. Meaning, when I hear Gut, I also automatically think of the Scottish language. Although gut, is just a little bit of a different sound. For example gut (as in your stomach or belly)  sounds a tad like "goat". But it has a very slight oo. So it's g-oo-uht

Another phrase I learn was "Danke, auch gut"

Now when the woman first spoke it, I heard Auf, however when I looked at the script afterwards, I realized it was Auch. Having said Auf, all I had to do was change the ending sound.

"Wie geht es Ihnen" was interesting to learn and look at afterwards. They don't show you the word you need to learn at the forefront as, again, it's based more off listening. So when they taught it it was " Ve gate-is Een"  I knew "W" sounds like "Vee" so that didn't suprise me, but the word Ihnen was interesting to say without struggling over.

The fun part was practising speaking after the woman and the participation exercises. You would take turns with her and speak. You would first be a greeter, the thanking person, then the supplying information, then it would be her turn to take the lead. You practise this way for 3 times and then it's the end of that unit.

The listening exercise has definitely helped in making it easy to somewhat hear what she is saying, but of course she is speaking with great diction and care and that along with listening makes for a fun learning process!

Auf Wiedersehen!

Listening: Subtle Differences Until Attuned Part 2

I wrote a bit of a segment on listening, however now I explain why I went into that in the first place.

Differences and the Same.

Currently I am, as you may have guessed, starting to learn German. I decided to take the more structured route this time, because I have a purpose in mind when learning German, whereas the other langauges were strictly for fun and communication, expression, etc. This means I have chosen a FSI course that is publicly available. It have text and very well recorded tapes to study.

So I am currently doing the introductory course and so far so good. However when I first explored it a few days ago, I had no idea what I was hearing. You see the talk english first, then they say a German word or words. Your task in this series of this course is to tune your hearing. Meaning, you need to "hear" and "listen" to the differences in the words said, AND determine there sllyable. It does not yet matter about the actual word, or how to spell it (though it is in the script section of the coursebook if you want to look at it), but that you can actuall differentiate the stress and the word.

The first example was café vs coffee in German it is café vs kaffee. When I first heard this woman speak, I was trying to figure out what in the world she was trying to say, as at that exploration time I was not looking at the coursebook. But when I looked at the number the narrator was on and paid more attention, I realized she was saying the word cafe and cafe. Or so I thought.

"Hmm why is she saying this twice?" Then at that point I tuned in more, and I started to hear it. cafe kaffee. When I heard it sounded like this "cah-fay and cah-fay", but when I listened again I heard finally "cah-faayy and cah'fay"  Basically café  is well, café and coffee was cah'fay. Quick and short. Coffee, Kaffee. Café, Cah'faay (that's not how it's really spelled btw)

So how do I remember it, Café like you are upper class and fancy Cah-faay. And Coffee like... you would say Coffee quick, short.

It took me a few more times to really sharpen my ear to what she was saying and then this required me to pull out my latent English skills. Syllables, where is the stress? How many stresses? What what is this and what does it mean again?

So that's my discovery on that. It's still early in the learning, but I have faith I will learn abit more so that I can accomplish my goals.

Happy Learning Everybody!

Listening: Subtle Differences Until Attuned Part 1

One of the most important things about learning languages is the ability to hear. And not just "hearing", but the act of listening.

In everyday life we all communicate in some way shape or form, and the act of speaking and listening can become dulled for some of us over time. What's cool when you have an actual and genuine interest in a language or languages, is the act of listening is done with purpose. Whether for fun or to fully understand what someone is saying, the act of listening can help you comprehend new and old words and to better connect with another person with genuine interest.

You see that is one of the coolest things right there. The fact you want to learn, means you are willing to listen, and your willingness to listen means that you can learn new words, correct a few speaking and spelling mistakes and also possibly make a new friend. In fact that's why some people do learn new languages.

When you learn a new language you are literally opening yourself up to connect with someone on their own level. For work, your willingness to learn another countries language to take a job, should show a willingness to learn, to intergrate and to connect with other different than you, to better yourself. And in the case of friendships or the potential of friendships, the connection developed can give way to an honest leniency. You're putting in honest effort to pronounce something properly and with the correct accent, yet your friend lets you know it's ok if you aren't perfect, as long as you speak well enough to be understood. And that says a lot about the other person. They are "listening" to you try, and that means they are actively trying to understand and connect with what you are trying to say.

When we speak to each other in our native languages, sometimes we forget this. However when you learn a new language, your start to go back to those roots and not only does that help you learn your new language, it also helps you better communicate in your mother tongue.

So listen!

German... A Challenge Explored

It has come up that I may have to learn German. Why? Well it is a challenge I must undertake to be able to sing Hansel und Gretel. With some languages I can sing pretty decently without having to know much of the language, as long as I have a basic understanding of the alphabet and tone. But up until now with the exception of Vietnamese, I have yet to tackle a language as tough as German. Russian I can handle, but with time It can slowly build. With German however, there is a learning curve that is quite steep as far as I can tell.

So the challenge... German? Will you taketh mein hand? Let's just see what happens on this particular journey as well. As always, I will try to do any comparisons or just in general discuss what I am discovering as I learn.

Future Subjects Related to Languages: Dialects and Regions

What I actually want to talk about in the future is my curiousity and observation/understanding of Languages and then dialects. When here in America it's one country but various ways of speaking, but then I look at other countries that are divided yet have the same base language with variations. An Example is, China and Singapore, or Germany and Austria. Each other these countries have there base language as either Chinese, or German. But then there is the regional dialect. The words they use across each area as a variation of the main language.

This is something I plan to explore and share in the future. For now this is all. Thanks for stopping by!

Preparing for a Return : Future of other Languages. Russian Exploration

Hello everyone! It's been a very very long time since I have come back to this blog. It's alive, but not active. That is, not yet. Lots of things have changed since I've last blogged about the languages I had been learning and I've had to make a decision to let some go. That is, my plan to learn Japanese, Swedish, Vietnamese and Chinese have been dropped. What I have accumulated in knowledge with Vietnamese will be maintained. However, saying that, I won't be practicing my speaking or any aspect of it with any focus. It will all be maintained passively. Instead my focus will be shifting to Russian.

Why Russian? Well lately I have been drawn to learn it, similar to Vietnamese. The only difference is the finding of workbooks for school age children and other things will be much more difficult. I was actually surprised at how much I could find when searching for Vietnamese resources. Things had changed from 2004, when I first searched, to 2012, when I decided to seriously learn it from then to 2015. I have already started leanring Russian last year, but only the alphabet and writing. Practicing speech will be the next step, and I don't find just speaking the alphabet and words so difficult right now. But that is where the challenge comes in. Alphabet vs expression is a whole different field.

So as I prepare to start learning Russian, as I did with the other languages, I will document and share what I am able of my experience. Writing, maybe voice recordings, and any comparisons and contrasts to old languages I had started or had gotten far in. So stay tuned!