Hints on how A.E. Graves spends her imaginary spare time
I feel like I’m somehow both succeeding (because I’m really good at multiple choice) and failing (because I am mentally exhausted from work and can’t communicate basic concepts coherently). This isn’t anyone’s fault but my tired brain’s.
I appreciate Duolingo for giving my language anxiety an outlet, and for making me practice my weakest alphabet, Katakana.
I have some plans that may keep me from being able to maintain this streak through the end of the year, but in the meantime, here’s to celebrating my language obsession! [clinking of virtual glasses]
Yes, I’m back to Japanese. No, I’m not very good at it.
I had to ice my arm, but I do think starting over beginner-level practice in writing hiragana (one of the Japanese phonetic alphabets) will help me with my language study.
My recent studies remind me too much of what I do NOT remember, while I disregard things that I recall as ‘easy.’ (Yes, I am a terrible self-critic.) Yes, I do want to get back to a ‘decent tourist who can read a little’ skillset!! And perhaps even to have my niche art supply vocabulary back, which has served me so well in museums during my other travels.
It is exciting to have a trip planned to Japan. It’s also fun to speak regularly with the colleague who encouraged/coerced me into booking my trip. Our meetings on other topics eventually (or immediately) turn to sharing what he most liked during his recent visit, and I share what I plan to see and do during my upcoming 3rd visit to the country. The venn diagram of these things are two minimally overlapping circles, but the differences sound fun, so we are each developing lists of things to do on our NEXT trip. We are basically providing each other an encouraging feedback loop of fun things, and I joke that we will each have to go annually to cover all of this delight.
I could see that being a happy habit!
But meanwhile, I’ll study fiendishly.
I am… diligent.
This weekend through September 22nd, there are pianos with talented pianists playing music in the SF Botanical Garden at the Flower Piano celebration. The pianos are out in the elements, but several of them have a canopy to protect them from above this year – hopefully they’ll stay in shape!
I visited yesterday and heard everything from Beatles covers to Gershwin’s Rhapsody in Blue from pianists of a wide range of ages.
きゃーーー！(Me screaming, “kyaaaaa!”)
Sure, I got 14k in experience points in Japanese during the COVID safety era; sure, I made it to Section 2 / Unit 32… but I don’t feel like I remember a thing.
きゃーーー！
Yes, but I still feel lazy, because it is relatively easy to make progress in German, but I haven’t resumed studying Japanese.
I realize I posted that I’ve been studying languages with DuoLingo nearly daily for FIVE YEARS, but didn’t write what I’ve studied during that time. It’s time to expand on this enthusiasm further!
German: my most dedicated area of study, and the reason I picked up Duolingo in the first place. I had studied German for four years in high school, stemming from the fact that my father was stationed in Germany with the army, and became strong conversationally: books in our house in German frustrated me in childhood because I couldn’t read them, so this was an easy choice in school. Infrequent use made it weak, and so my work for an employer in Switzerland required real preparation! Duolingo got me back where I needed to be, only to find myself tripping over the unique dialect of Basel Stadt in Switzerland. (Have I written about that?) German is the language of two pen friends, and so I read and write it this several times each month.
Japanese: the language of fun material culture during high school (hello, anime!) and the culture my architecture teachers attributed my design influences to. My mother recently started taking credit for walking me around Japan Center almost daily while I was a stroller-bound infant, which would explain my feelings of home-y comfort when I go there now! While it is easier to visit Japan without Japanese language skills than it was in 1992, I still enjoy being literate – it makes a difference. I brushed up before both of my trips, and found it very beneficial, even though I often lacked the specific words I needed for niche situations (relating to art supplies). I ramped up my studies during the COVID restrictions for a trip that wasn’t possible but will surely happen soonish. Duolingo’s lessons are both challenging and impressive, and include kanji!
French: I love Paris, and French sounds so cool. I know enough to navigate museum explanatory panels – I impressed a friend at the printed fabric museum in Mulhouse, but being a printmaker who has used etching presses and other technologies, the niche vocabulary didn’t scare me. I sometimes bicker with subtitles for French films, but I’m being too literal, while they are being more poetic. I can only say basic transactional things, which I forget instantly. (My big achievement during a business trip was stating that the entree was not my meal, which was instantly understood.). I worry that I will be very effective at buying paint regardless, especially at Magasin Sennelier and Charvin Arts.
Spanish: after understanding the abuelas who needed my help getting things off high shelves throughout my youth, I figured I should learn things non-grandma-related. Maybe even verbs! It doesn’t stick well, because I’m not watching telenovelas anymore, but has improved my eavesdropping.
Hawaiian: it is super interesting, and has so many vowels! The lessons still feel early in development, relative to the subject content of other languages.
Dutch: this was before a trip to the Netherlands, and it had too many random similarities to German UNTIL IT DIDN’T, and this left me more confused than it would have it I hadn’t thought I knew what was happening. If I’m going to be confused, it needs to be a language with clearer dissimilarities, like Icelandic or Swedish.
Somehow, I’m resisting Korean… so far.
Duolingo remains a satisfying way to practice existing language skills AND to develop new ones!
I am… a fanatic.
This is the five year mark! I feel lucky to have access to lessons like this.
I am persistent.
This year it has been all German. I have travel plans that require another language, and my reluctance to study that language has me doubting whether I will really go…