Linguistic gramblings
Hello, world.
I think it's time to admit that I should start learning a third language and it shouldn't be Vietnamese.
I mean, OK, Vietnamese is very "exotic" (from the European point of view, at least) which is always a good enough reason for me to learn something new, and it's relatively simple in comparison with other "exotic" languages I'm quite interested in, like Pali or even Japanese. Though Japanese is hardly an exotic language in these circles... whatever. The point is, it's definitely NOT a good idea to seriously attempt to master Vietnamese as the third language.
One of my skills, if I have any at all, is finding out missing data from the context. It works in virtually all fields: from tracking down bugs in programming code, because my guesses about what's wrong are usually quite right, to aikido techniques where often I'm able to quickly catch the details of how should I move in order to optimize my performance. And to learning languages as well.
My learning curve starts with a lot of pain and tears, forgetting the words, messing up the grammar, and overall irritation. Then I usually abandon my attempt and turn to other things like, uhm, messing up my life. But in two cases I stepped over this starting flat line, to the point where all the right elements fall in right places and I start to understand the whole thing.
The first case was English and with it I moved even more forward, reading fantasy novels in English, watching movies with subtitles (even with Polish subtitles - it's still a good way to learn the language if you just focus on the action and look down only for words you didn't hear clearly), and... Ah, yes, five years of lectures in English at my university helped as well, though too often they helped because I was forced to learn what mistakes my lecturers were making.
Now I use English in my work, on the internet, and when chatting with friends, which is a bit weird, because for most of them know Polish is the native language. There is one problem I see, that since we're all interested in simple communication, I tend to ignore grammar errors. But this is a minor issue and all I have to do is stop being lazy and check my e-mails before sending them out.
The other case is French. French was shoved down my throat in the high school, about ten years ago. I wasn't able to master it then. I was left behind during the first year because of this starting flat line of my learning curve, and I've never catched up. I was just crawling from one semester to another. But eventually the torture left its marks on me and now I'm able to read comic books in French, partially because I know the words and the grammar good enough for comic books, and partially because the context in comic books is usually very obvious.
So French is, as a matter of fact, the only language I can consider seriously. I'm already over the flat line so I'm pretty sure that if I signed for a language course, I would make significant progress. But there is a problem: I have no interest in France, French history, French culture, French whatever. At all. It's a bit strange considering that I'm pretty much interested in a zillion of other languages and cultures. Spanish is so funny and dynamic. Latin is so beautiful. Ancient Greece kicks ass. Pali is the language of early Buddhist texts and there are megabytes of Pali literature available freely on the internet, along with tutorials, dictionaries and grammar help kits. And I don't want to even start with Japanese or Vietnamese. But French... nothing. There is a vacuum, an empty room somewhere in my mind with a small note pinned to the door: "This is what interests you about France. Just pass along."
I'm doomed.
I think it's time to admit that I should start learning a third language and it shouldn't be Vietnamese.
I mean, OK, Vietnamese is very "exotic" (from the European point of view, at least) which is always a good enough reason for me to learn something new, and it's relatively simple in comparison with other "exotic" languages I'm quite interested in, like Pali or even Japanese. Though Japanese is hardly an exotic language in these circles... whatever. The point is, it's definitely NOT a good idea to seriously attempt to master Vietnamese as the third language.
One of my skills, if I have any at all, is finding out missing data from the context. It works in virtually all fields: from tracking down bugs in programming code, because my guesses about what's wrong are usually quite right, to aikido techniques where often I'm able to quickly catch the details of how should I move in order to optimize my performance. And to learning languages as well.
My learning curve starts with a lot of pain and tears, forgetting the words, messing up the grammar, and overall irritation. Then I usually abandon my attempt and turn to other things like, uhm, messing up my life. But in two cases I stepped over this starting flat line, to the point where all the right elements fall in right places and I start to understand the whole thing.
The first case was English and with it I moved even more forward, reading fantasy novels in English, watching movies with subtitles (even with Polish subtitles - it's still a good way to learn the language if you just focus on the action and look down only for words you didn't hear clearly), and... Ah, yes, five years of lectures in English at my university helped as well, though too often they helped because I was forced to learn what mistakes my lecturers were making.
Now I use English in my work, on the internet, and when chatting with friends, which is a bit weird, because for most of them know Polish is the native language. There is one problem I see, that since we're all interested in simple communication, I tend to ignore grammar errors. But this is a minor issue and all I have to do is stop being lazy and check my e-mails before sending them out.
The other case is French. French was shoved down my throat in the high school, about ten years ago. I wasn't able to master it then. I was left behind during the first year because of this starting flat line of my learning curve, and I've never catched up. I was just crawling from one semester to another. But eventually the torture left its marks on me and now I'm able to read comic books in French, partially because I know the words and the grammar good enough for comic books, and partially because the context in comic books is usually very obvious.
So French is, as a matter of fact, the only language I can consider seriously. I'm already over the flat line so I'm pretty sure that if I signed for a language course, I would make significant progress. But there is a problem: I have no interest in France, French history, French culture, French whatever. At all. It's a bit strange considering that I'm pretty much interested in a zillion of other languages and cultures. Spanish is so funny and dynamic. Latin is so beautiful. Ancient Greece kicks ass. Pali is the language of early Buddhist texts and there are megabytes of Pali literature available freely on the internet, along with tutorials, dictionaries and grammar help kits. And I don't want to even start with Japanese or Vietnamese. But French... nothing. There is a vacuum, an empty room somewhere in my mind with a small note pinned to the door: "This is what interests you about France. Just pass along."
I'm doomed.