7 Bullet Points About Languages - Week 78
Treat, INOs, Imposter Syndrome, Poetry Styles, and the Ainu Language!
Hey language lovers,
I hope you all had a magnificent week!
Updates
Mine was an insightful one as I learned so much about Ainu and its grammar during my research for writing the first article of my series on lesser-known languages for my paid subscribers.
I thought I already knew a lot but, wow, there was still so much to uncover!
Unfortunately, wanting that (massive) article to be great overtook most of my usual free time for languages.
I barely studied any language actively this past week. I played Genshin Impact in Korean, kept watching a Chinese drama, and listened to a few episodes the Thai podcast SoulRiwit but nothing active.
I also discovered the great YouTube channel Mandarin Monkey in which the hosts have a conversation mixing Chinese and English. This was great as it helped me make sure I was never completely lost.
Here’s to a week more language-productive!
Alright, let’s dive into what you came for!
7 Bullet Points
Each week, I share 7 things that could be useful to your language learning odyssey.
I hope they can help you improve your journey, tickle your curiosity, and inspire you to keep exploring.
🎥 One video
Why You Should Treat Yourself as a Language Learner - Language Learning Blueprint Episode 04
I’ve been enjoying every episode of the Coffee Break “Language Learning Blueprint” series so far and was wondering which one to share with you. The most recent, about listening, was great too, but this one felt like a good reminder to give you and myself too.
In this episode, they share a few different ways to treat yourself as a language learner. I especially liked that they talked about setting a good environment that makes you want to study.
I also adored that they showed their notebooks because, despite having an awful handwriting style, I truly love my language notebooks.
I currently have one specific for Thai, and another for Korean, but having one single notebook for the rest (Ainu, Toki Pona, German, etc.) makes it fun for me as a way to see how often I alternate and have quick look at the last language I studied at the beginning of each study session!
How about you? How do you handle your notebooks? And how do you treat yourself?
📚 One article I read
This 3-Step Process is the Ultimate Language Learning Plateau Buster - Boz Del Mundo
Boz’s “INO” system was new to me, which is rare nowadays.
It relies on Input, Notes, and Output. He then stacks them into “INOs” by using Anki, Memrise, or any other Spaced-Repetition System.
I loved this method because it covers all the bases. You get input through listening and reading. You take notes to gather what matters to you. And you output it through speaking or writing (whether with others or on your own).
If you’re struggling with your current system, this one might work for you!
✍🏽 One article I wrote
3 Overlooked Amazing Tools Every Language Learner Should Have
Nowadays, everybody relies on apps to learn languages. They can be useful but relying too much on them is a common mistake that leads you to stagnate pretty quickly.
In this piece, I talked about 3 of my favorite tools to learn languages and two of them aren’t even digital!
🎧 One podcast episode
8 Steps for Overcoming Imposter Syndrome & How to Be a Continuous Learner — On Purpose with Jay Shetty
This interview is not about language learning but impostor syndrome is such a common feeling for all language learners, I figured it could be useful.
If you’re feeling like an impostor, this interview may help you regain confidence. Jay’s life is a combination of ups and downs but his experience living as a monk for three years and coming back to “society” behind everybody else and still living a happy life is inspiring.
Jay explained that if you’re not feeling impostor syndrome, it means you’re not improving anymore.
That’s reassuring because, despite having studied 20 languages and written hundreds of articles about language learning, I keep feeling like an impostor. Which means I’m still improving 😄
🌎 One cultural aspect to discover
Poetry styles in Asia
I grew up with a father who loved poems. Every major birthday or celebration meant my brother or I would receive a poem from him, full of wordplay and rhymes.
As a natural result, I stayed far away from poems during my childhood. It was a “dad’s thing” to me. I found the idea of poems interesting but most “good” poems seemed too far-fetched.
Until I went to Japan and fell in love with the famous poetry form called Haiku (俳句).
Haikus are short poems of three lines of, respectively, 5, 7, and 5 moras. What’s a mora? It’s almost what we call a syllable in English. For example, the “n” on its own is a mora. If you want to understand more about this, this Wikipedia article is short and clear. Haiku also usually rely on the use of “season words” or kigo (季語).
Japan had many other forms of poetry, most of which are rare today. You can find a list of them here.
Fun fact: The lyrics of the Japanese Anthem are from a waka poem from an unknown writer in the 10th century!
Korea’s poetry form is called Sijo (시조) and, while still limited to 3 lines, of longer form than its Japanese equivalent since each must average 14-16 syllables. This short guide to writing Sijo shows the composition of each line fulfills a specific role to create the classic Sijo flow.
Staying with 3-line poems, let’s turn to the one that I found most inspiring during my research: Than Bauk (သံပေါက်).
The Than Bauk is a style of poetry from the Bama people of Myanmar. It is witty and often satirical but what makes it particularly interesting appears in its other name: climbing rhyme poem.
Each line has 4 syllables and the rhyme appears on the fourth syllable of the first line, the third syllable of the second, and on the second syllable of the third. Here’s an example in English.
The Cambodian style of Pathya Vat is a bit longer with 4 lines where the second and third must rhyme, but it can also be made much longer as long as one rule is followed: the last line of the first stanza must rhyme with the next’s second and third. Notice its beautiful rhythm in these English examples.
Pathya Vat must be sung with a specific emotion in mind.
The Vietnamese form is called Lục Bát. It’s so complicated to explain, I hesitated to add it here but it’s too melodic to miss. There’s no limit on how long it can be but two rules must be followed:
Lines must alternate between 6 and 8 syllables.
Rhymes must happen as follow (“x” being an unrhymed syllable):
x x x x x a
x x x x x a x b
x x x x x b
x x x x x b x c
x x x x x c
x x x x x c x d
What an exercise this must be to create!
And finally for this week, let’s turn to one of the many Indian poetic forms: the “epic poetry.” Just as the name implies, these poems are not short but rather long, epic, stories. As such, the Mahabharata (महाभारत) is only over 200,000 lines with over 100,000 couplets. It’s also the longest poem ever to be written!
If you want to dig deeper into the (many) poetic forms of Asia, check this website out. For styles in the rest of the world, I’ll be back next week!
📜 One quote to ponder
“Study without desire spoils the memory, and it retains nothing that it takes in.”— Leonardo da Vinci
🌐 One Lesser-Known Language
Ainu - The original "Japanese" of Japan.
To start off this new section, I felt like starting with the language that’s attracted me for a decade: Ainu.
The Ainu language is spoken by the Ainu people in Hokkaido, northern Japan. Its people and culture were almost eradicated by the Japanese government from the 15th century onwards but recognition of its culture in 2019 is now helping the language grow again.
Still, the Ainu people—most of whom speak Japanese too—didn’t wait for the government to try to make their language survive. Ever since 1987, STV radio published 1-year radio courses. These are online and available for free, from 1998 onwards (with audio from 2000 onwards). The course is taught in Japanese, however, which limits its reach abroad.
You might see Ainu as a dialect of Japanese but the language is actually not related to any other known language, something called a language isolate, a rather rare feat throughout the world.
Alright, let’s talk grammar. 🤓
Ainu usually sets its verbs at the end, directly preceding them with the subject. For example, “I eat fish.” becomes “fish I eat”: “cep ku=ipe,” where “ku=” means “I.”
This being said, suffixes can be added after the verb to modify the sentence. “rusuy” means “to want to” so “I want to eat fish” becomes: “cep ku=ipe rusuy.”
Contrary to Japanese, some verbs in Ainu are conjugated. The verb “to go” therefore has a singular (oman) and plural (paye) version in the present tense. To express the past or the future, keywords like “yesterday” or “tomorrow” are added but the verbs don’t change.
The Ainu language and its culture are treasure troves that’ll tickle your curiosity over and over so I highly recommend looking into it!
If you speak Japanese, head on to STV radio. If you don’t, I translated a few lessons into English a few years ago here and you can find even more here.
Finally, you can also get a paid subscription to support my work and read the full deep dive into Ainu’s history, culture, and language here. This post is the result of over 100 hours of discovery about the Ainu throughout the years and over 30 hours of research and writing just this past month.
As always, thanks for reading!
Mathias Barra
So when I finally take the time to really read AND follow your links, wow! Really enjoyed the Coffee Break video and reminder about them. INO system is interesting too, as I am often looking for “plateau busters.” シ
Epic Poetries are Vedic Mythological poems. Mahabharata is like Game of Thrones but less lust and more respect and power. It is from there we extract Shreemad Bhagvad Geeta.
Before that in our timeline, we also have Ramayana - Epic tale of Virtues where we are taught that good always wins over evil (hence the festivals of Dushhera and Diwali in India). To be honest poems are a big part of any culture, our seems to be filled with them.
When I started my Yog journey a friend asked me to read , The Zen poetry of Ryoken Taigu, One Robe One bowl for mindfulness. I find it way more relaxing.
Anyway, amazing article. Made me remind a few things.