7 Bullet Points About Languages - Week 85
Nature Method, François Gouin, Using texbooks, Head movements, and Kurundi.
Hey language lovers,
I hope you’ve been doing fantastic!
Updates
I’m back after a break and I’m psyched about it! 😆
To tell you the truth, I started missing writing this newsletter so it felt great to get back to it. The past few weeks have given me time to reflect more on my goals and spend quality time with my family.
Now, however, we’re onto the last part of the year so it’s time to push myself a bit more in all areas:
I’ve decided to focus on Korean for the next month or two at least. My goal is to read 3 webtoons (ie. about 350 chapters) and start practicing speaking Korean again.
I will keep learning other languages but at a slower pace. German will probably stay the second highest priority until the end of the year.
I also want to get back to taking more care of my body and mind so I’ve subscribed to Calm and am meditating daily (sometimes in Japanese or Korean!)
As you may have noticed, the first part of the third Lesser-Known Languages (LKL) deep-dive, about Sinhalese, is out. The next part will be up in two weeks, all about its structure and where to find resources for it.
Finally, on top of monthly the LKL deep-dives for paid subscribers, I’ve now added a new biweekly series, Thursday’s Thousandth Though (TTT), where I share reflections, doubts, and more personal pieces of advice.
Join the crew and expand your learning journey’s horizons!
Alright, let’s dive into what you came for!
7 Bullet Points
Each week, I share 7 things about languages.
I hope they can help you improve your journey, tickle your curiosity, and inspire you to keep exploring.
A quick reminder first: I’m not affiliated with any resource so far. Every recommendation you find below comes from my own research and experiences.
🎥 One video
The Nature Method for Learning Foreign Languages - What is it & Why isn't it Better Known?
I had never heard of the Nature Method so I was looking forward to learning about it. And I’m glad I did! The method is interesting and the Ayan Academy’s recordings make it even more attractive. Considering I could get the PDFs with recordings for $6, I’m actually considering taking it.
Using the language early and not relying on translating too much is a great way to avoid giving up. Having not only the text but also the audio, will make it even more useful as it allows for dual-coding!
📚 One article I read
The Fascinating Tale of François Gouin, My Favorite Language Learner — By Rebecca Ericson
This incredibly interesting piece from Rebecca not only made me discover a new interesting language learner, but also a new method too. Well, I mean, it gave a name to a technique that is usually called “elaboration” (something I like to do a lot).
Gouin’s story also interested me so I looked for more info and found his book available for free on Google Books so I’ll have to learn more from him.
I hope you enjoy discovering him and also recommend you have a look at Rebecca’s incredibly interesting newsletter about languages!
✍🏽 One article I wrote
5 Ways to Learn a Language Using Textbooks (on my personal not-so-much-used-anymore blog)
This article that I wrote early on my writing journey (6 months in, over 3 years ago!) still gets readers to my blog to this day. While I’m not a big fan of the formatting, I stand by the content.
I love textbooks and think they are put aside too often as if they were boring and not useful anymore. The problem comes from believing there’s only one way to use them.
When the reality is that there are many more. And in this one, I shared my 5 favorite ones.
🎧 One podcast episode
108 - Take responsibility for your Chinese learning now — Hacking Chinese Podcast
This episode applies to any language!
While the title says something quite obvious, the whole episode is really about how you can take responsibility on your language learning journey.
After all, nobody will ever care as much as you do whether you succeed or not. Have a listen, you won’t regret it.
🌎 One cultural aspect
Head Movements Around the World
Despite everybody’s love for talking about themselves, over 70% of communication is non-verbal. This is a gift for us language learners because it means we can often convey information with gestures when a word doesn’t come to us.
Some gestures, however, can be misunderstood. And two, in particular, can change the entire direction of a conversation: the head nod and head shake.
To most people in the world, a head shake means “no” while a head nod means “yes.”
This being said, you could end up puzzled if you saw a Bulgarian person shaking their head while saying yes. It turns out the nod and shake mean the exact opposite. This isn’t only true in Bulgaria, but also in Bangladesh, Sri Lanka, and even Albania.
In India, however, there is one head gesture even more common than the yes-nod and no-shake: the head wobble. This gesture is only found in India and is especially prevalent in South India. Its meaning leans toward “yes” but it is also highly context-dependent. You can find many conflicting opinions in this street interview about it.
Finally, staying with movements related to the head, let’s mention the head pat. In Western cultures, patting the head of a child is considered a friendly gesture. In some cultures, like in Korea, it can even be seen as a way to support a friend.
However, in some South-East Asian cultures, patting someone’s head is considered taboo, and especially if it’s a child’s head. We can find this in most predominantly Buddhist cultures such as Thailand, Myanmar, Cambodia, etc. This is due to the fact the head is considered sacred in these countries.
Do you know any other head-related gestures? Share them in the comments!
📜 One quote to ponder
“We should learn languages because language is the only thing worth knowing even poorly.”— Kato Lomb
🌐 One Lesser-Known Language (LKL)
Kirundi/Rundi - What are Bantu languages and the Meeussen's Rule?
Despite learning languages for over a decade, I never really looked into any language from Africa. They all felt somehow too different and I thought I’d need time to approach any other them.
When I started researching LKLs, I realized this was just laziness.
That’s why today, we’re diving into the first African language that grabbed my attention: Kirundi, also known as Rundi.
Kirundi is the official language of the poorest country in the world: Burundi. It is also spoken in some parts of Tanzania, the Democratic Republic of Congo, and Uganda. It is spoken by about 9 million people and is mutually intelligible with Kinyarwanda, an official language of Rwanda.
The title of this section actually contains two expressions I didn’t know before researching this language: “Bantu” and “Meeussen’s Rule” so let’s dive into them.
Bantu languages are a large family of languages (estimated between 440 and 680 languages and dialects) found in Central, Southern, and South-Eastern Africa. The term itself is a combination of the plural noun class ba- categorizing people and ntʊ̀- meaning “some, many.”1
But what is Meeussen’s Rule?
It comes from the Belgian Bantu specialist A.E. Meeussen who first noticed it. This is a “tone reduction” rule found in all Bantu languages. In simple terms, this rule indicates that if there are two consecutive high tones, the second should be lowered.
While different in context, this reminded me of the Mandarin tonal change when two third tones follow each other.
Alright, let’s talk language construction.
First of all, it’s important to note Rundi relies a lot on elision to improve the flow of the language. Words starting with a vowel and preceded by the verb ni (to be in the present tense) or si (“not to be” in the present tense) make the “i” disappear
Umwana n’umukobwa – the child is a girl. (n’ is the verb)
Rundi is mostly a Subject-Verb-Object (SVO) language but it can turn in an OVS language depending on the object.
From my research, I’d say the hardest part of the language is its use of 16 classes. A word’s class will not only impact it but also what goes with it. Here is the possessor table to give you an idea:
Now, don’t get me wrong. This table is actually not the most important. It only serves to indicate possession when the possessor wasn’t a person.
When it’s a person, it’s a bit simpler: it needs a prefix, which refers to and agrees with the object owned, and a suffix which refers to and agrees with the owner.
For example, wa- is the prefix for the first class and -nje is the suffix for the first person for the first class. As a result, wanje is used to say “my”:
umwīgīsha wanje → My teacher (umw is another form of umu indicating the singular for a person.)
abīgīsha banje → My teachers (ab indicates the plural for a noun of Class 1. ba- is the plural prefix for the first person for possessive adjective)
Well, it seems complicated, written like this, but it also looks like the language is a well-oiled machine. If you learn the basic grammatical rules, the language can flow without struggle.
Verbs are usually conjugated by using the personal pronoun as a prefix, followed by a tense particle and finally the verb stem:
ndakora = I work (n = I | da = present tense particle | kora = verb stem)
nzokora = I will work (n = I | zo = future tense particle | kora = stem)
sindakora = I don’t work yet (si = negation | n = I | da = present tense particle | kora = verb stem)
To finish, let’s go over a few sentences:
Bwakeye / Mwaramutse → Hello
Urakoze (adressing one person) / murakoze (more than 1) → Thank you
Ego / Oya → Yes / No
Witwa nde? → What is your name?
Urumva? → Do you understand?
Sinumva → I don’t understand.
Umugabo agenda mu mwiza. → The man walks in the dark. ([sing-person prefix] [present tense “to walk”] [in] [darkness])
If you’re interested in learning this language, I highly recommend the two books by Elizabeth E. Cox, both available as PDF (1, 2) for free and updated in 2020. You can also refer to the FSI book although it’s older.
Had you heard of Kirundi before? Tell me what your thoughts on the language in the comments or by replying to the email!
As always, thanks for reading!
Mathias Barra
The word abantu in Zulu actually means “people” (its singular form, “person,” is umuntu.
Thank you for the shout out -- Gouin's story is so interesting mostly because of his sheer determination & how his "failure" led to some very innovative thinking regarding how languages can be learned and taught. Interested to hear more about what you may learn from reading his book! :)