TL;DR — Talk. Learn. Discover. Repeat. #1
AI in Language Learning, Keeping Habits, New Year Traditions, Interslavic
Happy New Year! Bonne année! 明けましておめでとうございます!새해 복 많이 받으세요! 新年快樂!¡Feliz Año Nuevo! Frohes neues Jahr! 🎉
Welcome to 2023, a year we’ll make more awesome than any before!
I hope you’ve all celebrated well and rested even more so you can be as psyched for the great year ahead. I took some much-needed time off last week to care for my family and meet up with a few friends.
I even found the time to study some Thai for a short half hour for the first time in over 6 months. Was fun!
As you already know, this is the very first edition of TL;DR (Talk. Learn. Discover. Repeat). Here’s the announcement for those who missed it but basically an upgraded version of the previously known weekly newsletter 7 Bullet Points About Languages. Nothing’s set in stone yet so let me know what you think so I can tailor it accordingly.
As a reminder, every deep dive into a lesser-known language is available for free since January 1st. You can find the full list on this page.
Alright, let’s dive in!
🗣️Talk languages
We’re kicking off the year with a rather recent topic many other people have covered: AI and ChatGPT.
For the ones who have been living under a rock, ChatGTP is a chatbot launched by OpenAI in November 2022. I’ve had tons of fun with it but I only recently discovered how incredible it can be for language learners.
In fact, ChatGPT wasn’t what opened my eyes. It was Notion’s AI tool.
I was on the waitlist to get it and recently did. As I was trying to see the AI creative thinking capacities, I asked it to create a short story happening in Japan… only for the result to appear in Japanese! 🤯 It was a bit clunky but that got me to start playing with more languages.
Since then, I’ve had conversations in Japanese, Korean, and German with ChatGPT. I’ve asked ChatGPT to explain some grammar patterns with example sentences. I’ve learned new words by reading short paragraphs created by Notion’s AI on topics I’m interested in.
It’s not perfect but it sure would be a waste not to use tools like this capable of creating texts and conversations on specific topics you want!
Did you find more good uses to use AI for learning languages?
✍️ Learn from my experiences
With 2023 upon us, it makes sense to want to learn a language. Whether new or old, every learner asks themselves what they could do better this year and one common choice is to make it a habit.
I’ve thought of languages and habits more times than I probably should. It turns out there are countless great language-learning habits but a few feel even more important to me so I wrote about them in this piece about 3 Simple Yet Efficient Ways to Make Learning a Language a Habit You’ll Keep in 2023.
Like usual, I invite you to read it because a story helps with memory, but if you’ve got no time, here’s the simplified summary:
Change your surroundings, both analog and digital are great options
Add some curiosity and fun as often as possible
Create a bunch of very specific tasks for very specific situations
This last one makes more sense fully developed!
🌎Discover new cultures
To celebrate 2023, we’re talking about the New Year traditions this month.
To kick this off, let’s talk about a few countries celebrating the new year on January 1st.
In the land of the rising sun, celebrating the new year is a family event.
Japanese often start the year with the Hatsumode (初詣, literally “First prayer”), a visit to a shrine or temple to pray for safety and prosperity. They usually also take the opportunity to get an omikuji (おみくじ) or “fortune paper” to predict their luck for the year to come.
When it comes to food, a common treat is the Toshikoshi Soba (年越しそば), literally “Year-crossing soba.” Nobody really knows where this ritual came from but it’s here nonetheless.
This being said, Japan’s new year food also has another name: Osechi ryōri (お節料理). Well, that’s not exactly true. Osechi is not a specific recipe but food presented in a bento-like box called jūbako (重箱, literally “heavy box”).
I will never forget the countless choices found in every convenience store and supermarket around my place when I was living in Japan.
If you want to know a few other interesting Japanese traditions for New Year, this page got you covered.
Meanwhile, people in the Czech Republic usually cut an apple on New Year’s Eve and estimate their fortune based on the shape of the apple’s core. If it looks like a star, you’re all good. If it looks like a cross, someone at the party is expected to fall ill in the incoming year.
In Ecuador, the habit is to get rid of the past by literally putting it on fire. the New Year’s Eve festivities are often lit up by scarecrows and burning them is a way of getting rid of the año viejo (old year).
There are tons of curious traditions for January 1st around the world and this website has 20 other you might enjoy until we turn to the Lunar New Year next week!
🗺️Repeat with me
For this new version of the Lesser-Known Language section, I’ve decided to focus on one “area” per month and rotate as we go. There won’t be a specific order between months so be ready to jump from one side of the world to the next.
For January, however, we’re starting with a category I’ve fallen in love with last year: conlangs.
Who could have known there was more than the famous Esperanto!😅
I recently wrote about Interlingua, the auxlang every romance speaker can understand. Well, this week we’re turning to the Slavic version: Interslavic, also known as Medžuslovjansky.
This language, based on Slavic languages1, relies on mutually intelligible words and grammar patterns between each. Like Interlingua, words chosen for this language must meet a number of criteria, the most important being that it should be intelligible by most languages.
It appears that Polish and Russian both count double but I’m not sure why this is. Maybe because of the number of speakers. Either way, if no majority is found, the language with the most speakers “wins,” therefore giving Russian a bit of a heavier impact on Interslavic.
When it comes to grammar, Interslavic is an interesting case. The first I’ve seen so far at least because there’s an “easy level” for it called Slovianto.
Yes, two different grammatical systems for one language.
The official website explains: “The simplest form of Interslavic, Slovianto, is a primitive, pidginesque grammar model, characterised by the absence of anything that is not really needed for simple communication.”
Devoid of grammatical genders and noun cases, and with a conjugation system restricted, this version was created as an introduction for Non-Slavs so they could communicate. It’s so simple this is the entire grammar for Level 1.
Because, yes, Slovianto has levels. Three. Each level adds new layers of more “Slavic” grammar patterns. And “level 4” is what’s actually called Interslavic.
As I don’t speak any Slavic language, I can’t tell how understandable it is but here are a few sentences of Interslavic for those of you who do speak a Slavic language. For the rest of us, check the footnotes for the translation!
Ja myju svoje avto.2
Jan napisal dopis prijatelu.3
Kako jesi? 4
Čto ljubiš dělati?5
Razuměješ li medžuslovjansky?6
Finally, here’s one more interesting part of Interslavic. There is a “flavourisation” system people can use to make the language even more easily understandable between specific countries. This looks like good bonus content to practice once you’re already at a high level!
If you’d like to learn Interslavic or Slovianto, this is the official website for the language and all the explanations possible but you can also check the detailed Wikipedia page and ask other learners/speakers on the active Reddit page. The official YouTube channel or this podcast can also be a good place to get some practice!
Da se skoro vidimo!7
Thanks for reading this first edition of TL;DR!
Let me know what you thought 🙃
Mathias, an average polyglot
These are divided into 6 categories: Russian, Ukrainian and Belarusian, Polish, Czech and Slovak, Slovene and Serbo-Croatian, and Bulgarian and Macedonian, all with equal weight in most cases.
I am washing my car.
Jan wrote a letter to a friend.
How are you?
What do you like to do?
Do you understand Interslavic?
See You soon!
TL;DR — Talk. Learn. Discover. Repeat. #1
Love the reformat!
Notion's not the only app to roll out an a.i.-powered assistant. I'm really curious to see how they're going to be adapted by different communities and individuals. So far, I think what they're best at is working like an individualized wikipedia, only not as trustworthy (not that wikipedia is the most trustworthy option out there) with rough-drafting a close second. Trying to stay optimistic about all of it is the real challenge, though.