7 Bullet Points About Languages - Week 17
Hi everybody,
I hope your study of your language(s?) is still going strong!
Each week, I share 7 things that could be useful to your learning odyssey. I hope they can help you improve your journey, tickle your curiosity, and inspire you to keep exploring.
Let's dive right in!
One video: The Language of Being Human — By Poet Ali (Ted Talk)
This is one of my favorite videos of all time. Since I first encountered it in 2019, I've watched it once every few months, each time shedding a tear. I love foreign languages because they help create a connection with others but we often forget that language can take many forms. In this moving speech, Poet Ali shows that we all speak many languages. If there's only one video you should watch, this is the one.
One article I read: Pro Tips on Learning Italian as a Second Language — By William Sidnam
This long piece giving advice on learning Italian can apply to learning pretty much any language. It's filled with good tips that get you to interact with the language and improve all the skills needed in a new language. I especially liked the idea of connecting what William calls "weasel words" to verb to make more complicated sentences.
One article I wrote: Four Ways to Use Highly Relaxing Habits to Improve Your Language
In this piece, I share four different methods to improve a language without sitting down for a hardcore study session. Sometimes, it can be just as effective to go outside for a walk or meditate... in the language!
One podcast episode: How to Watch Movies in My Target Language? — By Benny Lewis
In this short Q&A, Benny explains his method for learning languages while watching movies. His explanation was clear and made me want to try again watching something I've already seen in English but in another language with subtitles only in that language so let's make it this week's challenge!
One tool to try: Learn Any Language Fandom
This website is a treasure trove full of interesting tips and techniques to learn a language. You can find tried and proved information provided by multiple polyglots for over a decade. While it hasn't been recently updated, it will still help you find data on the most crucial aspects of language learning. I especially recommend going through the "learning techniques" that are could help you extend your activities and make the journey more fun and productive.
One quote to ponder: “Learning a foreign language not only reveals how other societies think and feel, what they have experienced and value, and how they express themselves, it also provides a cultural mirror in which we can more clearly see our own society.” ― Chancellor Edward Lee Gorsuch
One challenge for the week ahead: Rewatch a movie or TV show you've already seen, but in your target language
As mentioned above, let's try Benny's method of rewatching a movie already seen but in the target language with subtitles in it as well. No translation allowed. I'm a big fan of How I Met Your Mother so I'll watch the first 4 or 5 episodes in German or Mandarin.
Last week's challenge was to write a short text following Lindie's method explained in this short video. I did it for Burmese and it was... close to torture. It ended up being pretty much a translation of an English text into Burmese. It did help me learn many more words that I added to Anki to study so that was useful but I won't try it again for my very beginner languages any time soon. I suppose this method would be better when you can understand simple short stories at the minimum.
Let me know how it went for you by sending me a mail at barra.mathias@gmail.com!
As always, thanks for reading!
Mathias Barra
For more of my articles, you can find them here.