7 Bullet Points About Languages - Week 44
Hi everybody,
I hope your week was marvelous!
Updates
Welcome to the new version of this newsletter! It had been bugging me that new readers couldn’t go back to old issues of the newsletter and missed tons of great resources so I’ve moved to Substack! You can now check every past issue here and can talk or ask questions by replying directly or even start a conversation in the comments!
The goal here isn’t to become the best polyglot, but to become an average polyglot happy with their progress.
In the next few months, I’ll try to start offering more diversity and make this place a gathering spot where you can feel at ease asking the questions you feel may be stupid (side note—they’re probably not!)
I’m psyched about this new beginning with all of you and I hope you’ll enjoy the journey along! ✨
7 Bullet Points
Alrighty then. Let's dive in!
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.
One video: Words Are Birds ― SpongeMind TV
This video was a short but inspiring metaphor about how to approach learning vocabulary. If you feel demotivated because you’re forgetting words all the time, this is for you!
One article I read: Tips for Choosing a Language ― Vanessa Charlynn Low
The answer to choosing what language to learn is simple. It should be the language you’re interested in. If you’re interested in more than one, however, it gets complicated. Vanessa’s article is a simple 3-step process to getting it right. And if you’ve already chosen, you can still enjoy watching some random videos from ILoveLanguages!
One article I wrote: 21 Different Ways To Expand Your Vocabulary in 2021
Here’s an oldie but a goodie. Vocabulary is tough to remember, especially when you’ve passed the beginner level. We tend to think there are only a few ways to learn vocab but here’s proof that’s not true!
One podcast episode: 👻 Five Frightful Language Learning Monsters 🎃 ― The Fluent Show
Is this the week of metaphors? I loved the five language monsters shared in this episode and the different ways to combat them. This is one of the best to-the-point podcast episodes I’ve heard in a while. I’m sure you’ll enjoy it too!
One tool to try: WorkAudioBook (Windows & Android)
I’ve used this tool on and off for months and I absolutely love it. I’ve planned to write a full user guide and review but haven’t gotten to it yet. In simple terms, this tool allows you to put any sentence—or specific length of time—on repeat and to practice writing what you hear. Try playing with it and you’ll be hooked in no time!
One quote to ponder: "One should not aim at being possible to understand but at being impossible to misunderstand."― Marcus Fabius Quintilian
Current biweekly challenge: Get feedback on 15 sentences (minimum)
For the next two weeks, let's practice a bit our output. The goal is to get feedback on any sentence you create daily, on HiNative. If you're at an intermediate level or already write a lot in your language, turn this into a daily short text on Journaly (made for longer texts). I plan on doing short sentences in Chinese on HiNative and maybe 1 or 2 longer posts on Journaly.
Sum-up of the 1st week of the challenge:
My first week started off with a bad realization. HiNative has moved its written feedback function to premium users only. As a result, I chose to switch to write longer texts until I find a good place to get feedback on one-sentence texts (no luck so far but I’ll let you know when I find something!). I wrote 2 texts and got some very useful feedback, especially on my Korean, where it seems I mostly make basic grammar or orthography mistakes (forgetting spaces or missing a letter). More practice should get this fixed!
Let me know how it went for you by replying to this mail or commenting!
As always, thanks for reading!
Mathias Barra
For more of my articles, you can find them here.