1) I think people too often make the mistake of putting the cart before the horse when they think about language learning. What I try to tell people is that, while it's fine to have a goal or a reason to learn a language, you should also just learn languages to learn languages. All that other stuff - making friends, traveling, etc. - comes because you start learning the language and trying to use it.
2) Regarding Coming-of-Age, I grew up on the border of the U.S. and Mexico. A lot of my Mexican and Mexican-American friends celebrated their 15th birthdays with a party called a Quinceanera. (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Quinceañera)
3) I have a question - one of the hardest parts of language learning for me is learning how to read. With Japanese, I still struggle with Kanji, with other non-alphabet languages, learning how to read the scripts seems to take me longer than it does everyone else. Any tips?
1) Couldn't agree more with your first point, Joel! Unfortunately, I suppose bad experiences at school make picturing learning languages pleasant difficult for most people.
2)Oh, yes, I heard of the Quinceanera in my research. I thought it was only a Mexican tradition so I was quite surprised to discover there's a French version in the French Caribbean and Guiana and a Portuguese version in Brazil.
3) Well, Kanji is a specific topic, which I actually consider different from learning other scripts because it has so many more characters than most scripts. To learn Kanji, especially after a while, I believe the best solution is just pure intensive exposure through books (I highly recommend Higashino Keigo whose books are on the easy side and still highly interesting!)
For other scripts, it depends on how many letters there are. If it's a very difficult script, I'd advise to find videos explaining the script and pronouncing the letters first and then move on to this next step. For "easier" other scripts (like Korean), I'd advise to print the script, set it next to a text in the target language, and try to read the words one by one. It's incredibly slow (and sometimes painful) but it truly works. That's actually how I learned the Korean script in under two hours.
In the end, the only way to get better at reading the script is, well, reading it. If it seems to take you longer than other people, it might be that they actively try to read it more than you?
Three thoughts:
1) I think people too often make the mistake of putting the cart before the horse when they think about language learning. What I try to tell people is that, while it's fine to have a goal or a reason to learn a language, you should also just learn languages to learn languages. All that other stuff - making friends, traveling, etc. - comes because you start learning the language and trying to use it.
2) Regarding Coming-of-Age, I grew up on the border of the U.S. and Mexico. A lot of my Mexican and Mexican-American friends celebrated their 15th birthdays with a party called a Quinceanera. (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Quinceañera)
3) I have a question - one of the hardest parts of language learning for me is learning how to read. With Japanese, I still struggle with Kanji, with other non-alphabet languages, learning how to read the scripts seems to take me longer than it does everyone else. Any tips?
1) Couldn't agree more with your first point, Joel! Unfortunately, I suppose bad experiences at school make picturing learning languages pleasant difficult for most people.
2)Oh, yes, I heard of the Quinceanera in my research. I thought it was only a Mexican tradition so I was quite surprised to discover there's a French version in the French Caribbean and Guiana and a Portuguese version in Brazil.
3) Well, Kanji is a specific topic, which I actually consider different from learning other scripts because it has so many more characters than most scripts. To learn Kanji, especially after a while, I believe the best solution is just pure intensive exposure through books (I highly recommend Higashino Keigo whose books are on the easy side and still highly interesting!)
For other scripts, it depends on how many letters there are. If it's a very difficult script, I'd advise to find videos explaining the script and pronouncing the letters first and then move on to this next step. For "easier" other scripts (like Korean), I'd advise to print the script, set it next to a text in the target language, and try to read the words one by one. It's incredibly slow (and sometimes painful) but it truly works. That's actually how I learned the Korean script in under two hours.
In the end, the only way to get better at reading the script is, well, reading it. If it seems to take you longer than other people, it might be that they actively try to read it more than you?
Hope that helps!