7 Bullet Points About Languages - Week 65
Notion template, dabbling, and superstitions around the world
Hey language lovers,
I hope you all had a lovely week!
Updates
Mine flew by in the blink of an eye. I feel I was writing last week’s newsletter yesterday!
And yet, a lot has happened in the past week.
I’ve been having tons of fun translating a book in Thai, even though I just finished my first page after countless hours on it.
I’ve also had a lot of fun listening to the first lesson of Ainu of 2022’s Radio course (in Japanese) and taking some notes. I’m also almost caught up on my reviews on Anki because I had let myself get overwhelmed for some weeks.
I’ll be leaving Thailand in exactly one month and Chiang Mai in 10 days, just as I’m starting to enjoy visiting so that’s unfortunate but I’m also psyched about the next step of my adventure!
I’ll get more into details about that in the next coming weeks but if you’re curious, there’s a bit of information in last week’s update about Thai.
Alright, let’s dive in!
7 Bullet Points
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
How to make the best language learning plan | notion templates | AD — By Anna.lenks
I love to see people plan out every little detail like that because I love doing it too. I, unfortunately, also suck at following such plans.
Whether you’re a planner or not, this Anna’s Notion Template is beautiful so it’s worth having a look. Even though I won’t plan my languages out like her, I've duplicated it and have been filling a few journal entries here and there in various languages. It’s a fun way to practice and makes it easy to copy-paste into HiNative or Journaly for some bundled feedback!
📚 One article I read
Dear Duolingo: what’s up with all these gendered nouns? — By Cindy Blanco (on Duolingo Blog)
If you’ve followed me for some time, you probably know my dislike for Duolingo. I consider it the most dangerous language learning app because new language learners forget it’s supposed to complement their study, not be the study.
Their blog, however, is filled with interesting articles and this one felt like it’d be useful for those of you learning languages that have genders and are curious about where these come from.
As a French person, it feels natural to have genders in a language but I can understand why it’d make no sense to you that “a pint” (of beer) or “a bottle” is feminine but “a glass” is masculine (in French at least!)
✍🏽 One article I wrote
A Simple Yet Effective Way to Dabble in Foreign Languages
I love learning languages and going deep into them. That’s why I “only” speak 6 languages. Because I’ve tried to reach a high level in them instead of knowing a few sentences in 57 languages.
This being said, dabbling can be SO much fun.
In this piece, I tried to explain a simple process to dabble in many languages and actually make some progress. Hopefully, you’ll find it useful!
🎧 One podcast episode
S2 E10: Language and Health - Dr. Thomas Bak — By Much Language Such Talk
This episode was filled with bits I loved. I’ll give you a few but I highly encourage you to listen to it all!
My favorite part was when Dr. Bak mentioned we shouldn’t perceive multilingualism as a way to delay dementia but monolingualism as a way to make it happen earlier. What a change in perspective!
As he explained, every conversation about the topic considers monolingualism as the basis but in many parts of the world, that’s not the case. For example, speaking 2 to 4 languages is considered the basis in India and many parts of Africa.
I also loved that they mentioned the misconception that most people want to learn a language for communication purposes and that one of the most common reasons they got from their study participants was “challenge.” After all, it’s also I started Thai as a challenge too!
Again, I hope you’ll find the time to listen to this episode once (or thrice as I did!)
🌎 One cultural aspect to discover
Country-Specific Superstitions
There are some superstitions well-known in many countries.
In Europe and the US, for example, going under a ladder or seeing a black cat bring bad luck, as does the number 13. In some countries in Asia, like China, Japan, Korea, or Myanmar, the number 4 brings bad luck.
There are some others, however, that are specific to certain countries and can be quite surprising for outsiders.
In Thailand, it’s considered you shouldn’t get a haircut on a Wednesday and that Wednesdays are auspicious. Why? Because members of the royal family used to cut their hair on that day.
In Japan, there’s also a belief that you should tuck in your thumb when visiting dead relatives’ graves. I’ve checked with a few Japanese friends and it doesn’t seem the younger general knows much about it though.
On the other side of the world, itchy palms hold an interesting meaning in the Caribbean. The superstition states you’ll be owing money soon if you start itching from the left hand or that you’ll get some money soon if you get itchy in the right palm. This seems to be the same in Turkey though.
According to some comments on that last website, it seems that, in India, an itchy left hand means an inflow of money for women while it’s the right for men.
Now for a few rapid-fire superstitions:
Talking about India, adding 1 rupee to a gift sum is auspicious as one is a lucky number there.
In Rwanda, some superstitions say eating goat meat will get you to grow facial hair.
In the Philippines, two siblings shouldn’t get married in the same year. This is called “Sukob.”
And finally, one that actually made me laugh out loud: the Korean superstition that one should never sleep in a room with a fan turned on. It even has a Wikipedia page in over 20 languages!
There are tons of country-specific superstitions—way more than I expected when I started looking into it! Is there one you love from your country (or from the country whose language you’re learning)?
📜 One quote to ponder
“Embrace the joy of being wrong.” - Adam Grant
💪 One monthly challenge (April Edition)
Add a 5-10 minute task to your daily routine — Live the language
It’s easy to fall into the habit of considering the language as something you study and nothing more but this is wrong. Languages are alive. You are too.
If you want to keep learning the language, you have to make it a part of your life, outside of your “study time”.
For this month, let’s do just that by adding a short task to your routine. It doesn’t have to be long. Hell, if it’s short, it’s easier to fit in your probably already busy schedule.
Journal, meditate, follow a workout video in your target language. If you’re a reader, read for a few minutes daily.
FYI, if you meditate with an app like Headspace, Calm, or Meditopia, check if they have sessions in your target language. They do for most of the Western European languages and some Asian languages.
✅How the challenge is going for me
As mentioned last week, I tried to transcribe this short Thai meditation but it proved impossible for my current skills. The reason? I can’t properly write what I hear and with many ways to write certain letters, this felt more like a waste of time than anything else.
Instead, I began most days with this 5-min warm-up session where the lady almost never stops talking. I don’t understand much but it’s funny to pick up random words here and there.
I’m also transcribing a 5-min evening meditation in another language and listening to it daily. I don’t understand much but can guess most parts since I’m used to these kinds of evening guided meditations.
How is the challenge going for you?
As always, thanks for reading!
Mathias Barra