Dabbling in other languages

Every once in a while, I get tired of studying one of my main languages, and swing back to something else. Yesterday, it was Koine Greek. I remember when I was twelve, I decided that I would learn it. I haven't gotten much farther than knowing a few stray words and being able to read a little bit. Every once in a while, like during the summer, I get really inspired, but then it's back to where I was before in no time.

Yesterday, I was trying to think of a new pseudonym for something. I remembered the word Aeitheia, which means truth in Greek, because it sounds like a name. But I didn't want my name to just be truth, so I had to look up the word for disciple, and then find out some of the grammatical structure to figure out how to make something possessive in Greek. I find it annoying it is when people just pull things from the dictionary, but don't really get it correct, so I wanted to get it as right as possible. So in my thirty minute expedition, I found out that(as far as I can tell it) a female disciple of truth would be called 'mathetria aletheia,' or μαθήτρια ἀλήθεια in the original Greek.There is no need for a possessive.

Although this trip was an excursion outside of what I was studying, and ultimately probably won't help out with my language learning, I think it's things like these that keep me going. The wonder and excitement of figuring something out yourself. Hopefully, I can continue making puzzles out of the languages I'm really studying and thus remember them really well, too.

Talking with native speakers

So let's just get this out here: I'm afraid of speaking with native speakers. Pretty silly for a language learner, eh?

I mean, it's so much easier to practice with other people who are learning or teach people who don't know anything about a language a couple of words. I did ok in Japan last summer, because I was forced to speak Japanese; it was a context of necessity. The people I spoke to didn't know English- or were like me, and would rather speak in Japanese than English, like I'd rather speak English than a foreign language- so I had to use the method of communication I had. 

But here in America, it's so hard, because the people I meet who are native speakers of what I want to learn can speak English already, so there's no necessity factor. And even when you say a few things in their language, they respond back in English- or at least that's how it's been the couple of times I've actually gotten up the courage to try.

I want to change this. I just don't know how. Maybe next time I talk to these friends, I can ask them to only speak in Spanish or Japanese and help me with mine. Somehow I need to make it worth it for them...I know if I really want to improve, I need to immerse myself in the language and have real conversations with people, but it's so much harder in an English environment.

Let's see what becomes of this resolution.

Fun similarity/difference

I found that there's a verb in Japanese that's almost the same in Spanish:
Japanese: 見る/みる/miru
Spanish: mirar
It means to see, which is something pretty basic in the language. With my amateur linguist hat on, I'd say that the two languages could be related. Even though that makes no sense historically. XD

There's also a fun antonym:
Japanese: だめ/dame
Spanish: dame
In Japanese, dame(pronounced with Spanish vowels), means something along the lines of 'no good' or 'don't do it.' In Spanish, however, dame means give it to me. So, fun stuff!

If anyone happens upon this blog, are there any synonyms/antonyms like that between languages like you're learning?