Kiswahili

Hamjambo(hey y'all)!

I just took my final exams a couple of weeks ago, so I have a lot more time on my hands to study something that I want to. Yes, this is my way of taking a break; just love to keep my mind busy. So this summer, these few months, I'll study some basic Swahili with my family. It's part of my goal to know as many languages as possible. And hopefully I'll be able to use it in some practical matter.

The first lesson was yesterday- Swahili looks pretty logical- good. We just went over basic greetings, a few words, and some grammar. I'm excited to see how far we can get in a couple of months. Don't know how far we will, but I'm happy to get any grasp of it.

Oh, and of course keeping up with Spanish and Japanese at the same time- can't let those leave me.

Adventures in learning multiple languages

I attempted to have a conversation with another Japanese learner today, which randomly led to a lot of Spanish. I wasn't trying to think about it, trying to let it come out normally, and I just got a random mix of Japanese and Spanish. 'Sí, 分かりました。(Yes, I understood it)' and such. Maybe this is because I was trying to stop answering はい(yes) to every question- and answer in a language people understand. Whatever it was, it was pretty hilarious. But eventually,  I did work through it and when I tried to focus, then the Japanese flowed. Hopefully later, it will just come naturally.
My tongues aren't really separate- I apparently don't have them compartmentalized at all. I wonder if it is possible to have them compartmentalized- especially now for me.

Phases in the study of Japanese

I found a really funny post over in Daniel Marín's blog Eureka about the phases you go through when you study Japanese. It's in Spanish, though, so I think the humor would be lost to a few(ok, after reading it, you may see how sardonic my humor is if I think this is funny). So, with his permission, I'm translating it here. Enjoy!

1. IS THIS A LANGUAGE OR A JOKE?: Because of the kanji, because of the syllabaries, because of its really strange grammar- with the particles and the reverse order of its sentences...at the start, more than a language, Japanese seems an unsolvable puzzle or a joke made in bad taste.

2. NOW I UNDERSTAND!: After fighting with it for some months or years, according to the patience of the student, things start to fit into place. One is able to write simple sentences and understand easy conversations. About the kanji, well, having taken in the terrible work that you have to learn more than two thousand of them, the thing seems promising and one studies the first  few hundred with much patience and illusion.

3. WHAAT?: Well no, what you were thinking you knew was in reality a bait to attract you to the dark side, the tip of the iceberg of a language designed for a perverted mind. For every rule, there are a hundred exceptions. The pronunciation is relatively simple, but the reading is undeniably complicated, every kanji can be read in a bazillion ways, some of them irregular. The kanji come together in your mind like mosquitos around a lamp and there is no god that can distinguish them. As soon as you learn a hundred, you come back to forgetting them. If that was a little, the regional dialects and the many levels of courtesy conspire to make you abandon the study of nihongo.

4. THE LIGHT AT THE END OF THE TUNNEL: It can be supposed that you enter this level when things start to come together again, after many doses of patience. It's the same as in a martial arts film- the student suffers his first defeat by the language to make him flustered and pressured, while the sensei repeats: patience, patience...After many years and efforts maybe you will achieve speaking somewhat decently and be heard by a son of the Nation of the Rising Sun without him spitting in your face.

Random words

I have no idea when I learn certain words in a language. It seems with Spanish that I really do have a good base, thanks to AP Spanish in high school, and an extra year beyond that helping teach AP Spanish. I know a lot of random words(though my vocabulary is still not anywhere near where it needs to be for fluency).

But anyway, every once in a while I have one of those word that keeps on coming up in my thoughts, perhaps because it just sounds fun. Over the past couple of days, it's been 'payaso' or 'clown.' I mean, I have no idea how it even came up. I don't think I've seen a clown, I hate clowns, etc. But payaso is just such a fun word, in the middle of the day, I'll just be reminded of it. Other times, I'll have words like 'bombachas(plaited pants)' or 'にゃにゃしています(grinning)' stuck in my head. Hey, at least I know what they mean!

I wonder if this is a side effect of language learning and if other people have the same thing happen to them.

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?