Five Little Birds + 1: Weeks 17-18

As with every end of term, chaos surely ensues, and the skyline quickly fills with snowcapped piles of paperwork that need surmounting in record time. Despite this perilous time of year, I still managed to get my grappling hooks into plenty of Hawaiian (which is made that much easier for taking a class at university). I can’t say the same thing for my other sad and neglected languages, but once this next fortnight is over, I hope to find time to get into a more regular schedule and do all the other languages listed below some justice.

Russian (0.9h)

I bought the Penguin “Russian course” as a supplement text for grammar, and also, just out of sheer curiosity, pre-ordered a pronunciation trainer video and wordlist for Russian from the Fluent Forever website. I’d like to start reading and listening to some “Taste of Russian” podcasts over summer, as they look like an excellent resource, and I learned that a “шапка” extends to many more types of head covering than I had previously thought!

French (0.1h)

My wife bought a whole bunch of French easy readers recently, including a parallel text of “Le Petit Prince” with audio. So I look forward to pinching these at some point to kick off my French reading this summer. Iʻm sure she won’t mind…

German (0.3h)

My German is still languishing in some dark, dank corner of what I call my brain, but I did at least watch a short video or two online to keep it from falling into a full coma.

Hawaiian (30h)

Hawaiian has been the main protagonist in my studies this past fortnight, for which I’ve been working whirling dervishly hard. I drank kava from Tonga and Fiji for the first time (a ceremonial Polynesian drink made from the crushed ʻawa root) which made my tongue go numb, wrote my first big essay in Hawaiian (see post below), and spent untold hours producing a video in Hawaiian for my end of term group project.

I also signed up for Hawaiian 201 over summer, and 202 in the Fall, and now that classes are pau (i.e., finished), I’ve also signed up for the 6 Week Challenge to keep me focused on Hawaiian till the end of the month (when my 5 week summer course begins). So far I’m leading the 6WC board (which is a first!), but I’m sure others are hot on my trail…

Most importantly, I think I’ve made my first big breakthrough in Hawaiian, as I can now talk continuously in Hawaiian, albeit very slowly, for 20 minutes, and I can do this without too much searching for vocabulary or grammar. This means I can write, translate, and understand a lot of the core grammatical principles, and my last reading score for “Ke Keiki Ali’i Li’ili’i” (The Little Prince) has risen from 84% to 92% in the last 3 months. So I’m getting there…

The main issue I have right right now is listening comprehension, which still hasn’t caught up with the rest of my blossoming skills. I know this is a common obstacle for most learners, so I hope to work on it this month, once my looming mountains of project work and grading are behind me.

Irish (1h)

Wow, I think every one of my Irish skill sets in Duolingo hates me now! I’ve left them for so long that they just emaciated down to bare slivers of gold. I’ve started feeding them again, but I find the process so boring…maybe if I were fed treats myself for getting translations right, like a little marmoset in a behaviourist experiment, I would feel a tad more motivated. All the same, I guess it’s a handy activity to squeeze into 5 or 10 free minutes whilst waiting for a student in my office or lining up in the canteen for something utterly unhealthy (simply because it has an exotic foreign name).

Other (Japanese 0.1h; Tagalog 0.2h)

I watched an episode of “The Tim Ferris Experiment” where he had to learn Tagalog in 3 days for a short live tv interview. This got me sorely tempted once again to learn a wee dram of Tagalog (there’s a big Filipino community here in Oʻahu). I also spoke to someone in broken Japanese for about 5 minutes; well, every little bit counts! 😉

(Total time spent on learning languages over the last fortnight: 32.5 hours)

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Five Little Birds + 1: Weeks 13-14

Starting a new schedule is one thing; sticking to it is another. My first week went well in this respect, which is reflected in an overall increase in my hours of language study (i.e., 33 hours over the last fortnight, bringing my total so far this year beyond the 150 hour milestone), but I then found lots of good reasons to bunk off my studies and play hooky during the second week. I guess it’ll take time and determination to build up consistency…

Russian (11.6h)

Considering I didn’t watch any Кухня during the previous fortnight, I’ve more than made up for it since, having completed another блюдо (i.e., the third season), and followed this with a feature film (“Кухня в Париже”) на десерт. With the roller-coaster of ups and downs in the scripts so far, heaven knows what the fourth season will bring!

French (7.2h)

Just one more episode of Les Revenants, and a few lessons of French Assimil (lessons 10-12). I did, however, get a short opportunity to practice some French with a tourist from Luxembourg. I was doing fine until asked what I teach at university, to which I responded “J’enseigne les second language studies [in a highly exaggerated French accent]”. On reflection, I could have just worked out another way to say it, but in the moment and under pressure, I ended up sounding more like Inspector Clouseau!

German (2.6h)

I’ve completed 5 lessons of Assimil, and watched a couple of episodes of “Stromberg” (a German comedy modelled on the UK tv series “The Office”, but with distinct German characters and office culture). My German’s pretty rusty at the moment, having not really used it properly since I lived in Darmstadt five years ago, but I get most of the dialogue in the series with occasional islands of “..hmm, I have no idea what on earth they just said” every now and again.

Hawaiian (12h)

More speeches, more quizzes, and more vocabulary under my belt, which brings me up to the end of lesson 17 in Ka Lei Haʻaheo, with only a quarter of the book left to go. I feel I’ve made a lot of progress so far this year, and can understand so much more. I’m probably just a whisker away from the low intermediate (B1) level now! 🙂

Irish (-)

Like a dilapidated donkey cart, my Irish studies have fallen by the wayside, but I’ll make sure it’s fit for travel next fortnight.

Ancient Egyptian (-)
Side Project: “Paddling down the Nile”

With time a precious commodity, I’m still working hard at fitting in my five other languages each fortnight. However I haven’t forgotten about this little side project with Ancient Egyptian; it’ll just have to take a back seat for a short while until I sort the other languages out and get into some kind of consistent rhythm.

(Total time spent on learning languages over the last fortnight: 33.4 hours)

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Five Little Birds + 1: Weeks 9-10

I’ve tried out a few things, reformulated my study plan on the basis of how these fared, and am ready to begin my new schedule again. One noticeable addition to the list below is my slow-burning side project in Ancient Egyptian (“Paddling down the Nile”), which is described in more detail towards the end of this post. Hence the change in title to “Five Little Birds + 1”, where the “+1” stands for “one old chick” 😉 Having previously made good progress in “Champollion’s Challenge“, I just had to fit it in somewhere.

Another tweak to the schedule is that I plan to study my key languages for only 4 weeks each month (excluding reviews), and reserve whatever days remain for satisfying recurrent “wanderlust” urges. Hopefully this will keep any distracting language flirtations at bay, as well as provide short breaks on both a weekly (i.e., Sundays) and monthly basis, which will help avoid potential burn-out.

Russian (3h15m)

I’ve watched 3 more episodes (49-51) of Кухня, studied and reviewed 10 chapters of Russian Assimil, practiced talking to myself in Russian during walks home from work, and submitted some free writing for correction. I only did this halfheartedly over a stretch of 4 days, so it’s not a lot, but it’s a start.

French (3h50m)

I found a cool new spooky series called “Les revenants”, and have already watched a couple of episodes with my wife (the context is relatively easy for us both to follow so far). Although we initially intended to start Assimil together last fortnight, my wife and I have rescheduled to start again tomorrow. In the meantime, she’s been reading “Parisienne French” on the bus to work, and I’ve submitted a couple of pieces of free writing for correction, and had a chat with a French taxi driver and a chef at my local organic supermarket.

German (1h)

Dipping my toes into the water, I reviewed German Assimil up to lesson 6, and practiced speaking to myself a couple of times by describing the moving landscape and any features in the environment that peaked my interest during transit. My main goal with German is to blow the cobwebs off my vocabulary and get back into using it on a more regular basis. Going through a basic textbook like Assimil is perhaps overkill, but as I’ve never actually completed any course books in German before (I mainly just used native materials whilst living in Germany, and worksheets way back in high school), I might as well try to fill as many gaps in my knowledge as I can.

Hawaiian (18h)

Between preparing for quizzes, haʻi ʻōlelo (short oral presentations in class), and other assignments, it’s been a busy fortnight for Hawaiian.  The big highlight, however, was attending a 3-hour theater production of Lāʻieikawai at the University of Hawaiʻi completely in Hawaiian. Although I could only pick out words and short phrases here and there, I could follow most of what was going on, and really enjoyed the show. The actors, singers, musicians, and dancers were all amazing, and the production and set very professional. I’m keeping my fingers crossed for more shows like this in the future…

Irish (20m)

Just visited Duolingo on a few occasions to keep up reviews.

Ancient Egyptian (-)
Side Project: “Paddling down the Nile”

After my intrepid 2 week challenge to round off 2014 (Champollion’s Challenge), I admittedly let my paddle drop in the water and didn’t keep up with the ensuing wake of Assimil reviews for lessons 1-38 as planned. So it’s time to get back into the flow and christen my return to rowing with three new goals:

1. The first goal is to catch up with all my Assimil reviews for Ancient Egyptian, and be ready to continue where I left off (i.e., be ready to start from lesson 39). I plan to achieve this by gradually adding all these reviews to my current daily review schedule, one lesson a day, starting from lesson 8 (as I’ve already “assimilated” the first 7 lessons very well by now).

2. The second goal is to complete my initial mission for “Champollion’s Challenge” by reaching the end of lesson 50. I intend to pursue this at a more leisurely pace by studying a new lesson every week on Sunday (when I don’t have any other language study planned; just reviews).

3. The third goal is to complete all 101 lessons in Assimil’s “L’Egyptien Hieroglyphique” and reach my final port of destination charted by this excellent resource. At one new lesson a week, and accounting for all the ongoing reviews and any possible setbacks, this should hopefully take place sometime in 2016 next year.

Other (Tagalog 10m; Japanese 15m)

Having learned a few simple phrases of Tagalog from people I met in my travels, I’ve been putting them into practice at every possible opportunity recently (e.g., with cashiers at the supermarket, bakery, pancake house, 7-Eleven, and also with taxi drivers). My basic attempts are always warmly welcomed, and I try to learn a new word or phrase each time if I can.

Also, a few more acquisitions for the language bookshelf this fortnight…5 Japanese books! This includes a parallel text  – “The Mouse Bride” – which completes one of my collections, 2 books from the “My Darling is a Foreigner” series (which are hilarious), and a couple of lighthearted reference books on Japanese culture: “Salary Man in Japan” and “Japan at a Glance”.

(Total time spent on learning languages over the last fortnight: 26.8 hours)

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Five Little Birds + 1: Weeks 7-8

After appraising my study plan, and having consequently decided to study one “major” language for 6 days a week (i.e., Russian), and each of four “minor” languages for a run of 3 consecutive days every fortnight (i.e., French, German, Hawaiian, and Irish), it seems appropriate to upgrade my little flock to five in the title of my blog to reflect this change. Hence “Three Little Birds” has risen to “Five” (I’m sure Bob Marley won’t mind 😉 ). This week also marks the end of my initial tentative plan for this year, and the beginning of my updated fortnightly study regime outlined briefly above and in the previous post.

Russian (1.6h)

I’m up to episode 48 (season 3) of Кухня, and easing myself back into speaking more Russian at home. I’m also interested in fitting in some supplementary intensive listening and reading exercises with material on Easy Languages, and am keeping my fingers crossed for more annotated videos in Russian in the near future.

French (-)

I bought a cute little book for my wife today called “Parisienne French” which contains colloquial basic expressions and interesting cultural tidbits you wouldn’t usually find in a textbook. I hope she likes it. We’ll both be starting our study of French from scratch tomorrow, each with our own personal copy of Assimil.

German (0.2h)

I switched over to playing the card game “Taboo” in German for a little while for fun at home. Clearly my vocabulary needs a little work for more advanced or unusual topics.

Hawaiian (5.5h)

Given that it was Lā Kiʻiʻoniʻoni ʻŌlelo Hawaiʻi on university campus today (Hawaiian language movie day), I dropped by to watch “Kaʻililauokekoa” (crescent leaf of the koa tree) and talk story with the organizers. This is the first feature-length film I’ve watched in Hawaiian, and hearing that it’s free to access through the university library system, I intend to watch it again with my wife (as it’s a traditional Hawaiian love story and has subtitles in English).

Irish (0.8h)

Hurray – Level 8 in Duolingo! I can now say ever-so-useful phrases such as “the turtles eat rice” and “what did the fox say?” with increasing confidence…

Other (-)

I’m eager to learn a few basic phrases in both Nepali and Tagalog sometime, simply to impress friends I know. Other than that, not much in the way of wanderlust or other distractions over the last fortnight.

(Total time spent on learning languages over the last fortnight: 17.5 hours)

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Five Little Birds + 1: Week 6

There was a lot going on in my calendar this week, which is no doubt reflected in the scarce hours spent studying or immersing in languages. However I spent a lot of time thinking about my language goals in stolen moments, and how I could organize my time better to accommodate the tasks needed to achieve them, and I hope to implement some of these strategies soon.

Hawaiian (6h)

Friday’s Lā Launa Pū (get-together day) was fun! Sadly there was no kuʻiʻai (poi pounding) this year, but I did get to play a traditional Hawaiian game called ʻulu maika, which involved rolling a flattened stone through distant sticks in the grass, somewhat reminiscent of bowling. I also tried my hand at speaking in Hawaiian to several people, although I completely fell flat on my face when I tried to talk to my previous kumu (teacher) from last term. I think it was from this point onwards that I decided to use my mouth predominantly for other purposes – namely eating all the mea ʻai ʻono (tasty food) on offer!

Irish (1h)

I’m fast approaching Level 8 in Duolingo, and only really twigged today how they present the same phrases in different dialects from time to time. Although a little confusing at first, I think this is a particularly useful feature for people learning Irish.

Russian (1.3h)

Feeling a little disheartened about my listening skills in Russian, I deliberately let the ball drop this week, and indulged in more English speaking series instead for comfort (e.g., Supernatural, Person of Interest, The Walking Dead, Black Sails). Well, they say a little break can often work wonders… o.O

Other (Japanese: 0.1h)

Whilst in the bookstore this week, I picked up a couple of easy readers for French and Spanish, and had to abate a serious craving to start learning Tagalog. I also brought my wife to a fancy Japanese restaurant for her birthday, where we enjoyed our first kaiseki (a traditional multi-course set menu) together. We absolutely loved the combination of fresh and cooked ingredients in each of the courses, their presentation in fine ornate hand-made pottery, and of course, la pièce de résistance, yet another opportunity to try out a few tried and tested phrases in Japanese.

(Total time spent on learning languages this week: 8.4 hours)

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Five Little Birds + 1: Week 5

My main focus over the last month has been on Hawaiian, for which I’m averaging around an hour of study per day (excluding Sundays). And although it’s early days yet, I already feel I’ve made substantial progress. For example, when I bought “Ke Keiki Aliʻi Liʻiliʻi” (The Little Prince) last autumn, I couldn’t understand a single word amongst the first flurry of 100 words. Sure, I could guess a few words from the context of having read the story before in other languages, but not solely on the basis of legitimately knowing each word. Now, just a few months on, I tried to read the same passage again whilst in bed (simply out of curiosity), and found that I could understood at least 84% of all the words and follow the plot. This was a happy discovery and quite unexpected!

Hawaiian (8.2h)

My Hawaiian class has finally finished the first half of Ka Leo Haʻaheo, for which I spent a fair amount of time reviewing the first 12 chapters in this book (especially chs. 8-12). So I’m looking forward to getting my nose out of the book, and practicing a bit more ʻōlelo (speaking) instead at a big get-together outside on the university lawn this Friday (Lā Launa Pū). Hopefully I’ll get a chance to put what I’ve reviewed into practice, as there will be a lot of people attending, and we’re all encouraged to speak only in Hawaiian. I’ll be making some haupia (coconut pudding) with my wife to bring along for pupus, and will probably try my hand at some kuʻiʻai (poi pounding) again. It’s so much tastier when you make poi fresh from kalo yourself to a really smooth consistency and wrap it all up in a banana leaf! 😛

Irish (1.2h)

I’m up to “dates/times” so far in Duolingo, which is about a quarter of the way through the course. I’m not really too keen on the audio recordings (which are a little harsh on my ear and even questionable at times), nor do I like being asked to translate new words or phrases without being given some time to learn them off first (curiously, only some of the words are initially highlighted, whilst others it assumes you know without any prior introduction). However, the strength of Duolingo is that it just takes 5 minutes or so to complete a new step or review, which is quite doable on a daily basis whilst on the phone during a break or whilst waiting on my computer online.

Russian (3.1h)

Although I haven’t officially started studying Russian again, I have been following plenty of fast-paced and varied Russian dialogue on tv over the last month (41 episodes of Кухня and counting!) It’s therefore difficult to objectively asses how much progress, if any, I’ve made in my listening skills over this time. I personally feel I’ve only got worse and more frustrated with my inability to grasp all the details in the dialogue, whilst my wife believes my listening skills have clearly improved and I understand so much more on my own. I’ll need to come up with some more objective way to record my comprehension over the coming months, and am open to any good suggestions on how to record progress in listening skills…?

Other (French: 0.4h, German: 0.1h)

I read a bit of “Le petit Nicolas” and spoke briefly with a French taxi driver, had a quick chat with a couple of German speakers, and learned a word in Portuguese this week: pão de queijo (a very tasty cheese bun I discovered at my local farmer’s market, and which I’m now totally hooked on). Also, after almost 5 months of misdeliveries and prolonged waiting, the correct audio for my German Assimil course “Perfectionnement allemand” has finally arrived. This should be useful for review and maintenance later in the year.

(Total time spent on learning languages this week: 13 hours)

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Five Little Birds + 1: Week 2

The first week of spring term is always chaotic and abuzz with activity at university. This year proves to be no different in this respect, and so I’ve only studied a modest amount of languages, the main focus of which has been Hawaiian.

Hawaiian (3.5h)

Resuming Hawaiian lessons after a seven week hiatus, I’m currently in catch-up mode. My first major port of call is to review vocabulary from the first half of my course book, which I didn’t quite get around to last week as initially planned.

Irish (0.5h)

A few Duolingo reviews to revive my dying gold medals.

Russian (2h)

Five more episodes of Кухня down the road, and I’m already poised to jump into Season 2. I’ve experienced no major improvements or breakthroughs in listening since last week, but am enjoying the show, and can always turn to my wife to fill me in with the key plot points when completely lost.

Other (Ancient Egyptian: 1h, French: 1h)

My wife and I also re-watched “Guardians of the Galaxy” yesterday, but only on the proviso that we could watch the first hour in French. I was surprised at how much I could understand initially, but this quickly degenerated into unintelligible babble when the “baddies” started speaking in raspy accents, so I added French subtitles to the mix to help me understand everything once again. I noticed, however, that the dialogue and subtitles rarely matched up with each other, so it was more a case of simultaneously listening to two lines of overlapping dialogue (as well as translating into English now and again for the missus).

Finally, I’ve been a bit of a wayward camel and left my Ancient Egyptian reviews to deteriorate beneath the sands of time over the last 2 weeks. So seeking to make amends, I’ve decided it’s as good a time as any to get back to my Assimil. Well…the truth is I was perusing a bizarre book called “Why Cats Paint” on Amazon (oh Internet, the places you lead me!), and the introduction for the book was full of Ancient Egyptian hieroglyphs!! Immediately, guilt set in over my reviews. 😉

(Total time spent on learning languages this week: 8 hours)

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