I have an obsession with learning languages, I just find it fun and it’s a little game for me, finding similarities in words across different languages or the same sounds that end up meaning something completely different in another language.
My first language is actually Cambodian / Khmer and it’s got some interesting sounds that are different from English, which I am very thankful for, because my mouth is able to form/imitate other sounds. I feel like Asian languages are quite distinct from one another, but I’ve always been able to distinguish Thai from Vietnamese, Japanese from Chinese (Mandarin/Cantonese being the main ones that I can pick apart).
At the beginning of the year 2020, I had gotten into the swing of being consistent on Duolingo. As I am writing this, I completed day 218 yesterday and I’ll be finishing up day 219 later on today, after I publish this. I wanted to tackle new language learning by dedicating a month of Duolingo to each of the following languages:
- January: French
- February: Portuguese / Korean (ended up watching a lot of Korean dramas this month and then downloaded a bunch of other apps to try to pick it up)
- March: Mandarin Chinese
- April: Japanese
- May: Italian
- June: Russian
- July: Irish
- August: Swedish
- September: Vietnamese
- October: Latin
- November: Greek
- December: Korean
My month of French was quite rough, because my boyfriend is half-Haitian and he’s trying to pick it up, I thought I would work on it at the same time that he was working on it. I used to not be attracted to the cadence of French, but I think that might have more to do with my lack of exposure to people who can speak French well than with French not being a beautiful language. One of my roommates in college was actually French, from France, who was living in LA for a bit and I’ve gotten better at imitating her French accent as she speaks English, but I’ve only ever picked up a few small words here and there. There’s something about Duolingo’s French courses that make it hard for me to discern the difference between singular and plural things (i.e. femmes / femme). I just can’t hear the distinction between it, so I may have to just watch more things in French to try to pick up on the flow of the speech.
Portuguese was also a bit rough, because even though it has similar words to Spanish, it’s just different enough that I have to rewire my brain a bit and reassign the articles (especially uma and um, when I’m more accustomed to saying una and un). I also tested out some Korean this month. Now I’m not too drawn to Korean, I think it’s melodic, but I didn’t use to be that interested in it until one of my friends went to Korea (she’s half Korean) for a foreign exchange student situation and she took to trying to teach me some characters in Korean. Some time after that, I discovered some dramas that I enjoyed and I also started allowing Kpop into my music playlist, which has led to a greater appreciation for the sounds of Korean.
I have always been in love with Mandarin Chinese. It’s such a beautiful, soft, lilting type of language and I love the sheer amount of word play that can come with playing with the tones of the language. It just makes me so excited and thrilled. Of all the languages on this list, I’ve had the most exposure to Mandarin Chinese, because I have an addiction to watching Chinese dramas that are typically in Mandarin (go watch The Untamed, please, it’s on Netflix). Since I’ve had so much exposure to what it sounds like, I’ve been able to tell which words are which, but what’s really exciting about Duolingo’s Chinese course is that I’m actually remembering characters and even though Duolingo doesn’t teach you how to write the characters, I feel excited that I can read things.
Japanese was also quite difficult, not so much the characters, which I found pretty easy to pick up on, but the fact that there seems to be a multitude of ways to say the same thing. Saying “my name is ______” can be presented in multiple ways, which becomes quite confusing. I think I really would have to get into hearing Japanese shows, because right now it’s not easy for me to pick up the patterns of the language and hearing conversations will probably help me pick it apart better.
I’m 9 days into Italian and though the structure is similar to Spanish in some ways, it’s still just different enough to knock me off my stride. I am still excited and it’s been interesting to switch my brain gears from Japanese to Italian, because the sounds are so incredibly different.
I’m considering doing another trimester check-in after Italian, Russian, Irish, and Swedish and seeing how I feel then… or if I break my streak, which I don’t think I can, I’ve had this streak going on for too long to feel okay breaking it.
There’s definitely superior and inferior courses on Duolingo and consistency is difficult, but I truly treasure the time that I dedicate to learning other languages. For the last 218 days, I can say that I have learned something new every single day. I’m also passionate about language learning, because it inspires me to care enough to try to connect with people using their native languages. I know I’m definitely not at the point of conversing in any of the languages on this year’s list, but it’s so exciting that I can identify new words and sentence structures and that I know more vocabulary words in these languages than I did a year ago. This means that even if I can’t express myself to someone else in their language, they can still express themselves to me in the language that they’re most comfortable with and that’s amazing.
I hope that anyone who is reading this (granted it is in English) will be inspired to work on their skills at other languages. I’m especially encouraging my English speakers, because there are so many people who speak other languages who work on learning English to make your life easier, but they deserve our efforts at communicating with them in a language that they are comfortable speaking. Of course certain words will be difficult and you’ll mess up, but that’s a part of the learning process and you don’t have to be perfect at a language to speak it, children certainly are not and yet we don’t tell them to stop trying to say things. Please treat yourselves more kindly when you’re learning languages and when you’re learning anything. You will not be an expert the first time, but things will become easier with time and practice and consistency. You can do it.
Sincerely,
Lily
