Songs and Poetry - Scene 2

So, this one is more along the lines of what I am doing right now to overcome that negligence of poetry and arts in general.

Since these last couple of months, I have been feeling a pressing need to find a way to stay in touch with all of the language that are there (somewhere) in my mind and in order to keep them active, to increase my understanding and appreciation of these languages evermore I need to do something about it. 

Well, I can watch movies and listen to songs all the time but that again would be passive. And, no there are no Russian or German or Polish et cetera speaker in my locality (Duh !!). Skype can help yes, but I have a another big commitment going on at the moment so I wouldn't be able to coordinate with most people on the net and any ways we would most probably be in opposite ends of the day if we do manage to figure out time. But, I think there is another option available to me which is poetry in these languages.

It's short, mostly rhythmic and often uses patterns and words which are just memorable to our minds. I know, the goal is not to be able to recite all those poems in a line or in rote but rather just being in touch with the creative ways a language can be used and if the former happens that well and good)

Still other option is Music, and I am learning Piano on my own so I think music gives me ample opportunity to practice memory techniques and at the same time gives tunes to practice on the piano. I am no good at the moment with the piano, but I figure it's gonna be a useful experience anyway. 

So, my goal for Finnish and Japanese is to start with Memorizing atleast 20 songs per language and then to take it slowly and surely up to a 100. I know, it's foolish, but have you noticed the Title of the Blog;P

You know, someone said  "Stay Hungry, Stay Foolish - Stay Awesome" - That pretty much sums it up for me;P

Anyways, via songs I get to practice and refine the Memory Techniques I have been reading about so much. And when I have become better at theses techniques I shall use them on Poetry, 'cos poetry is my ultimate goal and music just songs the way easier because of the music associated with the song. Actually, I have always been this way - I synthesize my goals into coherent systems as in once I need to see the Castle to be able to like the rooms. With this music project I combine 

Update about Finnish and Japanese

I just love the sheer unfamiliarity of Finnish! I mean in most European languages it's like 

University
Universität
Universidad
Université
Universitetet
университет
Universiteit
Uniwersytet
.
.
.

Finnish word is Yliopisto;P

The only other European language that gives  the same experience with words is Icelandic (Háskóla ) but otherwise it's all a slight variation of nouns, they all languages differ in important ways as well. And Finnish too has many cognates but still it's something different. I love it.

Regarding Japanese, I have realized that I really should have been studying it more systematically 'cos it's so regular in it's verbs. Did you know that there are only 2 irregular verbs in Japanese? Yeah, seriously - only 2!

I have never really studied languages in an organized way per se, but with Finnish and Japanese I really do wish to do it that way. Yeah, that involves going through vocabulary lists and all the various conjugations and tenses of the verbs.

P.S. I am soo aware of the fact that I haven't done anything constructive with the sister blog nutro-marka and that I really should come up with something to be able to make languages active. Perhaps I can use it with Finnish and Japanese in some way. Will let you know, though;).

Songs and Poetry - Scene 1

At the start of this summer break, I was under the spell of poetry and I sincerely hoped that I would make serious progress in learning poetry and more importantly understanding it. I have never really been much of an admirer of Poetry ( or Arts ) in the past but, now as I grow up and continue to learn more about myself and the sheer diversity of people around me I realize that this sort of a view is limiting and it cuts of such vital parts of my own human legacy, 

I think that my interest in poetry was next to nothing only because I have been born and raised in a society which values Engineers or Accountants, say Left-brained professions are much more valued. The "traditional wisdom" is that these are the professions which help secure a "safe" future. Perhaps, in this society and in this time they are so, to a certain extent.

But we must think about it in another way, what I make all the progress in the world and be on top of it. What then?

Simple pleasures of life, like being able to sit peacefully, breathing with delight, listening to music and being totally taken in by it, the very same is true for arts as well. It's meant to be an experience out of our everyday life. But it's not "just" that, it in itself is sheer brilliance. Simple pleasures of life make it all worth it. You know, we read so much about great people and their struggle, how they overcame it all. But we forget that it's a story, it's a story of romance with life. A passionate romance, that they had with their goals. A constant flirtation with adversity, they were more alive in those very moments of their journey than at any other time. Simple pleasure of life make it all worth living.

Once I had the Entrance Exams out of my mind (somewhat), I tried my hands on a guitar that belonged to my friend. And I couldn't help but admire the sheer logic and thought that goes into music. It was like enlightenment to me, believe it or not. Then a thought occurred to me, what if there is another kind of intelligence besides being-able-to-solve-maths-problems? Not that I was any good at it. But that was just the linear and simple-minded understanding of Intelligence that was handed down to me by this society. I realized how crazy this ignorance was.

Are A.R. Rahman or say Beethoven or Bach any less intelligent than Einstein? I don't think so. It's just that their work isn't as obscure to us as that of Einstein. So, naturally most of us ( including me) made the assumption that intelligence is basically number-crunching or is always related to Sciences.

Then again, I continued this line of thought and came to a more organic understanding of intelligence, be it in Arts, Music or say everyday street-smartness. I mean, Michelangelo and Da Vinci, for example were every bit of a Genius as any of the great names in Science.

I know that it might sound trivial to you and to be honest it really is. But I just never questioned this belief before. One thing I have learned for sure is that "traditional wisdom" is not something that can be relied upon, think for your own.  We don't become a human being just because we happen to have that kind of a brain, we need to use it too, even if conclusions take us to unknown directions and in unexplored fields. It's so irresponsible of us to take things for granted.

How is it related to this language learning project of mine?

You know, you have to understand that things aren't really isolated. They might be related to each other in bewildering ways which are far and few in time. I only became interested in languages because I valued the experience that it offers me.

And the experience of languages can't only be expressed in terms of just being able to speak it or making new friends across the world, say listening to music or watching movies. It's like having a whole different identity.

The way I was before College life, I didn't value musical abilities or artistic passions because I had such an idiosyncratic value system according to which musical or artistic abilities "didn't pay" much. Though I was still biased towards sports, Cricket was the one for me. Apart from Cricket, I just loved Running - Sprints was my thing.

So, somewhere deep down I realized that what people think isn't that important 'cos even sports are looked at as something "highly impractical". I know, it's all screwed up but I think Indian society is going through a teenager's growth spurt. It's in a flux and from what I have read about Chinese society it's pretty much the same. So, it just happens to be the way it is because of few arbitrary conditions et cetera. But it's important to realize that it's the simple pleasures of life that make this story worth it. I truly believe that Career will take care of itself if we just learn to live, be more present in the present, if we just learn to romance with life;P

I started off trying to bring you up to date with my current project in language learning but when I started to write, it just went on and on. I really couldn't help but to speak it out loud, put it in words.

The rest of the it is in the second part of the post;P

Focusing on The Top 3

I have been studying Finnish and Japanese for the past few days and of course, Chinese has had to take a back seat and I think that it's gonna be so for a while.

I have experimented a lot and I think it's only reasonable for me to study only two languages 'cos otherwise I am not really able to focus with all my intensity and make quick progress. Japanese is tough and so is Finnish !! The former by the virtue of it's writing system and the Honorific grammatical changes and the latter by the sheer distance with Indo-European languages, though thankfully it has Latin script and both the language are often classified as Agglutinative languages. As I realized this, of late, I am actually focusing on totally foreign languages this year.

My priority order is finally established

Japanese
                    Tops the list 'cos I just love the sheer complexity of it all and of course it's also because of the fact that I find the Japanese history and society to be one of most fascinating ones. I know for a fact that if I surmount this language than I am never going to look back at languages as being "tough"!! This is the test for all my methods and persistence, it's absolutely gonna be the highlight of my Language Odyssey.. Yes, I do think Japanese is tougher than Chinese.

Finnish
                    Because of my sheer fascination and love of the North. I love the way the language forms words and that it is so "alien" to me. Their movies are awesome, not that I have seen any yet but I have seen a couple of trailers, I liked them, simple and elegant and focused on the content rather than the special effects. Though this is true for most European movies.

Chinese
                    Who can forget the Dragon, right. But I am only gonna make this my fall back language as in when I get bored with Finnish and Japanese. Of course, I do!! You can't keep doing the same thing all the time, especially when it's by your own intrinsic commitment rather than an external requirement. I love Chinese history and of course, Buddhism and Philosophy are my main interests in the Far Eastern languages. I am gonna study it passively and see how far I get, I'll keep you posted though.

Apart from these three languages, I am gonna make an honest effort towards the end of my final year at the University on these two gems as well.

Hebrew 
                  Trust me I would never consider my knowledge of History being coherent unless I understand this language. Sheer wonder of this beautiful language, resurrected from the "dead" and given a voice again after thousands of years. That's something!! And I am for some reason not into Arabic much, probably because of the too many dialects ( Egyptian would be my preference in any case) but I would put Hebrew first. I just love the entire thing like crazy.

Persian 
                 Poetry, poetry and poetry. I love Rumi and for that single reason I wish to understand the entire legacy of poetry in Farsi. How well his legacy has been continued by his successors. It's related to Indo-European so I have a certain confidence that I can pick it up pretty quickly.


Turkish 
                 Turkish history fascinates me. And Islam has been a big part of my life, as a person in the sub-continent. Farsi and Turkish offer me an improved understand and appreciation of my larger cultural heritage. Yeah, I am more like Pi, as in Life of Pi, seriously I find something breathtaking in every religion I come across, though I don't really believe in any but I just love the sheer expanse of our creativity and I think it's the anthropologist in me who is so endlessly fascinated by people. Actually, I am fascinated by everything, really. Curiosity is my one of my driving urges. But apart form this, I love the fact that Turkish is absolutely phonetic, I am yet to come across a language apart form Esperanto, which can claim such simplicity.


It's crazy I know. I love it;P

This year is about Pushing the Boundaries!

I think if you do something crazy everyday, you might surpass every great you ever knew. Be naive and experiment a lot !!

The Japanese characters - Hiragana

This is just the quick update about the progress I have made with Kana, specifically Hiragana in Japanese.

A couple of days ago, I finally sat down to write these Hiragana characters by hand, something which I had been postponing for a long time. I just thought that, the way I understood the Hebrew letters which is just by pure exposure, overtime I would just recognize them without ever really writing each and every alphabet out on a paper. But the same wasn't true for Japanese, or it's just that I didn't have enough exposure. So, when I started to write down these characters I realized that I already had most of them in my passive memory so it just took me a couple of hours at best to memorize the Hiragana characters. I am yet to do the Katakana characters, which again are very frequent when I surf the net in Japanese 'cos most of the English menu options would just be transliterated into Katakana. So, that's still a to do, but hey, the ship is moving forward ceaselessly. No stalemate!

I have these two Hiragana and Katakana cheat sheets on my wall and I just looked them up every time I forgot the shape of a particular Kana. Needless, to say that I am not really concerned about the stroke order but rather to be able to recognize and to write the character as and when required. There are numerous Input Methods for Japanese and I can simply use the suggestions for the Kanji characters.

Another thing being I am getting really interested into various Memory Techniques, which can seriously help me get organized a bit. It's starting to get somewhat confusing and annoying when I fish to recall a word and it answers my call only after 5-10 minutes or so!! Yeah, the sub-conscious mind works on it all through that time but I know for a fact that it's all in there, the words I mean.

Memory techniques can really help a lot but I find that I need to make them personal and more meaningful in my own way. That's the basic improvisation that one needs to make if one if to really use them. And I intend to master them thoroughly 'cos apart from languages they can be really handy in even day to day life, which can in turn only save time. Time which again can be used more constructively, besides from what I have researched so far Human Brain has an almost unlimited capability to remember abstract and not-so-abstract things, provided it's intentionally encoded in such a way. Memory Techniques offer a great potential for anyone and everyone.

Learning Or Assimilating the Language - Act 2

This is the continuation of the previous post, Act 1, in which we talked about the role of conscious learning as far as a language is concerned and how much Grammar-oriented we need to be.

Of course, to be considered educated or street-smart, to fit in well with the society and not to offend people inadvertently we need to understand the social conventions and adjust the language accordingly, this is where the grammar comes in. We can't learn swimming by trying to avoid getting wet first;P 

It's better to have a feel of the language than to just dive in the Grammatical complexity at the very beginning, then stay away from the whole thing after that traumatic experience. Remember grammar classes at school? Yeah, that!!

I think that, languages are meant to be malleable, transformable and an instrument of uninhibited creativity. It just can't be compartmentalised and formalised with a particular set of rules. It's quite obvious that, Grammar traps a particular and transient state of a language influenced by political factors, social traditions, in short they are heavily influenced by Us. 

You think we stay the same all our lives, throughout history? 

Well, yeah we have a lot more vocabulary and concepts now but essentially we are not different from the first Homo Sapiens ( Lucy? ). We are quite the same, the same feelings, the same passions and ambitions; the very same experience throughout History. Languages are as organic as living things, rather than some absolute unchanging aspect of nature.

There is nothing unchangeable as far as any particular language is concerned, Grammar is just like the a photograph of a person, though there is not Growing Up ( in complexity or otherwise) per se, but from the very first photo to the very latest one, it changes and yet it's the same thing. It is organic it is meant to change.

Personally, if I have to really understand grammar I would focus on dead languages or constructed languages which are, for me, an extremely useful tool to improve my understanding of Grammar, much like experiments are for Scientific understanding.

But how can we use it in our language learning ?

I say, enjoy what you do in a language. Find a subject that you wish to explore in the language and it's native culture. For me, the most intriguing parts of the Far Eastern cultures, namely Japanese and Chinese is Buddhism and another one would be the game of Go. If you, like me were always told that Chess is the most intellectually demanding, then try Go. It's as simple as child's play and yet you can be sure that the game that you are playing, the set of moves you make, in all probability, have never ever been made before and might never be made again. In short, no two games of Go are alike!!

Hmm, so, these are the threads through which I wish to explore the eastern cultures and then of course there are many contemporary sources like the awesome movies, dramas, the folk-lore and the brilliant anime and of course the songs. The main that being that you have a passion for something in the language, something that let's you use the languages as a means to an end rather than an end in itself. That's how you learn a language. I think, that the other approach of a language-being-an-end-in-itself is suited for Linguists who do all kinds of wonderful stuff to add to our understanding of this central aspect of human lives.

Have patience, a bit of faith that maybe not today, maybe not even tomorrow but soon enough it's gonna make sense to me. I have an absolute belief that our brains wonderful complexity is the way it is so that, it is able to learn and make sense, to figure out all the hidden patterns in the information.

Yes, I do get discouraged sometimes and I think about doing something else but then after a while I again find myself drawn towards it all. Ah, I'll let you in on a secret, when I feel discouraged, I take a step back and look at the big picture. I think about the ponderous sphinx, the pyramids and of all the numerous things that we, as one people, have done so far, have achieved so far. It is pretty awesome!!

Now, all of those amazing deeds weren't not done in a day, it took hard work and the patience of a stone mason to know in one's bones that even if the stone has not shown any difference in it's shape, hasn't cracked for a 1000 hits; it's gonna crack wide open soon. Just like that. I belong to the same people, I believe in our minds and our abilities to overcome anything that we truly put our minds to. Compared to all that, this difficulty is nothing. 

In today's world it's all the more impossible not to learn another language, for we have an abundance of resources available to us now. The thing is not to loose faith and just consistent with our efforts. Learning a language is the most natural thing to do;P

Learning Or Assimilating the Language - Act 1

The question that we often find asking ourselves while learning a language is how important is the grammar and should I give priority to grammar as I progress ?

I think, that language is not meant to be "processed",  it is meant to be absorbed 'cos I believe that within us, there is an innate affinity towards languages. our minds are like magnets when it comes to languages. If there is one thing that the immense complexity of the brain is meant to do, it's to absorb information and make sense of it, the very same thing is true with languages as well. The most wonderful thing about this process is that once we know a language we can use it as the founding stone for the most breathtakingly complex things like Literature, Mathematics et cetera.

The most fun part of learning a language is to witness our slow progress in the language and to see something completely unintelligible become something we understand as if it's a child's play. 

Do children naturally worry about the correct usage of a particular verb, adjective or case. Not really. That's the genius of children, even if they don't know something or understand it well enough, they will have a go at it. That's curiosity at it's best.

No family sets up weekly grammar lesson for the child so the child may learn the "correct" usage of the language. Grammar, at it's very basic foundation, is an arbitrary set of rules and conventions which evolved organically. To think that once someone has memorised or understood all the various rules of the Grammar, do you think that the person would be able to really "feel" the language. Language is not a dead body, meant to be dissected  rather it is random, chaotic and even senseless to someone from an other culture !! But at the same time, it is profoundly the most wonderful thing that life managed to come up with. And when I say language I don't only mean the everyday "flavour", rather I mean the immense diversity of languages. 

You never thought about sign languages right? 

They too have dialects, they too evolve organically and once the users become proficient in the language, they get the "feel" for the language they start innovating in the language. And any form of innovation involves breaking a few "tradition" here and there and coming up with something that few ever conceived. If two people with two different "parent" sign languages need to communicate, they would come up with a hybrid which would still be as consistent as any language that we can think of. This is just how Creoles are born, they are always at the fuzzy boundaries of cultures involved, they learn from both and create something unique in it's own right, much like how biology works the wonders of creating something new and unique life from genetic inheritance  .

Trust me, if languages were only meant to be those which have a "Grammar" book, then the truth is we have only about a 1000 languages, at best.

The real number is about 6000 languages, having this explicit Grammar book is a luxury invention which only some cultures had at their disposal.  Get this, there is this wonderful quote in German  "Man lernt Grammatik aus der Sprache, nicht Sprache aus der Grammatik" which in English means, "One learns the Grammar from the Language, not the Language from the Grammar". Makes sense, right?

If we rationalise and try to control the process too much, the absorption and assimilation of the language we interfere with the process. Of course, having definite goals like being able to bargain, order food in the language or say flirt* in the language is a good aim. But having S.M.A.R.T goals  is even better, provided, one allows the mind understand things organically.

It's a fact that if we hear certain things over and over again, then even if we don't know what it means we would assimilate it. You seriously don't believe that you "know" what a word means on it's own, do you? 

The same fact is true for most of our beliefs, traditions and it is obviously true of languages. We keep on changing, we keep adapting to the changes. C'est la Vie ( That's life) !!

How do I use it ?

Say I am doing this Anki set on Chinese and I come across some sentence or a card that makes no sense to me at the moment. I would hit the Red one[repeat again, quick] for a few times and then start hitting the green ones[repeat in a few days] and moving on with the rest of the pack. Then after some time, when Anki again brings it all up I would again get it wrong a few times but I would remember something more and somewhat more of the sense of the sentence if not the exact words, tones or the order or those words. But there still is something that is being absorbed subconsciously.

And over time after a few more these trials, to my immense pleasure I see that it has started to make more sense and I can easily remember it.

Using Spaced Repetition Software (SRS, like Anki or Memrise) can also be a round-about manner of learning a language for at its core, it's a list of words, vocabulary list again. So eventually, the usefulness of the entire experience depends on the Content of what you are learning.

But if the vocabulary list is constructed with your own reality and needs in mind then there SRS can only be a great help. Thankfully, the ANKI set that I am using for Chinese started off with the few simple sentences and it builds upon those basic phrases and successively adds at most a couple of words to that basic phrases or it would change the context a bit, as in making it an interrogative by adding (ma / 吗) in the end.

I believe that it's only human that what we don't understand, if we are exposed to it enough we eventually accept it and assimilate it. And trust me this tendency of ours is the reason for many a social and personal problems but as far as learning a language is concerned. I think, it is quite a boon, rather than a bane for us.

I think it's especially true for the grammar of languages. Obviously, if we are exposed to the language enough then we supersede the grammatical drills and adapt according to our needs and reality in the language.

Think how grammatical would rap music or poetry be?

I love the former and I am beginning to appreciate the latter more and more each day. It is often he case that those who innovate in languages break a few rules of grammar here and there but it only makes sense that they need to. Think Pushkin, for Russian; there is a reason why he is said to have a fundamental impact on Russian language.

As I wrote this post, I realised that it is getting too long for a single blog post. So, the other half of this piece is contained in Act - 2, coming up next)

*Disclaimer :- If you are looking to flirt in the foreign language at the very beginning, this requires considerably more skill and craftiness. So, do so at your own risk 'cos the depending on the language you might accidentally say something, you would rather not. The stunts are to be performed by well trained artists, do not attempt on your own;P

The Housekeeper and the Professor

I have started to make an Anki set based on the kanji which I come across per page as I make my way through the book. Of course, I'll upload the Anki set and put up a link over here for everyone when I do complete it but I am not exclusively focusing on the book right now. It's more like I look it up once or twice during a day and when I do, I look up the kanji that stares me at the face, find it's meaning and save it in the Anki deck.

I have to tell you that if, by any chance, happen to learn any of the Nordic languages there are brilliant resources on the Internet which are absolutely free. These resources get overlooked because a learner is not really confident enough or knowledgeable enough most times to think out of the box regarding the resources that are all over the place. 

I don't know about you but a few years back I had this habit of listening to the radio while studying or when I found myself unable to sleep. I would just lie down, plug my head-phones in and eventually fall asleep while listening to music. It's such a nostalgic feeling I tell you.

For Norwegian you can, in fact I recommend that you head over to NRK and for Swedish, head over to the Sveriges Radio. Of course, there are many many wonderful channels in these languages but, if you wish to download podcasts easily and without much beating-about-the-bush then head over to iTunes and type these name's in. Bada bing, bada boom - there you have it. Wonderful podcasts covering everything from Music, Philosophy to political debates.

I found many such podcasts in most languages that I am studying at the moment so, I promise that one of these days I am gonna sit down and compile the complete list for you regarding podcasts in all these languages.

The best instructions regarding how to download podcasts in iTunes, head over to Benny's blog and remember that you need to change the Flag that is displayed at the bottom-right corner of iTunes window when you are in the iTunes store.

Stay Hungry, Stay Foolish and Stay Awesome)

P.S. I seriously can't get this line out of my mind. It's a good line though, don't you think)

Defining priorities

I think, now that my summer break is coming close to an end and my University would recommence in the first week of August, I should use this remaining time to study in a more organised way.

When I think about the languages which require the most effort on my part then these quite obviously come out to be the ones which are "foreign" in every sense of the word. Foreign in the sense of structurally different from the Indo-European languages and the grammar of languages like Finnish, Hebrew, Japanese and Chinese are far off from the likes of IE languages.

After studying IE languages for quite some time, I am convinced that being comfortable in other IE languages wouldn't take much time so I am gonna experiment for a while with these 4 languages and would put all my efforts to improve in these languages first. The priority of Finnish with Japanese and of Chinese with Hebrew are at the top of my list now. Let's see how it works out)

Keeping in touch, always)

I am always working with a language, always listening to something in the language. Recently I "finished" listening to the NRK - radioteatret broadcast and it was awesome. I learned a lot by listening to about 27 hours of great literature dramas and radio enactments!!

There was a lot from Henrik Ibsen, how could it not be so. It seems that he contributed quite a lot to the Norwegian literature and I liked his pieces as well. Of course, I am yet to read these plays in Norsk but for the time being it was a good experience. Tarjei Vesaas story "Isslottet" is something quite special for me, I mean, isn't it wonderful that so much can be conveyed in such a short story)

For the last couple of days I have been taking it a bit easy, I think it works best to take a few breaks here and there and then to come back refreshed and step up the intensity again. Learning a language is no race, not for me.

Now, for the progress log.

I am, obviously, still doing Chinese and Finnish on Memrise but in the meantime I finally sat down to understand the Persian alphabets better and with the help of Google keyboards I can pretty much type in most of what I hear. The Farsi alphabets have different forms/shapes depending upon the position in a word so this shape-shifting is easier to understand with the modern technology. Needless to say that it is a great boost to able to see these transformations taking place via keyboard so that eventually these patterns become ingrained in our visual memory. Language is not really science, you know, at least when grammar is not in question but language is more like a "feel" for a select patterns, a select conventions and traditions.

And as far as Hebrew is concerned, I have made good progress going through the alphabets and to understand the various verb forms and the general structure, as in when to use ( L'.. / V'..) etc but needs a lot of work to be done. I haven't read any book in Hebrew so far. Actually, I found a link to a bunch of free PDFs full of illustrated stories for children so I am definitely gonna use them to acuire vocabulary and to get myself comfortable.

I do know that it all seems so chaotic but I also know for a fact that I am gonna look back at this year as my miracle year, this is my last year of College life and I am gonna use it to the fullest. I really need to push myself this time.

I am making progress, slowly but surely. There is always room for improvement, it's the biggest room in the house;P

The Norwegian Woods;P !!

I am super exited to get started with The Japanese novels !!

Actually, my elder brother ( the very same one, whom I talked about in a previous post) was on a trip to Japan and I asked him to bring along a couple of novels in Japanese for me. I actually wanted to read books by native Japanese authors rather than the translations of non-Japanese famous works like Harry Potter, Tolkein's books or even something heavier like Also sprach Zarathustra or something. I am a reader and I read far and wide, so I had obviously read a couple novels by Japanese authors, of course in English at the time but now that I had an option to get the real deal, I decided to go for The Housekeeper and the Professor and the other one being the Norwegian Woods.

I have only read the first one but I thought I am going to need something lengthier as well as a completely new book. And,  I am sure, by now you know how much I love the North, though I don't think that the book itself has much to do with Norway but in any case it's a good combination of reasons which would definitely keep me moving.

The thing is, the books are completely opposite to the various writing systems which I have previously come across. This one starts from the "back" and works it's way to the "front". As far as the writing itself is concerned, Kanji and Kana are abundant..obviously!!

Though the flow of writing is downwards and moves towards the left as well. This is something that's gonna take some time getting used to. Plus, I have downloaded a couple of dictionaries which would help me get over the various readings of Kanji as well. 

I must tell you that, I haven't studied Japanese that deeply; not as actively as the European languages anyway. But, I have been focusing on the passive exposure for quite some time. Let's see what happens, it's a good experiment.

I'll keep you guys updated)

Here, are the books...

The Housekeeper and the Professor

Norwegian Woods -
I think that this is the first part of the two, though I am not really sure)

And of course, this just might be the second one

Thanks Bhaiya=)

Still a long way to go)

This is just a progress log entry about 200,000 Memblem level at Memrise. And over there I have made quite a lot of progress with the Finnish courses and, from what I have seen so far Finnish is quite logical in it's grammar but then again, I studied Turkish a bit last summers and I am quite comfortable with Esperanto already so it might just be the case of familiarity with the structure of Finnish language)

But anyways, the real test of persistence is the Chinese language pack that  I am doing with Anki. I have been at it for about a month now and 800 cards - done ; 15000 more to go;P

Well, Robert Frost puts it in words perfectly,

The woods are lovely, dark and deep,
But I have promises to keep,
And miles to go before I sleep,
And miles to go before I sleep.

The Reality of the Language Learner !!

This post builds upon the last one, in which I talked about the "Flags collected" myth.

I think, that the point to which you want to progress in a language depends upon the way you need to (or intend to ) use it. For a person living in, say China, even if in a perfectly Ex-pat environment the need to the Chinese language would only be limited to be able to, say tourist-talk or bargaining and ordering food in a restaurant; this vocabulary and need would be perfectly fulfilled by the popular "Phrase books" which teach us just that.

Whereas for a person, who regularly has to interact with the Chinese people, as in business or friendship, then it would be quite arrogant and ignorant of the person, not to learn the language and still sticking to the basic Phrases. It doesn't work like that, 'cos the reality of this person is different. In order to form meaningful relationship in this situation, the person really needs to make an effort to reach over this barrier. 

The reality of A.L.L ( Average Language Learner ) is the main factor which should be considered while learning a language. If you are pursuing a proper degree in a particular language then you should focus more upon that vocabulary or those linguistic-cultural paradigms ( letter writing, articles etc ). It would make no sense for a person who is in say, Vietnam or Spain, for couple of months to learn the name of all the common trees or vegetables and compare one's knowledge to a native speaker. That's counter productive, but of course if it catches your fancy, do it any way. We are you know, amazing people, we would do unbelievable things if we just feel inspired enough to do them.

But in general, if we are starting out in a language,  we should focus upon the our own reality. Once again,  " You can only learn, what you already know"; understand this one and live by it. If you have been involved in business as a career, by all means, apart from the set-phrases; learn within the context of what you already know and understand. If you are an artist, explore art in the language of your choice.

How I use my own Reality to my advantage ?

Well, I have always been a reader, I love reading and exploring literature of various cultures and enjoy reading various genres. So, I would pick a book which I have previously read in English and which I know by heart say Harry Potter or Alchemist; trust me if the target language uses Latin/Greek/Cyrillic or similar set of alphabets, I can learn the language through these books !! You know, why 'cos of all those years of Harry Potter movies and Novels, I came to know these books by heart and I understand what the context is, how the story progresses. So, with a little effort I can correlate new information with what I already know.

Of course, this would work with any book I have read previously. But it is a wonderful fact that Harry Potter is one of the most printed books ever, which essentially means that it has been translated in the most languages and it is only surpassed by the Bible !! So, you can even use the Bible, I guess but the language of the Bible ( or any other such text) has become too loaded and outdated with time. You don't use "thou" in English any more, so why not focus more upon a more recent and contemporary text.

Another wonderful resource which I rely upon is Science and Programming textbooks, once I have grasped enough of the language so as to move toward more real content. Then I can move onto the more interesting Documentaries and shows in the language. Another great interest of mine is History, which every culture is so passionate about, it's an awesome feeling to be able to understand why a certain tradition is the way it is . Wikipedia is awesome too, but it is subjective 'cos, well, two countries at war in the past or present would view the events differently and thus would portray it differently as well. So, Wikipedia is awesome for later stages but not so much in the initial ones; but ofc you can still use the Wikipedia pages to read about famous people and events and see how it all correlates and how a culture interprets those events. It's quite interesting actually;P

If like me, you have the freedom to study whatever and whenever you want, learn what you already know. This way, you learn a new language and at the same time you can revise the important stuff without even getting bored for a second. Languages enrich you endlessly and in innumerable ways;P

Make it fun;P

Hey Polyglot, what's your number??

Yeah, today's post is about the famous "polyglot" phenomena which to me represents a morphed and abstract view of the bare-bone truth. Simply put, it makes no sense to me to learn languages just for the heck of it as in to be "cool" an' all. And it surely doesn't represent the "intelligence" of such and such person.

I think, we are time-beings and our only real currency is time! Mother Nature equipped us with brilliant tools to be able to adapt and master what we truly set our minds to, provided that we work towards it with our heart, mind and soul. So, this "polyglot" thing becomes quite easier with each language that you add to your repertoire. A German speaker would have no real trouble "picking up" Dutch and same is true for the Nordic languages, in fact it's often said that if you learn a Nordic language you get three language at the price of one and I think that it's pretty much true).

But the fact remains that what "number" do you really want to achieve and how does that number affect your learning strategy?

I think that apart from the extensive travellers or people who need to move around the globe a lot for one reason or another, hardly anyone needs to really learn a bunch of languages. And for most of us, it's a luxury to be able to understand a language which we don't really have any need of in our everyday real life. However, I am a strong believer in the fact that learning a language broadens our horizons and if anything it makes us all the more Humane towards different cultures and embrace diversity rather than fear it. It helps us overcome our animal instincts which is the primitive fight-or-flight response whenever we are confronted with new facts and events. It helps us understand a culture which evolved over a course of thousands of years. Languages is just the most visible aspect part of the culture, the basic key to that wonderful new world.

The more you learn, the more you realise that there is so much more!!

When we stop learning we starting judging, which is the root of all strife and prejudices . Learning a language has started to sound like a "chore" or something inorganic. It's not!! There are lots and lots of failures and there are tons of embarrassing moments which make you think that "oh, man I have been studying the language for this long and I still don't understand a movie or a song" or some such. I think it's not meant to be so, it's meant to be Natural and believe me your mind will crack the toughest nut if you just let it. Have fun in the process, read children's stories rather than the most deepest philosophical discussions or say news etc. But keep in touch with the language, always! Your mind will only bother making sense of it, if it is sure that this is something that needs to be done so exposure is the key.


For me it was about fascination but more importantly it was about finding a useful escape from my everyday boring College life so I may keep myself occupied for a long time to come. Well, mission accomplished;P I was quite busy all this time and the reason that I am still learning languages has changed over time. Of course, apart from the a couple of languages which I know for a fact that I am gonna use in future, I feel this fascination with languages. I mean, as I mentioned in the very first post of this blog, I am becoming more and more fascinated with the underlying unity of linguistic structure and how it empowers and dis-empowers us in our search for knowledge. I mean, isn't it interesting that this organic system i.e. language can be expanded to explain concepts which can't possibly be conceived by observations in our everyday life.

 Now, let's talk more about "Numbers". The "Number" of languages that one can speak has become a arbitrary standard of Polyglots. It makes no sense though. I mean, think about it, a person living in Europe is bound to pick up a couple of languages without even trying, thus collecting the "flags" as well. Whereas a person from the far east (I am talking about the northern part at the moment) would only be able to collect 4 languages at best, as per the "flags" which are - Chinese, Japanese, Korean and Mongolian. Which totally ignores the innumerable dialects that each of these languages has and if a person speaks multiple dialects of a language would he be any less of a polyglot ? Makes no sense, right?

It's just that in Europe, Africa and South America there are so many countries whose national languages differs only as much as a dialect of a any other language and funny enough, it reminds me of a quote :- " A language is a dialect with an Army and a Navy";P

Research shows that the beneficial effects of learning a language are the same if a person learns even a different dialect of a language. So, in short, I think that this "Number" in Polyglot community is highly exaggerated and instead of encouraging people it ends up discouraging them from ever venturing out in the playfield of languages. Totally wrong, no!

If you want to become fully functional in a language you can learn a lot from Benny Lewis, who makes the language a part of his life to the point that he has no option but to do it, that's an awesome strategy.

Am I a polyglot?

Well I don't really know that answer to that or rather should I say that it is subjective. I don't mind laying out all my "secrets" in front of you, It gets embarrassing sometimes to confess that I don't think I can order pizza in either of these languages and to be honest even gets depressing sometimes but at other times it feels awesome to be able to read and listen to the best literature coming up from these cultures; it's a nice feeling when I come across a multi-lingual manual, only to find that "Hey, I can even practice with this" and it's always great to be able to read all these languages.

In case you feel that learning languages is gonna be your thing then I suggest you start with a simple and similar language then move on successively the more distant languages. The number thing is totally arbitrary when you come to think of it, learn to enjoy the process of unfolding the various layers of a language.