Not sure if it's a word, but I'm celebrating two different "-versaries" this week:
My 9th Postcrossing-versary...
... and my 6th Duolingo-versary...
Of all the languages I've "dipped into" at Duolingo, my streak of keeping up daily lessons for 2188 days only applies to Spanish, though. It was the first language that I started to learn on Duolingo (from scratch), and it's also the language where I feel I'm still making progress.
Some of the languages on my Duo list I knew "more or less" since before (German, French, Norwegian, Danish). Others I've only really taken a "peek" at to get a rough idea what they're like.
Besides Spanish, the ones that I put a bit of effort into are Welsh,Turkish and Dutch; and also Russian and Finnish. But with all of those I reached a certain level when it became too difficult and/or did not really feel meaningful for me to take it much further. But it happens that I revisit occasionally to rehearse some words/grammar already learned.
Dutch somehow falls into a category of its own: Because it resembles other languages I know (like a mix of German, Scandinavian and English), I felt I reached a fairly good level of understanding (in writing); but when it comes to "using" it (writing/speaking), my brain tends to switch to German. And not wanting to mess up my German, I'll leave it at that.
Right from start, the whole thing with trying to learn Spanish, and then adding even more foreign languages to the mix as well, was really just an experiment - to see what my brain could cope with, at age 60+. On the whole, I'd say it's gone better than I expected! But it also taught me (no surprise) that I do better with the languages where I can relate to words and grammar from other languages already familiar to me since before. But if too much alike, that causes problems too!
At the bottom of my list (below) you'll find Ukrainian, just recently added. I have no ambition of "learning" it, just wanted to check how it differs from Russian. (I sometimes recognize a word here and there when I hear it on TV.)
12 comments:
Good for you. I was in a Spanish conversation group for a while, where none of us regulars could converse with any agility. But I noticed I still have the huge Spanish/English dictionary on my shelf. I tried learning Gaelic on line, no good memory for that vocabulary. Just had a conversation via phone with a son who knows enough about the Cyrillic alphabet to be able to tell me what some of the letters are. Keep on learning!
Your committment is amazing to me and the fact you have been learning Spanish so long... it is good for your brain to keep learning and is excercising your brain and growing new cells. I found in the few times I tried the Spanish, I got so upset with it I could not function... you must have a natural gift with language.
Congratulations on two Versaries, Monica :-)
I remember how you first told us about your Duolingo experiment. And six years on, you're still keeping it up - that's great!!
You know how much I love language. My Italian and esp. my French are rather neglected these days, but I would love to brush up on both, plus learn one or two new languages.
Congratulations! You have a real "ear" for languages.
When I first started to learn Spanish I was told that there are over 2,000 words the same as in English - just the spelling might vary slightly. Very helpful, but it's still difficult to follow a Spaniard in conversation - they speak very, very, quickly!
I learned French and Latin at school, but have to admit I remember very little. I don't have an aptitude for languages.
I've often found that most people want to practise their English - I noticed this particularly when we lived in Sweden for a while. It's embarrassing how well other nationalities speak English, and it makes us so lazy.
Barbara, I still find it difficult to follow spoken Spanish, as they always speak so fast. As for live conversation with real people, I've not had a chance to try it. I suspect they'd probably have moved on to another topic before I'd finished constructing a whole sentence in my head...
Thanks Sandra. I've always been interested in languages. Math and science etc on the other hand were never my favourite subjects in school.
Meike - something to look forward to when the time comes to retire from work, perhaps! ;)
CG, I agree it's very difficult to follow Spaniards in conversation. Watching some Spanish TV-series on Netflix has left me with no illusions about that! ;-) (Without Swedish subtexts I'd be lost...) As for other people wanting to practice English, I remember that from a visit to Germany (back in the 1980s) - I was studying German at the university in Sweden and during my stay in Germany I wanted to speak German; but the Germans on the other hand wanted to practice their English on me!!
HOW can you fit all these languages into your brain?? You must be like Einstein!! I cannot comprehend your intelligence. Happy anniversary!
Congratulations on two Versaries. I'm afraid I don't have your stickability. I spent a long time learning Portuguese before visiting Brasil but learnt very little that was of any use to me practically. It must be so hard learning a language without an opportunity to speak it often. Keep up the good work.
Thanks Ginny :) I'm definitely no 'Einstein', though. (Cf my reply to Sandra...) Just fascinated by languages, and appreciating the Duolingo app for the possibility to test a few more than would otherwise have occurred to me!
Thanks Pauline. As I have no plan or particular longing to travel abroad again, I sometimes wonder myself why I bother about learning Spanish at this time in life. I think I always wanted to learn it ever since a holiday in Spain when I was 11-12 years old, though - so when the Duolingo app turned up in my life, I took the chance, even if a bit late!!
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