Sportyrod’s Comments (group member since Nov 12, 2021)

Sportyrod’s comments from the Language Learners and Polyglots group.

Sounds good. Hopefully enough time to source a copy.

Hi Berengaria,

Thanks for the the buddy read options. I’ve read Circe (loved it). I’m tempted by Mexican Gothic. I will keep an eye out for it at a second hand bookstore but don’t wait for me. I’m about to finish my geography challenge in 5 books so I should have more freedom soon.

Oh and yes, full cheating to do your own language as a subject. Though not actual cheating as far as I was aware. I guess the teachers knew the rules to warn us away from language in the final two grades. Or perhaps they preferred smaller classes ;)

I love Danes, but compared to the northern Scandinavians, Danish sounds quite gutteral. Norwegian sounds melodic and Swedish is in between.

If we extend this to dialects, The UK and USA sound more polished in English, and the Aussie version is far more nasal. And the New Zealand dialect is nasal + the vowels are rearranged, where fish and chips becomes fosh and chops. In Oz, people from Melbourne are alone in pronouncing “el” as “al” eg Melbourne becomes Malbourne. I use the “al” lingo when in Melbourne for fun and to disguise my tourist status ;)

Thanks for all the info Berengaria! Such good insights. My schooling seems to be far more primitive than yours. We did Japanese for a few weeks, then a choice of French or Bahasa Indonesia. The pitch I remember was, “Indonesian is easier than French” hence the majority went with Indo, me included. At the end of year 11, the second pitch was “If you do Indonesian, you will be competing with native Indonesian speakers so your ranking will probably go down” so only a handful stayed, not me included.

In Australia, hardly anyone speaks a second language unless they have foreign heritage or a partner of who speaks the language…

As for my preferences, I think French sounds the sexiest, but I am gay, so Berengaria’s teacher was right there!

In Scandinavian, I think the nicest sounding is Norwegian then Swedish then Danish (eeww). Idk about Icelandic, and Finnish is a completely sep language so not comparable.

I’m probably ignorant, but Chinese languages seem a bit shout-ey to my ears, so they aren’t my fav but I haven’t really given them a go.

That’s so good. Keep up the good work :)

Great job Berengaria! Ahead of schedule and a huge success.

Australian travellers would say Greece is near England but in terms of this uni, it’s 1,438 kms and a 23 hr, 54min drive from where I live, including an overnight vehicle ferry and crossing two state borders 😎

Interesting. I’ll give it a go. We are encouraged to use ChatGPT when we get stuck coding in my science studies.

The Brothers Lionheart (my one) is a children’s fantasy novel. Although it’s not happy or feel good. I am heart broken every three pages. It’s so pathetic and sad.

And yes, I definitely agree with you. The slower I read, the more I am trying to take in. Especially the nuances of certain words or phrases. Also, the more I pause, the more I remember where I was up to, which is good for my long term memory of the book.

I’m on page 61/249 for my longest Swedish book.

Grattis Berengaria. That is a mammoth of book. Luckily it was enjoyable. Good luck with the next languages.

Welcome to the group ~G~. Looking forward to hearing how you go with your reading!

Hahaha. Not sure if that was half meant to be funny, but I couldn’t help but laugh. Luckily I can tell the difference between honest feedback and politeness. My Swedish has some minor merits but my Indonesian is still woeful. I could get by as a tourist but having a meaningful conversation. Ah-ah.

Who is to say you have it correct? Good point. The Indonesians I practise on would have me think I’m perfect as they rarely correct me ;)

The explosive learning is great. I am on a roll at the moment. I haven’t heard of that singer, but I know from my tv shows that some dialects, especially the Scania dialect of Swedish is hard to understand.

Peter, you are my opposite. I could never learn those subjects! My maths teachers hated me. And rightly so.

I've enjoyed the discussion commentary so far. Interesting how there is a paradigm shift away from traditional learning methods.

Thanks for the Olly video link. Does it sound like me and how?
1. Clear motivation and goal: my motivation is to speak with friends in their language, enjoy tv programs, and to increase work opportunities. My goal is not time-based or skill-based. Just keep going for now. Score 0.5/1.

2. Not enrolling in classes: I did a language as an elective in uni in 2020 and 2021, which was a bit opportunistic. I’m not looking at classes moving forward. I figured I’d self-learn. But I do enjoy the thinking on the spot that goes on in classes. Like “Rod, tell the person next to you how you got to class today”. That’s fun. My Swedish classes were awful though. Swedish into Swedish (no English). Being detail oriented, that annoyed me. I didn’t enjoy repeating phrases. I wanted to know what each word in the phrase was, but it never got explained, so it felt unadaptable. Score 0.5/1.

3. Grammar can wait: I wish they taught that in school. I appreciate grammar, it is the pedestal. But agree with Olly, there is a lot of growing before you can reach the pedestal, so expand vocab first, let grammar come along on the journey. Score 1/1.

4. Long term commitment: yes, I do. I have explosive moments of learning but tend not to forget to keep up at a slower pace later. Score 1/1.

5. Proactively creating groups: I haven’t created a group, but if I find out that someone speaks the language, they better not get stuck next to me on a long flight, or at a dinner party as I will not stop until asked not to. I’d say I proactively seek out individuals. Score 0.25/1.

6. Creative learning methods: hell yeh. I love music, and am one of those people who are really good at remembering the words of songs I like. I love ABBA. The Mama Mia musical released an English version of their songs, so guess who used that as a translation tool 😊. I also like expanding my vocab on topics I like such as geographic words, so I learn them. Score 1/1.

7. Read a lot: I do now to an extent, but this is only a relative new experience for me (thanks to the encouragement from Berengaria), I was mostly stuck in text book mode. So glad I escaped it. Score 0.75/1.

8. Close person to speak with: yes, though I don’t see why that’s normally kept secret. Yeh, I met a Swede and moved there. It didn’t work out, but I continued developing my skills and normally text and speak in Swedish to my Swedish contacts to this day. Score 1/1.

My score: 6/8.

Brushing up on my phrasebooks to consolidate some previously learned words, keeping language books next to the lounge, increasing the number of head words, and reading more in that language. I also watch swedish tv but I’m doing that in general so it’s not on the list.

Hahaha. When I tried to speak Swedish at the shops, they usually answered in English!! That wasn’t so bad for me, of the four main language skills mentioned earlier, listening is my worst anyway.

Good discussion topic!

I think I’d ultimately like to speak the languages I practice. But, recently I have realised that reading in those languages is a great way to improve your overall skills. Especially for learning natural language. When I try to speak a language I am often told I use formal language (which is taught first I think). So I value the learning of informal language too.

I also limited myself by not expanding the number of languages I could attempt. Being somewhat of a perfectionist, I’d think to get more fluent in the languages I know before being beginner or intermediate at many. But now I prefer the expanding out. That’s why I have a goal to increase my vocab in a new language (or two).