Memrise

There's a place for Memrise. For several languages, I need to become familiar with different alphabets and/or writing systems. And so for Greek, Korean, Russian, Hindi, Taiwanese, and Burmese, I've made a start on various courses.

I've also revived an English group I'd once started for my Level 2 English students. I'm inviting them to give it a go.

(For some reason, Memrise doesn't load on my old computer.)

Hindi - 23 April

It hasn't been easy to select a good Hindi resource. It pays, though, to persist. It has taken me since the start of February, when I took Hindi on, to arrive at Rupert Snell's Teach Yourself Beginner's Hindi Script.

I started off with Ferdinand. I downloaded a couple of Hindi alphabets. I bookmarked the Malgudi Days TV series. I tried Harry Potter in Hindi. I attempted Hindi - an active introduction from the Foreign Service Institute. I gave Learn Hindi Through English Medium by Ratnakar Narele and Learn Hindi Through English by Dr. N. Sreedharan a go. A lot of quaint and antiquated material.

And so to sum up, I've covered a lot of ground going hither and yon. But I now feel that finally I'm on the way.

Screen save

Having identified about 20 letters of the Hindi alphabet, I got Sachi to search on her phone for the complete alphabet chart and save it as a screen-shot.

The one we landed on had a large number of obtuse letters and combinations thereof. It looked more Arabic than Hindi. And the vowels were missing too!

It'd be useful to locate a frequency chart so as to know which letters to concentrate on. (I did that search a month later - see here and here).

I also came across the Malgudi Days series.

20 at a sitting

During my first stint with Hindi, I dredged up my 35-year-old knowledge of 20 letters of the Hindi alphabet. That's long-term memory for you! Especially given the fact that my knowledge then was very light.

I started by copying Ferdinand the Bull out on paper, but then discovered the actual book hardcover in English. So I've switched to highlighting all the Hindi words that I recognize. I cover more ground that way, which is more in line with my acquisition principles.

Hindi IS here!

I've just this moment (I wrote this in January, while I was still in Japan) discovered some Hindi on my Kindle. It is the translation of the original Ferdinand book. It is in pdf format, which makes it a little unwieldy to navigate. The font size is a little small, but there are illustrations. The story is only 35 pages long. The sentences are arranged in parallel: English, Hindi and Punjabi. (I am able to tell the difference.)

Having once upon a time, about 40 years ago, made a start on learning the Hindi alphabet, I'll test to see how far I get with deciphering the script from scratch. I may begin by copying the whole thing out.

Hindi is now officially active!

Here's Hindi!

It'll be interesting to see how I go with Hindi, having worked at a school in the Punjab. Admittedly, that was a quite while ago. Getting on to 40 years.

I didn't get beyond a nodding acquaintance with the Hindi alphabet. There was just too much interference from English, Punjabi and Urdu. I used that as an excuse not to learn it - something that I regret now.

But in any case, I figure that at 5%, I have a springboard. I've a foundation to build upon. I like the look of the letters, and I'll use them to build a vocabulary of common words. There ought to be some simple books on the Internet that I can use.

Frequency chart.
Syllable frequency

The ABCs of multi-lingual-ism

It happens to be the start of 2020 as I put pen to paper (well, it was). The time feels right to start a new blog. It's time for a New Year's resolution. It's time for a challenge. A language acquisition challenge.

Initially, I thought of setting a 365-day goal. But I feel that would be too gimmicky - it doesn't feel authentic. Plus, I have life that I'd like to live alongside of this project. Life-work balance and all that.

So I'll take it fairly easy. I've no problem with that - I've already opted to work only part time (0.6). And in a couple of years I'll be eligible to retire. All in all, I'm not going to turn this into a big deal. I wish to spend no more than a couple of hours per day on this exercise. In terms of language-learning, therefore, I'll see how I fare with just a few languages, not too many. I'll settle for an even dozen.

I've selected them according to the alphabet. They each start with a different letter, so that'll make it easier to name and keep track of them.

• A is for Arabic
• C is for Chinese
• D is for Dutch
• E is for English (which I don't count as one of the 12)
• F is for French
• G is for German
• H is for Hindi
• J is for Japanese
• M is for Maori
• N is for Norwegian
• P is for Polish
• R is for Russian
• and S will be for Spanish

I think that's a fair swag.