Japanese - 22 April

I feel that my Japanese, the acquisition of which was my original focus, is rather swamped by all these other languages! I feel that I need to get more of a wider-ranging reading habit going, as for Dutch and German. With kanji, the danger is always of being drawn into the study of minutiae. 

24 May, 2020 Gutenberg audiobook Gongitsune

The Magic of The Magic Tree House

To help me learn Japanese, I find that the Magic Tree House series by Mary Pope Osborne is better that any Japanese original story. Now, how can that be, since the text is not authentically 'Japanese'?

Leaping into Chinese

Chinese, now. How the heck do I leap into that? Well, obviously, again, into its written form.

Chinese characters are world-renowned for being the toughest nut to crack. However, with a good bit of Japanese under the belt, I'm not daunted. Especially if I concentrate on the script rather than trying to pronounce it. No four tones for me! - at least not yet. But with kanji, I'm prepared to start on around 8000 hanzi. Let me at 'em!


Internet archive

Japanese genre

Japanese comes next. I've a lot to say about this language, but for now less is more. All that I wish to establish at this point is where I am with it now, and how I mean to move ahead.

In Japanese there is a wealth of material available. Libraries in that country are crammed with children's literature. I don't know how many of the kids actually read it these days, but I for one am at the stage where I'm able to enjoy it.

If my English is at 99% (as it ought to be, given that I'm supposed to be able to teach it), my Dutch is at 80%, and my German is at 50%, then my Japanese - ranked third- is surely at the 60% level. That's what it feels like to me. But it has been a long haul to get there!

Along with children's books, Japanese boasts an entire genre of material not commonly available in other languages. I refer, of course, to Japanese comics: manga and anime. They constitute an extremely valuable resource. And so, from a  Book.Off (the name of a chain of second-hand bookstores) there is plenty to spend your money on.

But I was limited in terms of how much luggage I could bring home with me 3 weeks ago . . .

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.