74

A while ago, we moved from Japan back to New Zealand. It’s taken since then to establish a routine into which my languages fit. 

There’ll be no excuses from now on! 

At 10a.m. I’ll do my current language (French). At 2p.m. I’ll go for a walk wearing headphones. And at 4pm I’ll focus on Japanese, followed by the rest (Spanish, German and Dutch).

Of course, that’s just for openers, as there’ll be opportunities to do a few minutes here and there throughout the day. Situational opportunities, I call them. For example, reading at the table during mealtimes. Such a luxury!

73

At Dunedin Public Library I lose track of my family when they go into the toilet, so I hang around at Information.

A staff member asks if he can help me with anything. Why yes. Is there a way to use the computerized catalogue to obtain lists of books written in the various languages?

“Oh no,” I am told, as if that were quite impossible and out of the question. “We can do a search for a particular book using keywords, but the language that they are in is not one of them.”

I find this strange, and say so.

72

I experienced an interesting phenomenon while walking and listening today, and also while reading. What was it? Something that I remember from in my childhood. 

I remember—whilst switching between Dutch and English—encountering spoken or written text that I could only understand a little of. But that didn’t frustrate me in the slightest as it would most adults.

No, I gladly leaped from floe to floe (of understood syntax). I collected clues like a detective, not minding the hours of fruitless searching that this required. The ‘not understood’ parts are neutral, not negative. It’s easy then to forge ahead.

71

Something that I’ve never done until today: listen to an mp3 player while driving (while my passengers listen to the radio). It is a manageable and useful exercise—minus the radio—but you need to keep track of the equipment. I ended up tearing off one of the ear-buds getting out of my seat.

I had the opportunity of getting another book in a foreign language at the second school fair in as many days, when I spotted one in German about Italian cooking. I decided against it, but now I regret it. 5 books for $3 was the deal.

70

I’ve agreed to run summer school in Dunedin, NZ for some Syrian refugees. They need high school ESOL. I’m to start this Monday. The teaching will occur at Otago Polytechnic.

Yesterday I was shown around and signed up. I saw the classroom, was shown various resources, and was handed forms to fill. I began to consider what to include in a possible course outline.

At 3 a.m. I awake. Why not use the method that I've personally found to be the best? Why not enlist Harry Potter as my teaching assistant? I have an Arabic text of Philosopher's Stone somewhere.

69

At a school fair I ask for any books written in a foreign language. I’m pointed to 2 Sue Barton books in German. They are $3 each—a little too pricey. 

Later, I return. They are still there. I pick them up and continue to deliberate. The person at the counter tells me that I may fill a shopping bag with books for $10. Now she’s talking! I take my time choosing, and the price falls to $5.

I walk away eventually with 21 books, including ones for speed reading, learning the English tongue, and a 'how to' for Italian.

68

Two things:

I got the mp3 player uploaded with Dutch, German, French, Spanish and Japanese passages. That turned out to be easy to do. Now, I just need to get familiar with operating the thing. I anticipate some nice long walks in the future.

Second, I’m rethinking what I’d like from a language-learning community (whenever I set that up). If I make sure that my needs from it are met, then that ought to benefit its other members too (if they are the same sort of people as me).

And Gaston plans to send me an unneeded Hindi language kit.

67

I’m reading Lingo by Gaston Dorren. I’d recommend it as a light and interesting overview of European languages.

Chapter 29 is about Spanish. It looks as the speed of the language and why that might be—something that I picked up myself back on Day 26. Spaniards are meant to speak 7.82 syllables per second, the English 6.17, and Germans 5.97.

But Spaniards in Spain speak more quickly than South Americans. So there’s a reason for that variation in the Spanish HP audiobooks that I downloaded.

So I looked up Lingo’s author on Twitter and linked to him. We’re corresponding!

66

I’m back!

I quit these posts some days ago. You didn’t notice. That’s because I had, 11 days of posts scheduled, so they kept uploading. I’m still a week ahead of you, but I believe that I’ll gradually allow that gap to close.

I decided to be more playful—so that I did nothing more than play. But after a few days of that, I felt that work and play go together. They support one another.

That’s not my idea. It comes from Stuart Brown’s book, Play.

"The opposite of play is not work—the opposite of play is depression."

65

Listening on its own is different to listen-reading. There’s no printed support. And so, the material that I listen to needs to be different too. It needs to be simpler and/or repeated many times.

That’s the conclusion that I arrived at while walking around Ross Creek yesterday. So I’ve decided to upload onto Mami’s mp3 player short segments from the various languages that I’m playing with. I’ll upload an hour’s worth.

Then, I’ll listen to that ‘album’ many times, growing familiar with the content, looking over the text now and then. And eventually replace tracks with fresh ones when necessary.

64

At Sachi’s school, I witnessed a pair of parents enroll their daughter on the same day. I guessed they were French, but it turns out that they are Spanish. They had arrived in the country on the same day as us, the second of November.

I felt like using some Spanish phrases with them—then realized that I didn’t know a word! How could that be? I’ve been doing Spanish for over a month.

However, my method focuses on input. A silent period is definitely required before words begin to bubble spontaneously. So in the meantime I’ll try to eavesdrop!

63

I find that I want to simultaneously tighten and loosen up.

By ‘tighten up’ I mean that I will focus on my languages in a certain order. First should come the language of the month—currently French. Next should come Japanese. And then I’m free to do the rest as I wish. This gives my play structure.

That ‘freedom’ is part of what I mean by ‘loosening up’. But there is another aspect.

From now on I’ll conduct my language fun & games with reduced pressure. That’s because I want to focus more on developing my Voyage of Languages vision.

62

The family is getting used to New Zealand again. It’s a bit like getting used to a new language.

A new language takes you outside your comfort zone. You feel excited but nervous too. You feel slightly threatened. You get tired quite easily.

And so it’s important not to overdo the effort. You don’t want to take yourself into an area of discomfort. Do 5 minutes if 10 minutes is a strain. It’s no so much your getting used to a new language; you are getting used to yourself.

(Of course, wherever I’ve used ‘you’ I mean ‘me’, you understand.)

61

I don’t find it difficult doing something every day with languages. But it can feel a little bothersome deciding what to do, and when. 

Therefore, yesterday, I spend my session referring back to the notebook in which I’ve listed the languages, the resources, and my ‘bookmarks’ for each. In that way, I was able to optimize the hour that I had. 

What I still need to work on, however, is the aspect of routine. In the same way that I’ve turned the writing of this log into a first-thing-in-the-morning ritual, it would be good to apply that across the board.

60

I used a couple of techniques to easy myself into language this evening. 

While doing the dishes, I listened with a extension cord over my shoulder. That clocked me up 20 minutes of De Duivel Draagt het Licht.

Afterwards, though, I felt disinclined to do anything more. I started a game of solitaire instead. But then I felt inspired to listen to something as I played. And so I spent 15 minutes listening to Happy Rotter in French, followed by a good chunk of El Principito in Spanish.

Listening on its own can be lighter than combining reading, I’ve discovered.

59

Mosgiel Library has plenty of ‘Listening Books’. But when I asked there for books written in other languages, the staff member admitted that there were none. That makes me wonder. Once people have 'learned' a new language (there is a well-stocked section of that type of book) what are they supposed to do with it?

George Street Normal School has compulsory Maori language classes for all of its students. That could be a good language for me to try. Surely they have resources (other than the teacher herself, and the texts that the children use). Or is that wishful thinking?

58

My plan at Bangkok airport was to buy a copy of Harry Potter in Thai. That did not work out, as most books were in English.

But after arriving in Dunedin we did a tour of second-hand shops. Our daughter suddenly needed Barbie dolls.

At one, I was able to fill up a shopping bag with books for 5 dollars on her behalf. Sachi is a little nervous about her English, so I grabbed a range of kids’ books mainly.

I slipped in a CD of Swahili for kids. And a Dutch book, ‘Dansliedjes’ came complete with a CD too.

57

This is my first day of French, but while flying 10,000 metres above the ground. I knew this would happen, so I planned for it. I chose a French movie for my in-flight entertainment. 

I managed to locate some sort of bank robbery movie. But it was set in Spain, so there was a lot of Spanish being spoken. Actually, it was not so much spoken as shouted at speed. Not ideal, therefore.

I sampled more movies. There were various dubbed versions to choose from. I’d switch languages during the course of ‘Money Monster’ depending on what was going on.

56

I did my languages in the coach on the way to Fukuoka International Airport. All I did was listen. I’d loaded up Mami’s mp3 player with some German, Japanese and Spanish (all Happy Rotter).

Having the audiobook play like that was very interesting. When you combine listening with ‘window gazing’, you are able to relax a lot more. Quite regularly I would drift off—in terms of both attention and dozing—but the language was there in the background all of the time.

You catch what you can, and the rest of it passes from one ear to the other.

55

Reading quickly (at the speed of sound) is much better than reading slowly. That’s the counterintuitive conclusion I arrived at after opening the children’s book ‘Barbar’ (the story about elephants (translated into Japanese)) recently.

It’s much simpler than the material I’d been using. It is a child’s book. But here’s what happened. I went through it carefully, one word at a time. When I didn’t immediately recognize a word, I slowed down. That’s only natural, isn’t it?

But then, when I came to word that I didn’t know, I stopped completely. I shut the book!

There’s a lesson in that.

54

By evening, I hadn’t done any language work (play). I didn’t feel any inclination to open a book or switch on my laptop. So I settled on the couch to do the simplest thing possible. I started reading in English.

That wasn’t too bad. I completed the first chapter of John Dunning’s second book. It was then no more difficult to read another section of my current Dutch thriller. After that, I listen-read to some more of HP1 in German. The narrator is really good. 

And I finished off with some Japanese, Spanish, and a second sneak preview of French.

53

I’ve spent an average of 20 minutes a day on Spanish this month. My achievements:

I’ve gained a ‘sense’ of the language—its sounds, spelling conventions, rhythm, and word order. The other evening just before sleeping I found myself chanting ersatz Spanish in my head the way that my son imitated speaking with his grandparents on the phone at the age of two.

Specifically, there're a number of words that I’m well on the way to knowing. I feel comfortable with Spanish. I’ve started a relationship. 

I’ll copy out the final six BookBox stories. Then it’s on to Harry Potter!

52

I find it remarkable that I’m able to handle normal spoken speed in Dutch, Japanese, German, Spanish—and even—I took a quick preview—in French—which I haven’t heard, read or studied in any shape or form for over 45 years—even when the audiobook speeds up during moments of excitement.

That’s surely a good sign. It bodes well.

I’ve learned to grab what I can get, and to ignore what I can’t. It’s as if I’ve been let loose in a department store for a 10-minute haul-what-you-can. And of course at speed you cover a lot of territory.

51

I like to do my most creative work early in the day. But that means that language work gets left until the end of the day. (By ‘work’ of course I mean ‘play’.) Anyway, by that time I’m usually a little low on energy.

That’s by no means a bad thing, as it encourages me to work lightly and quickly—skimming over things, missing stuff out and generally ‘cheating’. But overall it’s probably best to spread things out throughout the day.

Hey, Japanese went well! Basically, I listen and read in Japanese, occasionally pausing to refer to the English script

50

I’ve started my notebook. Perhaps I should similarly streamline other areas of my life.

One thing it has shown me is that my Japanese approach is too fiddly. It’s difficult to keep track of 4 resources (audio and printed text in both languages). To have to prepare a different pair of files every 4 or 5 minutes is simply too complex.

All I really need is the Japanese to listen to and read, and with the English to refer to when necessary. It may be best to do that with physical books instead of a split screen. Plus the audio.

49

We spent the afternoon with two good friends before whom I laid out Unlearning in a nutshell. I’m getting better at doing that.

Allow languages to piggyback: Use should the language(s) that you know to support a new one. 

Combine listening with reading for maximum input. This combines different skills, stops you from thinking and analyzing, and ensures that you get a lot of light exposure.  

Use authentic material. Your interest and motivation will remain high, and the connected text will encourage fluency later on.

Maybe I didn’t express myself as succinctly as that then, but I’ve managed to now

48

Organization is the key (one of them). 

I see that recently I’ve listed what I’m doing with the current 5 languages. That’s good. But even better is to know at a glance exactly where I am in every activity. I need virtual bookmarks.

It would help to have everything electronic accessible in files: Current Dutch, Current German etc.

I’ll get into the habit of carrying the smallest notebook possible with book titles and page numbers. The easier I make it for myself to pick up a book—or open a file—and continue from where I left off, the better.

47

Conditions these days aren’t ideal. We are in the last stages of preparing to relocate from Japan back to New Zealand. Too much packing and too many parties.

The Spanish I did early in the morning at Macdonald’s was a pleasure to do.

On the way to a farewell party, I used my Kindle to study in the car. I read a few pages of German, Dutch and English. But when I turned on the audio it died—the same as a couple of weeks ago. So I need to obtain something more reliable (duty free on the trip home?).

46

Altogether, I aim to spend about an hour per day to play with 5 languages:

• Japanese: 15 minutes consisting of 3 five-min periods (HP1->^* = LjRe, LeRj, LjRj).
• German: 15 minutes to do 5 pages of text (HP1 = LgRg).
• Spanish: 15 minutes to edit and listen to a new 5-min BookBox story (LsW, LsRs, LsRe).  
• Dutch: 15 minutes of compelling reading. 
• English: Incidental.

Yes, I realize that this could seem quite anal! But it’s worth setting up well, especially for when the number of languages accumulates.

^*HP1-> means that I work my way through Harry Potter and the Stone.

45

Here’s what I need to do—to return to the core principles of how to imbibe (my best word so far) Japanese, or indeed any new language (I’ve taken to using the word ‘Newbian’).

So I’ll listen more, in addition to just listening on my computer. I’ll do that alongside one of my better-known languages (English or Dutch). I’ll need to habitually carry a book together with my Kindle. And I’ll do more repetition, and in larger chunks, staying with a chapter until it feels right to move on to the next.

More extensive. Less intensive.

It’s an ‘unlearning’ process.