196

The other day, something happened that illustrates the difference between language acquisition and language learning. 

I was listening to HP1 in Thai, and heard the word ‘kao’ a few times. It seemed to mean child or baby. And then I heard a Syrian mother call her child. It sounded like ‘Sophie ka’.

I checked later with Thai and Arabic-speaking colleagues. “No, you’re wrong,” they laughed. The first means ‘he’ and the second isn’t pronounced quite like that.

So one is either right or wrong, the conventional way. No credit for partial understanding, even though we learn in increments. Sadly fascinating.

195

I have a 30-day tickler calendar prepared. Each day I remind myself of a couple of activities. I noticed that Hindi was listed for today, and so I acted.

I did a search for Hindi books online. I found plenty at pdfbooks.ourhindi.com and downloaded several. But finally I ended up at Bookbox.com where I listened to a Hindi story.

Years ago, I bought a course and learned the Devanagari alphabet. I might still have known 2 or 3 characters. But as I listened, and followed the subtitles, so many of them came flooding back. They flowed like tears of joy!

194

I’m currently drafting out the units of Universal Language. Now I find that I’m going to have to break down into steps exactly how people may use the ultimate resource. It’s okay for me, personally, to muck about and rely on my own ingenuity as to how to put it to use, but other people will require more guidance.

One idea is that I make use of what I wrote for ‘Einstein Soup’. I’ll dig it out of the vaults.

Another idea is for me to focus on a beginner language such as Spanish, and record precisely what I do. 

193

Walking to Marsh House, I reached it just as Mami arrived. We worked downstairs where it was warmer, later moving upstairs when it became a little noisy. I worked on the first draft of my 1versal 1anguage modules; I got through about 15.

We walked with our thermos of coffee, a pie, and fried rice to a bench on the hillside overlooking the Botanical Park rotunda. We threw grains of rice at sparrows. 

Later, I collected Sachi from school and we walked through the University campus. I watched a shag swimming in the Leith like a shark among the ducks. 

192

I think I’ll move my reading forward. I’ve often thought of creating a reading hour for myself at 8 in the evening, but nothing’s come of it. Now, though I have more of a purpose.

Instead of merely reading for pleasure, I’d do a quarter of an hour each on a bunch of languages. 

I’d be more alert. And it would also be easier to link the reading to listening—sitting in an armchair, instead of lying in a bed.

I can see that plan working. Now all that I need to do is to experience the reality of it.

191

One of my goals was achieved yesterday.

In Japan, I had always wanted to read (in Japanese). I’d always wanted to be able read something of interest—the more interesting the better, something that meant something to me, something that I knew about. And so, I had often searched for a biography of Vincent Van Gogh.

At a friend’s house out at Warrington, I discovered such a book: 10 chapters each with a biography of a famous person. The last chapter had what I was looking for. And I discovered that I could pretty much work my way through it.

190

Lunchtime found me at Marsh House reading a Famous Five book in Dutch on my Kindle. It was an enjoyable read (and the pie and the coffee). Years ago, Mami started out reading half a dozen of the series, then the Narnian Chronicles after which she was set. 

My turn.

Other news, I’m halfway through creating an English transcript from a 40-minute conversation in Dutch/English with my mother. That will be something that ought to help the grandchildren get into their grandmother’s mind, and maybe the language itself. 

I’ll carry on with that work as soon as I’ve posted this.

189

In line with my decision to strike ‘home runs’, my bedtime reading last night was in 3 languages: Dutch, German, and Japanese—a novel for the first, and HP1 for the others. Sounds fine, right?

And yet, I wasn’t impressed with myself. The ability to read in 3—no, 4 if you include English—languages hardly seems to count. And I can tell that even when I eventually add French and Spanish to the list, I’ll feel the same way!

It’s as if I can only ‘count’ a language as a success when I master output too.

Well, that’s bollocks!

188

Previously, I’ve wondered whether it is best to repeat chapters, or just do the whole book. The last time I did that, I decided on repetition. 

But part of the reason for that decision was that, with an mp3 player, it’s more convenient not to have to change its contents too often. And at that time I was doing a lot of ‘unsupported’ listening.

Anyway, I’m going to try the other option from this point. So with German, I’m going to read through the entire HP series on my Kindle as bedtime reading. That’ll give me a home-run book feel.

187

I found myself in the staffroom sharing a coffee with Dr Seuss and Heinrich Schliemann in the shape of 2 books: The Cat in the Hat and its Maori translation: The Poti ro Potae. 

Half an hour before class is enough to go through them. I may do it again today. I got a gist of the vocab and word order very quickly. It’s a wonderful process, and I’ll be interested to see if other people notice.

All I need is to do now is record someone reading the book aloud at normal speed. Then I’ll have my audio.e.book.off assembled.

186

I had a good workout in Dutch yesterday, as I tried to get to the bottom of what has been going on in the life of my mother. It centers about a family issue that predates the Second World War. And it involves the wider family.

I’m grateful to be able to converse in a mixture of English, Dutch and sometimes German. So I was able to carry out an interview that I recorded, and afterwards edited. Hopefully, it shall prove to my siblings that Mum is not at all “confused”. Rather, she expresses herself 'as clear as a bell'.

185

The family attended ‘Around the World in 80 Tales’. Stories in 14 or so languages were being told. It was a great day.

I got out three children’s books in both Maori and English: Cat in the Hat, Where the Wild Things Are, and Gruffalo. Mami also found me the Japanese translation of Tara Road. Wonderful.

But maybe best of all was making the acquaintance of a couple from Christchurch. Both of them are originally Dutch. He is in engineering, and she teaches sign language.

Sachi enjoyed The Hungry Caterpillar. She has already invented a sign language name for herself.

184

I raced down 3-mile Hill on my way to my mother’s, down to Mosgiel, listening to my mp3 player. It sat in my shirt pocket, vibrating in various languages.

But then I decided that I’d better break my journey at the Taieri Lookout. There, I removed the player and wound up its wire. Stuffed it nice and safe into my shorts’ pocket that closes with Velcro. And then carried on. 

For some reason I missed 3 days in a row listening last thing in the evening. But today I got back on track, with said player together with my Kindle.

183

One week has gone. There’s one week to go, before my students return to Kobe and Osaka.

I’ll take them to an op shop. I really must show them how to assemble and then wield a new tool—the audio.e.book.off.

It has 3 components: book, audiobook and translation. It may be the low-tech version (with a physical book) or high-tech (with an ebook). 

This tool is for building another—for English. And English is the tool that effects brain shift.

My students are familiar with the idea of time travel. I’ll suggest that audio.e.book.off is their tool from the future.

182

My Kindle has been sitting idle for a while. Why? Well, I guess that I’ve been reading actual books instead. Also, it’s a little annoying that its battery runs down more quickly than it ought to.

But I’ve decided to make more use of it. I’m going to use it together with my (Mami’s) mp3 player—read one, listen to the other.

All I need to do to set that up is to upload one good book in each language of which I have audiobooks in the best possible format. It comes down to planning, being organized and acting methodically.

181

Walking home on forbidden paths through Ross Creek Reservoir, I listened to snatches of many languages at random. That is fun for me now. It doesn’t bring on tension.

Discovering a new track with a Gaugin-style waterfall, I realized (a new word for Sachi today) that I ought to sort my languages into 3 folders: pre Harry Potter, post Harry Potter, and of course Harry Potter him or itself.

I need children’s stories for the first, for Spanish and below. I need various audiobooks for Dutch and (soon) German. And that leaves French and Japanese at platform 9 and 3/4.

180

For the first time ever, I did some interpreting yesterday. This was at the Maori welcoming ceremony for the group of 40 students from Kobe and Osaka along with their 2 teachers. The speaker himself translated the initial speech in Maori into English, and then I turned some of those phrases into Japanese.

Words such as ‘country’, ‘welcome’, ‘mountain’ and ‘river’ were easy. But for a next time, I’ll need to get up to speed with ‘welcoming ancestors’. But all in all, it turned out to be an exciting and fun event. 

So, I couldn’t keep my Japanese a secret!

179

Today is full on. I have a song in Maori to learn. I have a group of Japanese students to welcome, show around, and prepare for afternoon engineering. I have 4 English classes to set for relievers. I’ve my mother to collect to take to the podiatrist, bring to our home for dinner and then return to Mosgiel. I’ve an online form to complete in order to register as a job seeker, which reminds me about putting the car registration docket in the car.

But at least this is out of the way—first thing in the morning as usual.

178

In 1931, a movie was made. And in 2017, I began to watch it. I’d seen Bette Davis in an episode of ‘What’s My Line?’ Then found a number of her films up on YouTube. 

The movie’s name was ‘The Bad Sister’. It’s only just over an hour long. But the interesting thing is that this version came with French subtitles. I could get in some language activity as a bonus.

Quite quickly, with the extra emphasis I’m putting on French lately, it’s—or I’m—responding. It doesn’t take much to ‘activate’ a language.

As the French would say, “Action!”

177

After a potluck dinner last night, I was about to give myself the night off. I wasn’t going to do my last-thing-of-the-day language practice. But I discovered that I couldn’t. Already, after only 5 days, I’ve got my second habit going.

And it seems to me that this has universal applications. I’ll add to my routine, or write a course, indeed, live my whole life, by adding, amending, subtracting one item at a time.

You might go cautiously and add 1 habit a month. Spend a whole 30 days nailing each. After a year, you’d have 12 habits going nicely!

176

For my book, the publishers wanted a picture of ‘an English world’, so I sat in an armchair in the corner of our lounge, and we sent them the photo. It was all casually done.

The next thing we know, they’ve turned it into an illustration—very tasteful and artistic. But you can see that it’s me.

My real ‘language world’, though, is not so much what I have around me. It’s more the habits that I’ve set up: this habit of 100-word writing, listening while I walk, adding to my foreign book collection, developing my un-learning/de-schooling course et cetera.

175

I forgot to bring along a book to read while I waited for Sachi’s class to end. For a second, I didn’t know what I could do. But then I remembered the mp3 player that I’m now in the habit of carrying.

In my own class, I brought along pdfs of a bunch of close to 100 books in Arabic. I wanted to look through and find a few that were suitable to use as ‘an ultimate resource’. However, there were technical difficulties.

Also, the idea of using Arabic to learn English may be a little beyond my students’ comprehension.

174

I found a notebook someone had lost. Then, I found a pencil. And finally, I found myself with some time on my hands. With these 3 things, I did something new.

I listened to another story—the one I next want to write up (and listen to last thing in the day). As it played, I wrote down the words and phrases that I could catch—a dictation, in other words, a running dictation, to be precise.

The idea is not to pause, but make a stab at what you can. Then you fill in the gaps with repeated listening.

173

Given that it takes from 21 to 66 days to lock in a new habit, it’s early days and a bit premature to start celebrating my new routine of listening and reading to a foreign language last thing at the end of the day. Still, I did remember Day 1.

And I made an interesting observation.

Reading over something that I’ve copied out is different to reading the printed page. I don’t mean the neatness—though there is that. The difference is that you somehow feel obliged to remember, or feel the duty to remember, words that you yourself copied.

172

I once ran 100 to 200 days in a row. And in the past I’ve kept up diaries. But this 100-day log is well on the way to outperforming them both. It’s a great keystone habit.

So I’d like to expand it. I want to kick into motion some other language habit, one at the other end of the day. How about a bedside table triple play?

I reflect on the day. I plan the morrow. And I listen to a foreign bedtime story.

For the story, I use the mp3 player together with a story that I’ve copied out.

171

I watched an old TV episode of ‘The Invaders’ with my daughter this morning. Early science fiction, it may have been, but it was filmed in territory that I recognize from a thousand Westerns. Another thing in common was the Mexican Spanish contributed by extras. It adds color, I suppose.

Although I had two years’ exposure to French at school, I would have come across at least as much Spanish in movies and TV series. I got used to it. It must have sunk in. Some subtle use of subtitles could have produced quite an educational effect, I dare say.

170

I ran into JJ today, at the new supermarket in Mosgiel. He’s moved out here from the city. I hadn’t seen him in at least 5 years, since he was my conversation assistant.

We got to talking, as you do. I told him the reason we were back from Japan—to put our daughter in school. John Son-of-John understood. He once been a principal, and at George Street Normal, the same school that Sachi now attends!

He started out there just a few years after I returned to George Street Normal.

“Let me know when you need new conversation assistants.”

169

I completed copying out a story in French with the English underneath.

I only got about 120 words per page, or 4 sheets for a 500-word story. And that took at least an hour to prepare. Nevertheless, it’s worth that time and effort.

You see, French, for me, lives at the steepest part of the acquisition sine wave. There’s lots of leverage going on. If I repeat this for several stories—a few thousand words total—and then do the practice, French will leap into German territory.

Another great outcome is that I’ve retrieved my mp3 player from mum’s place.

168

It’s all very well, to dabble in a dozen languages. For one thing, it shows that my method fills one with gumption. You lose the fear to feel it in nary a way. But there’s another thing that I wish to show others.

I wish to show real, rapid, in-depth improvement—that my method works quickly.

To some extent, I’ve done it with German. Now it’s time for me to repeat it with French. And next, Spanish.

That was my original intention, and I feel that time has cycled back to that point.

Let’s start with those 2 BookBox stories.

167

Almost exactly 100 days ago, I first mentioned Syria. That was when I ran a 7-week English class for a group of younger students from there. 

Now I’m helping to teach a Level 2 class of 13 mainly Syrian, slightly older members. They include sisters (2 took part in summer school), cousins, and husband-and-wife pairs. I’ll focus on improving their reading.

I showed them this 100-word journal the other day. I invited them to start a similar habit.

Today I plan to show them this post. I’ll also ask them to complete the questionnaire that I created the day before.