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My Kindle serves to do the job of making language acquisition more fun. With German, I make a point of highlighting words that to English eyes appear comical. With Spanish, I highlight the first word of every sentence (of HP1) that I feel I’d recognize out of context. With Italian, I highlight words whose context and similarity to English make me go, “Aha!” With Polish, I simply highlight every sentence with 6 or fewer words.

What should I do for French? Is there anything I ought to do to make Dutch more interesting, or can it stand on its own? 

652

A couple of things. Or, as they say in the USA, couple things.

All I need to do is to pin an addictive activity onto each language—one that links with the glossing, forging ahead style of reading an HP type of text. I more or less have those for Spanish, Italian, German etc. I’ll describe them in days to come.

Second thing. I’m changing the name of my blog slash non-course. I’ll retain Languages berserker mode as the subtitle or descriptor. But the main name’s going to be The Play Fool Tongue.

That captures the essence better, I think.

651

Semester end break-up of English language school. Speeches about struggling and difficult, hard work. That’s the mental association people have with learning languages—students, staff and administrators. So sad. So wrong.

I’m happy to glean an understanding by skipping through a foreign-language book. The only “difficulty” I have is that I love reading too much. I become diverted toward books in English. 

The trick is to incorporate some activity that makes the other language more fun. That’s the thing that I have going these days with HP2 in Japanese. The story itself—meh. But kanji coding adds to the excitement.

650

I’ve a book for children in Japanese. It contains chapters each about some biographical figure. One is on Vincent Van Gogh. So I’m reading it.

If I do so slowly, painstakingly, it’s not much use. I understand nothing, because my brain doesn’t see the patterns at that speed.

However, if I skip along quickly, then I make more sense of it. I obtain 20, 40 or 60 percent of the information depending on my level.

Since I move quickly, I cover more ground. The exercise is more useful and productive. You just have to let go and trust the net.

649

From Jack Reacher in Swedish, courtesy of Lee Child, I switched to Harry Potter in Swedish thanks to J K Rowling. Because, when I looked at my Swedish resources, I discovered that I possess the audio of all 7 books. In duplicate!

Although I only have HP1 as a pdf.

Since I know the story well, and since the text is written with the alphabet, I can listen follow along on screen in dual Swedish. And so I did for almost half an hour, at Marsh.

That and coffee is a nice way to spend the morning when snow threatens.

648

For no reason, or some reason, I worked with Swedish today. I had my Kindle with me. I checked out my copies of Logner and A wanted man (by Lee Child). Now, doing a Heinrich maneuver with them should be easy. However, the functionality whereby books are arranged according to when they were last accessed doesn’t work. Therefore, there’s a lot of back-and-forthing required.

It would be better to work with a Kindle and a laptop. I’ll try that today. Or if I had an actual book. On my bookshelf there’s Never go back and Killing Floor.

I’m a playfool.

647

Languages come up. Just as Baby Steps in Japanese had Indonesian and French subtitles, yesterday another Youtube clip had Spanish subtitles, even though it’s in English. Rick Beato’s music channel. So you make use of the opportunity.

I took along a pile of Dutch books for my mother to choose from. Her response was to share them with a Dutch friend. Well, why not? What goes around, comes around. That friend used to babysit me, my brother and sisters. She introduced me to Siddhartha which now I own both the English and Dutch translations. Herman Hesse wrote it in German. 

646

I spent a little time looking at some Maori terminology. I’ve 2 words I’m to write a couple of paragraphs about: ako and kaitiakitanga. So do the other 4 people on this course. We’ll then present those orally to the group, and the video of the ensuing discussion will count as evidence toward one learning outcome.

It’s an expiring unit standard. The last date for assessment is the last day of this year. Develop adult learners’ literacy and numeracy skills within a workplace training or education programme—that’s what it’s called. It includes design, delivery, assessment and evaluation. Riveting stuff.

645

Without really trying, or making any special effort, I read, listened to and explored French, Dutch, German and Japanese. 

This time, Baby Steps episode 4 had French subtitles. Somehow that distracted me a little. There was that subtle difference of knowing a little more French. Also with French, I viewed a Youtube clip: when Hendrix met Clapton. All very poignant.

But no Malay? Malaysian? was on show at the place, formerly known as The Little Hut where Mami and I had dosa for lunch. Pity, as that would have rounded off the day very nicely.

What’s on the cards today?

644

Although we did not get to 4 in a row, I will continue with the discussion. As I said, it’s interesting when the subtitles to a Japanese anime are in Indonesian instead of English. I’ll try to explain why.

As I follow along, trying to pick out an Indonesian word or two, I realize that I’m putting far less pressure on myself, or, more precisely, on my Japanese. I’m sort of subconsciously attending to it while my conscious mind is focussed on Indonesian. In that sense, then, learning a new language utilizing an intermediate language may well be the answer. 

643

We have a streak going! Well, it may just be 3 days in a row, but since usually I flit from one thing to the next I’ll consider it to be a streak.

Sachi and I have seen an episode of Baby Steps every evening.

It’s on Youtube. It is spoken in Japanese with subtitles. The subtitles are usually English, but in that case the episodes are usually removed. It’s a copyright issue. So they get around that by reducing the size and introducing a ‘frame’.

However, the episodes with Indonesian subtitles are not targeted, apparently. That makes it interesting. 

642

I wrote a short post about Alexander Arguelles, the inventor of shadowing. It’s fun to write a series of posts in this way. However, Facebook has proved to be a pain yet again. You can’t make public a group that was created private. Urgh! Give up on that. Has any useful conversation ever resulted from any form of social media?

At night before sleeping I read from Jules Verne’s Le tour du monde en 80 jours. I completed the first chapter. There are 37 chapters in total, an averages of 10 pages each. To gloss in this way isn’t onerous.

641

Maybe yesterday’s manga discussion stayed in my subconscious, because Sachi and I got it into our heads to watch some anime together. We went through Kissmanga to Kissanime, a Russian website by the looks of it (some dubious advertising), but Youtube proved better in one case. We watched a couple of subbed (not dubbed) episodes.

One was Parasyte (sic). The other was Baby Steps. Sachi remembered both from our time in Japan. She would only have been 5 or so.

In other news, I wrote a post about what take-home message I would give language learning experience over 60 years. 

640

At our Hayward College friends’ place, we always enjoy ourselves. We share an interest in things Japanese, including manga. Recently, from the Regent Theatre 24-hour book sale, I obtained a dozen or so volumes in the original Japanese. On the site Manga Rock it is possible to read these in English. It seems to me that an i-Pad is probably the best way to read these comics.

You always worry a little if these sites are secure or not. Oh well, it’s for an educational purpose.

On Twitter, a Dutch friend posed a question about how to identify Chinese 'hanji'. 

639

I tried Wix. Looks great, but the bells and whistles got in the way. These days there’s any number of tools to do things with. However, the tools are unusable.

So I simply returned to a standard Blogger template. It’s the content that is ultimately important. I used default settings—foolproof and quick. We can always change later. 

Anyway, Languages . . . BERSERKER mode is live. I enjoyed creating a post about Magnus Carlsen, so much so that I wanted to push ahead immediately instead of waiting a week.  

I may do that in any case. I’m the boss.

638

I am switching over to afternoons. That means my routine will change. For the better, is my plan.

One day of the week, I’ll do a blog post for Languages: Berserker Mode. I’ll alternate between expanding a stub and creating a new title. Another day of the week I’ll do something along philosophical lines. And so forth and so on. You know the drill.

This morning I’ll start (an early start that predates the shift). I’ll work on the ‘landing page’. I’ll describe what visitors may expect. And to think that I saw it on Mulberry Street. That’s my feeling.

637

I vacillate between establishing, and then following, a routine or of engaging in activities at random, my system being to use a stack of index cards. I’ll decide on one, try it briefly, and then abandon it. Try the other. End up with the same result. It’s quite annoying.

The issue is one of avoidance. It’s natural. You avoid that which causes you stress. 

So what causes me stress? 

Trying to do it all. Straining to do it perfectly. Self-consciously about doing it in front of others, or laying myself open to censure, criticism, even comment. All in my background. 

636

No sooner do I decide to limit my interactions with people do I have a great interactive session with colleagues. There’s balance, sharing, listening, an exchange on views and keeping on tract. A one-hour moderation meeting that spills over into afternoon coffee.

Yes, I could live with such a tribe. I could establish such a fraternity.

The other thing that has become clear to me is that my fanciful dabbling can be thought of as exploration. I’m an explorer at heart, a content tourist. Not an intrepid one though, as I run away from things that I perceive as stressful.

635

Finding your element is all very well. However, too much emphasis is placed on work vocation, and earning a living. How to do business with people. Contribute to society. Interact meaningfully.

I myself feel no pull toward people. I would rather, in the words of a bygone movie star be left nicely alone. Really, I’ve come to the conclusion that I’ve no wish to develop a business. I’m not interested in group activity. A tribe of one will do me: that’s my constitution. It’s not misanthropy. I simply carry the hermit’s gene. 

And rather than act, I’d far rather be. 

634

I’m reading more of both Ken Robinson and Arthur De Vany’s books. And also, just so you can see that I’m not shirking other languages, I put in a good hour’s worth of Japanese (which included work on the RTK1 supplement list).

From Ken, the idea of trying things out in the outside world—as well as the inner—strikes a chord. From Arthur, his description of how his blog grew, without paying attention to search engines nor business acumen, also sits well with me.

Ken also devotes a chapter—which I haven’t yet read—to finding a tribe. Ishmael.

633

It was at high school, perhaps, that I learned how to shirk. I avoided French and Latin. I worked out how to do the least in my other subjects whilst still ‘achieving’.

And so I drink coffee, snack, play chess, roam about, watch Youtube, get stuck into kanji, and even read all to excess. These have become my diversionary activities.

I’ll institute high school periods again. I’ll train myself to work in 1-hour bursts. I’ll learn how to love them. 

Honestly, an hour spent with a European language using massive comprehensible input would almost be enough to nail it. Okay!

632

In The monk who sold his Ferrari we’re told that we think 60,000 thoughts a day, 95% repeated from the day before. In Finding your element, Chapter 1, Ken Robinson advises his readers ‘to turn down the [mental] noise’.

I figure that my tiredness is 60% due to stressing, 20% to physical condition, and only 10% due to aging. So it makes sense, if I want to feel better, to concentrate on improving my mental outlook.

In an Art book about Toulouse-Lautrec I read that Henri’s favorite expression was, “Ah, life!” 

I think I’ll also adopt that as my own.

631

Yesterday—and today until noon—is the Regent Theatre’s annual book sale. The 3 of us got over 100 books for less than $100. And for 90% of the time, I confined myself to the foreign languages table.

That says something. That indicates an interest, no?

Dabbling, pottering, having fun with other tongues. That’s part of who I am.

I bought a dozen good manga. And I’m toying with the idea of returning for some Maigret in French. The history of the English language in Korean, anyone? I may just head over on my bike and hope there’s no frost.

630

With regard to the question of whether or not I ought to drop trying to set up a business, school, or a club around alternative language learning techniques, it’s important to consider the following: 

I enjoy the pottering about. I enjoy utilizing my intelligence, creativity, inventiveness and imagination to fashion something that works. I get a kick out of being a nerd. That’s my natural nature. I wish to ‘keep on keeping on’ and have every intention of doing just that. The trick then would be to minimize the reaction of others likely to prejudge a new idea born drowning. 

629

I begrudge the time, energy and focus that work these days demands from people. It leaves us little. It requires us to use up most of the remainder to unwind, usually in front of electronic devices. Personally, I spend a lot of time simple de-stressing.

I’d love to live my life more profitably. More richly, creatively and inventively. I prefer to approach life playfully and 'exploratively', without needing to justify and fill in boxes behind me as I plod.

I can only hope that this will become my lot when I retire. Either that, or I exit the system beforehand.

628

Yesterday, I was looking to find a way forward. How to offer languages advice, or demonstration. Finally, though, I came to the conclusion that I just don’t want to do it. I just don’t want to deal with people in that way—to place myself in the position of challenging their preconceptions and assumptions. Instead, I simply want to go about doing what I do. I want to potter about with languages on my own, to the degree that I wish, and not to bother at all with changing people’s mindset. I have better things to do with my time. 

627

All I need is a list of things I want to do most days, plus, an idea of when I mostly do them. That’s all the amount organization that ought to be required: a loose routine that doesn’t lock me in. Allows me the freedom to be creative about how I live my life.

You see, not only can it be applied to my language activities, but to life in general. It’s the universal prescription! 

Starting off each day with 100 words—for 2 years on language, but from thenceforth on metaphysics—is how I tap into my inventive ingenuity.

626

My daughter gets Japanese books out of the international section of her school’s library. She reads aloud to me in the evening or in the car. I guess at the meaning, mostly. The latest one is about a girl with a deformed hand. Sachi is also speaking with her mother in both English and Japanese. More or less half and half. It’s an interesting exercise trying to maintain the balance.

At a pub restaurant I’d normally never frequent, I commiserated with a family friend from Limburg. He too doesn’t enjoy crowds. I’ll visit him one day with Suske and Wiske. 

625

I’ve ideas, plenty of ’em, many more than I could possibly act on. But along with the talk there’s got to be walk. You need to walk the talk. And I need to do a bit more walking, it seems to me. Much, if not most, of this 600-plus day journal has been devoted to the ‘talking’.

Still, that’s who I am. I need to go through a process such as this to arrive at both my destination and conclusions.

So why can’t I manage to articulate what the essence of my thinking is? Do I still need more ‘talk’?

624

Reading The New Evolution Diet by Arthur De Vany. There are paleo ways to eat and to exercise, it says. And I claim that there there’s a Paleolithic language diet too.

Tag a bunch of intense short-burst to different times and places during your day. Basically, that’s situational exercising. A convenient daily dozen. 

So what I’d do is to ‘do’ a few kanji when I get up (after my 100-word writing). Read from this novel on the toilet, that novel on the bus (I’d need to start catching a bus). The Kindle in the staffroom. The mp3 player on foot.