709

At the end of 2018—well anyway, in a couple of days—I return to my languages project! How long has it been? I won’t know until I update my blog.

I have a new idea, a new year solution as it were. I’m going to kick off Languages Arena according to a brainwave that I dreamt today.

I’m going to motivate myself and others with a simple and straightforward plan of attack. Tomorrow morning, I’ll start laying the foundations. I’m going, as I lamented that I hadn’t in post 706, to satisfy myself primarily, and in doing so others.

708

These days I write only when I have something to say. As a general principle that is ideal. However, from the standpoint of a keystone habit, it is not. So I’m thinking about stopping up the gap.

I’ve a couple of options. One is Amachan. It’s a Japanese series that ran on morning TV 15 minutes at a time. There are about 150 episodes—plenty to keep me busy.

The other is a horror-story podcast. It would be cool to transcribe—correcting the automatically generated Japanese text. 

The point is to engage in regular activity of my choice. Keystone habit.

707

In 1953 Vicars Bell published On Learning the English Tongue. And in 2018, I read it. Of course, some aspects of the book are dated, but overall it is relevant. I found it a surprisingly good read.

Elsewhere I shall post a summary. I find that the book and its ideas fit well within the literacy and numeracy embedding rant that I’m working on. There’s valuable material that I can use to refute some of the assumptions that underlie ‘modern’ educational theory.

I visited the Wikipedia article on VicarsBell and corrected the category in which this book was entered.

706

Sadly, suddenly, I realized yesterday that I’ve been wasting my time.

I was updating a post on The Play-fool Tongue that I’d originally written 2 years ago. I was filled, then, with the enthusiasm of learning quickly and simultaneously a bunch of languages. How easy it seemed at the time!

I still believe that, but I got side-tracked. For most of the time since, my focus has been more upon convincing others, proving my ideas, figuring out programmes that would suit others.

I should have done my own thing. I naively assumed that others would leap at the self-evident opportunity. 

705

The most exciting thing language-wise that happened to me yesterday was not correcting my wife’s confusion between Steve Kaufmann and Steven Krashen—she thought they were one and the same person—but the discovery of this cool video.

At first I thought it was a channel. It looked as if someone was doing what I had been wanting to do. However, it was only a one-off.

Still, I’ll be able to use it. And also, I’ve just realized, it leaves the door open for me. Not only that, it provides—outside of that door—a vista that indicates the destination. 

704

Who would have thought it—that I’d get something of value from a book by Dan Brown? And yet that is the case.

In Deception Point, on the 29^th page I read that someone works as a gister. Gisting is data reduction, distilling the essence of complex texts into concise briefs. Well, that’s something that I do, or have done, with respect to the information surrounding language acquisition.

I’ll point that out in the unit standard which I’m working on. I’ve glossed over so much material that there’s no way for me to accurately reference where my ideas all originate.

703

I’ve completed Mihi Edwards’s autobiography—the early years. There are a number of parallels and coincidences to my own parents’ experiences in this country. The story highlights the degree and the depth of the loss of Maori culture in those times. Literacy is not a simple thing.

As I mentioned, I’ll incorporate this narrative into my literacy and numeracy assignment. I’ll also use it as a prompt to engage further in learning the Maori language. I’ve started browsing a Maori textbook that was written in the early 60s. It has a heavy grammar/vocabulary focus, but also useful passages of text.

702

I thought less of the second two Japanese movies, so let’s move right along. Let me write on the subject of Mihi Edwards instead. I’m reading her autobiography: Mihipeka: early years.

Mihipeka is a Maori woman born about 10 years before my father. The book covers the period when the Maori were forced to lose their language. The interesting thing for me is the Maori used throughout the book—more than just a smattering. In fact, I’m thinking of extracting and tabulating the vocabulary.

As a bonus, I believe that I can use it for my literacy & numeracy course.

701

I watched two movies for the price of none at the Art Gallery today, thanks to the Japanese Embassy. Kanako Lockman had asked, on behalf of the Dunedin community, and the staff had delivered. We have our own Japanese film festival—4 films over 2 days.

The first was Thermae Romae. The second was A Tale of Samurai Cooking. Both of them were excellent. And the lead woman actress was the same in each.

The JET program was publicized at the event. I note that these days there isn’t an age limit. Who knows, I may well apply this October.

700

Concerning German and Japanese, I’m able to decypher each approximately equally. That is, I’m at about the same level with them both. However, there’s a significant difference in the way that I grapple with either, I’ve recently noticed.

With German, I’m happy to read an unfamiliar book. Currently, I’m going through HP2. There are a ton of words that I have to guess at. I don’t mind in the least. But with Japanese, I’m not as prepared to undergo the same degree of ambiguity. With Japanese, I’m much more finicky—anal even. 

I need to simply plough ahead for once.

699

Just when it looked as if today would the the first time I’ve missed posting 100 words—it’s already evening as I write this—I realize that I have something to say.

I remembered The Samurai, a Japanese TV show that aired in New Zealand (and Australia) in the 1960s, and located a short documentary about it. How was I guess about my future involvement with that culture?

And this weekend 4 Japanese movies will be shown for free at the Dunedin Art gallery. One before and one after lunch on both Saturday and Sunday. 

(Stand aside from the game.)

698

I’m a 61-year-old teacher with a 40-year background in teaching at multiple levels across various disciplines, in a variety of cultural settings, in a number of different countries.

I’m being asked to complete a course whose relevance, worth and usefulness I doubt. My compliance is demanded. I’ve not been granted any autonomy as regards the design of this project. It is a governmental and institutional requirement. I’ve not been invited to demonstrate prior knowledge, nor recognition of my experience and achievements. 

In such a milieu, is it any wonder that I’ve failed to find traction for my ‘heretical’ language-learning notions?

697

I didn’t mention it yesterday, but the last few English-subbed episodes of Mother have had poor sound quality, and so we’ve had to view an alternate channel. It has Indonesian subtitles (although the speaking is in the original Japanese). That’s been interesting. Here and there among words that are totally unrecognizable—although the most common of them are becoming familiar with repetition (the way that Krashen promises that they will)—I see words of Dutch origin. The ghost of Holland’s colonial past, and a whisper of Dad’s military service.

Anne and I will have our students do work stations today. 

696

So what I’ll do is continue, daily, until day 700. Thereafter, I’ll add posts sporadically. That will give me the opportunity to address other interests (elsewhere) such as lucid dreaming. Because, hey! I’m a well-rounded person!

Without being aware of it I racked up hours and hours of Japanese yesterday: Mirai no Mirai, an anime at the International Film Festival. Episode 9 of Mother. Kanji 1265 to 1280. I’m finding snippets of Spanish and references to Russian novels in Ruth Rendell’s Road Rage, and the Shanghai setting of When we were orphans by Kazuo Ishiguro provides quite a lot more.

695

My primary interest has shifted. I’m still interested in language acquisition, but not solely. The time is fast approaching that I replace this morning 100-word session with something else.

Yesterday I realized that there’s a bigger picture. I am interested in self-reflection, or maybe reflection in general. And then later I refined that thought. It felt more that I am interested in exploring the relationship between being and doing. Something like that.

These days languages happen to me. I am immersed in an environment where I hear Japanese, and also Dutch. Languages also crop up in the novels I read.

694

There were two occasions today when the connection between language and culture was driven home to me—with Maori and with Japanese.

In the classroom, watching a YouTube clip of Japanese being interviewed about whether they recognized various kanji or not, I could tell from their answers that a lot of language is interpolated. Spoken Japanese is a form of telegramese.

And then in Otago Museum, taking a group for a Maori workshop, for perhaps the first time I became entranced by the story-telling embedded in the carving (as originally there wasn’t a written language).

So these two things struck. 

693

My work with kanji continues nicely. It’s easy to stick to. But now that I’m up to chapter 6 of HP2, and have identified 1250 unique kanji, they are getting fewer and further between.

I used to get myself to read the text from one to the other. However, that is taking too long. It’s taking away from my pace. So it was great last night to latch onto a solution. I’ll keep up with the story in German alongside.

Finally, introducing the 100-word meme to my class, I gave Japanese students newspaper articles to describe in that many words.

692

A colleague has recently been asked to exhaustively analyze his language teaching. He has been given a template of a matrix to complete, with learning outcomes on one side, and resources, themes, assessment type, timing and who knows what else in adjoining columns.

As if this is what we do in the classroom. As if this is what works. As if this is what will help. As if we didn’t already have enough to do.

‘Oh, ya know. One thousand thirty-nine more days till I retire with full pension. Got me a iPhone app counting that shit down for me.’ 

691

I’ve never been a fan of songs and music as an aid to my personal language-learning. However, I did use lyrics to create an activity for our combined Japanese students class. I may create another lesson today matching song’s tiles with lines from their versus or choruses.

The 3 of us at home are now up the 5^th episode of Mother. I fond it just as moving as before. And at work, we teachers are now expected to put together a booklet as our class textbooks. I have reservations about our moving in that direction, which I should really air.

690

Evenings, we are onto the third episode of Mother which I had seen earlier. It’s a Japanese drama series. I even showed it to my Japanese short course class—another means of accessing English (via the subtitles) should they choose to avail themselves of it. Today, for our combined class of 27, I’ll get them into groups and have them enjoy, hopefully, a game I created around song lyrics.

As for me, my most addictive activity is still my kanji code collection. I’ve demonstrated it too to my class.

Learning instruction, yes. Language instruction, no. How it ought to be.

689

I am starting to anticipate the end of these 2 years of dedicated journal entries on language learning. It’s been a great habit—a keystone habit—and I mean to continue it in another, or other, areas. But with language, I’m ready to move on.

I’ve reached some conclusions. I’ve touched upon them here, but 100 words are really too few to develop those ideas. Not unless I string a series of them together.

Perhaps 6 or 7 languages, where I spend tag each to a day of the week. That’s for myself. And I haven’t forgotten about Maori either.

688

You know, you put yourself under a certain amount of pressure when you try and improve many languages at once. You may end up avoiding all of them—which I have to some degree. So here’s what I’ll do.

I’ll spend a decent amount of time on each, one at a time. That’s the answer. I’ll finish a book in Dutch, then in German. And if not an entire book (for the ‘lesser’ languages) then a week at a time on others.

That way, I’m not overwhelmed. That way, I’ve only the one or two resources to remember and organize.

687

I was speaking with a friend about the state of society. How the system sucks you up—you time, energy and focus. How does anyone work full-time and have a life?

They say: ‘this only requires an hour a day’, as if everyone has that time to spare, on languages, say. Is that true? Do we really have that resource? Hmm. 

We ‘waste’ a lot of time, certainly. But we need it to unwind through TV, music, reading, surfing. Therefore, if by participating in an hour of language learning activity we recuperated to a similar degree, then perhaps it’s doable.

686

Literally the last thing of the day, the last line I read, from Rewire Your Anxious Brain by Catherine Pittman and Elizabeth Karle, gives me linguistic food for thought. It has very much to do, it seems to me, with affective filter. I quote:

You can overcome fears if you give your amygdala experiences that teach it to feel safe in related situations. This is the power of exposure.

That’s very interesting, no? That’s why light, wide and shallow exposure is so important, and why we need to understand the need to make mistakes freely. Another arrow in the quiver.

685

From Sachi’s accident 2 days ago, she learned that Mami can’t pronounce the vowel sound of ‘bone’. It comes out as ‘born’. 

With my Japanese students, I’m trying to tackle one vowel sound at a time. Day 1 was ‘cat’. Day 2 was ‘bird’. We look for 20 words with that sound, and then I ask students to make a sentence with as many of those words as they can.

Of course, all of this is just intuitive. I’m not sure if it is effective, or ‘sound’ pedagogy. But it’s a start. It’s worth a try. Today’s sound is schwa.

684

To my class of Japanese students, I pointed out how much English they knew now, gained in 3 or 4 years of schooling. I got them to imagine what they might hope to achieve in their 3 weeks in New Zealand. And then I told them that I would give tips as to how to continue to improve once they got back home.

“Get yourself an English omiyage!” Whether it be a book, an audiobook, a magazine or a newspaper. Something that reminds you about your overseas stay and that inspires you to continue.

I wonder if Sachi will come.

683

I’ve started teaching a two and a half week English short course alongside my regular afternoon class for level 2 speaking and listening. I had only 30 minutes for lunch, which I ate on foot, walking from the Meridian to the Polytech campus. I’m a busy man!

Nevertheless, I had plenty of energy and enthusiasm. It’s always interesting figuring out how to get the best results whilst working within the prevailing educational paradigm.

Regarding Japanese ‘home entertainment’ the 3 of us watched the first part of the movie Gabai. It had Chinese subtitles, and seems to be a true story.

682

I watched a 10-minute video on YouTube called ‘My biggest mistake learning te reo Maori’. It gave me a lot of insights. I could see parallels with myself being brought up as a bilingual. It drove home to me the importance and complexity political and cultural ramifications. I now see that the issue is hugely complex. In short, after those 10 minutes I now relate better to the whole language learning movement for Maori.

At home, we’ve completed Baby Steps season 2. There’s no 3rd season, so next I’ll search for a suitable slice of life series for family viewing.  

681

I’ve a note to myself from I don’t know how long ago that YouTube has Maori language resources.

I see that I’ve started a Maori channel. So far it has 3 items: an hour-long program on flax weaving, and 2 ten-minute children’s stories.

Well, that’s a start. 

I also seem to remember picking up several books from the free box at my favourite op shop. Let me dig those out too.

Just now, I discovered a two-hour documentary about traditional forms of Maori learning. That may be useful for my literacy and numeracy embedding course.

It may all go together.

680

Even for 100 hours, I would need to be motivated. I’d need a good reason. And so it’s important to choose a suitable language. 

Overhearing another staff member being coached to give a speech in Maori as part of some professional development gave me thought. Knowing Maori would certainly result in spin-offs.

I’ll do it. I’ll start in 3 weeks (after the next short course). I’ll gather resources (Maori is not one of the 74 languages into which Harry Potter has been translated).

Finally, a good quote: A foreign language is foreign only you are not yet familiar with it!

679

To date, I haven’t actually proved that my approach works—not to others, not even to myself. That’s because I prefer theory to action, don’t like feeling obliged to, begrudge having to concentrate on one at the expense of the many. That sort of thing.

But I need to. I must spend 100 days, one hour per day, to see how far I get. Not with German, French, or even Spanish now, because I have some prior knowledge. Would Polish be okay, or Italian?

With Polish I have some incentive, and I’d be starting more or less from scratch, therefore.

678

There’s a limit, I believe, to what you are able to explain about learning theory and methodology to a beginner level English class. They don’t have the language, for one thing. And for another, the degree to which they are able to understand unfamiliar concepts is also limited. That shouldn’t be surprising, given that there is limited take-up of these ideas even by mainstream educators.

On another topic, I’ve added to my Harry Potter collection. Yesterday, in the Marsh Lilliput library I discovered a copy of Harry Potter und der Stein der Weisen. To think that I’ve already read it!

677

People gainfully employed have no time for a life. Not these days. Even partly employed I must work hard to fence off a life for myself. I really have very little time and energy to devote to my interests.

Wasn’t it Steven Covey who wrote the book about the 7 habits of successful people? I remember a demonstration that he gave involving a container and variously sized rocks. You place the largest ones in first.

If, by turning it into a game, I could manage to turn my largest obligation into a passion then I will largely have it made.

676

I’m going to have to show Baby Steps to my class. Not the actual story, but the main character’s method of recording notes in a notebook to refer to and learn from. Yesterday in class, the excuses began. Why people wouldn’t be able to arrive on time and leave early. In one case, why someone couldn’t even write! (How had he coped with the placement test then?) People arrived without paper. Without even a pen. And at the end of the lesson, I discovered scraps of paper left lying on desks—abandoned notes. It’s time to start issuing pink slips!

675

I’m not sure, but I suspect that the amygdala has something to do with the difficulty that many of us have in attempting to master another language. I’m reading Rewire Your Anxious Brain. There’s stuff in there that I can relate to on a personal level, certainly, though I’ve only completed the first few chapters.

Today I’ll start another semester, again at level 2, but this time with speaking and listening. It’s shaping up to be a large class of at least 20, mostly Syrians.

I’m thinking too about when I retire. To celebrate, I may do a 3100-mile race.

674

During the holidays it’s much more difficult to keep up any habit. We spent the weekend at Naseby, and so any language interaction was fast and fleeting.

At the Naseby Ice Festival, the chap in charge of the luge was Polish. His manner and accent reminded us very much of Hubert at Uto.

I picked up that the new owner of the Larchwood Camping Ground came from England, originally.

Browsing audio tracks on my laptop, I happened to listen to the start of Pippi Longstocking in what must have been the original Swedish.

But other than that, nothing at all.

673

I’m having a discussion online with someone about just what a polyglot is. The other person feels that being able to speak the language is paramount—after all, glot means tongue. However, my emphasis has always been on understanding i.e. listening and reading.

Quite naturally, we watch Baby Steps in the evening. I’m happy to read a little Dutch or German before a nap, or before sleeping. I enjoy ‘knocking off’ 5 kanji at a time twice or thrice a day, when opening up the computer. And I look forward to my sentence mining in other languages. Truly I do!

672

I’m making, or have made, the decision not to do languages with the aim of selling something, or to persuade people around to my point of view. I’ve done with that self-imposed pressure. Neither shall I learn languages with a view of impressing others. I won’t go for any record of speed or number. No.

I’ll concentrate doing what I wish—namely to get my Japanese up to a nice functional level. I’ll keep up the Dutch and the German. I’ll develop others at my whim, through dabbling.

My blog I’ll maintain for myself, though I’ll still allow public access.

671

People wish for wisdom. People crave knowledge. Instead of seeking it within, by reflecting, they look to others to provide it. They are impressed by achievement. They are impressed by others’ abilities to articulate. But those articulations might not be based on anything substantial.

I hear 80, 90 and 100-year-olds being interviewed about their longevity. I listen to Dean Karnazes being interviewed about his stamina, the coaches on Baby Steps pontificating about tennis, participants in a 3100-mile race explain their motivation, and my colleagues expounding forth on language learning through themes and learning outcomes.

So much of it hot air.

670

Applying Pareto’s principle, 1/5 can lead to 4/5, so—by doing a Pareto of a Pareto—1/25 leads to 16/25, and therefore—doing a P-of-a-P-of-a-P—1/100 can yield 50% of the whole. Which is what my approach to school was. Which is exactly how I apply myself to multiple interests. It’s a playful way to engage. The dabbler’s way. It’s kind of the opposite of being a perfectionist. 

And it’s healthy because it turn life into a game. It takes out the seriousness of it all.

In Barbara Sher’s book, Refuse to Choose, she labels people with this outlook ‘scanners’.   

669

So Sachi joins me as I write. Looks over my shoulder. I show her the Japanese shadowing course. We discover that there are two parts: from beginner to intermediate, from intermediate to advance (sic). Then we discover a version where the text has Indonesian, Thai and Vietnamese translations. Then we come across a Japanese for Vietnamese YouTube channel using cartoons such as Sazae-san plus Japanese video. One thing leads to another.

Sachi also corrects my mistake of scrolling upward with 3 fingers, which reduces my window size and displays all of them at once. Tomorrow I’m going to discuss playfulness.

668

I’ve picked up two interesting resources for Japanese. From Dunedin Library, a week ago, I borrowed My First Japanese Kanji Book by Anna and Eriko Sato. It’s bright and colorful. I hope to delve into it. Then more recently—in fact only a day or so ago—I discovered this Japanese shadowing video on YouTube. It also looks useful and interesting. And also, I hope to delve into it too.

According to the Pareto Principle, the top 20% gives 80%. Therefore, the top 20% of the top 20% gives 64%. One step further, the very top 1% gives you 50%.

667

Again I considered what was best: to do just the one language and make rapid improvement, or to amble along on a wide front. The solution may be both! Work on Japanese for half of the time, and do a little of everything else the other half.

I update my Alexander Arguelles post and learnt something new: the distinction between a multilingual (who has simply grown up with multiple languages) and a polyglot—doing polyglottery (who deliberately learns many new languages from scratch). 

In Jo Nesbo’s The Snowman, there’s quite a lot of incidental material about the dialects of Norway.

666

It may not seem as if I’m always engaging in languages. And to some extent, that’s true. However, I am always thinking about how to learn them. That’s the thing I’m fascinated by.

I have that in common with my philosophical musings. In essence my interest in them are exactly the same. What I enjoy is figuring both of them out. Figuring out anything generally.

Apropos yesterday’s discussion about Polish, here is the link to Project Gutenberg’s 43 books in that language, and probably some decent Polish resources on this website. Sadly, some of the links are broken, I discovered.

665

I’ve a backlog of links that I want to get through. The first links to The Hound of the Baskervilles in Polish. You can read and listen to the Arthur Conan Doyle novel there. Loyal Books it’s called. Makes use of Gutenberg Project by the looks of it.

At home we, the 3 of us now, have started on Season 2 of Baby Steps. Sometimes the Russian KissAnime site is too slow, so we find it on YouTube.

Finally, I completed a generic worksheet for students to do for their listening portfolio. I meet with Steve today to hand over.

664

I’ve decided to merge two of my blogs: Playfool Tongue and A Language, a Life. They cover the same territory, that of language acquisition. I’d started one a couple of years earlier and more or less forgotten about it. It was also written simple and short—as if to my 15-year-old self, so its tone is not that different from Playfool Tongue. The question now is which template to use, and which title?

I haven’t started, but I’m very keen to start mining sentences. Copying them out would be slower, but more powerful that simply cut-and-paste. I might mix languages.

663

When I did some Spanish the other day, I concluded that, although I was covering a lot of ground, there were only a few sentences that I was able to recognize. And that got me thinking that I ought to apply a little more focus. 

One way to do that would be to collect, or mine sentences, as per the suggestion of Khatzumoto. He used to suggest that people collect around 10,000 sentences from authentic texts, and to learn them Anki style.

He himself went off the idea for some reason, but I think it is one of his best.

662

I disagree with Paul Nation’s notion that you need 95 to 98 percent word knowledge to be able to read a text. Yesterday I wrote a post about that. Then, to be fair to the man, I viewed a 15-minute clip of him speaking. I learned about fluency and how to teach it using the 4-3-2 technique. 

I plan to use it with my Speaking & Listening class this semester. I’m finding that I’ll need to tweak what others have done. Fewer, fairer and less onerous assessment, for one thing. This is Level 2 what we’re talking about after all.

661

A few days ago I wondered about the reason why I’m using the library less. Alarms that beep? Loss of habit? Plain laziness? Hyper-choice?

Yesterday I believe that I reversed that direction. I learned about a couple of areas in the children’s section that have foreign language books for youngsters. And for Sachi, I showed her the Japanese section where she pounced on a series of manga that was her favorite back ‘home’. She needed all 10 volumes right away.

We were waylaid by The Great Taste on the way back, and spent some quality reading time as a result.

660

We hosted a get together with Ian, an old school mate, his wife, Mark and his family, Moto with his sons. The context of much of the talk was about immigration in the aftermath of the second world war and the notion of retiring in rural Japan.

With my kanji code collection, now that I’ve ‘tagged’ almost the first 1000 kanji, there’s up to a paragraph between new ones, which means that I’m getting a lot of exposure through reading the intermediate text.

Oh, and I completed some more Spanish, identifying sentences I’d be able to identify out of context.

659

Collected/completed some more pages of short Polish sentences. The activity is certainly an addictive one. It’ll be interesting to see how far that takes me by the time I reach the end of the novel. Then I’ll be choosing the next addictive activity.

It seems to me that it would be useful to serially engage with a number of languages using Harry Potter paragraphs. I’d cover that text—in different ways, and to different degrees—in Dutch, German, Japanese and so on down the line. Kind of like doing the Heinrich maneuver like Hendrix in a room full of mirrors. 

658

Getting ready in the morning, I see that Sachi is interested in a children’s science book. There’s a recipe for slime, or rather ‘slijm’ since the book is in Dutch. Next thing I know she has Google translate open, keying in the instructions! That’s initiative, as I reported to her teacher later that day at a parent teacher meeting.

Myself, I added points, or quotes, to the post that I wrote about Frank Smith’s Reading Without Nonsense. There’s just so much good stuff from just the preface and the introductory first chapter.

Got in some Baby Steps French before retiring.

657

The main language-related activity I did today—yesterday—was to do a little Polish. On my Kindle, not laptop. That is significant, as I’ll explain later.

Anyway, I went through and highlighted sentences of 6 or fewer words. Nothing more—no looking up meanings. Not even comparing sentences Heinrich maneuver-style. I just want to gain a sense of which words are most common, and of word order.

The documents of the novel—Lee Child’s One Shot—are slightly different. One letter is either a ‘z’ or an ‘s’ capitalized and with a diacritic depending on the Kindle or laptop version. 

656

With Baby Steps, we’re up to over midway in the first—of two—seasons. Sometimes the subtitles are in English, sometimes Indonesian, and sometimes French. I find that my French and Japanese are roughly at the same level—reading French and listening to Japanese. But that would probably not be true if I were to listen and French and read in Japanese. I suspect that my reading is stronger.

Yesterday I learned I’m no longer a teacher! Sometime in the late 1980s a register was prepared of those currently practising. Nowadays you need to ‘renew’ your teacher-hood every 3 years.

655

I use the library less, though I read as much as ever before. What’s the reason? Could it be something as simple as being beeped when I exit with a book that I bought for $1.50 (The Bat by Jo Nesbo)?

And when do I go public with Th’playfool Tongue? How often do I post on it? Where, and how often do I announce those pearls of wisdom?

It’s a funny electronic world. Where are all the real people?

From another library I buy (for 50c) I am neurotic – and so are you. Sachi’s as interested in it as I’m.

654

The novel I’m reading is set in Uruguay. The protagonist grows up on the pampas, riding horses as a gaucho and picking up backwoods Spanish. Natural language acquisition.

Meanwhile, I’m cobbling together my latest blog: Th’playfool tongue. (I’m playing around with the name.)

I’ll link together the take-home messages from its posts and write up the personal approach that I arrive at. At that point, I may go public.

I’m surprised by the size and range of the response to the language poll that I set up in the Facebook Kaikorai Valley High School group. Combined collective experience. Very nice.

653

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.