Ryan Doherty's Blog
March 20, 2022
Languages are hard!
Learning your first language is hard. I did Spanish since I was 18 and probably became fluent in my late twenties. You don't know what you're doing the first time around. It's easier with a 3rd or 4th language.
There are two key elements in my opinion.
1) Don't stop learning vocab. I thought that because I could say what I wanted (and I could), ...that I knew enough so I stopped learning and then I thought when I couldn't understand native rapid speech that it was because they talked too fast, or had an accent, or I just wasn't good at languages. Then one day I started reading a book in Spanish. I looked up every word I didn't know. 1/2 way through the book it was like someone tuned a radio in. I could suddenly understand rapid speech. The real problem was I'd stopped learning.
2) When you watch Spanish shows or movies, have the subtitles in Spanish not English. When they're in English you think you understand, but really your reading your mother tongue. When you put them in Spanish, you realise what words you don't know and also your ear tunes into to the dialogue that you're matching to the Spanish text. Very powerful
Happy language learning and remember! It's only the people that give up that never become fluent 🙂
There are two key elements in my opinion.
1) Don't stop learning vocab. I thought that because I could say what I wanted (and I could), ...that I knew enough so I stopped learning and then I thought when I couldn't understand native rapid speech that it was because they talked too fast, or had an accent, or I just wasn't good at languages. Then one day I started reading a book in Spanish. I looked up every word I didn't know. 1/2 way through the book it was like someone tuned a radio in. I could suddenly understand rapid speech. The real problem was I'd stopped learning.
2) When you watch Spanish shows or movies, have the subtitles in Spanish not English. When they're in English you think you understand, but really your reading your mother tongue. When you put them in Spanish, you realise what words you don't know and also your ear tunes into to the dialogue that you're matching to the Spanish text. Very powerful
Happy language learning and remember! It's only the people that give up that never become fluent 🙂
February 25, 2022
It's all Greek
So I've decided on my next challenge. I'm going to teach myself Greek. This is a completely new language to me. I don't think I've ever had the challenge of learning a whole new Alphabet before so it's going to be an interesting journey. This will be the first new language I've learned since Dutch which was back in 2010 and which I never got to fluency in. Mainly due to my work schedule and family commitments. Or so I thought. Or maybe because I wasn't following my own advice.
It's relatively easy to learn a language as a young student, you have all the time you want on your side as well as youth. As an older family man it's not so easy.
Or maybe it is? I tried learning the Greek alphabet the other day and knew straight away that it wasn't going in. So on my second attempt I changed tactics and decided not to bother learning the alphabet, but just to learn how to read. What's the difference you may ask. Well, I decided just to start watching beginners Greek YouTube videos with subtitles in Greek. Surprisingly this is working brilliantly for me. After just an hour I was reading Greek words. I wasn't able to read every word, but the high frequency words I began to be able to read very quickly, even if I couldn't name the individual letters. This seems to fit what I've heard about the psychology of reading. We don't actually read a book by reading letter by letter and then working out to the word from it. Rather we tend to just scan over the words as a whole and the brain registers the meaning like it were a picture. This definitely seems to be the way to go.
On the third day I jotted down the obvious. A few verbs in their infinitives. The conjugation of the verb to be. Basic vocab. The genders and how to make plurals. Colours and numbers up to 1 Million. Writing them down just in Greek letters with the English next to them helped cement them into my brain. Next I need lots of input, I hope to be speaking Greek by the end of the year!
It's relatively easy to learn a language as a young student, you have all the time you want on your side as well as youth. As an older family man it's not so easy.
Or maybe it is? I tried learning the Greek alphabet the other day and knew straight away that it wasn't going in. So on my second attempt I changed tactics and decided not to bother learning the alphabet, but just to learn how to read. What's the difference you may ask. Well, I decided just to start watching beginners Greek YouTube videos with subtitles in Greek. Surprisingly this is working brilliantly for me. After just an hour I was reading Greek words. I wasn't able to read every word, but the high frequency words I began to be able to read very quickly, even if I couldn't name the individual letters. This seems to fit what I've heard about the psychology of reading. We don't actually read a book by reading letter by letter and then working out to the word from it. Rather we tend to just scan over the words as a whole and the brain registers the meaning like it were a picture. This definitely seems to be the way to go.
On the third day I jotted down the obvious. A few verbs in their infinitives. The conjugation of the verb to be. Basic vocab. The genders and how to make plurals. Colours and numbers up to 1 Million. Writing them down just in Greek letters with the English next to them helped cement them into my brain. Next I need lots of input, I hope to be speaking Greek by the end of the year!
