quarto_try

So I’ve been trying something new. I was doing a lot of reading about language and there’s a school of thought that learning language by focusing on memorizing words and grammar rules isn’t the best way to go about it, because it’s not how humans innately learn or speak. We speak in chunks that we’ve memorized as pieces and then we stick them together, and as the human brain is great at picking out patterns, if we hear enough of a language then eventually our brain figures out how it works.

As a result, I’ve been experimenting with an app called Glossika, which is entirely based around the concept of chunking and learning whole sentences from the beginning. With each sentence, it’s spoken aloud and written in your base language, then written and spoken aloud by a native speaker on your target language, then you write it down and record yourself saying it. Repeat over and over and over.

After several days of using it, my conclusion is both positive and negative. The positive is that it’s really improving my pronunciation. I’ve gotten much better at extending sounds, doubling consonants, etc.

The negative is that while I’m learning the content, the pace is excruciatingly slow, and because the format is that the native speaker says it immediately after the base language speaker, I’m never forced to recall the meaning manually. I find that I’m not absorbing it as much even though I’m writing and speaking it. For me, having an app give me the English version and then a blank textbox to fill it in (with no Italian provided other than what I come up with) is the best way to force me to recall something. Sometimes I have to stare it at for ten seconds until I remember the answer, but dredging it up from my memory creates synaptic connections more effectively than simply writing it down after hearing it. (Unfortunately there doesn’t seem to be a way to shut off the spoken portion, and simply turning the volume off doesn’t work either, since they also have it written in Italian; I’d see that when I look at the English to know what I’m answering.)

So while I do like the intuitive nature of chunking, Glossika isn’t going to be a be-all-end-all app for me.

That being said, they do have a number of endangered languages, including Welsh and Manx, that are available for free on Glossika. I may check out Welsh a bit once my learning Italian doesn’t need to be so intensive.

Other than that, I’m just continuing to learn vocabulary (using Memrise, Babbel, and Glossika currently). Today I was able to spontaneously send a text message to one of the kids (I’m hoping they will start to pick it up from me using it) without having to think about it too much: “Sarò lì a 1:45, ma non arrivare a il auto prima il scuola finito.” (“I’ll be there at 1:45, but don’t get to the car until school is finished.”)

I’ve been reinforcing the new words I’ve learned, adding a few new verbs like dovere (to have to, must), some nouns (un cavallo = a horse, un gato = a cat, un cane = a dog) because if I’m learning like a toddler then animals should definitely be early on the list. 😂 Also I just like talking (parlare = to talk) about animals.

The big development today was that the verb tense that you use for simple present (as in “I’m about to do something right now” or tell someone to do something, like “I eat” or “you help”) came up in my lessons. Italian verbs, as you may have already noticed, generally end in one of three ways: with a suffix of -are, -ire, or -ere. Verbs are conjugated by dropping that suffix and sticking something else on the end based on both the pronoun used and whether it’s an -are, -ere, or -ire.

Four of the pronouns are simpler, because they’re the same regardless of suffix: “io” uses -o (parlare becomes parlo - I talk), tu uses -i (leggere becomes leggi - you read), and noi uses -iamo (dovere becomes doviamo - we have to). Voi drops the R in the suffix and replaces it with T. (Officially it drops all the suffix and uses -ate for -are verbs, -ete for -ere verbs, and -ite for -ire verbs, but it’s easier for me to just think “swap the last R for a T to conjugate voi”).

But from there it’s more complicated. For lui/lei/Lei, it uses -a if it’s an -are verb, or -e if it’s an -ere or -ire verb. Loro uses -ano for -are verbs and -ono for -ere and -ire verbs.

Well, this is where memorization comes in. Learning like a toddler doesn’t mean never memorizing things and learning rules; it just means to pick things up naturally as you need them, practice by using them, and don’t be afraid to make mistakes.

What I can do now:
Ciao, mi gato. Tu mangi, bambino. Noi vidiamo a bella gato mangio.

Translate: “Hello, my cat. You eat, child. We see a beautiful cat eat.”

I’m starting with Babbel, so day 1 was real basic, but that’s okay because I’ve forgotten pretty much everything I knew five years ago.

Io sono = I am. Mi chiamo = my name is. Personal pronouns: io = I, tu = (informal) you, lui = he, lei = she, noi = we, voi = (informal) them, Lei = (formal) you, Loro = (formal) them. Del = from. Piacere = it’s nice to meet you. Come stai = (informal) how are you. Come sta = (formal) how are you. Buongiorno = good day. Ciao = (informal) hello/bye. Arrivederci = goodbye. Molto bene = very good.

What I can do today:
Piacere. Mi chiamo Robin, del Canada. Come stai? Molto bene. Ciao!