The Linguaphile

So, my Chinese is at an intermediate level. I can have some conversations and my vocabulary is quite ok (not expansive by any means!). I’ve thought about learning new languages with Chinese as my source language, not English.

However, the biggest challenge for this, is finding resources. My girlfriend and I headed to a big book store here in Taipei the other day. I found an amazing language learning section, which had learning books in Chinese! Most of it was for learning English, but I found other languages too.

I decided to buy French for Chinese. It looks like like a normal textbook, but it’s written in Chinese.

Maintain Chinese and learn missed vocabulary

One of the reasons why I really enjoy this method, is that I get to maintain my Chinese reading, but also learn new vocabulary that I might’ve missed. For instance, in the first lesson I did, I learned the word for “bracelet” in Chinese.

Besides learning new vocabulary, I also get to used to traditional Chinese (I’m used to simplified characters).

Makes learning French interesting

Textbooks are usually bland for me. Go straight from one language into English. It almost feels inefficient. That’s why I enjoy learning French now via Chinese, because I get to use a language I learned, not only in a functional way, but a very interesting way.

It’s interesting to see how the Chinese frames the dialogue. It’s parallel texts. Also, it feels great to finally realize how great my Chinese is. I can actually use it to learn another language!

Super Context Clues

What I enjoy when reading the parallel dialogues, is that when I start with the French and don’t understand I go to the Chinese and see what it means. But here’s the AWESOME thing: if it’s a word I don’t know in both French and Chinese, I can use both languages to help me guess what it means.

Conclusion

I like learning French like this. Makes it interesting and challenging! I also get to learn two languages at the same time. Now, I need to get more money to buy Spanish and Portuguese versions :)

Hi everyone!

It’s been a while since my last update. I’ve been in Taiwan now for a month and a half. It’s been a crazy time settling in, getting jobs, finding apartments, culture shock and all those other crazy things when moving abroad.

My Chinese

I can feel my Chinese slightly being activated. All those years of dormant words I’ve accumulated are now finally getting the action it deserves. It’s been great, but I still feel rusty and incompetent. Nevermind, it’s part of the being a language learner, but I’m going to try and improve my Chinese as much as possible here.

For instance, I started a Chinese character challenge. You can read about it more here. Basically, what it means is, is that I want to use this opportunity where there are so many Chinese characters around me, to learn as much as possible.

Also, I’ve launched a new website called HanziCraft. It’s a next level Chinese character dictionary. I’ve been coding that in my spare time for the past year. Have a look!

My French

It has been abysmal. I’ve spent almost no time on French. But I think I know why. I know how far I’ve come with Chinese and how much time it took me to get here. It all seems so daunting to me, that I almost want to give up.

But sometimes, I realize how great it would to be able speak French. Then I get motivated again… but it’s lost really quickly when I see all the amount of work I need to do.

My ambitious solution?

I remember starting to read the Loom of Languages last year. It’s a book from the 1940’s talking about language learning, but with a very candid straight to the point tone. It’s probably one the first books that claimed to ignore all the grammar points first and just dive in at the deep end.

But here’s what I found interesting: the book aims to help you learn a lot of languages, by comparing the pursuit of learning them to the same way a bioligist would learn animal species and how they differ. The interesting things about language, yes, sometimes happen in the language itself (like Chinese having the most awesome script ever!), but those things only become clear a lot later on.

To start, learning all the differences between languages in a language tree, is like an adventure trying to solve the mystery. 

So here’s what I’m going to do: learn more languages in the same family tree at the same time as a means to try find the differences and history behind these changes.

Thus, my framing is going to be different. It might make my learning slower, but it will definitely be a lot more interesting!

The Romance Tree

I’m going to start with a Romance tree: French, Spanish & Portuguese. The reason why I choose these are:

French: because it’s my heritage and I really like the language. It’s also a lingua franca for North Africa and other parts of Africa.

Spanish: a language I actually started before French, but failed to continue in. I really like the sound of Spanish and there is a massive culture to indulge in.

Portuguese: its close relation to Spanish will be very interesting to learn about. Furthermore, it’s also a big language in some parts of Africa. I also hope to one day travel to South America.

For now, I’ll start tackling the Romance tree. If things go well, I’ll consider starting a Germanic tree, learning Dutch, Swedish and German at the same time.

So! Wish me luck!

One my favorite aspects of languages is their orthography. How does the language translate into written language?

English is notoriously bad and inconsistent and Chinese is amazingly complex and interesting (for me at least!). Now after just a few weeks with French, my mind is already screaming in agony.

There are so many silent letters and phonology that does not translate into the script. For instance, pronunciation that blends with the previous word. Two examples I’ve seen that I can remember off the top of my head:

• My friend -> Mon ami -> Pronounced as “Maw na-mee”
• My child -> Mon enfant -> Pronounced as “Maw nahn-fahn”

This is confusing for me at the moment. Maybe this is just a teething problem, but I’ve heard quite a lot people say that French is much different than spoken that it’s written. Oh well, I don’t mind that it’s different. I like orthography. It’s like a puzzle to fit the sounds in with the script.

I’ve started about two weeks ago. I got a pre-built deck from for the 1000 most frequent words in French. After two days I chucked it. Most of the words were prepositions, pronouns and other confusing vocabulary which I couldn’t get into my head.

I decided to create a new deck with phrases from a phrasebook. These include phrases like:

• Je m’appelle Niel.
• Comment ça va?
• Parlez-vous Anglais?

Easy phrases to get me going. I also feel that if I encounter a French speaking person, at least I can something! I’ve slowed down now since last week as I’ve got three weeks left to finish my thesis.

This is going to an experiment in micro-blogging my language learning adventures. It will focus on short-form logs on my progress and where my curiosities & troubles lie.

I’m at an intermediate level in Chinese and have started learning French. Japanese is also on the close horizon.

Welcome & enjoy!