In the first half of this post we’ll unpack the benefits of talking to yourself in more detail. Then, in the second half, you’ll find some practical tips on how to go about it as you learn that language.

Why is self-talk a good idea in language learning?

There are at least four headline reasons why talking (out loud) to yourself in your target language makes a lot of sense:

Self-talk removes performance pressure (builds confidence)

You may get anxious in real situations where people can get impatient, for example during transactions in a store or on a phone call in your foreign language. In short, you’re under “performance pressure”.

If you’re practising such scenarios on your own, though, you are freed up to experiment and take risks. This is your chance to push the boundaries of your powers of expression in your new language while not being “under the spotlight”, as it were.

Nobody’s listening, so you can also exaggerate your accent / intonation in a way that may initially feel too flamboyant for real life, but which might actually get you closer to where you need to be.

Self-talk puts the focus purely on your own speaking (builds accuracy)

Live conversation is a two-way experience. That’s the whole point! If you’re talking to yourself, in contrast, you don’t have to give some of your attention over to anticipating how the other person is going to respond and interpreting what they do say (and their wider body language).

When you practise speaking on your own, you can’t get away with mumbling or half-expressing something and leaving your interlocutor to fill in the gaps.

You can’t resort to gesticulation as a get out for lack of language.

You have to fill the silences and, as you do so, you will hear yourself more (including any errors).

Self-talk enables you to get extra practice without depending on others (it’s convenient)

Self-talk is an always-available way to reinforce your understanding of vocab and grammar that you’ve already learned and tp practice recalling it (essential to lodging it in your memory).

You can broach awkward topics that you may not be comfortable discussing with others or subjects that are simply too niche for your average language tutor or exchange partner (such as work technicalities or unusual hobbies).

Self-talk helps you “flag and fill” gaps in your knowledge

When you come up against something you can’t say due to missing vocabulary or grammar, you can jot it down in English, keep talking and then check later. It wouldn’t be so practical to take even quick notes like this in real life. I bet you’d be less likely to follow up, as well.

How to talk to yourself when learning a language (pro tips)

So, then, how do we do self-talk right?

Here are my pro tips:

Keep it short

The exercise will be quite intense, so keep it short. Start with talk to yourself sessions of just three to five minutes. You can always build up to longer as you gain in experience.

Actually speak out loud!

It’s a real thrill when you catch yourself thinking in a new language but, for the self-talk technique, it’s important to speak out loud.

Why?

First, in order to train your mouth as well as your mind.

Second, to keep you on task. If you were to depend on your thoughts alone, you could easily wonder off topic (and back into your native language).

Third, hearing yourself helps normalise the idea of speaking in your new language and will help you to notice mistakes.

Monologue or dialogue?

A simulated two-way self-talk “conversation” is closest to most “real life” scenarios, but you’ll see that some of the topic ideas below lend themselves to a monologue as well.

Begin with whichever appeals most and try the other every now and again.

Don’t be shy about playing roles. Instead, get in touch with your inner drama queen and ham it up a bit!

What should I talk about?

Here are some initial topic ideas, but the possibilities really are endless:

• narrate your day so far
• describe what you can see in your immediate surroundings
• role-play a scenario from your recent life (or from the life of somebody you know or a celebrity or historical figure)
• give somebody directions (how to find the way somewhere, how to do something)
• have an imaginary argument
• re-enact a well-known scene from your favourite novel or film
• talk on a topic that you think you’ll need
• find a short YouTube video or podcast in your language (or in English). Watch or listen and try to retell what you’ve heard. Or turn off the sound and narrate what you see, pressing pause when you need to
• imagine a future or conditional scenario (to practise those future or conditional forms of expression)

What if there’s something I can’t say?

Have a notepad and pen to hand. Jot down the roadblock very briefly. Try to talk round the gap, using what language you do have. If you’ve forgotten the word for “dog” you could maybe say “animal friend” or “my animal” or “like a cat but not a cat”.

How to supercharge your self-talk

We said that one of the benefits of talking to yourself was that it removes any worry about how you’re coming across to an interlocutor. It lets you focus exclusively on your own speaking.

But if self-talk is going to feel realistic, you do need some pressure.

So, record yourself as you speak.

This will force you to keep up the pace and to articulate clearly.

You can then listen back and evaluate yourself or play the recording to your teacher, exchange partner or other helpful advanced speaker. Ask for constructive feedback.

Keep (and date) some at least of your recordings. They’ll be great evidence of how far you’ve come six months and six years down the line.

So that’s a quick round up of the reasons why talking to yourself is a useful addition to your range of language learning techniques and there as some top tips for how to do it.

Nobody is saying, of course, that self-talk can take the place of speaking with other people.

But many of us have found that it’s an effective and efficient way to build up our confidence and accuracy, learn more, get in some extra practice and then go on and have better conversations. What about you?

What about you? Are you already an accomplished self-talker, one who’s had the last laugh with family members who initially thought you had a screw loose?

If the self-talk technique is new to you, how about giving it a go?

If you’re already an old hand, do you do it along the lines I’ve described here or have you given it a slightly different twist?

Follow up questions, comments or suggestions are, as always, very welcome, so share your thoughts in the comments below.

Related posts

How soon should you speak your foreign language?

Sound more fluent: nine tricks

The post Talking to yourself to learn a language? appeared first on How to get fluent, with Dr Popkins.

What is linguistic standardisation?

A language, they say, is a dialect with an army and a navy. In other words, at some point in history, the guy with the biggest stick has often imposed and promoted his dialect and everybody within a territory accepts that as the “standard” form of the language.

The standardisation process often takes place in stages over several centuries.

The dialect of a particular area may become regarded as the most desirable in a relatively informal way, as, from the fifteenth, with the English spoken in the Oxford-Cambridge-London triangle. In the seventeenth century the Académie Française started publishing its famous French dictionary which contributed so much to the standardisation of French. Luther’s German bible helped to cement a standard literary form. Pushkin’s language is often said to have done something similar for Russian.

In many states, the process really got going big time among the wider population in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries with the advent of universal compulsory education which aggressively promoted a standard form of the “national language” to whole populations. Mass literacy enabled the development of a popular mass print media and people got used to understanding the standard form to discuss a wide range of fields. In the twentieth century broadcasting intensified the spread of standard forms.

These changes were often intertwined with linguistic modernisation, for example introducing new terms to cover areas such as science and technology. There were sometimes thoroughgoing official drives to “purify” the language of foreign influences (as seen for example Czech or Turkish where German or Arabic words were replaced with new “native” coinages).

Standardisation is never complete. In Germany or Italy, for example, local dialects such as Swabian or Saxon, Neapolitan or Venetian have often remained strong. In China as well there is still huge dialectical diversity within Mandarin (plus completely different Chinese languages, often – confusingly – referred to as “dialects”).

Even if local varieties decline, new varieties can emerge, such forms of English that have developed among ethnic minority communities. Many modern societies have youth subcultures with their own slang or non-standard forms.

Still, regardless of such diversity, as a potential German, Italian, Mandarin or English learner, you have a clear steer as to what, exactly, you’re trying to learn. With Portuguese for example, the only question you’ll face will be whether to focus on Brazilian or European “standard” versions of Portuguese (or both).

With majority languages, learner materials will usually be in the standard form, even if they try to reflect different registers.

You can expect knowledge of the form to be widespread and its use expected.

If you’re learning a less standardised “lesser used” minority or indigenous language, though, things could be a bit more complicated.

Different degrees of standardisation

In the case of lesser used or endangered languages, this standardisation may have happened only partially or not at all. After all, by definition, the language has not managed to become established as the dominant official language of a state, with all the advantages for its use that this implies.

Let’s look at a few examples of what you might find along what we could call the spectrum of standardisation.

Welsh has been a written literary language. Standard form captured in the 1588 translation of the Bible and explosion in Welsh publishing in the eighteenth and nineteenth century. Towards the end of the eighteenth century, Wales had (in Welsh) the highest levels of popular literacy anywhere in the world at that time, thanks to the work of the non-conformist Christian sects. Secular use of the standard literary language widened in the nineteenth century and twentieth century with a mass print media. In the twentieth century (especially in the second half) some use of the language in radio and television also helped as did some use of the language in the education system, especially the growth of Welsh-medium schooling.

In Brittany, in contrast, there were never such standardising forces and the language remained more an expression of local, village identity. Standardisation was a more marginal project of intellectuals and the French state was (and remains) pretty hostile.

In contrast to Welsh or, still more, Breton, other European standardisation attempts had spectacular success because the political stars aligned for a push to introduce mass education in the language before linguistic shift in favour the previously dominant language. Czech became the dominant language in the Czech lands despite German’s previously more privileged position. In Finland, Finnish triumphed over Swedish, Icelandic managed the same over Danish, Slovaks did it despite Hungarian and German and standard forms of Estonian, Latvian and Lithuanian triumphed in the Baltic states despite Russian’s previous superior status.

In Ireland, Wales, Brittany, most speakers have have already mastered the official lingua franca before the “native” languages made much headway in the education system and English or French which opens wider doors and were hugely prestigious and powerful, conferring social status, economic advantage and, later, access to new mass entertainment, including very attractive youth subcultures.

Irish standardisation was promoted by the Irish Free State beginning in the 1920s but, again, only after English was firmly established as the main spoken language of the mass of the population.

Standardisation has also come late to Basque. There are five historic dialects but in the “Euskara Batua” (Unified Basque) was developed in the 1970s. Basque was still strong on the ground in some areas but a wide knowledge of Spanish or French was already firmly established.

In the Basque Autonomous Region, the standardised form has been much more energetically promoted than Welsh in Wales or Irish in the Republic of Ireland (in Northern Ireland, the Irish language is still dramatically discriminated against and current attempt to change that are vigorously resisted by some Unionist knuckle-draggers).

In comparison with Welsh or Irish, standard Basque is much more used in administration, education (at all levels) within the Basque Autonomous Region and the language is also more used in the press and broadcasting (both accessible throughout the Basque Country). There’s wide popular acceptance of the new standard for but it has not displaced local spoken in daily use (outside official contexts)

Some languages may not have a standard form at all but clearly demarcated dialects, for example Dakota.

As you inform yourself, it may turn out that your new language is actually several. Sámi (Lapp), for example, spoken in an arc across northern Norway, Sweden, Finland and Russia is often referred to as one language but is actually (depending on classification) at least ten related languages. Apache is another example of a blanket name for several separate (though closely related languages). In New Zealand, Maori has dialects but the differences are not great and they are easily mutually-intelligible.

It’s best find out the story of the standardisation of your language early, before you start acquiring materials or even learning a version that for your needs, turns out to be the wrong one!

Inform yourself about variety within your language

How do you find out? Read up about the situation regarding your target language.

Talk to teachers and other learners as much as you can.

In any case, you’re going to want to get talking to native speakers as much as you can but remember that native speakers aren’t always reliable witnesses. The extent of the differences between dialects can become exaggerated in their imaginations because they are not used to using the language with people from other parts of the country. Their subjective beliefs are themselves an important element of the picture, of course, but they could probably often make themselves understood from context or by paraphrasing if they really had to. The point is, though, that English (or French or whatever the dominant lingo is) is an available, more prestigious and more appropriate for use with strangers even from their own linguistic group.

Be aware too that those out to denigrate minority languages often take great delight in stressing (or exaggerating) dialectical differences within the minority community, in order to promote the majority language. They may even be unaware that their own dominant language has gone through a standardisation process itself and just assume that it is inherently superior.

Availability and choice of materials and different versions of your minority language

The materials available may influence your choice of what form to learn.

You certainly need to be aware of the range that there may be out there before you choose a textbook.

In my experience of Welsh, it’s only older textbooks (1950s or before) that teach “high” standard literary Welsh. Modern courses (print, online, classes) teach a more colloquial register. There was even an attempt to promote a simplified new standard for learners more closely modelled on the spoken language, though this is now

Teaching materials also try to teach the differences between regions of Wales.

The Welsh Joint Education Committee produces a “South Wales” and a “North Wales” version of its standard textbook series (Cwrs Mynediad, Cwrs Sylfaen and Cwrs Canolradd), for example. This north/south division is somewhat arbitrary (as it ignores varieties within “the North” and “the South”. In the Welsh case, to repeat, the differences aren’t that great in any case.

In Basque, the Bakarka textbook series that I use is available with Spanish or French as the language of instruction and there are orthographic and vocabulary differences to reflect some usage differences between the northern Basque Country (the provinces in the French state) and the south (the provinces within the Spanish state). The grammar is Batua, though. The Assimil Basque course teaches Batua but has some detail of common alternatives found in the French provinces.

Alan King’s The Basque Language and Alan King and Begotxu Olaizola Elordi’s Colloquial Basque both introduce some of the dialectical varieties of the language).

When I attended a Basque residential course at the Maizpide school in Lazkao, Batua was taught but they did include the second person singular forms ( known as “hika”). These exist in standard Batua but are not commonly used in the standard language and in many dialects. They are however used in the language as it’s spoken by the large native-speaker population in the area where the school is situated.

Why are you learning? Who do you want to speak with?

As yourself why you are learning a minority, lessor-used or indigenous language.

In particular, if you already know people you want to use the language with, it makes a lot of sense to learn their version of the language. In areas where Basque is strong, learners often learn the official standard form but try get used the more colloquial spoken version (often called the “street” version) used in their locality in less official contexts, as well.

Enjoy the diversity….enriching not frustrating!

If your materials, classes are only available in a different form from the one you want to learn, don’t panic. Talk to your teacher and other learners.

Dialectical differences notwithstanding, there will still probably be a very great deal of overlap.

Ask native speakers whether they’d say something as presented in your textbook.

Rather than regarding varieties of the language as a frustrating complication, you can ask them to point out the differences and use such interactions as a talking point, a way to get active with the language and start noticing its richness and variety.

In short: learn about the differences and be aware of what forms are presented in potential materials be aware of what form of languages materials. Think about what you are learning the language for.

If you want to speak, make sure you are learning as much as possible what’s spoken by the people you actually want to speak.

It doesn’t mean you can learn other registers as well…and you’ll probably find the minority language dialects and other differences aren’t as insurmountable as you might be led to believe.

Related posts

Minority language recourses: a guide

How to find minority language native speakers

Learning minority languages: overcoming negative attitudes

Why learn a minority language?

The post Minority language dialects: a challenge for learners? appeared first on How to get fluent, with Dr Popkins.

Keep your toolkit to hand

Learn what I call your toolkit phrases from the very beginning. That’s to say, learn those questions and requests you can use to aid your understanding through the medium of your target language. Things like “Could you repeat that please”? “Could you speak more slowly?”. “How do you say x”?

Toolkit phrases can help you sound more fluent because they mean that you can discover more about your target language through the medium of the language itself. That feels like progress and helps keep the most basic of conversations going.

Learn collocations and chunks of language

Yes, you probably always need more vocabulary than you have at the moment, but don’t just learn individual words.

A great way to sound more fluent is to try to learn a lot of ready-made word combos too. The context helps vocab to stick in the memory.

Remember, it’s often “chunks” of language that native speakers are retrieving from memory as they speak. It’s one reason we can speak so fast in our native tongue and don’t have to think about the rules.

These combos could be “collocations”: two or three words that go together as a matter of style more than logic. For example “sit an exam” in English, “to stand an exam” in Welsh, “to put down an exam in” German). “Merry Christmas” but not “Merry Birthday”. They could also be longer set phrases: “How’s it going?”, “Do you take milk and sugar?”.

Remember, as a language learner, your goal is not to build sentences from the ground up. You’ll likely as not get that wrong. Even if what you say is grammatically correct, it may just not sound natural.

For fluency, steer clear of bespoke whenever you can, go for off-the-peg language!

Build out your fluency topics

It may be quite a while before you’re fluent in the sense of freely conversing in the full range of situations, able to discuss in depth topics that matter to you and – when required – those that don’t.

That doesn’t mean you can’t sound more fluent fast on a limited range topics. Make a list of themes and situations that are particularly relevant to you. These will include responses to pretty typical early questions: “Why are you learning the language?”, “Why are you visiting the country?”, “Do you have children?”, “What’s your job?”.

They will then include words and phrases around more bespoke topics you’d like to discuss in your target language. Maybe what you need relates to situations you’d like to be able to navigate: specialist terms relating to your work or hobby, how to hire a bicycle or chatting about Formula One.

We’re talking here developing “islands of fluency” that will eventually join up till you have a whole continent!

Make the most of what you’ve got

Ok, so more vocab is always useful but be ready to make the most of what you’ve got.

You may have forgotten the word for “dog” but can you say something like “house animal” or “friend animal”, maybe combined with a barking sound or waving your arm like a tail. It’s not ideal, I know, but you’ll probably be understood.

This sot of strategy can work at all levels of language learning and, as your conversation partner twigs what you mean, they’ll probably say the missing word: you’ll get it on a plate for future use, without having to turn to the dictionary or stop the fluent flow.

Keep it simple

Don’t run before you can walk! As a beginner in a new language, you won’t need telling this. Be careful not forget it, though, as you move into intermediate.

Thing is, at that stage, your course book or teacher will be saying “psssst” from the sidelines and pushing you all sorts of intoxicating substances: think relative pronouns, conjunctions and conditionals.

Yes, as an intermediate learner you’ll feel the pressure on to understand more complex language, including longer sentences, with sub-clauses qualifying or amplifying information. You’ll need to start using these in your writing as well.

But don’t get carried away.

Don’t let what you can understand when you hear it – or what you can do when you’re writing – get in the way of straight talking.

Real native speech is often more broken up than the smooth prose of a well-written text. It’s full of false starts and recaps.

Accept this and try to chop what you’re trying to say up into short and simple phrases. That way, you’re less likely to end up tied up in knots of your own making.

Yes, this may mean you don’t feel as sophisticated as you do in your mother tongue. Accept that it’s a necessary stage.

On the topic of sophistication: avoid trying to crack too many jokes and puns in your target language. The natives will assume you’ve made a mistake, not that you’re trying to be funny.

Use fillers

Fillers are the little words or even otherwise meaningless umm-ing and ah-ing that native speakers use to faciliate interaction: “….you know,…” “Erm, well…”.

When you seen them written down, they may look like they’re breaking up the flow.

They often oil the wheels of a spoken exchange, though,

Yes, fillers can be a polite way of softening unwelcome or awkward news.

They can also win you time and signal that you’re engaged with your conversation partner when we’re unsure how to respond or trying to process what it is that we want to say.

Since native speakers use fillers so much, as a learner who wants to sound more fluent, you should too.

Plus: when you’re a learner, you need, urm, like, ah, as much “processing time” as you can get.

Listen more

Here’s an idea: sound more fluent by not speaking at all….

In our conversations many of us would probably learn a bit more if we spent more time actually listening to what the other person is saying, rather than rehearsing in our heads how we’re going to respond or even interrupting before they’ve finished.

As a language learner, it’s all the more important for you to “put a sock in it” for a few seconds and really pay attention.

If you wait, a little more context may help you to catch the gist of what’s being said, even if you can’t understand every word.

You may not just notice more of the language but also get more of the message. If you become known as somebody who’s as a good listener, it’ll only deepen the real relationship that can so enrich your language learning journey.

Use the power of questions.

Of course, there will be times keeping quiet means that you just get left behind.

Rather than bringing the conversation to a halt by admitting that you haven’t understood everything, you can sometimes use a leading question or two to make sure you’re on the right track.

The question could simply echo what’s been said as a light-touch comprehension check:

“So, you’re saying x?”

“So, we’re meeting at 6pm in front of the cinema?”.

In this second example, intonation alone in English serves to form a question.

Also, be sure to pay attention to whether and how the natives use intonation to check what’s just been said.

In English we also often add a “question tag”. This typically follows a statement as a way of checking whether it’s true or not.

“So, we’re meeting at 6pm in front of the cinema, are we?”

Our English tag questions are rather complex because they echo the tense of the verb: “are we?”, “…couldn’t you?”, “….didn’t they”? Welsh does the same.

English has simpler tags like “right?”, “ok?” as does Welsh. In French you have the fixed tag “n’est-ce pas?”. Spanish has ¿verdad? In German there’s “oder”. These all mean “right?” or, as the yoof says on the street of London, “innit?” ;).

If you’re a little less sure about key aspects of what’s been said, you can still at least signal that you’ve understood a lot:

“So, we’re meeting tonight but when and where did you say?”

That keeps things moving and feels a whole lot better than surrendering the field.

Don’t provide a running commentary on your mistakes

Are you the sort of cook who starts apologising for what you’ve prepared even when you’re bringing it to the table?

Why do some of us deliberately frame how our efforts are received in a negative way?

Maybe the cause is too much introspection or too much comparison with others. Are we trying to provide some “cover” for our lack of confidence?Are we just fishing for compliments?

You may be struggling to use the language or topics of conversation may running dry, but no! Don’t respond by running down your attempts to speak the language.

Ok, your host culture may expect the use of humbling or self-deprecating speech in some contexts (as I’m discovering as I learn Japanese). Such exceptions aside, though, running yourself down will only make you feel even less confident. It may and even prompt your conversation partner to start speaking to you in a less natural way or even to switch to English.

Remember, most people you’ll be talking to aren’t actually that interested in your efforts to learn their language or how well you can speak it.

They’re interested in your message. That’s true in a brief transaction during which they may be under pressure to perform quickly (the counter staff at the supermarket or railway station). It’s just as much the case at a party after a few drinks, an in-depth discussion on the meaning of life.

______________________________

Yes, stumbling, um-ing and ah-ing through awkward pauses and dead ends is an inevitable stage of learning to speak a foreign language.

Often, you’ll feel anything but fluent.

Let’s accept this.

But let’s use these tips to do all we can to help keep things moving, as well.

If you do this, you will sound more fluent and will win the confidence of your conversation partners. That means you’ll be well placed to get more and more practice. Sooner rather than later, you really will be fluent!

The post Sound more fluent: nine tricks appeared first on How to get fluent, with Dr Popkins.

Speaking from day one: how? The “extreme” approach

There are various models of “speaking from day one”.

Perhaps the purest form is what linguists do in the field when they go and live with a tribe with an “undocumented” language and work it out, notebook and tape recorder in hand.

At the non-specialist level, though, the “far end” of the spectrum is sitting down with somebody who is fluent in your target language partner and just starting to try to communicate.

This could involve leafing through a magazine, using the pictures and your finger. It’s something you could start doing with a teacher or an untrained exchange partner (in person or online).

Specialist teachers sometimes take this approach with their students, maybe using more abstract props such as the small coloured rods (Cuisenaire rods). They might use these to teach propositions, illustrate other relationships or to represent objects, for example.

You could just start to communicate on a Skype call or sitting together in a café using Google translate.

Alternatively, you may get out into the field in a more active sense, by going to an event put on near where you live by a migrant community of people who speak the language or taking a trip to a place where the language is spoken. Your “speaking” may initially only amount to repeating pleasantries you’ve learned by heart or things you have just found out. You may well find yourself waving your arms around more than speaking, but there’s nothing wrong with a bit of arm waving among friends .

A milder form of “speaking early, speaking often”

A more common approach among “early speakers” is to do some limited initial preparation.

This could be work on pronunciation. It could also include working through a few chapters of an introductory text book or reading through a practical phrasebook.

It could involve collecting some basic relevant phrases, maybe working with a tutor to hone some bites of language that are relevant to your needs and situations. I always like to include “toolkit phrases” (such as “how do you say x in Japanese/Spanish/whatever?” or “please repeat that”). You can then use these to learn more of the language such as asking people to repeat, write something down or speak more slowly.

At this point, you can start the speaking in the contexts we’ve already mentioned.

You could, though, delay further and try to learn, say, the first six hundred to one-thousand words (which make up between 50% to 70% of the average general conversation.

The advantages of starting to speak a foreign language early

Whether in its pure or more moderate form, there’s a lot to be said for “speaking early, speaking often”.

First, you feel you’re underway.

That’s great for motivation, at least if your expectations are realistic. Your communication is going to be very basic and limited for quite a long time. It will involve a lot of frustration but, hey, you’re still speaking! It needs saying, too that frustration is inevitable whichever approach you take.

You’ll probably also be forming personal relationships which, if thing go well, could develop and reinforce the need for the language and the pleasure of it.

Speaking with a real live person in a language you’re not far into is also a very intense experience. On the “what doesn’t kill me makes me stronger” principle, it means you’ve got over any inhibitions about speaking before you make a big deal out of it.

Such intensity brings you straight up against the absolute communication essentials that you need to express yourself. This could help sear what you’re experiencing into your memory, especially if you’re using the language out and about to satisfy real needs…just like a child does when learning. In this sense, this approach goes with nature.

Even in a more controlled, exchange situation, there’s no chance that you’ll be just learning “about” the language (as you could easily end up doing if you take a purely book-bound initial approach).

Speaking early: a question of personality

If you’re an extrovert who seeks out contact, loves striking up conversations and gets bored easily with studying, speaking from day one makes a lot of sense.

There’s no use in you postponing “the action” and giving up.

Confident introvert too may fancy some early action just to get an initial taster before doing some more structured and controlled preparatory study.

For many, though it can be a challenge to speak early, speak often. This specially true if you’re a newbie language learner.

You may feel self-conscious and humiliated.

In “real life” you may find that people are impatient or simply don’t understand you. So, you’ll have to develop a thicker skin and keep a smile on your face. That comes with practice.

If you’re trying to speak in a structured situation with a tutor, you can expect more patience and understanding. Some people still find it an ordeal, though. You will still need to be determined and not put off by mistakes and misunderstanding.

Further tips for starting to speak early

If you’re less socially sure, work on building up your confidence or seek ways to speak that are less intimidating. The internet can help here. Try live online lessons but turn off the camera, for example.

Out and about, you may also need to take action to stop people switching to English. It’s so demotivating when that happens.

Be ready to guess and be at ease with ambiguity.

The approach will work particularly well for a language that is close to the language to one you know already.

You’ll probably cope better both in understanding and speaking yourself. You can draw on your experience of the syntax and vocab of the related language and be able to make educated guesses (as you’ll often need to).

If you do go mainly for speaking it doesn’t mean you can’t do more formal study as and when you feel that some extra polishing is needed.

This may involve some extra work on pronunciation with a teacher or having a teacher audit your speaking for big repeated mistakes to avoid them getting “fossilised”. Remember that to get good at writing in your native language, you had to practise a lot and get lots of feedback. You’ll need that too in your target language. Then you can do lots of listening and reading: essential to progress beyond lower intermediate in an optimal way.

Delaying speaking: how?

As with speaking early, there are various spins on the approach.

One is to dive in and work it out as you go, much as the early speakers do, except that you dive not into conversations but into text (audio/audio visual or written).

This might be simple reading, perhaps with the aid of pictures or listening to audio or watching videos (maybe initially with sub-titles in a language you understand) and later with sub-titles in the target language (“captions”). Combining listening/watching with work with a transcript can be highly effective.

This is the “comprehensible input” approach made well-known by Professor Stephen Krashen.

Some successful language learners build up huge reserves of passive experience of the language this way. They delay getting stuck in and activating it when they arrive.

As with speaking early, you may go for a more moderate version of this: learn some high frequency vocab and structures first.

Another approach is to delay attempting any of the core skills (speaking, reading, listening, writing).

Instead, start first by blitzing the core vocab and structures.

The aim is to learn the first, say, three thousand words (ideally in or accompanied by examples of their usage in short phrases – “chunks” of language), plus your toolkit phrases (of course!).

You’ll want to do some work on the sound of the language too, to make sure that you’re able to pronounce what you’re leaning correctly.

You may read about the language to get a mental “map” in your head, just so that you know what’s coming up and what to look out for but still keeping the grammar explanations relatively light.

You could get all this by working through a conventional textbook or online course (though you would probably want to do initial vocabulary work as a typical beginners’ course will not contain so many words).

Once you got “the basics” in way, you could then launch into the speaking, using some of the strategies for the “speaking early” approach.

On the other hand, you could delay speaking further.

Instead you use the vocab to start getting a lot of reading and listening input (as above), except with more advanced written or audio than those who begin with these from day one.

What are the arguments for delaying starting to speak your foreign language?

Children go through a long period of listening before their speaking erupts and two and a half to three years old. Notwithstanding other differences between the position of a child learning its first language and an adult language learner, this does rather suggest that delaying speech may be nature’s way.

As a complete or near beginner who tries to speak from day one, you’ll be limited to very basic, inane conversations of the “me Tarzan, you Jane” type.

This could start to feel like an inefficient use of time and – if you are paying for a tutor – money.

The frustration will be all the greater if your reason for learning is not simply to do basic survival transactions, but because you want to have more meaningful conversations about topics that interest you.

If you start to speak before you have enough vocab and have had enough listening practice, you’re attempts will be pretty one-way because you won’t be able to understand the answers.

The more you’ve listened, you have a deeper feel for the language and a fund of experience better chance of understanding what people are saying to you and throwing together some more-or-less accurate response.

Caveat 1 to speaking delay: the displacement activity trap

If you delay real live conversation, make sure what you’re doing instead does actually facilitate learning the language and is not just feel good procrastination. Use the comprehensible input approach or conscious vocab building and study or a blend of the two. Don’t “study” the language in the abstract (for example by simply reading a grammar book). Don’t just try and listen and watch to native-level material that will just go right over your head (“incomprehensible input”).

Caveat 2 to speaking delay: the perfectionist trap

Introverts, remember: it’s very easy to delay speaking for too long.

Don’t let worries about your pronunciation and grammatical accuracy hold you back when you should loosen up a bit.

Don’t let embarrassment about not understanding all the answers put you off speaking.

There’s actually nothing wrong with “me Tarzan – you Jane”-type telegraphic speech at the beginning and once you get stuck in, you should become less hung up about the inevitable mistakes you’re going to make.

Don’t deprive yourself too long of “learning by doing wins”, the wider cultural knowledge and maybe social relationships that can come from actually using the language, however badly.

As a rule of thumb, we introvert perfectionists should all probably speak before we feel ready. Expect it to be frustrating. It’s a necessary stage.

Caveat 3 to speaking delay: the “expat trap”

So far in this post, I’ve assumed that you’re not living in the country already. If you are, though, then, it really is imperative to get stuck in with the speaking sooner rather than later. To an extent this may be forced on you in countries where English is not widely know, at least for basic transactional exchanges like getting served in a shop or buying a bus ticket.

Beyond that, though, the risk if you wait is that you get used to doing without the language and your work/social life settles into an “all English” pattern. Then – whoosh – twenty years have passed and you haven’t made much progress with the language.

It isn’t either or….of course!

As we’ve seen, there are stronger and weaker forms of each approach the “speak early” and the “delay speaking” approahes. Another variable is how much conscious “study” you want to have in your personal blend.

Be aware of the pros and cons of speaking early and delaying speaking and go for what seems to work for your personality and circumstances.

There’s nothing to say you can’t dive early and often some basic conversation with speakers you know, with strangers in a café or sports ground and do a bit of study to clarify points, some reading and lots of listening as well.

There’s nothing to say you can’t do a lot of “input” based “graded” reading and “listening” but also, when you feel ready, start scheduling intense conversation lessons with a tutor or exchange partner on line (or – horror of horrors – in person).

You can also combine a more conscious “study” approach (textbook exercises and flashcards, translations dictations) with both input and output practice.

No, we don’t have to “speak from day one” if we don’t want to.

Yet if we want to become fluent speakers then sooner…or later…we do actually have to, erm, you know, speak.

We have to speak a lot.

Related posts

Talking to yourself to learn a language?

Sound more fluent? Nine tricks

The post How soon should you speak your foreign language? appeared first on How to get fluent, with Dr Popkins.

I gave a talk based on this post at the Polyglot Gathering in Poland in summer 2023. You can watch the video down at the bottom of this post.

Honing your “ear” for languages: different sound systems

Tuning your ear to a new language should get easier when you’re familiar with the sound systems of more than one language already.

For one thing, you’ll already have learned new sounds that don’t exist in your own language. I’ve had to learn the Welsh “ll”, the German “ü” and the Russian “ы”, for example.

It’s not just completely new sounds that you may have to tune into when you learn a new language. With what feel sound familiar sounds, you may have to pay attention to what feel like fine distinctions because they don’t “matter” for the meaning in your own language.

For example, standard British English (and many other varieties) has two “l” sounds, the so-called “clear” or “light” L (before a vowel)(a palatalised l) as in “left” and the dark L (velarised) used elsewhere (as in “ball”). In “little” the first L is light, the second is dark.

If you get them wrong, it won’t change the meaning as the two Ls are seen as variations of the same building block sound. Indeed, the sound distinction isn’t made in some accents of English. In standard American or Scottish English, they only use the dark L. In Irish English, all the Ls are light).

In Russian, though, get the L wrong and you could change the meaning of a word: “luk” (люк) with a clear “l” means “skylight” or “hatch way” which  “luk” (лук) with a dark “l” means both “onion” and “bow” (as in bow and arrow) In Russian: Spaniards have this problem with v and b. Germans with English th and s.

When you’ve struggled with this in other languages, you’ll have a wider range of “building block” sounds at your disposal and you should be more open to tuning in to more.

Coming at Japanese, I found another distinction we don’t have in English: “long consonants” versus “short consonants” . ようか “yōka” (short k) means 8th day of the month andよっか (long k) means “4th day of the month”.

In effect, to create the “long consonant” effect, you pause slightly before saying the k. Here’s the thing: I’d already come across this in Finnish. Kyllä – with a “long l” means “yes” and kylä (short l) means village, for example.

While many languages add endings (noun declension, verb conjugation) Welsh and other Celtic languages often have “beginnings”. In other words the words initially mutate. I’ve not studied a second Celtic language yet, but I’ve seen the same consonant behaviour in other languages. So, in Welsh for the soft mutation “c” become “g”. You see this in Finnish stem changes: kaupunki (the city) > kaupungissa (in the city).

It’s not just at the level of the pronunciation of individual sounds and syllables, of course, where you can build up transferable skills and layers of experience. The more languages you learn, the more you’ll also be used to different stress and intonation patterns across phrases as well. You won’t assume that you can just form a question by raising your voice at the end of a sentence but you’ll be happy if you find that in your target language you can.

Recognising words with the same roots

If you are learning a language which is a close relative to one that you already know, you’ll see many words that are the same or that are almost the same (German and English are good examples of this). This is because the languages have developed from a common parent. If you take some time to discover regularities in how the two languages have evolved over time, this can really help in recognition. Even at a superficial level, I could see that and initial “g” in Russian was often an equivalent “h” in an equivalent or closely relate Slovak word.

Sometimes the meaning may have shifted but still be sufficiently related and so help you remember. The centre of old Warsaw is Rynek Starego Miasta or “Old Town Square”. To me, as a Russian speaker, that smells very like “Rynok Starogo Mesta” which would be, literally, “The Market of the Old Place”. See how similar the genitive case endings are (see Italics) in both Polish and Russian too. When I went to Bratislava (Slovak) and Novy Sad (Serbian), I found many similar examples.

Of course, this cuts both ways as you may be enticed by more “false friends” (words which you think are the same but actually aren’t) than if everything was completely alien to you (this problem classically dogs native speakers or one Slavic or Romance language when they try to learn another).

Spotting more loan words

One of the great surprises to me in learning Japanese is just how many loan words there are from English. I have the advantage that I can also spot loan words from other languages: いくら (ikura) – salted salmon eggs – reminds me of икра (ikra) – caviar – in Russian! かぼちゃ (kabochya) – a pumpkin – reminds me of the Russian кабачок (kabachok) – squash (marrow).

Now I don’t actually know whether these are borrowings from Russian into Japanese or the other way or into both form a third language. It doesn’t really matter. What helps is that it’s going to be easier for me to recognise and remember the words.

When I started learning Welsh, I recognised ffenstr (window), mur (wall) and môr (sea) from French fenêtre, mur and mer. All borrowings into the two languages from Latin.

Back to Japanese: アルバイト (arubaito) is a part-time job (from the German die Arbeit – work, a job).

Japanese has many loan words from Chinese as well, which doesn’t help me, but could help you. I found that Finnish has loan words from Russian and Russian from German and French (as well as many from English and – especially in the maritime vocab – Dutch).

One thing you quickly see is that globalisation has spread a large number of words that have really become so ubiquitous that we might call them international, like “restaurant” which turn up all over the place as in, erm, Finnish (ravintola), Hungarian (étterem) or Basque (jatetxea).*

*(Actually, these exceptions that prove the rule aren’t as frightening as they might seem: in Hungarian and Basque, the first element is “eat” – Basque is literally eathouse).

Understanding that words don’t always have direct equivalents from one language to another

Individual words do not always a direct one-word translation from one language to another. Or the “range” of a word can be different: Russian друг (drug) is usually translated as friend, though “close friend” might be better. Приятель (priiatel’) is “acquaintance” but used very often by Russians when we would already be saying “friend”.

As you come across these “imperfect equivalences” in your first foreign language, you’ll be on the alert for them second, third or fourth time round.

Sometimes, the very concepts you first discovered in your second language may pop up in later ones. Russian, Finnish and Italian, for example, all have separate words for light blue and dark blue.

“Word association” memory tricks get easier

A good trick to help in the first stages of remembering a word is to use word association: “haus” is Indonesian for thirty and it’s pronounced rather like English “house”. So, you could imagine your house sticking its tongue out to drink the rain because it’s thirsty. If you know more than one language, you’ll have a large stock of words with which you can build memorable associations. For example, the Japanese for a key is かぎ (kagi). To me this sounded like “car” and “gi” which is the Welsh word for “dog” (dictionary form “ci”). So, I imagined a long, stiff sausage dog being turned like a key to open the door of a car.

This advantage even kicked in when I was learning the Japanese hiragana syllabary. The character “ru” – る – looks like a number three. To me it is hiru (Basque for three).

A greater openness to different grammar

As with vocab, languages that share a common ancestor will often still today have retained similar grammatical features.

When I learned some basic Icelandic, I discovered the same, already doubly familiar pattern of inverting the verb and subject to form a question. That’s because Icelandic was my third Germanic language.

The ancestral Germanic pattern is to switch the oder of the verb and subject to form a question. Modern English usually just uses “do” in this way as an auxiliary: She likes bread > Does she like bread. The simple old pattern is still used with some verbs though: He can sing > Can he sing? We have time > Have you time? In German this simple inversion is still the standard with all verbs, just like Icelandic.

Both Italian and Portuguese have highly complex, inflected verb tense systems. These were not such a big deal for me when I started both languages. That was because I already knew quite good French and the system in that language very closely parallels Italian and Portuguese.

So, if you already know one of the Latin or “Romance” languages what you’ll need to do is see the “regular” patterns of difference and focus right in on the key peculiarities in structure and usage (such as the unique Portuguese future subjunctive and personal infinitives or the unusual Catalan compound past tense with “anar” to go).

In the same way, if you’re a native Polish speaker – or have already learned Polish or another Slavic language – the verbal aspect system of Russian won’t phase you.

Indeed “aspect” (where the emphasis is on whether or not a action is a one off completed whole or not) also overlaps with the English simple/continuous tense pattern (I eat/I am eating). The overlap is far from perfect, but, I’ve you’re a native speaker of a language that doesn’t make these distinctions at all (such as French or German) then knowing English will help you some when you move on to Russian.

Japanese uses a system of particles which often behave rather like case endings in other languages that I’ve learned or like the Russian particle -же and -то which can add (respectively) emphasis or precision. The “subject” of the sentence in Japanese is flagged with は which to me seems rather like the “ergative” ending -k that you add the subject in Basque. Yep, the differences are no-doubt greater. The point is just that such distant echoes can help in the early stages.

So it goes on: I started Welsh and found that they put their adjectives after nouns. I was already used to this from French….

Different sentence structure doesn’t surprise you

One of the biggest breakthroughs for newbie language learners is grasping that it’s not just the meaning of individual words that’s different from one language to another, but also how words are strung together.

To start at the default word order: most European languages are “subject – verb – object”: The dog bit the man.

I’d already departed from this when I learned Welsh as Celtic languages are, unusually, verb – subject – object: Brathodd y ci y dyn (Bit the dog the man). When I started learning Japanese, my Welsh experience left much much less phased to depart again from the (to me) “natural” S-V-O pattern. Japanese, you see is a subject – object – verb language or, more usefully (as the subject is often just implied by context): the verb in Japanese always comes at the end of the sentence:犬が男を噛んだ (Inu ga otoko o kanda: dog the man bit).

In German, in compound tenses, the main verb is placed at the end of the sentence: Er hat die Zeitung gekauft – he has the newspaper bought. That took quite a bit of practice to get used to, as did moving both verbs to the end in subordinate clauses: Er sagte, dass er die Zeitung gekauft hat – He said that he the newspaper bought had). Yet Dutch has the same system, which will really help when I learn that language (I have the book already)

Sprachbund anyone? The view from linguistic crossroads

You know that fluency is achievable

Just as important, though are the changes in mindset that come with experience in learning several languages.

If you’ve got fluent, you won’t have the problems of self-belief that can defeat adult learners who’ve maybe only had experience of failing at language learning at school. If you’ve done it once, you can do it again.

You’ll have developed your language learning skills and have experience of good methods

You’ll have developed some good language learning skills and have some some experience of methods that have worked for you. You can use these again, confident in the knowledge that they’ll work again. That isn’t to say that you shouldn’t try out new things, of course. Just because something is works, doesn’t mean that it’s optimal.

You’ll be realistic about the time it takes

You’ll be realistic about the amount of time that it takes to learn a language.

One the one hand, this could mean you’ll realise that some things are quicker than the uninitiated may expect. As I found with Russian, you can learn a new alphabet a few weeks, so I’m not going to be put off other languages with similar systems (such as the alphabets of Korean, Greek or Georgian).

One the other hand, you’ll appreciate that it takes hundreds of hours of input and output practice to get good at a language. This doesn’t mean that you won’t be on the look out for ways to learn more speedily and efficiently. It does mean your expectations of yourself will be more realistic. You’ll have a healthy dose of scepticism about claims to be able to buck the system.

You’ll make what you can do go further

As you gain in experience, you’ll be more ready to focus on getting the most out of what you can understand, ready to rely on context or just an educated guess to fill in the gaps. You’ll be more able to make a few spoken words go a long way. In short, you can carry comprehension and speaking “strategies” from one language to the next.

You’ll get better at taking the rough with the smooth

You’ll also know that learning a language involves a lot of subjective ups and down, highs and lows as you move from beginner to intermediate and beyond.

Even if you know it’s a long process and often a fun and rewarding one, you’ll accept that it can involves frustrations and sometimes a bit of awkwardness.

In search of the right analogy

As you can see from my own experience as an enthusiastic learner and attentive learner of a number of languages you can develop a very helpful linguistic sensitivity as you go. It may be more rough and ready than the analysis that would come naturally to a professionally trained linguist, but it sure is still a big help.

Just as important are the “can do” mindset that will come with already having got fluent in one foreign language. You know it can be done, you know some methods that work, you’re realistic about the time it takes and the ups and downs involved.

Learning your fifth, sixth or tenth language is not like rattling off what once seemed like a difficult mathematical proof for the umpteenth time, no sweat.

Language fifteen may “cost” you less than languages two, three or four… Experience helps in so many ways, as I’ve tried to set out and this is especially the case if your language is closely related to one you know well.

But each new language requires a lot of commitment….over the long term.

When thinking about whether learning new languages gets easier maybe the best analogy is that of bringing up one child or several. You’ll know a lot of what to expect but offspring two, three and four will still demand a huge amount of time. Each one will put you through the mill in ways you’d expected and cause you new exasperation and heartache.

Each one will thrill and delight you in old and new ways too.

Watch Dr Popkins’ talk on this topic at the Polyglot Gathering

The post Does learning foreign languages get easier with experience? appeared first on How to get fluent, with Dr Popkins.

Monday 20th August  (one hour self-study)

One week exactly till I have to speak Basque on TV (well, take part in the recording).

Last night, Uñai cancelled this morning’s lesson. The day kicked-off with a 40 minute walk round the park, listening to Basque talk radio.

Decided to work with the Arian B2.1 textbook again for a change. So, thirty minutes this morning listening and reading about the experiences of four Basque students, their reasons for learning and methods. Took dictations of the short conversations from the audio recording and then checked them.

Then I went out to shoot more pieces to camera in my “Dr Popkins Method?” video series.

I’ve run out of “locations” in the house, so I decided to split each of the next three vids into three and shot a third of each in a different café. I had my morning espresso in one of my local cafés and short the first section of each three.

Quick lunch then a Skype call with the Basque TV researcher and director. More discussion of the content and when we’re meeting next Monday. They want me to make “Welsh cakes”….So I’ll have to practice

Then out to another café to film the middle third of the next three “Dr Popkins” videos.

In Britxon Blend Café, with the Bowie mural visible outside

A problem with vlogging from cafés – erm, a problem with cafés in general – is that they often have music blaring out. I was reduced to sitting outside Café Stir where then enemy then became the traffic noise on Brixton Hill, especially the frequent sirens. Ambulances are worse offenders than police cars. They all sound like wannabe extras from a US cop series circa 1975. Bring back 1950s Ealing comedy police car bells.

Then I went down the hill to the centre of Brixton to shee to shoot the final third. I did this in the Brixton Blend Café which is just opposite the David Bowie mosaic and hung out there a bit longer to do some more editing of tomorrow’s Eisteddfod vlog, part two.

Espresso overdose alert!

Arian B2.1 textbook

This evening, a further thirty minutes from Arian, instead of preparing for the session with Iñigo tomorrow. It’s refreshing to be working with a different book. The Habe lesson sheets are rather quirky (and at a lower level). Bakaraka is very thorough and great for practising structures, but rather dry and distant from real life (the texts are rarely conversations or on contemporary subjects, for example).

Tuesday 21st August (45 minute one-to-one lessons, 30 minutes self-study)

Kicked off with an early run in the park: 25 mins passive Basque radio exposure.

45 minute lesson with Iñigo. We continued to work with “Habe” unit 34. Some more practice of reported speech. Then a reading exercise, with questions, about two bizarre couples. Finally, some extracts from newspaper dating small ads.

Half an hour this evening preparing vocab to do with cooking. I’m going to be doing some for the show. I’d already covered most of the vocab but can’t recall it actively.

Wednesday 22nd August (one hour self-study)

I wasn’t sure whether the lesson with Uñai was still on, given that he cancelled due to illness on Monday.  Although I showed up at 8.30 this morning, he didn’t. That threw me rather.  I should have mailed to ask him last night but for some reason hadn’t. Actually, for two reasons: (1) I thought I shouldn’t fuss; (2) I kinda think the person who’s deviated from the plan should take the lead in checking what happens next.

Went for a 25 min run in the park instead, with Basque radio playing in the earphones.

Late afternoon I was back in the centre of Brixton.

I found two cafés more in to film the intros and “outros” for “Dr Popkins” videos five and six. One is quite a cool place off Coldharbour Lane, spoiled only by more loud music (it touts itself as a shared workspace, with desks for hire at the back. Not sure intrusive music goes with that).

Tonight I did two half-hour sessions doing more prep for the television shoot. Tried to make up phrases related to cooking.

I think they’ll probably ask me about how I learn languages as well, so I’ve been working on vocab around that too.

Uñai mailed tonight to confirm that he’s back in action tomorrow. I have a lesson with him and another with Iñigo tomorrow. During both, my plan is to check the phrases and practise them.

Thursday 23rd August (30 minute one-to-one lesson)

Iñigo failed to show for our 2pm lesson. A mix-up over what we’d agreed.

Uñai is now back in action and at 18:00 I had a session with him. Quick general chat and then we worked on the vocab and phrases I prepared yesterday around making Welsh cakes, my approach to language learning and my life in London.

No more Basque today, apart from some passive radio exposure.

Tonight I made Welsh cakes for the first time.  They were a bit burned because I hadn’t rolled the mixture thickly enough.

Friday 24th August (40 minutes light self-study)

Morning run with Basque on the radio. Discussion included the removal of Franco’s body from the Valley of the Fallen.

Then train up to my father’s in Yorkshire for the weekend. During the journey I spent about 40 minutes reviewing several chapters in Assimil Basque.

At my dad’s I also went over the vocab and phrases I’d worked up with Uñai yesterday, but that was it on Basque today.

Dad also gave me a lesson in making Welsh cakes as a result of which I discovered a couple of tricks (beat the egg before you add it to the mixture; coat the rolling-pin with flour so that the mixture doesn’t stick to it).

Saturday 25th August (30 minutes light self-study)

Relaxing at my dad’s in Malton. Did about thirty minutes working on Assimil in Costa Coffee, my regular coffee shop there. I don’t normally like hanging in chains and the espresso at Costa Malton is not very good.  The problem is, most of the other coffee shops there are a bit too flowery china and doily for me. There is a new hipster roastery but it’s too cool to have proper tables and closed more than it’s open.

Sunday 26th August (45 minute one-to-one lesson, 30 minute one-to-one lesson and about 50 minutes light self-study)

Lesson with Eider, ten minutes general chat. I explained the journey up to my father’s and what I’ve been doing here. Then we went on to practise the conversation topics for tomorrow’s TV recording.

Eider had heard of the “Vendetta” group that the presenter of “my” programme, Pello Reparez, sings in and she seemed quite excited by the prospect.

Train back south in mid afternoon. Read Basque novel on train for about 20 minutes but spent a lot of the time editing video (both easier and more fun….).

Tonight: the final pre-shoot lesson with Iñigo.

He was telling me that he had been pickpocketed in Donostia, but got his cards back. Then I once again practised my conversation topics in advance of the shoot.

Not really feeling nervous but not really sure what to expect tomorrow either. It’s a good opportunity, though.

End of month round-up

Here’s how it went:

Week One: three Basque lessons (plus one aborted after ten minutes due to computer failure) and seven  hours’ study over six days.

Week Two: five Basque lessons and two hours’ study over two days.

Week Three: eight Basque lessons and two-and-a-half hours’ study over six days.

Week Four (includes the final Sunday, technically the “fifth week”): four Basque lessons and three hours 10 minutes of study.

My original target for the project was to have a thirty or forty-five minute Basque lesson five days a week and do at least thirty minutes self-study five times a week.

Over the four weeks, that would have meant twenty lessons and ten hours of self-study.

My actual total was twenty lessons and a little over fourteen hours of self-study.

In addition to that, I had several “real” Skype calls with the programme makers and passive exposure to Basque radio. I was listening daily, either when running or while at home doing chores/eating.

So, I made the target for lessons and overshot nicely with the self-study.

The lessons were not distributed as evenly as I’d have liked due to teacher availability and cancellations.  It was looking particularly bleak on the Thursday of week one, when I’d only clocked one thirty minute lesson (plus the abortive ten-minutes on Wednesday). Here it really helped that I have three teachers. As I pointed out in a recent “Quick Tip Tuesday” vlog, it’s a good to make sure you don’t rely on just one teacher or conversation partner.

The weakest week was the second. That was entirely due to my decision to travel to Wales to attend the National Eisteddfod. That was a great trip but it did resulted in my cancelling a Thursday and Friday lesson and not doing anything Thursday to Saturday.

As usual, I found that having made a public commitment to a certain amount of study really helped to keep me focussed.  Without this accountability, my Basque would still have been motoring along but at a lower pace.

How about my substantive achievement? I’m not sure I feel any shift in my speaking over the month, which, with these relatively low practice figures is no surprise. As regular readers will know, I normally prefer three-month projects, because there’s more time for a shift to register.  If anything, it’s my radio listening comprehension that seems to be moving most in Basque at the moment.

There’s no doubt, though, that I was a lot better prepared for the television experience than I would have been without this little project. Again: having such goal a month ahead really gave me something to work towards.

The Euskalonski page on the EITB website

What of Monday’s shoot itself?  I was nervous but it all went well.   I was spluttering and making mistakes but also really speaking.  We stayed in Basque all the time as we filmed (which took from three fifteen in the afternoon to nine thirty in the evening).

The programme is called Euskalonski. The presenter, Pello Reparaz, is travelling to major capitals with his guitar, seeking out Basque speakers and learners.

The first episode is on Monday (from Paris). I’m not sure yet when “London” airs. I’ll let you know via twitter, the Howtogetfluent Facebook page and group. I’m on Instagram as well now (and loving “Instagram stories”.

You won’t be surprised to hear that I was also shooting for a vlog of my own.  I’ve decided to hold back with the completing and publishing that until the programme itself has aired. That way I can add a coda of me watching the programme and form a view of the finished product.  Look out for a post all about the day itself with the vlog.

Other posts in this series:

Kick off diary and video

First week diary and video

Second week diary and video

Third week diary and video

The post One month Basque boost: final week diary appeared first on How to get fluent, with Dr Popkins.

Monday 13th August (45 minute one-to-one lesson)

The week kicked off with 45 minutes on Skype with Uñai. We did the last exercise in unit 30 of my “Habe” course (which we had missed out last week by mistake). We then resumed with unit 31 and redid one of the benefactive (“norentzat”) case exercises we’d already worked through together last week.

This was all after thirty minutes general discussion. In that, we covered Uñai’s on-going accommodation problems in The Hague. I also gave him a round-up about my time at the Welsh National Eisteddfod, the annual Welsh cultural and social festival that I attended at on Thursday and Friday last week. What I said was very similar to what I told Iñigo in my most recent lesson with him. Good to practise the vocab again!

No further study today….Naughty, I know. I was prioritising working on the site and working my upcoming language learning methods course…..

Tuesday 14th August (45 minute one-to-one lesson, 30 minute one-to-one lesson, no self-study)

Started with a 45 minute lesson with Iñigo, the first fifteen minutes of which were, however, lost to Skype problems.

We switched to Google Hangouts which we’ll use going forward. Sound and image quality not quite as good but at least we could both see and hear each other.

Continued to work on “Habe” unit 34. The topic is “advertising”. The grammatical focus is on the still on the “norentzat” case.

Breakfast, shower, then ten mins prep before a thirty minute lesson with Eider (she had postponed from Sunday, making today a two-lesson day). Once again, I explained all about the Eisteddfod and showed off my footage of Geraint Thomas. This was low tech sharing, that’s to say, me holding my vlogging camera screen up to the Skype camera.

We then got on with Bakarka 4 chapter 3, working further on the past tense short forms of esan (to say, tell) and doing the text “Egin kopiak bada ezpada ere”.

The texts in this book – like in Assimil courses- tend to have an amusing turn at the end.

This time it was about an office worker’s boss telling him to throw out all the old letter and bills as they were getting drowned in paper. The following day the worker reported the work done and added that he’d also photocopied each paper he threw out, for the archives. I did “get” the joke this time, though sometimes it takes several reads through.

No more Basque study today. I was flat-out working on the site and then for quite a few hours into the night finishing the Tuesday vlog, the first of two from the Eisteddfod. It was a question of priorities and Basque was only in second place.

Wednesday 15th August (45 minute one-to-one lesson, 30 minutes self-study)

Woke at about 6.30 after only about four and a half hours’ sleep after publishing the Welsh vlog at about one o’clock in the morning. Felt exhausted and unrested… Did my usual trick of rolling around in bed for an hour or more trying to get back to sleep, then gave up and made a cup of tea and returned to the sheets and listened to a bit of Basque radio.

At 8.30 it was my lesson with Uñai. A prime example of how pre-booking lessons helps keep you on track. I certainly didn’t feel in the mood for a lesson but, by the end, though still tired, it feels like it was very productive.

We worked further on “Habe” unit 34. More “norentzat” case exercises, reading short texts about celebrities, then translating some short conditional sentences into English. Next, exercises putting the correctly conjugated form of “jakin” (to know – facts, not people). I gave the verbs in the past was well as the present, as I’ve been practising the past forms with Eider in Bakarka 4.

Now for a run before breakfast. I put it off yesterday because if my too late start then. Unsurprisingly, it then never happened.

Half an hour’s self-study in the evening. Finished working checking I know all the vocab in the last sections of “Habe” unit 31 that I may well finish with Uñai tomorrow.

Listened through to the first audio recording to unit 32 and then took it down as a line-by-line dictation.

A “wall of text”, Habe style

Thursday 16th August (45 minute one-to-one lesson; 30 minutes self-study)

7.15-7.45: Thirty minutes focussed pre-prep on “Habe” unit 32 – reading the texts and pulling out the vocab. The topic of this chapter is “work and vocation” – always a good topic to stimulate thought and conversation, so I look forward to going through the discussion exercises with Uñai.

8.15-9.00: Just come off quite a good lesson with Uñai. We got straight started with exercises – little general catching-up chat at the beginning, given that we “met” yesterday.

We finished “Habe” unit 31 with more sentence translation (from English into Basque) and the final gap-filling exercises from the unit on “norentzat”. Then an exercise filling in the gaps with conjugated forms of “jakin” in the present.

We then got straight into unit 32, so I was glad I’d done some prep on it. The grammatical focus in this unit is reported speech. In Basque reported verbs take a special ending – “la” (with stem changes sometimes). It’s very simple in theory but quite different from anything I’ve come across in an other languages so far.

I should add that all the work I’m doing in the Habe units is revision. I covered these units about a year or more ago in the physical Basque classes I used to attend.

Friday 17th August (45 minute one-to-one lesson, 30 minutes self-study)

Just come straight off my 45 minute lesson with Iñigo. Ten minutes in, Skype disconnected and I switched from the Mac to the iPhone. He was also giving the lesson by phone. I’m really a laptop guy (never use my tablet) but no problem doing the lesson by iPhone.

To most of you it will be no revelation that you can have a language lesson on your phone, but it reminds ME how portable and flexible the location of an online lesson can be these days.

We finished “Habe” unit 34 with some final “complete the gaps” exercises and moved on to unit 35. It’s title is “Love, where?” and we began working through a “wall of text” – short explanations by young people from Donostia (San Sebastián) about how they meet (or fail to meet) potential partners. I read out three of the six texts and understood the thrust of each, though there was some new vocab. I hadn’t prepared the text in advance and will try to review – and prepare the rest – before tomorrow’s lesson.

I’m afraid I didn’t fee particularly fluent today. It’s very much up and down from lesson to lesson with how the language flows. I just hope I feel “the flow” when I’m with the television crew taking part in the Basque TV programme a week on Monday.

Finished my day this evening with thirty minutes preparing the next pages of unit 34 for tomorrow’s class with Iñigo.

Saturday 18 August (45 minute lesson with Iñigo, 30 minutes self-study)

Day kicked off with a 45 minute lesson with Iñigo.

Well, I’d set aside thirty minutes for study before hand but that was lost to me trying to work out how to install Skype and access my existing account on my iPad (which I don’t use very often). Finally sorted that out and it worked very well with Iñigo’s account (which my Mac for some reason doesn’t).

Like yesterday, I felt pretty useless during the lesson. We were working on the subject of dating, with a certain amount of slang or idiomatic vocab. The preparation I did yesterday evening stopped things feeling even worse, I guess.

The grammar is reported speech: indirect statements and questions which are simple but very different in Basque and the forms take a bit of practice.

Finished the evening with 30 mins prep of Bakarka 4 ch. 3 for the lesson with Eider tomorrow (going through two quite long reading texts and checking the vocab).

Arian B2.1 – Basque students talk about how they learn

Sunday 19th August (30 minute lesson, 30 minutes self-study)

Kicked off with a 30 minute run in the park, with Basque radio playing in my ears. An interview with a guy making maps of Iruñea (Pamplona) after the news bulletin.

Just come off a 30 minute Skype call with Eider. She’s got the market cornered for Basque on italki.com at the moment. I use this platform to arrange most of my language teaching and exchanges. When you complete your first ever lesson using this link you’ll get USD10 in credit (and so will I) :).

For the first fifteen minutes we were chatting. I was trying to explain that I called the police yesterday as some neighbours (actually a block away) were playing loud reggae music for several hours. Some of the music was actually quite good and I Shazam-ed it, but that’s not the point. It annoys me when people are inconsiderate of others. The older I get, the less inclined I am to put up with it.

Back to the lesson: we continued to work with Bakarka 4 chapter 3. I did an exercise which involved adding “izenlaguna” (adjectiviser (!)) endings. That’s “-tazko” from “-tzat”, “-ganako” from “-gana”, ” -kiko” from “-kin” and “-rako” from “-ra”.

I found this quite difficult because I didn’t understand all the sentences (despite have supposedly “prepared” them yesteday).

In the last couple of minutes I read the text “Egin Kopiak Bada Ezpada Ere” outloud. We had worked on last week. This time noticed several examples of the adjectivisers we’d just been practising.

Did the lesson standing up, like yesterday with Iñigo. I spend far too much time at my desk. For a few months now I’ve had a small frame that raises up my laptop but can also be used to convert the table into a standing desk. I find standing helps me focus and keeps me feeling more energised.

For my thirty minutes self-study today, I worked from chapter one of the Arian B2.1 book. It’s a bit above my level but it’s got short audio pieces with transcripts. That’s great for dictation, which I find a great way to force me to focus and “notice” the differences between what I think I hear and the written language and language I simply don’t know well enough yet.

Call coming up with Meritxell from Basque TV tomorrow morning to discuss the filming again.

Week four report and general update

I’m with the crew a week tomorrow (Monday 27 August). For that reason, think I’m going to hold off publishing the diary and video next Sunday and wait till the first Sunday in September. That way I can roll in a report on how the filming went.

So, look out for a post on a more general language learning topic next week.

It’s now the end of the third week of my four-week sabbatical from work. I’ve been working hard behind the scenes on the site and on my first product.

Also, as I mentioned above, last Tuesday I published the first of two vlogs from the National Eisteddfod in Wales. The second one will be out on Tuesday.

Last week, too, I brought out the third in the Dr Popkins Method? video series. This time I told the story of how I learned Russian at the time of the collapse of the Soviet Union and German as the country was reunified.  I wonder whether Basque (or Welsh) independence could be the next thing to be sparked by language learning efforts

Here’s the Basque video diary for week three…..Me, still struggling…Still making tons of mistakes. Still not feeling as fluent as I think I should be by this stage….But, still in business….

Other posts in this series:

Kick off diary and video

First week diary and video

Second week diary and video

Final week diary and video

The post One month Basque boost: third week diary appeared first on How to get fluent, with Dr Popkins.

Monday 6th August (45 minutes one-to-one lesson, 20 minute “real” conversation, 30 minutes self-study)

This is the start of the second week of my month’s sabbatical from my day job at the law firm and I’m determined to keep up the momentum with me Basque….among other projects.

The London heatwave continues, for now. This means I had to be early with my morning run. Went out today at half past seven. Half and hour jogging round the park with Basque radio playing through the headphones.

Back with five or six minutes to spare before my 45 minute lesson over the net with Iñigo. I generally use italki.com for language teachers and tandem partners (that link will give you – and me – USD10 credit when you complete your first ever lesson with them).

The lesson went well, once we got connected. My Mac doesn’t like Skype. The materials were unit 34 of my “Habe” course. We were working more on revising telling the time and then on an exercise on “Oharrak” (warnings), which involved matching up those daft packaging warnings you sometimes get with the relevant household objects (sleeping pills (“can cause drowsiness”), an iron (“beware – can get hot”) and so on).

2pm twenty-minute call with Meritxell from Basque TV, all in Basque. We discussed more about the upcoming programme. Lasted 20 mins. We’d already earmarked the last Monday of August. Filming with me will be during the afternoon. Discussed three locations, timing, which order to film.

I learned more about the programme. They are also filming at a Basque restaurant in London and other interviewees are Basque singer who lives here and an American who has learned the language (a guy I’ve met a couple of times through the London Basque Society). They will be also filming one of those Catalan human towers (a “castell”). That’s because there’s a group who do castells her that’s run by Basques.

Evening: thirty minutes self-study. Reviewing some of what I did with Iñigo from unit 34. Then went ahead in the unit to prepare some of the vocab. Listened to the first audio clip to this unit: “Mercedes Vio Berria” radio ad twice through. Then tried to write down what I could hear. Then corrected against the transcript.

Tuesday 7th August (45 minute one-to-one lesson, 1 hour self-study)

Got an early start at 6.30 am. Spent an hour working with the “Habe” materials. Did vocab prep work on “Azkarrak direla publiziastak” (Ad men are crafty) text in unit 34. Then moved to unit 33 (which I will be working on with Uñai before too long (I’m currently doing unit 31 with him).

Unit 33 is about migration and immigrants. Lots of topical and relevant social and political vocabulary. I worked through several of the reading texts, looking up vocab.

45 minute afternoon session on Skype with Uñai. First half spent in general catch-up conversation. More than enough to talk about: he has now been reunited with his missing suitcase but has problems with his new flat, I was explaining more about my upcoming participation in the television programme.

I’ve decided to go to the Welsh National Eisteddfod, so tomorrow I’ll be travelling to Cardiff, the capital city of Wales.

The Eisteddfod is the main Welsh-language cultural festival. It takes place entirely through the medium of Welsh. It’s always the first week in August. It’s held in a different part of Wales every year, alternating between the northern and the southern parts of the country.

I told Uñai a bit about that too during the lesson.

We then did some more of the unit 34 written exercises but verbally, on the hoof.

Then I had to retell the story of Txano gorritxo by weaving in six modern items: “helikopteroa” (helicopter), “sakelako telefonoa” (mobile phone), “igerilari bat” (a swimmer), “ezpainak margotzekoa” (lipstick), “telepizza” (a telephone-ordered pizza) and “pinrtze urdina” (a blue prince (?!)). More you do no want to know Finally there was quite a long reading comprehension about Pernando Amezkettara (a jokey Basque historical character).

Tomorrow’s lesson brought forward to an earlier time as I’ll be on the train in the afternoon, Wales bound.

Wednesday 8 August (two 45 minute one-to-one lessons)

Another early start, including a run in the park listening to Basque radio before lesson with Iñigo.

Temperature in the low twenties this morning. Looks like the heatwave may be over, for now.

Good general discussion first about different types of cuisine and different attitudes to eating animals (which, and which parts). Conversation then turned to the fishing industry and I was trying to explain attitude around that in the UK in the context of Brexit. That proved a bit of a stretch at my current level.

We then continued with “Habe” unit 34. There was a complete the gaps exercise about a Basque TV advert featuring a young man receiving a traditional Basque txapela for his 18th birthday and wearing it the wrong way round like a rapper. Then there was a reframe the sentences as reported speech exercise.

Just time for breakfast then straight on at 9.30 with the day’s lesson with Uñai (originally scheduled for this afternoon).

We started “Habe” unit 31 which is about the “red press” (prentsa arrosa), that’s to say media celebrity and gossip magazines. Practising the “norentzat” case (who for) with some useful exercises. Then read three short pieces about celebrities. I discovered that Elton John where red-tinted specs because of a medical problem with his eyes. It’s not just fashion.

Early afternoon I headed to the station to catch a train to Cardiff.

Although there have been periods when I’ve attended the Eisteddfod year after year, the last time I was there was in 2014.

One problem often is getting to the “Maes” literally “the Field” the main location of the Eisteddfod. This year, though “y Maes” is in the “Cardiff Bay” area of central Cardiff: Rohl Dahl Place, the Wales Millennium Centre (concert hall) and the Senedd, the home of Wales’ National Assembly (parliament).

Tonight, back in the AirBnB after my first Eisteddfod evening, I decided to postpone the lessons I had booked with Iñigo tomorrow and Uñai early tomorrow and Friday morning. So there will be a pause in my Basque focus until Sunday.

Outside the Eisteddfod “Maes”

Thursday 9 August (no Basque)

I spent all day on “y Maes”.

I’ve been looking at the various stalls there (book and craft stalls, stalls held by charities, educational institutions, various official and corporate bodies, voluntary organisations). Then I was in famous, brick Pierhead building, where all the activities for learners were focussed.

I also attended more formal events in “y Pafiliwn”, the Pavilion. The Pavilion usually a (very) large tent but, this year, the main concert hall in the Wales Millennium Centre. I was glad to catch the presentation of the prize to Mat Spry, winner of the Welsh Learner of the Year competition. I also saw some “Cerdd Dant” (Welsh poetry set to harp music).

Another highlight today was the triumphal reception for Geraint Thomas, the Cardiff boy who’s just won the Tour de France. I was just in the right place at the right time (inside the Senedd) to see the First Minister of Wales and the Speaker of the National Assembly lead him out to the steps to meet the crowd.

I was shooting footage all day and there’ll be a couple of “Eisteddfod” vlogs up on the YouTube channel before too long.

Geraint “Tour” Thomas (first on right) on the steps of the Senedd (Welsh parliament)

Friday 10 August (no Basque)

Again I spent the whole day at the Eisteddfod.  Once the heavy morning rain had cleared.

I attended a couple of interesting meetings. One was on the Welsh legal system (I’m a lawyer by day). The other, hosted by the language pressure group Dyfodol was about the government’s policy of creating one million new Welsh speakers by 2050. The special guest was Eluned Morgan, the Minister for the Welsh language.

The concert hall was packed for the main ceremony of the day, the announcement of who had won the “Chair”. With That’s the competition for the best cynghanedd (Welsh strict metre poem) on a set theme with a length limit. Poets have to submit work under a pen name “chairing” of the bard”. So, unable to get a ticket, I had to watch the ceremony on a TV screen.

Saturday 11 August (no Basque)

Had breakfast at a cafe in the imposing Art Deco hall of Cardiff Station before getting on the train for London.

It’s a two-hour journey.

I admit I could have used this for reading Basque.

Instead, I was editing some of the video for the first of the (likely) two eisteddfod vlogs.

Back in Brixton, I’ve been re-jigging my lessons over the weekend. Iñigo was originally available this afternoon, but we are now having a lesson tomorrow. That’s in place of the one I should have had with Eider, who has to go to her café job but will rescheduled (not yet sure when).

I should have done at least thirty minutes Basque tonight. Instead, I did more work on the Eisteddfod vlogs. Addictive, this video production business.

Sunday 12 August (45 minute one-to-one lesson, 30 minutes self-study)

First thing: half an hour’s prep of “Habe” materials. Then: a run in the park listening to Basque radio on the headphones.

Next: a lesson with Iñigo. We never got to the “Habe” materials as we were just chatting all the time.

I told him what I’d been doing in Cardiff and he was telling me about his upcoming interview for a seven month internship in London. Who knows, we may well get to meet in the autumn.

Early afternoon, I recorded this week’s video (see below).

General update

This week I’ve been busy working behind the scenes on the site (I’m developing some courses for language learners – more details soon).

I was also productive over on YouTube.  This week’s Quick Tip Tuesday vlog was called “Conversations first”. I shot it in Hoxton, currently one of the hipster captials of London.

I also shot the second and third in my “Dr Popkins Method?” video series. Number Two I published on Thursday. It’s my own story of how I got fluent in French and Welsh. Next week, I’ll publish the next episode: how I learned German and Russian.

What about you? As we hit the more-or-less half way mark in August, is your language learning going as you’d planned it? If not, how come? If so, what’s your secret? Share with us all in the comments below!

Now, without further ado, here’s this week’s Basque practice video:

Other posts in this series: 

Kick off diary and video

First week diary and video

Third week diary and video

Final week diary and video

The post One Month Basque Boost: second week diary appeared first on How to get fluent, with Dr Popkins.

Sunday 29th July (1 hour 30 mins self-study)

Worked on one of the listening exercises from my “Habe” materials, unit 30: two jokes about priests. Followed my regular study routine. Began with careful listening to the audio without looking at the text and started interacting with it from there.

Then started preparing “Habe” unit 31, which is all about gossip and scandal in the press. Did the first reading exercise and listened once through to the first listening exercise.

Mailed Uñai, a new teacher I’ve found on the web, to find out about his availability for the coming week. He isn’t sure yet and won’t be able to tell me till Tuesday or Wednesday. So, I’ll be starting the week unsure whether I’m going to be able to book the teacher hours I’d like.

Monday 30th July (45 minutes self-study)

Ran in the park and listened to live Basque radio for half an hour on the headphones. Conversation about the murder of Tsar Nicholas II and his family in Ekaterinburg. I’m a specialist in late-tsarist Russia, so the subject is right up my street. The journalist had visited the site and was explaining. Understood quite a lot.

No teacher lined up for today. Neither current teacher available and I’m still waiting for my new ones to get back in touch. My fault for not having got back to one of them by email earlier last week.

Good news: my regular italki teacher Eider (the only Basque teacher currently on there) has confirmed my 30 minute sessions with her for the next three Sundays. She only offers Sundays at the moment. She’s not around for the final Sunday of my Basque month, though.

For 45 minutes worked by myself on second of the two audio files from Habe unit 30. It’s the story of Mateo Txistu (Whistling Mathew). He’s priest who also likes hunting. While he was officiating at Mass, his dog was tied up outside the church. A hare ran by. The dog started barking loudly. Mateo abandoned the Mass midway through and he and the dog pursued the hare all day and all night, on and on and on, without success. God was so angry that Matteo had abandoned the Mass. Even today, during long winter nights when the wind is blowing, when the old people hear the wind blowing they say it’s Mateo Txistu running after the hare. Loads of old folk stories like this in Basque.

Again I used my usual routine, beginning with the audio and trying to understand as much as I could before reading the transcript and pulling it apart in an interactive way.

Hurrah! In the evening a potential new teacher, Iñego confirmed a half hour test session tomorrow morning.

The story of Mateo Txistu

Tuesday 31 Aug (30 minutes one-to-one lesson, 1 hour self-study)

Started “Habe” unit 34: “Iragarkiak” (“Announcements”). This is the unit I’ve sent to Iñego, so I’m preparing the ground for the lesson. Listened to one of the audio exercises right through and then tried to reproduce sentence by sentence and took it from there.

8.30 am – just come off the first lesson with Iñego. He’s a very communicative, friendly personality and a clear voice. I didn’t understand everything he said but could guess (or pretend) when not. I think it’s just more important sometimes to keep the conversation going.

We agreed to do two half-hour sessions a week, and he’s happy to use my “Habe” materials. This time, though, just a getting to know you chat session.

One interesting thing I learned was that there is a difference between jolastu or jostatu, on the one hand and jokatu, on the other. They all mean “to play” but jolastu/jostatu means to play and instrument or about actors performing or children having fun. Jokatu means to play in a competitive way (for example at cards or in sport).

We also discussed knowledge of English in the Basque Country. Iñego said it was generally low in the Spanish Basque provinces, but higher than elsewhere in the Spanish State or in the North (French Basque Country). We put this down to the positive effects on linguistic ability of “elebitasun” (bilingualism – another new word). Iñego explained that in some schools Maths or Geography are now even taught through English.

Wednesday 1 August (10 minutes (!) one-to-one, 1 hour self-study)

Got in half an hour in before my lesson with Uñai. I was working on “Habe” ch. 31 listening exercise “Norentzat?” (“Who is it for”), practising the -entzat case ending. I took down the text as a dictation.

My lesson with Uñai started on schedule at 10am but ended abruptly at ten minutes later when Uñai’s computer cut out.

The problem? He arrived in the Netherlands yesterday and the airline has lost his baggage. The cord for his computer was in the missing case. Lesson abandoned. I hope he gets the case back!

Did another half hour on my own. Translated the text of “Norentzat” into English to translate back at a later date. Revised the Matteo Tsixtu exercise listening exercises from unit 30 by listening again and then “shadowing” the text a couple of times.

My mood slumped when I checked my mails and found that Iñego has cancelled the second lesson we had agreed for tomorrow. Immediately jumped to the conclusion he’s maybe going to be unreliable.  With Uñai out of action due to the lost luggage, that means I could end up only having two full lessons this week (I’m booked with Eider on Sunday) and I was aiming for five!

Loretegian – out in the garden filming the vlog

Thursday 2nd August (2 hours self-study)

7.30am – glorious sunny start as the heatwave continues. Did second listening exercise from “Habe” unit 31 by way of a first listen through to the whole text and then a phrase-by-phrase written dictation exercise.

I noticed the chunk “filma grabatu” (to record a film). I’d been saying this to my teacher without being sure whether this was the verb used for making a film or video.

One hour plus passive radio listening today.

Friday 3rd August (30 minutes one-to-one, 1 hour self-study)

Less active work on my materials today. Started with “shadowing” exercise on the audio of the “Bihotzaa dir-dir” text from “Habe” unit 31. Then going through the rest of the text and exercises in this unit to check I understand. Looking up vocab. All in preparation for working through with Uñai on Skype.

Just going out the door with my phone headphones on when the stream of Basque radio was interrupted in my ear by a Skype call. It was Iñego asking if I was up for a lesson right away. Another ten minutes and I’d have been in the middle of the run.

So, about turn on the doorstep and I had a good second lesson with Iñego, the first using the Habe materials. We worked on unit 34 together for the first time.

Mid-afternoon got an email from Uñai saying that his suitcase with the computer cord had been located so he’s up and running again. Three sessions with him booked for next week. Looks like the “teacher crisis” which looked to be brewing on Wednesday has now passed .

One hour or so of passive radio today, including on my twenty-five minute run. Yes, that finally happened after the unexpected Basque lesson.

Saturday 4th August (30 minutes one-to-one, 30 minutes self-study)

Morning kicked off with a thirty 30 minute lesson with Iñego.

General chat first. Topics included Basque “baserriak” (traditional farm houses) and how often the names of them are also Basque surnames. Also discussed how the typical “Basque” typeface is more used in the North (French Basque Country) than in the South. Is it kitsch nationalism for the tourists in place of a political identity and strong language revival of the South. Or is it one way of proudly showing identity when faced with the crass arrogance of the trumped up little Napoleons of right and left up in Paris? Perhaps both.

Then back to unit 34 to practise telling the time. Iñego good on forcing me to be really accurate with my endings. I’m now at a level where it makes sense to tune up my case endings with numbers when telling the time. It’s the ablative (“-tik”) ending on the number for “from” (e.g. from 9 o’clock), then allative (“-ra”) for to (as in “to 10 o’clock). The endings need to be plural for 2 o’clock onwards, though as the Basque time expressions use “one hour” but “two, three hours” etc.

Later today I spent another half hour reading a text for the first time to work on with Eider next Sunday.

Can’t sleep? Try reading Basque!

Sunday 5th August (30 minutes one-to-one, 30 minutes self-study)

Unable to drop to sleep between midnight and quarter to five this morning, partly because of the heat. Ended up propped up in bed at about 4.20 am reading the first seven pages of a Basque novela “Ainzaneren koadernoa” (Ainzane’s notebook) that I first “read” a few months ago. (Well my eyes went over the words then, but I didn’t get much of the meaning.)

I was amazed how much more I understood last night. I was really following the story, despite not knowing all the words or being sure of all the structures. Very encouraging. It’s hugely exciting when you sense a gear-shift like that.  Or was I dreaming?

Not up until after eight and no time to run, especially as I had to deal with a problem in the kitchen this morning when the kettle tripped the electricity circuit a couple of times. Need a new kettle! Number three in eight years in this house. All in all, no time for some passive radio either before my thirty-minute session with Eider.

My reading fluency in the middle of the night did not translate into a particularly fluent Skype performance from me. Still, some useful work with Eider from Bakaraka 4, chapter 3. We focussed on the exercises practising conjugations of past tense of esan (to say, to tell), which is completely new to me. You can also usually also express this with using an auxiliary verb with esan unconjugated.

Shortly after the lesson, I returned to my desk for another thirty minutes’ work reading through one of the longer texts in chapter 3 ready to work on together in next Sunday’s lesson.  Then, out to the garden to film the video update.

Totals and round-up

I aimed for five lessons and five days with at last thirty-minute self-study sessions (total two-and-a-half hours in total). Totting up (starting with Monday and including today) I only did four lessons but I did at least thirty minutes self-study all seven days (total self-study: six and three quarter hours).

And in other news…. I’ve kicked off a new “Dr Popkins Method” vlog series (check out the YouTube channel). I’m also putting together a new language learners’ mentoring programme for the autumn. On those, watch this space.

Next Basque update: next Sunday.  First, this week’s vid:

As always, any comments or questions now the first week is done, let me know below.

Enough about my efforts! How has the first week of August gone in  your language learning? Tell me all about it!

Other posts  in this series:

Kick off diary and video

Second week diary and video

Third week diary and video

Final week diary and video

The post One Month Basque Boost: first week diary appeared first on How to get fluent, with Dr Popkins.

The time is right

The timing of this TV project is perfect as I’ll have more time and energy than usual to focus on Basque this month. That’s because last night I “broke up” to start my annual one-month sabbatical from the law firm.

Out of the blue a couple of weeks ago, I got a Facebook message from one of the television production team. I’m still not sure how they came across me (no evidence that they were Howtogetfluenters… Maybe the London Basque Society tipped them off).

There was a form to fill in with some background info about my and my interest. I delayed doing this as I “couldn’t face” having to write in Basque. I finally got it sent in and had a preliminary Skype call on Wednesday morning. They had tried to phone me, but I thought Skype would be better than trying to understand a phone call. I was worried that my level would not be good enough and that I wouldn’t be able to understand them.

The call went really well, though. I only had to ask Meritxell to repeat herself a couple of times. We discussed filming ideas and locations and fixed the date.

Me and Basque: the background

If you’re a regular reader, you’ll know that I’ve been learning Basque for five years now.  The language – spoken in the Basque Country on both sides of the western Pyrenees and along the adjacent coastlines in the French and Spanish states – is quite a challenge. That’s because it’s a “language isolate”, unrelated to any other language.  It’s different, exotic.

I’ve generally been learning at a stately pace.  It’s been low intensity, working with self-study materials.  If you’re a Basque learner, check out my Basque text-book review.

Until last year, I was attending a weekly group class at the London Basque Society.

Throughout, though, the mainstay of my learning has been study on my own and working with teachers via Skype. That’s my language learning philosophy: self-study and one to one, with group classes as an add-on. Useful at times but not central.

I’ve mainly found the teachers through italki.

There have been breaks for business travel and vacations. I’ve also put the Basque to one side or into “maintenance mode” when I’ve been focussed other language projects (such as my advanced German and Russian exam preparation and my beginner Indonesian and Icelandic projects).

These breaks aside, the Skype lessons have constant in my life over the past few years.  I aim for two or three a week.  It’s an ongoing language habit that I don’t think about that much.

I’ve also deliberately ramped up several times in the past. I used the framework of the 90-day Add1Challenge three times (check out reports here, here and here).

In summer 2016, I spent one month on an intensive residential course in the Basque Country and made a round-up vlog of life in the Maizpide Barnetegia and travel vlogs about my journey to the Basque Country and the sights and sounds of the Basque Country.

I attend London Basque Society events when I can.

Learner’s update

Here’s a recap of my study/practice totals for December to April (ignoring passive media exposure): December 2017 – 7.5 hours; January 2018 – 12 hours; February 2018 – 6 hours 45 mins; March 2018 – 10 hours 45 mins; April 2018 – 4 hours 30 mins. For a breakdown and more detail, see my last general “Language Learner’s Update”.

Here, hot off my calculator, are the latest totals from language learning log:

May 2018 – total: 5 hours, 15 mins
5 x 45 minute lessons with Unái
1 x 30 minute lesson with Eider
1 hour of additional study (2 x 30 min sessions)

June 2018  – total: 9 hours, 45 mins
3 x 45 minute lessons with Unái
3 x 30 minute lessons with Eider
5 hours of additional study (10 x 30 min sessions)

July 2018 – total: 7 hours, 20 mins
4 x 45 minute lessons with Unái
4 x 30 minute lessons with Eider
2 hrs 20 minutes of additional study (4 x 30 min, 1 x 20 min)

How is the work paying off?

It’s difficult to get an objective handle on your own progress, which is why recording yourself at intervals is a useful tool for seeing whether you’re making progress.

I’ve just been looking back at some of the videos I’ve posted in the past.

I’m clearly a long way on from this video (April 2015):

My best “performance” so far has been this one from a couple of weeks after my return from Maizpide (September 2016):

That’s nearly two years ago but ‘ve certainly felt some improvement in recent months.

I can now have proper conversations. I’m forgetting the most frequent words much less often. I’m still coming up against my limited vocab but I’m finding it easier to remember new words when I do focus on doing that.

I’m developing a feel for Basques unique verb system. It’s different and quite complex, though it is very regular.

The auxiliaries and the small number of (high frequency) synthetic verbs still cause me problems at times.  At other times, though, I’m able to apply the system “on the wing” to get the right form with a verb I haven’t used so much.

That said, when I look at the video I recorded earlier today (below), I still feel a bit embarrassed at my level and feel I should be at a higher level now…..And that’s just when I watch my performance in the intro in English No, seriously, I’m still making a lot of mistakes but, as I said, I’m feeling the progress all the same.

The plan

My aim is to be able to do a thirty or forty-five minute conversation session with a teacher five days a week.

I also aim to do at least one additional thirty-minute session five days a week.

I’ll continue to work with the Habe materials with Unai and Bakarka 4 with Eider. With the other teachers I plan to use other chapters of the same courses. I’ll also review things I’ve done already.

This week I started to look a new text-book as well, the Arian B2.1 book.  It’s above my current level but well make for a change and a stretch.

I’ve worked Assimil Le Basque unifié (initiation)  to death, but I may review some of that.

l’ll be dipping in and out of Colloquial Basque too because it’s packed with very useful vocab, phrases and cultural background and using Alan King’s The Basque Language again.

Aside from the constant need to practice the alien structures of the language, my main challenge is vocab building.

I will also be listening to Basque radio when I’m eating, showering and doing household chores. This passive exposure is something I’ve been doing from the start and I understand more and more (though still less than half, I’d say). This year, I’ve also started watching the news online.

That’s it.

I’ll be posting a short study log with a short progress video each week…..starting with this post and vid. The vlogs will generally be quick updates to camera about my Basque learning and general life that week.  At the end, I also hope to enlist some help to record a proper conversation as well.

I think the programme’s due to go out in September. I’ll let you know.

If you’re a Basque learner, do let me know about your experiences in the comments below.  Likewise if you are studying another language and can relate, or just have questions, it’d be great to hear from you.

Other posts in this series:

First week diary and video

Second week diary and video

Third week diary and video

Final week diary and video

The post One Month Basque Boost: kick off appeared first on How to get fluent, with Dr Popkins.