Solving My Personal Linguistic Dilemma

Shawn — Fri, 19 Nov 2010 17:40:41 +0000

Since pretty much forever I’ve been learning French. Not full time or anything, but its been an ongoing subtle effort. Being Canadian means I got plenty of it in school. Plus I’ve taken classes and tried myriad online learning sites. I think it’s a lovely language, and I really like it a lot. How good am I at it though? Pretty damn sucky. So sucky that I don’t even know how to say, “pretty damn sucky” in French. Fast forward to October 2010, inside a burger joint in Oxford. My dining companion, who is a ridiculous super-genius, broaches the subject of which language she should learn next. You know, after having mastered 44* other ones or whatever. This is naturally a traumatizing conversation for those of us who don’t even feel like we’re good at our native language yet. Fast forward to this morning, I don’t know the date. You can look at your calendar though. I was considering this language dilemma, while murdering a bowl of Corn Pops, and started building this comparison in my wee mind. So the following is my logic on where I should focus the full glorious power of my futile linguistic learning cannon.

I decided to make a list for the three languages I am most interested in. The theory being that this effort should help me visualize my best choice.

French

Already mediocre at it
16th most spoken language in the world
Hate the food (I love the pastries though)
Very few nearby locations for immersion (Quebec is about it in the Americas)
Natalie Portman speaks it
Generally considered the moderate difficulty of these three to learn
Quite good movies and music
High likelihood to be useful post-zombipocalypse
Hard because I can’t roll my r’s
Pretty good at foot-soccer-ball, but lame at hockey

Spanish

I’ve seen some Dora episodes
2nd most spoken language in the world
Love the food
Very few locations not nearby for immersion (Canada is about it in the Americas)
Natalie Portman doesn’t speak it, but maybe will someday
Generally considered the easiest of these three to learn
Okay movies and music
Moderate likelihood to be useful post-zombipocalypse
Hard because I can’t roll my r’s
Very good at foot-soccer-ball, but horrible at hockey

Japanese

I never know what they’re saying in Anime movies
9th most spoken language in the world
Like the food, but can only eat a teeny percent of it all
Nowhere in the Americas is good for immersion
Natalie Portman speaks it
Generally considered the most difficult of these three to learn
Really good movies and music
Super likelihood to be useful post-zombipocalypse
Yay, no rolling r’s
Okay at foot-soccer-ball, but not good at hockey

Well, if you judge by the reasoning, then I’m changing my focus to be Spanish. Maybe I could putter at learning Japanese some too. The list shows that French is what I don’t need to keep learning though. I’m going to nap on it, then go grab some tacos, and consider if I’m ready for that change. In the meantime, share your linguistic dilemma comments below in either French, Spanish or Japanese, but not English. Oh, or Esperanto because it’s cool too.

.
//shawn

* 44 of course being an exaggeration, but you get the point. It seems like 44 to us normal folk.

Photo Credit: My friend Charles took it in Panama City while I loitered. Turns out photography is more useful than loitering in the long run.

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Bonjour, et Merci

Shawn — Tue, 26 Jan 2010 14:51:19 +0000

Of the 6912 recognized languages in the world I bet none of their “hello” and “thanks” sound as true to meaning as French. I’m big on listening to how people speak, how they sound and what they say. Bonjour and merci seem to be two words that even if you don’t know a word of French, you would know what they mean.

Comparatively speaking, “Hello” and “Thanks” just don’t cut it. Hello sounds like a kids cartoon character and thanks sounds like an itchy sore.

“Um.. are you okay there, Janet? You’re sure itching a lot.”

“Oh dude, I know. I have the worst case of thanks on my bum. It’s driving me mad! The itching totally distracted me while I was trying to watch the new episode of Hello & Tinkles Go To PooPoo Town.”

See what I mean? As I wrap up my last few days in Montreal I know I’m really going to be sad to go from bonjour and merci to hello and thanks.

// shawn

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Rerunaround » language

Solving My Personal Linguistic Dilemma

Bonjour, et Merci