Why I Started with French

Okay, I didn't really start with French in terms of language learning, but it was the first language I actually made any significant progress on. A group at my work started meeting after hours to learn French, and I figured why the hell not. As with many things in my life that I've thought this about, it certainly ended up being a bigger deal than I anticipated.

The group started off using the free course from Open Learning Initiative. I ran into a problem early on with remembering the vocabulary. Not to mention that French can be really, really, unintelligible to the untrained ear. So yea, while I kept going to the weekly meeting, I wasn't doing enough outside of class to keep up with it.

Around the end of 2013, I read the book "Mindset: the New Psychology of Success" by Carol Dweck. I go on at length about what I got out of that book here, which rather changed my approach to language learning. Rather than just assuming I wasn't any good at it because it didn't come easy, I was going to spend 2014 seeing how far I could get with something I've always wanted to do, which was language learning. And since I was still in the group for French, it seemed as logical a place to start as any. And it wouldn't be a reflection of my self worth if I still wasn't fluent by the end of the year. After all, I was just in it to see how far I could get.

So, I started with French because I was learning it already. I've been told repeatedly that French isn't the easiest language to learn, but I don't always take the easiest path. And I've managed to keep up the language learning habit, which is probably the best thing I've done in 2014.

Learning French has opened a whole new world for me. I can't wait to prod at the boundaries of my understanding in all three languages.

First Impressions: German and Danish

German is going to be easier than Danish.

Even though I haven't studied German outside of about six months when I was a teenager, I've been exposed to German most of my life. My dad's side of the family is completely German, with one set of his grandparents (We called them Oma and Opa) having emigrated to the United States before World War 2. We were also big into board gaming, and every holiday one of the uncles (who was part of a gaming club) would bring a trunk full of games, some that hadn't made it to America yet and were completely in German. To this day, Settlers of Catan is "Siedlers" and has Stadts and Evichlungs instead of Cities and Development Cards. I also like listening to such bands as Ramnstein and Einsbrecher. So, while I haven't made a super serious go of studying German, enough of it has leaked into my life that it's not completely foreign.

I have no similar basis for Danish. It's on my to-learn list because the company I work for has a customer in Denmark.

So, after my first day of doing German and Danish, I've concluded: German has this reputation for being harsh and guttural, but it's got nothing on Danish. There is something about spoken Danish that makes my spine attempt to crawl away. My conclusion is that, while it sort of sounds similar to German, it's not, and my brain doesn't know how to deal with that.

But a little thing like auditory weirdness isn't about to stop me. I hope.

I'm still trying to work out the optimal schedule here. It's more difficult with multiple languages. When I was only learning French, it was easy - every moment spent language learning was spent on French. Now...Should I completely separate German and Danish into completely separate days, or is it okay to swap back and forth over the course of a day? When should I fit in French review? I don't have good answers yet.

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Il va être plus facile d'apprendre allemand que le danois

J'ai étudié l'allemand seule pendant six mois quand j'étais adolescente. Mais j'ai été exposé à l'allemand durant toute ma vie. La famille de mon père est allemand, avec un couple de ses grands-parents (que nous appelons Oma et Opa) ayant émigré àux États-Unis  avant la Deuxième Guerre mondiale. Nous étions très amateurs de jeux de société, et pour toutes nos vacances, l'oncle (qui faisait partie d'un club de jeux) apporterait plein de jeux dans sa voiture plein des jeux, certains qui n'étaient pas encore sortis aux États-Unis pourtant et étaient complètement en allemand.. Jusqu'à aujourd'hui, "Settlers of Catan" s'appelle "Siedlers" et il y a "Stadts" et " Entwicklungs" au lieu des villes et des cartes de développement. Donc même si je n'ai pas vraiment essayé d'étudier l'allemand sérieusement, j'ai été assez exposée à cette langue pour que ça ne me soit pas complètement étranger.

Je n'ai aucune base semblable en le danois. C'est sur ma liste de choses à apprendre parce que l'entreprise  laquelle je travaille pour a un client au Danemark.

Alors, après mon premier jour à apprendre l'allemand et le danois, j'ai conclu : l'allemand a cette réputation d'être dur et guttural, mais il n'y a rien sur le danois. Il y a quelque chose sur le danois parlé qui me donne envie de m'enfuir. Ma conclusion est que, alors que c'est assez semblable à sonne un peu pareille que l'allemand, ça n'est pas l'allemand, et mon cerveau ne sait pas comment faire.

Mais quelque chose comme une impression auditive bizarre ne m'arrêtera pas. J'espère.

J'essaye toujours d'établir le programme optimal. C'est très difficile avec plusieurs langues. Quand j'apprenais seulement le français, c'était facile - chaque moment d'apprentissage des langues était réservé au / utilisé pour le français. Maintenant... Devrais-je complètement séparer l'allemand et le danois pendant des jours distincts, ou est-ce que c'est bien de permuter les deux au cours d'une journée? Quand ferai-je des revisions pour le  français? Je n'ai pas encore de bonnes réponses.

My Goals for 2015

This blog is for me to track my language learning efforts.

At the beginning of 2014, I realized that I was turning 30 this year. Thirty!

And I've always wanted to learn, really learn, a language. I'd just never had the time, or the talent, for it.

So I decided to see how much I could learn of one language in one year. I didn't have to become fluent in it, or good at it, but I had to see what I could learn. Had to see how far I could get. I've heard a lot about how the ideal time for learning additional languages is when you're a kid. I'm not a kid anymore, but I'm certainly not getting any younger, and if I ever wanted to realize my lifelong dream of knowing multiple languages, I had to start somewhere.

That somewhere ended up being French, for reasons I'll probably talk about (eventually). I've learned a few things.

One, there's a lot of free stuff on the Internet.The quality of a lot of resources is really high.

Two, I can actually have a proficiency beyond the first chapter.

Three, there's too much free stuff on the Internet (to try them all).

Oh, I'm nowhere near my ideal level of fluency in French.

But today, I was watching a French League of Legends streamer. I could keep up with the chat conversations. I could ask most of my questions without using Google Translate. I only had to look up a couple of words other people used. My audio comprehension still lags pretty heavily, but I can understand heavy French accents in spoken English. This is a big deal, since any accent has normally been a serious problem for me.

Next year, 2015, I'm going to add German and Danish to my efforts. I intend to keep maintaining/advancing French, but at a slower pace. I intend to focus most of my energy into German, but we'll see where the year takes us.

I'm planning to start German and Danish in the last half of December, when I will have a two week vacation, but I'm already looking ahead, lining up a few resources, trying to wrap up some things in French.



I am planning to write my blog posts in English and French, and I'll get some French practice done that way. I hope to use Lang8 to get rid of the worst errors before I post them here.


The title of this blog is a play on the song "Seven Nation Army" by The White Stripes. I like the way it sounds in my head. But that could be the vodka talking.

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Ce blog est pour moi un moyen de suivre mes efforts d'études de langue.

Au début de 2014, j'avais réalisé que j'aurais trente ans cette année. Trente!

J'ai toujours voulu apprendre une langue. Je n'ai jamais eu le temps, ou le talent.

Alors j'ai décidé de voir combien je pourrais apprendre d'une langue en un an. Je n'ai pas à atteindre la maîtrise, ou être bon, mais je veux voir ce que je pourrais apprendre. J'aimerai voir jusqu'à où je suis capable d'apprendre. J'ai entendu beaucoup d'idées qui disent qu'il est préférable d'apprendre d'autres langues quand vous êtes enfant. Je ne suis plus un enfant, mais je ne rajeurnis pas, et si jamais je voulais réaliser le rêve de ma vie qui est de connaître plusieurs langues, j'ai dû commencer quelque part.

Par le français, pour les raisons que je vais expliquer. J'ai appris un peu choses...

Un: il y a beaucoup de choses gratuits sur l'Internet. Il y a beaucoup de ressources de bonne qualité.

Deux: Je peux vraiment être compétent au-delà du premier chapitre.

Trois: il y a trop beaucoup de choses gratuites sur l'Internet pour tous les essayer.

Aujourd'hui, je regarde un Français streamer de League ofLegends. Je pourrais comprendre les conversations dans le chat. Je pourrais poser la plupart de mes questions sans Google Traduction, J'ai seulement dû cherche quelques mots que d'autres  personnes ont utilisés. C'est sérieux pour moi, depuis les accents sont un grave problème pour moi.

L'année prochaine, en 2015, je vais ajouter l'allemand et le danois à mes efforts. J'ai l'intention de continuer à étudier le français, mais plus lentement. J'ai du temps supplémentaire pour consacrer mon énergie à l'allemand, mais nous verrons où l'année me mènera.

Je prévois de commencer l'allemand et le danois pendant la dernière moitié de décembre, quand j'aurai deux semaines de vacances, mais j'ai regardé avant, choisis des ressources, essayer de conclure quelques choses en français.

Je prévois d'écrire mon blog en anglais et en français, et je vais pratiquer mon français cette façon. J’espère qu’utiliser Lang8 me permettra de supprimer les pires erreurs avant que je post ceci.

Le titre de ce blog est un jeu de mots de titre de chanson, "Seven Nation Army," par The White Stripes. J'aime la façon dont il sonne dans ma tête.

Resources This Post

French League of Legends streamer  Fun guy to watch. Streams in both English and French. 

Google Translate  Quick and dirty tool of language noobs everywhere, but one of the people on Lang-8 who corrected this post has informed me that this site is better for translating French: Voila Try using that instead. 

Lang-8   Site where you can post writing in your target and get it corrected by other users. It's how I got the French part of this post proofread.