Comments for Confessions of a language addict's Blog

Comment on Learning to Read Chinese Characters – Another Resource by Alejandro Gutman

Alejandro Gutman — Thu, 06 Jun 2013 17:23:00 +0000

We have recently created a new website (“The Language Gulper”) about ancient and modern world languages including for each of them an overview, sections on phonology, morphology, syntax, and a basic vocabulary for interlanguage comparisons. Besides, it has information about writing systems, a summary of key literary works, and especially designed maps.
If you think it is interesting, perhaps you could add it to your list of resources.
Thank you

Comment on Learning to Read Chinese Characters – Another Resource by G Barto

G Barto — Wed, 29 May 2013 01:02:50 +0000

Good question. While the Arabic writing system is also bound to give Westerners trouble, it works very differently from Chinese. It’s essentially a syllabary for words in a tri-consonantal root system (k-t-b = write so kitaab is book, kutub is books, maktable is desk, etc). As a result, the things you need to keep straight are different. And while the Arabic characters ultimately go back to pictographs, because they are in cursive, it’s a lot harder to see where they came from.

Comment on Learning to Read Chinese Characters – Another Resource by Robin Bremner

Robin Bremner — Tue, 28 May 2013 11:04:35 +0000

Yeah I’ve heard about this method, seems to be pretty new, there’s no reviews yet on Amazon. I wonder how well that method would work with learning to read Arabic?

Comment on Saving Aramaic by Ray

Ray — Mon, 13 May 2013 19:35:47 +0000

The whole subject of Aramaic is an interesting one. I remember reading an article 2 or 3 years ago about how it was only spoken in some remote parts of Syria. That got me reading about Assyrians, a subject and a people we just don’t learn about in school for some reason. A tragic story in many ways, and likely to get much worse with current events in Syria. I think it’s fantastic that people are trying to save this ancient language and I wish them every success.

Comment on A Different Kind of Language Learning – Python by Karen

Karen — Mon, 22 Apr 2013 21:42:04 +0000

Hi G Barto. I was searching around for language sites and stopped by. I loved this little “language” diversion you wrote about. Python is excellent. Very powerful and fairly simple to use. Good luck with it.

Comment on Self-rate your language skills by Keeley

Keeley — Mon, 15 Apr 2013 14:30:04 +0000

I do believe all the ideas you have presented to your post.

They are very convincing and will definitely work.
Still, the posts are very brief for novices.
Could you please extend them a little from next time?

Thank you for the post.

Comment on Stumbling into the Semitic languages by carllacanCarles

carllacanCarles — Sat, 16 Mar 2013 00:19:50 +0000

Hey, I just found your blog by looking for akkadian resources. Just wanted to say that I’m glad to learn that I’m not the only one who started learning akkadian just because it could be funny. See you in the asylum.

Comment on Writing for computers, writing for people by Niall Beag

Niall Beag — Thu, 28 Feb 2013 12:33:21 +0000

Quite. As I’ve said before, I recently picked up Python, which is supposed to be easy to write in a self-documenting manner. But as soon as you do anything with objects, it starts to get difficult. All I wanted was a tree as a list of lists, but in order to put in methods to act on the tree, I had to wrap it in an object and now my code’s a big ball of unnecessary dots and brackets….

On the human side of things, people confuse “informal language” with “slang”, and refuse to teach it because “it varies so much from place to place”. True of slang, not of informal language.

Example: elided sentences in English:
[do you] want to come?
[are] you ready?

Because it’s so rarely taught, learners are often left to figure it out for themselves (aka “acquire” it). And sometimes they get it wrong.

A Polish friend of mine once asked:
“anyone wants to buy a bike?”
He conjugated the verb “want” because it was the first verb in the sentence. Except that’s not what a native does. This isn’t a different structure from “does anyone want to buy a bike?”, but a reduced form of the same structure, with the first verb dropped.

Comment on Learning by doing by Glen Gordon

Glen Gordon — Mon, 04 Feb 2013 20:13:42 +0000

Doing is definitely part of the learning process. When I made my little model of an Etruscan temple in Sketchup, it brought up numerous questions that I might not have confronted had I not started up the project. What colours should a typical Etruscan temple be painted? Did Etruscan temples have elaborate religious murals inside like their tombs did? What nicknacks would be typically placed in the temple? How is the architecture linked to Asia Minor? Etc, etc, etc. Even if my model proves inadequate to others, I can take away these new questions which serve as new goals for further learning. This is how we can create a cycle of self-inspiration and learning, like a scholarly snowball of questions rolling down the hill. Watch out below! ;o)

Comment on Learning by doing by Niall Beag

Niall Beag — Thu, 20 Dec 2012 13:34:09 +0000

“There’s no question that some people learn better by sight (visual learners) or by hearing (audial).”

Really? As far as I’m aware that’s still very much an open question. According to the American journal “Psychological Science in the Public Interest”, no-one has ever given any decent justification for the existence of learning styles that can be taught to.
[Pashler, H.; McDaniel, M.; Rohrer, D.; Bjork, R. (2008). "Learning styles: Concepts and evidence". Psychological Science in the Public Interest 9: 105–119. doi:10.1111/j.1539-6053.2009.01038.x.]

The authors make it clear that they’re not saying that learning styles don’t exist, just that if they do, we don’t know how to teach to them.

It may be that you’re taking too short-term a view of what “learning” really is — you’re talking as though “learning” is just the initial exposure, but as I’ve been discussing with Yousef over on my blog, practice has to be viewed as an integral part of the learning process.

Perhaps some people are better at memorising images or sounds, but I wouldn’t consider that “learning”….