Linguistic Hedonism

If you can’t find the route to pleasure in language-learning, you are doomed. Unless you are a masochist and enjoy perma-suffering. I do not.

For me, if language-learning is not fun, it’s just not happening.

Started a New Book, Persisch für Anfänger

My First Exercise in It…So Cute!

Tonight I began a previously mentioned German book on Persian, Persisch für Anfänger. Instead of getting grammatical explanations in English, as I usually do, I am getting them entirely in German.

So far I love it. Asya Asbaghi, the author, definitely exploits the German language’s characteristic trait of verbs at the end of loooooong dependent clauses. It’s pretty funny. I feel as though I am kept waiting on the edge of my seat for the grammatical punchlines.

The design is beautiful, I have to say. I love the paper, the aesthetics, the font…such things so significantly add to the pleasure of language-learning. The author’s cousin, the Iranian artist Abdi Asbaghi, did the illustrations.

I am just over the moon that I can read about Persian in German. Five years ago it would never have occurred to me to do something like this.

Every language learner needs to find his or her own version of linguistic hedonism. This may be mine. Or one of mine, anyway.

I am trying to decide between “linguistic hedonism” and “hedonistic linguistics.” The second one sounds like a new type of exercise class. I would totally sign up for that, and I don’t even like taking classes!