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October 17, 2011 | Italian
Second Thoughts
I am already rethinking my revised study plan.
I have seen this Volkswagen Passat ad at least a dozen times, and I love it every time. It is hilarious.
So, fantasy is being used to sell a car…but it is fantasy devoid of near-naked women.
And it is one of the sexiest ads I have ever seen.
By the way, no matter how absurd the men’s almost instant language acquisition is, it still makes me jealous.
As I post this entry, it is a little past midnight on the 17th. About an hour ago I came home from a small gathering of friends, a number of whom are multilingual and who have been helpful and interested advisors on this project.
I got a look of horror when I said I was planning to drop Chinese and Hebrew. (The omission of Dutch didn’t inspire the same concern, though it troubles me.) I am going to rethink this whole thing.
Maybe after a healthy fall/winter break for easier European languages, I will have energy for a couple of difficult ones…really, I’m just still a little worn out at the moment. But there is no question in my mind that omitting Chinese would be a big, big, big problem for the New York language story.
Hebrew should really be in there, too. It has a significant role in New York life. And at least a little Dutch, for the early history of the city and to help with place names throughout the boroughs.
I am mulling over a new schedule that would remove some of the German and Romance language rehearsal time and reinstate the temporarily abandoned other three languages. The schedule would be grueling…but rewarding. I will post more on this issue shortly.
My husband is humming the theme from Rocky in the background, and I am laughing.
Comments (7)
Nick • Posted on Thu, October 20, 2011 - 4:52 pm EST
Interesting, hopefully you are really going to learn Dutch, its quite easily since you already speak English and German. And don’t worry, Dutch hasn’t got a case system.
And like you already said, it is so interesting since you live in New York, which was founded by the Dutch as a trading post called New Amsterdam (1609-1664).
Curruption names like Broadway (broodweg; literally bread road), Brooklyn (after the Dutch town of Breukelen), Harlem (after the Dutch city of Haarlem), Flushing (sounds toiletish, after the Dutch city of Vlissingen).
But also the 17th century Dutch city wall, (now called Wall Street), or Staten Island, named after the the bicameral legislature of the Netherlands, which still exists today in that country.
And what about Dutch words in English like cookie (koekje), dollar (daalder), iceberg (ijsberg), landscape (landschap), Santa Claus (Sinterklaas, a centuries old Dutch festival) or Yankee (after the Dutch first names Jan and Kees).
I’m very curious at your next steps and wish you good luck and a lot of language learning ;-).
Kind regards
Nick
Jules • Posted on Fri, October 21, 2011 - 8:48 pm EST
I’m glad you’re reconsidering. I had to stop myself from haranguing you, as I was also crestfallen by your proposed refocus on the romance languages.
Since when was this project about you and your needs? You have a city of 11 million people to consider. Plus you’ve already made it so far.
You control the deadlines. Take all the time you need. But please don’t drop Chinese, Hebrew and Dutch.
Rocky wouldn’t have dropped them.
Guillermo de la Gaijin • Posted on Thu, November 10, 2011 - 9:40 pm EST
This is especially astounding to me. I got 15 minutes of French every day, growing up, as prescribed by law, and then some more in high school, and a little in college. When I got to Israel and began to study Hebrew on an Ulpan. I was practicing my French too with a bunch of French kids who were there at the same time. What happened was—and I think I stumbled on to a genetic flaw in my brain—I ended up spitting out Hebrew when I intended French and vice-versa. Only if I concentrated could I manage a conversation in either language. Once I got the French out of my system and got completely immmersed in the Hebrew, then it came pretty easily. When I got back to the states I found that I had difficulty with the English. Just couldn’t express myself with the same ease anymore. Hebrew no problem. I actually had to speak so slowly that two friends on two separate occasions asked me if I thought they were stupid because I was speaking to them so slowly. (Though I think part of the speaking slowly part came from my job, which was to liase with people from all over the world. Those people would often remark how easy it was to understand me)
Guillermo de la Gaijin • Posted on Thu, November 10, 2011 - 10:06 pm EST
Very true. I should also probably have an MRI.
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Ellen Jovin • Posted on Thu, October 20, 2011 - 11:37 pm EST
Nick! Thank you so much! I loved this comment…and you are right, of course: I can’t leave out Dutch. Over the past couple of days I have been playing around in my head with different possible schedules for the remainder of the project, all of which include Chinese for sure, Portuguese for sure, some Dutch for sure, and almost certainly Hebrew as well. At this point I am just trying to figure out the best timing (and time allotment) for each. I appreciate the encouragement!