The document is a personal reflection on language learning, detailing the author's experiences with multiple languages and the challenges faced during the process. It highlights the cognitive benefits of being bilingual, practical considerations for learning a new language, and social advantages, including attractiveness and enhanced cultural awareness. The author also provides strategies and tools for effective language acquisition, emphasizing the importance of consistency, immersion, and enjoying the learning journey.

1. StudyLanguages
An incomprehensible guide.
@admc

2. Hello and welcome.
Hej og velkommen
Привет и добро
пожаловать
(Privet i dobro pozhalovat')
Bonjour et
bienvenue

3. Warning:
The following are non-factual observations
and theories I have constructed in a purely
experimental fashion.

5. Background
● My family lives all over.
● Lots of languages in my life.
○ French, English, German
○ Danish, Spanish, Russian
○ Indonesian, Mandarin
● Perils of Language Learning
○ Blog post in 2009
● Presented at LXJS in 2012
○ Immersion

6. Berlin, 2009 - couldn’t communicate
with a taxi driver, almost missed my
flight.

7. Languages
● 31 years of English (america)
● 6 years of German (all things)
● 4 years of French (school)
● 2 years of Danish (duolingo)
● 1 month of Russian (duolingo)
● Discovery projects:
○ Arabic (interesting youtubing)
○ Spanish (all of Duolingo)

8. "Bilingual is one way to keep your brain
active—it's part of the cognitive-reserve
approach to brain fitness"
- http://goo.gl/tEHDo (National Geographic)

9. What’sinitforYOU?
● Brain health: alzheimer’s, dementia - http://goo.gl/tEHDo
● Makes you smarter: http://goo.gl/KzVQo - NY Times
● Better understanding of your mother tongue
● Travel enhancer
● Fascinating study of social dynamics
● Expanded world view, cultural etc.

10. SexAppeal
“From a survey conducted in Britain involving
270 dating agencies, the result shows that
people who speak or learn a foreign language
are more attractive, intelligent and sexier
to the opposite sex.”

11. Preparation

12. WhattoConsider
● Language complexity and difficulty - stay tuned
● Global number of native speakers
● Practicality & real world motivators
● Will you ever visit, or move there?
● What comes most naturally to you?
● Do you want to read, write or speak - more?
○ It can drastically change your learning strategy
○ Are you outgoing? Speaking requires extroversion
● Alphabet and or character set
○ The extra step with cyrillic is gnarly, on screen keyboard etc
● Do you like grammar?

13. Difficulty

14. Popularity

15. Incase that isn’t complicated enough.

20. Strategy

21. Grammar
● Used to explain a language
● Ineffective learning strategy
● Children absorb
● Not my priority
● Russian has few Articles?

22. Focus
● Filler words are very important
● Ignore formality, learners are judged on tact
● Idioms and metaphors are full of richness (make lists)
● Focus on the flow of the language
● Concentrate on speaking, even terribly
● Circle back around to say things _right_
● Language subtleties
○ “Drengen” - “The boy”, coupling of articles (definite singular)
○ “Ich bin langweilig” - “I am boring”, why are you laughing?
● Prepositions are insane. (on, behind, near, over)
○ And don’t always work how your brain has been trained to think.

23. Tools
● Duolingo (free)
● Rosetta Stone (excels with speaking, $$)
● Mobile app dictionaries and knowledge base (leo.dict.cc)
● Youtube, news sites
● Free streaming live news
● Cover your house with sticky notes
● Unlimited web sites
○ Ex: http://masterrussian.com/russian_alphabet.shtml
○ All the cyrillic sounds and something close to an english equiv.

25. Immersion
● Language institutes (Goethe)
● Craigslist Tutoring ($50/hr’ish)
● Local meetups, meetup.com
● Vacation time @ bars in said country
● Visit and do an immersive program
● Date and or marry into it?

26. Stockholm,Sweden

27. Culture
● Language is culture
● Conversational nuances
○ “How are you?”
● Learn their traditions
● Experience their food
● Study their history
● Relationships with neighbors
● Political situation
● Social system
● Sports interests

29. Advice
● A little time daily, compounds nicely
● Don’t get discouraged, build confidence
● It’s okay to learn and then forget
● Make it fun, use content you are generally into
● Accept imperfection
● Gamify your language interactions
○ Where am I from? Any guesses?
○ How long can you keep them from switching?
● Native speakers will:
○ Correct you - welcome it.
○ Switch to English, don’t respond in English.
○ Tell you that getting fluent is “impossibly hard”
■ Use it as motivation
○ Lose interest, don’t be offended

30. MeasureProgress
● Reachable goals
● Don’t rush
● Look back, appreciate progress
● Have fun
● Celebrate!

31. Doesitgetharderto
learnasyouage?
Whocares.

32. GetStarted
● Pick a target language
● Change your default language on your phone
● Complete all Duolingo
● Take a trip to a place you can apply your learning
● Decide if you want to continue
○ If no, go back to Step 1
○ If yes, create something like the following:

33. Learningschedule
Daily
● Pre-breakfast: 20 mins daily news
● Foreign music, all day
● After dinner:
○ 1 hour Duolingo
○ 1 hour streaming video
Weekly
● Write 1 page journal entry
● 1:1 tutoring, tuesday nights
Monthly
● Language speakers meetup
● Read a chapter in a book

34. Commitment
Fail. 1+ hours daily.
Continue for many years.

35. Isitworthit?
Dunno,butThefeelingofhavingyour
brain“switch”,isindescribable..

36. @admc
Q & A?