(Kingston, Ontario, Canada)
Yes, I said that the next post would be from “on the road”. While I am on the road already, I actually wrote this at home. One of the best parts about running my own blog is that I can change my mind!
As I do not speak the language of the two countries I’m visiting on this trip, I decided to try an experiment. Could I learn the language in less than a week, using only online tools?
I decided to try my experiment using the “Duolingo” app/website. You can use it to learn multiple languages…simultaneously, if you want! There are two ways to start working on your foreign language skills: as an absolute beginner, or using a five minute placement test that will send you directly to your approximate level of fluency. Just for fun, I decided to do the placement tests for French and German. I was curious to see how my fluency in each of those languages would be assessed. I figured that my German grammar and pronunciation would be better but I thought that I had better French vocabulary.
The placement test gives you a percentage score that represents your fluency in that language. It also adapts to your performance: if it is clear from the start that you don’t know very much, the remaining questions will focus on the basic components of the language to more accurately determine where you need work. My scores confirmed that my French skills were not measuring up to my German ones. Even so, it was encouraging to see that I was not too far from fluency. I was tempted to work on those languages…but, alas, that would have to wait. I had another language to learn.
My progress with my new mystery language is erratic but very tangible. While I am nowhere near fluency yet (I just passed the 6% fluency checkpoint!), I have learned an incredible amount in only a few days. With no books and no charts to memorize, I am learning more organically…almost like a child learns a new language. It’s scary, because I usually learn by note-taking and then studying what I’ve written. Somehow, much of what I’m seeing and hearing is actually sticking with me, even though I am not writing it down. This forces you to learn intuitively and invent your own rules for the language: it’s very hard at first but eventually you remember those rules better because they belong to you!
The cool part of using a program like Duolingo is that you can proceed at your own pace. You can use it anywhere that you have Internet access. It’s better to use it privately, so that you can hear the language (and speak it back into your computer), but you can still skip over those parts if you need to work silently.
Studies have shown that learning a completely new language is an excellent way to keep one’s brain from deteriorating with age. I’m excited to report that it can also be fun. Over the next couple of weeks, I will find out if it can be useful too!
I promise that my next post will really be from my mystery destination. In the meantime, here are some more pictures from our 2012 visit to Stockholm, Sweden.