Languages

I've got quite a lot in general to say about languages, although I'll try to keep my thoughts as focused as possible on this page... In any case, I absolutely love languages, and have a long-term goal of learning as many as possible to a level of total mastery.

With such things as social media as popular as they are, I've seen LanguageTubers and such other influencers go a long way to market their skills in a dozen or more languages, but the disillusionment that hits when you actually speak one of them to great fluency and realize you're spellbound by the good ol' Gell-Mann Amnesia effect, unaware just how far they are from truly hitting the mark of perfection, is saddening to say the least. Perhaps akin to the feeling you get when you look at a bodybuilder "enhanced" beyond human limits by scary amounts of steroids. In that regard, I want to reach the same level... but for real. I realize that might be a vain pursuit, but... for now, I'm serious, and I do think it can be done. For some serious examples of linguistic athletics, read on, I've got quite a few stories to tell.

Tryharding

Unsurprisingly, putting in mad hours into language-learning will produce mad results, and it couldn't get much clearer than a seriously revelatory post I read the other day in a Discord server I'm a part of. This server has a channel dedicated to study-related achievements-in other words, a place to showcase your progress-and in that channel, a passing user posted the following single line:

today marks 1 year of learning japanese and 300 days of jpdb

This was the result of over 100 new words daily over the course of a year. This person achieved the "N1" qualification in Japanese, which in a word is the usual intermediate goal that most learners pursue for several years. I myself took about 3 years to get to that kind of level. When I saw this, I just felt so deeply humbled, knowing that that's what I would have looked like - if I'd put in even a fraction of the effort that that person did. Instead, I could only curse the fact that I'd gotten complacent as usual and let myself slip into unproductive waste and basically convince myself I didn't need to study anymore.

The lesson I derive from this is the need for constant progress and desperation; if you let yourself slacken, you'll stop going anywhere and deprive yourself of your full potential.

On this note, I've been reinvigorated to put some elbow grease back into German, and hopefully make it to C2 within another year (currently it's the 11th of June 2024). After having studied Japanese, I've been harrowed beyond what the vast majority of German can scare me with anymore - which just leaves a tremendous vocabulary grind to bring me up to speed. But now we've seen it can be done; and it shall.

Evgeny Onegin Uskov

Evgeny is another testament to the ability of a language learner to attain insane peaks totally unthinkable to the average learner; he achieved a pass on the 'Kanken' level 1 exam, which, in stark contrast to the JLPT 'N1' above, is orders of magnitudes harder. Even native Japanese struggle for years to earn it. Evgeny makes the third foreigner to obtain it, making it honestly look and sound totally trivial when you look at his YouTube videos describing the process. Even though the exam is virtually the most elite of its kind in Japan, he proved in practical terms that the formula for passing is really very simple; you just study words till the cows come home, and everything falls directly into place.

Just like that Discord user, the path to success is the one that no one's watching you take, which presents the umpteenth clarion call that what's needed in such times of egotistical infatuation is a total ego-death, a detachment from any aversion to the pain of struggling, because the goal will vindicate itself in time.

Thus I am reminded, yet again, how truly little effort I have dedicated, considered against the effort I very well could have. Thanks, Evgeny. One day I'll be able to call you a peer, at least in terms of the certificate; even though you'll always be the king ;)

Emil Krebs

Emil Krebs is a peerless master when it comes to languages. He attained an almost divine level of language, able to acquire a new language in a matter of weeks from nothing but reading in it; it's a truly nutty story, so I can only recommend you check out his Wikipedia page, but at any rate, this man is my role model in language-learning. I know I'm unlikely to reach even half the level he attained by the end, and I won't likely have even half the time for it that he did, but I suppose it's better to shoot for the stars and reach the moon than the moon and land on Everest. (Is that too ambitious...?)

My goals

German

German was the first foreign language I ever learnt, but I learnt it at just 10 years old, so I approached it with about the expected level of enthusiasm for being forced to do it: indeed, virtually none.

The consequence was that although I did very well reach a roughly C1 level after 5 years of study, it did cost a lot, and I was extremely, extremely inefficient in learning. I did do a bit of reading (reading Winnetou most notably, a childhood classic of my dad's), and a good bit of listening to boot, but I had a total dearth of vocabulary, and by the time I quit, I still hadn't remedied the matter before moving onto alternative pastures (Japanese).

All told, having now grown a great deal in my language wisdom (though still far from fully mature), I think I'm much better prepared to finish acquiring German to a truly advanced level. My goal, as with all languages I learn, is the top, which may well mean C2, or even higher. I would judge my level of English as being a good yardstick for the desired level of attainment, and as yet my German level is nowhere near such heights. At the very least I lack a great deal of natural expression, which may well never be remedied, considering how universally entrenched English is in my life, but I still believe I can get to nearly the same level given a truckload more reading and vocabulary cramming.

Japanese

My goals in Japanese are Kanken level 1 and Nihongo Kentei level 1. If these mean nothing to you, let it just be known that there oughtn't be any higher level (of exam) to attain than them; I can quit in good conscience when I get there!

Rather, if I don't get to a level at least commensurate with these exams, I cannot convince myself I've truly reached an acceptable standard that I can feel secure in. Until I reach such a level, I don't dare say I truly "speak" Japanese; even though I suppose the truest sense of fluency doesn't depend on one's literary trivia, but one's ability to string normal sentences together, I still have no interest in "studying" everyday speech in its place, so this shall have to do.

Latin

I love Latin, but I've not been able to learn it yet in much depth because I've had other languages on my mind, namely German and Japanese, but there's no chance I can pass up learning it.

I picked up a dictionary in Latin a few weeks ago, and I intend to eventually learn that thing front to back (maybe skipping the English-to-Latin section and focusing on Latin-to-English...); the beauty, in any case, of the Latin language, is the wealth of wisdom penned by our ancestors that has since been effaced from the public consciousness because of our going illiterate in the Latin language. It feels like you get to reconnect with the shared heritage of all Europeans learning Latin, despite the lack of real people to talk to once you do; perhaps the ultimate vanity it may be, but the idea of learning Latin is deeply romantic for this reason. I also dream of making new content in Latin, which would be super hype, lol.

Ancient Greek

Much like Latin, Ancient Greek (Attic or Koine I suppose, but I've not figured out which) is another language I'd much like to learn, but don't dare to whilst already learning another language; I triage it a good bit lower than my other priorities right now though, as it's mostly only really good for a select few ancient texts, and the Bible, since a great part of Ancient Greek writings have been lost to time.

Indeed, the Greek language is also incredibly beautiful, and exceedingly mystical compared to other Indo-European languages: it has a quite unique feel despite technically falling into the same language family as our own, maybe because of its pre-Greek substrate lending it a lot of insular character... in any case, I love it, and will eventually endeavour to learn it. I've got a Greek New Testament (translations of which Emil frequently employed to study, btw!) and a textbook so far, so I hope to eventually supplement these both with a hearty dose of spaced repetition.

Korean

Okay, this one's just to flex on my friend.

English...

Embarrassingly, my level of English has actually probably significantly declined over the years, on account of a decreasing use of any florid language in my daily affairs; I used to use it much more when I needed it for English essays in school, but as of graduating from that obligation, I've neither continued to read much fiction, nor made any effort to learn literary or fanciful vocabulary, leaving me a little poor in terms of thesaurus-power... I'm sure my 14-year-old self would've massively trumped me in a battle of words if we were to do it today, which is a matter to be cried at. I therefore want to eventually do the same thing I do for foreign languages - study English! I used to have an Anki deck like that, but on account of not treating it with respect, I stopped doing it, and am still languishing a little English-wise. Sometime in the future that'll change, though.

Bulgarian

Despite being my mother tongue, I'm not awfully proficient in Bulgarian, to a degree where I might even well be called illiterate by Bulgarian standards. By no means does that word really apply, but I definitely don't possess even a high-school level of knowledge, which is pretty poor.

I've done a lot for my language ability from my contributions on Wiktionary, but these are only a fraction of the language, and a tiny contributor to my overall ability compared to what a good healthy can of reading would do if I were to make an effort in that direction.

To that end, although it's not particularly high on my priority list, I do intend to pick up my native language for a bit of traditional study. Hopefully my ancestors will then be proud and smile at me from the skies :)

Others...?

Well, I've probably had many idle fantasies of learning loads of other languages, but I won't deign to put them all here, since doing so so prematurely would divert my focus more than it already is; I can't be getting so many simultaneous priorities up in here!

Something about chasing two rabbits, but catching none...