#foreignlanguages

Exophony means writing in a language which isn't your mother tongue. While this may appear daunting in the Anglophone world, the fact is that people have written exophonically for centuries-- if not millennia.

Think of the age when Latin was the lingua franca in Europe. Yet those who wrote famous treatises in Latin, such as Newton's Philosophiæ Naturalis Principia Mathematica, spoke other tongues: English, French, German, etc. The same applies in other parts of the world, like the dominance of Arabic across the Middle East and North Africa. The various ethnic groups conquered by the Arabs became exophonic writers in order to publish works.  

I did not so much discover exophonic writing, as simply learn the name. Beforehand, I had written sporadically in French since leaving school. In September 2019, I began a journal logging my progress in different foreign languages. Only right before National November Writing Month did I discover the term exophonic writing, along with a number of famous writers.

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 虹の色 | にじのいろ

           I am getting more sleep than I have in a long time, but somehow it's more of a struggle to climb out of bed when I hear my alarm. I used to be able to jump out of bed, and joyfully begin my day without one, so I am not sure what is happening here.

           Anyway, today I am going to review foreign languages.

           First, I need to start forcing myself into returning to my previous regimen. Secondly, I wanted to analyze why some of the resources that I do not favor—Duolingo and Drops—are so highly acclaimed. Perhaps their success may be attributed to their price tag—people are always more attracted to free things.

           Perhaps another factor is that they inspire persistence. With the acquisition of almost any skill, practice and repetition are crucial. Although both break down the languages so much that it seems impossible to learn them in a reasonable amount of time, their simplicity makes the task less daunting every day. It minimizes hesitation.

           Both have a streaks system. Drops has a very game-like system, and the way it introduces vocabulary makes one feel accomplished under the guise of tremendous progress—more on why that system seems inherently flawed to me later. Duolingo utilizes a similar disguise, but I feel like it may be slightly better at spaced repetition. I think Duolingo's main attraction might be its leaderboards. The world tends to underestimate the wonders of competitiveness, but at least Duolingo does not.

           Together, these three systems keep the consumer returning each day to "learn" new words and aspects of the language. However, the assertion that everybody "learns" seems slightly dubious.

           Of course, I am not attempting to denounce them. In fact, on an ideal day, I would probably have used both for around fifteen minutes. However, as I have stressed many times before, I firmly believe that they are supplements.

           They are useful when learning a foreign language, but they are not the only way to learn.

           Honestly, with the proper dedication, a dictionary and detailed grammar guide would be sufficient for learning a language. The keys have always been active recall and spaced repetition.

           Those two techniques are famously proven to aid in memory, moreso than brute-force memorization or rereading or highlighting or summarizing or flipping through flashcards without attempting to mentally answer them first.

           Active recall is about seeing the question and forcing yourself to answer it before you access the answer. I feel as if Drops fails on this because it usually asks for recognition—shows one picture and four words or vice versa and asks for the user to match the correct word with the picture—and while it does have spelling, it is a quite simplistic system and it is not useful for languages like Japanese, which has complicated kanji that would take more time and effort to memorize.

My German Playlist:

I’ve always believed that the best way to learn a language is to expose one’s self to media in your target language. Whether that be youtube videos, movies, TV-Shows or even music, a little bit of exposure can go a long way and it’s amazing to see how much of the language you can pick up! 

I’ve been exposing myself to A LOT of German media and one thing that I’ve recently collected are some German songs. There are actually quite a lot of good German music out there, you just have to look! I thought I would share my German playlist here and help you guys add some music listening to your german-learning routines!

I hope you like my music (don’t judge my taste :) )! There is music from rap to the latest German hits to dubstep! Hopefully, you’ll be able to find at least one good song in my playlist! My playlist is called “Luftkuss” and it is on Spotify! 

I need to add more German music so tell me if you have any recommendations!

DUTCH VOCABULARY: SPACE

the astronaut - de astronaut

the spacesuit - het ruimtepak

the space station - het ruimtestation 

oxygen - zuurstof

the star - de ster

the sun - de zon

the moon - de maan

the full moon - de volle maan

the planet - de planeet

the exoplanet - de exoplaneet

the galaxy - het sterrenstelsel

the Solar System - het zonnestelsel

the Milky Way - de Melkweg

the universe - het universum

the black hole - het zwarte gat

the dark matter - de donkere materie

the Big Bang  - de Oerknal

the constellation - het sterrenbeeld

the supernova - de supernova

the asteroid - de planetoïde

the comet - de komeet

the meteorite - de meteoriet

the meteor shower - de meteorenzwerm, de meteorenstorm, de sterrenregen

the meteoroid - de meteoroïde

the falling/shooting star - de vallende ster

the light-year - het lichtjaar

gravity - de zwaartekracht

the solar eclipse - de zonsverduistering

the lunar eclipse - de maansverduistering

THE PLANETS:

Mercury - Mercurius

Venus - Venus

Earth - de Aarde

Mars - Mars

Jupiter - Jupiter

Saturn - Saturnus

Uranus - Uranus

Neptune - Neptunus