How many languages do you speak?

I have been all over this app called duolingo the past week or so, I have decided to finally step up my language game and try to learn a new one. What better time learn than when stuck in quarantine? The free time shouldn’t be wasted.

I have decided on Portuguese (I will explain my choice in a moment) and although just getting through the basics it is very fun so far.

I can confidently tell Portuguese speakers that I am not a shark but I do eat bread.

I always felt that learning a new language would be amazing, I just have never got round to actually starting. And I never knew what language to choose. But when I travelled around Brazil in 2016 with friends from São Paulo, I learned the very basics and thought it would be nice to keep the ball rolling. I didn’t keep the ball rolling. But I still wanted to learn and when I heard of this app I gave it a try.

It is a very convenient way to learn. I have been doing it daily in short bursts, and the thing with this is I don’t have to focus at certain times of the day in classes. I choose when and where I learn and this is a game changer for me, even if it takes me a little longer. I can imagine so many people are enjoying learning a new language in this way, the app states that more people are learning Irish around the world than there are native speakers.

I am not learning due to a career or for better career/financial prospects, more so because it sounds like an exciting challenge and it is great brain training. So thank you Brazil for helping me decide on a language to learn about. And similar to the US and UK variation of English, I would be interested to learn the differences between Brazilian-Portuguese and Portuguese-Portuguese.

I hope to keep it up. It’s like learning an instrument, real progress won’t happen overnight but with gradual steps. And I know a few of you do speak more than one language, I would love to know how many and what made you choose. If you only speak one, what one would you pick if you could?

Speak to you all soon! (in English for now).

 

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Due to the Coronavirus outbreak I am somewhat limited as to what I can do in London, but I aim to post as much as I can during this time. I promise to have some great posts coming your way once this is all over as I continue to explore London.

Stay home, stay safe and happy blogging!

Sam

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Words.

We are a species with a long way to go to achieve greatness and everyday I look for examples proving this. I don’t think this is a bad thing at all. I would rather see what we could be as it helps us to get there, being content has its perks but that never helps in the gym or in a career, neither should it for society. Pushing forward and seeking problems speeds things up.

One of our downfalls is language. It is incredible for us to construct languages and hear it vary across the globe, however it is very common for two people to walk up to each other and fail to establish conversation. How crazy is that? Like two apes on their first encounter, or a tribe discovering society outside of the rain forest. It is pretty incredible to realise we live in a time of such discovery and inability to connect with those that live on the outside. This is of course because our travel desire is so much greater than our desire to learn languages however with over 7,000 languages in the world being spoken, leaning them all is an impossibility. The number of extinct languages rise into the thousands and maybe even the tens of thousands, which is also mind boggling. Languages that died with the civilizations they were used by, some etched into history on rocks, the only way we knew they existed in the first place like the fossils of extinct creatures buried alongside them.

So walking up to the wall above, the fact that I cannot understand what it says is fascinating. The letters I am used to, the order not so much. Thank goodness for technology, Google Translate tells me ‘Punk is born crooked, never straightens’ 

I guess punk is one aspect of life I have to accept can never be improved upon.