What I've been doing since finishing six Duolingo courses

My Duolingo subscription has ended, and I won't be renewing it. At first when I finished six courses a few months ago, I was doing the German refresh exercises. Then I realized I was tired of playing that game, so I started reading more foreign-language sources and watching Easy German, Easy French, and Easy Spanish. 

I also spend time practically every day looking at headlines on Twitter and translating the ones that I understand or am interested in. News in other languages is really hard, even just the headlines. Sometimes I will look at a German headline, for instance, and will perhaps understand the first couple of words, then it will all break down as I continue. I keep reading German like I would read a Romance language. But German puts their infinitives at the end or they split them, and they also don't use prepositions and possessives like the Romance languages do. So as my eye follows along, my mind gets stuck. But yesterday, I managed to translate some German, in addition to Italian, French, Spanish, Portuguese, and Japanese tweets.

I also finished writing a draft of a novella. I started on June 1 and finished it on July 11. I was ready to start revising it right away, but then stepped back, realizing that I should restructure the story, so I'm currently doing that. 

I'm continuing to take a French class at the Alliance Française; I started last year, and it is fantastic. The teacher is highly trained and is a native French and English speaker who was born here but grew up in France, so we learn the language as well as the culture. I've realized that it's very important to not only learn the correct words and grammar, but to learn about the country as well. It makes the class more interesting and I'm motivated to find out more about France, where I've never been. Sometimes I look at my brother's old French college textbook to brush up on grammar and language structure, and of course, I have a long way to go. I think I'm going to try to go to France next year to study for a couple of weeks and travel, which I'm doing next month in Germany via Easy German. 

Unfortunately, my book-reading is down; I made the mistake of reading a few books at once, and each is very long, so I haven't finished any of them yet. So I'm concentrating on finishing one before my Germany trip. I've also been watching documentaries and British shows, watching NHK shows, and enjoying life outside of Duolingo. 

Duolingo got me back into intense language-learning, and I haven't stopped. I feel like I'm where I was years ago in the early days of this blog, when my life was more language-focused. This is probably one of the best years of my life.

p.s. the e-book version of my debut novel is still at Amazon, and the price for the print version has been reduced: buy at the Eckhartz Press site.

I finished the French, Italian, and Spanish Duolingo courses!

When I started this post, I had finished the French Duolingo course. 

Then I saw that I was making good progress on the Italian one, so I finished that as well.

Then I decided to finish the Spanish course, and made my goal Easter because it's a public date. I had done the same thing with Japanese and Portuguese last year; I finished Easter night. This year Easter was Sunday, and I finished the Spanish by Thursday. By that time, I was so tired from doing all those lessons and tests in my free time, I relaxed for a bit. 

This is what it looks like when you reach the end: the owl is reading, and when you finish the Daily Refresh, the owl cheers (as pictured above). 

But the app doesn't. Duolingo doesn't have any congratulatory message when you finish because I suspect they don't want you to, which is why I attempted to go past the finish line. What was frustrating was that for the past couple of years, I was making progress on a language course, then Duolingo would add more lessons, extending the paths. Then when I made more progress, they'd add more. Since they kept changing the goalposts, I decided to change mine and play to win.

At this point, all six languages I've finished are on Daily Refresh, and it resets every day. I decided to stick with German until my subscription ends; I'm going to Germany in late summer, so I really need to improve. I was so focused on finishing that I neglected other German sources; now I will spend more time there before my trip. 

Here's what it looks like when you reach the end of Japanese, Portuguese, Spanish, Italian, French, and German. The gold color is when you do the extra challenges at the end, but they're all on Daily Refresh at this point. Remember: Duolingo probably doesn't want you to finish, but don't let it discourage you from trying.

I finished the German Duolingo course!

I didn't post anything about this publicly, but I had a goal to finish the German Duolingo course by May. But then I decided to use my downtime to finish it by the end of March. Then I ramped it up and wanted to finish it by Sunday night. I did all the sections by midnight Sunday and posted the accomplishment on Twitter/X, but wanted to get a good screenshot of the Daily Refresh section to post here, so I just redid that section to get this:

This doesn't mean I'm done studying German; I have a long way to go, and now my goal is to get even better by August because I'm going to Berlin to study for a couple of weeks with Easy German. I will do a separate post about that, but I'm very excited to go to Germany. I haven't been there in several years, and back then my German was horrible.

Easy German is fantastic

I was trying to figure out a good way to study German, and saw someone online mention Easy German. Usually I use something for free before paying for it, but I knew right away it was worth the subscription price. 

I don't like using flash cards. In the past, I created them for various languages, and a while ago, a Japanese teacher gave me a bunch of them, which I still have. Flashcards work for a lot of people, but they seem too isolated for me. I like to learn words in context, and I've even gotten to the point that I won't even try to learn all the grammar at first in order to get a feeling for a language. 

That's why I love Easy German. They have a lot of videos where they ask people questions, so we get to hear native speakers, and they add German and English subtitles for each video. Other videos feature slower German, explanations in German, and recaps of meetings or trips they've taken. They also send transcripts, vocabulary, and other exercises with the paid subscriptions, so the $60 price is worth it. At first, I went to the members-only Discord, but it seemed too difficult for me, and I'd rather spend more time offline than on.

I got a chance to meet the three main members of the Easy German team, and they were the same offline as they are in the videos, which made me appreciate them even more. I've seen various language-learning videos where the hosts seem pretty hyper, like they're trying to sell something, but Easy German keeps it real (unlike the phony author/speaker I met a while ago who was quite unfriendly offline and didn't seem to actually like people). 

I've also watched Easy Spanish, Easy Italian, and Easy French. They're all good ways to hear the language naturally while following along via the subtitles.

But I still have to learn the grammar. Right now, I'm struggling with German prepositions and split verbs, so I need to grow up and tackle those and more.

I translated a bit of German

When I had more time between jobs, I decided to spend more time on Twitch to listen to electronic music, especially from Germany because I was trying to improve my German while listening to music that was very different than what's popular in Chicago. 

What I've noticed is that American music has been hip hop-oriented while Germany seems to not have focused on such beats or sounds, and what they call "House" really isn't the House that originated in Chicago. It's also interesting when the DJs don't speak much English because they play music that is more European-based, and to me it's both enjoyable and interesting. I haven't been to Europe in several years, so it's like I'm traveling via music. 

One day I was listening to a German DJ and I noticed that his bio was only in German. Even if other DJs don't know English very well, they usually manage to translate their info, even if it isn't so perfect. So I asked him in the chat if he wanted me to translate his bio into English, and he said yes. At first, I didn't see it in his profile, so I figured he didn't want to post it. Then he did, and here it is: 

Meine Leidenschaft zur Musik begann schon vor einer gefühlten Ewigkeit. Mit den ersten Schul-Disco's wuchs die Liebe zum DJ'ing.
Seit 89 war ich dann über 12 Jahre aktiv als DJ in Clubs und Diskotheken unterwegs.
Nach einer längeren Pause bin ich jetzt wieder hier am Start und möchte euch auf meinem Kanal eine Galaxie voller elektronischer Musik präsentieren.
Begleitet mich auf meiner Reise durch die unendlichen Weiten mit elektronischen Melodic und Progressive Sounds, chillt mit Deep-House Music oder tanzt ab bei Special-Sets mit House-Music oder ab und zu bei Sets mit Musik aus 80er, 90er oder Trance-Classics.
Werdet Teil einer tollen Community 

My passion for music began what feels like an eternity ago. From my first school discos, my love of DJ’ing grew. I was an active DJ in clubs and discos from 1989 for more than 12 years.
After a long break I’m back, starting here again, and want to offer you a galaxy full of electronic music on my channel.
Join me on my journey through the infinite expanses of electronic melodic and progressive sounds. Chill out with deep house music or dance the night away to special sets with house music, or sometimes sets with music from the 80s, 90s or trance classics.
Be part of a great community. 

The intro is still only in German, so I'll post the translation that I did here: 

Herzlich Willkommmen auf dem Kanal von Galaxy-Music! Neben spacig-elektronischem Sound aus Melodic und Progressive House, gibt es hier auch irdische Klänge mit Deep-House, House... bis hin zu Special-Set's. Enjoy it and feel the Music und werde ein Teil unserer großartigen Community.  

A warm welcome to the Galaxy-Music channel! In addition to the spacey-electronic sounds of melodic and progressive House, there are also the earthly sounds of Deep-House, House…including Special-Sets here. Enjoy it and feel the music and be a part of our great community.  

My next German-translating endeavor is going to be an article about a German electronica group that I also discovered on Twitch.  

p.s. the e-book version of my debut novel is still at Amazon, and the price for the print version has been reduced: buy at the Eckhartz Press site.

I've been studying languages on Duolingo!

I joined Duolingo to learn Swedish 6 years ago but didn't continue because the lessons were silly. The sentences often featured animals doing weird things; they didn't make sense and weren't practical for traveling or trying to understand Swedish shows. It seemed like I had to get through a lot of nonsense to learn grammar and advance to useful content, but I didn't know how long it would take so I quit for a long time.

But in the summer my work situation changed, so I decided that since I'd neglected language-learning for so long, I got back on Duolingo to learn German, Japanese, French, and Spanish. At this point I need to learn German, and since it's sort of similar to Swedish, I'd get sort of confused, so I didn't resume Swedish (maybe the lessons have improved?).

I was able to skip a bunch of lessons in Japanese because I'd been studying it every day for a while on Twitter by following Japanese accounts, and via NHK and shows that have English subtitles. I hadn't realized my Japanese was ok until I got on Duolingo and found the lessons to be pretty easy, even after taking a placement test. So I just kept jumping ahead by taking mini-tests until I landed where I am now, which is more challenging, yet still enjoyable.

I started quite low with French and Spanish, even though I've studied them before, and started really low with German. For a while I was doing all four languages every day, but I realized I was diluting the experience, so I do a couple or languages a day, or maybe just German more deeply per day.

It's actually really fun! And I think I'm learning a lot. I'm almost at a 140-day streak, and I'm really motivated. I try to study the languages in other contexts and look at my old textbooks for more grammar, syntax, and other structural explanations, and I want to keep doing more. My head is definitely fatigued by trying to learn all those languages, and sometimes I'm too tired to try to advance, but that's part of the brain-expanding, language-learning process. Anyone who's trying to get better in a language is going to feel the pressure, and hopefully from all this pain will come gain :) 

What makes language-learning difficult is since I'm not surrounded by it, I have to motivate myself and find sources that will help me improve. In certain parts of the city I can hear Spanish and can practice speaking it, but the other languages are rare, so I have to go online or crack open a book. I'd rather hear humans speak it IRL because spending a lot of time in front of a screen is draining.

Anyway, I'm now back in the language-learning world, which was the original intention of this blog, though I'm not doing any translating. It seems like it's very hard to get decent pay for translating (I never made much before anyway) and machines are doing a lot of the work, so perhaps that door is closed.

p.s. the e-book version of my debut novel is still at Amazon, and the price for the print version has been reduced: buy at the Eckhartz Press site.

Remembering my mom

I usually don't post such personal stuff here, but I want to talk about my mom because she passed away exactly two weeks ago, and today would've been her birthday, which always fell on or near Mother's Day.

My mom was ill during recent years, which is one of the reasons why I didn't post here so much. She really had a great attitude during that time, and I decided several years ago to spend as much time with her as I could instead of focus totally on what I wanted to do and achieve. I managed to work and build up a decent resume, but she and my dad (who is still alive) were my priority, and even though people were puzzled by my lifestyle and some were even critical, I stuck to that decision, even though I struggled with what I wanted vs what I knew would be best in the long run. Now that she is gone, I know for sure that I made the right choice, and I have absolutely no regrets at all. Actually, I'm very happy that I spent a lot of time with her, and I encourage others to do the same, if they are able to make that choice. I feel free and very satisfied, and the feelings of doubt and wondering if I should conform to what others are doing are totally gone.

My mom was born in Germany and came to the US when she was a kid because the Nazis were killing and persecuting Jews. Some of her family didn't get out of Europe, so they ended up dying in concentration camps.

I had no interest in German and had no idea that she was able to speak it until I was living in Japan and saw her speak German with a German priest at a Catholic church in my neighborhood. He was a very nice man whose father helped Jews during the Nazi era, and they talked about that for a while. After their conversation, he told me that my mother spoke German well, and I was totally surprised. Even though my grandparents were from Germany and probably spoke German with each other, I never heard them speak with my mom. Her English was absolutely perfect, and she was very passionate about making sure that everyone's use of English was excellent, even professional journalists who she wrote letters to, to point out mistakes or phrases that she thought weren't effective.

I decided to start studying German when I was getting a Master's degree in Education because I was able to take classes for free (I was teaching classes which gave me a tuition break), and I figured it would be a good experience to learn my family's language. My mom didn't show much enthusiasm for my decision because of her family's negative history, and when my parents took my family to Germany to see where my mom and other family members were from, she didn't even bother to speak it for the first few days, which meant that the family had to rely on my weak German to get them around. Eventually she spoke and people said her German was really good.

I don't think she knew that I had a language-themed blog, and I don't think she knew what blogs were. I think I've inherited my love of language from her because she was always analyzing writing and was obviously good at language. She really was passionate about what she read and believed that English usage should be appropriately precise and expressive. She also used her German and English skills to translate my grandmother's letters and a children's short story.

Since I've been focusing so much on Japanese reading for the past few years, my German has become awful, so a few days ago, I started reading Kontakte, which is an excellent textbook that I used in my beginning German classes. I just noticed that registration is no longer required to use their online resources, so I'm going to do that as well!

I miss her because she was a big part of my life and she was a wonderful person, but I know that she would've wanted me to enjoy my life and do what I want. When I told her that I was going to teach this summer only once a week instead of several times a week, she was happy about it. Sadly, she's not around for me to spend time with her, but she told me to relax and spend time doing what makes me happy, which I will do.

At this point, I only want to do what I want to do, and I only want to be with people that I want to be with. I really don't want to put up with things and people that bring me down or that are a waste of time. I have to get used to my new life and schedule, but I think I will adjust eventually.

the BBC doesn't have a Japanese news section

I was talking to a Polish-born coworker the other day (he immigrated during his university years and became a US citizen) about good news sites, other than the Polish ones he reads, and he recommended the BBC. I agree; it's a great site with informative, multimedia features and has a good learning English section. I noticed that they offer news in several languages, but Japanese isn't there! I'm surprised...they have other Asian languages, including the ones that aren't widely spoken. Why there's no Japanese, I don't know.

Since Japanese wasn't there, I decided to check out the Portuguese section, which of course is easier to read than Japanese, even though I don't know all the words.

Another incredible feature at the site is learning languages! They have several, including Japanese, though I'm seriously interested in improving my German. At one point, my German ability wasn't bad, and now it's awful. I even took a trip there, and was eventually able to function in German, but now, I don't think I'd be able to manage it :(

I'm assuming the BBC is publicly funded...way to go and thank you very much for providing such a great service!

A bilingual sign I haven't seen

I've seen this sign at only one drugstore (or "chemist", as Brits say) in Chicago, and it's probably there because it's in a big tourist area and up the street from the German Consulate. I just had to take a picture because it's rare for me to see, plus it's refreshingly bilingual in languages I don't usually see together in the city.

German grammar podcast

Even though I studied German and was able to communicate when I went to Germany, and have even translated it, it's really declined due to my focus on trying to improve my Japanese reading. But I've decided to shut out the world when walking around downtown and listen to language podcasts. One I found is "GerGerman Grammar Podcasts: German Grammar for Chagrin Falls High School German Students." I think Chagrin Falls is in Ohio.

Unfortunately, the teacher has not posted new audio files, but there are a lot in the archives. I hope he doesn't take his site down.

Learn about tampons in German

Through the Tagesschau site, where I watch German newscasts that I hardly understand (as part of my New Year's resolution to restore my German), I found a kid's site, where they explain lots of things. And I was surprised to see that one topic was tampons. So if you want to read about them, and even listen to a kid talk about them in German, just go to the Lilipuz site.

German dictionaries and advent

Stop the presses! Someone sent me a link to what may be the best online German dictionary from TU Chemnitz (Technische Universität Chemnitz).

There's also a link to the Wortschatz Project, another dictionary that's helpful if you can decifer all that German.

And of course, they haven't forgotten the popular LEO online German dictionary, which also includes a link to an online English etymology dictionary (which I'm sure a lot of people already know about).

There's even a link to American English pronunciation, which would be helpful for the non-native English speakers out there who want an alternative to the online British English that seems to be quite popular and well-funded.

And there's another treat: an advent calendar. If you're not satisfied with that, you can get another advent calendar through LEO, which is a creation of Technische Universität München. (By the way, LEO means "Link Everything Online.")

So bookmark all these links and enjoy! I really need to get back to studying German, now that the Japanese test has passed. My German is very lame right now.