Japanese, Dutch and German

My first language is English. It's a handy one to know. I actually had to learn it twice during my early childhood. But for now I want to concentrate on the next three languages that I aim to acquire: Japanese, Dutch and German.

Japanese print shows a Dutch man and a German man drawing up a contract in a mercantile house in Yokohama, Japan. Done by Sadahide Utagawa (1807-1873) in 1861.

My 3 ‘Easy’ Languages

I want to acquire languages from varying start points, both to test whether my methods are universally applicable, but also because it would be a waste to ignore languages on which I’ve made a start.

Japanese
First started 20+ years ago but made very little progress. Have a history of resistance. In the past 2 years began to make some headway as a result of experimenting and refining my ideas. At the start of this 2-year period, I begin at an intermediate level as regards written Japanese, but at a beginner’s level with regard to speaking and listening.

Initial plan:

• Children’s book e.g. Enid Blyton, Magic Tree House to read and mine sentences
• Shadow HNT 1-10 in Japanese (Mami’s)
• Harry Potter for kanji
• Harry Potter for listening

Dutch

Technically my first language. I picked it up at home. I’ve spent the first year of elementary school in the Netherlands, but have never studied either grammar or tried to memorize any vocabulary. I start from a fairly advanced level.

Initial plan:

• Read Ghost Boy in Dutch done

German

Natural affinity to this language since I can guess at a good deal of it because of my Dutch and English. I completed a half-year beginner’s course in German at University 40 years ago. I’ve spent 2 weeks in Germany soon after that.

Initial plan:

• View My Name is Nobody in German and English done
  
• Thereafter, Harry book 3 text+audio

Other possible languages

French

I just love the work of Serge Gainsbourgh. But at high school, where I was obliged to do French for 2 years, I hated the language and thought it effeminate. Consequently I did poorly.

Hindi

I spent 18 months working at a school in the Punjab 35 years ago. I picked up the odd word, and tried to learn the alphabet. But since Punjabi and Urdu were spoken (at the English-medium school) I failed to make any further progress.

Update: see this blog.

Seek input that you can understand

Comprehensible input. You've been there, done that.

When you needed to learn Dutch, you read ‘Ot en Sien’ and ‘Kruimeltje’. Later, when you needed to learn English, you read Superman comics, the Famous Five and Myths and Legends from Many Lands.

You got yourself comprehensible input in the language that you had to learn. 

You chose interesting material at your level.

It’s possible to expand the difficulty limit of the material if you have a way to making it understandable. (Cheating is allowed.)

If you already know the story, that’s good (unless you are disinclined to re-read books or watch movies again and again). But you could get around that by seeking more by the same author, or continue in that genre.

If your listening is at a level where it supplements your understanding, then listen to the audiobook at the same time as you follow along on paper or the screen.

And if you read on screen, you might use an application that gives you the meaning of words when you scroll over them.

  There are means and ways.

Role play

When you learn another language, the more you are able to forget yourself the better. That's one of the psychological aspects of language-learning.

So aim to act out a role. (I've hears that someone dresses up in orange and kicks about a football when he does Dutch!)

Me, I want to speak like Takakura Ken, the Japanese Clint Eastwood!