duolingo - continuing hindi adventures

So I finished Letters 1 through 4 and Basics 1, passed the checkpoint, finished Basics 2, and now am at Plurals, Level 3. This is going eerily well.

I cannot say enough how utterly weird it is that I have no active memory of Hindi before, but it seems about fifty times easier. It also helps that my letter recognition is much better, as I am Very Phonics and it's so much easier to remember and learn when I can sound it out. This is likely because schools were in Fun With Phonics learning and whole word didn't kick in until about third grade when we were grounded in sound-it-out. I mean, I actually have no idea how to Whole Word anything; my brain creates a working pronunciation during the reading process. Which is why there are vast tracks of vocabulary landscape I've never heard and never spoken whose associated pronunciation is guesswork and should someone use that word in my presence, I would probably not recognize.

The translating from audio is also working online.

(And--in retrospect--it probably helps that this time around, I'm not trying to use the keyboard early and navigate a Hindi language keyboard while learning the basics.)

Additionally: I found and downloaded a ton of kindergarten-level Hindi writing practice sheets, very flashback to childhood, downloaded, categorized, and started working on those. My brain is still working on transitioning 'cool shapes that represent sounds' to 'letters', which are two very different things even though technically, they're synonymous.

A representation of the process:
Shape: आ
Brain: Shape!
Brain: Familiar shape!
Brain: Represents a sound!
Brain: Shape + sound = letter!
Shape: आ
Brain: This is a letter!
Brain: I know the sound for this letter!
Brain: *thinks sound*
Brain: *repeat for each letter through end of word*

Word: आदमी
Brain: This is a word!
Word: आदमी
Brain: I know this word!
Me: ...do we really need to go through this every time?
Word: आदमी
Brain: That is 'man'!
Me: Yes. Yes it is, thanks.
Brain: Shape Sound Letter Word = Language!
Me: Yep.
Brain: This is a language!
Me: You don't say.
Word: आदमी
Me: I know.

Repeat from start to create a sentence when my brain makes the shocking discovery the concept of grammar exists here, too.

Yes, the process is now super fast--give it credit, my brain zips through with minimal '...what are we doing again? What is this? Why are shapes?'--but it's basically rediscovering the existence of the Hindi language via logic chain every time. And I just want to grab it, drag it to a diagram of the human brain and point 'HERE IS THE LANGUAGE CENTER. CREATE A HINDI SECTION RIGHT HERE. NO NOT IN THE BRAIN AREA FOR INTERESTING SOUND SHAPE THINGS AND WHY DO I HAVE ONE OF THESE WHAT DO YOU PUT IN HERE? NO, THIS GOES IN THE LANGUAGE CENTER. HERE. RIGHT HERE.'

(Look, I have an entire brain section devoted to memorizing and storing lyrics to songs that I cannot consciously access unless I'm listening to the song and start singing. 'Interesting Sound Shape Things' is not exactly a surprise, but seriously, what's in there?)

I'm not saying I know better than people who study this shit, but I'm wondering if it's really 'childhood elastic brain whatever' or more the brain going 'I just did this with a language so I know how its done bring it', whereas later, your brain has completely forgotten there was ever a pre-language time and doesn't really believe it. It has no memory of anything like that and it would know, so stop lying, we have always spoken English.

Worse, when it does realize that hey, maybe there was something like that, denial sets in. Yeah, part of it is 'I will not admit it because it's embarrassing' but I suspect quite a bit is 'I have no fucking clue how I did this, kinda assumed it was witchcraft. This is some fine work here, though: beautiful adjective section, and here, we see how all those spelling competitions paid off. The written language section is unreal, did you know half of it isn't even preloaded into the speech centers? Audio reports we have never heard these spoken, but pronunciations are in order over here, go me. How do I make another one of these, though? Is that even possible? Do other brains know about this? This can't be normal.'

Like that.

I feel my brain is in the denial stage and I keep wanting to find it like, some kind of brain youtube vid it can watch when I'm sleeping, where other brains demonstrate stuff like 'how to create naturalistic mappings in the language centers' or maybe a book of some kind, like 'How to Build Your Second Language Structure for Dummies' by a polygot brain, give it some confidence.

However, this is improvement. Last time, imagine the above processes, but like this.

Shape: आ
Brain: Shape!
Brain:
Brain:
Brain:
Me: Do you know it?
Brain: No...yes. Maybe.
Brain:
Brain:
Brain: Okay, it's familiar.
Me: Great! Sound?
Brain: Shapes have sound?

Imagine getting through a sentence like that.

Comments

[seperis]

Oh God that sounds amazing and I want. This. So. Much.

I really, really hope to find a good immersion program for Spanish and for Hindi in the acutal countries they're spoken in. I really want the Hindi because so many of my coworkers and dev are Indian nationals or expatriates.

With the Spanish--I always hit a block because no matter how much I learn, without active, mandatory use, I cannot get it to shift out of 'mentally translate' and it's a delay that also makes learning advanced stuff harder. I've tested this; my best Spanish was when I was a clerk at the welfare office and most of our area was spanish speaking and I got very good and very close to making the jump.

There's a language school south of Puerto Vallarta--on the beach--that has one, two, three, or four week programs with classes up to six hours a day, you live in a beach cabana, and take dancing/cooking courses and I want. Two weeks there, if I spent the month or two before in duolingo getting prepped to have the vocabulary ready for deployment, I know I could make the transition. And do it on the beach. I just need it forced so my brain gives up fighting me.

(It's also ridic cheap to the point it was worrying, but it's legit, and an accredited language school; they also have world class surfing there. Like, normal vacation at my income level cheap and on a beach famous for surfing. God.)

It's biggest problem is it's not a straight shot to get down there and going to southern Mexico alone is just isn't wise when you don't know the language and up to half the trip could be by bus (eight hours from Mexico City). My best friend--whose Latina--also wants to do an immersion in Spanish but would prefer Spain which cool but is way more expensive, like a couple of years saving for two weeks. I'm not opposed to it, but there's one right here on the beach.

[niqaeli]

To be honest, the reason I don't use Duolingo, despite its interface being mostly everything I want, is that it's translative and not immersive. I'd put up with the lack of grammar being taught formally if it were immersive. Translative Spanish is, honestly, not useful to me! I don't need to translate, I need to be able to talk to people fluently.

So that said, I am now contemplating looking at how much that place in Puerto Vallarta would cost and wondering if it might, y'know, be a functional possibility at some point in the not too distant future. I could get my shit together already to make myself vocabulary flash decks if I knew I was prepping for an immersive school! And I mean, we know we can share quarters, it's probably a little safer to go traveling with two people, even if neither knows the language??

[seperis]

Hi friend! WE COULD DO THIS. I SPREADSHEETED IT LIKE A LOT. I wargamed so many types

https://www.puertoschool.com/

there are a lot of new schools popping up now though; I need to look at some of the other ones. This one's just been around a while, and it has lived in my bookmarks for so long as I wait and hope.

[niqaeli]

holy fucking shit

like, sorry, I just looked at their listed price of lodging, and $550 for FOUR WEEKS for TWO BEDS IN A STUDIO APARTMENT?! THAT'S $225 A MONTH, AT THE OUTSIDE. THAT IS LITERALLY LESS THAN I PAY A MONTH FOR MY AERIAL STUDIO MEMBERSHIP, I AM LEGITIMATELY NOT KIDDING. plus I suspect we could share a bed, honestly, I don't remember if it was a queen or a full but we have before and I don't kick or toss much in my sleep, soooooooo.

and okay so lessons apparently cost $8-12/hr, so that's like.... another $240 a week at the outside? because god, could you DO more than four hours a day five days a week of intensive language learning?!

RIGHT SO

I'm going to stick this in my medium-term plans as a thing to save up towards because that shit is like. actually affordable with planning, and not "win a major lottery"-dream-affordable?!

[seperis]

I knowww. This is why it's been on my short list forever: plus, dancing classes, cooking classes, excursions, surfing. I am not into outdooring or surfing, but cooking and dancing? Yes please.

And I think I wargamed it at four to six hours. Did you see the package page?

https://www.puertoschool.com/more_study.html

One week, including apartment, four hours a day of Spanish, plus options for extras? $455 Two weeks? $865 And I can't even tell if this is with or without double occupancy. I spent more that this on a hotel for a week. (I'm wondering if I can get work to give me educational leave.)

The only other thing is travel, but they do list all the options pretty thoroughly.