Now at Level 4 in Family, so while I would not say mastered, I am more comfortable. This is one of the very few times I wish there was lesson of nothing but conjugation for third person plurals, though. Usually I go to the next lesson once I hit four and use level 4 to 5 for review, but I'm still very shaky; knowing is not the same thing as internalizing. I may start the next lesson and see.

(I do wish I could individually erase progress on a Lesson--Family--and start over entirely. The review simply doesn't have the build up to quality which I'd like to do again from the start.)

Hindi conjugations are so far fairly straightforward, no tricks, so it's very much repetition of nailing the rules in for matching them by gender to subject into my brain. With possessives (my, yours, his, her, Julia's, Raj's) matching to noun (son, daughter, brother, sister, book) by gender already, my mind was ready and loves the consistency, it's just repetition. I think it's the female not automatically becoming male but staying its own thing in plurals when I'm used to defaulting male. It's nice, though, it just means if I don't stop short and think, I go to default male plural like an idiot.

Currently using 'my girls'/'our girls' to remind myself; could I sub in my girls/our girls and match for possessive and noun in subject? If so, verb goes female with feminine ending. If I sub in 'our boys', its male plural with the male plural ending. I'm also using the deer/deer principle for nouns that do not pluralize; check the possessive, if it's plural, the verb is plural, just like English.

I am genuinely surprised I haven't had more structural grammar (aka sentence structure) problems with switching the verb to the end and then arranging objects (direct and indirect) and prepositions inside between that and subject. The structure in simple sentences is perfectly logical (according to my brain, thank you!) and while I get this will get much more complicated in complex sentences, it's reassuring there is one part of this I am not utter shit at from the get-go. Basically, this is the literal one thing I do not make mistakes in.

Yes, this is a boring update, just a lot of 'wow, I am a-learning'. Can't lie, part of Not Failing Hindi may be put up to Welsh.

Okay, so when Duolingo adds new languages, I sometimes do a lesson or two in a couple just to see what's up because we live in the time of Online Babel, this shit is amazing. I ended up doing quite a bit in Welsh, mostly due to having read Here Be Dragons at a formative age and getting super into Wales, but also because of this. I discovered that I had found a language with perfect phonics, which for a phonics person is the goddamn holy grail. Once I learned the alternate sounds and specific variations, read = pronunciation, which all English speakers first second third fiftieth language know is not something English allows without serious penalties when it comes to verbal. If you're an English speaker who grew up on strict phonics first, you know read = pronounce is an automatic function you can't stop but resign yourself to knowing whatever is now stuck in your head is a.) wrong and b.) will always be what you translate from once you learn the correct pronunciation. because no matter how you tell it this is English it's okay, it's--to my brain at least--fundamentally wrong English from the get-go and always will be.

Raise your hand if Beau is still 'bewww' or something and it's still a sixteenth-beat for you to say 'bow' but no matter what, you still think 'bewwww' (or your alternative)? Yeah. I learned that word in third grade and the correct pronunciation at the same time, but doesn't matter; I read it on the board first. I have an entire portion of my language center devoted to mapping between "Read Pronunciation" and "Real Pronunciation". I'm fast, don't get me wrong, but there's always a translation. Hearing it and then seeing it doesn't always help, especially if there's a delay; ask me about solder/sauter and how now, I sometimes don't remember which is the verbal an which is the written because 'heard' before 'seen'? Brains, dude.

(Non native-tongue English speakers: yes, we do it, too. If you're wondering if it's some kind of reflection on your mastery, it is--your English is now on par with any native, congratulations. Those mental lists come standard with the language; you're doing it just like a native. The challenge for all of us is speed of translating 'how it sounds read' to 'how it sounds spoken' and that is for us all a work in progress. My personal goal is quarter beat delay at maximum. The more you use it spoken the easier it gets, but for me, its very rare I can get anything on the 'Read Pronunciation List' to the 'Read and Real Pronunciation List No Mapping Needed'.)

Welsh, though? Provided you learn Welsh pronunciation of those letters? This does not happen. It was so liberating and I learned that sometimes, it is possible to trust phonics. The grammar does get more complex, but it's a lot easier to internalize that when you aren't also mentally remapping words between 'read' and 'sound'.

So far, Hindi is pretty much the same way, and this time, I trust that how I read it is indeed how it sounds. One hundred percent of the time so far, when it sounds different than I read it, I made a mistake. And I don't have to do a remap, just sound it out again then read it correctly and it's fixed, no alternate list needed. My brain loves letters matching sounds, it'll happily erase without penalty when it's a bad sound to letter match. Frankly, it's beautiful. Read errors are much less a problem than read-speak mapping; you can fix read errors, but read-speak are fundamental to the language, at least in my brain.

Though I do wonder now if learning French might help, but mapping across languages after the fact might not be much faster.

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.

Duolingo added Danish, Dutch, and Irish to the beta language list for English speakers (for non-English speakers, there are others as well). As Irish sounded interesting, I decided to test it and see what happened.

Here's what I learned:

1.) Spanish infiltrates English speakers in Texas like you have no idea.

I didn't have any idea how much until I began on Irish and failed so utterly when in Spanish I did the first ten sections in like, a day, including repeats when I inexplicably didn't get full hearts in every lesson and I was anal about that. I'd go back and redo ones just to get full hearts and sulk if I missed something. Yes, I do that. Even the most rampant English-only speaker living in a border state cannot help but absorb the principles of the language at least in basic vocabulary.

(Interesting note: you're more likely to pick up a lot of it if you're lower/working class than middle class, due to migrant and undocumented immigrant labor. My dad wouldn't admit it to save his life, but he understood more Spanish than I did since he worked construction and I heard him talking to his coworkers, so come on. My mom didn't pick up much as a caseworker because she worked in a small town, but when I was a clerk and then a caseworker in Austin, my Spanish went high conversational within six months, and I could interview in it fairly well when needed.)

I tested this in French and Portuguese as well: French I can get two sections without noticeable effort (letter combinations start hurting me here), Portuguese three or four (Portuguese sounds to me like Spanish spoken at the back of the throat, and that's the part that throws me off). Irish--three repetitions for one lesson (One. Lesson) to get full hearts and honest to God I sweated through it.

2.) Irish is really different.

Yes, all languages are different, but this is a different-different for me as a primary English speaker and my language familiarity. If you dropped me in Mexico, I could likely fairly quickly get myself food, lodging, a bathroom, and directions to anywhere, and could make some very sketchy jokes with my new friends and probably carry on a fair conversation about my life and times (you'd be surprised how much you know when that's your only language option). If you dropped me in Finland, I could do the same but less conversation and more profanity because my host brother and boyfriend were good about teaching me that. My French would fail, no lie, because French, but I could eventually work out what I needed to say.

In Ireland, should I be without English speakers, Ithim úll, I eat an apple. Ithim an úll, I eat the apple. And I know the 't' will be silent. So I'm good for describing my action with the apple. That's it, and I'm currently I'm on the fourth section. Unless I happen to have a pad of paper and I can totally write out my drink choices sú úll and sú oráiste, apple or orange juice and uisce, water. Go me. I can't say any of them to save my life.

My first cousin is a linguist and polyglot, but all hers are the Romance languages, though she has a working understanding of a few others. If I remember correctly, her waterloos were (forgive generalities), South Asian (specifically I think it was Chinese that threw her off the most, but I can't be more specific). She adapted, but that was where she hit her first serious wall on comprehension, and as this is a woman who was trilingual before she began college and finished her degree in two years, yeah.

If I'm right--and I'm pretty sure I am--mine is anything that uses the alphabet I know in ways I don't understand (goddamn phonics). I still have the entire Cyrillic alphabet effectively memorized and never had a problem reading or understanding Russian at the level that Irish is bothering me. My roommate in college was Syrian-American and was bilingual in Arabic and English, and I never had a problem with what she taught me--this shape makes this sound and those sounds make this word, I could read it later and recognize the word without a major hiccup. (I can't do it now, but at one time I could say several truly indecent things and ask for a beer or water.)

It's like French (fucking French): those letter combinations that don't sound like I think they should (I wrote an essay about me and French) why do you hate me? I blame this on phonics.

3.) Retention is a problem written.

Not Irish to English; that I nail every time. English to Irish is giving me problems, which makes sense. Ithim, itheann, I eat, (he or she) eats isn't hard to recognize. In fact, none of the verb conjugations are hard to recognize and translate, it's just remembering the root and adding the conjugation is because of the slim/broad rule.

This is where I discover I don't like things that are too regular too soon (blame English, we don't do regular, we do exceptions). I don't trust last root vowel matching to get the ending, and I go through, not kidding, a three point series of questions to myself before I finally accept yes, this is a regular freaking verb why are you doing this to yourself? I don't know, but I still have to stop and go okay ith has a 'i' therefore slim ending 'eann' Itheann move on now after point one "what ending goes here, it can't be that simple" and "no, really, it can't be that simple".

This is the 'to eat' verb, for goodness sake. This is how I get an apple in Ireland.

4.) Retention is a huge problem listening.

This is where my phonics training fails until I internalize the letter combination pronunciations (this will take a while, I don't do well at this in my native tongue for fuck's sake)(for which we can blame English stealing all the words)(why didn't English steal more Irish?????????????????).

The secondary problem with this is that this is in beta, and while all the oral uses a real human voice--which is fantastic for clarity, btw, you can easily hear and repeat what they're saying, no problem at all--not all the oral parts are added yet, as this is, again, in beta. So sometimes, you get the word leabhar but not the pronunciation for maybe several questions after that (or a different lesson). Hint: for an English speaker, it sounds nothing like it looks, except that it definitely starts with an 'l' and ends with an 'r'. Uisce, no matter how many times I hear it--and I listened to the same sentence with it in there about a dozen times straight--will not register when I hear it again. Unless it's a sentence about drinking and then I know if it starts with a 'b' it's milk, an 'f' is wine, and the other one is uisce.

5.) My reading retention is shockingly good.

This shouldn't surprise me, but it always throws me a little to realize how textual I really am. And that has been a problem; I can pretty much force-pass the lessons on guesswork on the strength of translating Irish to English and slide by the rest with short-term memorization, but finishing with four hearts every time means I have to pass every question both written and oral and the difference is painfully obvious on how long I spend listening to the same sentence over and over until I can work out the words by more than first letter and context guessing (which also works). Or slowly, painfully pushing English to Irish. And honestly, retention of the sounds has to be a priority, which is annoying me. I'm used to flying through basics and I keep going back to re-run all the early lessons before I start a new one to retain the sounds correctly.

Why I like the beta languages innovations:

The Irish language has portals (this was not there for the other English to X courses) and when you start a new section, there are notes relevant to the lessons below, not limited to the explanation of the slender/broad conjugations, a complete list of pronouns, and some very useful grammar and terminology. I read it, did the lessons several times, read it, did the lessons, and slowly it came together but far better than if it left me on my own (Spanish I don't need it; Irish oh God yes, please). It's super useful once you accept in your heart that no, those letters will not sound like that and live with it.

I wish--desperately--that US schools did more foreign language training, though I do get historically why we didn't and why it's become a thing only recently to start pushing it earlier (Child's school starts in primary, I think).

I will say this: I reward myself with Spanish lessons and boy, I feel smart then. Four hearts, listening, speaking, reading, writing, watch me get all the hearts. Several times, even.

So anyone else try the other beta languages yet? I'm curious about Dutch and Danish. Also, if anyone else ends up in Irish, tell me! Especially how you nailed uisce. Seriously, this is haunting me Why won't it stick?