Commitment and success with Memrise: Over the past couple of weeks, I have
focused on building my vocabulary and grammar skills through Memrise http://www.memrise.com/course/46103/juchitan-zapotec-2/. I am keeping a pace through this online
course by committing myself to learning (planting) something new or sometimes
just practicing (watering) what I have previously learned everyday. “Everyday” sounds demanding, but I tell
myself that I only have to do ten minutes on the days that I am too tired or
too busy. So far, this has been a
successful strategy to maintain discipline and motivate myself when I don’t
feel motivated. This commitment to
myself does not mean that I never miss a day of Memrise—life (and sometimes
death) happens. My missed days, however,
are few. Since I began using the online
Juchitán (Isthmus) Zapotec language-learning course on April 18, 2013, I have
accumulated 18 hours of learning. Not
bad for less than a month! That’s an
average of about 5 hours per week of pure language-learning, not including the
poetry study and additional language practice through other means. I have been using my printed Terán poems to
apply my newly learned vocabulary and grammar.
This is a part of what I call “discovery learning” because every time I
look at the poetry after spending time on Memrise, I “discover” something
new. I am gradually “seeing” the
language, like scales slowly being shed from my eyes.
Listening: Week
6 has been a week of listening. I am
learning a new poem, Neegue’ ca ‘Just Yesterday’ (see blog post http://jessicabruin.blogspot.com/2013/05/week-6-language-learning-and-motivation.html),
and this time I have an audio example through the Terán Podcast http://www.poetrytranslation.org/downloads/24
(a benefit I did not have when memorizing the poem Bidxi ‘Frog’). I aim to recite the poetry like Terán
himself, thus learning how to use native-like pronunciation and
intonation. It is not enough to just
imitate Terán, though. I listened to
Terán recite Neegue’ ca countless times, transcribing the poem phonetically
as I heard it. Hugely important, I
realized that there are no breaks between words, only at the end of a
line. Of course, I think I can make the
broad assumption that in any spoken language, speakers do not pause between
every word of an utterance. The trouble
for a language learner is trying to hear where one word begins and ends;
without being able to do this, it is nearly impossible to decipher any meaning
from an utterance. By phonetically (in a
very amateur way) transcribing Neegue’ ca as I heard it, I could chunk
words together according to stress, tone, and phoneme length. I was able to map the melodic features of the
lines of poetry that I otherwise would not be able to remember from just listening. I basically turned the poem into sheet music,
so I can more accurately practice reading the poetry without the aid of the
audio. (I suppose this provides evidence
that I am a visual learner.)
Recording: I
recorded Neegue’ ca from the Podcast onto my cellular phone so that I
could use it to practice with anywhere.
After doing this, I thought about recording myself reading the
poetry. This is not something I felt
comfortable with, but I thought it would probably be helpful to know what my IZ
pronunciation sounds like. I started
with reciting the poem I already know well, Bidxi. Playing the recording back was not
particularly eye-opening, but I decided to keep the recording to compare with
future recordings as I improve. I then
recorded myself reading Neegue’ ca before making my phonetic
transcription. After making the
transcription, I recorded myself again.
There was a noticeable improvement from the first recording to the
second. Mainly, I did not have long
pauses between words, making me sound like I am learning to read for the very
first time. The second improvement could
be observed in my intonation; I sounded more like Terán when reading my
phonetic transcription. Lesson learned:
self-recordings are worth the self-embarrassment.
Some necessary dictionary torture: I have a strong memory; however, I cannot
memorize words that I have not given meaning to. In order to memorize this new poem, I needed
to find the meaning to all the words that I had not yet learned. As I had mentioned in an earlier blog (if
interested, see http://jessicabruin.blogspot.com/2013/04/week-4-learning-experience-using.html),
I dislike using a dictionary extensively.
Nonetheless, I plowed through the new vocabulary, having to invent
meaning for the words that were not in the dictionary or obviously represented
in the English translation. As
previously mentioned, the English translation is not word for word. Meaning cannot always be translated exactly
from one language to another, so a poet translator must use his own creativity
and talent to transfer meaning without compromising the original poet’s intent.
An urgency to memorize for a speaking opportunity:
I was pressed to try to memorize Neegue’ ca before Friday
evening (5/11). I wanted to recite it
for David Shook at his poetry event that I planned on attending that
Friday. I memorized Shook’s English
translation in a day, but there were too many new things to learn before memorizing
the original in Isthmus Zapotec, even within a few days. Although I did not meet my deadline, I
appreciate having the extrinsic motivation to push me to make the progress I
did achieve. Nonetheless, I had the honor of reciting Bidxi and reading Neegue’
ca to Shook. The embarrassment was well worth the opportunity to receive a little feedback on my pronunciation. He kindly and attentively listened to me; and while clearly amused, provided me with an encouraging response. I am giving myself permission
to believe him for saying it wasn’t bad.
I think he mentioned something about glottal stops. I don’t know if mine were perceivable or not,
or in the right places. No matter, I was thrilled to have the poem's translator as my audience for a few brief moments! By the way, Shook is not only a translator, but a gifted poet himself! http://davidshook.net
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