Language and Linguistics

How to enjoy studying a (contemporary, spoken) foreign language and be normal

I wrote this short essay/reflection on on June 3, 2022. I hope you find these words to be helpful.

Clarification added June 6, 2023: The notes here are primarily for studying contemporary, spoken (or "vernacular") tongues— that is, the widespread idiom employed by some living people. Contemporary implies living in the same time/place, and spoken includes the derivative forms of text messages, Internet chatting, and the like. Studying the history of letters, philology, etc. is a different matter, though of course study in this area can help inform one's study of current spoken idioms.

1. Sounds/forms are very important. Learning the IPA (International Phonetic Alphabet) as well as how to properly pronounce languages you are interested in (e.g. Mandarin Chinese if you have to work with Chinese people) is nearly always profitable. Taking the time/care to properly say names shows you are willing to go a step further than most opinion-broadcasters to respect someone of another language/culture/etc. Learning the basics of reading/writing can allow you to quickly learn new words via making use of lexical resources like dictionaries, websites, etc.
2. Don't be antisocial or a weirdo. If you are going to learn just one second language, pick on that is practical for what you do. For instance, if you know many French speakers in your area and you only speak English, go ahead and learn French to better connect with those around you. Choosing a more common "world language" is usually a safe bet if you don't know what to do. However, if you know you'll be living in another country, interacting with a lot of people of a certain ethnicity (e.g. Greeks in Orthodox Church), and so on, then you may opt to focus your efforts on a language that isn't as popular by numbers, but which you will frequently encounter as you try to do a better job at what you already do. If it is natural/normal for you to use another language (no explanation needed) this is better. Contrast this with my errors—learning East Asian languages in the USA has been hard for me because I have failed to integrate into any non-English speaking East Asian groups over the long run...
3. Sell/volunteer your time and effort to help you learn. Rather than being a fed in an underground facility listening to audio recordings, why not do some work in a place where you can hear your target language? e.g. if you're trying to learn Vietnamese and you need some extra money, you could work at a local Vietnamese super market. Learn something useful to other people.
4. Find profitable routines and keep doing them. Find actions you can take again and again that bring you gains in your language learning.. For instance, if reading some of a newsletter in another language helps you study grammar/vocabulary as well as keep up with a local community, this is a useful to keep up. If listening to some program during your commute works well, keep doing that. Don't be stuck asking "what should I do to make progress on XYZ". Instead, know what to do and be intentional.
5. Make friends. While I do think lots of study has to be done alone outside of formal educational settings, having people to share insights with, ask opinions about things on, and so on is very helpful for keeping things moving. Furthermore, the best friends are made when engaged in a common struggle. The previous point can be applied to foreign language learners working together. OR, it can mean working with people doing something in common (like some job) and needing to use a target foreign language to achieve some goal.

Become someone who people of other tongues would like to speak with. Language study is a tool/means to a greater end; do not err and become obsessed with the dead tool, but seek first Life/Truth.

How I study letters/words/law

More so than being a matter of knowing more information, my goal is to see more clearly. Thus, rather than aiming for breadth, I seek to unpack where our modern languages have become confused (or, deliberately used as tools for obfuscation or imposing debased modes of thinking) and where they preserve/reveal important facts. For instance, the word communication itself comes from the same root we get the word communion from. We see the "science" of "communication" reduced to impersonal signals/data and calculation ("counting") in the "Digital/Information Age" of the 21st century. Through studying the etymology of words like community, we can see how the use of language is inseparable from the study of how individuals relate to one another (it is not simply some impersonal thing, like computer code) and is related to devotion/piety. Insofar as a "community" errs in who or what it venerates, we likewise should expect to see a collapse in "communication".

Nowadays, words like "philology" are not commonly heard (do people love the eternal Logos?). In the past couple decades, we've seen the rise of a field called "data science" and likewise a kind of linguistics based on calculation (counting) through "big data", "N-gram models", "Natural Language Processing", etc. (one can easily look up the latest "buzzwords"). One reason I quit linguistics in academia was because it seemed like we were more interested in bending human talk to match computers (and studying our injured tongues) than understanding the beautiful thing we've already been given. Going off the note on "communication" above, we can see how the notion of "Computer Mediated Communication" is total cyborg weirdness, especially when (as is being done now) there is a continual effort to introduce non-human entities into our daily life (...chat bots, machines occupying roles previously held by humans [e.g. cashiers],...).

Suspending our extremely narrow, specific senses of words (as well as sorting through which of our thoughts/ideas are really "knowledge" or are baseless fables and myths) and returning to properly naming things (正名 [zheng4ming2], I made a YT video on this topic), I think we can not only become masters over the machines 🤖, but we can also collectively acquire a greater conscience of what language is and how it may be used for and against us.

The heavens declare the glory of God, and the firmament proclaimeth the work of His hands.
Day unto day poureth forth speech, and night unto night proclaimeth knowledge.
There are no tongues nor words in which their voices are not heard.
(from Psalm 18)

Esperanto

What do those seeking to unify the world hope for? "Why have the heathen raged, and the peoples meditated empty things?" (from Psalm 2)