How a Polyglot Balances and Maintains Many Languages
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- Опубліковано 22 бер 2024
- Listen to me discuss adding artwork to advanced scriptorium, using cycles of languages on alternate days, trying to add breadth, advancing when you are already advanced, where might I be in 20 years, the balancing act of maintaining languages, planning a life around language study, life choices to live immersed in difficult languages, pursuing knowledge more important than wealth, building a polyliterate community, deeper non-linguistic reasons for studying languages, the relation of speaking to reading proficiency, the importance of oral delivery and reading aloud, my evolving attitude toward audiobooks, offering audiobooks in obscure languages, and using the Internet Archive.
Please note that this video is also an update to some of the same questions that Michael Erard asked me when he interviewed me for his book on polyglots back in 2009. You can see that video here: • A Polyglot's Daily Lin...
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Join my virtual academy and meet with me every week to get a systematic theoretical framework for long-term language learning in the Path of the Polyglot: www.alexanderarguelles.com/academy/ Join also to read and discuss French, German, Italian, and/or Spanish literature, to learn sacred languages such as Arabic, Sanskrit, Greek, or Old Norse, to develop conversational abilities in Latin, and/or to read and discuss Great Books of Western Civilization or the Comparative History of Religions in English. And subscribe to my monthly newsletter at: www.alexanderarguelles.com/newsletter/
I think the first time in my adult life I truly dedicated a significant number of hours to reading aloud was when my child was born. I picked up whatever book I was currently reading, or had intended to read for a while, and while he was sleeping or just hanging out on me in a sling I would just walk around the house reading aloud with as much stylistic flare and intonation as needed to make the text come alive. Some days I would go for anywhere between 2-4 hours cumulatively and after several weeks or months I noticed that the act of reading had gained a certain clarity or quality that had been there before and it was then I realized that 'slowing down' should perhaps be thought of as a way to increase the resolution of what we are trying to internalize from the text. This is not such an outlandish concept in most fields - when recording music digitally, for instance, you can adjust the software to gather more data from the signal coming from your instrument in order to get a higher quality sound. However, often the cost of this increase in quality is that the latency (time response) between your instrument and the computer will be higher, which can be a nuisance while your trying to record.
Thank you for sharing your own detailed experience with this. Others interested in reading aloud should find this valuable.
Yes! Please post as much audio of you reading as possible, especially of medieval and ancient languages. Recordings of this type are woefully rare and when one does find them they are often only short excerpts.
I study Old English and read aloud often, sometimes recording myself. The downside is that I am sure that I am training some bad habits in pronunciation and cadence which would be avoided if I shadowed recordings from much more knowledgeable people. Some features of pronunciation can only be correctly internalized in this way, palatal c and g for example in Old English.
Noted!
I love ALL Alexander Arguelles videos!!!
I appreciate the interest.
I do too, incredibly valuable information.
Recording audiobooks in languages I’m learning is something I want to get in the habit of doing, both to work on pronunciation and to have them available in that format for re-listening. Especially with historical forms of languages that don’t have as many audiobooks.
It is the best language habit I have cultivated in recent years.
Dr. Arguelles, I don't think you remember this, but few years ago, I suggested on your videos that you made some reading aloud videos as a low-effort video to keep the channel alive. I would love to hear your voice in english or latin, specially in latin, since macrons are a rarity, specially on the medieval texts. IMHO, medieval latin is the best latin, both in variety of content and in the beauty of expression.
although not necessary, I see myself that the macrons help a lot on the understanding of the text. hearing the texts out loud would help a lot. IMHO, it would be great if you, Alexander, started with texts you like first, and then maybe seeing what types of texts were the most loved ones and focus on them thereafter.
However, if you want my opinion, the work of isaac newton "Philosophiæ Naturalis Principia Mathematica" would be a great fit for an educated and polite voice such as yours.
Thank you, William, for the good suggestions. Look for this to come.
Thank you for the weekly upload! May I ask what kinds of activities you still do to keep up your Korean? I can only imagine the struggle of balancing that, Arabic, and everything else...
Korean is the only language where I get occasional random native exposure, such as watching a video with my wife.
@ProfASAr, I think if you are trying to figure out what to do with all of the audio books you have recorded, you could take inspiration from what Luke Ranieri has been doing with his own personal website and Patreon account.
There is such a giant online community of language learners now that is eager to acquire whatever resources that have been produced by more senior learners that they can use as part of their own journey. I'm confident. There would be many people eager to undertake an apprenticeship of sorts through your audiobooks.
You could honestly just add a page to your website with some way of people purchasing the various audio books that you have recorded and simply sort them according to a number of categories and search terms or languages.
Additionally, I'm not sure if you have considered this before, but if you do Zoom calls with the Academy for your online meetings, if there are students out there who would love to be able to work with the Academy but simply can't fit it into their schedule based on when the class meetings are happening, you could record the meetings and make them available to Patreon subscribers to watch after the fact on their own time, which could produce an additional revenue stream for you, as well as make the experience and value of the Academy more available to a wider audience.
I wrote my comment just a couple of minutes before the end of the video, so I look forward to potentially seeing a section on your website for the audiobooks, but I bet that there are a lot of people who watch your videos on UA-cam who would be eager to financially support you through Patreon to have access to recordings of the class meetings if they aren't able to attend academy meetings when they would otherwise be scheduled.
Thank you, Stephen, for your good suggestions.
Fascinating!
Thank you kindly.
Very lovely idea about the audiobooks! It could be like Librivox but specifically for the interesting books from the Professor! If I may be so bold as to suggest something like that, I would very much love to contribute to making recordings for Latin and Old Norse myself! Perhaps you could have a section for curated selections of academy students' recordings!
Hello Yan, we can keep that in mind when we build the page.
Ooh, an audiobook section on the website you say? 😁 Have you by chance recorded any Old French texts? I've found a few recordings online, but many are merely excerpts, and tracking down matching texts has proved quite difficult.
What a concept, eh Chris, maybe we should look into this...
I am interested in joining the intermediate Spoken Latin class but hoping I could get clarification on something. The description on the website says that the class is “Suitable for those who have worked through Lingua Latina Per Se Illustrata (LLPSI) or the equivalent.” I’ve completed Pars I of the course but I’m only a few chapters into Roma Aeterna. Would it be appropriate for me to join the class?
I think so, but why don't you join us one day as a guest and judge for yourself? Please write to the academy for a link.
Hi Dr. Arguelles. I am wondering if you have any tips or methods for writing and journaling exercises. Your methods for language learning have blown me away. I look up to you because you were the first to teach me how to do real deep work using a systematic method. I cannot begin to express how beneficial this has been toward my vocation for a well-rounded education. Yet, at the age of 25, I still haven't found a way to write, that is, to express my feelings and thoughts on paper or digitally. I've tried many applications and they never stick with me or suit my style. Should I create aphorisms of thoughts that I have and quickly write them down, such as what Kierkegaard does in Either/Or? Should I pick a couple of questions such as Kant does in the Critique of Pure Reason and write an essay addressing them? Should I create a dialogue between people or things such as Plato and Leopardi do? Of course, I could try all of them, but I am curious about a systematic way of addressing this issue of how to get someone into writing because I have not been able to break into it. I find it mentally exhausting to pick a topic, choose an argument, and/or come up with questions to ask. I want to find a way to flow into it more easily. I certainly know you have valuable thoughts on the issue. I am always looking for resources from others too. Kind regards.
Thank you for the fantastic question. I have done different things at different times, and I also, despite everything, from time to time lose the journaling habit that I thought was totally ingrained in me and have to start again. All of the the things you mention, as well as starting with Scriptorium and then moving on to your own thoughts, and or drawing an illustration and then starting to write about it, or simply examining your own conscience, are all good tactics for getting started. Ultimately the most important thing is that you sit down in the same place at the same time to write each day for a set amount of writing (e.g., 1 page) in order to get in the habit.
I haven’t drawn anything since third grade 😅 so Scriptorium is a wonderful idea. I hope you could make a more in depth video on writing in the future.
It's funny you said something about a Math/Science academy. I had an odd dream of Multiple people coming together to start their own school/academy that covers a wild range of things.
What kind of dream - a heart's desire, or a nighttime vision?
@@ProfASAr I would say it was both, hearts desire while asleep. Was fairly emotional when I woke up. Was some sort of school for intellectually gifted individuals to study. Using languages and combining mnemonic concepts for remembering. Hard to explain, it was like everything was categorized perfect with colors and patterns. Like a Big circular tree diagram each number being a color and corresponding to a letter which also correlated with the words. Had the dream 2 weeks ago and have felt odd sense. Its like the school was the Macro perspective and the letters numbers and colors were the Micro perspective. I think about the dream everyday now, hopefully I have it again
I wonder, since you talk about Latin a lot
1) do you know Luke Ranieri? what do you think about his spoken Latin? does he do a good job in your point of view? I´d really like to see a talk between you two, that might be very interresting
2) do you have any specific approach to pronounce Latin? do you pronounce the writings Caesar differently then Thomas Aquinas?
3) at the end of this talk you say you would like to speak Latin like English -- and as an English student myself - I wonder, what is your relationship with English? do you enjoy English writers? or do you stay away from English?
Luke Ranieri is the incarnation of living Latin. As for pronunciation, ultimately you are going to get a voice living in your head, but you can adapt this to different historical situations if you desire - it is simple to switch into and out of Church Latin. Unfortunately, I have been the abusive party in my relationship with English, driven by my mania for the exotic. I do enjoy, e.g., Salman Rushdie, but it feels like a guilty pleasure to read English.
El adorado gato❤
Merlin!
The cat.
Is named Merlin.
Commentārius deīs algorythmī.
Iterum iterumque.
First!
Von Krolok will be sad.