Re: Learning languages

    :)  I must weigh in heavy-duty-like on this issue:

    I find useful the "Multi-Track Attack" method of language learning that
Barry Farber, founder of the Language Club and a syndicated radio talk show
host, came up with in his book _How to Learn Any Language: Quickly, Easily,
Inexpensively, Enjoyably and On Your Own_ (my used battered paperback edition: New
York: Citadel Press/Carol Publishing Group, 1995, copyrighted 1991, ISBN
0-8065-1271-7, list price U$ 9.95)

    Farber, who claimed some level of fluency in 25 languages circa 1991,
advocates using all at once cassette tapes, flash cards, dictionaries, grammar
books, etc.; turning idle time - i.e. waiting at doctors' offices, standing in
bureacratic lines, riding elevators even - into
'mini-lessons"; plunging in at a young child's level and working one's way
towards conversation, reading publications, and watching movies in one's target
language, etc. And one track Farber constantly returns to is chattin' up
native speakers, be-friending 'em... friendships can be a "major human asset" in a
linguavore's toolbox... a conlanger's bag of tricks (...a linguamangalanger's
sleeveful of whack-happiness).

    Intriguin'ly Farber says: "... let me ... point out that Indonesian
[Bahasa Indonesia] is the easiest language in the world - no hedging, no 'almost,'
no 'among the easiest.' In my experience, Indonesian is the easiest. The
grammar is minimal, regular, and simple. Once I began to learn it, Indonesian
didn't seem 'jungle' anymore...."
    ROTFLMAO. Farber has not tried reading or hearing classic/academic
Indonesian fiction and poetry evidently... (To the list newbies: I am ethnic'ly
Chinese-Indonesian - with an exotic dash of Russian Jewish - tho' I self-identify
as a BBC [BritishBorn Chinaman] and WOG [Wiley Oriental Gentlerogue])

    A "Friend" of mine who was "once upon a time active" * in the
intelligence community (Cold War Germany and pre-Infantida Israel) turned me onto this
book and she swears by this book. Says you can apply the same methods, _mutatis
mutandi_ to learning any, _any_ subject matter at all. Even deep encryption
key logs...whatever those damn thingies are...

^ * I am highly skeptical that she is really "retired": old tricky _Frau
Fledermaus_ tracked me down at the U. of Houston, TX and tried to recruit me after
I befriended a British-Born Polish Israeli paratrooper/"exchange student"
studying American poli-sci...

    Ok, again back to the subject... ol' papa Ezra Pound suggested a
_reading_ ability of at least two (2) other languages - besides one's mother tongue or
variations & mutations thereof - and he regarded translation as a very useful
adjunct activity for any writer. Of course, Pound was partial to translating
poetry (or attempting to do so).

---  º°`°º ø,¸¸,ø º°`°º ø,¸¸,ø º°`°º ø,¸¸,ø º°`°º  º°`°º ø,¸~->

Hanuman "Mister Sinister" Zhang, Sloth-Style Gungfu Typist
- "the sloth is a chinese poet upsidedown" --- Jack Kerouac {1922-69}
    <A HREF="http://www.boheme-magazine.net">=> boheme-magazine.net</A>

"We don't read & write poetry because it's cute. We read & write poetry
because we are members of the human race. & the human race is filled with passion.
& medicine, law, business, engineering, these are noble pursuits & necessary
to sustain life. But poetry, beauty, romance, love, these are what we stay
alive for." - Robin Williams, _Dead Poet's Society_

"Chance is the inner rhythm of the world, & the soul of poetry." - Miguel de
Unamuno

    "One thing foreigners, computers, & poets have in common
is that they make unexpected linguistic associations." --- Jasia Reichardt

    "There is no reason for the poet to be limited to words, & in fact the
poet is most poetic when inventing languages. Hence the concept of the poet as
'language designer'."  --- O. B. Hardison, Jr.

"La poésie date d' aujour d'hui."   (Poetry dates from today)
"La poésie est en jeu."             (Poetry is in play)
                --- Blaise Cendrars

= ¡ gw'araa legooset caacaa !
    ¡ reez'arvaa. saalvaa. reecue. scoopaa-goomee en reezijcloo ! =
[Fight Linguistic Waste!
    Save, Salvage, Recover, Scavenge and Recycle!]

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