In today’s newsletter:
🔸 I tell you how I almost got arrested in Russia
🔸 Wiktionary as a pronunciation resource
🔸 How people react when you speak their language
Hey Reader. Let me tell you about the time in Russia I nearly got arrested at 1am with two Belorussians I had just met.
I was walking back home after a night out in Moscow, and by chance I happen to pass two guys who had been out drinking, and they stop me to ask if they know where they could buy alcohol. You'd expect them to be pretty seedy, but luckily they turned out to be friendly (also pretty drunk). I told them of a place near mine, and we walk along chatting about the usual. Before we could cross the street to my block, a police van screeches up in front of us, and a boatload of policemen pile out and surround us. One officer pulls me aside and takes my bag. "Do you have any weapons? Drugs?", he says as he's already rifling through my stuff. I give him a completely pointless "no, officer" anyway, before trying to explain that I don't know the other two guys.
I don't know if I can describe this well, but most policemen in Russia seem to have an attitude of complete disinterest, and this guy had it in spades. My nervous explanation didn't even merit a response 😬.
Well, luckily my two friendly drunks were as clean as I was. If they weren't, I don't want to imagine how my night would have progressed. With nothing to pull us up on, they pile back in the van and pull away, leaving me to show my squeaky-clean Belorussian friends the store (it was closed 💀).
What's the moral of the story? Russian police won't always arrest you for no reason? You should add "no officer, I don't have any weapons or drugs, also I don't know those people" to your flashcard deck? Maybe there's no moral, but I'd like to think my Russian helped, so it goes to show that a language can come in use, even if it's possible to get by in English. Just in case you needed convincing of that.
Simon
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🛠️Resource spotlight: Wiktionary
Wiktionary is the king of all online dictionaries. While not the best choice for every language, for many it is my go-to. The main reason is the pronunciation help, which often includes audio and IPA symbols. Paired with the Wikipedia article on a language’s phonology, you can start to nail the pronunciation of whatever language you’re learning. My technique is:
Look at the IPA symbols,
Look up the ones I’m not sure how to pronounce on Wikipedia, use the Wikipedia audio and explanation to get the sounds right
Listen to the word’s audio
Try it myself
I recommend you use it to practice your pronunciation whenever you end up searching for a word.
🌐Language learning
What neuroscience says about reading vs listening.
Plus, I came across this great writeup from a long-time r/languagelearning user. I found this takeaway particularly useful:
…Research has shown that, generally speaking, once a person reaches that level of "acceptable" performance and automaticity, the additional years of "practice" don't lead to improvement.
Combining these ideas, we find ourselves with a pretty straightforward roadmap to overcoming the beginner stage:
1. First, just focus on doing: do, consistently, until you reach a point where you stop making progress
2. Then, start optimizing whatever it is that you do
From around the web:
Languages
Where did the word “dude” come from?
Why do words’ pronunciation change?
How people react when you speak their language
How true do you find this?
While I think there are different tendencies that align with it well, I’ve honestly found that the Instant friendship and Nice try group are quite mixed together, and it depends on the person more than anything. My experience has been most people like it. Also, I have found Russian and French speakers often have No reaction due to the large amount of L2 speakers for both.
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