Language Links

All right, I'll list some of my favorite language websites, such as blogs, learning websites, YouTube channels, etc. for other people to check out.

My favorite language forum:

http://www.how-to-learn-any-language.com

My favorite blog:

This blog is about both natural languages and international auxiliary languages. He also writes considerably about space exporation and technology. It is written by a Canadian working in Seoul as a translator.

http://www.pagef30.com

Another blog, by an Australian author & scientist trying to write literature for an international audience:

http://joyoflanguages.blogspot.com

Naomi Chambers's language blog:

http://thepolyglotexperience.blogspot.com

A blog by a young man sampling 37 languages and deciding on one, kind of like The Bachelor for languages:

http://37languages.wordpress.com

His second blog:

http://pardonmynorwegian.tumblr.com/

ikindalikelanguages blog:

http://ikindalikelanguages.com/blog

Language courses at this site:

http://ikindalikelanguages.com/lab/courses.php

Last blog:

http://languagegeek.net

Some learning materials:

Jim Becker's website, links for 14 languages, the one below is for Spanish:

http://www.uni.edu/becker/spanish3.html

Spanish conjugation trainer:

http://www.spaleon.com/index.php

Spanish basics, plus a site to connect with Spanish-speaking learners of English, by chat or as a pen pal. Completely free. No, I haven't tried it yet.

http://www.lingolex.com/spanish.htm

German:

Deutsch - Warum Nicht? Great site to teach the basics of German, produced by the Goethe Institut and Radio Deutsche Welle. It's a four part course with 26 lessons in each part. This is the site in German.

http://www.dw-world.de/dw/0,,2163,00.html

Paul Joyce's German website, a professor at the University of Portsmouth in the UK. I highly suggest reading his "Why learn German?" section:

http://userweb.port.ac.uk/~joyce1/abinitio/index.html

Some YouTube channels:

Alkantre, aka Dr. Peter Browne, a Spanish professor at, I think, the University of Texas, and top-notch polyglot. The cool thing about him is he comments on new users' channels and videos, sometimes in random languages, LOL.

http://www.youtube.com/user/alkantre

Brian Greco, a young teenager who makes great review videos. He's interested in IALs and more unusual languages, such as Navajo (he has Rosetta Stone Navajo) and languages from the South Pacific.

http://www.youtube.com/user/BrianonLanguage

Cody, from Minnesota, a college student who is interested in German, Chinese, Swahili, Arabic, and probably many more.

http://www.youtube.com/user/Codylanguagesblog

A great Latin channel:

http://www.youtube.com/user/Evan1965

Anthony Lauder's channel, great even if you aren't interested in Czech, since he talks about issues everyone learning languages could benefit from hearing:

http://www.youtube.com/user/FluentCzech

Glossika, a YouTube polyglot heavyweight:

http://www.youtube.com/user/Glossika

A female polyglot:

http://www.youtube.com/user/katrudy7

Probably one of the biggest language channels on YouTube:

http://www.youtube.com/user/laoshu505000

Professor Alexander Arguelles's channel, probably the biggest language channel on YouTube:

http://www.youtube.com/user/ProfASAr

And many others. I don't want to list anymore right now, since this post is long enough.

Interview at Walgreens

Today I had an interview at Walgreens for a clerk position.

I doubt I'll get the job since I have no cash handling or customer service experience, but you never know. There are still plenty of pther jobs out there that might hire me. I have an interview on Monday for a position at Cedar Point and I'm confident I'll get the job, since I've worked there before.

Well, we'll see.

Pittsburgh Loses!

I'm from Cleveland, and while I could care less about the Browns or Packers, I hate the Steelers.

Anyway, it was a great game. Watched it with a bunch of other people and had lots of fun. I just hope there is no lock out so we can do it again next year.

New Developments

I'm only taking one class in college this semester, Gerontology. I've decided to go for Medical Assisting instead of Physical Therapy Assisting or Occupational Therapy Assisting because there is a three year waiting period on those areas while with MA I can start this fall. So far I like the class, especially since we learn a little bit by doing instead of just reading the book and taking notes during lecture. I'm going to see what I'll be doing in the fall. I'm thinking about getting a certificate in dental assisting too since it could help my chances of employment, and it might be interesting, although I don't know if I have the manual dexterity to do the job. I'm pretty clumsy.

I'm going to start focusing on Spanish again. I found a great site that has tons of links to Spanish websites. It is the site of Jim Becker, a professor emeritus from the University of Northern Iowa. It is at http://www.uni.edu/becker/ and there are 13 other languages, so I guess the good professor was a language instructor, but I don't know how many of the 14 he taught and how many he merely knew.

I found a Spanish group that meets at the same Panera that the game group meets at. It meets at 11 in the morning on Saturdays, so when I get a job I should still be able to go to the meetings. Definitely a motivator.

More adventures in language wanderlust. I've decided that I want to study Spanish, French, German, and Italian. Italian caught my eye this week, and I don't think it would be any more difficult then Spanish. I tried the course on ikindalikelanguages and liked it, kind of like when I tried Afrikaans and Dutch on Christmas Eve. I've decided to let Dutch and Mandarin go for now, maybe I'll try them later. Needless to say, I can't study a bunch of languages at the same time. My puny brain can only handle one a day, and I know myself that I won't learn 8 or more languages during my lifetime. I want to focus on Spanish and German this year, with maybe a little French. Ugh, my poor brain is going to explode, even with a lot of free time this year.

I applied to Cedar Point, and since my brother knows someone in the food department, I might be working there. Definitely a step up from being cooped up in a warehouse all day, but not as good as having a supervisor rank, like my brother has.

Chez is back on YouTube. It appears he started uploading videos at 3 PM today, or earlier. I think I'm just going to leave him alone, although I thought about sending him a PM, since he friended me, but I really don't know what to say to him. If he's just after attention, that's probably the best thing for us both that I don't contact him. If he really is out to meet fellow language enthusiasts and doesn't know how to properly interact with people, I can accept that and maybe help him a little. All I was going to do was suggest he go on meetup and find a language group so he could find a language practice partner in real life instead of just interacting on the Internet. But I think I'm just going to let it go.

OK, till next time.

Game Night

Tonight I drove to the Panera Bread in Cuyahoga Falls, about a 20-25 minute drive from home by highway, to play with a group I met on meetup.com to play board and card games. I played one board game, Blokus, which is kind of like Tetris that you play against 3 other players. I also played Quiddler, a card game similar to Scrabble, which you play hands of 3-10 cards, allowing one discard, and need to spell as many words (or long words) as possible and any cards left over you lose the points. Any words you form you gain points, with a 10 point bonus for longest words and multiple words.

I really enjoyed myself. I tied for second place in Blokus and came 4th out of 7th in Quiddler. That was my goal: I know I couldn't win, but I didn't want to come in last. I did it.

Chez Drama

First of all, I need to talk about the YouTube polyglot community. As you can see, there are a group of YouTubers who make videos of themselves on YouTube speaking foreign languages. Some of the more famous ones are Luca, Glossika, Laoshu, and Loki. Of course, there are many more. I am subscribed to all of these (although I rarely watch Luca's videos) and really enjoy there submissions. They all have the passion and commitment to learn multiple languages. I'm thinking about becoming part of this community in the future, although I will not show my face for fear of my appearance or weight being made fun of.

There is another YouTuber, NaomiChambers, who has a series titled "Anyone Can Be a Polyglot" in which she, a graduate of George Mason University with a degree in French Studies, encourages other people to try to learn a language, or even several languages. I also like her videos and tried to help her with new material for her blog when she asked on the HTLAL forum (her blog is thepolyglotexperience.blogspot.com) by suggesting she interact with two other bloggers who I like, pagef30.com & thejoyoflanguages.blogspot.com. Both bloggers deal with IALs (international auxiliary languages) although they are also learning or know natural languages. I think she liked the idea, since my post received a vote.

Enter chezrocksall. He's an 18-year-old autistic from Canada who claims to speak 59 languages and can learn a language in a day. Needless to say, I don't believe him, and think he exemplifies the worst parts of the YT polyglot community: that languages are incredibly easy and we should make videos trying to entertain others. Unfortunately, that is where the drama comes into play. Since he's autistic, it's difficult for him to interact appropriately with others, he's preoccupied with himself, has anxiety, and (I guess) can be obsessive about a few activities (for him, music & languages). Needless to say, on a highly interactive form of media like YT, this is a recipe for disaster.

Honestly, with him being the way he is, I thought there would be a breakdown eventually. I thought it had come in a video he titled "Do I Suck?" where he appeared depressed and wondered if he was a fake, like some people thought. I was going to comment that he should take time off from YouTube, but I didn't do it and in a later video said he wouldn't do it. He may have been a little down, but he kept doing what he usually did: uploading 30 second videos to prove he speaks a langauge. I usually rarely just ignored these types of videos (I subbed him and accepted his friend request, before I knew who he was) and honestly found him annoying. I thought about unsubbing and defriending him a few times since I thought I was mislead (in one video, he made a claim that he could be fluent after finishing a Teach Yourself book).

Unfortunately, some of his activity, although I think some of it was inadvertant, could be considered trolling, spamming, and even e-stalking. For example, he asked everyone who subbed him, as well as others in the polyglot community, to make videos about him. He apologized and things seemed to return to normal. Things finally reached a head when he did this to Naomi's channel & kept commenting on it when she wanted to be left alone, and he even found her e-mail address and sent her an e-mail! His interactions with Naomi and another YouTuber eventually lead him to make a video saying he would leave YouTube for a while and only watch videos.

Anyway, Naomi, after Chez made his video, made a video outlining his activities and demanded to be left alone. I thought the video was fair, although I thought some of the video comments weren't. He DOES have a serious psychiatric problem and his activities and interactions with others should be monitored. I was moved when someone who only called himself or herself "an advocate" used Chez's account to make comments talking about his struggles with autism and making Chez seem more human and not just a troll. I commented that I was glad there was someone like advocate in Chez's life and that his Internet usage must be monitored to make sure this would not happen again.

I don't know what will happen to Chez's account in the future, but I hope he learns a lot from this experience. Yes, his interpersonal and group entry skills suck, but that what happens when you have autism. I think he was just trying to be part of a group that would accept him, but he mistreated people and paid a price for it.

I don't know what I can do to help him, and it is probably impossible to monitor everything he does on the Internet. I do think he has potential, but he can't just claim to know a high number of languages to impress people. I don't know what to say to him that he will listen to, but I think I should try.

That is the reason I stay subbed to him: to help him after the breakdown.

Back to School, Lots of Free Time

Well, yesterday was my first day of school. I only have one class this semester, a 2 hour, 50 minute class on Friday. Yes, my spring break this semester will be missing one class. I've decided I'll major in Medical Assisting, which I hope I can earn enough money in to provide for myself.

Needless to say, since I have no job right now, I have more free time than I know what to do with. I've been trying to think what I want to do. I found a group on meetup.com that plays board and card games twice a month, one on Monday and one on Wednesday. I'll be going to the Monday meetings for as long as I can.

I've been thinking of getting a membership to the YMCA so I can go swimming regularly. As I mentioned on my last post, I've got to lose weight, and I really enjoy swimming. Plus swimming is supposed to be one of the best activities you can do for your body, since it works the entire body.

I've also been thinking of going hiking, since I like taking walks and being in the woods. I found a few state parks in the area that allow fishing & archery and have hiking trails, so I'll be sure to visit them regularly during the summer when I have time. I've liked fishing since I first did it in sixth grade, but I've never had a license and only fished in campgrounds. This year I'll look into getting a license and accompanying experienced anglers to learn more before setting out on my own. I've never filleted a fish, and I'm really clumsy so I'll have to wear a protective glove when I do it and hope I won't make a mess of the fish, but I think it will be OK. I first tried archery in seventh grade at summer camp, and would like to try it again. The only problem is bows seem really expensive.

I've also thought about coin and stamp collecting. If I collect coins, I want to collect silver, and collect 1/10th ounce eagles yearly. I don't think buying one silver coin once a month will be too hard once I get a regular job, since you can save about $30-35 a month easliy by brownbagging your lunch and taking your own coffee. Stamp collecting to me seems much more interesting since you can get a lot of stamps for $30 if you know what you're doing (for example, 500 worldwide stamps from kenmorestamp.com costs $8, and you can buy some stamps for 15 cents).

Well, the world's a big place, and there are plenty of activities out there that I can do to keep from getting bored, so I'll try to do some of them.