Progress: My first month. What have I learned so far?

I can’t believe it has been four weeks since I started – the time has flown so quickly! I thought I would record this post as my first podcast episode, so if you'd prefer to listen to it, I've embedded it below.

Background

So the month started with me looking at the importance of motivation and particularly the scary statistic that it takes 1,100 classroom hours to become fluent in Cebuano. I originally planned that I would have 5 hours spare a week and at that rate it would take me over four years to learn the language!

Being the kind of person who likes quick fixes, I was a bit disheartened by that fact, but as I reflected on it more, it occurred to me that part of the joy of a learning a new language are those small things you pick up along the way, not to mention the sense of pride you get when you find that you’re able to have small conversations, or when you start to understand some of the things you read and hear. I am particularly looking forward to learning the cultural insights and unique words and phrases that come up during the course of study.

During my first week I looked at different techniques people use. I particularly liked the advice of learning the language using as little English as possible, as that really worked for me years ago when I studied French in France.

I also liked the idea of only learning things that would come in useful in real life, which in my case would be conversational bits and bobs. Another part of this point was that it is not always necessary to learn grammar as you will naturally absorb it as you become fluent. This sounded like a great idea to me, as I often found learning grammar (in English and French) to be pretty painful!

The final point was to use a broad a range of materials, so that you don’t get bored easily.

Progress

• I've roughly kept to my 5 hour-a-week schedule – some weeks more, some significantly less!
• I've done three vocab modules using uTalk – learning about clothes, body parts and vegetables.
• I've read two very, very short stories – one as a test of my comprehension and the other as part of my studies.
• I did one small translation exercise using google translate, which I will discuss on the blog when I get a moment.
• And, I have listened to nursery rhymes when I have been out for a walk.

What Went Well?

The vocab exercises in uTalk were very motivating for the first two weeks, as I was learning new things. I have retained a lot of vocab from these. Off the top of my head here are a few words I have remembered:

From vegetables I learned: sibuyas (onions), pipino (cucumber), atsal (peppers).

From clothing: sapatos (shoes), bestida (dress), 

From body parts: buhok (hair), lawas (body), tiyan (stomach), dungann (ear).

What I have found particularly interesting is that there are lots of words in the language that are made of repeating sounds – such as bukung-bukong for ankle, kuko for nail.

Also, what has been interesting is how different certain words sound. The word kilay for eyebrows has a nice, refined sound, and the word batiis (leg) sounds more elegant than English! The repeated words, like ba-ba (mouth) are fun as they are so different to English.

I have enjoyed listening to the nursery rhymes – there is actually only one that I know the words to, as it very similar to English. Ulo, abaga, hawak, dapidapi, tuhod, tiil, tuhod, tiil.

When it came to the short stories I read one aloud, read the English translation and then re-read the Cebuano. From reading the short stories I picked up four pieces of vocab – igsoon (siblings), inahan (mother), baki (frog), baka (ox or cow).

The Google Translate exercise was interesting and it reminds me of being in middle school and getting the dictionary out and translating things literally word by word. I’ll pop some information in the blog about this when I get a moment.

What Went Not-So-Well 

One thing I found is that it was still hard to keep the motivation, and think that this is because I haven’t given myself any structure. I don’t have any goals or milestones, other than the 5-hours a week target.

Further to this, you’ll notice that I’ve gone against at least one of the techniques I discussed, as the vocab I have been using on uTalk can hardly be described as useful every-day words.

There are few things that I am going to do to address this. First is that I’m going to get myself a course book to study from and put a timetable together to work towards – that way I can see how far I have come. I will still use the support materials (uTalk, the nursery rhymes, the storybook), but I will structure them into the schedule.

If you have any resources that you recommend, I would love to hear about them, And I’ll update you next time on what changes I put in and how they have gone.

Here's the first episode of my podcast:

Thanks again for joining me!