The Flemish polyglot

The kids are back to school, finally some time for myself again! And finally some time to set myself some language goals again. Since I have decided to quit completely with language school and take matters into my own hands, I have to set some goals for myself and I thought sharing them with you would make me more accountable. But I have learned from last year. I found that setting goals that are too tight (or just goals in general) gives me stress. ‘Have to’ doesn’t sit that well with me. Therefore a list of goals to strive for rather than to reach. English and French , these are my main working languages and I translate on a regular basis from these two into   Dutch. So my only goals here are reading some books (no fixed number per month, remember the ‘have to’). Books by authors Marc Levy and Guillaume Musso are easy to read, so I might go and get a few of those from the library. I also record a series in French about history and I would like to watch a few epis...

Euphoria, euphoria, wherefore art thou, euphoria? Okay, this may be a bit melodramatic, but it is an understatement to say that I did not get to speak as much Spanish as I had hoped or wanted to. Why is that, I went to Spain, didn’t I? Well, first thing, the campsite was French, we were automatically addressed in French and everyone assumed that we were French as well. As much as I had hoped to speak Spanish, it flattered my vanity that they asked ‘Vous êtes de quel département?’ and then looked shocked when I said I am actually Flemish. We also made a short stop in Arles on the way to Barcelona, where again I got to use French! And second, I have been ‘englished’ many times. I bet you recognize the situation: you have studied a foreign language, go to the country and hope to speak the language and then immediately everyone starts speaking English to you … Even if you reply in Spanish (in my case), they keep on answering back in English. Very frustrating, but I did not giv...

Finally, finally! I will have the chance to immerse myself in Spanish for 2 whole weeks! When the kids and I discussed a destination last year, I gently pushed them in the direction of Spain or Italy (since I’m studying both languages and I always try to combine pleasure and pain). They went for Spain in the end and D-day is approaching rapidly … I will also score some bonus points since we will make a stop-over in France , so hopefully I will get a chance to brush up on my rusty French speaking skills as well! In preparation I have treated myself to a little crash course in Spanish grammar and vocabulary. When I decided in June not to go for a fifth year in school, but instead continue the Spanish journey on my own, comfortably in my couch, I ordered three grammar books in the Aula Internacional series (levels B1, B2.1 and B2.2) They arrived within a week and now I am working my way through book 1 (a walk in the park since this is actually third year material, so...

Tijdens een opleidingsnamiddag voor vertalers kreeg ik van collega Miet Ooms het boek De Taalhacker van Gabriel Wyner in de handen gestopt. Een paar dagen eerder had ik op het vertalersforum gevraagd of iemand een snelcursus Spaans met mij wilde volgen en toen raakten Miet en ik aan de praat over talen leren. Zij had het boek liggen en dacht dat het wel iets voor mij zou kunnen zijn. That’s one language geek for you! Het weekend daarna heb ik het boek in één ruk uitgelezen en ik was meteen verkocht. Zijn methode is heel simpel en klinkt bijzonder logisch. Taalnerd als ik ben, wilde ik het graag uitproberen, maar dan wel met een taal waar ik totaal geen voorkennis van had en waaraan ik ook niet blootgesteld werd/kon worden. Ik wilde dus echt van nul beginnen, geen kapstokjes om kennis aan op te hangen, geen gelijkaardige woorden in andere talen. Alleen zo zou ik kunnen beoordelen of de methode echt werkt. Ik dacht meteen aan Bulgaars. Ideaal, want ik zou zelfs een nieuw schrift...

Wanna join me on my adventures in Polyglot-land? Poly-watta? Never heared of ... yeah sounds reasonable. I'll quickly dot the i's and cross the t's for you. There are people who speak one language and people who speak more than one. Mastering two languages makes you a bilingual (although there might be a difference there, some call bilinguals people with 2 native languages, but I won't bore you with discussions between language professionals like myself). If you speak 3 to 5 languages, you would qualify as a polyglot (from the Greek poluglōttos , which means 'with a lot of tongues'). And then there are people with 6 or more languages in their basket, they are the hyperglots. The land in my case is Flanders, the northern region of Belgium, a small country in the north of western Europe. Hence my native language is Dutch (or Flemish, as some prefer to call it, but again, I will not drag you along insemantic discussions between language professionals lik...