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I forgot to mention that Korean and German have emerged as the languages I want to learn this year. Too much? Probably! But I'm enjoying poking at both so far, and they're so different from one another that I imagine I won't have the difficulties I had, say, learning French while building up Spanish. Who knows.
I don't speak or read French--I gave that up after a semester because I hated not being able to pronounce anything even passably well. Mandarin was easier for me to speak! I enjoyed learning Mandarin, also, but reading and writing it was overwhelming and ultimately I decided I prefer alphabetic languages over logographic-based ones, as far as learning-for-fun goes. (Mandarin didn't have much immediate applicability for me, so I dropped it.) Neither Korean nor German have much immediate applicability for me, either, but the barrier to reading and writing is much lower than for Mandarin, and so far pronunciation hasn't been nearly as difficult for me as French! I considered Japanese, as well, but the triple writing system ruled it out. Also,I read The Hole, by Hye-Young Pyun, this year. Despite its almost clinical tone and simple prose, the book was positively dripping, oozing with existential dread. It was inexplicably terrifying and unsettling, like being viscerally uncomfortable in a friendly-enough person's tidy house. The fact that a search for "Korean horror novels" (and any variation thereof) turned up nothing but this book, which had been shelved as horror at the library despite containing no traditional horror elements, made me really curious about Korean literature. (I've since learned that the short story is a common and celebrated form in Korean literature, and that Korean lit has been largely ignored by the Western world until very recently.) I like reading texts in their original languages if I can. I can do this with Spanish, though it usually involves some dictionary work. I can understand most of what I read, but my vocabulary is smaller than I'd like because I don't force myself to practice. SIGH, I suppose I SHOULD...
Anyway, one of the most fascinating things about Korean, for me, is how easy it is to become functionally literate in it when compared to Mandarin or Japanese. I read that this ease was derided by Chinese and Japanese scholars, which has made me more curious about literacy and literature in East Asia and how it's changed over time. Hangul is really young, too, compared with other alphabets, so that's interesting, as is the impact of language suppression on its development. I don't mean to sound indifferent to the obvious painful legacy of imperialism (after all, my own background means I'm very aware of what it means for people to be stripped of their ancestry, traditions and language). So while I'm pretty giddy about the prospect of learning a language that's so unique, I'm fully aware that many of the forces shaping it were oppressive and damaging. It's an inspiring and intriguing language story so far, and I'm looking forward to broadening my understanding of cultural, geopolitical and historical elements surrounding it. I don't like to learn languages in a vacuum, so to speak, as that's not how they exist, and since the thing I love most about language learning is literature, it's ridiculous to exclude people and places from the study!
As for German, I've studied it before and enjoyed it. I've always wanted to visit Germany and Austria, and I've wanted to return to it since reading Süskind's Perfume my sophomore year of college and wondering what it was like in the original. I've more to say on the subject, but my eyes are telling me it's time to step away from the screen for awhile!
I don't speak or read French--I gave that up after a semester because I hated not being able to pronounce anything even passably well. Mandarin was easier for me to speak! I enjoyed learning Mandarin, also, but reading and writing it was overwhelming and ultimately I decided I prefer alphabetic languages over logographic-based ones, as far as learning-for-fun goes. (Mandarin didn't have much immediate applicability for me, so I dropped it.) Neither Korean nor German have much immediate applicability for me, either, but the barrier to reading and writing is much lower than for Mandarin, and so far pronunciation hasn't been nearly as difficult for me as French! I considered Japanese, as well, but the triple writing system ruled it out. Also,I read The Hole, by Hye-Young Pyun, this year. Despite its almost clinical tone and simple prose, the book was positively dripping, oozing with existential dread. It was inexplicably terrifying and unsettling, like being viscerally uncomfortable in a friendly-enough person's tidy house. The fact that a search for "Korean horror novels" (and any variation thereof) turned up nothing but this book, which had been shelved as horror at the library despite containing no traditional horror elements, made me really curious about Korean literature. (I've since learned that the short story is a common and celebrated form in Korean literature, and that Korean lit has been largely ignored by the Western world until very recently.) I like reading texts in their original languages if I can. I can do this with Spanish, though it usually involves some dictionary work. I can understand most of what I read, but my vocabulary is smaller than I'd like because I don't force myself to practice. SIGH, I suppose I SHOULD...
Anyway, one of the most fascinating things about Korean, for me, is how easy it is to become functionally literate in it when compared to Mandarin or Japanese. I read that this ease was derided by Chinese and Japanese scholars, which has made me more curious about literacy and literature in East Asia and how it's changed over time. Hangul is really young, too, compared with other alphabets, so that's interesting, as is the impact of language suppression on its development. I don't mean to sound indifferent to the obvious painful legacy of imperialism (after all, my own background means I'm very aware of what it means for people to be stripped of their ancestry, traditions and language). So while I'm pretty giddy about the prospect of learning a language that's so unique, I'm fully aware that many of the forces shaping it were oppressive and damaging. It's an inspiring and intriguing language story so far, and I'm looking forward to broadening my understanding of cultural, geopolitical and historical elements surrounding it. I don't like to learn languages in a vacuum, so to speak, as that's not how they exist, and since the thing I love most about language learning is literature, it's ridiculous to exclude people and places from the study!
As for German, I've studied it before and enjoyed it. I've always wanted to visit Germany and Austria, and I've wanted to return to it since reading Süskind's Perfume my sophomore year of college and wondering what it was like in the original. I've more to say on the subject, but my eyes are telling me it's time to step away from the screen for awhile!
