The Anger of Compassion

Reading Spanish and French

As promised, the progress I made in studying languages this past week. To recap, my goals were:

1000 words of Spanish, with some grammar

1000 words of French, with some grammar

(I'd written that my goal was to do some reading in my elementary French and Spanish readers by Friday evening)

chapters one and two of Wheelock's Latin
memorize the Arabic alphabet

All right, my actual progress has been:

French: met the vocabulary goal and was able to read the first entry in Easy French Reader: A Three-Part Text For Beginning Students by R. de Roussy de Sales.

Spanish: met the vocabulary goal and was able to read the first entry in First Spanish Reader: A Beginner's Dual-Language Book, edited by Angel Flores.

Latin: chapter one--but not chapter two--of Wheelock's Latin.

Arabic alphabet: didn't even bother. True, I already know some of the letters, but not all, not even half. I ran out of time (and, I'll admit, interest) on this one.

I'm pleased with my progress in French and Spanish. Although the knowledge feels rickety, it's there, and for that I have to thank mnemonic techniques. You can read about them in The Memory Book by Harry Lorayne and Jerry Lucas, and in How to Learn Any Language by Barry Farber. Farber should know: he can converse in about twenty languages. He's a big fan of Harry Lucas--as I am--and he devotes a chapter to the "linkword" method in his book. Both books are entertaining as well as enlightening.

Nor did I create my own linkword mnemonics in learning the French and Spanish vocabulary: I used two out-of-print books by Michael M. Gruneberg, Linkword French and Linkword Spanish. You can find out about Dr. Gruneberg's products here.

Are mnemonic tecnhiques powerful? Last year I went to the University of New Hampshire and taught a group of students how to memorize the presidents of the United States, in order. At the end of an hour, they were all able to do it, with an average of two mistakes each.

So: language goals for the upcoming week...well, obviously I need to strengthen my weak hold on French and Spanish. What does that mean, concretely? I'll decide this weekend.