Tread lightly on the things of earth

I seem to have utterly run out of things to say.

So I’m learning different ways to speak for when I do have something to say again.

I’m self-studying German. Can a mid-life dude learn another language? The answer is “of course,” but sure is easy to think otherwise; it’s such an easy excuse not to.

I choose German because (1) I’ve made several forays into Spanish since high school and now want to try something (almost) completely different, (2) I read technical content constantly and much of it on the ‘net is in German, and (3) I have family members to practice with! Finally, bonus benefit: when I cycle back around to Spanish months from now — a language more obviously practical to a resident of the southern U.S. — I think it’ll seem easy by comparison.

On a global scale, learning another language is commonplace enough it hardly merits mention. Where I live, though, I think it’s still really unusual.

2007-07-17 language learning update:

I’m using numerous learning tools; here’s the cream of the crop of what’s working for me so far:

• How To Learn Any Language, Barry Farber

Barry is entertaining, motivating, and provides several language learning ideas in this book that made me slap my forehead and say, I would never have thought of that! Like, using flashcards in odd moments to learn vocabulary. Now I’m never without a short stack of Vis-Ed German Vocabulary flashcards, punched and on an O-ring for quick flipping.

• How-to-learn-any-language.com site and forum

Remarkably knowledgeable discussion goes on here in the forum; I’ve gleaned many empowering tips on tools and techniques.

• Pimsleur German I Comprehensive (L1—30) (info: Amazon, publisher)
• Pimsleur German II Comprehensive (L31—60) (info: Amazon, publisher)
• Pimsleur German III Comprehensive (L61—90) (info: Amazon, publisher)

I’ve been through Rocket German and made some progress (despite being put off initially by its hypey marketing). RG is good, and reasonably priced.

Ich spreche. But Pimsleur rocks my world by powerfully addressing my longstanding (though hardly unique) problem: actually speaking forth. Pimsleur woos me forward, gently pulling me to piece together phrases and clauses and sentences, keeping me challenged and motivated but not overwhelmed. The overwhelm, when it happens, I call the “shit” boundary condition: when swiftly moving instruction throws such a big mass of words at you that you temporarily, inadvertently just say “shit” and mentally abort the process, even if only for a moment.

In contrast, I’m done with Pimsleur German I and almost done with Pimsleur German II now — 50+ lessons completed out of the full-monty 90 — and I’ve hit the “shit” boundary condition exactly once.

Pimsleur definitely works with the way my mind is wired, better than any other approach I’ve tried over the years. It’s expensive relative to other tools — though not compared to classroom instruction — but IMO worth it.

Pimsleur sources. Since I’m trying to pack as few further atoms into my packrat life as possible, I’m not into buying physical Pimsleur CDs, even though several places offer cost-effective buy-back programs (example). Best downloadable (aka atom-free) source for buying Pimsleur programs I’ve found is PimsleurAudio.com.

A downside: Like all other legitimate downloadable providers I’ve seen, PimsleurAudio.com’s downloadable Pimsleur product is DRM‘d WMA format that (1) requires Windows, (2) requires Internet Explorer, (3) is a pain in the ass to decrypt and manipulate, and (4) won’t directly play on iPods.

(Aside: What genius at Simon & Schuster decided that was a good idea? I’m probably almost your core market demographic, guys, and I deliberately don’t ever use Windows, IE, or DRM except under duress. Which of these is not like the others — Windows, IE, DRM, unfettered learning?)

Nevertheless, product effectiveness is so high I make an exception to my usual policy of No DRM No How.)

Tschüss.

2007-11-17 update: Another genius move by Simon & Schuster (S&S) against the administrator of a How to Learn Any Language forum:

I have received a request (more like a threatening email in fact) from Simon and Schuster to take down the thread with the Pimsleur transcripts. Thanks for not posting more in the future, they consider it copyright infringement.

Seriously. Not. Cool. If you are not going to provide transcripts with your product, S&S, you damn sure need to encourage your most enthusiastic customers who are providing them, not make threats against them.