I found a word frequency list while searching, and it gave me the idea of making my own. It’s obviously made in Visual Basic, so if I can find a program and make one to read Persian words, I can get my own frequency list maker. Of course, with Persian, there are stems attaching to words (like Ketab = Ketabi / Ketabam / Ketab-e) so I’ll have to figure something about that. May have to chart out every stem in Persian first, which will be a joyous pain that I am completely unqualified for right now.

Rule 1) To learn a language it takes time. Just putting the time in some form of learning makes you learn, regardless of how effective that method is. Just like investing (as long as you don’t count venture capital and stock market trading).

Tonight I spent the evening at Ava’s. It’s a coffee shop owned and ran by Persians. A new worker from Iran, Ramin, was working. He came and sat down with me and a few friends and we spend the next few hours speaking and discussing Persian. I learned more in those 3 – 4 hours than the past six months in Farsi. It reinvigorated my desire to learn.

Rule 2) Stay motivated. Even when you’re not, just force yourself to. It helps reinforce your willpower to do rule #1 of putting the time in.

Also last week my resolve strengthened when I acquired a HUGE dry erase board. It must be 4′ x 8′. I am using it for daily words and solely Farsi practice. I am a linguistics major, and I hope to one day make a language learning method that outshines all others. In that vein, I am trying every possible language learning method out there, from flashcards to whiteboards to immersion to syntax deconstruction.

Rule 3) Try learning your target language with as many possible methods as possible. Eventually, you’ll find one (or many) ways that you really enjoy, or keep you motivated, or teach you the language quicker. For me, I have learned Flashcards. Whiteboard seems to help too. Some write it down in notebooks, but I get disorganized too quickly. I have yet to try computer or audio programs.

A while back I got frustrated with a lack of good guidance on learning a language, nor a useful word frequency list for the different dialects, so I just opened a dictionary and began learning the vocabular one letter at a time. I got to C before I realized that many of the words are esoteric and rarely used. I have since then changed my plan to include the aide of friends and knowledgeable Farsi/Dari speakers. I am giving my dictionary to friends and having them highlight the words used most often, then focusing on those FIRST. I will eventually learn them all, but it’s a concise, 8,400 word dictionary, and I need to get crackin’ on the good words, stat.

Rule 4) Don’t be afraid to adapt your style or methods to suit you. A lot of methods are out there, and they all work perfectly, for some people. If you’re doing something, and it isn’t working, change it. I could say “hell, I’m 3 letters in, I might as well stick it out and impress people like Malcolm X learning the Dictionary in prison”, or I could just adapt to the realities of word frequency. Until I find a good frequency list, that is. ;]

Other than that, my free time is a lot more this week and the rest of September. I look forward to revamping this blog and making a lot of Farsi-only (and Dari-only) blogs, as well as a comprehensive flashcard set.

The other night I was telling someone that as a soldier in Afghanistan, I was somewhat (very loosely) like an Anthropologist–I got to go into houses and look around at how they lived. I also learned Pashto in two months enough to hold a decent conversation.

Right now I live with one Persian (Iranian) and one Tajik (Afghan). The house is a-changing more Persian every day. heh. I think that’s a good thing. Hopefully I’ll get some good language exchange out of it.

It impressed some soldiers. Envious that I was using my time instead of giving it all to the Army.

That’s all it takes with flashcards, a few minutes for those free moments.

I learned probably 200 new words in 2 weeks. A little slower than my average, but still good progress in the right direction. Hopefully I’ll have it down by the end of summer to the last few letters of the alphabet.

Also I have a new roommate moving in. She’s Iranian, so now I’m living with an Iranian and an Afghan (Herati). As soon as my reenlistment bonus comes in, I’m going to get a satellite to get Iranian/Afghan TV, and just bombard my brain with Persian related anything.

Also I hit my six month mark at Rosetta Stone, so I’m getting a free level of Japanese, and ordering a 1,2 package of Latin American Spanish for $40 per level. My other job at the adult toy store has a bilingual sales woman (“passion expert”) who I can practice Spanish with while I work. For the time being, I’m keeping Pashto on hold.

I changed up the links to ones that have helped me learn Persian and Dari. I’ll continue adding them, and feel free to give me suggestions on dari/farsi/persian/pashto websites that have helped you learn!

I also included the link to my other site, which is focused on the act of learning a language, whereas this site is just me blogging my daily struggle with gaining fluency in four languages at once, http://learnbyflashcard.blogspot.com

And I’m going to start doing more Persian blogs. My next one scheduled is an old ensha (composition) about why I chose the name Darius137.
This last week wasn’t too great as far as flashcards, because of that day I tried 40 words. Apparently 20 words a day is easy, and 40 words is damn excruciating.  =)

I’m in the B words now, and there aren’t that many. I think it’s feasable to get B done in a week, though it’s a hectic week before my 2 weeks of training, which might make me semi-AWOL from blogging.

Also I went last night to a friend’s house and had some tea. Just being around people speaking 100% Persian (Iranian Farsi) helped me. I guess I’m at the point where I need to focus on vocab growth, go back and look back on the verb conjugation, and then hear native speakers and try to pick out all the useful idioms and common expressions.

I am also nearing the stage when I should begin cataloging. I need to start my running catalog of Persian words, complete with example sentences for proper use, and defining the word (spelling it in IPA for pronunciation, in Arabic letters for proper spelling–and cyrillic once I begin tackling Tajiki–and what grammatical category it’s in e.g., Noun, Adverb, etc. etc.) similar to how the English dictionaries have been created.

There’s an interesting book out there called The Professor and the Madman detailing how the Oxford English Dictionary began, and how one of the leading contributors was a retired US Civil War Captain who had gone crazy from STD’s and cut off his penis in an insane asylum. Good book; hope I didn’t ruin it for ya.

PS

Over at my language learning blog, I wrote a few reviews of methods I’ve used to learn languages. Check it out! And I put up an Adsense account, which means if you click on the ads, I get money

I think my trait of doing too much and then having it all collapse is a family problem. Last week I got 145 new words learned, and this week I started with 40 new words (Monday). It’s technically Wednesday, but Tuesday I tried learning another 40, upping from my 20-a-day method from last week. Well I barely learned 3 words. I was too busy with other stuff, and I think 40 is a bit past my breaking point. So this week I’m going back to 20 words a day. I guess I can’t rush enlightenment.
I also put up a new post on learning languages for free, and a post reviewing a book to learn langauges on my other site, LearnbyFlashcard.Blogspot.com

My theme this sumer seems to be finding a happy balance between motivation and contemplation; between doing too much of some things, and accidentally neglecting others. More on that, over at my OTHER blog at Myspace.com/Darius137

Today I was looking at notables in the field of language learning. I have not really looked into Linguists (meaning people attempting to learn languages using the science of applied linguistics), but I guess it doesn’t really matter if you know a language’s complex grammar rules and somebody else just “knows” 9 languages fluently, now does it? If people with 70 IQ’s can learn one language, you don’t need a doctorate to learn one more language. And that’s the gist of these following two linguists I found:

Steve Kaufmann

and

Alexander Arguelles

Both are experts and speakers of multiple languages, and operate methods of learning language. Both stress flashcards, immersion, people speaking the languages to become familiar with them and dogmatic methods.

Alexander’s methods were particularly exacting, and made me think about MY methods. I didn’t really think I had any; I just wrote words down on flashcards and learned them. But like any connoissieurship, you can take it and break it apart and analyze it far more than you need to. And that’s what I just did

First off, I try to stick to 5 – 50 new words a day. Depending on how much free time you have, how motivated, and how long you’ve been doing it, this number can fluctuate.

Second, do it every day. Doing 100 words in one day might impress you, but the biggest hurdle in language learning is the wherewithal to stick with it. It’s easy to learn a language, all you have to do is not quit, and do it every day.

Third you have to know your memory’s limits. In Afghanistan, I had nothing to do all day on guard duty, so I could easily learn 100 words a day. And they stuck. At least for a while (eventually, things you don’t use go away no matter how ingrained they are.. except bicycles lol). Right now, with the two jobs, military and full time university, I can handle 20 – 40 new words a day. It sounds daunting, but really quite simple if you break it down. If you can’t handle it, you’re going to quit or fail.

Fourth is the method. Get a method that works. Try all the methods you can find out, and eventually one will click. For me, I use flashcards. And more in detail, I wake up and review the cards I’ve learned. Then after breakfast, but before lunch, I input the new words. Then a second time during the day I look at the new words, and then review all of the flashcards before I go to bed. Studies show that you are most receptive to language learning when you first wake up, and when you are about to go to sleep (which is when your body solidifies all the information you have gained that day). During the day I only focus on the new words, and any words I missed that morning. I pick 5 new words, then learn them. Then quiz myself over and over. Then add 3 new words. Then quiz. And keep doing it in increments of 3 (with the 3 being added to the ones learned so far that day) until my day’s flashcards are learned. A small set of 20 can easily be referenced throughout the day, and I figure that learning 40 new words a day can’t take more than 45 minutes out of your schedule.

Heck, I spend more time than that just waiting for buses, for computers to load, or for food to be ready. The beauty of flashcards.

But alas, many of my friends are over at Blogspot.com, so I made a blog over there as well. This blog, LearnByFlashcard.blogspot.com, will be my blog about the act of language learning itself.

Confused?

Basically refer to this to join me in learning spoken and written Farsi, Dari and Pashto. Eventually Spanish. Refer to Blogspot for tips on how to best learn a second (or third, or fourth) language.