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  • Cleversonclv1@mastodon.social
    Mar 11, 2026, 1:44 PM

    @fastfinge @patricus @hongminhee Auxiliary languages are constructed to be easier on purpose. A regular alphabet is only one of many features that must be easy on a lingua franca, and there isn't a single natural language whose all features are easy. As for cognitive ability, as far as I've observed, it seems that the teaching method counts a lot. Have you tried different methods?

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  • 🇨🇦Samuel Proulx🇨🇦fastfinge@interfree.ca
    Mar 11, 2026, 1:52 PM
    @clv1 @hongminhee @patricus Yup! With French, I tried:
    * in-person classroom instruction (both in school and extra-curricular): material is often inaccessible, teachers are mixed quality, I eventually lag behind everyone else in the room and get left behind
    * total emersion (I live in Canada and have extended family that doesn't speak English): I never manage to take anything in, and just freeze up when addressed directly
    * independent correspondence courses: materials are more accessible and I can go at my own pace, but no matter how I study, I can't pass the tests or use what I've tried to learn in real life
    * apps (duolingo): accessibility varies. I eventually get pretty good at doing the exercises offered in the app, but that never generalizes in a way that lets me pass any formal tests or use the language

    My measures of success are:
    * able to have basic conversations in the language
    * able to pass Canadian government tests to be certified in the language for career purposes

    I have never achieved either of the above. And after eight years of failures, I've pretty much given up.
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  • 🇨🇦Samuel Proulx🇨🇦fastfinge@interfree.ca
    Mar 11, 2026, 2:00 PM
    @hongminhee @clv1 @patricus I actually did seriously consider some sort of genetic problem. My grandmother (on my father's side) was a French speaker who had the exact same problems learning English. She took dozens of courses over her life, but never actually learned anything. And yet, both me and my grandmother have won awards for writing in our native languages, and had our writing published. My aunts and uncles are all bilingual, but none of my cousins on that side of the family are: they either speak only French or only English, just like me. So that's a strong pattern. On the other hand, the idea of a genetic inability to learn a second language just seems silly. Why wouldn't it make it harder to learn a first language?
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  • patricuspatricus@gts.posix.live
    Mar 11, 2026, 1:58 PM

    @clv1 @fastfinge @hongminhee also, it needs to sound cool when I was little, English sounded cool, I wanted to learn it, so I learned, as fast as I could, I asked my parents to find some native speaker to talk to, I was getting better and better. because I knew, English sounds cool so.

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