Peg Kerr's Journal

To my surprise and disappointment, I reached the end of Scottish Gaelic on Duolingo last week. I have not reached any kind of fluency, but I reached the end of the third unit and--whaaaaat? No more lessons?

Scottish Gaelic has been both a terror and a delight. I took a screenshot of this in one of my last lessons. I mean, LOOK at that word for 'forget.'



The sentence seemed an appropriate capstone to my study of Scottish Gaelic.

I hope that Duolingo will expand the lesson plan (they've done that to other languages before) and I'll be able to go back and learn more.

But I needed to pick another language. I picked Spanish. That's what my girls learned in school. My Dad was very proud to be able to speak Spanish. I have some extended family members who are fluent in Spanish. It's a heckuva lot more useful than Scottish Gaelic.

It's also a major language on Duolingo, rather than a minor one, meaning it has a lot more support, which is a bonus.

So, I dove in. Right off the bat, I can tell that my knowledge of French will be very helpful. It's another romance language, so I understand the grammatical structure. (Although there are irritations. Annoyingly, we're back to a gendered language, except the gender isn't a one-to-one correspondence with the other romance language I already know. Car is feminine in French (la voiture) but masculine in Spanish (el carro)).

My plan is to study it for two years (which I plan to do for each new language I pick up, unless I run out of lessons as I did with Scottish Gaelic). The eventual goal is to have seven languages, and at that point, I will rotate lessons so I study each language one day of the week.

Description: Duolingo app interface, overlaid with Duo (the app mascot) holding a Spanish flag. Text reads 'Start learning Spanish now.' Lower right corner: a woman (Peg) smiles at the viewer, wearing a cartoon sombrero.

Spanish



(Compare the collage I did last year for French.)

(What? I never did a card for Scottish Gaelic????)

Click on the links to see the 2024, 2023, 2022 and 2021 52 Card Project galleries.

The momentum that I talked about in the collage made three weeks ago continues. I am continuing to check things off on my to-do list (see Week 5), which I find immensely satisfying.

It is, I remembered this week, one of the top five capabilities identified when I took the Strengthsfinders test: Achievement, by which is meant that I have the ability to organize myself and methodically tackle one task after another. (My Enneagram result is Number 2, the Helper, which also fits).

Eric has noticed this characteristic in me. During one of our nightly phone calls this week, he teased me about how, when asked about my day, I have a tendency to roll out a list of achievements, and often say something (rather smug) about how I had 'a virtuous day.'

I did a bit of study about Puritan theology when I was writing The Wild Swans (I have Puritan forebears, so it felt a bit personal). Puritans valorized hard work, the interconnectedness of the community, and yes, some things I don't value quite as highly, such as a suspicion of light-heartedness and a conviction that it was more worthy to do work that you disliked rather than liked.

Well, I don't go quite that far, but Eric's right. I do feel virtuous when I'm getting things done. This week, I did financial bookkeeping and other administrative work, searched for job openings, worked on reinstating weightlifting in my exercise routine, and brushed off my Duolingo account so as to started working on French again. (The weightlifting has been rather heavy going, no pun intended. Although I have tried to start slowly, never using anything higher than five-pound weights, I have been privately amused in noticing this week how many times I have yelped an involuntary "Oh my God," every time I have made the slightest movement and discovered yet another sore muscle.

Image description: A woman in the lower right corner (Peg) looks pleased with herself. A halo shines over her head. Background, center: a calculator, money, a laptop. Superimposed over a corner of the laptop is the word 'Virtue' surrounded by a laurel wreath. Upper part of card: shoulders and torso of a woman in exercise clothing holding a weight in an upright row position. A cartoon owl (Duolingo logo) flies in from the upper left corner. Behind the owl is the French Flag.

Virtue



Click here to see the 2023 52 Card Project gallery.

Click here to see the 2022 52 Card Project gallery.

Click here to see the 2021 52 Card Project gallery.

I've managed 21 days on Duolingo now, studying French, and it's going swimmingly--except that I'm speaking one or two sentences at a time, to my iPod touch. If I want to get better (and especially, if I want to record a video in 90 days, perhaps speaking French with another person), I need to practice it with other people.

I had a vague recollection that there were some language conversation practice groups in the Twin Cities--I recall seeing a notice of some that met at several of the local Barnes & Nobles, many years ago--so I went to the Internet and googled 'French conversation groups Minneapolis.'

That led me to a website, Alliance Française Mpls/St Paul, which I gather is a school/culture center for the French language. It has a list of places for French conversation groups in the area. I found one that meets on Saturday mornings at Espresso Royale, a coffee shop near downtown (at 13th and Hennepin). I was a little doubtful whether a mere three weeks of (re)study would make me fluent enough not to be simply an annoyance to everyone around me, but it has been coming back rather quickly, so I decided to give it a try.

So I went, and I was quite glad that I did. I spoke French for an hour and a half! Stumbling French, mostly in just present tense, but I did better than I thought I would. The group has apparently been meeting there for years, and I had the great good luck to sit down with two women, my age or a little older, one of whom has been coming to the group for ten years, and one who also considered herself a beginner but was certainly better than me. They were very patient and friendly, and the second woman was groping for words as much as I was, so I didn't feel too self-conscious. The group was a nice mix of young and old, from a variety of different professions and countries. I managed to get the gist of about 85% of what I heard, I think. I had much more difficulty coming up with words to reply, but I persevered.

It was fun! I plan to go back next week, and I think it'll give me a great deal of help in improving my French.




{Take the 100 Things challenge!}