TAC 2022 - Vijay

[vijayjohn]

I'm very tempted to just make my TAC this year a free-for-all where I don't limit myself to my usual TAC languages at all and go completely bonkers with African, (North, Central, and South) American, and Oceanian languages, in which case why not go just as bonkers with European and Asian languages as well?

But I suppose I might as well include my TAC list as a guideline for what languages I feel like I should do something for at the minimum:

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Malayalam
Mandarin Chinese
French
German
Latin
Portuguese
Spanish
BCS
Russian
Turkish
Arabic
Amharic
Dinka
English
Krio
Swahili
Hindi
ASL
Thai
Tagalog
Indonesian
Oirata
Teiwa
Australian Kriol
Light Warlpiri
Quechua
Mapudungun
Lnuismk
Michif

I used to post Malayalam lessons on another forum that I have since left, so I'm planning to reformat them in a way that's more consistent with the lessons I previously posted here and then post them here as well. I've started preparing a bunch of posts for the Chinese forum as well. I recently joined a few study groups, but maybe I can actually pull off all of these and more this time? I figure I might as well give it a shot.

[azhong]

I've started preparing a bunch of posts for the Chinese forum as well.

Bravo! Go ahead! And I'll keep an eye on them.

[Antea]

Sorry, what does it mean "completely bonkers"? Is it like going mad at them in a positive way, or like angry at them?

[vijayjohn]

Sorry, what does it mean "completely bonkers"? Is it like going mad at them in a positive way

Yep, bonkers means 'crazy'!

[vijayjohn]

I have two more lessons to post for Malayalam but also want to post three more episodes of Njanga Ninga. The three episodes shouldn't be a problem at all, but finishing those last two lessons may take some time. I'm also starting to consider not really following a strict schedule for the TAC like I used to and just posting in whichever language I feel like whenever I feel like it (sort of), but while trying to maintain a sort of balance between the languages. That would be pretty hard to pull off, though.

Oh, and I've joined the Persian, Arabic, and Urdu study groups now.

[vijayjohn]

The only things I can specifically think of posting in Malayalam now are two video clips, but the language in them is somewhat advanced, and in fact, I don't even fully understand one of them! (There are some parts of one of the two video clips that I have trouble deciphering. Maybe I should try asking my dad about them ).

I think maybe I'll go ahead and make some posts on the Chinese forum and maybe also the South Asian forum but also post again in this thread later today (unless, I suppose, someone else posts on their own TAC, in which case maybe I'll post there instead).

[vijayjohn]

Okay, I've started posting in the Chinese forum (almost everything I just posted there was written earlier this month and just saved, so all I had to do was post them and wait for the forum software to stop complaining about the time interval between posts ).

[azhong]

但是你在中文論壇的發言並沒有把中文拿出來練習啊……

[vijayjohn]

我觉得练习中文的机会太少了， 可是我要用中文写一些帖子了。

[vijayjohn]

I can't really find anything else to do for Malayalam or Mandarin Chinese at the moment, so I guess I'll go ahead and move on to French! I've also prepared or at least started preparing posts for a few other languages.

[vijayjohn]

So far, posting on both the French and Hindi/Urdu forums has proven more difficult than posting on any other forum I've tried posting on lately (i.e. more difficult than posting in the South Asian languages and Chinese forums), but posting on the German, Portuguese, and perhaps Spanish forums may turn out to be similarly difficult. On the Hindi/Urdu forum, this is just because a lot of people have questions that at least I personally find pretty difficult to answer. However, it is also easy to find threads where you can post things relatively easily there. This is not so much the case with the French forum and I suspect with other forums for major Western European languages. (I have a feeling Eastern European languages may be less problematic in this sense since fewer people seem to study them).

[vijayjohn]

I think I could post a few more things in the South Asian languages and Hindi forums but not much. I suppose I could try to write two posts in the Chinese forum about different varieties of Chinese; otherwise, I'm having trouble seeing what else to do there at the moment. I suppose I'll be posting more in the French forum soon.

Oh, and I've been reading Teach Yourself Ancient Greek, so I necroposted on the Ancient, Classical and Extinct Languages forum.

[Trapy]

just go bonkers LOL. I am doing the same thing, but I'll post about it in another thread. I think you're the most solid learner in the forum so when I do pop in I enjoy catching up on your success!

If you find a good resource method for posting classes, I would be interested - not so much for Malayalam (atleast at this time), but I find it difficult to find a good format for teaching subjects at work. We are short on resources and are at "quiz monkey" and youtube level barebones. A forum post feels a bit difficult, but curious how you overcome it.

[vijayjohn]

just go bonkers LOL. I am doing the same thing, but I'll post about it in another thread. I think you're the most solid learner in the forum so when I do pop in I enjoy catching up on your success!

Thanks! Well, idk whether I'm the most solid learner or whatever, but I definitely do have the highest post count.

If you find a good resource method for posting classes, I would be interested - not so much for Malayalam (atleast at this time), but I find it difficult to find a good format for teaching subjects at work. We are short on resources and are at "quiz monkey" and youtube level barebones. A forum post feels a bit difficult, but curious how you overcome it.

Hmm...what exactly do you see as difficult about it? I mean, I think teaching in general is kind of difficult, and writing forum posts is probably the easiest way for me to teach something. Also, it's a nice way to have everything in one place where everyone who's interested can see it (as long as they know where it is).

What kinds of things do you need/want to teach at work?

Meanwhile, on the TAC front: Oof...I want to make a list of resources for South Asian languages and also make a list of new vocab for French, but both of those are going to require a lot of effort. Oh, well...we'll see how that goes!

[vijayjohn]

Okay, I'm almost done doing that, but there are still a lot of posts on the French forum I have a response to!

[Trapy]

Hmm...what exactly do you see as difficult about it? I mean, I think teaching in general is kind of difficult, and writing forum posts is probably the easiest way for me to teach something. Also, it's a nice way to have everything in one place where everyone who's interested can see it (as long as they know where it is).

What kinds of things do you need/want to teach at work?

Ah, i mean in terms of: word documents and powerpoints can be, difficult to keep interest. Power points tend to be more flash but it keeps interest up, although light on content or explanation. There's some things like https://quizlet.com/ that are basically interactive flashcards. then a few free multiple choice self exam question generators.

I teach people how to run truck stop fuel islands. Basically, how to use a web portal to view reports, diagnostic tools and troubleshooting tools for pumps that dispense diesel, natural gas and hydrogen fuel, along with how to wire up boards, replace components and install them. I won't post a link because I was like, 15 maybe when I joined Unilang, and I don't want my coworkers finding my polyglotous past but it's a lucrative and fun field. If I do my job poorly, then someone is losing thousands of $$ by the hour. The problem is, other than live demos, our company won't invest in actual educational tools, so recorded webinar clips and ..pdf documents are all we give people which, i don't think are very effective at learning so much as a place to go look up what to do after a crisis already started.

[vijayjohn]

Oof, yeah, that sounds pretty hard... I'm afraid I don't think I have any good answers at least off the top of my head. It's easy for me because I'm not posting lessons for commercial purposes yet. I'm never really sure whether people are actually learning anything from me until they tell me so (I recall a few second-generation Indians, including both Malayalees and non-Malayalees, saying something along these lines).

TAC update: I think I've finally managed to at least take a cursory look through all the new posts for French. Now I'd like to try to do the same thing for German!

[vijayjohn]

I feel like I'm starting to notice a pattern here: For European languages, there are a lot of posts that have already been answered, are spam or asking for homework help, or just very difficult to answer. For other languages, there are not even that many posts to begin with.
Or something like that.

I think I might move on to German soon.

[vijayjohn]

I did that and also moved on to Latin and Arabic but am still also posting on the French and German forums. I recently posted on the Chinese and South Asian languages forums as well, plus the Hindi/Urdu forum a bit less recently.

[vijayjohn]

I ended up not posting on the French forum after all (I was going to reply to a post to say thanks, but I think the author deleted the post ), and none of my posts on the Arabic forum today included a word of Arabic. Oh, well! I will post something in Arabic later (and already have recently).