Patricio’s Last Recommendations…

Sadly I am graduating, so this will be my last blog post 🙁 Before I leave, I wanted to give everyone some media recommendations as well as some advice on things to do with the time you have left at Reed.

Go to the language conversations groups! If you have not gone to them yet, you really should. I met some of my best friends at both Pause CafĂ© and Sobremesa (which fun fact was previously called Picadita). These groups are such a unique resource that you will likely not find after Reed. Think about it, it’s a chance to meet new people by immersing yourself in the language you’re learning while eating free food! Which is usually delicious as the language scholars are amazing. Seriously, if you haven’t met them yet you should. And new ones come each year, so you get a clean slate next semester!

Don’t worry about what you’ll do with your major afterwards. Many people don’t study languages because of feelings of uncertainty on what jobs they’ll bring in the future. I was scrolling though the Reed alumni page and found lawyers that studied French and artists that studied physics. Your major does not trap you to certain fields as much as you think it does, and it’s ok to figure it out later and study what you’re passionate about now. You’ll be surprised by how little your undergraduate major matters in the future, and how valued being multilingual is.

Study abroad!! If you feel suffocated at Reed or like you need a break, I cannot recommend studying abroad enough. Reed makes it fairly accessible for all majors, arrange a meeting with Alberto del RĂ­o Malo and he will help you figure it out. I personally was on the verge of leaving Reed after my sophomore year, but I decided to study abroad for a semester instead of transferring. When I came back I felt like I had a newfound perspective on Reed and started really enjoyed my time here, and many of my friends who studied abroad felt the same way. Four years in this tiny campus is a lot, sometimes you just need a break.

I could go on and on with my advice, but I don’t need to, there’s other LangLabbies that are here to support you with their wonderful personalities and insight. Actually, my last piece of advice would be to talk to Nina, Leilani and Sara. They are incredibly talented and intelligent Reedies, so you should go visit them at the Language Lab! Lastly, here’s a French song I haven’t been able to get out of my head and a French movie that made me cry. Have a wonderful summer!

Is Duolingo really worth it?

How’s everybody’s streak going?

To preface this post, no, the Lang Lab team is NOT urging you to delete the beloved owl app!

It’s not a surprise that many of us have been hooked on Duolingo: it’s simple yet entertaining interface along with straightforward tasks paired with audio and visual tools have aided many on their language learning journeys. Love it or hate it, as of 2024 Duolingo has reached 116.7 million active users and that number could even be 500 million if one takes into account not-so-frequent users.

As good as it is, Duolingo has been hit with AI accusations — experts claim the app has been firing workers preferring the low-cost AI algorithms. The topic of AI use in the contemporary tech industry has never been as controversial as it is right now — AI has been blamed for massive layoffs and “soulless” algorithms that deprive many apps and websites of human creativity and fact-checking. Duolingo isn’t an exception to this wave of artificially generated codes.

What should we do? Duolingo already holds a sizable monopoly in the online world of language resources and many have credited the app with its substantial help throughout their language acquisition paths.

It’s not a secret that AI generated content is (mostly) easy to spot — many of us have stumbled upon weird sentences such as “I like pink avocados” when doing our daily Duolingo tasks and that left us wondering as if that was ever human-checked. What’s really important in this scenario is to be in open communication with those who make decision in regards to Duolingo’s algorithms: leave feedback, comments, perhaps even write an email. Even a partial boycott could prompt the company to put its workers over AI bots but that’s a personal decision of every individual. What’s evident as of right now is that we should exercise awareness and AI consciousness to ensure that human intelligence and creativity remains in the core of every tech product

Language Laddering with Duolingo

Perhaps we at the Language Lab have been too harsh on Duolingo—it can’t all be bad. While I believe that learning a language from a (human) speaker of the target language works the best for me, there are still ways to use Duolingo in a way that complements what I learn in a classroom. I’ve found that Duolingo can be an effective way to try out the language laddering technique. Language laddering is when you use your second language to learn a third. For example, as a native English speaker, I could use French to learn Chinese. This technique takes your native language out of the equation entirely. Not only will you build skills in your third language, but it strengthens what you already know in your second language. For anyone with dreams of becoming a polyglot, this technique may work well for you!

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Need new music? I’ve got you covered!

Here’s a list of some fun German songs I’ve been listening to. I wrote down the exact mood you have to be in to listen to the songs. Viel spaß!

Do you need a song that makes you hyper-focus on doing your homework? Something like the Mario Kart theme song but less intense? Here’s two great pop songs for that:

Do you need to have a main character moment looking out the window while it rains? Here’s two songs that could be straight out of Grey’s Anatomy:

Need something upbeat? Want to impress your friends by memorizing incredibly fast German songs? Here’s two songs for that:

Beginner-friendly French songs!

Listening to music in French is a great strategy to absorb more of the language throughout your day. For beginners just starting out your adventures into the world of Francophone music, I found this album, Non Ouais! by Pink Martini (which fun fact – originates from Portland!). This album is well-suited for beginning French learners, as it has simple grammar, clear pronunciation, and familiar vocabulary. You might be surprised with how much you can understand! Here are two of the most popular songs to give you a taste:

Atrapados (Caught) – Patricio’s Recommendation of the Week!

I just finished watching this show and I thought it was pretty good. It’s your classic Netflix original murder mystery show that has all the classic tropes: A troubled main character with a traumatic past, a million plot twists that sometimes make no sense, and a chilling classical music soundtrack. The show takes place in a beautiful city in Argentina named San Carlos de Bariloche. I would recommend watching it if you want to practice your learning comprehension in Spanish, specifically for accents that are harder to understand and not often taught in school. Things to remember about Argentinian Spanish:

  • The double l’s are pronounced like a ‘sh’ sound. Ex: ‘llamar’ is pronounced sha-mar.
  • The ‘s’ is sometimes aspired, such that it’s pronounced like an ‘h’. Mesa, as in table, is pronounced Meh-ha.
  • TĂș and tĂ­ becomes vos, and the verb ser (to be) changes in the second person. TĂș eres genial becomes vos sos genial.
  • Verb conjugation changes a lot for the second person. Verbs like “tĂș tienes” and “tĂș quieres” become “Vos tenĂ©s” and “Vos querĂ©s”.

YouTube en français

YouTube is a great resource for language-learning—you can learn new vocabulary, ways to use grammar structures, and hear different accents. If you’re just starting out your expedition into French YouTube, I’ve made a list of channels that can help you get started! These are more suitable for intermediate and advanced learners, as these videos only have auto-generated captions, and creators tend to speak quickly and use slang. (Sidenote – I found out the word in French is “youtubeur.euse” and I love it.)

Continue reading “YouTube en français”

Íslensku!

I went to Iceland for spring break and I was fascinated with the language. It’s sad that so few people speak it – only 314K, which is less than the total population of Iceland! – so I want more people to learn it. Here are some awesome facts about the language that might get you to learn it!

I found their alphabet to be fascinating. They share the same Roman alphabet as other Germanic languages such as English and German, with the exception of the letters c, q, w, and z, which don’t exist even though they’re so prominent in other Germanic languages! The sounds of the letters are still there, but they’re replaced by other letters. The letter q is replaced by the use of ‘hv’. For example, the word ‘how’ is ‘hvernig’ in Icelandic, pronounced qver-nih. The letter c is entirely replaced by the letter k, which sometimes leads to some funny looking words. Credit card is ‘kreditkort’ in Icelandic, which I find hilarious. The letter w is replaced with the letter v, leading to certain words sounding like a vampire trying to speak English. ‘What’ is ‘hvað‘ (qvah-th), ‘where’ is ‘hvar’ (qv-ar), and ‘when’ is ‘hvenĂŠr’ (qven-eye-r).

Icelandic might not have these letters, but they do have new ones! Ð/ð is a letter named eð and is transliterated as either ‘th’ in words such as ‘brother’ or if it’s at the end of a word it’s pronounced like the letter d. Þ/ĂŸ is the letter ĂŸorn and is transliterated as the ‘th’ sound in words like ‘thorn’. Æ/ĂŠ is technically a letter of its own pronounced like the word ‘eye’. Ö/ö is also technically a letter of its own and is pronounced like the ‘eu’ sound in French. There’s also accents that change the way the letters a, e, o, i, and y sound, but I won’t get into it as they don’t technically count as individual letters.

Another interesting fact about Icelandic is that last names work differently. In Iceland, instead of having your parent’s last name, you have your dad’s name followed by daughter or son. So if my dad’s first name is Carlos and I’m a boy, my name would be Patricio Carlosson in Icelandic. If my dad’s first name was JĂłn and I was a girl named GuðnĂœ (two common names in Iceland), I would be GuðnĂœ JĂłnsdĂłttir (Pronounced Guth-knee Joh-nsdoh-teer), as in GuðnĂœ daughter of JĂłn. Typically the last name takes the father’s name, but there are some cases where the mother’s name is taken.

Finally, something that’s both interesting but also horrible about Icelandic is that, like German, they love mixing whole sentences into a single word. In 2010, a volcano in Iceland named Eyjafjallajökull (…) erupted and caused massive disruptions in air travel across all of western Europe for months. Pronounced as Eya-fiat-la-yeu-cutl, the volcano’s name means the island with the glacier on the mountain. Another example is dairy products, which is just mashed into one word in Icelandic: mjĂłlkurvörur (myoh-lkur-veu-rur). It’s like if instead of saying “I’m sitting at the bench in the canyon that’s under the blue bridge”, we gave a name to that specific bench and said “I’m sitting at the canyonbenchbluebridge”. It’s horrible to look at, but I guess it’s time saving!

Patricio’s recommendation of the week: Listen to more Spanish music!

Listening to music in the language you’re learning helps you improve your pronunciation, listening skills, and even grasp some grammar patterns. It’s fun, you can do it anywhere, and it’ll expand your Spotify playlist. Here’s some of my favorite artists broken down by genre.

Pop & Folk Music

La Quinta EstaciĂłn – El Sol no Regresa, Algo MĂĄs, Me Muero

Natalia Lafourcade – Nunca es Suficiente, Soledad y el Mar, MarĂ­a la Curandera

Camila – Todo CambiĂł, Mientes, Coleccionista de Canciones

Juanes – A Dios Le Pido, Es Por Ti

Jesse & Joy – La De La Mala Suerte, Dueles, Llegaste tĂș

Sebastian Yatra – No Hay Nadie MĂĄs, Quiero Decirte, Tacones Rojos

ReguetĂłn

Danny Ocean – Dembow, Me RehĂșso, MĂłnaco, Volare, Swing, Cuando me Acerco a TĂ­ (I love him)

Rauw Alejandro – La Nota, Todo De Ti, Algo MĂĄgico, BESO

ROSALÍA – DESPECHÁ, LA NOCHE DE ANOCHE, BESO

KAROL G – TQG, MAMII, Si Antes te Hubiera Conocido

Oldies but goodies

Mecano – Mujer Contra Mujer, Cruz de Navajas, Me Cuesta Tanto Olvidarte

Emmanuel – La Chica de Humo, Insoportablemente Bella, Bella Señora

Sin Bandera – Entra en Mi Vida, Que Lloro, Sirena

Luis Miguel – La Incondicional, Culpable O No, Ahora Te Puedes Marchar

This is your sign to learn Icelandic! Do it with Drops!

This week’s recommendation is to learn Icelandic. It is believed to be the hardest Germanic language to learn for English speakers. It has some intense grammar and complex pronunciation. But you should learn it anyway! Icelandic is the closest living relative to Old Norse, which was spoken by Vikings. I’ve been trying to learn it and Drops is so far the best app to do it. One of the best features it has is lessons to teach you how to pronounce the extensive alphabet, which is tricky as there’s a mix of rolling r’s similar to Spanish, the eu sounds similar to French, and the gargling r’s from German. Some fun words I’ve learned are HjĂ lp! (Hee-owl-fff-p, i.e. help!), tuttugu (impossibe to describe how it’s pronounced, i.e. twenty), and sveppur (sveh-prrr, i.e. mushroom). Some not so fun words I’ve learned are matvöruverslun (…, i.e. grocery store) and sjĂșkrahĂșs (shoe-crah-whose, i.e. hospital).