Just Frickin' Suck It Up Already!
Yeah. This is a rant. If you don't want to read a rant, you are advised to vacate the premises in three... two... one...
RANT ON!
Okay. When you spend a lot of time on language learning boards and Facebook pages and email lists devoted to language learning, you're inevitably going to run into the whiners. "Oh... It's all so CONFUSING!!! I'm never going to learn this language. HELP ME!!!"
Day started learning the language: July 24th, 2013.
Method of learning: Trying to read a Grammar Website for Advanced Learners and Grammar Teachers.
*sigh*
I gotta tell you that I am still pretty fed up to here with the people who used to do this song and dance on costuming blogs and forums. "OH!!!!! I'll NEVER learn to make things like YOU!!!! I'm such an idiot. I don't have any talent!"
And then the whole forum/email list/web following would be expected to talk the poor eejit out of her tree and everyone else would sit around and wait for the conversation to resume.
The first thing that gets me is the self-deprecating and wholly insincere self-referential insults. Because what is the first thing people are going to say to you? "Oh, honey. You're not an idiot!"
But really? You are. But you're manipulating us into blowing smoke up your ass. And that chaps mine.
I distinctly remember a girl like this in junior high. She'd throw these parties at her house and the whole class would show. And then just when everyone was having a good time, she'd go sit in the corner and sulk. I might mention that she wouldn't hide! She's make damn sure that everyone at the party saw that she wasn't there and where she went and we pretty much couldn't go on having the party with her sitting there sulking. So then we had to turn off the music and gather around her and say, "What's wrong?" "What's wrong?" "What's wrong?" fifty times until she'd stop shaking her head and hiding her face and could be reluctantly convinced to rejoin the party, this time with everyone doting on her and trying to keep her happy so she wouldn't go off and sit in a corner again.
I HATED that. Number one, I'm an only child and at age 12 I had very little empathy for others. And number two, she did it at EVERY FRICKIN' PARTY. Without fail. It was so clearly the way she got attention. And it aggravated me because it shut the party down cold just when it was starting to get interesting.
But that was her party trick. And it worked every time.
Clearly it still aggravates me. :/
That's the kind of feeling I have when one of these language whiners posts about how hard everything is and how she'll never understand it.
Let me be clear. I have a gift with languages. HOWEVER, I cannot magically speak languages perfectly without going to class and studying the grammar rules and memorizing words and listening to tapes and watching TV shows and trying to speak and blah and blah and blah for months, usually years.
Learning a language is WORK! Ever watch a baby in that language stage? Babble babble babble. They babble so goddamn much you can't be in the same room with them. It'll make you tear out your hair from the roots. They're like a non-stop babble machine! Day and night! On and on and on and on! And why? Because that is the baby version of "Listen and Repeat". They do it all their waking hours, everyday... for months. Then one day, they start to make words. Then phrases. Then sentences. Parents may think they're helping when they say stuff like, "What sound does the cow make?" But really, Baby has got the Language Learning Method all mapped out, thanks very much Ma and Pa. Step aside. Baby's got it under control.
It takes years.
But some idiot is always going to whine that she can't POSSIBLY understand Irish. "And I want to speak this language so bad!"
Ahem.
First... go read an English grammar book 'cuz I'm pretty sure that's supposed to be "bad-ly".
*takes off hat of superior prickness*
And then...
Go to Irish class...
Or get one of Eamonn's books and CDs: Gaeilge gan Stró! Beginners Level: A Multimedia Irish Language Course for Adults (English and Irish Edition) is a great one you can order right now...
Or go to The Irish Independent and follow Liam O Maonlai's course: http://www.independent.ie/lifestyle/education/learn-irish-with-liam-o-maonlai-26460087.html...
But DO NOT go on some forum or boards or email list or Facebook page and whine and whine and whine until I just want to reach through the computer and...
Well, really I don't want to strangle you. I want to strangle me so that I won't have to listen to you anymore.
Rant ends.
RANT ON!
Okay. When you spend a lot of time on language learning boards and Facebook pages and email lists devoted to language learning, you're inevitably going to run into the whiners. "Oh... It's all so CONFUSING!!! I'm never going to learn this language. HELP ME!!!"
Day started learning the language: July 24th, 2013.
Method of learning: Trying to read a Grammar Website for Advanced Learners and Grammar Teachers.
*sigh*
I gotta tell you that I am still pretty fed up to here with the people who used to do this song and dance on costuming blogs and forums. "OH!!!!! I'll NEVER learn to make things like YOU!!!! I'm such an idiot. I don't have any talent!"
And then the whole forum/email list/web following would be expected to talk the poor eejit out of her tree and everyone else would sit around and wait for the conversation to resume.
The first thing that gets me is the self-deprecating and wholly insincere self-referential insults. Because what is the first thing people are going to say to you? "Oh, honey. You're not an idiot!"
But really? You are. But you're manipulating us into blowing smoke up your ass. And that chaps mine.
I distinctly remember a girl like this in junior high. She'd throw these parties at her house and the whole class would show. And then just when everyone was having a good time, she'd go sit in the corner and sulk. I might mention that she wouldn't hide! She's make damn sure that everyone at the party saw that she wasn't there and where she went and we pretty much couldn't go on having the party with her sitting there sulking. So then we had to turn off the music and gather around her and say, "What's wrong?" "What's wrong?" "What's wrong?" fifty times until she'd stop shaking her head and hiding her face and could be reluctantly convinced to rejoin the party, this time with everyone doting on her and trying to keep her happy so she wouldn't go off and sit in a corner again.
I HATED that. Number one, I'm an only child and at age 12 I had very little empathy for others. And number two, she did it at EVERY FRICKIN' PARTY. Without fail. It was so clearly the way she got attention. And it aggravated me because it shut the party down cold just when it was starting to get interesting.
But that was her party trick. And it worked every time.
Clearly it still aggravates me. :/
That's the kind of feeling I have when one of these language whiners posts about how hard everything is and how she'll never understand it.
Let me be clear. I have a gift with languages. HOWEVER, I cannot magically speak languages perfectly without going to class and studying the grammar rules and memorizing words and listening to tapes and watching TV shows and trying to speak and blah and blah and blah for months, usually years.
Learning a language is WORK! Ever watch a baby in that language stage? Babble babble babble. They babble so goddamn much you can't be in the same room with them. It'll make you tear out your hair from the roots. They're like a non-stop babble machine! Day and night! On and on and on and on! And why? Because that is the baby version of "Listen and Repeat". They do it all their waking hours, everyday... for months. Then one day, they start to make words. Then phrases. Then sentences. Parents may think they're helping when they say stuff like, "What sound does the cow make?" But really, Baby has got the Language Learning Method all mapped out, thanks very much Ma and Pa. Step aside. Baby's got it under control.
It takes years.
But some idiot is always going to whine that she can't POSSIBLY understand Irish. "And I want to speak this language so bad!"
Ahem.
First... go read an English grammar book 'cuz I'm pretty sure that's supposed to be "bad-ly".
*takes off hat of superior prickness*
And then...
Go to Irish class...
Or get one of Eamonn's books and CDs: Gaeilge gan Stró! Beginners Level: A Multimedia Irish Language Course for Adults (English and Irish Edition) is a great one you can order right now...
Or go to The Irish Independent and follow Liam O Maonlai's course: http://www.independent.ie/lifestyle/education/learn-irish-with-liam-o-maonlai-26460087.html...
But DO NOT go on some forum or boards or email list or Facebook page and whine and whine and whine until I just want to reach through the computer and...
Well, really I don't want to strangle you. I want to strangle me so that I won't have to listen to you anymore.
Rant ends.