The Long Haul

Drawing and Language Learning as a Way of Life. 

In a recent lesson, in my Udemy drawing course, the instructor said at the end of the lesson on drawing still life forms:

So your assignment for this lecture is to go ahead and either draw this image of the bananas which you

can download in the next lecture or even better yet.

And I really highly recommend this.

Find your own objects to draw and lay them out and go ahead and do a still life drawing of that and

try to copy exactly what you see.

Now if you really want to get really good at drawing you need to do at least 20 of these.

And if you want to get amazingly good at drawing you need to do 100 to 1000 of these.

Now I know that's a lot but some of you may not be that dedicated and that's all right.

Lesson 1 (Quote from this lesson.) 

I laughed. Yes, we can reflect why we are engaged in our art form (drawing or language), and choose how much we want to invest or ourselves.  So far, as a sister and artist of mine recently wrote in a post, sometimes our desire is so strong that even if the practice ebbs and flows, the art "will not be squashed."  I This is the case for me with language learning; will it also be be true of drawing?  

For Fun 

European Union Privacy Policy Laws

Hi friends,

As you will know, we are now required to be more upfront about how data is being used or stored on the Internet. As, for now, I do not know how to change my settings to post Google's official note, here is the information.

Thank you, my followers.  I hope you continue to follow my blog. I will soon be posting another blog on my drawing and language-learning adventures.

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Time Out

With many things in life, I have noticed, it is useful to take time out, and do something else.

I have taken off almost 5 days from language learning and reading up on,  and talking to other online teachers about,  online language teaching.



This break has been scary for me. Had I lost my enthusiasm? Was I completely offtrack? Why the silence within?

Yesterday,  I  woke up with my original ideas of the people and subject matter I was eager to teach, but now my ideas were more specific.  They had evolved without effort during my break.

Today, I pulled out my Spanish verb cards again, and  I listened to a YouTube channel  by Super Holly.

I also prepared for the women I have begun tutoring face-to-face. I  read up on dyslexia which I think is adding to the challenge for her of learning English.  I read and planned with focus and enthusiasm once more.

5 days of 'silence' created the space necessary for creative ideas to form as it were on their own - "organically".

Hope for the Flowers

I have been thinking about hope and self-trust and confidence. Yesterday in a podcast, The Fluent Show, the guest, who believes in and demonstrates being a self-directed language learner, said that in learning a language outside of a classroom, one develops self-trust. Learners have to trust what they know about themselves- about how they learn best.

Good, then. This is a quality I sometimes feel needs a bit of shoring up. I have noticed that when I listen to my inner voice and support this voice by acting on it, I am my own best friend and the best friend of the communities to which I belong.

So, then, on with learning language with this fresh motivation: I am developing self trust.

This morning I drew from a book, Hope for the Flowers. It is all about caterpillars learning to trust their inner message and so becoming butterflies. And indirectly it is about the flowers who benefit. In my mind, the communities we flutter in.

Creativity and Connection

via GIPHY

Creativity and Connection: happy places.

A Creative Language Learning Video: Future Plans

Learning is for Life

I have been thinking about the reality that learning never stops from when we take out first to when we take our last breath.

Even when I just think about language learning, I am amazed at how much I have learned:

1. To use an incredibly complex language to communicate my needs and thoughts. 
2. To formulate questions in such a way that many people have been willing to serve and help me to do a whole range of things like open a bank account, give me  directions when I am lost, and explain a new process or skills at work.  
3. To read people's non-verbal language with a great deal of accuracy. 
4. To prepare for a test or an interview or a meeting. 

When I stop and reflect, I can detail specific ways I learn best.

I have been aware lately that while I learn general ideas just by reading, and I like written instructions as a back-up when I am learning a new skill, what works best for me is hearing someone explain a new skill while demonstrating the process. And to ensure learning, I copy the process along with the 'instructor', or do the new task immediately after.

Today, I willingly spent over an hour listening to, and watching my drawing instructor show how to draw a building.  As he he drew, I drew the drawings below. I stopped the video whenever I needed extra time. This was a rather perfect way for me to learn a new skill.

This is some of what I know my own learning style to be. I believe we all can, with reflection, and perhaps a bit of help, learn to express ways that we each learn well.

Affirmation

I have learned all my life. I know how to learn. My current self is the living proof that I can and do learn.

Assumptions

Assumptions

Today in our drawing lesson, the instructor points out the 60% Rule for perspective drawing.  After a clear explanation, he points back to the house, skyscraper drawing of a few lessons ago.  He showed his drawing and explained why the house had not been in perspective.

I had tried and tried to get the house into a realistic perspective. Assuming the expert knew and would be drawing things correctly, I had not even picked up on the fact that his own drawing was clearly as misshapen as my own first drawing.

I had, in fact, done an excellent job of following his instructions. Given my assumption, I did not allow myself to see that his drawing was also out of perspective.

Could it be that some of my over trying in Spanish, is due to equal misreadings of 'experts' who seem to be advancing rapidly and steadily, while I plod along?

I have also been reflecting on the podcasts and YouTube videos by  other language enthusiasts. They express that a feeling of emotional contact with a language greatly facilitates language  learning. This may especially be important after  one has passed the complete beginner stage where every learned word is a 'Eureka' moment, and motivation is naturally high.  I had emotional connections to German,Wolof, French, and Swahili. I did, too, at one time in Spanish, but time and some difficult experiences weakened this connection. My exploration of Mexican art, and my recent language exchanges have begun to recreate my connection.

Thinking of emotional bonding, I drew a lovely lighthearted image that a blogger, Kerstin Cable, mentioned yesterday in her FluentShow podcast: the first stage of vocabulary acquisition is catching the words- like a butterfly catcher. In Melaque, I had as similar image: a man fishing with a net.

Just Do It!

Language-Learning 

My 30-DayChallenge for Spanish ended yesterday. I did not miss one day. I enjoyed the process; sometimes towards the last week, I felt I would be glad to

Facebook Group - Jonathan Huggins #30DSpC

have that hour to 3 hours back in my days. I listened to my last recording before posting and I felt "un poquito" discouraged.  My intonation especially dismayed me, and the fact that I could not just speak but had to read what I had written.  On the other hand, I had been creative by doing conversations when the other hundred participants - as far as I could see - all did presentations. My grammar in my work has been fairly correct, and I have used some idioms.

It is good for me to experience the difficulty of learning a language outside an immersion experience. I realized today that I am learning Spanish as a Foreign Language rather than Spanish as a Second Language. This experience may be useful when I work with language learners who are are studying EFL rather than ESL.

Tips for Foreign Language Learners 

@ESL Fun Club (Facebook Group) 

1. Motivation needs to be ramped up, at least for learners like me who are motivated by their desire to communicate with target language speakers. A group challenge like the one I just completed may well work for some learners. This language challenge inspired continued work due to a sense of commitment  and loyalty to a group  and group leader.  As well,  the daily encouragement of even 4-5 other participants can be a strong motivator to keep on studying a little every day.  Many of the participants joined again for the month of May.

2.  Memorization of vocabulary and verbs appears to be a must for non-immersion learners.  I am still grappling with this as I have never memorized vocabulary and verb conjugations when learning another language. I just did not need to when surrounded by target language speakers and speaking opportunities.
3.  Finding language exchange partners online who speak the target language has also become useful and very motivating. I want to be able to say something! It can also be discouraging.  I struggle to articulate all the bits of words that are at the tip of my tongue. Eduardo from Argentina is patient but I am not used to feeling so 'slow'.  If this is the case for other learners, perhaps they can, I have done, begin a different sort of exchange.
4.  Seeking out another learner who is practicing the same language as I am and speaking from 5-10 minutes a day on the phone has helped me to get over my shyness at my current language level. We are learning how to structure these talks so we can feel successful.  Self-confidence and fun are keys to successful language learning.

Drawing 

Lesson A 

Lesson B 

In my drawing lessons, the technical side of drawing has ramped up as we learn to use vanishing points, and horizon lines and perspective lines to draw and shade geometric shapes. I feel like some of the sense of what I am doing is going over my head, but today in my practice using vanishing points and horizon lines and a specific light source, I see I may be making progress even without understanding all that our instructor is explaining.  I include my work below.

Cast Shadow Practice 1 

Cast Shadow Practice 2 

As with learning a language, confidence that I can learn, and enjoyment of the process of learning to draw are vital.

Humans are hardwired to learn.  

Question to Followers

Is Practice 1 or Practice 2 is a truer demonstration of the shading, given the light source?