Further Associations

Each door leads opens to yet another door. This has been my experience of life and learning. So, I thought this blog was complete, but on returning for the LangFest 2018 in Montreal, new associations between language learning and drawing appear.  

During the festival, speakers mentioned more than once the idea that being in the 'zone' or the 'flow' is conducive to language learning - both to inputing language to short-term memory, and to retrieving it from long-term memory.  

I have long noted that when I am engaged in another language purely for the pleasure of it and the sense of immediate rewards that it gives me, and when I am engaged in sketching and drawing out of the same intrinsic motivation - for the pleasure of it- I experience many of the qualities listed as those that are part of the 'flow' experience that  Csikszentmihaly talks about. I recommend you take a quick look at the link I have included. 

“A state in which people are so involved in an activity that nothing else seems to matter; the experience is so enjoyable that people will continue to do it even at great cost, for the sheer sake of doing it.”  

– Csikszentmihalyi, 1990

Today, I was feeling pressured by a whole long list of activities demanding attention "toute suite", and so it may not be evident, but I chose to take the time out to do another Udemy lesson.  I forgot time and surfaced after an hour feeling ready now to tackle my list of things to do. 

Here is my drawing. As you can see, there is no extrinsic reason to laud my work but it the process was super and the result satisfies me. 

Quick (relative word) warm-up sketches of the female and male human form.

Completion

In my Udemy Drawing course, we still have a lesson on cartoon characters and a summing up remaining.  This course will have been 8 months of pleasure and practice. Since my goals are intrinsic - the pleasure of learning and exploring- I feel satisfied, while I acknowledge the simplicity and lack of reality in most of my drawings. Sometimes, I have felt super pleased with a result. ¡Chevere! Awesome.

In language study, I head out today to the LangFest of Montréal. I have a follow-up video to post for a LangFest challenge. It will be me speaking again in German, French and Spanish after one month of practice. My listening has improved in all three languages. I think my speaking may reflect more confidence, and more vocabulary. 

As with the drawing, since my goals are intrinsic - the pleasure of understanding and having words some sliding out of some storage space in my cabeza, tête, Kopf, seemingly, out of the blue-- I feel satisfecho, satisfait,  and zufrieden.

Poco a Poco

This journey is about linking pleasure to activities to facilitate persistence-- linking drawing to language study, drawing to the calmness of 'being in the zone', and language practice to walking. 

Here are my practice drawings: 

Profiles,  Noses, Lips, Ears and Hair - much practice to look forward to. 

Much needed to create a realistic male profile. 

I have added a French podcast to my almost daily walks: AuthenticFrench, Slow German podcast and website (I am impressed with free quality online language learning resources in German.), and am listening with great satisfaction to my new Spanish library resources.  I am on an active search for headphones that will allow me to enjoy my walk-and-learning sessions even more. 

I learned that the hair around the skull is quite far from the skull and went back and changed most of the above drawings to their present state. 

Vanidosa y Enferma con un Resfriado (proud and sick with a cold)

Estoy Emotionado!

I am excited. The next drawing lesson is lips-mouth. I have just started.   I entered my 10 expressions in my Gold-list scribbler for yesterday and have today's new list lined up. 

Exciting! 

Combining Themes

Threads of my passion intertwined: Senegal and the comedian, Boucar Diouf and French; I reread a chapter in "Sous l'arbre a palabres, mon grand-pere disait..." I must grin and laugh several times. What better theme for my  practice drawing of today? 

A Book Can Change a System

El impacto de un libro

Inspired by a mini-blog on FB that included this photo and a comment on the photographer, I looked up the artist. His name is Jorge Mendez Blake and he is from Mexico. This intrigued me as I have been wanting to get to know more about Mexican culture - partly to increase my sense of bonding so that the energy I require to keep on practicing Spanish everyday will not wane.  

I looked up the artist and, indeed, this work is very interesting. I read about in Spanish which future motivated me.  His passion is architecture and literature- books. He incorporates both; in this photo (he builds these impressive brick walls when he gives his expositions), he references Frantz Kafka, who also believed a small thing, could change a system. (I Frantz Kafka in German at university many years ago.), and demonstrates by his wall of bricks and the placement of the book how a seemingly small object, a book, can slowly and powerfully change a system. 

Muy interesante, no? 

Practice Practice

Practice drawing this week is easy when the current subject is so interestingly taught. We are learning how to draw eyes and noses, and how to change shapes of eyes and placement of iris an eyelids and eyebrows to show a variety of emotions. We have just begun the nose. We have not yet had the lesson on the mouth. I have included a couple of practice sketches.   In language learning, I am now practicing with the "goldlist method". It is fun. I have read an article that says it is a waste of time and that it is inefficient scientifically given the need for repetition immediately after learning something, and then spaced repetitions that gradually have longer times between them as the learning becomes part of longer term memory. I hope I can make my lists for for 2 months and see for myself. It cannot hurt as I have not been able to work up the motivation to use flashcards to memorize vocabulary.  I have also managed with great patience, I must say, to download an audio book by Pimsleur as I want to see if this method can work for me. In the past, this type of formatted learning and repetition has never earned, nor kept my interest.  

My goals are clear: to be functionally fluent in Spanish, keep up my high intermediate level of spoken French, and develop some basic fluency in speaking German. Already, I can read and listen to all three languages at levels that give me great delight.  In fact, I have just listened to the first chapter of an audio book I downloaded from the library: Hermanas by Gary Paulsen, " a thought-provoking tales of two 14-year olds, one a Mexican prostitute, and the other, Texas cheerleader-trapped..."  My goodness! Estoy emocionado. 

Persistence Requires Pleasure

The way to persistence and continuity in language learning is to link it to pleasure. Learn what gives you pleasure (method and content) and you will have what it takes to keep on keeping on day after day and year after year. This is what the self-directed, self-motivated language learners I have been listening to online over the past 5 months almost all strongly recommend.This principle of linking learning to pleasure is what keeps the fire alive day after day. 

Today I subscribed to a podcast in French. Happily, the most recent edition was on this very theme. I have already applied this to my daily physical exercise and as I lifted my weights, I listened to a new singer I have found in Spanish.  What fun, my exercises went by quickly. I lifted the weights to the song's rhythm. 
When doing my practice drawings, I believe I can find a video or an podcast in Spanish, German or French to accompany my drawing. Songs would probably be the best as I sense there is a lack of music in my life.  I have been missing the pleasure of music. 🎝🎜𝆕

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Free Sketch Redo

Feedback

Today for the first time, my drawing instructor gave some teacher-initiated feedback on what I could work on in my drawing of a face. I feel a bit discouraged as the one he chose to give this feedback on was the drawing I felt I had best succeeded in and the one that makes me feel happy each time I look at her. 

Eh bien, I went back to the drawing board. I listened again to the lecture and the suggestions of measures and sketched my own two faces for another practice. Whatever Jayson says or does not say, I understand in theory at least his suggestions for how to use measures to draw faces with realistic proportions. 

Father and Daughter 

In my language learning, I have been encouraged by like-minded people - those, for example, who like to learn more than one language at a time, and who are willing to try out many new 'methods' of language learning. 

I came across a method for learning vocabulary that I intend to try. It is called "The Gold List Method". I like the adaption that Lydia Machova has brought to the original method.  It is based on the idea 70% of expressions written thoughtfully in a focused, calm environment (with translations) will, without effort, be absorbed into long-term memory. The  30% of words that are not retained after a 2-week gestation period, if rewritten, will result after another 2 weeks of gestation with an additional 70 or so percent that are now part of long-term productive memory. One more 'distillation' often results in having acquired all the expressions on the original list.  Lydia strongly recommends this work being done in an attractive notebook, with colored pencils is this adds to the personal bonding with these lists. This appeals to my 'drawing' and 'coloring' side, of course.  

 The method is more complex than this, but it in line with what I have being noticing about my vocabulary learning. Also, it provides an alternative to trying to memorize using flashcards - a method which I have not been motivated to stick to.  I'll get the link to this method for you. 

I seem to have eternally renewed confidence that I can continue to progress towards a basic fluency in speaking Spanish and and a renewed fluency in German, and French. 

On the side, I can dabble in Swahili, Mandarin, and Wolof. Yesterday, I relearned Tsi Tsi! that means in Mandarin: you are welcome!

Follow Intuition and Pleasure

Today and yesterday, I have no answers to my existential questions, so I simply will to remain in 'places' of pleasure and joy: 

drawing a face in my drawing course;

listening to Radio Quebec and to podcasts in German and Spanish; watching a sitcom in Spanish; biking and walking; and transitioning from face-to-face to online meetings with a young woman who is working with me on her English reading and writing skills. 

Focusing on what there is before me, acting on principles of pleasure and joy, I will to trust my place in the Universe.  

Take 2 on First Sketch