🔤 Foreign scripts in learning a new language while becoming a polyglot | Polyglot ABC

* Blog post with a polyglot's list for learning a new language

While learning a new language, on your road to become a polyglot :), you're bound to run into one that has a writing system/script that's vastly different than your own? How do you approach that?

You may've noticed in my translations up 'till now I only used Latin script/Romanization. This has several reasons…


Firstly, it's the one *I* know, grew up with, and have the most experience with. I know the sounds of the letters and letter combinations and I can express and convert foreign sounds to that best, so it comes naturally and easy. When you start learning a new language that has a different script, you will also start this way, and it really is the ONLY way to start. You have no other references yet, so you don't have any choice.

Which makes the first question:
Should you even start learning the foreign alphabet/syllabaries/logogram characters first?

My answer is: No!

And I'll explain why…

Like I mentioned in previous articles, the main thing to do when starting to learn a new language is associating and internalizing it with things that are familiar to you.

I also mentioned that how things are written and how they sound, are 2 separate forms of input in the brain and that the connection/association between the two is something else entirely as well.

Now, if you start learning a new alphabet or writing system from the very beginning, that is, even before you know how characters are pronounced, and thus for the first time trying to learn how those characters are pronounced while also learning how to write/read/recognize them at the same time, you are trying to associate 2 unknowns, character & sound, in a relative vacuum.

I'm not saying that that can't be done or that that won't happen anyway once you're further in your learning process. But, as a starting point, it will be less effective than first having used existing associations.

My advice would be to 'add' the words in foreign script to your 'list' (I'll give an example of 'how' later in this article)  -BUT-  not yet try to write/memorize it.

Write out the words in your own script first (like in "🔤  Learning a new language - Step 1 to becoming a polyglot"), then add the phonetic translation (also in your own script; like in "🔤  Pronunciation - Tips for a hard part in learning a new language (get the Glot in Polyglot)"), and only  -AFTER-  you grasp the pronunciation, go on to memorizing/writing the words in the foreign script…

So even just forget about learning the alphabet/characters separately at first… that will come naturally by association with words!

Beyond that first reason & advice, there is actually nothing to say about how to approach learning new scripts, 'cause this is highly individual!

We all retain visual forms in different ways…
- Some people manage better by object association, i.e. a particular Chinese character 'looks' like this other thing I know, so that's how I'll remember that character easily (I'm not one of those people, but my brother, who is a painter, is).
- Some people manage better by writing i.e. motor association, making the strokes, and associating a character with the movement needed to produce that character.
- Others manage better by sound/music/color/feeling association i.e. they associate a character, which is a visual thing, with another non-visual sense.
- And then there are people with eidetic (photographic) memory i.e. they just have to look at a character long enough and they'll remember it.
So in the end, how you move on after the first advice of at least just not worrying about learning the alphabet, is totally a personal preference… one that you are most probably already aware of for yourself! So just do it that way, which fits you best!

(And if you don't know the best way for you… try them all out!
— Look at characters and see if you 'see' another object in them.
— Write them down on a piece of paper, or with your finger on your own arm/leg, or in the air.
— Listen to a song, look at a color, or be aware of your 'feelings', while focusing on a character.
— Or look at a character long and often, and see if you still remember it the next day/a week later)

Now, to follow up on my promise of adding an example of 'how' to 'add' the words in foreign script to your 'list', here's the "Hello" list again:

🇬🇧 English - Hello (Hello)

🇳🇱 Dutch - Hallo (Hall-low)
🇩🇪 German - Hallo (Hall-low)
🇳🇴 Norwegian - Hallo (Hall-oh)
🇸🇪 Swedish - Hallå (Hall-oah)
🇩🇰 Danish - Hej (Hi)
🇪🇸 Spanish - Hola (Oh-la)
🇵🇹 Portuguese - Olá (Eh-la)
🇮🇹 Italian - Ciao (Chow)
🇨🇳 Mandarin -
你好
Ni hao
(Knee how)
🇫🇷 French - Salut (Salew)
🇷🇴 Romanian - Salut (Sal-oot)
🇮🇱 Hebrew -
שלום
Shalom
(Sha-lome)
🇷🇺 Russian -
Привет
Privet
(Pre-vyet)
🇧🇬 Bulgarian -
Здравей
Zdraveĭ
(Zdrahv-hey)

Share with us in the comments section below:
- Which foreign scripts have you tried?
- How do *you* approach practicing a new writing system?

Feel free to become a new language learning/polyglot friend on Facebook: Genaro van der Werff

Wikipedia entries on languages mentioned here:
Bulgarian | Bulgarian alphabet | Cyrillic script | Danish | Dutch | English | French | German | Hebrew | Hebrew script | Italian | Mandarin Chinese | Chinese script | Norwegian | Portuguese | Romanian | Russian | Russian alphabet | Spanish | Swedish

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