I determined the other day that I have a problem. As soon as I become interested in a topic I try to learn as much about it as possible. Examples are as follows:
1.) When I first became interested in the science of singing I read as much as I could get my hands on about the topic. I covered authors spanning from Tosi and Lamperti up through Reid and Frisell. I even read Jerome Hines book on pedagogy (not Great Singers on Great Singing, but his other book, The Four Voices of Man. Overall, I spent about six years reading almost exclusively about the voice and the art of singing.
2.) When I decided to truly become Catholic, I again went and obtained as much information as I could about the Church. In my collection I own works by Thomas a Kempis, St. Teresa of Avila, Jean-Pierre Caussade, G.K. Chesterton, etc. not to mention having a catechism and Bible with me nearly all the time.
3.) Now I have taken up an interest in running, specifically in barefoot running and the same pattern has followed. I already have two books coming in through ILL and have an eBook in my possesion which I am currently reading in addition to the book that I have already finished.
Truthfully this is not a problem, maybe a slight disorder especially compared to other people in my generation that I have witnessed. The urge to learn, I believe, is one of the greatest determinants of eventual success. How can anyone become an expert of anything if they are not willing to do research on their own. A friend of mine who I was recently discussing this topic with commented that this makes almost obvious success. In his professional world, as in many, the first step to proving a theory is to research and see what has come before the theory and what might make it plausible.
In our instant gratification world, so few of my peers even pick up a recreational tome, let alone an informational, non-fiction book unless they are being forced to do so by some class. Why have we as a generation moved so far away from a true thirst for knowledge? If anything, this trend seems counterintuitive to me. We now have the internet and eBooks at our fingertips which can provide us vast information about practically anything we could want to know; and yet most people would rather spend their time on social networking sites.
I would still be a complete novice in all four areas of passion in my life were it not for my thirst for knowledge. I submit that I still am a novice in some areas due to my relatively new discovery of them, however I can say without hesitation that because of my unquenchable thirst for knowledge that I will quickly surpass others who may have started down a particular path prior to me.
A prime example of this lies in language, one of the main purposes of this blog. I am currently working on French, as you all know, and prior to this current time I had taken one semester at university and spent one month on my own working on the language. When I decided to focus on this particular language I did what I do with nearly all of my passions: I signed up on a forum concerning the topic. From this forum I was able to ascertain numerous possibilities of ways to study and from there determine what I wanted to try. The next step was to get materials I would need. In general I attempt to get as much as I can for free or inexpensively. In the case of French many of my materials came from the library and inter-library loan (ILL). What I could not get for free I bought from a discount site, half.com. After I get my resources it is just a matter of application and practice. I continue to research new possibilities to aid me in my learning and acquisition and continue to watch my progress. Approximately two and a half months after starting this focus on French I was able to list the language as one I can speak. Now nearly four months in I am continuing to grow my skill and am nearing towards my final goal in this language, which is to be able to teach or give a speech comfortably.
The above process goes for any skill that I embark upon learning. I have already proven to myself that I can succeed in picking up any skill because of my desire to learn and constantly improve. Imagine the things we could accomplish in this world if everyone had an insatiable thirst for knowledge and did not just want to skate by on their undeveloped talents.
Tuesday, June 21, 2011
Monday, June 6, 2011
Frustrations, Progress and a Diatribe
In the past two and a half weeks I have had quite a few different emotions running through my system in regards to language, singing and life in general. Starting with languages, I had a week of solid conversational French practice while I was in Kentucky on a mission trip with my friend Ernest. For those who don't know, Ernest is from Cameroon and fluent in about eight languages ranging from Italian to Bengali. After that week I jumped right back into my studying and am progressing at a very pleasing rate in French. I anticipate that I should be able to call myself fluent in French by the new year. That may seem far off to some of you and not long enough at all to others, but the truth is that languages can be learned quickly if the motivation is there.
The frustrations of my past two and a half weeks came in singing. During my week in Kentucky I was unable to practice at all outside of singing for daily mass. When I got back in the practice room the next week I felt like my voice was not doing anything correctly. Then, luckily, I began to turn things around late this past week. I also had a realization that I have been breathing far too shallow for far too long. Now that I am taking completely full breaths I have found that singing is feeling much better again. My current frustration now is finding the funds to get down to NYC for a lesson with JRL. I posted an ad on my facebook asking for applications for a patron, but no one seems interested which is sad for me.
Now onto my diatribe which will take this blog of course momentarily. This past evening I attended a "Teen Life Mass" at a nearby Catholic Church. I had recently heard stories about these masses from traditionalist (like myself) speaking of various horrors inherent in this style of mass. To my mind, these were all verified during the course of the mass. The purpose of a Teen Life Mass is to reach the teens through more "accessible" music and encourage their participation. However, to me, I was attending a protestant mega-church worship service rather than a mass. The major problem I have with the music is not necessarily the music itself; contemporary christian music has its place, but not in the mass. There was a huge disconnect between the upbeat, bubble-gum music and the solemnity of the rest of the rites of the mass. Not only that, but the music had nil to do with the actual readings, which it is supposed to according to the general rules for the mass. Also, the whole point of this music is to engage the teens and youth of the parish more, however I saw a very small percentage of these people actually participating in the singing! There were other problems within the course of the mass liturgically speaking. During the mass I vowed to never be at another Teen Life Mass in my life. What this type of mass does is set up the youth of the parish to leave the Church! I pray that the new missal and future reforms will save our youth from the horrors of the Teen Life Mass and bring back a sense of reverence to the Mass.
The frustrations of my past two and a half weeks came in singing. During my week in Kentucky I was unable to practice at all outside of singing for daily mass. When I got back in the practice room the next week I felt like my voice was not doing anything correctly. Then, luckily, I began to turn things around late this past week. I also had a realization that I have been breathing far too shallow for far too long. Now that I am taking completely full breaths I have found that singing is feeling much better again. My current frustration now is finding the funds to get down to NYC for a lesson with JRL. I posted an ad on my facebook asking for applications for a patron, but no one seems interested which is sad for me.
Now onto my diatribe which will take this blog of course momentarily. This past evening I attended a "Teen Life Mass" at a nearby Catholic Church. I had recently heard stories about these masses from traditionalist (like myself) speaking of various horrors inherent in this style of mass. To my mind, these were all verified during the course of the mass. The purpose of a Teen Life Mass is to reach the teens through more "accessible" music and encourage their participation. However, to me, I was attending a protestant mega-church worship service rather than a mass. The major problem I have with the music is not necessarily the music itself; contemporary christian music has its place, but not in the mass. There was a huge disconnect between the upbeat, bubble-gum music and the solemnity of the rest of the rites of the mass. Not only that, but the music had nil to do with the actual readings, which it is supposed to according to the general rules for the mass. Also, the whole point of this music is to engage the teens and youth of the parish more, however I saw a very small percentage of these people actually participating in the singing! There were other problems within the course of the mass liturgically speaking. During the mass I vowed to never be at another Teen Life Mass in my life. What this type of mass does is set up the youth of the parish to leave the Church! I pray that the new missal and future reforms will save our youth from the horrors of the Teen Life Mass and bring back a sense of reverence to the Mass.
Thursday, May 19, 2011
French Update
Since I have some free time at the moment, I figure I will free write a post on my progress as of late.
Currently I am sitting in the library listening to France Bleu Isere out of Lyon and they are currently playing a French version of the Frank Sinatra hit "My Way." It actually sounds very nice in French, although lacks a certain swagger that Frank had when singing this. In listening to the radio I have noticed that I am understanding quite a bit of the words, although they are not necessarily completely making sense in my brain (natural listening) and the pace is still a little fast for me. I have to research some exercise to improve my listening to a more natural level. A large part of this I think needs to be approached by simple immersion (i.e. listening to French radio, watching French TV and movies, etc.). I find that the most annoying and challenging thing about immersion for me is that the only way I can access French radio when driving, which admittedly is how I spend most of my waking hours, is through my Palm Pre which has horrible battery life, especially when using streaming apps. I suppose that my solution to this will have to be podcasts. In keeping with the immersion concept, I have changed much of my computer, internet and GPS to French in recent weeks. Truthfully, I don't even notice that most of them are in French, which I take as being a good thing.
I have been working my way through Assimil and Michel Thomas during my studies and have been keeping a pretty steady pace throughout the last month and a half or so. I only recently started the MT and only do one track a day, so I am only at about lesson eleven or twelve and ultimately the amount of material covered is relatively small. For the most part, however, I am using MT as a reinforcement so I am okay with the slow pace I am taking on it. At my current rate it will take me about three months to get through the course and then I will move on to the vocabulary booster and then the advanced course. In Assimil I am currently on about lesson 33, so nearly one-third of the way through the Passive Wave. I find that I am learning quite a bit from the Passive Wave without necessarily doing a whole lot. The book recommends spending between twenty and thirty minutes per lesson in the Passive Wave, but I find that I am under this number daily (maybe 15 minutes or so per lesson). The program has been helping my listening and in general I have noticed that I am gaining between 2 and 5 new words per lesson at this point. This may not seem like a whole lot, but percentage wise 5 words over the course of about a one and a half minute segment is rather significant. There are also other words in the course of the lessons that I do not know and do not necessarily pick up through just the Passive Wave, but I am sure that I will pick these up during the course of the Active Wave. More importantly than the vocabulary, arguably, is that I pick up new grammatical rules, structures and some colloquialisms as I am going through these lessons and am finding myself retaining some of the work on tenses that they present during the course of my listening and reading.
I do not necessarily have a great measure of how well I can speak the language at this point, although I seem to have an easier time staying in French when talking with my friend and I generally have a certain level of comfort in my conversation that I did not necessarily have a couple of months ago. I think I mentioned earlier that I have changed my learning plan for my languages. I have progressed to a more realistic plan of spending all of my time with one language until I have learned it to a level that I consider fluent, which I will describe eventually to the public, and then move on. I believe that I can reach this level in most languages I am working on in a year and thus I still will be well within my goal of ten languages by the time I am forty. My progression through languages has also changed based on my needs for my intended profession. The order is thus:
Currently I am sitting in the library listening to France Bleu Isere out of Lyon and they are currently playing a French version of the Frank Sinatra hit "My Way." It actually sounds very nice in French, although lacks a certain swagger that Frank had when singing this. In listening to the radio I have noticed that I am understanding quite a bit of the words, although they are not necessarily completely making sense in my brain (natural listening) and the pace is still a little fast for me. I have to research some exercise to improve my listening to a more natural level. A large part of this I think needs to be approached by simple immersion (i.e. listening to French radio, watching French TV and movies, etc.). I find that the most annoying and challenging thing about immersion for me is that the only way I can access French radio when driving, which admittedly is how I spend most of my waking hours, is through my Palm Pre which has horrible battery life, especially when using streaming apps. I suppose that my solution to this will have to be podcasts. In keeping with the immersion concept, I have changed much of my computer, internet and GPS to French in recent weeks. Truthfully, I don't even notice that most of them are in French, which I take as being a good thing.
I have been working my way through Assimil and Michel Thomas during my studies and have been keeping a pretty steady pace throughout the last month and a half or so. I only recently started the MT and only do one track a day, so I am only at about lesson eleven or twelve and ultimately the amount of material covered is relatively small. For the most part, however, I am using MT as a reinforcement so I am okay with the slow pace I am taking on it. At my current rate it will take me about three months to get through the course and then I will move on to the vocabulary booster and then the advanced course. In Assimil I am currently on about lesson 33, so nearly one-third of the way through the Passive Wave. I find that I am learning quite a bit from the Passive Wave without necessarily doing a whole lot. The book recommends spending between twenty and thirty minutes per lesson in the Passive Wave, but I find that I am under this number daily (maybe 15 minutes or so per lesson). The program has been helping my listening and in general I have noticed that I am gaining between 2 and 5 new words per lesson at this point. This may not seem like a whole lot, but percentage wise 5 words over the course of about a one and a half minute segment is rather significant. There are also other words in the course of the lessons that I do not know and do not necessarily pick up through just the Passive Wave, but I am sure that I will pick these up during the course of the Active Wave. More importantly than the vocabulary, arguably, is that I pick up new grammatical rules, structures and some colloquialisms as I am going through these lessons and am finding myself retaining some of the work on tenses that they present during the course of my listening and reading.
I do not necessarily have a great measure of how well I can speak the language at this point, although I seem to have an easier time staying in French when talking with my friend and I generally have a certain level of comfort in my conversation that I did not necessarily have a couple of months ago. I think I mentioned earlier that I have changed my learning plan for my languages. I have progressed to a more realistic plan of spending all of my time with one language until I have learned it to a level that I consider fluent, which I will describe eventually to the public, and then move on. I believe that I can reach this level in most languages I am working on in a year and thus I still will be well within my goal of ten languages by the time I am forty. My progression through languages has also changed based on my needs for my intended profession. The order is thus:
- French
- German
- Italian
- Spanish
- Russian
- Czech
- Swedish
- Portuguese
- Arabic
Tuesday, May 10, 2011
Been awhile
Since moving back to French I have felt less inclined to write posts. My French is increasing daily and I find that the language is getting easier and easier every week. By the same token I am also progressing vocally. I have found a renewed fire for working on my technique and languages which I have been reveling in for the last couple of weeks.
I have a good thought in mind for a methodology minute, but it is going to have to wait until another post as I do not have it fully formed in my brain yet.
I have a good thought in mind for a methodology minute, but it is going to have to wait until another post as I do not have it fully formed in my brain yet.
Friday, April 8, 2011
Update - Back to French
I have been rather lax in updating this since my burn-out with Arabic about a month ago. I am currently back to working on French. I have foregone Italian for the time being because my level in that language is rather comfortable at this point. Also, I need to bring my French and German level up because I am planning on applying to grad schools in the next year or so. For French, I am using Assimil and French in Action at this point as my only learning sources, with the exception of Ernest, my friend from Cameroon. I have seen my French skyrocket in the last month or so I have been working on it. I am able to understnad and have basic day-to-day conversations with Ernest without many hiccups and am finding that I can express myself pretty well. I have somewhat changed my plan (again) and am going to stick with French until I am "completely" fluent. I will define what I mean by this at a later date. I anticipate that this will take me at least until the fall, if not until the new year. After that, I will focus on German until it reaches a similar level, and then I will come back to Italian to bring it up to the other two.
On the vocal front, I have a lesson in the City this coming Tuesday and I am excited to see what is next. I had a moment of frustration, understanding and excitement all within about 15 minutes of each other today while practicing. First I was frustrated because I feel like my range is not increasing to include the "tenor notes" at all. Truthfully I know that I am progressing and that the path is long and slow, but every once in a while I get annoyed. Second, I realized today that I have to warm up my voice all the way to its top (F above high C) and then bring it back down through the passaggio in order for the voice to find its place where it needs to be so that I can sing. Finally after accomplishing this I sang through Di pescatore ignobile from Lucrezia Borgia and nailed a high Bb at the end that felt comfortable and somewhat released! If I was a..."lesser" person I would have just given up after the initial struggles, however I continued to work through and past them and was rewarded with a major victory for my vocal progress. Hopefully I can ride this momentum into my lesson on Tuesday!
On the vocal front, I have a lesson in the City this coming Tuesday and I am excited to see what is next. I had a moment of frustration, understanding and excitement all within about 15 minutes of each other today while practicing. First I was frustrated because I feel like my range is not increasing to include the "tenor notes" at all. Truthfully I know that I am progressing and that the path is long and slow, but every once in a while I get annoyed. Second, I realized today that I have to warm up my voice all the way to its top (F above high C) and then bring it back down through the passaggio in order for the voice to find its place where it needs to be so that I can sing. Finally after accomplishing this I sang through Di pescatore ignobile from Lucrezia Borgia and nailed a high Bb at the end that felt comfortable and somewhat released! If I was a..."lesser" person I would have just given up after the initial struggles, however I continued to work through and past them and was rewarded with a major victory for my vocal progress. Hopefully I can ride this momentum into my lesson on Tuesday!
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