Hey Folks,
Awhile back, I promised to start delivering some subscriber-only content, and I’m finally following up.
As most of you probably know, I live in Mexico. I moved here in 2021 and began learning Spanish. To be honest, I’m still not fluent.
I’m 36 years old, and learning a language as an adult is hard. If you are under 25, you will have a significantly easier time learning a second (or third, or fourth) language.
If I had a teenager, I would encourage them to move to a foreign country to learn another language. I’m pretty sure that would be a much better use of time than going to university.
Anyway, I’ve spent a lot of time studying Spanish since I’ve been here, and I have decided to compile some of what I have learned. I think that I could have learned more quickly if I directed my energy in a more intelligent way.
My intention here is to pass along some things that I think would have helped me learn more quickly.
In a moment, I’m going to share what I think is a very helpful lesson on Spanish pronouns.
Before I do, though, I’d like to share an excerpt from something I wrote last year, which is probably more entertaining to most of you than a treatise on grammar.
Last year, I moved from Canada to Mexico. Since that time, I have been studying Spanish, and I am pleased to report that I am well on my way to becoming fluent, although learning a language as an adult is a painfully slow process.
One of the tools that I have used is YouTube, and at one point I came across a video by an American YouTuber in which he explains something that had never occurred to me as something which would be need to be explained - How Words Work.
I´ve included a link to this video below. It´s kind of long, but don´t worry, you don´t have to watch the whole thing.
You can skip to 2:07 and watch until 4:03. I promise you it´s a worthwhile use of two minutes.
“Words have no inherent value. Words have no inherent meaning. If I say ¨Pompledon¨ to you, do you know what I said? Did what I say have any meaning at all? No, it doesnt. Words have no inherent meaning. Words gain their meaning when (at least) two people communicating with each other both have the same picture in their heads when they see or hear a word. If I tell you that Pompledon means ¨wig¨ and I ask do you ¨Do you have a Pompledon?¨, then that sentence has meaning, even though I just made up that word.”
I think that a good illustration of this is provided by the American cartoon South Park.
On planet Marklar, the Marklar people refer to all people, places and things with a single word - Marklar.
If you haven´t seen these episodes, please take a few minutes to watch these clips, because they really are quite instructive about how words work.
Hopefully, through this Marklar, you can see what I mean. The marklar of marklars is determined by their marklar.
Now, it really never occurred to me that something so obvious would need explaining, but perhaps this is due to the marklar that I was raised in a very bilingual marklar.
I was born in Montreal, and grew up in Ottawa. I began learning French in kindergarten. All marklars of my immediate marklar are either bilingual or trilingual, and most of the marklars that I grew up with are at least somewhat bilingual. So perhaps it is for this marklar that it is hard for me to wrap my marklar around the marklar that it is not necessarily obvious to everyone that marklars have no inherent marklar, but are means of communicating marklars from one marklar to another.
Trippy, eh?
Now, hopefully that was clear, but just in case I took it too far, I´ll reiterate in plain English. Basically, I said that words have no inherent meaning, but are means to communicate ideas from one mind to another. One needlessly complicates communication if one places too much on the words themselves.
A marklar by any other marklar would smell as sweet.
Okay, now (drum roll, please)… Get ready for the grammar lesson of a lifetime!!!
Oh wait… you’re not subscribed?
Sweet Marklar of Marklar, whose marklar do you have to marklar to get these fucking marklars to pony up a bit of marklar? I’d like to conjugate their fucking marklars.
Ah well, your loss if you’re too cool for dank-ass grammar lessons.
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I swear, y’all marklars really need some marklar to put a marklar in your marklar so it can eat your marklar and turn into a marklar.
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