10 Hours update
So I arrived at my first milestone, I am 10 hours in learning a completely new language, not even closely familiar to me. But that's exactly why I decided to accept the challenge. After amassing 10 hours of Vietnamese CI, I am here to write my first update.
Initial thoughts:
It's hard bro. The language itself is hard, yes, but what really impedes my growth is the lack of good resources. Yes, there's just about enough Vietnamese CI out there to get by (barely - mandarin and japanese have way more), but none of it really addresses true day 1 beginners. I combat this by putting on English subtitles, which elevates my comprehension from 1% to maybe 20%, and yes, we are talking about "super beginner" type videos. If I didn't put on English subs, it would probably take me 10 years to learn the language., because at 1% comprehension, growth is slow and painful.
Despite the frustrations, I do learn. I have noticed progress, no doubt. This method of language acquisition does work; I know more Vietnamese at 10 hours than I knew at 1 hours. As you suspect, I am learning the basic words for everything, basic pronouns, verbs, adjectives.... At 10 hours obviously you can't expect much, but the biggest takeaway here is that I am indeed learning and have learned some Vietnamese already.
My prediction is that it will take me about 100 hours to be level 2 according to the DS map. For level 6, probably 1800 hours, and level 7, maybe 2500 and above. I'll tell you what, Spanish seems like a cake walk compared to Vietnamese. I thought French was hard, at least I could watch SB videos in French and not be completely lost. But hey, that's the challenge of learning a tonal language. The reward is big if you persist, especially if you respect Vietnamese culture and lifestyle.
Which brings me to my last point. So why did Terry decide to learn Vietnamese? Part of the reason is that I am inherently a language lover, and after learning Spanish, I needed a new challenge. My goal is to speak 5 languages, so I am working towards that. But why Vietnamese though? Well, it's personal....
I didn't choose Vietnamese, Vietnamese chose me. I've had the pleasure to work with Vietnamese people, as both my colleagues and clients. When I worked with a group of Vietnamse clients directly, I was often the only white person in the room, did not share nothing much in common, yet they accepted me and were happy that I was there to assist them. They had me try a traditional soup with pineapple in it and bunch of other stuff. I was sceptical at first, but I loved it. In general, I've always had positive experience dealing with Vietnamese people. But recently I had an amazing moment happen. I was assisting this elderly Vietnamese couple, I came to do some housework for them. They were welcoming and let me do my thing. I didn't speak much to them, but towards the end of shift, the wife handed me some soda beverages to take home. I didn't take them, but I said thank you, I appreciate it. I was so grateful. I barely spoke to her, yet she was so generous to me. As I was leaving, I also spoke to the husband, who was doing some brick work outside. We chatted for a while, and what's crazy, he guessed my ethnicity without me even bringing up the topic (I am Croatian). I was shocked, this guy obviously had met many Croatians before and could tell by my looks, mannerism, accent, that I could be Croatian. I was shell shocked. And as I was leaving, I went to shake his hand. He took his time to take off his right glove just to give me a proper hand shake. Man, I just felt so humbled and appreciated. It was a great day, and I won't ever forget it. Few weeks after that, I decided to learn a new language, and after short deliberation, I chose to learn Vietnamese. I am super happy with my choice, because culture and people is a big reason why I learned Spanish, and it's a big reason why I'm learning Vietnamese now.
Thank you for reading all of that, I wish you good luck on your journey, and I will be back here to report when I hit 50 hours of input.