As you might know from the blog’s Instagram page, I took part in
What is LangJam?
Language Jam, (often referred to as
When you sign up, you input the languages that you already know and are then randomly assigned a language from the list available from the challenge. There’s a real range of languages covering all continents and various writing systems.
The language I was given to study was Swahili, which I was very excited about.
There is a prep phase for your language in the run up to the Langjam weekend where you have time to gather resources, read up on the language and start learning new scripts if applicable.
This was much needed as I basically knew nothing about Swahili. My knowledge was basically limited to the fact that it is spoken in a few different countries such as Kenya and Tanzania, and that Hakuna Matata is a Swahili phrase.
In my prep phase, I learned some interesting facts about Swahili. I didn’t know that Swahili has links to Arabic: Swahili can be written in the Arabic script and share some vocabulary. I also learned that there are a few other Swahili words referenced in The Lion King:
- Rafiki = friend
- Simba = lion
- Pumbaa = foolish, silly, negligent
- Nala = gift
I decided to join
My LangJam experience
Unfortunately I ended up being pretty busy over the weekend and didn’t get much time to study anything in depth. On the other hand, it has been really fun to follow how other people have been getting on with the challenge via the hashtag #langjam.
Swahili is a fascinating language and I hope that one day I will be able to develop some proficiency in it. I will stick with the Duolingo lessons as they are short and sweet, but my focus will remain on Japanese for now.
Doing the Langjam challenge reminded me of one very important thing; the joy of discovering new things about a language. Learning new words and phrases, sentence structures, writing systems, pronunciation can all be a lot of fun at the start.
That feeling we get from all of these new discoveries is so important for sustaining motivated in your target language. Sometimes even though we are settled in our language learning routines, we can be lacking that little spark that keeps you engaged. This is something I have tried to embody in my learning since finishing the challenge.
I love discovering new Japanese music and getting engrossed in Japanese dramas, so I am now trying to dedicate a little bit more time to both of these fun activities (not forgetting the ‘boring’ stuff too!).
If Langjam sounds interesting to you, keep an eye on the website and the social media channels to be notified of the next challenge (it gets held a few times a year).
Have you started any new languages recently? How have you found it so far? Let me know in the comments!
Having mastered French and Italian (more or less) some years ago, we are now learning Japanese. As you know, it’s much harder! In fact in a recent BBC article we learned that it is in the 4th and most difficult group of languages. No surprise there. Well, we’ve been studying for a couple of years now, mostly in Japan where we’ve been living since September 2017. We’re making progress! And we really enjoy watching Japanese Style Originator (wafusouhonke) on Netflix (with English subtitles). It’s all about Japanese culture with a panel trying to answer occasional questions. I thoroughly recommend it for interest and learning (if only by a kind of linguistic osmosis!)