Week One

So. Luxembourgish.

In case you did not know, Luxembourg is right here. It’s exceedingly tiny, and it’s a grand duchy (the last in the world, if you want to be precise), so its head of state is Grand Duke Henri. Since the 1980s Luxembourgish has been the national language, but before then it didn’t have any official status; the government used French and German, which most people spoke and still speak. Luxembourgish itself is spoken by around 500,000 people in Luxembourg and apparently in some small areas in France and Belgium. As its name suggests, Luxembourgish is a ‘native’ language that people often speak at home. It’s also taught in elementary schools.
Yes, yes, I am also perfectly aware that I have virtually no chance of marrying any of the princes in line for the throne. Especially considering that the one who will be Grand Duke is much older than me and already married. However, I thought that learning Luxembourgish would be fun, since it's a little-known language in the States and it is still unique despite its similarities to other languages. I already know a good amount of German, and Luxembourgish is related to it as well as French and Dutch. So Luxembourgish still holds some challenges despite the apparent advantage.

I feel really lucky that I found this program; there seemed to be a few other nice ones, but none of them were free. Yay QuattroPole and their international urban alliance! A quick preview of QuattroPole eLearning told me that it would teach me more than enough to reach my final goal at the end of these six weeks (Segway Segway Segway)
Hopefully I’ll be able to retain as much of Luxembourgish as I have German. I want to write a dialogue in Luxembourgish; you know, one of those typical how-do-you-do conversations that you learn in any level one language class. Of course, I’ll go a bit above and beyond, since my first lesson has already taught me more than I learned in a month of German I. I plan to make a video of myself saying one half of the dialogue, putting the Luxembourgish words and their English translation on the screen. The video will be shown during my presentation, and I'll complete the dialogue live in front of the audience.
I’ve already done the first Luxembourgish lesson, which was made up of six modules of eight sections each. At the end of every module, the website asks you to evaluate your progress by deciding if you are ready to move on, halfway there, or need to redo the module. This is excellent, as it stops me from having to remember to evaluate myself (important when learning a foreign language) and it helps me track my progress during the next six weeks. After all, it'll be hard to keep track of one or two lessons a week.
So, the very first thing I had to do was to watch a video of three people on the street speaking Luxembourgish. When they started talking I was surprised; they literally sounded like they were speaking a rough version of French. Now, I don’t know French, I just know how it sounds. I thought Luxembourgish would be a lot harder than I thought, since I always believed that French sounds were hard to make. After the video I heard the individual sentences the people in it had said. Listening to each one over and over and seeing the words was helpful, since Luxembourgish doesn’t seem to be really tricky like French is, with its random silent letters and endings that don’t look how they sound. I have to admit that I was kind of thrilled to see the sentence ‘Wo wunnt Dir?’ since it looks a lot like the German phrase ‘Wo wohnst du?’ They both mean ‘Where do you live?’ And then, in another sentence from that video, I saw the word ‘Awar.’ You know what that means? ‘Goodbye,’ and it sounds like and looks like a simplified version of ‘au revoir.’
This is what interest, when mixed with nerdiness, does to you; you get excited about things that most people find boring or unimportant.
As the lesson went on I had to complete several activities, like having to chose the correct greeting and article for the sentence. For example....

I also had to reconstruct sentences, repeat phrases aloud, and look at charts of verb forms and the like. I took some neatly organized notes, even though everything was rather simple after the first activity. After all, I noted the similarities to other languages and I have a good memory. However, I had a bit of trouble when asked about Luxembourgish sentence structure, since they attached words to different parts of speech, like ‘verbal group’ and ‘complement cluster.’ Like a middle-schooler being taught grammar from a book, I had no idea what was going on. So I guessed, and I was right some of the time. I’ll have to practice that, verb forms, and pronouns more to make sure I really get the hang of it all, but everything else was fine. I haven’t learned too much vocabulary, but I think it’s better if that comes later; vocabulary is only useful when you know where to put it in a sentence. No matter how much vocabulary you know, no one will respect you or listen to you if your grammar is terrible.
Before I start the second lesson, I’ll have to review everything I’m confused about. When learning a language, you have to really lay the groundwork and understand the simple things before you move on to more advanced concepts. I guess that’s how it is when you learn anything without having a background in the subject.



Resources:
Enoch, Nick. "A Big Day for a Very Small Country: Royal Wedding in Luxembourg as Prince Guillaume Marries Belgian Countess Stephanie De Lannoy in Civil Ceremony." Daily Mail, 19 Oct. 2012. Web. 20. Feb. 2013. <http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2220395/Luxembourg-royal-wedding-Prince-Guillaume-marries-Belgian-Countess-Stephanie-Lannoy-civil-ceremony.html>.

http://learnaboutluxembourg.info/luxembourg-europe-map.jpg

BBC. "Luxembourg Profile." BBC News. BBC, 29 Mar 2012. Web 21 Feb. 2013. 
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-17548470