No Effort, No Worries

Anything that lets me do something without making any effort, I'm completely down with. Ever since going to China, I've been trying to learn different languages. I've always been so impressed with people who speak more than one language. I guess being a native English speaker and growing up in Australia, it's not as necessary to learn another language.


Oh, I took a year of Japanese in High School (konnichi-wa!) but lost interest because I had to learn to write  in Japanese as well. Too much effort. Same when I borrowed some Russian language CDs from the library - as if I'm gonna learn how to read and write Cyrillic. Then I find myself in China, a country that boasts several dialects and a lexicon of several thousand individual characters, as well as a tonal system. So, depending on how you say it, the word 'ma' can either mean Mother or horse. I didn't really want to be calling anyone's mum a horse, so my Chinese (both Cantonese and Mandarin - we used both) was limited at best. I did try my Cantonese at the local Chinese takeaway today but I'm pretty sure they didn't notice. 


But I really want to learn another language, and since I'm going to Germany in August for a singing course (excitement!), and German being closest to English, I thought I'd give that a go. I even have some German friends to practice on, so it all works out quite well, really.


Now, I'm one to lose interest in things quite quickly. In fact I have the attention span of a goldfish with ADD. I'm actually really surprised I've kept up this blog for so long. 


I needed something to help me learn German without me getting bored and losing interest. 


I found it. 


Well, my friend Miriam found it, and got me onto it. It's called Earworms, and it uses funky music playing under the language lesson to help implant it in your brain. Like those annoying jingles you can't get out of your head. You're actually supposed to relax and not really make an effort. It'll just gradually implant itself in your brain. 


That's the idea, anyway. I've listened to it all the way through twice now, and so far I'm no Diane Kruger, but I have a feeling this one will work. I can listen on the train to work, at work, in the car - anywhere, and OMG MULTITASKING!


I'm addicted to multitasking. I NEED to be doing more than one thing at the same time. Yesterday I was simultaneously listening to my German, laminating, checking my facebook and doing a research project. 


Don't tell my boss. 


Or maybe do tell her - I am a freaking multitasking GENIUS. 


But leave out the facebook...