Estonian Week

Okay, trying to learn two languages at the same time is finally starting to take it's toll.

I've gotten to the point now when I'll remember the German word when I'm trying to think of the Estonian one (and vice versa) - usually in the middle of a sentence.

"Ma olen kolmkümmend Jahre alte... wait a minute..."

I'll stare at a plate for fifteen minutes, trying to remember what it's called in German, but the only word that will come to mind is "taldrik". Eventually, I'll have to look up words I already know just because I can't get the other word out of the way.

I've recently decided to try something different - alternate weeks for each language. Last week was German Week: I read German poetry, went over German grammar, made a point of trying to remember the German names for things, tried to speak in German sentences when I could get away with it and had the language settings on my computer switched to German (which was, admittedly, an accident - but a happy one).

This week was supposed to be Estonian Week. Apart from the German lesson, I was going to try to focus on Estonian. I switched over my computer settings, tried to make a point of reading Estonian poetry and news, tried to remember the Estonian word for things as much as possible... I even made a point of not watching German news or listening to German radio even though I had the opportunity to do so.

Now, I should probably point out then when I say "read poetry" I'm probably referring to side-by-side text with the English translation. When I say "reading the news" actually mean "looking at the words and trying to see if I recognise some of them". When I say "listen to the radio" (or something like that) I mean "listen to the sounds coming out of the radio and occasionally picking up one or two words I know".

Anyway, so far Estonian Week has been a bit of a struggle. I find myself going through German withdrawals. I want to read the German poetry books - I have to remind myself to put them down and pick up something Estonian instead. I want to watch the German DVDs that just happened to arrive in the mail at the beginning of the week. I know I should watch another episode of Tuulepealne Maa (which is an enjoyable TV series which can be best described as "The Estonian answer to Band of Brothers") - and I probably will before the week is out - but I have these shiny new DVDs and I want to play with them...

Also, I keep thinking of the German word when I'm trying to come up with Estonian sentences. I sometimes found Estonian creeping into German Week, but German seems to be trying to invade Estonian Week quite aggressively (not entirely unlike approximately 700 years of European history, that).

It's as though my brain just doesn't want to let the German go. It is much easier than Estonian...

Oh, well.

C'est la vie.

Oh, wait, that's French. Scheibenkleister!