Numbers

Life is all about little victories, right?

After using self-made flash cards and enlisting the help of my wonderful fiance, I may actually legitimately know the numbers zero through ten.

Back in the day, when I first began learning Spanish vocabulary, flash cards were my staple. For some reason, they just worked for me. I think a lot of it has to do with the fact that I'm a visual learner...I see the word, then I think of a picture in my head. For example, learning the word for "window," I would look at the word "ventana" and picture a window in my head. It's always worked. But it also has to go along with seeing the word. Something about seeing how it is spelled and how it looks always cements it in my head.

So, starting out with Lithuanian numbers, it was slow going trying to recite my home and cell numbers. Ask Sean :) But little by little, it started getting easier. I don't have them down perfectly by any means, but it's getting there.

I've also nailed down some fun phrases like...
-Labas (Hello)
-Labas rytas (Good morning)
-Laba diena (Good day)
-Labas vakaras (Good evening)
-Labanakt (Good night)
-Mano telefono numeris yra... (My telephone number is)
-Prasome pakartoti (Please repeat)
-Taip/Ne (Yes/No)
-Aciu (Thank you)
-Iki (See you!)

"Mano telefono numeris yra" has been a hard one to remember correctly because when my brain is thinking in a foreign language, that language is Spanish. And in Spanish, you say "number of telephone" (numero de telefono). So, I am continually switching the words around in my head. The psychology behind it is interesting because I've heard that your brain creates pathways that are used over and over again when you learn a language.

Looks to me a lot like "language transfer," at least according to this Wikipedia article.

Another fun little bit is this website on the most spoken languages in the world.

Labanakt!