What are the main DOs and DON’Ts when learning Georgian, Armenian and Azerbaijani? This we’ll discuss in the newest episode of the Caucasus Podcast.
I’ll share with you my experience as a student of these 3 languages and also as a teacher. Often if you struggle with learning Georgian, Armenian and Azerbaijani this is one of the items that you should either start doing or stop doing.
So let’s check if you should include these in your study routine.
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When to start learning the language?
As we’re preparing this episode of the Caucasus podcast in January, it’s the moment of the New Year resolutions, goal settings etc. Therefore some of you may have just decided to start or to come back to learning Georgian, Armenian or Azerbaijani. Or as I am doing – maybe you learn all of them.
That’s why the beginning of the year seems like a perfect moment to go through the main actions that help and the main mistakes people do, which creates the rumour that Georgian, Armenian or Azerbaijani is hard to learn. I can assure you, it’s much easier that they say.
So what is the best time to start learning – the moment you decide you would like to. What you do though is to adjust the learning process to your actual possibilities.
Let’s start with the first TOP3 DOs when learning Georgian, Armenian or Azerbaijani.
Do not skip the revisions
Some people believe that learning a language is a process of constantly adding new: new Georgian vocab, new Azerbaijani grammar, new Armenian phrases.
What you should do instead, is to learn a small portion of a new study material, e.g. new Georgian verb, new 10 Armenian words or counting from 1 to 10 in Azerbaijani and… revise this new knowledge for few study sessions. Only when you more a less remember and are able to actively use it, only then add anything new to your study process.
But then I will be learning sooo slowly – you may say. No, then you will be actually learning and remembering the study material.
There is some king of belief that if you see new word then you treat it as you’d already learned these. However, you truly know it when, being able to use it in a sentence when speaking. This is the hardest part in using a foreign language and treat this as a benchmark.
Practice Georgian, Armenian and Azerbaijani with all of your skills
Ok, Asia, then what type of revisions should I do? You may think now.
I have to confess that I do hate just learning by heart new vocab. It sounds so dull and boring for me I cannot make myself to do it. Till now I remember the feeling when learning English in primary school I hat to memorise several pages of words for the test. Then I was totally convinced learning a foreign language is one of the most boring and horrible thing you can do with your life.
It’s already many years after my primary school graduation and now I still hate learning by heart and in the meantime I learned 7 different foreign languages. As some of you may know my native language is Polish. English is the first foreign language I’ve learned.
The good revision process includes all: listening, writing, speaking and reading.
I know that for Georgian, Armenian and Azerbaijani there are not that many materials as they are for e.g. German, Korean or… English. But there are many things you can you on your own:
- Listening to an Armenian song and try to find as many new grammatical forms as you can.
- Open the text in Azerbaijani and find words you already know (even if you don’t understand the whole text).
- Create 5 questions in Georgian using the 5 new words from the last lesson or study session.
To make it easier for you in January and February we are conducting a Monthly Language Challenge. You get the cheat sheet with 7 activities you may do each week. You decide how often you do each of them and you mark it when completed. Sign up and get the cheat sheet:
Also in January and February we show you examples on how to learn even when having 5 mins a day – we do it on our social media and for Georgian additionally in our Facebook group – Let’s study Georgian.
Focus on active learning Georgian, Azerbaijani and Armenian
You heard me saying that the ultimate goal is to be able to say something new in a language you learn. When you speak Georgian, Armenian or Azerbaijani, when you participate in conversations in these languages you are using everything you know probably. And that may be challenging, especially at the beginning.
That’s why the revision exercise that helps you is writing own sentences, dialogues, questions, you name it. It’s like a rehearsal, dry-run before the real-time conversation.
That’s why in all of our courses – when learning Georgian, Armenian and Azerbaijani with us – we also encourage you to create own dialogues, texts, sentences.
It helps you also believe in your ability to use the language and in a long run speeds up the process of speaking and responding when you’ve already practiced the sentences.
The most common mistakes when learning Georgian, Armenian and Azerbaijani
In my teaching career for 13 years I have seen many students and their study process and the results they got following these. That’s why now let’s see what may minimize the chances of learning Georgian, Azerbaijani or Armenian. Although these languages may not seem very similar, there are 3 common mistakes for all 3 of them.
Don’t skip the handwriting part
Before I started learning Azerbaijani with Julia, our teacher, I was convinced handwriting in Azerbaijani is not as crucial as it is in Armenian or Georgian. Azerbaijani is based right now on the Latin alphabet with few letters typical for this language or in general Turkic languages. However, now I can tell you that if I were not handwriting in Azerbaijani I would not have learned so much, so well, in such a short period of time. And Julia was the one with her revision exercises who showed me this.
Georgian and Armenian have own alphabets, not so hard to learn but just different.
Why handwriting is important? When writing the new word, own sentence, you also create the so called muscle memory, which you cannot do just by typing on a keyboard.
Also when handwriting especially at the beginning, you need more time to write something down so you focus more on the study.
I know that now we mainly type and our hands are not used to handwriting anymore, but I can guarantee – you will simply remember the words better after handwriting them. By the way it would be a pity to know the language but not being able to handwrite a small note, wouldn’t it?
Don’t skip the learning alphabet phase
Always the first step for you, learning Azerbaijani, Armenian or Georgian, should be learning the alphabet – the sounds and the signs. Reading, writing, listening. I don’t know anyone who was actually able to learn one of these languages and didn’t know the alphabet. I know some people who decided not to learn the alphabet properly and after months and even years of learning were still struggling with using it.
The reason is quite simple – all 3 – Georgian, Azerbaijani and Armenian – have sounds that you may not find in your native language and the best and successful way to learn them is to train your speech apparatus to do it from scratch. And to do so, it’s better to associate the new sound with completely new sign, so it’s not mixed with (often not so similar) sounds in other languages you know.
Learning the initial stage – so you can recognize and more a less write the letters – is from 1-2h in Azerbaijani to 4-5 in Armenian. For Georgian it’s 3-5 hours. And then, all next months and years of learning the languages just go much smoother.
Don’t leave the grammar aside
Asia, but I just want to speak, I don’t need any grammar.
If you want to speak Georgian, Armenian or Azerbaijani not just throw separate words at people, you need to know a bit of grammar as well.
The best way to approach it, is to learn grammar in parallel to the vocab you learn. For example, during our Armenian courses Anna teaches you the forms of “to be” verb in present tense and the simple sentence creation rules. Then you use it immediately by naming the people and things around you. You revise it, practice the words you know so far and only then you move to the next topic that combines both new words and a piece of grammar, e.g. asking the questions on the example of “How are you?”. As a result: you know the rule, you can use it with something quite useful and then practice.
In Azerbaijani you need to learn e.g. the rules of harmony to be able to understand who is the subject in the sentence. When learning Georgian it’s crucial to get to know the cases (of course step by step, not all at once), so that you’ll realise that the words: manqana, manqanis, manqanas, manqanit are the same 1 word – a car – but in different cases.
What are your dos and don’t’s for learning Georgian, Armeniana or Azerbaijani? Or maybe there is something that stopped you when learning Armenian, Azerbaijani or Georgian?
Let us know in the comments on our YouTube canal or respond to any of the newsletters aka The with your story!
Do you look for Georgian, Armenian or Azerbaijani courses?
Check out the spring offer of new group and individual courses in:
that is already posted on our webste.