Positive and Negative

I haven't posted in a while, but I have been working on Greek daily!  In my personal experience, I think that familiarity with other languages really helps with learning.  I know Spanish (low intermediate) and German (high intermediate) and have some shallow experience with other languages as well (Latin, Italian, French ...)

Positive: I'm already familiar with some grammar points that would be new to me as an English speaker.  For example, in Greek the subject pronoun can generally be left out because that information is included with the verb ending. That is, katalavaino (καταλαβαίνω), not ego katalavaino (εγώ καταλαβαίνω) unless there is a need to emphasize the pronoun explicitly. That is familiar from Spanish.

Both Greek and German have masculine, feminine and neuter nouns (with adjective endings to match) and I can remember that "girl" and "child" are neuter in Greek because that's also true in German.  Greek, consistently, also treats "boy" as neuter.  And a quick check with Google Translate shows that, like German, Greek treats baby animals as neuter (kitten, puppy, duckling, calf, foal, lamb, etc.).

I also absorb some words quickly thanks to knowledge from other languages. For example, the Greek word for "beans" is fasolia (φασόλια), which is similar to the Italian fagioli.  I don't know much Italian, but I do know how to make "pasta fazool"!

Negative: I am struggling with some words because in my mind they're already connected to the opposite meaning.  In informal German and archaic English, "nay" means "no". In Greek, nai (ναί) means "yes".  While I have thoroughly learned this as a rational fact, it's not 100% at the language-speaking level. I can use the correct word when needed, but I still sense a slight hesitation.  This effect also bleeds into my absorption of the word for "no".   I also have a problem with the word for "there" (εκεί) because it's similar to the Spanish word for "here" (aquí).

As a teacher, I can use this experience to help my English learners, especially those who speak Romance languages.  Highlighting similarities between our languages really does help with vocabulary learning.  Drilling has a place, especially with stubborn words. And I see firsthand why wait time (giving a learner a second or two of extra time to formulate their response) can be helpful at first.  But I can also see reducing wait time with language that should be familiar in order to discourage mental "translation"!