Immersion, other plans and dropping a language. Let’s get into my language studies!
Road to polyglot
Since I have been travelling a lot in the first quarter of this year, I realised I haven’t had the time to sit down and actually think about my language progress. In this case it is a good thing, because I have been doing a lot of immersion, much more than I had anticipated at the start of the year. My language skills have improved, but there is also still a lot of work to do before I can say with full confidence that I am a polyglot. In order for me to become a polyglot I actually decided to subtract a language instead of adding one. I know, not the most obvious choice, but I would rather focus on fewer languages and level up faster with those languages, than scatter my attention.
Bye Chinese…
This language is the one I wanted to study ever since I was a kid. But my priorities have shifted a lot since the start of the year. At first I thought it would be fun to add a language that I wanted to study for so long, but whenever I studied it, I realised I much rather spend my time working on my Korean. I still can’t explain it, but I just like the Korean language a lot. I love the nuances in the language and how much Korean has enriched my thoughts and language skills. In order to have more time to study Korean, I think it would be best to drop a language that doesn’t convey the same feelings when studying. Maybe one day I will pick up Chinese again, but not in the foreseeable future.
Since I already talked a lot about Korean
Let’s get into it! To be honest I haven’t studied the language as much as I had hoped so far this year. But I do keep up with skills I already have inquired. I mean… I can even hear when watching a show if the translation is correct or not, or when the nuance doesn’t exist in English. That’s a positive. But since I am studying one less language I should be able to squeeze in more time with Korean. I am currently working on a weekly schedule to hopefully get in more studying time.
Do it French
At the start of the year I had to tap in a couple of times with my French skills. Right after I got back to the Netherlands from living in Vienna I knew it was best to focus on French. It did certainly pay off during my two trips in Brussels. However I noticed my French doesn’t feel as natural anymore as it used to. Fun fact, when I was 19 I spent some time living in Paris. So French used to be my third language, I spoke it at A2 level with high understanding and reading skills. Well, my speaking skills have left the building since my German got so much better. What I can speak in French is pretty good, however unlike in the past I do have to think about it. And I want to change that. I really enjoy the French language and I actually can still read on a high level. It is just a matter of getting back to A2. I know now what level all my skills are, so I am going to work on it by focusing on vocabulary and A2 level sentences. For my trips I focussed on the words and sentences needed for those specific times, but for the next few months I want to work on levelling up.
Italian taking a backseat
Sometimes you have to make certain decisions. And I decided that it is best for me to pick up this language once my French is better. Once that’s done, I am planning on language stacking. Meaning: I am going to study Italian from the French perspective. For some reason I personally don’t like to learn Italian from my native language (Dutch). I have the feeling too much is lacking. The same reason why I personally dislike that I have to learn Korean from an English standpoint even though my native language has more in common with Korean. Oh, the fun you can have by studying multiple languages at the same time!
Japanese for second halftime
Korean and French are going to be leading for the next two months aka the last month of the first half of this year. After that I hope to start exploring the language a bit and find a way to learn the language best. At the moment it is not my plan at all to speak Japanese fluently. I want to be able to do basic things and that’s it.
German found its way in my daily schedule
Although there is still so much to learn for me in the German language, I feel confident enough now that I will level up in time without cracking up language study books. The thing is, I found lots of ways to incorporate the language in my daily life. I actually read more in German than any other language so far this year. Mostly for my work as a manuscript reader, but since I have been to the Leipzig Book Fair, I actually picked up a lot of German books as well. Even by authors I met during the Book Fair. The audiobooks I turn on are all in German, I watch shows and speak it often enough. Of course at the start of the year I lived in Vienna and I also had that business trip to Leipzig, so I had lots of immersion that truly helped. I will still work on leaving up, but like I said, I won’t crack open a textbook. I will study German mainly with everything that I have incorporated in my life.
Love,
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