A quick update about my language studies and my plans for the last quarter.
At the start of the year I set the following language goals:
– German completely to B2 – focus on conversational skills
– Level 2 & 3 in Korean
– French A2
– Start learning Japanese
Unfortunately I have to let go of two languages… for this year at least. This is because I need to focus on the languages that are more important right now. Why? I will get there in a second.
Japanese
The first language I have to let go for this year is Japanese. It was never my plan to study the language in depth. However I thought it would be fun to understand the similarities between Korean and Japanese. Second, I wanted to learn more about the rhythm of the Japanese language. I’m reading more and more manga and sometimes I’m curious why the story is structured in a certain way.
I fell in love with the Korean language when I saw a K-drama and suddenly started to understand the rhythm of the language. Not only that, I started to understand the entire series a lot better once I figured out how the language worked.
However, as of right now I want to focus on Korean, since I am making great progress and I don’t want me studying too many languages to dismantle that. Unfortunately, even though I love studying languages, it is not my strength. It takes me ages to understand a simple grammar structure. Luckily Japanese and Korean are not from the same language family but still I think it’s best to push this goal to 2025.
French
Earlier this year I said: “Korean is my focus language, German comes second and French is my fun language.” No pressure, just a language I like to study whenever I have the time. Honestly, picking up some French here and there already came in handy plenty of times. I noticed that my knowledge of the language was better than I expected. As of right now I have achieved with the language what I wanted. If I would be tested I am not sure that I would get A2 level with all the skills, but my reading skills are mostly needed and that is at B1/2 level.
For now I will let go of training my French skills and pick it back up in 2025 when I actually will need it a couple of times.
Last quarter of 2024
For the last three months of this year I have multiple exciting things planned!
German
My reading and understanding skills are at B2 level! Now let’s get to conversational skills and oh boy even though I have gained so much knowledge of the language my speaking is behind. It’s fine though. Like I said before, language studies are not my strength. But I do have to say that even though my conversational skills are below B2 level, I do see a lot of growth. For example, simple conversations just come out of me without thinking too much about it. Over the summer I visited different places in Germany and started multiple conversations. My lack of vocabulary when it comes down to speaking might be low, but during each conversation I did get my message across.
The last quarter I will focus even more on my conversational skills. How you might ask? Well only to my blog readers I will tell… At the end of this year I will temporarily move to a German speaking country. Surprise! I’ve wanted to do this for a long time, but only recently I got the chance to do so. I got myself an apartment in an area little me dreamed of living in. I am so incredibly proud of this achievement and can’t wait for this adventure and all the lessons I might learn.
Korean
At the start of the year I said the following: “German was my focus language in 2023. However, I switched my focus language to Korean for 2024. My German is finally “flowing” and I am not worried about it. My Korean skills however… I need to do a lot of work, but it is my plan to have level 3 by the end of the year.”
Well, it’s not going well. By now you probably know that I changed my last name and honestly that was a part time job this year. It was hard to maintain my Korean skills. So I decided that I would consume Korean content as much as possible and that studying would come later once my name is changed. Last weekend when I restarted my Korean lessons again I made great progress, and even scored very well on tests, so luckily I maintained most of my Korean knowledge. Even better, I found out that I have preferred words that go beyond the textbook stuff, but are still correct Korean. I am super happy that the language stuck with me.
However, what are my plans for this last quarter? I want to review level 1, to make sure I got all the grammar points. By the end of October I am planning on starting level 2 and studying all through November. Depending on how things go, I hope to start level 3 in December. But I wouldn’t be surprised if that doesn’t work out since I will be studying mostly German by then.
Road to polyglot
This was quite the update, but I am super happy that I am starting to become more and more a polyglot. I think by the end of the year I can officially call myself a polyglot. By then my language skills should be at a high level, a level that I feel confident enough about to call myself a polyglot.
Love,
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