Did I become the polyglot that I had hoped?
At the start of the year I put it on my bucket list that I wanted to become a polyglot by the end of 2025. And did I? Yes! But there is also so much more work for me left to do and I will discuss each language in depth in this blog.
My language goals set at the start of the year:
– Korean: Complete level 3
– German: Get my speaking skills fully to B1 (other skills are already at B2/C1 level)
– French: Check my skills and get to A2
– Italian: Start and get to A2
– Japanese: Start and explore the language
– Chinese: Start and explore the language
Unfortunately I decided throughout the year to let go of a couple of languages… for 2025 at least. This was because I needed to focus on the languages that were more important back then. And also because my life changed a lot over the course of a year.
Dropped languages
Japanese – Start and explore the language
Why would I want to learn Japanese? First, I want to understand the similarities between Korean and Japanese. Second, I want 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.
It was my plan to study Japanese in the second half of the year. But that is exactly when my mom and I took the moving process seriously. In a very short time – trust me, we also still don’t know how – we found a new house and while writing this blog I recently moved in! Sometimes it’s best to drop something in order to have space for priorities. However, I do hope to have time for this language in the future.
Chinese – Start and explore the language
As of right now, I have decided to completely drop the language. I really want to level up faster with other languages and to be able to do so, I think it would be best for me to drop the language. Maybe even forever. If I pick Chinese back up one day, it’s most likely when I travel to the country.
Italian – Start and get to A2
I’ve been wanting to study Italian for a long time, but at a certain point I turned back to French, cause I prefer the grammar rules in that romantic language. And I still do, so when my life got busier and I did need French a lot, I thought it would be best for me to drop the Italian language for a bit.
However, one day I want to give it a shot again. I am not entirely sure yet how I want to study the language to be honest. Maybe I am going to do language stacking. Learning the language with French and working my way up. I need to look into it, cause for some reason I personally don’t like to learn Italian from my native language (Dutch). I have the feeling too much is lacking. This is 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.
Active languages
French – Check my skills and get to A2
My lovely A2 level language. I already achieved what I had hoped for with this language for the year at the start of the year. In May I officially tested for A2. I kept on expanding my vocabulary the rest of the year, mostly by focusing on A1, A2 and some B1 level words. For next year I want to keep on building since I am foreseeing a trip to Paris to meet a friend, so I will also need to brush up on my speaking skills and other skills needed.
Korean – Complete level 3
So I got some of the basic stuff down, and I am incredibly happy that I understand more and more when watching a K-drama. Like I said in other language updates: I can even hear when watching a show if the translation is correct or not, or when the nuance doesn’t exist in English.
But because of the hectic life I had with work and all the house stuff, I only started level 2 during the second half of the year. I am quite far along, but not far enough to even be close to reach level 3. The reason why it also took me some time to reach level 2, was because I was reviewing level 1 and I decided to follow other classes to create a better base as well.
German – Get my speaking skills fully to B1 (other skills are already at B2/C1 level)
To get to a certain level, maintaining it and learning everything that you need to know to be on that level is quite a lot. I realised that when I lived in Vienna (Austria) at the end of 2024 and beginning of 2025. Back then, except for my speaking skills, everything else was already at a B2 level. Reading is most of the time at a C1 level.
It’s lovely when a language finds its way into your daily schedule. Actually a day hasn’t gone by in weeks if not months without me thinking in the German language. It helps that I like to read German books and watch shows, but I also have been actively working on my speech. Even if my speech doesn’t sound right right away, my brain naturally figures out how I could say it better next time without me putting in too much effort.
And yes, my algorithm still thinks I am a German speaker, but this time it isn’t just the ads I see in German, German speaking creators are also getting pushed on my Instagram and YouTube.
Haha, I love how hard the language is pushing itself in my daily life. I can read books without trouble, watch shows without much brainpower and I adore listening to audiobooks. My speech is good enough for smalltalk. Even though there is still a lot of work left for me to do and things I want to achieve with German, I do feel confident now to call German my third language.
Road to polyglot
After I have been travelling a lot in the first quarter of this year, I noticed my language skills had improved a lot. But I also knew it was going to be hard to reciprocate that in the months after. My number one priority was work so naturally the language skills I developed during the second quarter were all languages I had to use for work. Besides English (and my native tongue, Dutch) I worked in German and French. I even leveled up my French to A2.
The third quarter surprised me, because I got the chance to work with a Korean company! Of course I learned a lot of new Korean words. This also included a bit of their business culture (contracts and stuff). It was amazing and helped me enormously to understand Korean culture better and with that the language.
In the final month of the year, I feel confident enough with my German to say that I reached B1 level with my speaking, and with reading I am fully at C1 level.
I wished my language skills this year would have improved more in multiple languages, but I am happy I at least got the chance to hone my skills. In the end, now looking back at everything I did achieve, I am happy. Because I found my own way with the languages that had the most priority. For 2026 I am planning to keep my language circle smaller.
Now for the big question… Am I a polyglot? I want to say yes. There is still so much work left, but I am fluent in two languages and have at least A2 level in three languages. I can’t wait to make my language goals for 2026 so I can level up and who knows… hopefully get fluent in three languages in the upcoming year.
How did your language study go in 2025?
Love,
Leave a Reply