Previous log: Spoon's Space for Spanish, 'speranto and... Italian.
Introduction
My name is Cherrelle, so you can call me that or just Spoon, I don't mind either way. I am a native English speaker from the north of England and I am currently unemployed, having graduated in July and struggled to find employment thus far. I spend a lot of my time these days looking for jobs, and the rest of the time I try to focus on language learning. My other interests include books, video games and comedy, as well as a current fascination about Ancient Egypt.
I decided to create a new log this year because I wanted somewhere more organised and just generally minty fresh to log my language learning. I have also taken the opportunity to write more comprehensive stories about my languages past and present. Enjoy!
Languages I am currently studying (+stories)
Spanish: As the title of my log suggests, Spanish will be my focus for the year. I have a BA in Spanish Studies which included a year abroad in a Spanish-speaking country (I spent mine in Santiago de Compostela, working as an English assistant in a secondary school), and I dedicated four years of my life to learning and improving all aspects of my proficiency in the language, so I would say I am an advanced Spanish 'user'. Or at least, I was. Since finishing university in July and moving back in with my family, my Spanish has atrophied somewhat, but I have been too excited about finally being able to do more Italian to really notice it until recently.So, in 2016 I need to regularly engage with Spanish in a variety of ways, in order to return to the level of proficiency I had, and to push on from there. In my 2015 log, I started setting myself weekly goals with this outcome in mind, which will continue shortly. This year, I will be incorporating more focussed reading and listening into my schedule, while making some time for speaking and writing. I am also taking part in the Output Challenge, and this time I intend to complete it.
Italian: I began incorporating Italian gradually into my life during my year abroad, when I started watching some Youtube videos and listening to random podcasts. Obviously, already being proficient in Spanish helped me out immensely and I was able to comfortably understand a lot in quite a short time.In the final year of my degree, I took a level 2 Italian class and I found myself an Italian language exchange partner. I quickly found that the class I was taking was way too easy for me, as it focussed on grammar I could learn myself, with very little contact with native materials or conversation practice, so I spoke to the lecturer and she suggested I attended some of the degree-level Italian classes, where things may be more suited to my level. I did attend several, where I learned a lot and enjoyed myself greatly, but I couldn't go to too many because I had my own classes to go to, where my Spanish was already showing faint signs of Italian interference, so I had to stop attending the Italian classes towards the end of the year.
Now that I have my Spanish qualification and a bit more freedom as to what I study, I have been reading a few things in Italian and listening to more Italian radio, but I am still experiencing too much Italian interference in my Spanish for my liking. Therefore, Italian has to once again take a back seat to Spanish, until the latter becomes a regularly (more) important part of my daily life again. That said, I do want to see some improvement in all areas of Italian this year, too, so I will have to squeeze it in somewhere.
Esperanto: I have started learning Esperanto a couple of times, but it was at around the middle of 2015 when I acquired a serious interest in the language, started the Duolingo course and began watching Evildea's videos on Youtube. I went to a meetup and spoke to some other esperantists there, and that was when I knew there was no going back. Yeah, I haven't actually 'studied' anything for a few months, and the only things I listen to are Evildea's videos, but those are helping me maintain the language and learn a fair bit of vocabulary (how much I could actually produce myself I don't know, but I recognise it!).I want to return to (and finish) the Duolingo course this year and try listening to some Radio Verda or something. I have a lot of things bookmarked but I never find the time to read/listen to them. Perhaps 2016 will be the year.
Briefly Studied:
As I have recently added this category to my languages information as appears below my profile picture, I thought I would explain it a bit further.
Portuguese - I studied Brazilian Portuguese during my first two years at university, in classes like those I took for Italian (in year 1 I did level 1 and in year 2, level 2). There, I learned all the essential grammar (no subjunctives, etc.) and a fair bit of vocabulary, largely helped along by my knowledge of Spanish. From then on, I have continued to watch Youtube videos in Brazilian Portuguese, and my understanding is pretty good as a result, but I have next to no ability to speak the language.
I love the sound of Brazilian Portuguese, and I did like learning it, but I think I will leave speaking it to the Brazilians (and other enthusiastic speakers) and look/listen on passively/receptively. I am having enough problem with interference between Italian and Spanish. I don't want to add another romance language into the mix.
Galician - As I mentioned above, I spent my year abroad in Santiago de Compostela, Galicia and as such, I heard a lot of Galician in my day to day life. Already knowing Spanish and some Portuguese meant I pretty much understood the language when it was spoken to me, but I had no idea how to speak it. At the end of my time in Santiago, I took a month-long Galician language and culture course. I was placed in the intermediate class after doing a placement test which allowed me to skip all the basic explanations and get stuck-in speaking the language with my classmates. Myself and the other (inter)national students spoke (almost) nothing but (our version of) Galician for the entirety of the three and a bit weeks that the course lasted, so I learned a lot and became basically proficient. The only problem was that when I returned to university, I had to push all the Galician out and focus on Spanish again (are you noticing the pattern here?).
Galician is a lovely-sounding language, and I had a lot of fun with it. I frequently listen (and sing) to Galician music and I occasionally write messages to the friends I met on that course in "Galician", but other than that, it doesn't have any real use in my life, and I am scared about negatively influencing my Spanish, so I don't think I will be doing any more serious study in that language, at least in the near future.
Future:
The more I write in this post about how little time I have and how much of it I will need to dedicate to Spanish this year, the less I feel I should even be talking about adding other languages to my repertoire, but wanderlust is getting the better of me, and there are three languages I am itching to try out: German, Modern Greek and Basque
Summary: Goals for 2016
Spanish (TAC) - Read lots of books; watch/listen to more films/podcasts; write and speak enough to complete the Output Challenge.
Italian - Engage with as much input as possible and don't shy away from any opportunities for output.
Esperanto - Finish the Duolingo course, read something and listen to something new.
German, Greek, Basque - Satisfy my curiosity and have fun!
I will be watching/listening to plenty of Spanish-language films, TV programmes and podcasts for the input, while doing the output challenge will mostly cover my output for the year. Keeping with the spirit of TAC, I am a member of 
) and a bit of housekeeping, it's time to crack on with the updates!
While I was at the university library, I found a book called Como aprendes el Euskera fácilmente which was full of Assimil-style lessons with phrases in Basque on one side and Spanish on the other. I don't have borrowing rights at the library any more (and I can't afford to pay for them 
