Well, I'm out of work until the fall, so my budget has gone from really tight to stressfully tight. And as the way it goes when you're poor, this is exactly the time of year I get hit with random expenses. It just sucks. For my language learning, that means I will not be able to spend anything on materials, including books or films for my SC. This isn't much of a problem for French, as there's so much free stuff online and I still have access to (legally) free Netflix, but for Gaelic, this means I will have to rely on my current library, most of which I've already read/listened to more than once.
With my Gaelic Film SC, I'm on my 3rd viewing on the last Guthan nan Eilean series and there just isn't much else out that that's free and accessible to me. I can watch the GnE series again, but ideally I should wait a bit longer before doing that. With video, my brain tends to get lazy and starts to tune out if something is overly familiar. Oddly I do not have this same problem with audio books, so I likely will just be re-listening to my current stash of Gaelic audiobooks for the summer. Yeepee, I get to listen to
Fo Bhruid for the 25th or so time.
The other challenge I'm currently doing is PM's 365 Day challenge, which honestly, has been a breeze. Perhaps too easy, since I signed up for Generic for French, Indonesian and Celtic languages. With my combined study times for those languages, I'm overshooting the challenge's goal 4x to 6x. I'm contemplating breaking it down to French, Indonesian and Generic-Celtic languages, or adding Spanish as a separate language, since I dread making Indonesian a single-language goal, because some days studying Indonesian wears out my brain too much, especially after switching over to it from another language and then the words all start looking and sounding the same and I can't grasp anything.
But since I am not working for the next 2 1/2 months, I might as well use that time to work on my languages as much as I can and as much as my health and energy levels will allow, which means I am considering adding a 3rd challenge. I don't know what kind, but an output challenge, particularly for French and Spanish, probably would be best. I'll think it over a bit and hopefully come to a decision by the end of this week.
Outside of my challenges...
I've gotten some Spanish speaking practice in over the past couple of month--not as much as I need, but some is better than none. I also had the very rare opportunity to speak with a French speaker, who complimented me on my vocabulary knowledge and pronunciation, although I think she was probably being overly generous on the latter.
Wanderlust has been a problem lately. Mandarin, of all things, as well as Hawaiian, Vietnamese, Catalan, Occitan, Russian, Navajo... I miss Japanese terribly, and I occasionally dabble with the Clozemaster course, which I find very difficult as my reading is barely A1 and I don't know enough kanji. I can find time for Swedish in small spurts, but I fear I may not get to start Darija this year after all. It's June and there is still
so much I want to get done in the coming months with the languages I'm already working on.
I'm still not happy with the state of Memrise/Decks. A while back, I cancelled my Pro membership (I couldn't afford to renew it anyhow) and sent them a short, concise letter explaining my dissatisfaction with how they have handled this whole thing. which has resulted in my feeling doubtful about relying on Memrise/Decks as a learning resource. I still use Memrise daily, but at the moment only for French and Indonesian. I am hesitant to start or return to any other courses until things with Memrise Inc appear more stable. I'm currently not paying for any language learning services, although I do hope to find a way to get Clozemaster Pro, a sub to Say Anything In Welsh and a sub to U of Hawaii's online intermediate Indonesian course. Those all may have to wait until I'm getting a paycheck again.
I still am listening to a lot of French. I have gotten a bit burnt out on video games, but I still watch French language streams on Twitch (most recently, French language coverage of dorky English-language presentations at E32019 has been quite entertaining), and I still listen to Radio-Canada nearly every day. At times, listening to French seems almost as easy as listening to English, but then, to remind me that French fluency is still a goal on the distant horizon, someone goes and says something which I struggle to follow and I'm completely thrown out of my French groove.
And lastly, I've started watching
Outlander with my mom, now that the show's available on Netflix. The actual Gaelic in the show is sparse, and at times, there's someone speaking English over it, usually to translate the Gaelic for the terribly English protagonist. I usually can make out the Gaelic, if it's not spoken over, although the actors do seem to be playing up the Highland accents, so it's extra-juicy, extra-guttural Gaelic, just as my Gael ancestors would have like it, I'm sure.
Edited for typos