Since there's no thread specifically for newcomers (at least I think there isn't), I'll use my first post in the log as a way to introduce myself and what my language learning adventure has been.
I'm 19 and I'm from Galicia, which is one of the autonomous regions of Spain. Therefore, both Spanish and Galician are native languages of mine and I use them daily, whether it is speaking or writing them.
My first second language (well, third, actually) was of course English. I've been learning it since I was in elementary school. Some of you might have heard about how terrible are Spaniards at speaking languages
That's mainly because of the poor way of teaching English at schools. The system we use is nearly translating-only, with almost no use of actual speaking (a big part of my English lessons at school have been in Spanish (or Galician), as conflicting as it might be). Almost all the English I've learnt comes from media or the Internet, or at least that's what has helped me achieve the current level I have. I got a C1 certificate three and a half years ago,. I know, I know, language certificates are not that important and the lack of one doesn't imply a lack of knowledge, but since I really enjoy learning languages, my parents have always pushed me to get them, since they can be a really helpful tool in the search of a job in the future, specially if that language is English. Since then, I haven't actively studied English. Reaching a C2 level is a personal goal of mine, but I'm definitely not there yet (and I'm not actually sure what to do to get there other than keep consuming media as I do everyday.When I started high school, I had to choose a second foreign language. The options were French, German and Portuguese. I didn't have a passion for learning languages then, but I really enjoyed it. I chose German as it seemed an exotic and original language for me (French and Spanish are somehow similar, but Portuguese and Galician are really close, as they were the same language 600 years ago). After I finished high school, I kept trying to improve my German, as it is probably my favourite language of all that I've ever studied. As a result, I have three hours of private lessons of German a week (two hours of grammar and one of speaking). I passed the B1 exam more or less a year and a half ago, and I would say that right now I'm between a B1 and a B2. My greatest virtue is writing (I already passed B1 with a score of 93% in writing), but I lack a wide vocabulary and after all this time I keep guessing noun genders at random unless they end in -e/-ung/-nis/-keit, etc.
While I was in high school, I had an exchange with Täby, Sweden for two months. Since everyone speaks almost perfect English there, I didn't bother to learn more than basic expressions and words in Swedish, despite I was living with an actual Swedish family. Of course, I deeply regret that, but I don't think that in only two months I could have achieved a high level in Swedish. I haven't resumed it yet, since I don't feel confident enough with my German to do it, and I really messed up my German for some months after I came back from Sweden (I remember thinking "Obst" meant "cheese" in German instead of "fruit", as it reminded me of the Swedish word "ost").
When I had only one year left of high school, I hesitated whether a should study a Maths degree or a language related one at university. It might sound opposite, but for me pure math is quite close to having its own language and I don't find them that different. I finally decided to study Maths, as I find easier to study languages on my own and there's not actual degree where you just learn a bunch of languages (sadly).
At some point I dabbled in Hungarian, as I wanted to try a "difficult" language. It was summer then and I didn't know a lot about language learning resources, so I didn't have the motivation to keep going and I invest almost no time in it. I probably can't remember more than 20 words and how to make plurals
Currently I am in my third year of university and I wanted to try something new and I started with Russian language almost a month ago. Could I have chosen something easier for me? Maybe Portuguese or Italian? Sure, but Cyrillic looked cool as hell
I've only use the mainstream resources so far: Duolingo, Clozemaster and Assimil. As I'm not in a rush and university is quite demanding for me, I take it slow (so far I've only reached lesson 10 in Assimil), but I'm happy with the progress I've made. Russian phrasal structure doesn't look odd anymore, I'm able to pronounce every Cyrillic letter (well, maybe not ы ) and to tell them apart, and I'm more than happy with it I hope to keep updating this log and to discuss another language-related topic in the forum, and maybe even join some study groups (but I'm actually not sure if I should, as these study groups seemed to be more aimed at more advanced users and my Russian is quite weak yet)
). Still deciding what kind of book I should get, and probably I won't make my mind up until the very last minute.
Anyway, I've crossed the psychological barrier that is lesson 14 (from lesson 15 on, audio is no longer slow-paced and it's quite close to be like a real conversation).