What next? (learning Spanish, maintaining German, random dabbling...)

[gsbod]

I've started following the Dutch course on Youtube I linked to in my post above, and for a free Youtube course, it is surprisingly good! Also, with my background in German (plus native English) I am finding Dutch to be rather a charming language. From the point of view of sheer practicality, I would be better off working on one of the big Romance languages, but I wonder if there is something about Germanic languages which just feels like home to me. Over the last 3 years or so I've also been collecting more and more music sung in Scandinavian languages (nothing in Dutch though) - not motivated by language learning at all, but simply because I like the music.

I've been dealing with a lot of work related issues recently which has left me asking some big questions about what I am doing and where my skills and interests lie. In relation to languages, I have been mulling over what exactly it means to me - is it a hobby, which I am doing for sheer enjoyment and escapism, or is it a marketable skill I need to sharpen up and keep sharp? There are no right or wrong answers here, although whichever side I am on will no doubt influence what I decide to do, or how I go about doing it.

It is fair to say, however, that if languages are firmly in the marketable skills box, it does risk sucking a lot of joy out of things.

[Le Baron]

What sort of music do you like? When I started learning Dutch I stumbled upon Doe Maar on the radio (specifically the song Pa, which reminded me of a song by Orchestral Manoeuvres in the Dark). I borrowed their 'best of' album from the library and found they had a lot of good songs. Then I noticed them turning up in the supermarket playlist... and I just realised they actually no longer play music in Albert Heijn!
I won't say there's no music in Dutch, because there is, but there's not that much great music. For my tastes at least, and more and more is being sung in English. The missus used to be into the Dollydots when she was a child, which was a very popular girl group.

I know what you mean about the comfort of Germanic languages. I'm actually better in French than German, but German has never felt as problematic to me as romance languages. And Dutch felt 'right' early on; as though falling into its structures and thought patterns was not difficult. It may be because they are so close to English in 'feel'. I remember sitting at the table of three people (mother and two daughters) speaking Frisian and at no time feeling that it was impossibly "foreign".

That question about 'marketable skills' versus 'pastime'... Of course, as you say, when something becomes a necessity it can lose it's joy. It's sort of both with languages because they're an obvious useful skill to draw upon in professional life. It seems to me it can only become a drudge if it's something solely revolving around language(s) like e.g. translation/interpreting. If it's something just adding useful value to your general professional life, then it's likely more rewarding and can still be a passion.

[gsbod]

What sort of music do you like?

Now there's a question... I guess something vaguely alternative with an 80s or 90s production aesthetic?

At the moment, I'm listening to a lot of Die Ärzte, Alcest, Myrkur, Einstürzende Neubauten, Chelsea Wolfe, New Model Army, and David Bowie. Make of that what you will.

When I started learning Dutch I stumbled upon Doe Maar on the radio (specifically the song Pa)

Thanks for the recommendation, it turned out to be more my kind of thing than I was expecting!

That question about 'marketable skills' versus 'pastime'... Of course, as you say, when something becomes a necessity it can lose it's joy. It's sort of both with languages because they're an obvious useful skill to draw upon in professional life. It seems to me it can only become a drudge if it's something solely revolving around language(s) like e.g. translation/interpreting. If it's something just adding useful value to your general professional life, then it's likely more rewarding and can still be a passion.

It's not really about whether it's a necessity or not. It's rather the difference between being goal-driven, output-oriented and needing some kind of external validation (all to justify the monetary rewards), or doing it for the personal experience and not really having to justify yourself to others (because money isn't involved). Like I said, there's no right or wrong answer here and most of us have to earn a living somehow. Anyway, the one language that would potentially be useful to me professionally right now (without making a career change) isn't actually on my to do list.

[gsbod]

My problem, if it even is a problem, is that I am either incredibly focussed on one thing (critics would call me single minded), or I can't focus on anything. I'm definitely going through an unable to focus patch at the moment. There are so many potentially juicy things I'd like to do with various languages, but I can't settle on anything, meaning I'm doing very little of anything. I know this will pass, I guess I just have to ride it out...

[gsbod]

I'm wondering whether I have reached some kind of practical limit in terms of my German ability.

I'm pretty happy with my comprehension as a whole, which I believe has reached the limits of what is practically testable, at least in terms of typical CEFR tests. I love how good my listening is. My reading is good enough, although it would be nice (but not essential) to have even fewer vocabulary gaps and improve my reading speed (but even in my native English, I'm quite a slow reader - can skim if I have to, but if I don't, I won't).

My speaking is getting a little rusty now, due to a lack of travel opportunities and face to face meetups. But I'm not too worried about it, as I know it will come back as and when I need it. Writing is the weak point. I don't really enjoy it and, beyond occasional casual Facebook messages and the like, I have no need to do it.

If I wanted to aim for C2 I'd need to work on my output, but given that my current level already meets my needs, it would feel somewhat artificial and may be difficult to maintain afterwards.

I do still have a massive "to read" pile of German books - but is it time to start thinking about them in the same way I think about my English "to read" pile? That is, something to read for pleasure or knowledge as and when I feel like it, rather than something I ought to do to develop a language skill...

[DaveAgain]

My speaking is getting a little rusty now, due to a lack of travel opportunities and face to face meetups. But I'm not too worried about it, as I know it will come back as and when I need it.

Before all this Covid malarky, did you do anything to routinely practise speaking? Go to a German club, meet German speaking friends? etc

[gsbod]

Yes that's right, I used to have regular get togethers with some German speaking friends. There was also a language cafe I'd attend from time to time.

For a while we had get togethers online, but it petered out and to be honest, I'm so fed up of zoom and the like.

I'm sure things will pick up again once things get back to normal, which is why I'm not too worried about it.

[gsbod]

Well I got my maths exam result and I just missed getting a distinction. So although I should be thrilled with getting a really good pass mark, instead I feel really quite disappointed. There were circumstances on the day which meant that I didn't perform as well as I could have done, which I don't really want to go into here. (And maybe, had I not been so well prepared, given the circumstances, I would have been looking at a much worse outcome). It just leaves me feeling pretty cynical about the arbitrary nature of exam grades as a whole. And leaves me feeling even more resolute about not putting myself through all that again, unless I really have to.

[Lawyer&Mom]

As one who received her degree with merit, but not distinction, I salute you. Well done!

[gsbod]

Last week we had a little heatwave, with temperatures edging 30C most days (normal summer temperatures here are in the low 20s...) I generally tolerate hot weather reasonably well, at least for someone not regularly accustomed to it, but I was starting to reach my limit towards the end of the week and was somewhat relieved when cooler weather came in overnight last night.

I've now got a week off work and apart from a couple of social things planned I'm not really sure what to do with myself. My ability to plan trips away has been completely thrown off course by pandemic uncertainties. But the main thing is I don't have to work, which is always a good thing

I think it might be a good time to dabble around with a few thoughts I've got about various language things I might want to do, namely:

- Get my Spanish up to A2
- Brush up my French and start getting back into native materials
- Get a bit more beginners Dutch under my belt
- Get my Japanese reading up to scratch so that it's self sustaining (i.e. I can maintain it by reading things I want to read)

Obviously I can't do all of them at once, and each of them (with the possible exception of Dutch, given how basic my aspirations are) will take more than a week to achieve. The other thing is, I'm kind of fed up about how much time I'm spending at my desk in my home office anyway, so maybe the best thing would be to turn the computer off, put away the textbooks, and just curl up with a book (in any language) elsewhere...