Expug’s 2020 Log: Austerity and Adaptability

[Expugnator]

A little bit later than usual, but then it coincides with my first day of actual study this year.

At first I was going to call this log “20 is charm” but even though I’m in practice not far away from that number it would just be a futile ego-trip with little impact in my life and in the relevance of my language studies.

2019 ended with a good deal of reflections about the way my life was evolving and the paths I could choose if I’d ever want to enhance meaning in what I do. My life still evolves around languages in a good deal, a situation that has prevailed for the past eight years and which has ceased to make that much sense and bring me the motivation I’d had. The fact is that a stable job allowed me to dedicate intensely to my hobby, but the way things are now I’m not happy with what language learning is bringing me or with what I could bring back to others thanks to it.
Throughout these years I’ve had language learning fulfill my sense of growth - not as an escape but as an intellectual challenge while career went well and stable. Things have changed both in the sense that I need to be prepared if my work conditions worsen somehow and that I want to make something out of my intense passion for languages – both professionally and voluntarily.

Moreover, in the past years I had no great personal-development interest other than languages; this has changed thanks to two paths that opened up as supplementary careers: tour guide, where I’ve made use of my language skills; and digital marketing, where I can a) reconcile with my so-far underutilized Advertising/Marketing degree b) while learning how to use social media efficiently in order to place myself as someone who might have something relevant to say about language learning and c) maintaining/increasing my relevance in a workplace where everything turns towards social media. 2019 was also the year I gave my first lecture on language learning and where I gave several other non-language related lectures, which means I’m starting to feel at ease at public speaking. As a downside, working as a language consultant hasn’t taken off and traditional private classes have turned into a challenging profession where I have to deal with a volatile consumer market and huge providers/ad services that control the access to the customers by charging as much as they want from the actual professional and increasing the price for their intermediation services as higher as 500% from one day to another.

To make it short, it goes like this:

- I need a solid parallel career to keep my standard of living as well as my motivation for being able to have a path of my own;
- So far it was language classes, but whoever is able to move away from it does so;
- Working as a tour guide for foreigner travelers is my new passion but I live in a noun-touristic region and growth has been extremely low;
Translation is a promising market; even the English-Portuguese pair is far from saturated in the commercial and technical fields, but then I’m not sure I’d embrace it as a profession. On the other hand literary translation for rare languages would feel like fulfilling a dream. At least here in Brazil, translation is a field where people do help each other set and there are several ways to get to know its diverse styles before embracing the career.
- Digital marketing might have awakened a passion similar to languages for me; it requires a lot of training though, as I have to catch up with people who have been on the market for several years. That would be study time taken away from languages. I’m not even talking about a regular degree course here, which wouldn’t be mandatory.

So the trade off goes like this: I can work with premium tourism for which I have the formation and I’m starting to gain experience (all positive feedback so far), but the market is incipient; or I can study translation and start working on it in a couple of months; or I can study digital marketing as start as a freelancer in the hope that it can make up for the language classes.

- Whatever path I choose means taking away times from languages. Moreover, I still have my language goals:

- Writing learning material, which would help solve my authority issue while presenting myself as a consultant;
Improving a couple more languages up to a professional level so I can stop seeing myself as a fraud and a dilettante (imposter syndrome hit real hard last semester);

- Getting back to language textbooks in order to polish active skills for my intermediate, native-material-only languages and finally reach a higher level in them

- Having classes into my stronger languages in order to improve them (for this, the hobby has to pay itself, so that goes along with having a successful parallel career)


It’s no surprise to anyone but now more than ever I’m aware that I’m a slave of my daily schedule, that revolves around nearly 15 languages. I’ve been having time issues: either I don’t have time for all the activities or when I do finish earlier I’m mentally exhausted for tasks that demand creativity and end up with passive learning activities only. It’s an imposing schedule which has been doing more harm than good.

In order to free myself from this self-imposed chore I’ve decided I’m only going to focus on five languages: German, Georgian, Modern Greek, Norwegian and Estonian. These will be the languages that will be granted a schedule item with either textbooks or native material. I’ve gathered so much good intermediate material lately, including textbooks I had been longing for for years, that it’s self-sabotage not to study them properly.

All the other languages will keep being studied but mostly through app-learning. If anyone is wondering about my choices, I can elaborate on it but it’s just an attempt to associate usefulness, affinity and perspective of short-term improvement.

So, austerity means cutting down on the languages I’m self-imposing a routine for, and flexibility means being able to immediately make room for other relevant activities which might actually represent a more relevant use of my language skills.

That’s it, I’ll need all the luck for this year as it involves higher goals, more challenges and a push forward into self-development. Feel free to participate in this log. It’s great to be part of a community of language lovers like me.

[Expugnator]

Now for goals by language:

English
I've lowering my 2019 goal. I have to go through at least one grammar book, and one written for Brazilians. I also have to read at least one manual on translation. Plus one static post for the forum. So, the goal is actually more ambitious;

French
I don't have any rush for French. I'll keep using the language. I'm getting enough exposure to natural French now that I've moved to series and I don't think a certificate will be a page-turn in my life now.

Papiamento
No goals either. I want to write about Papiamento but other languages take priority at this respect. As with English, I have at least 1 textbook assigned for the year.

Spanish
No goals either. I just want to improve my exposure to vocabulary unique to Spanish and to other dialects. Podcasts already help enough at this respect.

Italian
No exposure goals, but I want to write in Italian more often.

Norwegian
I want to improve the language organically. I want to increase my vocabulary, successfully include Norwegian in my massive reviews set on Clozemaster. I want to at least start something on Norwegian for Brazilians.

German
I want to practice German in real life more often. I don't have any writing goals but I want to read at least one novel extensively.

Mandarin
I'm happy with my progress now. I want to have occasional chats and to figure out finally whether I should invest in Mandarin or not. This is rather a language-budget-related than language-related goal, though. As long as I get any return from language learning I'll reinvest part of it in language classes. As with English, I have at least 1 textbook assigned for the year.

Georgian
I'ts January and I'm already happy with the way my reading skills are developping, so I want to consolidate my knowledge of complex sentences which use the perfect series by chatting with native speakers. I want to take classes if budget allows to. Oh, and start something on Georgian for Brazilians, which will be more challenging because it will be due September and Norwegian remains a priority. Well, at least it will be unique. As with English, I have at least 1 textbook assigned for the year.

Russian
I'm happy with the way things are evolving in the reading skills so my goal for 2020 is to activate Russian somehow, even if just through Clozemaste r text input (which will involve mastering the earlier levels so I can work on the middle-of-the-ladder ones).

Estonian
I'm happy with how my reading skills are improving so I don't have any specific goal. Activation is not an urge now, though I already perform some exercises on a daily basis on Clozemaster and Speakly, so I don't have to push at any direction here. As with English, I have at least 1 textbook assigned for the year.

Modern Greek
Now I'm totally directed towards activation. Greece is likely to be my next destination in Europe, maybe next year, so I want to have tourist Greek rounded up as well as activate my B1ish vocabulary through being disciplined with Clozemaster reviews at the text-input mode, Duolingo and Whatsapp groups where I can interact with native and fluent speakers.

Hebrew
I want my Hebrew to level up one CEFR evenly in listening, reading and speaking. I want to make Hebrew a routine on Clozemaster. I want to chat eventually at the many Hebrew Whatsapp groups, even if only with other learners. I want to start listening-reading for the language if I notice I'm ready to benefit from it.

Indonesian
I want to delve into B1 in all levels. I want to be able to do massive reviews at least for the 3rd level on Clozemaster.

Guarani
I want to engage mildly in learning activities on Whatsapp groups. I want to finish at least one textbook after reaching level 3 at the entire Duolingo tree.

The prospects remain the same. I want to start Romanian in the second semester if I reach my goals for at least one of the non-romance languages.

[Expugnator]

(Reserved for list of urging resources)

[Expugnator]

The year started as it ended. Very little language learning. No reading ahead, no advancing with the Arrowverse series.

Still, found out I can combine a marketing course in the background and Clozemaster typing with no harm to either part.

As for the new materials, I have a ong-awaited Assimil Chinese intermediate textbook (an old, out of print textbook). It's similar to Étape par Étape, which is a book worth coming back to now that my Chinese is better

While doing Clozemaster Norwegian at the higher levels, I noticed that the ssentences are pretty long, actual short paragraphs. I have to pay attention in order to make a good use of them, but I'm also impressed with reading speed.

Started Méthode d'Indonésien. Didn't find the audio, and I'm not planning to stay long on the book anyway. I don't have an answer key either, which I'm not that much worried about. At one point, though, I'll have to practice translating as it is useful for me. Probably through reviewing Assimil.

Shtisel was also on my plans for holiday time. Didn't happen. I'm glad I could resume it today, with double subtitles on the computer.

As for Indonesian, I'm finally back at having both Indonesian and Portuguese subtitles matching and synced with the audio. Makes it more productive. With this, I ended my first full-time study day of the year, despite saying I wasn't going to study full time anymore. Well, at least there were over a couple of hours left.

[Expugnator]

Another full-study day went by. Today I gave three classes, which meant less time for app learning.

I finished Heimebane. It was boring halfway the second season, on the soap-opera side, but later on sports prevailed. Now Side om Side sesong 7, because I have to prioritize what is online and can be removed anytime.

The German podcast hasn't been productive lately. I'm used to a much higher degree of transparency when reading German. Maybe it's time to replace it with a stronger language for this slot.

The transcript at Assimil hinders my vocabulary learning. An underlined h stands for the kh soundmade by letter hei. It makes it hard to tell apart h and kh, because when I think of a word written with hei I keep getting interference from this undelrined h. On the other hand, khaf gets a proper kh transcript, so it's actually two different transcripts for the same sound, one of which is in practice identical to the letter that represents a clearly distinct sound.

I'm basically treating Méthode d'Indonésien as a bilingual reader. It's not suitable for absolute beginners but for false beginners like me it fits well. Actually it's a parallel reader plus a grammar reference as it explains grammar very logically, in a direct way typical of French resources and not in a condescencing one.

[jeff_lindqvist]

I finished Heimebane. It was boring halfway the second season, on the soap-opera side, but later on sports prevailed. Now Side om Side sesong 7, because I have to prioritize what is online and can be removed anytime.

Is Twin there, and if so, have you watched it? (I saw it on SVT, eight episodes - I think there will be a second season.)

[Expugnator]

I finished Heimebane. It was boring halfway the second season, on the soap-opera side, but later on sports prevailed. Now Side om Side sesong 7, because I have to prioritize what is online and can be removed anytime.

Is Twin there, and if so, have you watched it? (I saw it on SVT, eight episodes - I think there will be a second season.)

Ikke tilgjengelig utenfor Norge. No, I haven't watched it. I have a list of Norwegian series to watch, including new ones and new seasons to the ones I've watched. There are even a few coming up on Netflix as well (like Ragnarok). I might get Twin anyway.

======================
About to finish Tom Egeland's first written novel. The audiobook has it all, even the Etterord. First novels tend to differ from the most recent works, so I'm really looking forward to keeping moving through his bibliography. Thanks Ogrim for the recommendation.

I'm watching an episode of Fais pas ci fais pas ça where Fabienne goes to Québec. Whatever Québecois comes up is subtitles in French. Not simply transcribed, rather "relocalized".

A Friday like it used to be. I finished my tasks earlier and so I had time for extra app-learning. Still studying my full schedule, don't know for how long. I'm really willing to cut down on native materials for Greek, Russian and German because a) the books I'm listening/reading are boring and b) I don't think it's extensive exposure I need now, but rather to work on my islands so I can jump into the 'Speaks' field.

Anyway, it's great to be back!

[jeff_lindqvist]

About to finish Tom Egeland's first written novel. The audiobook has it all, even the Etterord. First novels tend to differ from the most recent works, so I'm really looking forward to keeping moving through his bibliography. Thanks Ogrim for the recommendation.

Is it Sirkelens ende? I started reading it a few days ago (in Swedish).

[PeterMollenburg]

Hi Expug. I must say you caught me by surprise in your first post for 2020, and it made me feel a little more human. I didn't expect that you'd be cutting back on languages. Given your aspirations and reflections detailed in that first post, your decision makes perfect sense and it is no negative thing either. It's been incredible your dedication and accomplishments up to this point as many of us have watched with interest while what seemed to me, if I were doing what you were, wrestling interminably with a giant snake or something, but it seems you're reaching conclusions based on your own journey that will see that giant return to the jungle from which it came.

I began this year studying five languages - a big step up from one for me. I flicked back to some old figures you'd given around (guessing) 18 months ago when I asked you about your study times (total each day, on average per language each day). You were doing around 35 or 37 minutes/day for each language from memory, on average (I think I've got the roughly correct?). I was managing to reach more than that for the first string of days for each language, using every single stolen moment, thinking I was some kind of superhuman polyglot in the making. However, I was biting off a tad more than I could chew and my average was most certainly going to fall. I threw two languages aside (for now ) and cut back to three.

When we are trading war stories in decades to come, I'll be able to say, I kicked a medium sized non-venomous snake aside while walking along a path one day, while you can say you wrestled a king size anaconda for years on end. Thank you for your feedback, Expug, and sharing your intense journey with us all. All the Best for 2020! Good luck with your language learning this year and your other goals as well.

Bonne chance !

[Expugnator]

About to finish Tom Egeland's first written novel. The audiobook has it all, even the Etterord. First novels tend to differ from the most recent works, so I'm really looking forward to keeping moving through his bibliography. Thanks Ogrim for the recommendation.

Is it Sirkelens ende? I started reading it a few days ago (in Swedish).

It's Stien mot fortiden aka Ragnarok. Sirkelens ende is 4th.

Hi Expug. I must say you caught me by surprise in your first post for 2020, and it made me feel a little more human. I didn't expect that you'd be cutting back on languages. Given your aspirations and reflections detailed in that first post, your decision makes perfect sense and it is no negative thing either. It's been incredible your dedication and accomplishments up to this point as many of us have watched with interest while what seemed to me, if I were doing what you were, wrestling interminably with a giant snake or something, but it seems you're reaching conclusions based on your own journey that will see that giant return to the jungle from which it came.

I began this year studying five languages - a big step up from one for me. I flicked back to some old figures you'd given around (guessing) 18 months ago when I asked you about your study times (total each day, on average per language each day). You were doing around 35 or 37 minutes/day for each language from memory, on average (I think I've got the roughly correct?). I was managing to reach more than that for the first string of days for each language, using every single stolen moment, thinking I was some kind of superhuman polyglot in the making. However, I was biting off a tad more than I could chew and my average was most certainly going to fall. I threw two languages aside (for now ) and cut back to three.

When we are trading war stories in decades to come, I'll be able to say, I kicked a medium sized non-venomous snake aside while walking along a path one day, while you can say you wrestled a king size anaconda for years on end. Thank you for your feedback, Expug, and sharing your intense journey with us all. All the Best for 2020! Good luck with your language learning this year and your other goals as well.

Bonne chance !

Hey Peter, thanks for showing up here! I believe I will only be able to answer your post properly throughout the year, I mean the way this log evolves will be the answer in itself: whether I'll be able to finally learn languages more productively, or maybe find a better pace and actually progress in other spheres. Leaving things as they are is the easier path which I have to resist this time.

You're right about my stats. My issue now is not doing the necessary things in order to improve, and to remain in an activity that while does not present measurable immediate goals prevent me from reaching other goals. That holds true for the languages I want to cut back on, not for my learning journey as a whole, though. So cutting down maybe two hours in extensive listening or reading while keeping those languages progressing with intensive app-based methods is probably the change I can envisage at the moment. Dropping languages altogether is something I'd rarely do because maintenance cost for me isn't that high and it's actually fun.

I still have ambitious goals as a polyglot. I could dive in and work on reaching a magical number this year, but this wouldn't make me happier given how my life is evolving now, but it's a goal I can achieve in a sustainable way. So I'll refrain from inflating my numbers with 5 transparent, low-hanging fruits that won't enrich my cultural background as much as embracing at least 3 new opaque languages. My list for new opaque languages includes Turkish, Arabic and Swahili but I'm not dying for starting them either.

============================
The weekend didn't have much of relevance regarding language-learning. It was more Duolingo-centered than Clozemaster-centered. I also did some material gathering - TV series episodes in Georgian and audiobooks in Mandarin. I totally forgot about reading ahead for non-fiction, it's a habit I've lost after holidays. So far no big deal as the days are less busy and I can do the 20 pages much faster. My Italian reading speed as a whole has improved as well.

On my way home on Friday I finished the insane and boring audiobook Fourmis. It's a complex novel with several layers of possible comprehension, but it's boring. Audio quality didn't help the case of the audiobook either.

Now I'm replacing French audiobooks (which were the ones I could find, nothing I was dying to read) with the Russian podscast that is slow enough. It's great to be able to follow any type of aural content in Russian. Looking forward to finishing episode 1 and starting episode 2.

This morning I found the Spanish podcast on digital marketing much more accessible. I'm becoming familiarized with the content and the voices as well, so language + content it has turned into a productive resource now.

Méthode d'Indonésien says that 'aku' is more literary than 'saya'. I thought aku was more informal.

I had a productive Indonesian subtitle-reading session (and yes, I'm still studying Indonesian). I might be ready to take pre-native materials such as Linguaphone. If I manage to get enough translated novels I'll enter the massive input stage successfully and productively (the one stage I'm trying to let go for German, Russian, Georgian, Estonian and Modern Greek in order to favor my active skills).

It's strange how after some updates Speakly has started offering my high-frequency words, which was a rare occasion even during the early levels (I'm on advanced by their standards now). I don't mind, actually I appreciate it, because overall the sentences aren't simplified at all but rather suit my level. Among the sentence-based resources I've tried, Speakly seems to be the one with the most authentic sentences. At least for Estonian. I've added German and Russian but they feel boring.

I know that the situation is subject to change in February, but today I managed my entire schedule and still had 3 hours left, which I dedicated to studying digital marketing. I had enough mental energy to do more creative activities if I wanted, so maybe the cut on my studied materials won't have to be so drastic.