Duchy of Grand Fenwick: Spanish and Japanese, improbably

[lavengro]

I am thrilled to advise that I have a reasonable chance of an appointment to a diplomatic posting with the European Duchy of Grand Fenwick, conditional upon my obtaining a low, functional working ability in both Spanish and Japanese within two years.

Plan of attack is as follows:

Spanish
FSI, Programmatic
FSI, Basic
Duolingo
Memrise – Spanish (Mexican) 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6 and 7
Mango Languages – Spanish (Latin American)
Pimsleur (Latin American) – Levels 1, 2, 3, 4 and 5
Michel Thomas, Spanish Foundation and Spanish Advanced
PMP, Complete Spanish Grammar
Destinos (all 52 action-packed episodes)

Japanese
Wanikani (all 60 levels)
Japanesepod 101 (Absolute Beginner, Beginner and Intermediate pathways)
Mango Languages - Japanese
Pimsleur Japanese - Levels 1, 2, 3, 4 and 5
Duolingo
Memrise – Japanese 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6 and 7
Genki 1

[lavengro]

Wait, did I say two years? I bet I meant to say three years. Mostly `cause 日本語 (Japanese) is wicked squiggly so far.

[lavengro]

updated 2022.09.30

Completed study material
Michel Thomas Spanish, Foundation/Beginners course (10 disc)
Memrise, Spanish (Mexico), Level 1

Currently in progress
Duolingo
Pimsleur Spanish, Level 1
Mango Spanish (Latin American), Unit 2
Language Transfer
Memrise Spanish (Mexico) 2
FSI Spanish, Programmatic Course
PMP, Complete Spanish Grammar


List of Super Challenge Spanish language material (end date of December 31, 2023)

Books or book equivalents
Harry Potter y la piedra filosofal – in slow progress at the moment (reading intensively rather than extensively at present)

Films or film equivalents
La casa de las flores – episodio 1 [33 minutes]
Feria: la luz más oscura - episodio 1 [55 minutes]

[lavengro]

One month progress report

Spanish

FSI Programmatic – completed the first 6 of 45 units

Mango Languages – completed Unit 1 (40 lessons), and Unit 2, Chapter 1, lessons 1-3

Duolingo – planning on working through the whole tree (271 skill units) to level 5 (so, a total of 1355 Crowns). Currently have completed 64 Crowns.

Memrise – completed Spanish (Mexico) 1; working on Spanish (Mexico) 2

Pimsleur – Level 1, first 6 units

PMP, Complete Spanish Grammar – started working sequentially through book including exercises, one page per day. Up to page 12.

Language Transfer – just added this to the mix, as I enjoyed his Greek course so much previously. Completed 3 of 90 lessons.

Dreaming Spanish – I added a resource partway through this month – immersion videos at dreamingspanish.com. Super-impressed with this site`s material so far, working on the super-easy Super Beginner immersion material.


Japanese

Wanikani – I reset at the beginning of June (for perhaps the fourth time) back to the beginning. Now one kanji away from moving onto Level 5. Keeping above a cumulative 93% accuracy rate on reviews across radicals, kanji and vocabulary items. Hoping to reach and complete Level 60 within two years.

Japanesepod 101 – Started Japanesepod101 this month. Loving it. I have signed up for a six month Premium rather than Basic or Premium Plus, and I think that is the right approach for me, at least for now. The trick about subscription rates is apparently to be impossibly coy until they – out of desperation – offer increasingly lower rates to entice you on board. Working through the Absolute Beginners pathway, 193 units [92 lessons, 101 assessments, not counting the 29 further assessments which are locked and only available to Premium Plus members]. Currently through 30 units.

Duolingo – I am a big fan generally of Duolingo, but have always felt it extraordinarily weak for Japanese and not a good source of learning material for this language, unlike the case for many other languages. It looks like Duolingo has improved its Japanese course somewhat since I last poked around at it, but I would still not recommend it as a primary place to learn Japanese. Currently at 26 Crowns of a total of 655 Crowns.

コタローは1人暮らしStarting watching a documentary about a sword-wielding four year boy who lives on his own, terrorizing an apartment block or something like that (I am only partway through the first episode, so I might be a tad off here): Kotaro Lives Alone

[lavengro]

Exciting development! In support of my language learning efforts and eventual pre-employment language testing (two) three years down the road, I have been granted an unpaid part-time Fenwick internship starting August 1st for a one year term, renewal yearly upon satisfactory performance.

I don’t believe this is reflective of any optimism on their part concerning my ability to learn these languages, but rather appears to relate to a relative lack of applicants for the diplomatic position.

My only internship duties will be to study (contractually: that I will “make a boldly valiant and good faith earnest and heroic effort to study”) both Spanish and Japanese; my expected time commitment for this internship is 15 hours per week. No vacation entitlement, which frankly kinda sucks, but whatever. I am advised that monthly progress reports would be appreciated.

Fortunately, I will be able to engage in this internship remotely rather than in-country, as the Grand Duchy of Fenwick is a hellish commute from the wet coast of Canada.

Progress report – last two weeks

Much of the last couple of weeks was taken up with intense negotiations concerning the terms of my internship as described above, but I still managed to squeeze in some learning time.

Spanish

Continued in a plodding manner with FSI Programmatic, Duolingo, Memrise, etc as per last month, plus:

MICHEL THOMAS – Foundation (Beginners) course – completed. Actually, this is my second time working through this material. Probably my least favourite of the four MT courses (French, German, Italian and Spanish) I have completed over the years.

Japanese

Mostly just Wanikani – why did no one tell me that the Crabigator is such a heavy-handed taskmaster? Currently working on Level 6. 173 kanji and 424 vocabulary items to at least the apprentice level.

I did not get back to any Kotaro Lives Alone, so I remain unclear what`s up with the sword. Or all those boxes of tissues.

[lavengro]

I exceeded the expected time requirements of the internship this past month; whether I met the contractual obligation to be valiant in my studies is up for debate, but luckily it is so vague a term as to be - practically speaking - unenforceable.

Spanish

Still pushing through my slate of materials, though arguably at a sub-heroic pace, and occasionally listened to some Duolingo Podcasts https://podcast.duolingo.com/spanish3.html – intermediate level episodes (over 117 currently) presented in clear, reasonably-paced Spanish alternating with English passages. The Spanish is above my level at present, but the English portions provide context and I am hopeful over time I grow into a comfortable understanding of the oral Spanish. There are accompanying accurate transcripts. The Spanish is from a number of different countries, including (just at a quick glance) Peru, Mexico, Puerto Rico, Cuba, Argentina, Spain, Uruguay, Venezuela, Chile, Ecuador, Bolivia and Costa Rica.

Japanese

Spending more than an hour per day on Wanikani, every day, and still just a smidge short of moving onto level 8. It is the readings rather than meanings which trip me up and throw me into SRS hell. I went through an ugly spell where for some reason I was convinced that every kanji and vocabulary item was pronounced こう. [Spoiler alert – that is decidedly an incorrect assumption.] I wish I could blame this on drinking or getting hit in the head with a baseball or something similar, but nope, just another example of my brain hating me. As a result, the SRS implications screwed me over pretty good and progress was been a little slower than planned. Seven levels down (almost); fifty-three levels (and a smidge) to go.

I have started working slowly through Tae Kim`s Guide to Grammar online: https://guidetojapanese.org/learn/grammar

Watched another episode of Kotaro Lives Alone. Japanese audio, English subtitles. I feel about a million years away (instead of my targeted three years) from being able to understand oral Japanese.

Other than an occasional greeting, the only oral Japanese I recognized in the first two episodes was いただきますwhen a room full of yung-uns at a kindergarten or similar - only one of whom (yes, that rascal Kotaro) was wielding a sword - were about to eat.

[lavengro]

This past month either:

(1) I accomplished so very much that I am reluctant to list it all in this post for fear of seeming braggy and making you all feel lazy by comparison; or

(2) I did so little that I would be greatly embarrassed if I were to provide a detailed summary.

Which one is the actual explanation for this empty summary? I am disinclined to say, but the smart money would bet on option (2).

I have decided to give up on the Grand Fenwick dream and to discontinue studying Japanese and to continue only with Spanish. Foolishness on my part, really, to have attempted to chase two languages simultaneously when I have not yet established a track record of having learned even one language at a time successfully (other than English, but honestly, I have invested an awful lot of time in learning that one, having started quite early in life and having worked at it daily other than a few silent days of sulking as a child). Here is hoping that this decision will result in an acceleration of the rate of progress of my eventual Spanish conquest from super-slow to just regular-slow speed.

¡Hasta el próximo mes!

October 29, 2022 - ETA

I have decided against monthly updates in favour of yearly updates over the next five years. Returned to kanji study as of October 21, 2022, and am planning on Spanish and kanji study concurrently for two years, then three years of just Japanese.