A colourful mix - current: Korean revival and some Portuguese

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Characters For now I have decided not to call the section about learning to write traditional Hanzi “Chinese”. For now I am only aiming to recognise headwords and how to write the corresponding characters with correct stroke order. And I am not sure whether I will add Mandarin or Korean sounds first. At the moment I lean more towards Korean, because it makes sense to first connect these characters to a language I already know.

I have now added 200 characters to my deck in Pleco. I add about 10 new characters per session. The book/website I use introduces them grouped by components (but also based on frequency of usage), so I divide my study sessions that way as well. I usually study characters with 2-3 new components in one go. So far, studying characters proves easier than I thought. In a review session I usually get about 75% right - with the prompt being the headword. It is perfect that Pleco lets me write the characters on my tablet in response to the prompt and I can then check whether I got them right. I think 75% is a good percentage and the 25% unknown are usually mostly newish characters which I have not been able to associate well with their meaning yet.

As I take the tablet everywhere with me and I have everything I need for studying characters on it, studying feels almost effortless. I really look forward to it, as it is fun to find out which components make up which headwords.

Persian I am still very much stuck with Persian. The problem is that I studied a lot, but have not been able to keep up with the input of sentences into Anki. I made cards from lessons 1-3 of my current main study text, but lessons 4 and 5 are still waiting. This is an example where studying is not almost effortless and I think that is the main reason why I keep studying characters instead of Persian at the moment.

I do need Persian and I noticed again on Easter Sunday, when we showed visitors from Iran around Frankfurt. I am happy that I can participate in conversations in Persian on some level, but it would be great to progress more and be able to use such opportunities better.

Korean I watched episodes 1-4 of the new drama “Goodbye, Mr. Black”. I like the actors, so I decided to follow this drama. Although the directing/editing can be weird, it is interesting enough for the moment. I am also flirting with “Korean Reader for Chinese Character”- it seems interesting to approach Korean vocabulary through Hanja to gain a deeper understanding. And last but not least, I tried my hand at literary translation. Just a page from the novel I read in autumn - 고래 by 천명관. It was an interesting experiment. I think I actually know Korean well enough to do translations, although I would need to look up many words to make sure the translation is as close to the source as possible.

I had to do some translations between German and English for my degree, but I have to say with Korean it is a very different feeling. Sort of an adventure, even. You have to flip most sentences - and parts of sentences - around while translating. Also, it is interesting to think about the connotation of words and how we would express these in German and English. Translating really highlights the differences and reminded me why I got so engrossed by Korean in the first place - the wonder of realising that language can be so different from what I know, sort of like looking at the world through a differently tinted pair of glasses. What you see is the same, and yet it has a different feel.

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Characters I sort of got stuck with the characters Who knew this would happen... Maybe not really stuck, but I have a feeling I need to let the first 200 just sink in for a while before adding new ones. Now I have several characters/components already with similar meanings and it's easy to mix them up. For example, I know 4 components alone which have to do with hands (left hand, right hand, hand, two hands...) and more coming up! The percentage of correct cards faltered a bit and dropped down to about 60% but now I'm back at about 75%.

Persian I've been thinking about dedicating April to Persian. I've done nothing much for about a month (or 6 weeks?) now and would like to get this started again. Maybe the desire to study Persian is linked to the Character fatigue/confusion? I've experimented with software for downloading websites today and am happy to report that I will now be able to add Persian Language Online and PersianDee to my regular resources. As I banned all sources of internet from my flat, it's great to know I will be able to utilise these wonderful resources nevertheless.

[Zireael]

I've experimented with software for downloading websites today and am happy to report that I will now be able to add Persian Language Online and PersianDee to my regular resources.

What are you using to download websites? My internet can be very sketchy at times...

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What are you using to download websites? My internet can be very sketchy at times...

I used SiteSucker (version 2.3.6). It seems like this may only be available for Mac, not Windows (but I'm sure there are similar programs for Windows). SiteSucker seems to be a bit hit or miss. For one website, it failed to download the audio files, although it was no problem to download them manually. In both websites' offline versions, not all of the site-internal links work. But I now have the text and audio, so that's all I need. Even if some things have to be downloaded manually, it saves a lot of time and makes the whole thing feasible.

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Korean At the moment I don't think Korean grammar study is going to happen. Just parking this here for the time I delve into it:
: 0 / 93 Korean Grammar in Use

Parking another one for lack of space:
: 0 / 48 중국어 마스터 1

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Characters I'm nearing 250 characters. Looks like there was only a temporary slump, because my Pleco scores are now regulary up to 75-85% correct answers. I'm still having fun with the characters. I told a firend I had started learning Chinese characters and she recently asked whether I was still studying them. I told her I had learned to write 200 characters (but no pronunciation and not the full meaning) and she looked at me like that was hardly comprehensible to her. I wanted to say that it's not very impressive and some people manage to be much faster (if I remember correctly, Khatzumoto did around 2000 Kanji in 3 weeks). But I myself was surprised it's not as difficult as I thought it would be.

Persian I'm glad I have added new resources to my study routine. I still need to get back to regularly SRSing my sentence cards, but at least I have added cards for PersianDee up to lesson 10. PersianDee teaches some words which I wouldn't yet see in my other resources - for example, I have now learned the Persian word for gun...

Korean The more characters I study, the more I become interested in Hanja. I still doubt Hanja study is necessary to reach a high level in Korean. But to perfect the language, maybe they are. Just as Latin may truly be useful when studying Indo-European languages. I know a lot of Koreans who learned German to varying degrees, but only one of them is at a near-native level - a philosophy student who stressed how much latin helped him with German grammar.
Languages never cease to fascinate me, because there is always another layer, another facet to explore. I think studying Hanja means getting to know another layer of Korean. Just as I had become complacent about Korean, I'm starting to get interested in it again

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Persian As planned, I spent most of my recent study time on Persian. I think it's paying off. I listened to some songs I hadn't listened to in a while and was astonished that I suddenly understood much more of the lyrics. I really like the grammar explanations and topics in the textbook I'm working with. It helps a lot to have a well-structured framework. PersianDee covers some more grammar topics which haven't been thematised in the textbook, so it's a perfect additional resource. It also helps me to get more used to figuring out suffixes. Persian suffixes are an elegant solution for marking subjects and objects, but it can be challenging to figure out in real time who does what to whom when a sentence can very well be just a single word.

There recently was a thread in the general discussion forum stating how difficult it is to learn Persian. I can't say I share that view so far. Maybe because I studied Korean before, which is undoubtedly much more difficult for speakers of Indo-European languages. I think the grammatical structure of Persian is very logical, simple and elegant. I also find that expressions often tend to be intuitive for me, as we say many things similarly in German.

Characters I haven't doing my character repetitions for about a month now. I am very curious to see how much I was able to retain. I hope restarting doesn't become too painful...

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Persian I'm still slowly progressing with Persian. I'm probably at a more or less solid A2 level now, though some vocabulary may still be lacking. Or maybe grammatically / in passive skills I'm growing towards B1, but a lot of vocabulary is still lacking. Of course my passive skills are ahead of my active skills. I rarely write or speak Persian.

According to the textbook I'm studying with, I have now completed a year's worth of university language courses. That is not very much by my standards, but I have time and no clear goals. Of course B1 skills would be nice. And if I eventually get to B2 that would be even better, because it means I can read books and slowly delve into Persian literature. But that's thinking about a distant future. I'll probably be at B1 once I finish the textbook (and have also progressed more through some of the other courses). But so far I'm halfway through and wondering how long it will take me to finish the other half doesn't motivate me all that much.

In the end I'll just continue at the current leisurely pace, enjoying every new word and expression and every instance which surprises me with a slightly greater overall understanding. Or maybe my attention will shift to Chinese again sometime soon. Who knows...

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Korean, Persian I've been thinking about traveling lately. And I have to say I would love to travel somewhere again where I can speak/practice a language.
Even if I've been to Korea twice already, I'm considering another trip sometime during the next 2 years or so. I think this is exactly what I would need to motivate myself to really dive into advanced study materials. I could set myself the goal to pass level 6 - the highest level of TOPIK - and then celebrate with a holiday in Korea. The last time I was in Korea I had only just embarked on the Language Super Challenge. My level was pretty good, but - at least concerning passive skills - not as good as now by far. And if I studied more - with G.L.O.S.S. for example, and by doing grammar/writing/speaking exercises - another stay in Korea could be a wonderful experience. Besides, after living there for 5 weeks, Seoul does feel a bit like home to me - a familiar place I sometimes miss.
Another option would be a trip to Iran. This is tempting as well. It's a beautiful country and I would love to have some added motivation for studying. But I think I would want to be at least B1 and I would have to look into their visa policy.

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French I've decided to study French! This is the most useful language for my work and it also fits well with my plans of traveling to Vanuatu someday in the future... French is one of their official languages (besides English and Bislama, a creole). There are actually a lot of reasons why French is useful for me. I could hop on a train and be in Paris in 4 hours. So far I haven't traveled much in France because of the language barrier and I think it's a bit of a shame. While I'm no longer that drawn to Indo-European languages, I do think French has a charming pronunciation.
I had made an earlier attempt to study French when I was in university, but gave up after 2 semesters. At the same time I was taking Portuguese courses and that wasn't a good idea. I also didn't really know how to effectively study a language.

I've decided to enroll in a 15-week course which covers all of CEFR level A1. This is described as a "rapid" course for seasoned language learners - I'm excited I found a course which doesn't move at a snail's pace. I'm also really happy that I'm going to study a more popular language for once. Self-study is great, but I do think it gets lonely. And with Korean and Persian, I hardly know any other people who studied these languages (and succeeded to some degree).

Korean I was actually able to use Korean for a work email recently! This was a first and a cool opportunity. It's challenging, because I did not know the specific vocabulary I needed. I did make some bad word choices for that reason, but it wasn't a big problem, because the recipient understood everything I needed them to understand.
I also ordered three new novels and listened to a couple of podcasts. Not much new about that. I'm looking forward to Han Gang's "The Vegetarian" (채식주의자). It's the first Korean novel that won the Booker Price and I enjoy Han Gang's style (I read another of her novels for the Super Challenge).

Persian Since the last time I wrote an update I made some progress with Persian, but this language is on hold at the moment. Did I mention that I took a glimpse into a Persian translation of Jose Saramago's "Blindness" (Ensaio sobre a cegueira)? I was actually able to figure out the first two sentences! Well, it helped that I had watched the movie version, but this is still a promising sign, I think. No luck with the rest of the paragraph though. And Hafez poems are still totally beyond me...