Solocricket's 2016 Adventures in Spanish, Dutch, and Japanese!

[solocricket]

I'm finally starting a log for 2016! As is spelled out in the title, I'll be focusing on Spanish, Dutch, and Japanese for a pretty good mixture of random languages.

Here are my goals for each:

SPANISH

I love Spanish! I use Spanish every day through reading and listening to news and whatnot, and I also feel attached to it since there's a pretty big Spanish-speaking community where I live.

Spanish is my second best language (next to French). My reading comprehension is very, very high, but my listening comprehension leaves something to be desired. I also have not had a conversation partner in Spanish, so my speech is a little stumble-y.

Because I like Spanish so much, this is a language I would like to improve as much as possible, maybe even to the point of being considered bilingual or native-level. So, this year I'm going to focus on my problem areas, which are casual listening and speaking.

Here is my plan:
-1 Youtube video each day (five minutes or so. The reason for this is that when I found French Youtubers (Cyprien, namely), my French comprehension spiked pretty noticeably)
- Listen passively when doing other things
- Study grammar for 10 minutes every day-ish
- Watch half an hour of TV twice a week
- Find a conversation partner!

DUTCH

I've been concentrating on Dutch since September, and I'm quite happy with my progress thus far. I just had a first meeting with a language exchange partner, and I successfully stumbled through half an hour of attempting to cover pretty complicated topics, so I'll go ahead and say I'm conversational. However, my vocabulary is lacking, and my listening comprehension is iffy. My goals aren't as lofty as they are for Spanish-- I think I'd be happy with a comfortable B2 level, which I'm hoping to achieve in a few months, maybe by April. At which point, I'll probably study Dutch more passively to make room for other things

Right now, my plan is this:
-10 minute news program for kids called Jeugdjournaal every day-- good for comprehension
-3 Duolingo lessons every day
-Read for 15-20 minutes every day
-Talk to conversation partner every other week-ish

JAPANESE

This is my new-ish language for 2016. I have a slight chance of visiting Kyoto in August, so I thought it would be good idea to get back into Japanese! I'm not a complete beginner-- I've dabbled in Japanese since I was a kid with a couple of more serious stints in 2010 and 2013. I've done Heisig's Remembering the Kanji once, but of course, I forgot a lot. I know hiragana and katakana and can make my way through an easy manga. I have quite a bit of vocabulary, but the verb forms always stumped me

So, my plan for right now is this:

-Read manga for 10 minutes every day (I have a huuuuuge collection of Japanese manga and books. More than any other language. It is my pride and joy. And yet, when friends come over, they are unimpressed.)
-Enter 15 Kanji into Anki every day
-Start going through most common vocabulary
-Look at a textbook for 10-15 minutes a day (I plan on using Japanese The Manga Way and 600 Basic Japanese Verbs. I'll probably buy more!)
-Throw in some listening and anime watching.

And yes, I do have a lot of free time right now for unimpeded language learning. If that changes, I'll tweak as necessary!

[solocricket]

Just finished reading El tren de los huérfanos (Orphan Train in English). This one was fairly easy and pretty quick. It's translated from English, and I think translated fiction tends to be easier to read than original fiction (at least as far as popular fiction goes-- I suspect the classics are just sort of hard ). I tend to choose translated fiction because I'm more familiar with the authors and the reading choices, but also because I like how it's easier on the brain. So, to combat my lazy reading choices, I've started La ciudad de las bestias by Isabel Allende. It's one of her young adult books, so hopefully it'll ease me into native Spanish-language literature. And I think I'm right-- the vocabulary does seem a lot broader.

[solocricket]

I'm so bad at updating these things...

I've been really good at sticking with my study plans with Spanish and Dutch. I've been very, very consistent, and I'm proud of that. I think my Dutch is really benefitting-- I'm noticing I'm understanding a lot more of Jeugdjournaal, and my reading comprehension is improving as well. I think Duolingo is helping here by filling in the gaps of my vocabulary with the basic words I missed in my previous months of mostly input.

I haven't been so great at sticking to Japanese. I'm trying to study Japanese the Manga Way earlier in the morning so that I can definitely have that accomplished. Even though I've been slacking on the textbook and kanji study, I've still been reading Marmalade Boy (a manga) almost every day, which is pretty great. It also makes my brain hurt a lot....

[solocricket]

Also, the slight chance of going to Kyoto in August is turning into a larger chance!