February was busy, but I pushed to get the average 30 minutes a day in Mandarin and Japanese, and am seeing more progress in these 2 months than I had in previous years when I wasn't making a concerted effort to 30 minutes a day. I also hit the 1 hour minimum mark in my other languages except in Italian (cavolo!).
For my birthday, I went to visit Brighton Beach to see friends who live there. One of my friends is a Russian born American, who studied Russian in Moscow to strengthen his Russian and now is living in Brighton beach and works in Manhattan. He met his wife in a Russian study abroad program in Moscow, she's an American that was learning Russian due to interest from figure skating, and inspired by Russian skating coaches. Brighton is incredible in that it is the only section of NYC that has a most common language that isn't English or Spanish:
https://www.businessinsider.com/new-yor ... -english-1. Speaking with my friend he says the Russian community will live on there for awhile, because while the last generation of large numbers of Ukrainian Jewish immigrants are getting older and all their children are moving out to other areas, new waves of Belorussians and Uzbek are moving into the area keeping it very Russian, and able to support Russian radio. I went with my wife who doesn't speak Russian, so while there was some Russian interactions in Russian, people do speak English and hearing me speak with my wife, they would change back and forth and it would end up being a mix of sometimes Russian sometimes English. When having dinner with my friends we spoke English so all can participate, but ordered and spoke to the waitress in Russian. Here is an account in Russian:
Был мой 31-ого день рождения окола недели назад, и я хотел посетить Брайтон здесь в Нью-Йорке, потому что там живет самое большое население русскоговорящих в США. Там все магазины, рестараны, продукты... все руссие! это просто потрясающий русский мир здесь в США. Но к сожалению это не так просто там попасть, это 90 минут на метро (было бы только 20 минут на машине). Поэтому редко там езжу, может быть раз/два в году туда езжу. Когда приехали, я во первых пошел в русскокнижний магазин, но все было слишком дорого и ничего там не пробудило мой интерес. Вообще магазин мне казолось китч... как туристический магазин больше чем настоящий книжний магазин. Полсе этого шли в супермаркет и купили вкусную пахлаву в булочной. Там исползовал слова и выражения которые я почти забыл как например "взять с собой или на место"... Потом мы шли в грузинский ресторан. Там очень хорошо наелись. Было первыр раз в моей жизни когда я ел грузинксую кухню. Официанты все говорили по русски с клиентами, но между ними говорили по грузинкси! Я чуствовал силное жилание в этом моменте изучать грузинский... но пока я слишком занят для этого. Ели хачапури, хинкали, баклажан, и пил гузинское вино. Все очень вкусное!
That's enough typing in Russian for now. I hope to spend more time getting out and visiting other neighborhoods that NYC has to offer. Next big visit for me will eventually be a Saturday in Flushing Queens for good Chinese food and visit maybe some Chinese marketplace.
February Hours:Mandarin: 14 hours, 30 minutes
Japanese: 14 hours, 30 minutes
Russian: 9 hours, 45 minutes
German: 3 hours, 25 minutes
Arabic 2 hours, 35 minutes
Spanish: 2 hours, 35 minutes
Dutch: 1 hour, 15 minutes
Portuguese: 1 hour, 10 minutes
French: 1 hour, 10 minutes
Polish: 1 hour, 0 minutes
Bengali: 1 hour, 0 minutes
Italian: 50 minutes
2020 Running hours:Japanese: 31 hours, 35 minutes
Mandarin: 30 hours, 0 minutes
Russian: 17 hours, 50 minutes
German: 8 hours, 25 minutes
Arabic: 5 hours, 15 minutes
Spanish: 4 hours, 55 minutes
Portuguese: 3 hours, 40 minutes
Italian: 2 hours, 20 minutes
French: 2 hours, 15 minutes
Dutch: 2 hours, 15 minutes
Polish: 2 hours, 0 minutes
Bengali: 2 hours, 0 minutes