Stelle’s 2018 log
Posted: Thu Dec 28, 2017 10:08 pm
New year, new log!
Looking back
I grew up speaking French and English. I live in English at home and work in French. I teach in a French immersion school, so second language acquisition is both my career and my hobby.
I started learning Spanish in 2013. I started with self-study, connected with language partners and tutors over Skype, and then spent six weeks in 2014 walking the Camino de Santiago in Spain. Last year, my husband and I took a sabbatical and spent six months learning and travelling in Central America. My estimated level in Spanish is C1.
After coming home from Spain in April 2014, I started casually studying Tagalog. I have a bit of a love-ignore relationship with Tagalog. I study it for a few weeks or months and then don’t touch it for long stretches of time. My husband and his family are Tagalog-speakers, but I have yet to find native media that interests me. If I had to estimate my Tagalog level, i’d put myself at an A2 (although as far as I know, there are no formal language tests for Tagalog). Considering the number of years that I’ve been dabbling in Tagalog, A2 is pretty underwhelming.
I started learning Italian in March of 2016, in preparation for a family trip to Italy that never materialized. I abandoned Italian in August 2016, when we started our travel year, and then picked it up again in May 2017, right after we got home. My Spanish discount has really helped my receptive Italian. I can read novels and listen to radio in Italian. But my productive skills are very weak, and for that reason I can’t even estimate my level. I’ve been very casual with my Italian study. edit: as of March 2018, I’ve decided to let Italian go for the foreseeable future.
Looking forward
This year I’d like to improve my Tagalog to at least a B1 equivalent. I would really like to listen to some of my father-in-law’s stories in his own language. I think that the best way to improve is simply to commit to putting in the time. 30 minutes a day would go a long way by the end of the year.
My Spanish is solid. I can do everything that I want to do with it. I would like to maintain by reading novels, watching TV shows and talking via Skype with my long-time Spanish tutor. Sometimes I think about sitting a formal exam, but it’s not really worth the time, effort or money. I’d like to explore some Spanish films this year.
I’m not exactly sure where I’m going in Italian. I think that for the first part of the year, I’ll just keep improving my receptive skills through regular listening and reading. At some point, I’d like to activate my Italian so that I can speak.
No new languages this year. I’d like to get my current languages to a level where I can confidently say that I speak all five of them, and that can’t happen if I keep adding new languages to the mix.
Looking back
I grew up speaking French and English. I live in English at home and work in French. I teach in a French immersion school, so second language acquisition is both my career and my hobby.
I started learning Spanish in 2013. I started with self-study, connected with language partners and tutors over Skype, and then spent six weeks in 2014 walking the Camino de Santiago in Spain. Last year, my husband and I took a sabbatical and spent six months learning and travelling in Central America. My estimated level in Spanish is C1.
After coming home from Spain in April 2014, I started casually studying Tagalog. I have a bit of a love-ignore relationship with Tagalog. I study it for a few weeks or months and then don’t touch it for long stretches of time. My husband and his family are Tagalog-speakers, but I have yet to find native media that interests me. If I had to estimate my Tagalog level, i’d put myself at an A2 (although as far as I know, there are no formal language tests for Tagalog). Considering the number of years that I’ve been dabbling in Tagalog, A2 is pretty underwhelming.
I started learning Italian in March of 2016, in preparation for a family trip to Italy that never materialized. I abandoned Italian in August 2016, when we started our travel year, and then picked it up again in May 2017, right after we got home. My Spanish discount has really helped my receptive Italian. I can read novels and listen to radio in Italian. But my productive skills are very weak, and for that reason I can’t even estimate my level. I’ve been very casual with my Italian study. edit: as of March 2018, I’ve decided to let Italian go for the foreseeable future.
Looking forward
This year I’d like to improve my Tagalog to at least a B1 equivalent. I would really like to listen to some of my father-in-law’s stories in his own language. I think that the best way to improve is simply to commit to putting in the time. 30 minutes a day would go a long way by the end of the year.
My Spanish is solid. I can do everything that I want to do with it. I would like to maintain by reading novels, watching TV shows and talking via Skype with my long-time Spanish tutor. Sometimes I think about sitting a formal exam, but it’s not really worth the time, effort or money. I’d like to explore some Spanish films this year.
I’m not exactly sure where I’m going in Italian. I think that for the first part of the year, I’ll just keep improving my receptive skills through regular listening and reading. At some point, I’d like to activate my Italian so that I can speak.
No new languages this year. I’d like to get my current languages to a level where I can confidently say that I speak all five of them, and that can’t happen if I keep adding new languages to the mix.