Expug's 2018 Log - Sustainable Dabbling
Posted: Mon Jan 08, 2018 8:40 pm
So, here we are, warming up for a new year. This year seems to be shorter (despite being actually a leap year), because the odds are higher that I might be involved in parallel projects - even language-related - other than my daily learning schedule.
That schedule model will remain basically unchanged. I'm going to study all my languages everyday, except for the newer, dabbling ones which I only take care of when there is enough time. That is to say, they go to the end of the schedule, once I have already rotated through the main languages satisfactorily.
As a matter of fact, the biggest novelty of 2017 has been my consistent adding up of dabbling languages to the end of the schedule. My experience with Estonian and Modern Greek showed me that it's possible to progress consistently over 1-2 years with only 5 minutes a day on an opaque language (and even on a transparent laguage such as Italian - it's just that progress is more noticeable for the former group). Therefore, I decided that since I'm not dealing with wanderlust but rather with a fixed, established list of languages I want to learn in my lifetime, so why wait so much to start? Why wait to "finish" Georgian, which eats up 1 hour of my daily schedule, before starting Modern Greek, if I can learn enough Modern Greek 5 minutes a day to be able to foresee an intermediate level in 2 years? That is almost like a compund interest rate model applied to language learning. That is what I'm calling Sustainable Dabbling at this log and it's what keeps my interest (pun non-intended) high on the perspective of adding new languages and thus getting in touch with new cultures while still making sound progress in my core, B1-B2ish plateaued language. This is not wanderlust when you fancy for a new language and forget about the previous ones; nor is it dabbling in multiple languages with no complete goals.
In my experience with Estonian and Modern Greek, after those 2 years of warm-up, comfortable initial contact with the language, I'm able to tackle native materials in an n+1 way while rounding up the grammar details. It's like I'm preparing for studying a language while I can't study it fully, but it's more than that (this actual situation would be what I'm doing with Clozemaster for languages I still haven't started sustainable dabbling for yet, like Finnish - or Indonesian prior to two months ago).
I have some personal goals other than just improving slowly my languages. I want to reach a B1 active level in Russian before June so I can be an asset during the World Cup and not just another English-only tour guide/tourist. This is going to be quite challenging because Russian is the language I have most trouble with. Words don't seem to stick, case endings don't move into my active command of the language and I can't hold Skype lessons in ways where it seems like I'm actually learning instead of just going over sentences I've already ran into during my self-study time.
I want to produce language material of my own - this remains a lifetime goal but I hope that with the increase of confidence thanks to the good results in Georgian, Mandarin and Estonian I might convince myself I have something to say. I also want to write books on specific languages for Brazilians. In order for this to happen, I need to maintain a well-round-up daily schedule and resist the temptation to just keep adding new watching activities when I notice the day has been calmer and there is much time left. I might start with writing guest posts for the static blog.
In order to actually start using my languages in a safe way, I want to have all my language islands (about me, family, work, education, hobbies, lifestyle, worldviews) rounded up for all my languages. This might include booking at least one Skype lesson per language because I don't want to disclose personal information on sites such as italki or lang-8, and I want to be as specific as the situation allows when talking about myself in real life. I'm not promising myself to keep writing regularly in my TLs because I know my schedule wades against that, even though now the situation is different as all languages have advanced and it's much easier to write a paragraph in each of my older ones.
Overall, I want to feel more relaxed and less strict about my schedule, and for this to happen I want to feel I'm advancing towards my goals in Russian, German and Norwegian. Once I'm comfortable with those languages, it will be more than ever a matter of just enjoying the journey.
So, now for individual languages:
Russian - The main language of the first semester, if all goes as planned and I am set to travel there during the World Cup. It's also my greatest challenge in language learning. I remain a shaky A2 active/B1 passive, despite doing the same I've been doing for Georgian and Estonian - and even more. I want to keep having lessons weekly. I am also going to try hard and watch more dubbed series, because that's what worked so well for Georgian.
Norwegian - I'm still on an asymptotic learning curve to B2, barred to my weak listening skills. Yet I feel I can speak the language. Having started an audiobook in Nynorsk might help understand more dialects. I don't have special plans for the language other than keeping textchatting a while. Italki lessons are expensive and the teachers tend to be booked out because they're so few, so they might not happen often.
German - I almost made it to basic reading fluency in 2017. My goal is being able to follow an audiobook, so in order for this happen I need to read more automatedly. I'm working on it right now by listening-reading the 2nd book in the Tintenherz trilogy, it's almost like narrow-reading. Active skills have al but deteriorated and for this I would really like to watch on italki and with the assistance of the occasional tutor. Getting my islands done is a must because I actually have real-life opportunities to talk in German-only and polyglot meetups.
French - I don't have any special goals other than finally figuring out which level I am. I want to watch native series and regain my better active skills. I'm listening to an audiobook and it's nearly transparent, but I'm moving slowly through it as it's the final resource of the day and usually I'm mentally exhausted.
English - I want to improve my writing skills through writing on relevant topics regarding language learning. This log might remain in macarronic English but I want at least my texts to read better.
Papiamento - I will keep my 15-minute a day quick reading/listening. I want to write often to an Aruban friend I have on FB. If the opportunity for writing a language course shows up again I'll take it, but I won't seek it actively.
Italian - I have mostly activation goals for this one. It's lagging behind too much regarding French. I want to read novels with relevant vocabulary more intensively - the past ones have been mostly skimming. I want to enjoy some native series but not as part of my daily routine. I want to keep listening to audiobooks.
Spanish - I want to write more, get my islands proofread before I dare say I speak Spanish. Then I want to practice it regularly at meetups. I want to finally start En Terapía and El Ministerio del Tiempo, even if not watching them regularly.
Georgian - I want to finally write more regularly. I want to improve my number of pages read somewhere during the year, by the time I notice I'm comfortable reading extensively. I want to address specific troublesome verbal tenses in class.
Mandarin - Practice, practice, practice. There is enough Mandarin knowledge here to allow me for having some fun conversations. I want to find a good italki teacher so I can book lessons often. I want to try reading some texts extensively once in a while.
Estonian - I want to finally revisit the basic nominal declension through drilling the FSI-like Basic Course in Estonian. Then I want to consolidate it through watching my own language islands. There is no tutor on italki so that will have to rely on the goodwill of natives and fellow learners on the Estonian subforum at Unilang.
Modern Greek - My goal is to have some basic language islands written up while keeping advancing through short-lesson-based courses such as Language Transfer and pod101. I want to consistenly keep listening-reading the audiobook while watching American series with Greek subtitles once in a while.
Hebrew - This is currently the language I'm enjoying the most learning at the moment. I've been waiting too long to start it for good (I had had 3 months-classes at the local Israeli Union back in 2005). I want to do 2 textbook resources at once the way I am doing for Greek, in order to progress more quickly (I'd still call this sustainable dabbling because both textbooks combined would be around 15, sometimes 20 minutes).
Indonesian - Yes, it is easy. Definitely. I want to start textbook proper learning while picking another short-lessons-based resource once in a while. I want to go serious with it and start chatting at the many groups I'm a member of.
Prospects
Somehow, someday if time allows I want to start Catalan. As for Swahili, I still hope I won't start it on my own. So, whoever joins me makes it a tandem and later a team. Turkish is a candidate for sustainable dabbling in the second semester, and so is Romanian in the transparent front. I'd really like to start Czech, but Russian is dragging all my slavolearnability at the moment. Maybe the second semester will see me getting even more serious with Russian and enjoying the momentum or instead setting myself free to put in on normal progress mode and finally add my second Slavic language. Ditto for Swedish, which depends on how comfortable I will be with Norwegian halfway 2018.
That is all I have planned for the moment. I don't have many set goals. I won't keep a resources slot placeholder, feel free to reply directly to this topic. I do have my list of resources which I'd be happy to share.
Best of luck to all fellow learners!
That schedule model will remain basically unchanged. I'm going to study all my languages everyday, except for the newer, dabbling ones which I only take care of when there is enough time. That is to say, they go to the end of the schedule, once I have already rotated through the main languages satisfactorily.
As a matter of fact, the biggest novelty of 2017 has been my consistent adding up of dabbling languages to the end of the schedule. My experience with Estonian and Modern Greek showed me that it's possible to progress consistently over 1-2 years with only 5 minutes a day on an opaque language (and even on a transparent laguage such as Italian - it's just that progress is more noticeable for the former group). Therefore, I decided that since I'm not dealing with wanderlust but rather with a fixed, established list of languages I want to learn in my lifetime, so why wait so much to start? Why wait to "finish" Georgian, which eats up 1 hour of my daily schedule, before starting Modern Greek, if I can learn enough Modern Greek 5 minutes a day to be able to foresee an intermediate level in 2 years? That is almost like a compund interest rate model applied to language learning. That is what I'm calling Sustainable Dabbling at this log and it's what keeps my interest (pun non-intended) high on the perspective of adding new languages and thus getting in touch with new cultures while still making sound progress in my core, B1-B2ish plateaued language. This is not wanderlust when you fancy for a new language and forget about the previous ones; nor is it dabbling in multiple languages with no complete goals.
In my experience with Estonian and Modern Greek, after those 2 years of warm-up, comfortable initial contact with the language, I'm able to tackle native materials in an n+1 way while rounding up the grammar details. It's like I'm preparing for studying a language while I can't study it fully, but it's more than that (this actual situation would be what I'm doing with Clozemaster for languages I still haven't started sustainable dabbling for yet, like Finnish - or Indonesian prior to two months ago).
I have some personal goals other than just improving slowly my languages. I want to reach a B1 active level in Russian before June so I can be an asset during the World Cup and not just another English-only tour guide/tourist. This is going to be quite challenging because Russian is the language I have most trouble with. Words don't seem to stick, case endings don't move into my active command of the language and I can't hold Skype lessons in ways where it seems like I'm actually learning instead of just going over sentences I've already ran into during my self-study time.
I want to produce language material of my own - this remains a lifetime goal but I hope that with the increase of confidence thanks to the good results in Georgian, Mandarin and Estonian I might convince myself I have something to say. I also want to write books on specific languages for Brazilians. In order for this to happen, I need to maintain a well-round-up daily schedule and resist the temptation to just keep adding new watching activities when I notice the day has been calmer and there is much time left. I might start with writing guest posts for the static blog.
In order to actually start using my languages in a safe way, I want to have all my language islands (about me, family, work, education, hobbies, lifestyle, worldviews) rounded up for all my languages. This might include booking at least one Skype lesson per language because I don't want to disclose personal information on sites such as italki or lang-8, and I want to be as specific as the situation allows when talking about myself in real life. I'm not promising myself to keep writing regularly in my TLs because I know my schedule wades against that, even though now the situation is different as all languages have advanced and it's much easier to write a paragraph in each of my older ones.
Overall, I want to feel more relaxed and less strict about my schedule, and for this to happen I want to feel I'm advancing towards my goals in Russian, German and Norwegian. Once I'm comfortable with those languages, it will be more than ever a matter of just enjoying the journey.
So, now for individual languages:
Russian - The main language of the first semester, if all goes as planned and I am set to travel there during the World Cup. It's also my greatest challenge in language learning. I remain a shaky A2 active/B1 passive, despite doing the same I've been doing for Georgian and Estonian - and even more. I want to keep having lessons weekly. I am also going to try hard and watch more dubbed series, because that's what worked so well for Georgian.
Norwegian - I'm still on an asymptotic learning curve to B2, barred to my weak listening skills. Yet I feel I can speak the language. Having started an audiobook in Nynorsk might help understand more dialects. I don't have special plans for the language other than keeping textchatting a while. Italki lessons are expensive and the teachers tend to be booked out because they're so few, so they might not happen often.
German - I almost made it to basic reading fluency in 2017. My goal is being able to follow an audiobook, so in order for this happen I need to read more automatedly. I'm working on it right now by listening-reading the 2nd book in the Tintenherz trilogy, it's almost like narrow-reading. Active skills have al but deteriorated and for this I would really like to watch on italki and with the assistance of the occasional tutor. Getting my islands done is a must because I actually have real-life opportunities to talk in German-only and polyglot meetups.
French - I don't have any special goals other than finally figuring out which level I am. I want to watch native series and regain my better active skills. I'm listening to an audiobook and it's nearly transparent, but I'm moving slowly through it as it's the final resource of the day and usually I'm mentally exhausted.
English - I want to improve my writing skills through writing on relevant topics regarding language learning. This log might remain in macarronic English but I want at least my texts to read better.
Papiamento - I will keep my 15-minute a day quick reading/listening. I want to write often to an Aruban friend I have on FB. If the opportunity for writing a language course shows up again I'll take it, but I won't seek it actively.
Italian - I have mostly activation goals for this one. It's lagging behind too much regarding French. I want to read novels with relevant vocabulary more intensively - the past ones have been mostly skimming. I want to enjoy some native series but not as part of my daily routine. I want to keep listening to audiobooks.
Spanish - I want to write more, get my islands proofread before I dare say I speak Spanish. Then I want to practice it regularly at meetups. I want to finally start En Terapía and El Ministerio del Tiempo, even if not watching them regularly.
Georgian - I want to finally write more regularly. I want to improve my number of pages read somewhere during the year, by the time I notice I'm comfortable reading extensively. I want to address specific troublesome verbal tenses in class.
Mandarin - Practice, practice, practice. There is enough Mandarin knowledge here to allow me for having some fun conversations. I want to find a good italki teacher so I can book lessons often. I want to try reading some texts extensively once in a while.
Estonian - I want to finally revisit the basic nominal declension through drilling the FSI-like Basic Course in Estonian. Then I want to consolidate it through watching my own language islands. There is no tutor on italki so that will have to rely on the goodwill of natives and fellow learners on the Estonian subforum at Unilang.
Modern Greek - My goal is to have some basic language islands written up while keeping advancing through short-lesson-based courses such as Language Transfer and pod101. I want to consistenly keep listening-reading the audiobook while watching American series with Greek subtitles once in a while.
Hebrew - This is currently the language I'm enjoying the most learning at the moment. I've been waiting too long to start it for good (I had had 3 months-classes at the local Israeli Union back in 2005). I want to do 2 textbook resources at once the way I am doing for Greek, in order to progress more quickly (I'd still call this sustainable dabbling because both textbooks combined would be around 15, sometimes 20 minutes).
Indonesian - Yes, it is easy. Definitely. I want to start textbook proper learning while picking another short-lessons-based resource once in a while. I want to go serious with it and start chatting at the many groups I'm a member of.
Prospects
Somehow, someday if time allows I want to start Catalan. As for Swahili, I still hope I won't start it on my own. So, whoever joins me makes it a tandem and later a team. Turkish is a candidate for sustainable dabbling in the second semester, and so is Romanian in the transparent front. I'd really like to start Czech, but Russian is dragging all my slavolearnability at the moment. Maybe the second semester will see me getting even more serious with Russian and enjoying the momentum or instead setting myself free to put in on normal progress mode and finally add my second Slavic language. Ditto for Swedish, which depends on how comfortable I will be with Norwegian halfway 2018.
That is all I have planned for the moment. I don't have many set goals. I won't keep a resources slot placeholder, feel free to reply directly to this topic. I do have my list of resources which I'd be happy to share.
Best of luck to all fellow learners!