Ok, so...... it was never in my plans, even long term, but..... I can't help myself, sooo......
it looks like I'm going to learn Spanish.
I've never enjoyed Spanish (or Italian). All my life, when my friends flocked to Spanish class, I turned to German, Latin, Ancient Greek. They fawned over Spanish speakers while I was busy admiring Russian and Arabic accents. I've already touched on my immersion in an Italian environment and steadfast disinterest in learning Italian. It's not that I want to disparage these languages - it's just that I never liked the sound of them, perhaps because I learnt (the very beautiful) French first, and maybe subconsciously found them to be ugly distortions of it.
HOWEVER, Spanish music is really good fun, the language is very useful globally, and the more I'm exposed to Spanish, the more frustrated I'm becoming that I can't communicate in it like I can with the rest of the languages around me, and in turn, the more motivated I am to learn it - and, an unexpected consequence, I'm finding myself warming more to Italiano. Vague comprehension in both languages is already there, so I figure, why not devote some study time to them and see what I can manage to learn before this flash of motivation evaporates.
Of course, this is just a symptom of my (and many language learners'!) biggest sin - the inability to commit to a language without being distracted by others !
So, I've set myself a challenge. I'd like to be communicating at a basic level with my Spanish colleagues by the end of next month (March). I suppose I'll also be picking up more 'active' Italian vocab along the way. This is because it's such a wonderful international workplace, that usually there are at least three different native languages within a few metres at all time, so it would be rare that I would learn the Polish/Czech/Slovak/Russian for a word without asking the others, "what is it in your language?", and we'd all do the same with Italian/Spanish. There's also a new Arabic speaker, so maybe I'll have to dust off my Arabic too....
i'm honestly so easily led astray. some persian speakers had me madly passionate about farsi again... i'm not organised enough for this lifeIn terms of HOW I'm going to "learn basic Spanish in a month", well, I'm not quite sure yet. In fact, despite having literally* a hundred language books, I have zero about Spanish, because I've always been so sure that I'd never want to learn it, so, eh, oops.
*probably- - - - - -
On to the languages which this log is actually dedicated to:
French - I'm sort of surprised and satisfied at the level I'm at in French. I still have a lot of work to do to be confident, competent, and anything near 'advanced', but I'm happy that the journey won't have to start at the beginning again as I'd imagined. As I've decided to take on a few more romance languages, I won't be spending much time on French. As before, the idea is simply to go to my class, do my homework, read some books, and chat to French speakers when I can (I was too shy to speak to SIX!! this week.... and spoke to three so terribly that they thought I'd just started learning lol #nerves).
Slovak - I've been trying harder to speak to my Slovak and Czech pals and colleagues. There are now a lot more Czech than Slovak suddenly, so I guess I'm going to have to stop being an avoidant wimp and finally retune my ears for Czech (you'd think after spending a month in Prague it would stick with you?...). This lovely holiday to Slovakia is looming, but tbh I just can't muster the energy to study new vocab. I've become so complacent with these languages, even though I love them. Don't worry, the fear of disappointing my partner's mother will definitely kick me back into action at some point.
Russian - unfortunately, I did lose frequent contact with my favourite Russian speaker, and the other one isn't very supportive of my efforts to learn. Only when he feels like it. However, there is a Venezuelan guy learning Russian, so sometimes the three of us will have little conversations, which is funny. Other than this, I've booked another skype lesson for Tuesday, and I've finally got my Russian books to the new apartment.
*(originally I called the guy Spanish, but he's Venezuelan, so I edited to fix because that was accidentally disrespectful.)Circassian - I've definitely cooled down on the vocab acquisition (and pronunciation practice, regrettably), and have instead been focussing on basic grammar. So far, so normal. Will update you all as the famously hellish Caucasian grammar begins to engulf me.
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This post is already outrageously long, but oh well, it's called a sLOG for a reason. Aside from languages, I love linguistics, and I intend to study it in the future. In the nearer future, I hope to teach English online. Therefore, I'll be trying to read some linguistics and TEFL books alongside studying languages. And I'm going to start the gym again.... dream big, right?
I'm trying some new study techniques from tomorrow (Monday), as today will be lost entirely to work, and I'm looking forward to reporting on how effective they are at boosting my productivity. Wish me luck for round two of this language journey!
EDIT: okay so 5 minutes into my first ever spanish session, and i've realised that my spanish speaking friends all happen to be from south america or andalusia, and I'm only now fully appreciating the s/th merging sound and frankly, as a lover of 'strange' noises, I'm living for it.