Languages I
For a rating at CEFR A0-C2 levels: I think of myself as swimming in the shallow kiddie pool. Wearing floaties.
Formal coursework: 1 year Spanish in 8th grade, 2 years each of Koine Greek and Hebrew while in seminary.
Materials begun but never finished: Destinos, French in Action, Wheelock's Latin, FSI Spanish, TY Esperanto, etc.
Recent language journey:
Last year I wanted to really study the languages. I thought that if I just focused on a single language for 3-4 months straight I could make progress. However, I was too indecisive and feared missing out on the others. So I turned to Duolingo to prime the pump and maybe help me narrow it down to one. I thought I was above the gamification, but no, I was pulled straight into the Duolingo gamification. After a month of racking up XP I noticed an improvement in all the languages.
So I gave up on a single language strategy. While Duolingo is fun, I felt the need for a better method to review vocabulary. Memrise and Anki are good tools that I have used in the past. However, I decided to go with a paper-based system. I wanted more control over reviews, more flexibility and less screen time for the eyes. So I revived my old spaced repetition system using index cards from a few decades ago. In the system, I use sentences instead of individual words. After a few months, I noticed significant progress across the board.
I wanted more sentences so I turned to ClozeMaster. That helped me become aware of a wider range of verb tenses and vocabulary. At first, I thought I could remain above the ClozeMaster gamification. I was wrong.
With Duolingo and ClozeMaster, I take a slow, steady, little and often strategy. I maintain streaks for each and then do a little more if I have time. My main focus is on the paper-based system with the sentences. Besides doing the translation, I sometimes write, pronounce or listen to them. Or create new sentences.
So far it has been sustainable and fun. Progress is encouraging and it also has helped me become aware of areas where I am deficient.