Salut à tous! Hae hae!

I realized I haven’t done a Month in Review post in a while! I feel like June came up on me fast, like I hadn’t realized that May was over already. It doesn’t feel like June has gone by too quickly, but I know it has been a busy month for me. Sometimes when a week or a month is busy, I don’t get around to a lot of language learning. I feel like it didn’t hinder me this month though! Looking back on my language habit tracker journal, I see that I got plenty of passive learning from many activities and a few larger textbook sessions. Here’s a look at my month in review!

French: I’ve been steadily reading “C’est Louise: L’Halloween tome 3” par Camille Laurent (“C’est CAM” sur youtube)! A fellow francophile American friend and I really enjoy reading these books in French. I believe the author has 5 volumes in the series now. It’s at a YA teen level, but it has lots of humor and fun tidbits about real-life Montréal that adults can enjoy too! I’ve also found a few new-to-me French influencers that seem interesting. This has been a month for keeping up with current events- lots of news segments on RFI about political races and the war.

Spanish: Mainly passive practice this month. I’ve listened to a fair few episodes of daily news on the El Washington Post podcast, as well as the Spanglish music podcast Radio Menea. Always picking up tidbits of Spanish from neighbors or latinx people working in my office building too!

Italian: I caved and decided to learn how to make a professional Aperol Spritz drink at home! It’s not hard, I had just never bought the liquor before. Mainly because it’s expensive in the US- so instead, I didn’t buy a main brand like Aperol or Select (around $32!), but I went with Americano Orange ($17). It felt like a better deal for a drink that I would make as a summer treat and only have occasionally. Then I did look up recipes in Italian, and looked at the differences in minor ingredients. I also listened to an English podcast about the history of the Spritz (A Writer in Italy with Michelle Johnston), which was really cool to learn about.

Chinese: I’m getting ready to take my HSK2 exam! I’ve been passing the practice exams half of the time…it really depends on the topic or vocab/grammar used, if I’m familiar with it. The exams also like to try to trick you! But I’ve set a date in July before I go on vacation, and I’ll use that as my unofficial-offical exam score once I take it. I already know this means that there is still level 2 vocab and grammar that I need to work on, so once I feel that I’ve passed this exam, I’ll probably wait a while before attempting HSK3. At that point, I should also probably look into adding in more of a speaking element with my Chinese learning. I also need to beef up my vocab- in amount of memorized words, as well as at a slightly more intermediate level. My listening and reading comprehension isn’t bad right now, but I need to make sure my other skill levels don’t fall too far behind. I also let myself buy another digital volume of the Path Chinese magazine, and I’ve been enjoying going through the fun lower level content! This one is about reading and books.

Polish: My Polish studies were a little slow this month, but I worked on learning some summer vocab so that has been fun! I’ve also heard more Polish politicians’ names and place names in the news because of current events, and I know how to pronounce them correctly, which is cool!

Icelandic: My Icelandic studies were a little slow this month, but I continue to keep up with Icelandic culture content in English.

ASL: Another back-burner language, but I found that I came across a few new signs this month. I didn’t quite memorize them, but I always make an attempt to at least familiarize myself with them. The sign for “transgender” has a really cool history behind it, and that infographic showed up online during Pride month!

German: I never did find a textbook that I liked- content wise or price wise- and I’m doing just fine without one! Whenever I need a more trustworthy or written-out account of grammar or cases, I can find it in the German language wiki, or certain trusted websites. So I’m learning bits and pieces here and there! Still going through my Easy German transcripts, from when I had a patreon membership with them for 1 month, so that has been a good learning activity!

Japanese: I started translating vocabulary in an English copy of the manga, “Chi’s Sweet Home”, into Japanese in the margins of the book & my notebook. It’s a cute children’s story that I remember reading in high school, and I found a cheap copy at a local junk shop. So I’m using it to learn more beginner vocabulary!

Goals: Not really a goals section, but things I’m looking forward to for next month! I’m going on vacation mid-month, so I’ll take a break from my hobbies at that time, but knowing me that will probably be refreshing and motivate me when I return. Movies, books, more cooking recipes, music, online exercise classes, etc!

Sjáumst næst! xx