Happy February- I mean, 1st Quarter! (I wrote this post in February, and never published it, woops! It still feels relevant though, so enjoy!) This isn’t really a month in review…Just a few language learning things I’ve come across, or cool things I’ve learned recently, a few wins and losses, you know the usual.

French- I had a bit of a “fail” with My French Film Festival. Some years I’m good at checking in and actually utilizing this awesome free French content, and getting to watch some French shorts & films online. Years like this year, I see that it starts on January 13th and I think “Ah cool, j’ai hâte de regarder quelques films courts!”…and then I just don’t get around to it. It happens!

Spanish- I joined a new patreon membership online for an artist, Fran Meneses, whose videos I like to watch, and to start doing some art tutorials. Another part of her patreon perks is that she puts out a podcast each month in Spanish and a separate copy in English! She’s from Chile, and her podcast episodes have been great Spanish practice for me lately. She talks about whatever is going on in her life, and it’s very relatable and useful vocabulary for me!

I also got back into listening to an old INNA album recently (well, old as in from 2019 haha). Her “Yo” album wasn’t well-received at the time- at least I don’t think so, in comparison to her more dance-y/party/pop-rock albums that tends to be her more typical style. But what’s great about the Yo album is that she speaks in Spanish 90% of the time, and her Spanish is pretty good, so I’m enjoying listening to it for practice.

Italian- I’ve been keeping up with news about the Festivale di Sanremo, reading articles, as well as Elfin’s e-mail newsletter (from AllAboutItalian), and catching clips online from the song contest!

Chinese- I’ve been trying to keep up with my HSK2 practice, but I’ve realized that this level of article on TCB (The Chairman’s Bao site) is actually a bit long, compared to the bite-size HSK1 articles I was working with before. I’ll be able to read/transcribe it, but then I might run out of time to translate it and work with the vocab, all in one sitting like I used to do. I may have to figure out a better way to use these articles for practice, so that I can split it into two separate sessions. We’ll see!

I also visited a local Asian Market as part of some Valentine’s day weekend fun for myself, and had fun reading the labels on all the food, snacks, and household items! Most of these labels are in Korean or Japanese, but there are some Chinese goods too.

Polish- I’m not sure if I should let Polish go for now, or pause it, or take a break. I’m not one to “quit” a language, and I’m also not one to give up a hobby. Basically, I like to hoard my hobbies and come back to them when I have the time or I feel like it haha. I enjoy learning Polish, but I feel like I have a bit too much going on right now? I also don’t have an immediate reason to be learning it right now. No travel plans, no real life connection beyond my family heritage. I’ll see how things go!

Icelandic- Similar thoughts about Icelandic. I’m not sure if I should let Icelandic go for now, or pause it, or take a break. I’m not one to “quit” a language, and I’m also not one to give up a hobby. Basically, I like to hoard my hobbies and come back to them when I have the time or I feel like it haha. I enjoy learning Icelandic, but I feel like I have a bit too much going on right now? I also don’t have an immediate reason to be learning it right now. No travel plans, no real life connection. I’ll see how things go! No need for me to make a public announcement or anything either.

German- I’m still enjoying learning new things, but I can tell that I’m not making much progress. I’ve advanced past the beginner Clozemaster categories, but I still haven’t found a textbook that I liked enough to buy. So my reading/writing practice leaves a little to be desired. I’m great at multiple choice in apps, but I know that I need to put more work down on paper if I want to see some improvement. But again, this is one of my back-burner languages, so it’s a lower priority for me to learn too.

Japanese- I’m still enjoying learning new things, but I can tell that I’m not making much progress. Compared to German, I know that I’m still at a low level with Japanese. It’s not related to my other languages like German is (to English, Icelandic, a bit of French, etc). I’m able to recognize certain characters with my Chinese experience, but everything else is pretty new with Japanese. So I’m still at a stage where I’m just trying to soak in as much language knowledge as possible! This year, I’m making it a goal to re-watch all of the Studio Ghibli films that I own, but with Japanese audio this time. I’d previously watched a few, or certain ones in Japanese, but most people in America prefer dubbed films so that was how I had originally watched most of them. As I continue to learn languages, subtitled films really are the better option for learners. You can check in with the subtitles down below if you need a bit of help, but the audio immersion with the context of the actors/characters on film is a great way to soak in some language practice!

ASL- There are a couple of new tiktok creators who have videos in sign language! I’m no longer using/on tiktok, but I’ve continued to follow them on instagram to catch their videos there sometimes.

Alla prossima! Arrivederci xx