I haven’t done one of these in a while, and felt like checking in!

After traveling to France in September- and having focused on French in August leading up to it- of course, I’ve still been enthusiastic about my French practice afterwards in October. While I was on vacation, I did pop into Drops a bit and The Chairman’s Bao (easy language practice on my phone), as well as write in Italian in a little journal while out at a café one day. So here’s how my other languages are doing:

French: Since I’ve been back home, I’ve started reading a new French book! Never mind that I have a few lying around unfinished (that I was enjoying, but just got distracted from finishing!) on my nightstand, and that I just brought 10 physical books back with me from my recent trip…I’ve started reading the e-book “Futures- comment le féminisme peut sauver le monde” by Lauren Bastide, from La Poudre podcast. I just found out she has written a few books, and I was an avid listener of La Poudre podcast for a number of years! Nowadays, I only listen to an episode every once in a while, but I’m still a fan of her work. Not sure if I’ll finish this book- at all, or any time soon- but I’m enjoying the first chapter so far.

Spanish: The algorithm has been sending me more Spanish reels lately, which I’m not mad about! Every once in a while, it seems to choose a theme for me at random. I’m not currently reading any Spanish books, but I come across videos online sometimes. I’m always happy to be able to understand it, but my motivation is low for actual output-related practice at the moment. It’s best to listen to my mood at times like this, take a break from the language, and come back to it when I’m ready!

Italian: I already have another trip scheduled for next year! Some international friends are getting married in Rome and I got invited 😀 I’m super happy for them, and will of course be there for them on their wedding weekend…but I’m excited for the opportunity to return to Rome too! I went to Italy for the first time in October 2019, and visited Rome for almost 2 weeks. I had a great time, and wasn’t sure when I would be able to go back, since I had other travel plans in the works. Fast forward, and post-pandemic, Italy still wasn’t on the top of my list for travel. But this wedding gives me a great excuse to return! My Italian is around a lower intermediate level, so I’ll boost it again in the months before my trip next year (like I did last year). I’m still in a dreamy daze over my recent trip to France, but the nervous excitement is starting up for Italy, so I’m checking out random Italian content right now as well and getting back into things.  

Chinese: I recently had a very small window to speak Chinese with some native speakers who didn’t speak much English and were visiting some friends in the US. And I don’t really speak Chinese much in my practice these days…I was able to say a few niceties and greetings, but felt bad that I couldn’t have too much of a conversation past that. The thing is, I know that I’ve done very well learning Chinese on-and-off over the past few years. My vocabulary is pretty good for an upper beginner/lower intermediate learner at this point, my grammar is okay, my reading comprehension is good on limited subjects, my listening is okay, and my tones certainly need some work, but I’m at a good place. I’m just not taking actual lessons, which I think is the next step. I’m starting to think about a trip to China/Taiwan in 2025 or 2026, so leading up to that I’ll definitely need to take Chinese lessons.

Polish: This is one of my back-burner languages, so I’m just exploring it at my own pace. I enjoy it, but don’t have the time in my life to focus on it at the moment.

Icelandic: This is one of my back-burner languages, so I’m just exploring it at my own pace. I enjoy it, but don’t have the time in my life to focus on it at the moment. In early November, we just had the Iceland Airwaves music festival, which was really fun to listen to the free livestreams!

ASL: I’ve chatted with friends and family about learning ASL lately- it’s come up randomly recently. It really strikes me as being easy and doable (from someone who likes learning languages), I would just need to put more time and effort into it. For now, it’s a fun interest that I pop into on occasion.

German: This is also a back-burner language, but because it’s newer I’m still a bit more excited about it (compared to Polish and Icelandic). I did also get to speak it on vacation back in 2017, so I feel more like a false beginner with German? And especially having English, Icelandic, and French in my background, some things are easier to understand as I’m learning German. The cases still give me trouble, and sometimes I get a bit tongue-tied with the longer words. But I’m enjoying it, and slowly learning things here and there.

Japanese: This is also a back-burner language, but because it’s newer I’m still a bit more excited about it, and it helps with my Chinese in some ways! As I learn a character in one language, I’m learning it in the other. I haven’t had trouble getting confused in Japanese yet, but I do occasionally throw in a Chinese word by accident, when I practice speaking haha. I occasionally still forget how to read certain Japanese characters (hiragana & katakana), but having quickly learned them in the beginning, that was a great start. I love being able to read a Japanese sign (whether in person or in a youtube video or in anime on Crunchyroll) now that I’ve started learning the language. At some point, a kanji course would be helpful, but I’m just enjoying learning slowly for now.

The end of the year is coming up! In some ways, it’s kind of nice to have a bit of end of year pressure to push some of my language learning practice.

Alla prossima xx