Become polylingual

...that a very little is better than nothing at all. I am interested in this, after all, and I have some other background motivation. So have been trying to get in a bit of reading here and there, taking note of whatever vocabulary I am exposed to in whatever language in a rough notebook, takint notes from translations, and just chipping away a word at a time. There’s no reason why I can’t make gradual progress with this goal.

Also, B and I are talking French a bit more, not every day but a few times a week – speaking with another non-native definitely takes the pressure off! And I am getting him to text me a few Mandinka phrases every day which is working better than trying to find time to sit down together so he can teach me.

I have been a bit downcast about this goal because I know it is something I can do, as in, have the capacity for. But it really means putting in the effort with all the languages a little bit every day (or as many days as possible) and that is quite a lot of work, even if it’s just little bits here and there. It’s also a lot of concentration, but I’m hoping my brain-stamina will improve with time.

I am going to try and focus more on this goal and arranging my time to fit it in – even if it’s just a few minutes there going over things I’ve already done to try and remember them better. The other day I used my Japanese on a guest (who replied in English, which is why I almost never bother, but I should!) and in the lift today I understood something someone said in Chinese (it helped that they sounded almost exactly like the CD!! Yay!) Today I also went over the dialogue from the next chapter before my walk which I think helped to make the listening practice more effective.

Baby steps but I really want to gradually start adding in more.

I have been working on this a lot more over the past couple of months and am getting in a load more hours now that I’m doing listening while walking. Even if I’m not consciously doing speaking practise, letting the words and phrases flow over me seems to be helping, and so I’m allowing myself to add the time spent listening to my log as a way to motivate myself to do it more often! I realised yesterday that I have already been using some of the patterns from the Japanese honorifics CD without consciously registering them, and am able to predict some of the tonal patterns in Chinese, so there is definitely some progress.

It would be nice to set some goals for where I want to be with each language by the end of the year, but I don’t think that’ll work – I just want to keep on with it because I’m enjoying learning something new. But I can set out the next activities/projects for each language…

• keep trying to write for 1/2 hour a day – it is far more important at the moment to work on expressing myself than working through some textbook or reading aimlessly
• make/find a list of topics to write about to help with this
• look for podcasts/radio downloads – I have a lot of listening time and French is being missed out on!

• I have the grade 4 kanji in my notebook so want to try working on writing a bit each day
• continue with listening – it will take a long time but absorbing it is pretty painless!

• I am getting quite comfortable with the lessons from the first CD – keep listening even if I think I know them, it can’t hurt to know them better!
• Work through the second set of lessons (6-10) with the textbook – it would be nice to have this done before Japan
• Rip the second CD and transfer the lessons to my player
• Get the vocab into my notebook for lessons 6-10

• Keep going with the verbs – am nearly there
• Start randomised testing on the verbs
• When I’m feeling happier with the verbs go back to the textbook stuff – try to get to the end
• Listening – there is plenty of material there, make time for it

Mon: 1 hr J/F, 1 1/4 R, 1/2hr C
Tues:
Weds:
Thurs:
Fri:
Sat:
Sun:
TOTAL:

Mon: 4 hours, one of each (but only just!)
Tues: 1 hour each of J/F/R, only half hour of C
Weds: 1 1/4 hours R, 1 hr J, 1/2 hr F
Thurs:
Fri:
Sat:
Sun:
TOTAL: 10.25 hours

Mon: 1/2 hr Japanese and Chinese
Tues: 1 hr Japanese
Weds: 1 hr Japanese
Thurs: 1 hr of all 4
Fri: 1 hr each JP + Ru so far + half hour of French
Sat:
Sun:

Mon: 1 hour of each (French, Chinese, Russian, Japanese)!! Was hard work but worth it!
Tues: 4 hours, one of each :)
Weds: 1 hour of each with last 20 minutes of Chinese coming later I hope!
Thurs: 1 hour of each again! Just one more day to go and it’ll be a full house!
Fri: 1 hour of each and that makes it a nice round 20 this week ;)
Sat:
Sun: 1hr Chinese prep for next week – ooh! 21!

up my mental list of priorities.

I just seem to have so much time at the moment, and this has always been a strong interest, so I want to put some of that time towards it and see where it takes me.

Going to track my weekly study times under this goal!

Mon:
Tues:
Weds: 1hr, Japanese reading, vocab, keigo, kanji (1) and French reading/vocab.
Thurs: (am) 1 happy hour of French/Japanese articles, vocab, keigo and kanji (2)
Fri: 1 hour, Japanese reading, vocab, kanji, and some French reading/vocab.
Sat: 20 mins Chinese
Sun: easily 2 hours Chinese and counting…

in Japanese, French and Chinese, – the first time I’ve done all three. It takes about 43(give or take) minutes to read and look up the vocab, I would say the French is the fastest to read but the Japanese requires less vocab-searching.

It just felt really great to do. I do the reading at work but only because I get in that bit earlier. Doing that first thing this morning (and hopefully every morning now) reminded me that whatever rediculous things I am asked to do during the day, I am not just a receptionist, or a filer, or a stationery guru, or a baby-accountant, but above all I’m a linguist. It’s a little piece of ME at the top of my day. I really love it.