Become a Polyglot

I hadn’t realised I hadn’t written in so long. Here’s my latest list.

Musts:
Mandarin (going well, but must get to a very high level)
Portuguese (hopefully in time for the Olympics in Rio)
Sign Language

Very likely:
Korean (I’ve really gotten into K-pop lately.)
Taiwanese
Japanese

Would be nice:
Arabic
Afrikaans
Cantonese

I’ve done a little bit of rethinking which languages I’d like to learn lately. Here’s my updated list:

Must learn:
Mandarin
Portuguese
Some signed language (depends on which country I decide to settle down in)

Strongly considering:
French (which I’d like to learn in Africa)
Russian
Arabic (probably Levantine or Gulf dialect)
Czech (only if I decide to live there someday)

Would be nice:
Korean (probably only if I spend some time living there)

Probably won’t get around to:
Japanese
Afrikaans
Something Celtic (Bretton, Welsh, or Irish Gaelic)
Cantonese
Shanghainese
Thai
Malay/Indonesian

I’ve decided my plan of attack is to always try to have one primary language, i.e. one that I’m really focused on learning, and one secondary language, one that I just study occasionally. Now I know Mandarin is my primary right now, but I can’t decide on my secondary. I’m considering Korean, because I’m sure that will be my next primary, but that doesn’t necessarily mean it has to be my current secondary. I’m also considering Russian and Portuguese. I think Portuguese might make a good choice because of it’s close relation to English so my progress might be more noticable even though I wouldn’t be studying it full time.

On a side note, I think Portuguese just might replace Spanish on my “must learn” list, partly because I hear Portuguese speakers can kind of understand Spanish better than Spanish speakers can understand Portuguese. But, I’m also thinking kind of impulsively right now and could change my mind after I’ve given it more thought.

I’m still studying Mandarin. I had started studying a little Korean on the side, but there’re two RAs in my building who speak Russian (one of whom I was also friends with before living here), so now I’ve started studying a little bit of Russian. My stepsister also majored in Russian, so I can say some things to her next time I see her (probably the holidays).

I removed a few of my language goals to leave just the most important ones. While I would still like to learn Shanghainese, Cantonese and Czech, they’re not priorities and are more like pipe dreams. I’ll think about adding them again once I’ve got a few of my more important ones learned. While I never added Malay/Indonesian as a goal, I think it’s in the same category and is another one that could go on my list in the distant future.

As for the ones I’m especially interested in learning, I’m still studying Mandarin, and I plan to follow that with Korean, Spanish, Japanese, and Arabic, probably in that order.

I’m learning Mandarin Chinese right now and that’s going really well. I just wish my class would move faster. I’d study on my own, but have trouble making the time to study if I don’t have to for class. I plan to go to China for a few years when I get out of school so that should really help.

After that I’m leaning towards learning Korean because I understand Korea is a good place to save up money, and I’ll want to make up for my lack of ability to save much in China. Not to mention South Korea sounds like my kind of place. So I’ll probably move to Korea for a few years after I go to China.

After that I’d like to learn Arabic, but I want to live in the southern US so I think Spanish will be the more practical choice. Who knows.