Learn to speak many languages

I’m pretty fluent in Spanish, probably because I’m studying it in school. I’m reading the HP books in Spanish to push me a bit farther along.

English, Deutsch, French, Italian, Spanish…

During the final third of 2008 I got a little distracted from pretty much everything including my languages. When I picked them up again in December I felt that I needed some major revision and I began working through the Michel Thomas first series again. It’s been amazingly useful.

That job is now done and with some extra revision of the last two CDs this weekend I should be ready to begin again on the advanced series this coming Monday.

Monday will also see me beginning a new Spanish reading book, AND taking my first Spanish lesson. It feels like quite a red letter day for my home study and brings my dream of speaking many languages closer to genuine, real life reality.

I want this entry to remind me that if I persist and put the time in I do eventually get to my destination. I want to remind myself when nothing seems to move forward that two and a half months is not very long in the grand scheme of things and I’ve achieved a huge amount since the beginning of December. Go team PixieDust!

I’ve also made a new commitment to listening to a SpanishPod.com and FrenchPod.com podcasts everyday even if it’s the only language study I do. That way especially with the French, it will keep me thinking about the language even if I’m not actively pursuing it in any other way right now.

I’m concentrating particularly on Spanish at the moment and the increased speed of learning is really spurring me on. I’ve also secured a few Spanish lessons with my friend Faith. We begin on Monday evening and if it works well for us both it will become a regular learning spot in the week for both myself and R. It’s an amazing chance to practice speaking with a native Latino. Soy muy emocionado!

We’re also beginning to plan our next trip to Barcelona. I’m wondering if we can go on to Madrid or some other Spanish destination while we’re there. I’m hoping that this trip will see a huge improvement in my language skills. It’s inspiring to have something to aim for.

2 hours on each language over the week. It’s an achievable daily goal – 1 hour per day + 1 extra session fitted in somewhere depending on the shape of the week.

In the future when I’ve ironed out some other schedule issues successfully in my working day I’d really like to up that to 1.5 hours per day. Giving me 3 hours per language per week.

.5 Michel Thomas
.5 reading
.5 Shortcut to Spanish / BBC Ma France / German CDs

That should give me a good rounded learning structure.

I’d like to organize some language evenings this summer with various friends who talk these languages to practice my shaky sentence structure and vocab.

I’ve made time this week to do my two per day. 1 hour of each – half hour learning with Michel Thomas and half hour of reading. By Thursday I was feeling out of sorts and grumpy at how much effort i seem to put in for very little result.

TODAY IT’S ALL DIFERENT!

I feel like I’m really beginning to progress. My french reading zoomed through one and a half pages. My spanish reading I kept understanding whole sentences without looking up a single word. I understood the lessons better too.

I can see that using this method I’ll progress quickly and that is what I get a kick from – seeing real improvement in my understanding. That’s what spurs me forward. With this much input I can’t fail to improve at an exciting rate.

I’m going to promise to stick with it for 1 month and then tweak any bit of this learning schedule that needs it at the end.

This week I finished my Michel Thomas French 8CD course. It’s taken almost exactly two years to the day. Far far too long. I guess that’s the trouble with attempting three languages at once. A much slower learning curve. All the more reason to try for the two hours a day rather than just the one I seem to manage at the moment.

However, way way back when I began I promised that when I finished this goal I’d treat myself to a years subscription (abonnement) to French Vogue. I’d totally forgotten until today – so instead of reading my French reading book today I tackled the French Vogue web site and learned all kinds of new words including the rather useful ROYAUME-UNI (United Kingdom). I navigated credit card questions and security info about encrypted online banking details successfully and made my purchase.

It was really interesting to have a purpose to my reading. I’m looking forward to all kinds of doors opening to me when I can read several languages. Not to mention the online shopping opportunities!

I feel thoroughly chuffed with myself for both finishing the CDs and placing the order. I can’t wait for my first French Vogue to pop through the door.

Over the last 3 weeks I’ve been struggling to keep to 3 languages a day. I seem to progress with one in particular and then resent leaving it for a language which this week is being more tricksy.

The varied learning patterns are a big step forward – but I don’t quite have the perfect balance yet.

From today I’m going to try a new approach. 2 hours per day but only with 2 languages. I’ll try to keep the two hours to separate times of the day to help give my mind a clean break. The hour will consist of 30mins with Michel Thomas and 30mins reading. Doing this for three days will give me 2 hours of study on each language and keep it quite varied. Hopefully I should progress strongly enough to keep me really keen.

I’m trying to apply TR’s theory of how to succeed:

Try
Assess
Re-try differently
Assess
Re-try differently

etc… until you are totally fabulously successful! :)

It’s certainly helping better than trudging along getting cross with myself up for not working harder or being more disciplined.

well i’m in the prcess of learning German
but i also would like to learn:

Greek
italian
Danish
Japanese would be nice

and as much as i hate french and spanish i would like to learn to speak them fluently

It takes a bit of getting used to – and I often have to run through an answer in several languages now before hitting on the right word – but it’s the best approach I’ve tried yet.

Some days I don’t manage all three but the push is there and I’m usually learning two languages a day at least. Can you imagine how different my language skills will be by the end of the year!