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My Summer of Languages | ||
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 Language Learning Forum : Language Learning Log |  | |
| clang Groupie United States Joined 5179 days ago 54 posts - 82 votes  Speaks: English* Studies: Russian, Italian | Message 1 of 9 21 April 2012 at 8:01pm | IP Logged |
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I'm conflicted about goal-setting and accountability. People always say that if you put your goals out there for
others to see you will be more likely to follow through to avoid embarrassment. There is also the idea that once you receive praise for your goals, you will feel as if you have already achieved your goal and lose some of your motivation.. Anyway, I'm perfectly situated for some great progress in a number of languages over the next few months and I need to plan. This will be (by far) my most ambitious language learning experience and any thoughts and/or comments are appreciated. A note: I will have plenty of free time, but I am worried about maintaining motivation/interest. Languages Russian, Romanian, Norwegian, Serbo-Croatian, (probably not French) BCS Absolute beginner. I'm spending 8 weeks at a workshop for Eastern European and Central Asian languages and will be in class 4-5 hours a day studying BCS. Outside of class I will be studying BCS probably an additional 2 hours a day. I'm going all in on this. Even though I will not be in an real immersion setting, I believe that my understanding of my language learning style and my familiarity with basic slavic language structures will allow me to make the fastest progress I've ever made in a language and I'm excited to see how far I can get in 8 weeks. Romanian Intermediate. (Several months immersion and about 25 hours of classes.) My roommate for the summer speaks excellent Romanian (of the Moldoveneasca variety). We are planning on either having Romanian days every week or Romanian hours every day, depending on what works best (suggestions on this are welcome!). I'll probably include 20-45 minutes a day of reading/vocabulary in Romanian. My goal with Romanian is to increase my vocabulary and fluidity (as in speed and ease). At the end of August I'll be spending the week with one of my good friends from Romania who I haven't seen for a long time and I'm excited to speak with her in Romanian after so long! Russian Lower advanced. (Two years of immersion and a lot of tutoring/classes.) I have no plan for Russian which scares me. I know I will need to dedicate some time to it, but I'm not sure how much. My roommate will be studying Russian (in the same program I'm studying BCS) this summer and I will be helping her with her homework. There will also be Russian lunch tables, movie nights, lectures, and a plethora of Russian speaking students and teachers. I think I'm going to focus on input and see what happens. Norwegian Beginner. (I've spent some time with Norwegian grammar and listening.) My brother and his Norwegian fiance are getting married in June and her family is coming to visit for a few weeks. After that they are moving to Norway. If I am ever going to learn Norwegian, now is the time to start. I'll begin studying in the next few days and will be spending the bulk of my 6WC time on the language. I'll be able to practice with my brother's new in-laws when they come and will be able to use it as another excuse to write to and skype with my sister-in-law after they move. This is going to be a life long investment and it's time to start. French Intermediate. (So many years of studying in school.) My French is dormant. There's so much there, but I never maintained it and it would require more time and effort than I have to resurrect it at the moment. Schedule overview April/May: Focus on Norwegian; Russian and Romanian reading/tv/movies June/July: Focus on BCS; Russian and Romanian conversations/reading August: Focus on Romanian and Norwegian Rambling I'm excited by the fact that my language learning life seems to be decided for the next few years, but I'm concerned about my ability to maintain multiple languages and move beyond high intermediate or basic fluency. Excluding English, 4 languages (maybe even 3) seems like a natural limit for me for a while. Wish me luck! Edited to add current levels! Edited by clang on 22 April 2012 at 1:39am 2 persons have voted this message useful | |
| sgh78 Diglot Senior Member France Joined 4481 days ago 163 posts - 215 votes Speaks: French*, English Studies: Spanish, Russian, Norwegian, Latin, Persian, Biblical Hebrew, Arabic (classical), German | Message 2 of 9 21 April 2012 at 9:34pm | IP Logged |
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Your project is rather interesting for me.
I think that , you had good exposed your goals because we can read a lot of details. Good luck ! 1 person has voted this message useful | |
| Michael K. Senior Member United States Joined 5569 days ago 568 posts - 886 votes Speaks: English* Studies: Spanish, Esperanto | Message 3 of 9 21 April 2012 at 10:06pm | IP Logged |
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Wow, you're certainly taking on a lot.
Good luck. Stupid question, but have you just considered doing one at a time? BCS will probably be enough, whether or not you have a lot of free time. I tried studying three languages when I was unemployed and bored, and I only lasted 3 days. Personally, I would just focus on BCS. I assume your roommate and future sister-in-law both speak English, so maybe just ask them occassionally how to say things in their respective languages. I'd just ignore Russian until you have a need and study plan for it, because you might get it confused with BCS. You're already planning to wait on French, so that's good. I just recommend being patient, doing one language at a time, and waiting until you have a real need for a language before you start, if you're not doing it for fun. I assume you're close to your roommate and future sister-in-law, so I can see why it would be tempting to learn their languages. Anyway, good luck, and have fun. 1 person has voted this message useful | |
| clang Groupie United States Joined 5179 days ago 54 posts - 82 votes Speaks: English* Studies: Russian, Italian | Message 4 of 9 21 April 2012 at 10:36pm | IP Logged |
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At any one time I'm planning on studying only one new language (6 weeks of Norwegian, then 8 weeks BCS). My
Romanian and Russian are both already at a fairly decent level. I lived in Moldova for a few years and both are now around B2. By the end of the summer I'm hoping to take a big chunk out of BCS, develop basic abilities in Norwegian, and maintain/make small improvements in fluency in Russian and Romanian. I'm definitely on the fence about Norwegian and will not be studying it to the detriment of BCS, Russian, or Romanian. My big fear is losing the years of work I've already done on Russian and Romanian (repeating what happened with French). When learning/starting a new language, do you tend to completely set aside your other languages? 2 persons have voted this message useful | |
| Michael K. Senior Member United States Joined 5569 days ago 568 posts - 886 votes Speaks: English* Studies: Spanish, Esperanto | Message 5 of 9 21 April 2012 at 11:46pm | IP Logged |
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I see. I thought you were a beginner in all of them.
In the past I was studying Spanish and added another language when I got bored with it. I'm now doing only one language at a time, and have decided to try Mandarin. I really never got that far in Spanish, but one poster said he reads Assimil before he goes to bed to keep the language fresh. I might read some simple books, like "The Little Prince" in the target language to keep it up. I think that if you learn a language, forget it, and come back to it, you won't completely be back at the beginning. You'll start to recover your knowledge as you go along. Anyway, good luck with starting BCS, and with your contiued studies of Russian and Romanian. 1 person has voted this message useful | |
| Cavesa Triglot Senior Member Czech Republic Joined 4849 days ago 3277 posts - 6779 votes Speaks: Czech*, FrenchC2, EnglishC1 Studies: Spanish, German, Italian | Message 6 of 9 22 April 2012 at 1:36pm | IP Logged |
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You won't be back at the beginning but you will be in a bad situation because it is
fairly difficult sometimes to find out your new gaps and relearn them without being driven away by the whole being too easy and therefore boring to you. And sometimes the gaps open at quite unexpected places. So, if you can stay in touch with your Russian and Romanian, at least a bit like reading and article now and listening to a radio talk show next week etc, it is a good thing. Every bit counts. And if you'll be actively using the the languages, such as with your friend as you mentioned, I think you don't need to worry. I am curious about your BSC and Norwegian. I see the reason behind Norwegian, it is a beautiful one. And you'll have great opportunities to go to Norway to visit your brother AND practice your Norwegian :-D. But what lead you to the three others? They are not quite common among americans, even though they are beautiful. P.S: thanks for clarifying. I was unsure whether you were beginner at all of them as well. :-) 1 person has voted this message useful | |
| clang Groupie United States Joined 5179 days ago 54 posts - 82 votes Speaks: English* Studies: Russian, Italian | Message 7 of 9 22 April 2012 at 2:44pm | IP Logged |
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I suppose I shouldn't have assumed that noone in their right mind would ever try learning four new languages at
the same time. I suspect there are some people on these very boards who might try it! Why I started Russian and Romanian I lived and worked in a predominantly Russian speaking area of the Republic of Moldova for about 2 and a half years. And while you can get by in Moldova with Russian alone (many Moldovans do) there are simply a lot of discussions that you can't have in Moldova if you are a foreigner who speaks only Russian. At first I simply wanted to be able to show my interest in/commitment to cultural integration, but I quickly found out that I actually liked Romanian better. Isn't it Barry Farber who talks about languages as relationships? Russian was like my high school sweetheart who I ended up marrying and Romanian was the attractive coworker who was just too tempting to resist. Truth be told, after spending a lot of time with Romanian, I began appreciating Russian more. Interest in BCS My study of BCS is driven by a few things: 1) The countries in which it/they are spoken are beautiful. 2) I'm fascinated by language politics and the role languages play in personal and group identity. 3) A lot of research on modern community conflict and consensus building uses communities speaking BCS as case studies and I prefer to ditch the translations and interpretations whenever possible. 4) I want to see what sort of "discount" I get in BCS after having studied Russian. Some nonsense about studying languages Thank you for the reassurance on maintaining languages that I already have a lot of experience with. As I consider studying additional languages, I'm starting to question my reasons for language learning in general. For me, there has to be some practicality or usefulness to language learning and attempted polyglotism, however little that may be, and I can't personally justify learning languages if I can't maintain and use them later. I suppose that's why I like these forums; in addition to providing learning tips and resources, they provide an outlet for meta discussions on what the process means to people and why people choose to spend their time on this particular hobby/mode of personal development. And I stopped making sense at the end.. Edited by clang on 22 April 2012 at 2:46pm 1 person has voted this message useful | |
| clang Groupie United States Joined 5179 days ago 54 posts - 82 votes Speaks: English* Studies: Russian, Italian | Message 8 of 9 22 April 2012 at 2:54pm | IP Logged |
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This thread does not show up on my profile page.
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