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Language-learning Wanderlust | ||
Tags: Wanderlust | ||
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 Language Learning Forum : Language Learning Log |  | |
| Marj Senior Member United States Joined 6377 days ago 257 posts - 283 votes  Speaks: English* Studies: Spanish, Mandarin, French | Message 1 of 33 29 November 2009 at 9:59pm | IP Logged |
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Last year, I concentrated on French, with a little Mandarin along the way. Some changes in my personal life made studying more difficult, but I made some effort to continue, until autumn, and then I decided to take a break, as studying French was beginning to be something I dreaded, rather than looked forward to.
This next year, I've decided to let my language learning wanderlust loose for a while, and just bounce from language to language as my mood strikes me. The languages I have a decent amount of resources for at the moment (in no particular order) are: French, Mandarin, Spanish, Italian, Russian, German, Esperanto and Arabic. I have fewer resources for Portuguese, Japanese and Greek. I will try to keep track of what I've done in my journal, and see how it goes. 1 person has voted this message useful | |
| doviende Diglot Senior Member Canada languagefixatio Joined 5797 days ago 533 posts - 1245 votes Speaks: English*, German Studies: Spanish, Dutch, Mandarin, Esperanto, Hindi, Swedish, Portuguese | Message 2 of 33 30 November 2009 at 5:37am | IP Logged |
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I wandered around for years before I ever got good at anything, and it was fun for a while. It was also valuable in that I had a lot of experience to compare things to. But at some point I wanted to get better at some languages, but I felt lost in the intermediate stages and felt like I'd never get good, so I ended up wandering more.
Have fun wandering, and I'm sure it'll be very interesting, but if you ever decide to concentrate on just one thing again then I suggest that you work on that one thing very hard so you'll have at least one good language to compare against all the others. Esperanto might actually be a good choice, since it takes so much less time to learn. You could quickly get a sense of what it's like to really converse in a language well. good luck! :) 1 person has voted this message useful | |
| Sprachprofi Nonaglot Senior Member Germany learnlangs.comRegistered users can see my Skype Name Joined 6281 days ago 2608 posts - 4866 votes Speaks: German*, English, French, Esperanto, Greek, Mandarin, Latin, Dutch, Italian Studies: Spanish, Arabic (Written), Swahili, Indonesian, Japanese, Modern Hebrew, Portuguese | Message 3 of 33 30 November 2009 at 11:31am | IP Logged |
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Looking forward to reading your journal!
I also found it helpful to indulge in wanderlust a bit at times to help me find my passion for languages again. What's the worst that can happen? You will have learned something of a lot of languages at zero effort. I find it easier to "stay on track" now, because I have started on a variety of languages and if I feel the need to switch from Chinese and do something else, there are plenty of languages where I can continue what I started. I don't feel the need to start on new ones anymore, except if I'm travelling to a country whose language I don't speak. If you absolutely have to stick with a language despite weariness, for example if you have a test coming up, I recommend looking for other materials and "fun" things you can do, for example chatting with people in that language, reading easy materials in it, watching movies, playing Scrabble... 1 person has voted this message useful | |
| Marj Senior Member United States Joined 6377 days ago 257 posts - 283 votes Speaks: English* Studies: Spanish, Mandarin, French | Message 4 of 33 30 November 2009 at 6:03pm | IP Logged |
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@doviende-Thanks for your note, I appreciate your encouragement. And I'm sure I will eventually start really studying again in a while.
@sprachprofi--Thanks also for your note and encouragement. And you're right, after my wanderlust I will have at least learned something about the languages I've checked out. And to start off, I spent an hour or so last night checking out the Russian alphabet. It was really interesting, and I think I will spend a little more time on learning at least the alphabet. I also ran across a copy of the Pimsleur Irish cds I'd bought several years ago, and I'm going to stick them in the car. When we go shopping, I'll listen to them (it takes approximately 30 minutes to get to the city where we do most of our major shopping, which makes it work out well!) We usually go once a week, so we will see how that works out. And maybe my "so totally not interested" husband will pick up a little Irish, too. Although I really don't think he will. 1 person has voted this message useful | |
 Jiwon Triglot Moderator Korea, South Joined 6247 days ago 1417 posts - 1500 votes Speaks: EnglishC2, Korean*, GermanC1 Studies: Hindi, Spanish Personal Language Map | Message 5 of 33 30 November 2009 at 6:21pm | IP Logged |
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Wow.. I wish I could have a month of wanderlust to just explore everything, buying all the language textbooks I've found.. Hindi, Arabic, Irish, Indonesian, Russian, Italian, etc..
Good luck with your language journey. I hope you settle down with Korean or German *wink*wink* 1 person has voted this message useful | |
| Marj Senior Member United States Joined 6377 days ago 257 posts - 283 votes Speaks: English* Studies: Spanish, Mandarin, French | Message 7 of 33 01 December 2009 at 2:35am | IP Logged |
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@ Jiwon--I probably won't be delving into Korean over the next few months, as I don't have any Korean resources. But German will probably be looked into, at least a little, as I do have some German resources available. I hope this makes you smile.
As to my wanderlust--when you get to be my age (late 50's) you will probably have already learned most of the languages you've found interesting, and won't need to try a taste of many languages all at once to satisfy your curiousity. And thank you for your good wishes. @ Buttons--I'm also curious to see where this leads. There are just so many languages out there that sound interesting. I'm guessing that at least I won't get bored! Thank you for your good wishes, also. 1 person has voted this message useful | |
| Marj Senior Member United States Joined 6377 days ago 257 posts - 283 votes Speaks: English* Studies: Spanish, Mandarin, French | Message 8 of 33 08 December 2009 at 1:55am | IP Logged |
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The languages I played with the last week--
Russian (just the alphabet)--2.5 hours. I was surprised at the difference between printed and script alphabet. Esperanto--1.5 hours. Downloaded some lessons to spend more time on this one. Also listened to some esperanto music, and while I didn't understand it, I liked the sound of it. Irish--.5 hours (one Pimsleur lesson) Mandarin--1 hour (playing on my DS with my Chinese Coach) French--1 hour, did some online reading. Spanish--1.5 hours, watched some TV in Spanish on several occasions. Didn't understand a lot, but enough to know what was going on. Enjoyed the sound of the language, and found it easier to actually hear the words now, then when I was actively studying it a year ago. Weird. Enjoyed my sampling this week, and even though it was a busy week with trying to get everything done for Christmas, I spent more time on my languages than I thought I had. 1 person has voted this message useful |
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