Judith's language learning blog » My Life

Summary of 2011

Judith — Fri, 20 Jan 2012 15:01:35 +0000

I just realized that I never posted my summary of 2011… sorry for that.

In 2011, I spent 712 hours learning languages, compared to 615 hours in 2010. That’s a great success, and my goal for this year is at least 712 hours but hopefully 800!
Distribution by language, with quick summaries:
220 hours of Mandarin – started reading books in Mandarin
124 hours of Arabic – slowly getting somewhere
118 hours of Dutch – from scratch to quasi-B2
111 hours of French – mostly reading
47 hours of Modern Greek – developing a series for GreekPod101
31 hours of Italian – just maintenance
26 hours of Swahili – just maintenance
26 hours of Spanish – just maintenance
9 hours of Russian – a brief stint, quickly abandoned

Around the World in 25 Books & 10 Languages

I planned badly – I didn’t take into account that I would be flying without check-in luggage to see my family for the Christmas holidays and to the Junulara E-Semajno, so I was out of space to bring the remaining books with me and couldn’t finish them. I probably would have come up a bit short, but because of this, I’m actually 8 books short.

I read 17 books in 8 languages, missing only Esperanto and Latin (easy languages for me). I am still proud of this result because 17 books is a lot more than I’d normally read in 2 months, particularly when it comes to foreign-language books, which are always more of a struggle. And I am particularly proud that I finished my first originally-Chinese book for this challenge, a classic by Lao She called “二马” (Mr Ma and Son).

If you’d like to read my reviews of the books I read during this challenge, have a look at this special Goodreads bookshelf.

Goals & Plans for 2012

Judith — Mon, 26 Dec 2011 12:16:54 +0000

I just spent some thought on what my goals for 2012 should be, and how I want to go about them. Here’s what I came up with, also noting my current level:

Mandarin Chinese
Currently, I can read a modern Chinese book if the style isn’t too literary and I’d understand what’s going on, but it’s not enjoyable for me. I can also have a 45-minute conversation in Chinese, but I’m often missing words, I stumble over words and make too many mistakes. By the end of 2012, I want to be able to do both in a more enjoyable manner.
Method:
* Reading “Confessions of a Shopaholic” in Chinese-English parallel and entering colloquial expressions from there into Anki
* Listening-Reading “Mr Ma and Son”, which I have already read but for which I now found an audiobook
* Reading or Listening-Reading the modern Chinese novels which I brought back from the USA
* Reading the Chinese-only novels I found in Berlin
* Watching episodes from the new Romance of the Three Kingdoms TV series and from 家有儿女
* Mastering the song 中国话 by S.H.E, which is fast and full of tongue twisters
* Hopefully lots of talking!

Finnish
Due to a challenge I couldn’t resist, I will spend 45 hours on Finnish in February, despite it being nowhere on my hit list. Right now, I have zero knowledge of Finnish and it will be interesting to see where I’ll be at the end of the month… and where the others will be.
Method: mostly Assimil in conjunction with Anki, occasionally talking to a tutor for confirmation, possibly looking over other courses, children’s books or videos in order to keep up interest.

French
I can read any piece of French literature, including really old stuff, and my listening comprehension is also really good, but I feel that my active usage of French is lagging behind. I would also really love to exchange my German accent for a Québécois one. So my goal is to develop a good accent in 2012 and to reach a mistake quotient of less than 1/100 words. I shall also keep reading French classics.
Method:
* Talking to any Québécois who doesn’t run away fast enough
* Writing texts on lang-8 where they can be corrected
* Learning to imitate at least one recording of fast Québécois French
* Reading at least one French book per month

Indonesian & Korean
These were actually next on my list of languages to learn (I only know the Korean alphabet, and did a few lessons of Indonesian some years ago), but for now they’re taking a back seat to Finnish and Japanese. We shall see if there’s time, maybe in the second half of the year. For Indonesian I wanted to try out a translation-based course I have, and for Korean I just got Assimil Korean as a Christmas present.

Italian / Dutch / Spanish
I can read all of these with ease and make myself understood in conversations, but it’s more a case of make-believe than actual ability at this point (my Italian is full of Spanish and vice versa). I’d like to find time to work on one of these languages in particular and acquire real fluency in it. For that, I first have to find a language partner though.

Modern Greek
I’m happy with my ability to read Greek novels, but my speaking ability used to be better. Hopefully I shall have the chance to re-activate it at some point in 2012.

Japanese
I know zero Japanese at the moment, and I would love to be able to understand enough spoken Japanese in order to follow along in “Hikaru no Go” without the subtitles. Apart from that, it would be awesome to be able to watch Japanese Go lectures or Go TV. I am not interested in learning the written language because it would probably interfere with my knowledge of Chinese characters, which were difficult enough to acquire.
Method:
* Studying a quick course called “Le japonais tout de suite”
* Memorizing 600 of the most useful words
* Watching anime
* Whatever else I can come up with

Swahili
To my greatest regret, I stopped studying Swahili after completing 100 lessons of Assimil’s passive wave and 50 lessons of the active wave. In 2012, I intend to complete the rest of the active wave, assess my abilities then for the purpose of the experiment, and then start wildly using any materials I can get my hands on. My goal is to be able to comfortable read my collection of Swahili poems as well as understand Swahili audio news.
Method:
* Completing Assimil
* Scanning “Essential Swahili” and other courses I have lying around
* Creating & using Listening-Reading materials on the basis of Deutsche Welle’s “Learning By Ear”
* Reading the “Little Prince”, some children’s books and my advanced reader in Swahili
* Listening to news broadcasts

Update on Books Around the World Challenge

Judith — Fri, 02 Dec 2011 20:14:04 +0000

In November, I managed to read a record amount of 10 books and got half-way through another before I had to put it down yawning; it was no good and I shall not finish reading it. See which books I read, in what order and how I rated them at this site – clicking on the little “view” link on that page will reveal some things I had to say about each book.

Note that the order of reading differs from the trip plan, for several reasons:
1. I tend to read two books at the same time (one fiction and one non-fiction, or one in a harder language and one in an easier language, so that I have something to turn to at any time)
2. I started to read “Mr Ma & Son” early, but finished it among the last, because it’s almost 600 pages and in Chinese!
3. I temporarily skipped a few books because they didn’t make good companions on my journey. This could be due to size, due to having them electronically only, or because I was afraid the DHS might cause trouble if I showed up with a book on president Allende for example, considering the CIA staged the coup.

I will still read every book on the list though, now that I’m back in Berlin. That’s 14 books remaining and one month of time. Wish me luck!

9th of November

Judith — Tue, 08 Nov 2011 22:12:04 +0000

The 9th of November is a really important date for Germany. Three historic events happened on this date:

On the 9th of November 1918, the German monarchy was overthrown and the Weimar Republic was founded, the first German democracy. Two days after this, democratic representatives authorized the armistice/capitulation that ended the 1st World War.

In the night of the 9th/10th November 1938, the Nazis burned down more than 1400 Jewish prayer rooms, synagogues etc. in the Kristallnacht (Night of Broken Glass).

In the evening hours of the 9th of November 1989, the Berlin Wall fell. East Germans were suddenly free, dancing with their West German counterparts and starting to dismantle the Wall. There was no way this could have ended in anything but an official re-unification, but the bureaucratic process took until October 3rd 1990, which is now the German National Holiday, even though it is much less remarkable.

It is a pity that all three events share the same date, because I would have loved to celebrate the two democratic revolutions that happened on the 9th of November; they were vital to German history. Instead, the 9th of November is almost exclusively associated with the Kristallnacht. I’m not saying that it isn’t important to remember of course.

For the linguistically-inclined, here’s a famous song called “Kristallnaach” (Kristallnacht) by BAP, a German band singing in the dialect of Cologne. I shall give a translation of this dialect into Hochdeutsch and into English. Listen here.

Es kütt vüür, dat ich mein, dat jet klirrt, Dat sich irgendjet in mich verirrt, E Jeräusch, nit ens laut Manchmol klirrt es vertraut Selden su, dat mer’t direk durchschaut Mer weed wach, rief die Aure un sieht En’nem Bild zweschen Breughel un Bosch Kei Minsch, dä öm Sirene jet jitt Weil Entwarnung nur half su vill koss Et’rüsch noh Kristallnaach	Es kommt vor, dass ich meine, dass etwas klirrt, dass sich irgend etwas in mich verirrt. Ein Geräusch, nicht einmal laut, manchmal klirrt es vertraut, selten so, daß man es direkt durchschaut. Man wird wach, reibt die Augen und sieht in einem Bild zwischen Brueghel und Bosch, keinen Menschen, der um Sirenen etwas gibt, weil Entwarnung nur halb soviel kostet. Es riecht nach Kristallnacht.	It happens that I think something is clinking, that something loses its way into me. A sound, not even loud, sometimes it clinks in a familiar way, rarely in a way that you immediately know what’s up. You wake up, rub your eyes and, in a picture between Brueghel and Bosch, don’t see anyone who reacts to sirens, because the all-clear signal costs only half as much. Smells of Kristallnacht.
En der Ruhe vür’m Sturm, wat ess dat? Janz klammheimlich verlööß wer die Stadt. Honoratioren inkognito hasten vorbei, offiziell sinn die nit jähn dobei, wenn die Volkssseele – allzeit bereit Richtung Siedepunkt wütet un schreit “Heil – Halali” un grenzenlos geil noh Vergeltung brüllt, zitternd vor Neid in der Kristallnaach	In der Ruhe vor dem Sturm, was ist das? Ganz klammheimlich verläßt wer die Stadt. Honoratioren inkognito hasten vorbei, offiziell sind die nicht gerne dabei, wenn die Volksseele, allzeit bereit, Richtung Siedepunkt wütet und schreit: “Heil – Halali” und grenzenlos geil nach Vergeltung brüllt, zitternd vor Neid in der Kristallnacht.	In the calm before the storm – what’s that? In all secrecy someone is leaving the city. Notable people are hurrying past incognito, officially they don’t like to participate, when “the people”, always ready, boils in rage and shouts “Hail – Tally-ho” and boundlessly lustful screaming for revenge, trembling in jealousy in the Kristallnacht. ( a greeting/shout used by hunters)
Doch die allles wat anders ess stührt, die mem Strom schwemme, wie’t sich jehührt vör die schwule Verbrecher sinn, Ausländer Aussattz sinn bruchen wer, der se verführt. Un dann rettet kein Kavallerie, kein Zorro kömmert sich dodrömm. Dä piss höchstens e “Z” en der Schnie un fällt lallend vüür Lässigkeit öm; “Na un? – Kristallnaach!”	Doch die alles, was anders ist, stört, die mit dem Strom schwimmen, wie es sich gehört, für die Schwule Verbrecher sind, Ausländer Aussatz sind, brauchen wer, der sie verführt. Und dann rettet keine Kavallerie, kein Zorro kümmert sich darum. Der pisst höchsten ein “Z” in den Schnee und fällt lallend vor Lässigkeit um: “Na und? ? Kristallnacht!”	But those, who feel disturbed by anything that’s different those who go with the flow as is respectable for whom gays are criminals and for whom foreigners are trash they need a demagogue. And then no cavalry saves you, no Zorro cares. He’d only piss a Z into the snow and fall over nonchalantly babbling “So what? – Kristallnacht!”
En der Kirch met dä Franz Kafka-Uhr, ohne Zeiger, met Striche drop nur ließ ne Blinde nem Taube Strubbelpeter vüür hinger dreifach verriejelter Düür Un dä Wächter ‘mem Schlüsselbund hällt sich em Ähnz für jet wie e Jenie, weil’er Auswege pulverisiert un verkäuf jäjen Klaustrophobie en der Kristallnaach.	In der Kirche mit der Franz Kafka-Uhr, ohne Zeiger, mit Strichen darauf nur, liest ein Blinder einem Tauben Struwwelpeter vor hinter dreifach verriegelter Tür. Und der Wächter mit dem Schlüsselbund hält sich im Ernst für so etwas wie ein Genie, weil er Auswege pulverisiert und verkauft gegen Klaustrophobie in der Kristallnacht.	In the church with the Franz Kafka clock, without pointers, just lines on it, a blind guy is reading Struwwelpeter to a deaf guy behind a thrice-locked door. And the guard with the set of keys really considers himself a genius because he’s pulverizing exits and selling against claustrophobia in the Kristallnacht.
Währenddessen am Maatplatz vielleich, unmaskiert, hück mem wohre Jeseech, sammelt Stein, schlief et Mezz, op die, die schon verpezz probt dä Lynch-Mob für’t jüngste Jereech. Un zem Laade nur flüchtig vertäut - die Galeeren stohn längs unger Dampf – weet em Hafen op Sklaven jewaat, op dä Schrott uss dämm ungleiche Kampf us der Kristallnaach	Währenddessen, am Marktplatz vielleicht, unmaskiert, heute mit einem wahren Gesicht, sammelt Steine, schleift das Messer, auf die, die schon verpetzt, probt der Lynch-Mob für das jüngste Gericht. Und zum Laden nur flüchtig vertäut, die Galeeren stehen längst unter Dampf wird im Hafen auf Sklaven gewartet, auf den Schrott aus dem ungleichen Kampf aus der Kristallnacht.	Meanwhile, maybe on the market square, they’re without a mask, showing their true faces today, collecting stones, sharpening knives, and the lynch mob is practicing for Judgement Day using those who have already been ratted out. Just barely moored for embarkment, the galleys are ready to go, they’re waiting for slaves in the harbor, waiting for the trash from the unequal fight from the Kristallnacht.
Do, wo Darwin für alles herhällt, ob mer Minsche verdriev oder quält do, wo hinger Macht Jeld ess, wo stark sinn die Welt ess, vun Kusche un Strammstonn entstellt Wo mer Hymnen om Kamm sujar blööß en barbarischer Gier noh Profit ‘Hosianna’ un ‘Kreuzigt ihn’ rööf, wemmer irjend ne Vorteil drin sieht ess täglich Kristallnaach!	Da, wo Darwin für alles herhält, ob man Menschen vertreibt oder quält, da, wo hinter Macht Geld ist, wo stark sein die Welt ist, von Kuschen und Strammstehen entstellt. Wo man Hymnen auf dem Kamm sogar bläst, in barbarischer Gier nach Profit, “Hosianna” und “Kreuzigt ihn!” ruft, wenn man irgendeinen Vorteil darin sieht, ist täglich Kristallnacht!	Where Darwin is used to justify everything, whether you expel people or torture them where money is behind power, where being strong is everything, distorted by yielding and standing at attention where people blow hymns on a comb even in barbaric greed for profit shouting “Hosianna” and “Crucify him” if they see any advantage in it THERE Kristallnacht happens daily!

Listen to the song.

This song was written in 1982, so I was amazed to find that it’s still up-to-date, for example also referencing the gays, or the problem of too much greed.

Around the World in 25 Books & 10 Languages

Judith — Tue, 01 Nov 2011 17:07:39 +0000

The downside of living in Berlin is that there are way too many awesome bookstores here. There is one that is a particular danger to me: the Café Tasso. All books cost 1 EUR there, and since the money from sales goes to charity, lots of people donate awesome books to this place; books that are still worth much more than 1 EUR. The Café Tasso even have a large section of books in foreign languages, so I never leave without buying some. However, I don’t usually read much – in the latest Tadoku month I only read 748 pages. Now I have an ever-increasing pile of unread books.

I want to make a big dent in this pile in the next two months. My idea is an “around the world” theme. I picked 25 books representing 25 countries and all continents, and I will read all of them before January 1st. These books are written in 10 different languages, and I avoided German & English for the most part, so this will also be a linguistic challenge. Languages represented, in rough order of frequency: French, Esperanto, Italian, Spanish, Dutch, Chinese, Latin, Greek, German, English.

Journey plan:

Join me!

This is a great chance to discover foreign cultures and authors who are less known in the English-speaking world. Have a look at the books I will be reading, maybe something interests you as well, or maybe you also have unread books that you can use for your personal round-the-world trip. The details of my journey, following the path on the map:

Egypt: Christian Jacq – Ramsès, fils de la lumière (Ramses, the son of light). This bestselling novel about Ancient Egyptian pharaoh Ramses II is written by an Egyptologist, meaning that it’s classes better than some wanna-be historian’s image of Egypt.
Turkey: Éric-Emmanuel Schmitt – Monsieur Ibrahim et les fleurs du Coran. Another French best-selling book about the Middle East.
Greece: Από πού έρχεστε; A bilingual Greek-German reader about Greece.
Italy: Dino Buzzati – Lascia o Raddoppia; bilingual Italian-German
Sweden: Merit Müller – Mara en de kleur van het geluk. This is originally a Swedish book, but I have it in Dutch.
Netherlands: Arthur Japin – De grote wereld
UK: Lao She – Mr. Ma & Son, a Sojourn in London; A bilingual Chinese-English novel that sounds funny.
Canada: Michel Tremblay – Les Belles-Soeurs. I am looking forward to the liberal use of Joual (Canadian French dialect) in this drama.
USA: Gustaaf Peek – Ik was Amerika. The story of a Dutch POW who was shipped to America. A chapter of history that I hadn’t heard of.
Mexico: J.M.G. Le Clézio – Le rêve mexicain (The Mexican Dream). Essays on the Aztecs, the role of Cortes, Montezuma etc. and how the Western world might look today if the Aztec culture had been allowed to survive.
Colombia: Patricia Lara S. – Las Mujeres en la Guerra. Women telling about their role in the Colombian conflict.
Peru: Mario Vargas Llosa – Der Geschichtenerzähler. This book was selected as this year’s Free Book to be given out all across Berlin, that’s why I will read it in German rather than the original Spanish (El Hablador), maybe re-reading it in Spanish later. It’s about a man who goes to live with the Native Americans in the Peruvian jungle and learn their stories.
Chile: Joan E. Garcés – Allende y la experiencia chilena.
Suriname and the Dutch Antilles: Dylan van Eijkeren – Witboi. Another topic I never heard of before: about the relations between the Netherlands and their former colonies, and what’s really going on over there.
Tunisia: Apuleius – Apologia. Apuleius was a Roman writer, but he was also a Berber(indigenous North African), a very interesting person. The Apologia is said to be one of the funniest Latin texts to survive.
(Various African countries): An anthology of notable works by French-speaking black Africans, “Conteurs francophones noirs”.
Chad: André Gide – Le Retour du Chad. André Gide is a well-known name in French literature, and I have read far too little about Africa.
Congo: André Gide – Voyage au Congo. Ditto.
Australia: Trevor Steele – Flugi kun kakatuoj. An original Esperanto novel about an Aborigene tribe and the arrival of Europeans.
Japan: Kenzaburo Oe – Insegnaci a superare la nostra pazzia. As I’m not studying Japanese yet, I don’t feel bad for reading the great Kenzaburo Oe in Italian.
Ancient China: Shan Sa – Impératrice. I love Chinese-born French author Shan Sa for her novel “La Joueuse de Go”, which was horribly mistranslated in “The Girl Who Played Go”. Read this in French or don’t read it at all. Meanwhile, I’ll try another one of her novels.
Modern China: Annie Wang – From Mainland to Mainstream. Despite the title, this book is all in Chinese and I hope I will be up for it.
Afghanistan: Oriana Fallaci – Inciallah. Oriana Fallaci is an Italian reporter and this book, which I had started on before and found beyond my level, is a really interesting read. She illuminates not just the current situation in Afghanistan but also the historic causes, the Syrian-Lebanese conflict etc., all in the course of a long novel. I’m dying to read this; hopefully I’m not throwing the book down in frustration again.
Russia: Mikaelo Bronŝtejn – Oni ne pafas en Jamburg. An Esperanto novel about the legendary youth movement in the 70s in Soviet Russia.
Siberia/Russia: Julio Baghy – Viktimoj. A classic of Esperanto literature, about life in a Siberian gulag, written by someone who has been there and who is counted among the greatest of Esperanto-speaking poets.

Reading all these books before the end of the year will be a tough challenge, especially as I still have to work and I will be traveling a lot within that time span (our annual trip to the USA and Christmas visits to family). However, I am also looking forward immensely to reading every book on this list, and to buying more books.

Post your recommendations, tips and comments below.

My First Book is Out!

Judith — Fri, 07 Oct 2011 14:42:10 +0000

If you love foreign languages as much as I do, your mouth is probably watering at the idea of picking up a new alphabet without much effort. I know some people who’d do it just for the fun of it, or for bragging rights… yes, I like to hang out with crazy language lovers.

Anyway, there are also practical reasons you might want to know another alphabet. Especially if you’re living in the country, you need it for everything, from reading street signs and maps to figuring out where to ring at an apartment building.

Teaching foreign scripts has been my particular fascination, because traditional textbooks consistently do it wrong (or, more commonly, don’t do it at all). My first experiment in that area was the creation of a Greek alphabet course at Wikibooks. Next, a site to learn the Korean script – I still get several e-mails with feedback or support requests every day from that one, but no income. Earlier this year, I quickly threw together a course for the Ukrainian Cyrillic alphabet (in Esperanto) for those who attended the Internacia Junulara Kongreso in Kyiv. That one was received really well – knowing Cyrillic is a lifesaver in the Ukraine!

So I started working on book about an alphabet that gives a lot of students trouble: the Arabic one. This is an all-new course with lots of words for practice, unrelated to my failed 2008 attempt at RWP Arabic. I learned a lot since, both about writing this kind of course and about the Arabic language.

You can read a preview of the book and buy it from Lulu. There’s a paperback and a DRM-free ebook version. Please have a look and let me know if you like it.

6 Week Challenge Recap & What’s Next

Judith — Mon, 27 Jun 2011 09:56:45 +0000

The 6 Week Challenge was a big success – for everyone except me, it seems. The statistics look awesome: more than half of the participants spent at least an hour a day on language-learning, and 5 people spent 5+ hours every day for 6 weeks on languages! Also, I have received nothing but positive feedback; people were amazed how much the addition of Twitter can help them in getting more study time in.

For me, the problem was that I unknowingly set my goal too low. I wanted to be able to read Spanish for pleasure. It seemed like a good thing to be able to do, and I’m not really motivated to know Spanish any better than that because I’m sure any fluency will just fall into disuse like my Italian did. At the beginning of the challenge, I had a lot of trouble reading Spanish, having to spend a lot of time figuring out what sentences mean. However, I had barely spent 20 hours when it became very easy for me. Maybe I was just missing some really common words, or a conversion recipe for Italian & Latin words, but anyway, at 20 hours I had basically reached my goal. I kept on reading for a little bit for a total of 28 1/2 hours, but my heart wasn’t in it anymore. I got caught up in some exciting programming projects. So… yeah.

I will try a more ambitious goal for the next 6 Week Challenge, which will be in August. I’m debating between Arabic and Indonesian – Arabic because I had a lot of false starts with that language, and Indonesian because it seems more likely that 6 weeks could make a real difference with this language, also it’s on my long-term hit list. Any opinions?

For now, I’m looking forward to the next Tadoku Challenge, which will run from July 1st to the 31st. Interested? It’s a bit inconvenient that I will be at the Internacia Junulara Kongreso (huge Esperanto meeting) in Kyiv from July 14th to the 21st, and you know that going to a foreign country always makes me learn a bit of their language. I long-since decided that I would finally run my intense Russian Listening-Reading experiment on this occasion, and if it works well enough, I might even go to the Cheboksari Language Festival in October to further improve my Russian.

So unfortunately my desired Tadoku target – re-activating my Italian and/or improving my Chinese – will have to take a back seat to learning Russian for the first two weeks of July. I’m hoping to get some Italian reading in during the IJK though, or maybe read some Italian fanfiction when I’m too tired to do more Russian. If only I could find a Chinese fanfiction site… Anyway, whatever happens, July should be good for my languages.

Summary of 2010

Judith — Sat, 01 Jan 2011 20:23:19 +0000

My final results for 2010 were:

Chinese: 236 hours – Success!
I was hoping to work on Chinese a lot, and I actually did so. I practised all parts of the language, too, including pronunciation, speaking and writing – and I did lots of listening (Romance of the Three Kingdoms TV series) and reading. At this point I can sort of read “A Dictionary of Maqiao”, but long sentences tend to throw me off and it’s still not fun. I shall voluntarily continue with cartoons and Harry Potter first, or read “A Dictionary of Maqiao” in parallel with the English. Actually I read quite a bit of Harry Potter in L-R, except I got annoyed with having to invest as much time in aligning the text as in reading it, so I got side-tracked into writing a better aligner and stopped reading. Oh well. My active language usage has much improved, and I’ve learned more than 3000 new words this year. I will keep plowing ahead, but I hope that Chinese can be less of a focus in the coming year.

French: 140 hours – Success!
I read a whole bunch of classics, though not one-a-month as originally intended. I’m happy with the overall count though, because I also read two French-language fanfictions of 1700 pages (!) and 950 pages, both of them within the same two weeks. Reading French can be addicting when it’s not university-assigned stuff. I also completed about 40 pages of essays in French; in return I didn’t write much on lang-8 despite my good resolutions. The aligatorejo showed that speaking French comes more easily and naturally now, about as effortlessly as speaking English, so I’m happy with that. Writing French doesn’t feel the same yet, but I’m blaming it on lack of opportunity.

Swahili: 92 hours – Mostly success!
Staying true to the plan, I’ve used nothing except the Assimil course (and Anki, but no outside source of vocabulary) for Swahili. I finished all 100 lessons of the passive wave and I did a first pass over the first 50 lessons of the active wave as well, but I still need to enter a couple of them into Anki, the deck creation takes about as much time as the studying itself. Today I had my first Swahili conversation and it went
well. I gave a talk on Swahili at the Esperanto New Year’s event. Around 20 people attended the talk and I then found out there were 2 other Swahili speakers at this event. Annoying that they didn’t show up for the aligatorejo so I had little time to talk to them. Anyway, a quick test shows that I can understand 90% of the words in the “Little Prince” in Swahili and 85% of a random Wikipedia article; however, my
book of Swahili poetry is still incomprehensible except for a few phrases here and there. Even though it’s hard, I shall complete the active wave and do more tests before reading the little prince or studying any other materials in order to get the full assessment of Assimil. I am unhappy that I planned my time unwisely and didn’t finish the active wave yet. However, I spent a lot of time working on vocabulary and the
extensive Swahili grammar, so the active wave is going smoothly, it’s mostly an issue of entering all the phrases, linking the audio etc.

Italian: 13 hours – who cares anyway?
At first I delayed it because I wanted to do a 1 Month Challenge for Arabic, then later I couldn’t get into my books while finally finding the motivation to do more French, in other words Italian fell by the wayside. I did finish an Italian novel though and I greatly improved my reading speed so the next one should be more enjoyable. Hopefully
I’ll find someone interesting to practise speaking with too.

Greek: 91 hours – success!
I read the entire first book of Harry Potter, my first monolingual Greek novel, amongst other things, and I did so without consulting a dictionary. Right now, my reading level is definitely B2. My active language usage has improved a lot, too, but it’s still borderline B1/B2 I’d say, because I lost my tandem partner in the second half of the
year. I’ll keep working on Greek.

Arabic: 43 hours – cancelled
Started with a 1 Month Challenge, which was fun, but then my Anki was piling up too quickly and my textbook didn’t have nearly enough exercises for all the things it was throwing at me, so I got overwhelmed and burnt out, cancelling this in favor of more Chinese and French. Will try again in 2011 since I found other materials now; if all goes well, I shall focus as much on Arabic in 2011 as I did on Chinese in 2010.

Others – Success!
I spent 28 hours actively improving my Esperanto and Latin. For these languages I’m not counting the countless hours I spent talking/reading in them or even teaching them, just the time I spent studying and trying to improve myself. Another bright aspect is that I successfully avoided wanderlust this year – only 3 hours of Spanish, 3 hours of Russian and one hour of Maori all year!
All in all, I reached an average of about 12 hours a week of language study, including the time I was traveling or sick. It’s a good result, but leaves room for improvement, and that’s what I shall do next year, with the help of my new awesome spreadsheets. Took me a while to optimize everything, now I’m looking forward to seeing what I can do when everything is set up right right from the start (hopefully).

Arabic Vegetarians

Judith — Thu, 12 Aug 2010 15:27:59 +0000

So I did 30 days of vegetarianism and 30 days of intensive Arabic study. The results are far from impressive.

Unlike some other bloggers that I read, I did not feel any improvement in focus, concentration or other health benefits from going completely vegetarian as opposed to having a small serving of meat once or twice a week. Maybe others had a very heavily meat-based diet and changed to a diet heavy in vegetables in order to experience this effect; if I eat a big serving of meat (or cream / cheese, for that matter) I definitely feel sluggish afterwards. Anyway, as there seems to be no particular benefit in going completely vegetarian as opposed to my previous diet, I decided not to deny myself my favourite meat dishes anymore. For example Sui Cao, a Vietnamese soup with dumplings. Yumm!

I did 22 hours and 6 textbook units of Arabic study – a far cry from the immersion that I intended to do, but real life intervened. Generally this past month of language study hasn’t been good, I had other things to do, such as taxes, playing/studying Go and spending time with our houseguest. 22 hours of Arabic, 15 hours of Chinese, 13 hours of French, 1 1/2 hours of Swahili, 3 1/2 hours of Greek, 55 hours of language study total… I suppose it’s better than the 10 hours/week that I averaged in weeks 20 & 21, but I’ll see what I can do for the rest of the year.

I also revamped my tracking again, setting up goals for reading and writing in various languages, doing Anki reps and studying Go, because I rediscovered my passion for this ancient Asian strategy game.

Judith's language learning blog » My Life

Summary of 2011

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Around the World in 25 Books & 10 Languages

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Summary of 2010

Arabic Vegetarians