The Polyglot Gathering was a huge success. It’s inspiring to be among so many people who love languages. I never took that for granted, because in my hometown near Düsseldorf I often felt like a freak for wanting to learn a lot of languages. Well, if I’m a freak, there are hundreds of them and we’re getting stronger. 😉
What I found particularly motivating was to see people who are way better than me. Sometimes I get discouraged: at 13 languages (admittedly some of them quite weak), is it really possible to go much further? Can I hope to bring more of them to fluency? Can I add more languages? Or is it a swap at this point: gain some in exchange for losing others? So my best memory of this year’s Polyglot Gathering was to witness Tim Keeley and Daniel Krasa have a conversation in 22 languages – and not just European ones but languages from 9 language families, including Nepali, Thai, Croatian, Chinese, Hebrew and so on. They actually both speak more languages, but have “only” 22 languages in common. It’s insane. And they’re still learning new languages. So for me that was tangible proof I’m nowhere near the limit and I won’t let those doubts get me now. I am burning to go further!
My latest addition was Hebrew, which I studied in a 90-day challenge from mid-January. I made a lot of progress – more progress than I ever made on similar adventures before. I also studied much more regularly than normally I would have. It’s because of the Add1Challenge, which brought structure and accountability to my wild self-study. Sadly I didn’t manage to keep up my studies since April because of the effort required to organize the Polyglot Gathering. I barely did any paid work either.
My Plan
This summer, I’m turning over a new leaf. I have enrolled in both the June italki challenge and the next Add1Challenge. Both start on June 1.
My plan is to mainly improve my Hebrew, since I committed myself to reaching B1 in Hebrew before the end of the year.
I will also keep working on my Italian, as I need a solid C1 in it before I can tackle Spanish again.
I may do a bit of Norwegian if I have time. I’m meeting a friend from Norway in July and it would be nice to speak some Norwegian, but Norwegian has never been on my todo list until now.
Finally, I will keep up the once-a-week Modern Greek lessons that I’m already enrolled in.
My Chinese debating class is over now and I cannot enroll for Chinese next semester due to my trip to the states (German immersion course and Polyglot Conference), so I think I’ll just revise what I learned and read a couple of the books that my friend left me.
And yours?
What are your language plans for the next few months? Let’s hear them!
If you want to make a lot of progress or develop a consistent language-learning routine, I can recommend the Add1Challenge. Watch what I (and others) have to say about it in this video:
* Full disclosure: the links to the Add1Challenge are affiliate links, but obviously if you’ve seen the video or read my enthusiastic post about my Hebrew results, you know that I am a fan of this challenge and would recommend it anyway.