Looking Back on 2014: What I Accomplished

I honestly had no idea we had views like this where I live--but look at what you can find if you just try a different route! :)

2014 was an insanely awesome year. Seriously.

I've been suffering with a lack of motivation since around Christmas time, and with us already into a full week of 2015, I decided I have to get a move on things (especially Irish, which I said I would be practicing daily (which I have been! ;) )).

My lack of motivation made me look back on 2014 and think, Wow, I sucked. But, once I got out of my moodiness, I realized just how much I was able to accomplish regarding my languages in one full year. I'm going to create a pretty little "timeline" for you below. :)

January '14--barely 1 month into my Spanish challenge

March '14--Spanish challenge successfully completed

I was able to communicate with my coworkers in Spanish and I now have a blast listening to people's conversations (oh, come on--you know you do it, too!)

around May '14--begin to learn Romanian

Romanian is the one thing I have a set resolution to learn this new year, because of how passionate I had practiced it for months. It's been my favorite language since I began listening to Romanian music back in 2012 and I am ready to set a challenge for it, though I'm still collecting materials beforehand.

August '14--1 month Brazilian Portuguese challenge begins and is successful

This was my favorite challenge because of how hard I buckled down and learned the language. I jogged everything in a notebook, studied around an hour a day, and by the end of August, I was talking to a few of my new found friends who live in Sao Paolo. I will definitely write about this challenge in the near future so that you can (hopefully) try it yourself! Agora eu posso falar em portugues e eu amo a idioma!
I created a booklet during the beginning of August, which you can find here

August thru October '14--American Sign Language

I love this language. so. much. I really had fun and was really dedicated towards learning it. My lack of friends who could sign discouraged me a bit, although I was able to make sentences and (hopefully) get my point across. I'm starting this again this month as well to refresh what I learned and get some new vocab!

September '14--try German

German has never been a strong language for me (although I should learn it, since I AM mostly German), but I dove into the learning process for a good month or two, before I lost interest. :'(

November '14--begin Irish and Swedish challenge

You can see my beginning post of the challenge here
... and when I added Swedish to the mix here

So, what did 2014 add to my life?

2014 brought 4 languages into my daily life. That means that before 2014 began, I only knew 3 languages (English, Italian, French). That's a big jump--and I acknowledge that there are more than 4 languages listed above, but I only included the ones I still use today on a regular basis. 2015 will be the year where I learn Romanian and hopefully have another go at German.

What languages were you able to learn in 2014? What goals do you have for yourself in 2015?

I will be updating my Irish in the near future, and until then, I wish you all the very best on your language journeys from here on! Keep with it!

Language Update #1

Hey all,
I apologize for such a long "break" in writing blog entries, but I've been so busy with school and work and my language studies that I haven't had time to sit down and relax.

And now, since I'm on Winter break, I've found time in my schedule to write ;) This is mainly an update to also say that I am going to be changing my blog to something more personal, and I'll be focusing more on my language process and the difficulties I'm facing.

It's been about a month since I've jumped into the Swedish language and I can say that I definitely know a lot more than I did in November. I'm mostly in beginners now (other than novice) and I've been having a lot of fun with it! I definitely need to practice listening more since I find it difficult, but I know that beginners just need to practice and work hard to see progress. Right now, I've just learned how to conjugate verbs into the present tense which feels like such an accomplishment! I'm really proud with myself for keeping at this language, even when I don't have any Swedish influences near me.

I also started German thirteen days ago (if exactness was needed) and I have been making progress in that as well. I've been able to have short conversations with my dad over breakfast and during the day, which is a lot of fun! I'm taking my time with German since it is the newest of the languages that I have started practicing on a day-to-day basis. Currently I'm able to conjugate regular verbs and I have looked into the future tense, but it's still getting there.

I picked up Spanish even earlier than German and I have been able to communicate with my coworkers in the language ;) I used to take classes for Spanish but found them to be really boring--in fact, within ten days I have been able to learn more useful vocabulary than I have in about seven years of Spanish (for instance, I immediately learned tan, which means "so"). I'm really happy with how my progress has been rapidly increasing with Spanish, and my goal for a somewhat-fluent communication is set in the summer, before I leave for my immersion program in Italy (yay!). To increase my progress, I've been using lyricstraining.com so that I can improve my listening skills, which I definitely recommend doing. I've learned to speak in the present as well as the future, and I'm hoping to learn the past soon.

French--what can I say? It's my beauty, my pride. I'm no longer in the lower intermediate but the intermediate series itself, so I've been learning about the subjunctive tense and the idiomatic expressions (which are absolutely priceless). I definitely need to start writing in French again because it was such a great exercise, and I've also been using lyricstraining.com for this language, too.

Italian, of course, has been improving during class, so I haven't been dedicating much out-of-school time to it since it's more advanced than my other languages. I'm currently driving through an hour and a half to get through the other four languages, which is quite a chunk of my time, but it's something I love doing. If I find ways to cut down on the time I'll be sure to tell you, and if you have any for me then please share :)

Happy learning!

Baylee