I started Q2 full for energy and motivation to learn my languages. I was on a roll, studying languages daily even if for just a little while. It felt good and seemed like I would keep going for a long time.
Yet as April began getting busy, I found less and less time to study my languages and, by the end of April, I was out cold laying on my bed completely sick and unable to do anything.
Then came May and a whole new set of life obligations. From taking new responsibilities at work and covering for colleagues on holidays or sick, to preparing to leave my flat, I struggled to find motivation for studying languages.
Overall, when I thought about it a few days ago, I thought I had been quite unproductive the last two months.
But that’s not true.
Following Victoria’s Bingo challenge she did in March, I had decided to do it in April as I expected having more time. While I didn’t complete the entire board I still ended up doing the vast majority (18/25) and I absolutely loved experimenting with my languages in new ways.
Notably, I had a lot of fun playing with Akinator in Chinese and laughed a lot at the inconsistency it had when it came to characters since it kept switching back and forth between Simplified and Traditional characters.
I also enjoyed testing myself for the first time ever with the listening section of the HSK level 5. I was shocked to get 29 out of 45 points because I felt completely lost during the entire test. I guess this was the first sign my Chinese may not be as bad as I originally thought… more on that a little further down!
I remember doing a Korean crossword thinking I wouldn’t like it but the satisfaction I felt discovering I still knew the word “arrogant.” The word “domestic” really got me lost though since I thought they meant it in the sense “domestic flight” but it was about an animal being domesticated.
I won’t list the experience for all those I did, but enough to say it was a good reminder that challenges that get us to try new things can be very motivating and fun to do!
One of the major changes this past month was the move of Chinese from subject of study to actually part of my daily life as a “real” language.
I tried to keep studying it and used some AI songs to learn new patterns but was inconsistent overall with “formal” study. Instead, Chinese became more common in messages with my girlfriend and on Saturday 10th, I met her parents who don’t speak French. We spent close to 5 hours talking over dinner and, while my girlfriend had to help with certain words or difficult sentences I wanted to say, the conversation still went smoothly.
They were shocked I could speak Mandarin1, she was shocked I could actually speak well, and I was completely dumbfounded I could not only understand but also express myself.
A few weekends ago, we met up again for a picnic and, again, the conversation went smoothly and I even sometimes translated another French person’s sentences back to Chinese on behalf of my girlfriend.
We laughed and talked without true struggles and it felt close to natural.
I met them again about a week ago and managed to exchange with them for most of it too.2
Now, let’s calm down a bit and recognize one important aspect: my pitch and tones are way off. My own voice hurts my ears.
But I can exchange with them and that’s what matters.
April and May may not have been my most productive months ever but they helped me interact with languages in different ways and notice the hard work I’ve put in the past wasn’t for nothing.
It’s much easier to see what we’ve failed at, what we didn’t do, should have done, what we stopped too soon.
Yet, sometimes, all we need is to notice the progress we’ve done.
When was the last time you noticed your own progress?
Cheers for reading! Next week will be a deep dive into another AI tool useful for language learning and more specifically listening practice!
Mathias
Since I rarely, if ever, spoke out loud with my girlfriend in Chinese, she had told her parents I didn’t speak it much apart from messages.
Although by the end of the day, my brain was fried and my girlfriend had to translate almost everything. 😅
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