Re & re-cycling my languages

I’m into month four of this experiment, just as another social experiment of self-isolation kicks in. It’s a new world out there.

But the two go together, somehow. They have occurred in a timely fashion, so to speak. By that, I mean that my language cycle ‘goes’ with my new routine. It helps it along. What I’m trying to say is that a regular attendance, in ten-minute bursts, to my bunch of 17 current languages (Arabic, Mandarin, Dutch, English, French, German, Greek, Hindi, Italian, Japanese, Maori, Norwegian, Polish, Russian, Spanish, Swedish and recently Taiwanese) tagged to various exercises and household activities, gets me through the day.

What’s new after 3 months?

I find that I’m much better able to navigate a text in many languages, so with those ones I spend more time reading and less time writing i+1 sentences. I find that with languages where I’m right at the alphabet stage that it is important to find a useful primer/workbook/listening guide. In fact, rotating different languages helps me to determine if my resources and /or strategies are the best. When I turn the leaf and groan or hesitate, then to me that’s a sign that I’m not enjoying language X as much as the others, and that I need to change my approach.