Dutch - 22 April

In the interests of efficiency, I now read Dutch during odd moments of the day, the same as I do/did English. I don't find the need to note down sentences. Thrillers like Tess Gerritsen's Zustermoord fit the bill nicely.

Dutch does me nicely

Dutch was my first language, way back when. How and why that was, I'll reveal in due course. But for now, all you need to know is that Dutch is currently my second-strongest language. If I'm at 99% with English, then Dutch is tracking somewhere around the 80% level.

So what should I do to improve it? Could I apply the same approach as I would for English? Is reading enough? Am I actually able to read a novel in Dutch, or would it be too much of a struggle? You see, I haven't really tried to. Not recently, in any case.

Well, let me try and I'll get back to you.

Reporting back, I began my trial a day or two before the New Year. I happened to have two Dutch books on my Kindle. So I chose Michael Connelly's Betonblond (The Concrete Blond). I like Michael's books in English, so why not in Dutch?

Well, I'm delighted to find that it's doable. I hadn't read that book in English, so it is pleasing to discover that I'm able to venture forth unassisted in Dutch. I can easily read up to 3 hours per day! Doing so, I completed the story inside of a week.

And so my plan with Dutch is to enjoy more of Harry Bosch's adventures in what was originally, and I suppose still is, my mother tongue. I'll do that for a month or two, and then reevaluate.

The ABCs of multi-lingual-ism

It happens to be the start of 2020 as I put pen to paper (well, it was). The time feels right to start a new blog. It's time for a New Year's resolution. It's time for a challenge. A language acquisition challenge.

Initially, I thought of setting a 365-day goal. But I feel that would be too gimmicky - it doesn't feel authentic. Plus, I have life that I'd like to live alongside of this project. Life-work balance and all that.

So I'll take it fairly easy. I've no problem with that - I've already opted to work only part time (0.6). And in a couple of years I'll be eligible to retire. All in all, I'm not going to turn this into a big deal. I wish to spend no more than a couple of hours per day on this exercise. In terms of language-learning, therefore, I'll see how I fare with just a few languages, not too many. I'll settle for an even dozen.

I've selected them according to the alphabet. They each start with a different letter, so that'll make it easier to name and keep track of them.

• A is for Arabic
• C is for Chinese
• D is for Dutch
• E is for English (which I don't count as one of the 12)
• F is for French
• G is for German
• H is for Hindi
• J is for Japanese
• M is for Maori
• N is for Norwegian
• P is for Polish
• R is for Russian
• and S will be for Spanish

I think that's a fair swag.