2016 Langauge Learning Goals

While I was home over the holidays, I was able to take a few moments and wish you all a Merry Christmas in a couple different languages. You can see me do the language challenge in the first few moments of this video. I took 15 seconds to send my holiday wishes in as many languages as possible.

And a Happy New Year!!!!

So now let's get to it! I have been a bit of a slacker the last few months as far as language learning goes. As you probably know my language learning is a hobby and not a job. So it really only gets a focus when I have extra time...But here are some goals for the next year or at least January and February ish ;)

Português - I don't want to get worse and hope to maintain my Portuguese skills by listening to "Você Sabia?" on YouTube and commenting weekly.

Hindi - Weekly listening. Practice writing sentences. More complex sentences and find someone to correct them.

Urdu - Relearn the alphabet.

Spanish - It will be important to learn Spanish in the future. I want to finish the Portuguese tree in DuoLingo and then start on the Spanish tree in Portuguese.

Latin - I would love to finish reading John but that may need to wait.

Somali - Listen when given the opportunity. Practice the few phrases I know.

Arabic - Listen to speakers when they are around. Pick up common words and Urdu words. I don't plan to put any effort into finding Arabic speakers. Learn the alphabet and the difference between Urdu and Arabic.

Picture credit - You can learn more about me and my art on my website.
See Www.feliciafollum.com
Or www.etsy.com/shop/feliciafollum

The Bilingual Brain

I found this video on the Bilingual Brain and some of the benefits of speaking 2 or more languages. It also talks about the different types of bilinguals. I found it quite interesting.

Are you bilingual? What languages do you speak? Are you practicing a second language?

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2015 Language Goals - Not a Total FAIL

Did I reach my 2015 goals?

General - When people ask if I speak a language, say "Yes, I speak it." And then speak it. Sometimes...But I think I need to continue to work on saying "yes" with confidence.

Right Hand Panel of Unknown God Tryptic - Agyaat Bhagvaan Ke Liye
Felicia Follum
Watercolor

Português - I don't want to get worse and hope to maintain my skills by listening to "Você Sabia?" on YouTube and commenting weekly. I don't think I got worse but I have not been commenting weekly

Hindi - Create speaking videos monthly and practice writing monthly. Nope. But this was a bit of a lofty goal. A extra monthly video is a lot.

Arabic - Listen to speakers. Pick up common words and Urdu words. Yep! I listen whenever I get the chance and I do tend to pick up words.

Somali - Listen when given the opportunity. Practice the few phrases I know. Yes! I even have been able to practice with people in an airport. I will share this story soon :)

Latin - I would love to finish reading John but that may need to wait. Yep, it is waiting. But I hope to come back to this. Not giving up on it yet.

Spanish - I don't want to mix Português and Spanish intentionally. If a Spanish speaker speaks English I will speak English. If they understand Português, I will speak Português. Well I don't mix the two but I am forgetting Spanish. Which I'm hoping will help keep them separated in the long run.  I am also forgetting my Portuguese but I think that according to my understanding of the theory behind the idea of Spaced Repition Memorization, forgetting isn't the end of the world and may help in long term storage. Though I'm not sure how this relates to longer-than-ideal intervals. Either way, I'm sure Spanish will come back and be stronger than ever when it is needed.

Picture credit
See Www.feliciafollum.com
Or www.etsy.com/shop/feliciafollum