Language Learning 2016 Goals Update

Well as you can probably guess, I had another year where I slacked pretty hardcore but I have had some good language experiences too.

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. 

FAIL! It is safe to say that I FAILED this goal. I did not listen to a Portuguese speaker on a regular basis or comment. My skills have gone downhill and I cannot simply switch to speaking in Portuguese with confidence. I know that these skills will come back and I will likely have this as a goal after February (you will see why in a future post)

Traveling in my city on Instagram

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

FAIL! This was a fail as well. I have only just recently began writing again. I failed probably 11 out of 12 months, maybe only 9 or 10. I also have been able to have some organic conversations in Hindi with people and there are people who I naturally speak Hindi with. I also have been watching a Bollywood movie and practicing writing again.

Urdu - Relearn the alphabet.

FAIL! I did study that alphabet through the year, I did not learn it but I have given it some practice and was able to use Arabic in one of the English classes that I teach.

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.

PASS! Well, kinda. I am about 2/3 of the way through the Portuguese tree. I am sure I will finish it in 2017. I may begin the French tree and work on it a bit in preparation for Italy too. I do still plan to one day use Duolingo in Portuguese to relearn Spanish. But I am not in a hurry for this.
Latin - I would love to finish reading John but that may need to wait.

Yep, still waiting. 

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

My Somali and Sudanese friends have all moved to Seatle but I do practice my Somali basic phrases from time to time.

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.

See Somali.

As you can see I did not put a lot of effort into language learning over the past year. 

I know that I need to make quarterly or even monthly goals and track them on paper. That will be on my 2017 goals list. 

Some things that I did well that were not goals listed above but were added later on include practicing languages with native or native-like speakers and I was able to do this with Hindi and Portuguese. At international dinners I have also been able to work on code switching which is another goal. I would like to be able to switch between languages. I tend to be able to do this with Portuguese and English better than with Hindi but there have been dinners where I will switch in an appropriate way.

What are your top language learning goals? What is holding you back?