I’m not a person who tracks everything, aren’t I? Turns out I am. September was a very intensive month for me as I started working at school. I took a lot of my energy and time. Luckily I managed to do a lot of language learning work anyway. I even started learning Turkish!
In order to see my work (and hopefully progress) I started measuring my listening and reading. I didn’t do it very exact, I didn’t include podcasts or any ready except for Spanish Harry Potter. So it’s more of a start of doing it then the actual thing.
One of my general observations is that when learning any language, you shouldn’t use only one app. They all are very limited but using two can give the advantage of them complementing each other. I use the frustrating Duolingo with it’s useless vocabulary and Memrise which focuses on vocabulary. Duolingo gives me some grammar basics, Memrise some basic useful phrases and vocab. In self learning this is ideally supported by working with a course like Assimil or any other of that type. Last but not least, is practice. Whatever I learn, I put into practice. My friend, Emmanuel, who’s from Indonesia knows it too well. Whenever I meet him, I start using whatever I have learnt with him. The same is with French people who are very patient in listening to my stories in my poor French.
Total languages number: 18
?? Native Polish
As it’s my native language, I feel I know it pretty well. I use it in every day conversations, I teach it. However, I feel I need to do something more. I haven’t been reading or listening to it recently. That’s on my language to-do list to change it.
?? C2 English
I think English is the language I had most contact with. I watched nearly 10h of videos, listened to radio and audiobooks. I also used it with my students and talked to natives. Working with the SAT Comprehensive set on Memrise seems a little bit difficult for me. The words don’t stay long in my memory. Maybe it’s because of long definitions and the lack of examples of usage. I created my own set with phrases and sentences. I’m thinking of making it a bigger set, which would incorporate all the vocabulary from the SAT list with examples. As this is a time consuming task, for the moment I’ll stick to what is available.
Memrise SAT Comprehensive: 57/4721 items learnt
Memrise SAT Comprehensive Sentences: 31/43 items learnt
watching videos: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20, 21, 22, 23, 24, 25, 26, 27, 28, 29, 30, 31, 32,(total: 9 h 38 m 41 s)
listening (podcasts, radio, audiobooks): yes
A little bit of radio and fragments of The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy.
speaking practice with natives: yes
reading: no
writing: no
?? C1 German
This month in German was both good (I worked with apps, talked to people) and bad (I didn’t get to listened much to it and I didn’t do any reading). After I received a job offer with quite a generous salary, I decided to focus more on the language. It’s just a plan B if thing go wrong and I’d need to find a different job. I will be looking for some free IT online courses in German to improve that area of the language.
Duolingo: 3267 XP -> 4713 XP
Memrise German 6 course: 36/495 -> 133/495
watching videos: 1, 2, 3 (first 21:28 minutes) (total: 27 m 33 s)
listening (podcasts, radio, audiobooks): yes
speaking practice with natives: yes
reading: no
writing: no
?️ B1 Latin
I had trouble finding time for Latin in September. Most of my contact with the language was by doing Duolingo. I’ll have to do a strong refreshment course as learning Spanish is making me speak Spanish instead of Latin whenever I want to say anything.
Duolingo: 4044 XP -> 7558 XP
watching videos: 1, 2, 3, (total: 23 m 05 s)
listening (podcasts, radio, audiobooks): no
speaking practice: no
reading: no
writing: no
?? B1 Ukrainian
September in Ukrainian was just a slow process of doing Duolingo and rarely saying a sentence or two in front of natives (you can’t call it a conversation).
Duolingo: 1136 XP -> 4027 XP
watching videos: 1, (total: 8 m 55 s)
listening (podcasts, radio, audiobooks): no
speaking practice with natives: no
reading: no
writing: no
?? B1 Spanish
Spanish is one of the languages I focus on and use a lot, especially in my favourite club, Taki Taki. I felt that learning just words is not enough and I started the other Memrise course with sentences that should help me grasp some more grammar. I’m lucky to be able to use Spanish in conversation very often but they are rather short and basic. I hope to find the opportunity to talk in a more quite place in the future.
Assimil: lesson 33
Hiszpański w tłumaczeniach cz.3: lesson 1
Memrise Spanish 7 course: 136/422 -> 266/442
Memrise Learn Spanish Grammar (09/09/2022): 91/1108 items learnt
watching videos: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, (total: 40 m 37 s)
listening (podcasts, radio, audiobooks): yes
podcasts: Fallo de sistema and other
speaking practice with natives: yes
reading: Harry Potter y la piedra filosofal (p. 48 -> 86),
writing: no
?? B1 Uzbek:
Uzbek was one of the languages I put more effort into in September. Not only did I work with Memrise but I also started taking classes again. It’s only an hour once a week as I cannot afford more but it’s already doing its job in refreshing my skills. I also met a few Uzbek people and talked with them. I also see that Uzbek helps me understand other languages from the Turkic family. I hope that combined with some rudimentary Turkish this will change into something more serious.
Memrise ‘Uzbek. An Elementary Textbook’: 85/1854 -> 174/1854 items learnt
Uzbek – Private Course: 28/34 items learnt
watching videos: 1, 2, (total: 30 m 40 s)
listening (podcasts, radio, audiobooks): no
speaking practice with natives: yes
reading: no
writing: no
?️ A1 Ancient Greek / Koine
Nothing this month 🙁
listening (podcasts, radio, audiobooks): no
speaking practice: no
watching videos:
reading: no
writing: no
?? A1 Italian
I keep on learning with Duolingo and Memrise. Still, there’s not much time to do anything else.
Duolingo: 598 XP -> 1833 XP
Memrise Italian 1 course: 44/495
watching videos: 1, 2, (total: 8 m 13 s)
listening (podcasts, radio, audiobooks): no
speaking practice with natives: yno
reading: no
writing: no
?? A1 Russian
Just a little bit with Duolingo this month. I also watched two very short videos.
Duolingo: 110 XP -> 576 XP
watching videos: 1, 2, (total: 3 m 03 s)
listening (podcasts, radio, audiobooks): no
speaking practice with natives: no
reading: no
writing: no
?? A0 Swedish
I keep on learning with Duolingo and Memrise. Still, there’s not much time to do anything else.
Duolingo: 485 XP -> 1525 XP
Memrise Swedish 1 course: 37/495
watching videos:
listening (podcasts, radio, audiobooks): no
speaking practice with natives: no
reading: no
writing: no
?? A0 French
I keep on learning with Duolingo and Memrise. I meet French people regularly so I can practise what I’ve learnt. I can only wish I could spend more time learning the language.
Duolingo: 5383 XP -> 7914 XP
Memrise French 1: 37/472 -> 102/472 items learnt
watching videos:
listening (podcasts, radio, audiobooks): yes
speaking practice with natives: yes
reading: no
writing: no
?? A0 Portuguese
I keep on learning with Memrise. Still, there’s not much time to do anything else. I don’t do it on Duolingo as they do not offer the European Portuguese.
Memrise Portuguese (Portugal) 1: 54/209 items learnt
watching videos:
listening (podcasts, radio, audiobooks): no
speaking practice with natives: no
reading: no
writing: no
?️ A0 Mingrelian
Nothing this month 🙁
reading: no
watching videos:
listening (podcasts, radio, audiobooks): no
speaking practice with natives: no
reading: no
writing: no
?? A0 Indonesian
I’m still surprised I’m learning this language. I decided to do it very spontaneously and without a reason but I enjoy it. It’s very simple in it’s structure I think, so I hope to reach the level of actually being able to say something meaningful quicker than in other languages I’ve learnt.
Duolingo: 3102 XP -> 5991 XP
Memrise +2000 Indonesian Words: 20/2087 -> 52/4867 items learnt
Complete Indonesian (Teach Yourself): Unit 1
watching videos: 1, (total: 5 m 47 s)
listening (podcasts, radio, audiobooks): no
speaking practice with natives: yes
reading: no
writing: no
?️ A0 Coptic:
Nothing this month 🙁
watching videos:
listening (podcasts, radio, audiobooks): no
speaking practice: no
reading: no
writing: no
?️ A0 Biblical Hebrew
Nothing this month 🙁
watching videos:
listening (podcasts, radio, audiobooks): no
speaking practice: no
reading: no
writing: no
?? A0 Turkish
I started meeting too many people from Turkey to simply ignore the language. I don’t put a lot of effort into it as the day is only 24h but I also hope that together with Uzbek it’ll open the whole family of Turkic languages to me.
Starting date: 11/09/2022
Duolingo: 1013 XP
Memrise Turkish 1 course: 32/495
watching videos:
listening (podcasts, radio, audiobooks): no
speaking practice with natives: no
reading: no
writing: no
