My Excuse

Uh-oh, I just realized I missed yesterday's post.  Already breaking my resolutions!  I guess I'll cheat and count this as my post for the 2nd. 

I've been a bit stressed and wasn't exactly thinking about this blog today (or yesterday if you want to get technical), because my 15-year old cat (look below) was diagnosed with hyperthyroidism.  That would be nadczynność tarczycy po polsku, but I wish I didn't have to say it in any language.

Tomorrow...I mean today...I'll try to write a brief review on A Handbook of Bosnian, Serbian and Croatian from the perspective of someone who barely knows this language/these languages and is awful at linguistics, but sin embargo has a deep love for languages, so stay tuned.  :)

2012 and Languages

Happy New Year!  One of my resolutions is to post to this blog every day.  Yep, you heard right.  Having only added two posts last year, and just as few the year before, I want to bring this blog back to life, because I do feel more motivated when I write here.  I'm cutting it close today though, seeing as it's less than an hour until tomorrow.

My mom has recently talked about getting out her German and Spanish.  I keep telling her she'll make a lot of progress if she studies a little every day, and finds ways to keep it in her memory.  That's easier to do with some languages than others.

As for me, I've been sticking with the same nine languages...

-Spanish

-Portuguese

-Dutch

-Romanian

-Serbian

-Polish

-Norwegian

-Bulgarian

-Lithuanian

(in that order)

I realize that's a lot, but I know there are people who attempt more, so I don't feel too silly, though I do sometimes question the point in learning so many.  There's that saying, "Jack (or Jill) of all trades and master of none."  Even if I advance further in some languages than others, I still enjoy learning, and there's no harm in that.  :)

Return to Lithuanian

Well, it's been three months, figure it's time for an update.  Just joking.  :)  I've been studying my Lithuanian, which I mentioned adding to my language list a couple of posts down.  I'm going over the basics, and would like to start trying to read newspaper articles and other texts right away.  

Lithuanian is supposed to be a pretty difficult language, and even though it's not in the same family, I wonder if it's considered harder, easier, or about the same as Polish.   They're both Indo-European, but Lithuanian is Baltic while Polish is Slavic.  These things really mean nothing to me in the long run.  I just take the language as it comes.

So anyway, Lithuanian is the "Language du Jour" and I've got two items to work with: Teach Yourself Lithuanian + the book you see in the pic below.  Look how thick it is and it's only a beginners.

 Pringle with my study materials.

January...

I hope the new year has been good so far with a fresh inspiration to reach those language-learning goals. My only language resolution is to dedicate more time to practice in all areas: listening, writing, reading and speaking. I seem to have hit a huge slump in my language studies, and I want this year to be the start of a turnaround.

Knockin' on Lithuanian's Door

I think it was earlier this year that I decided to add Lithuanian to my list.

My thoughts on Lithuanian: 'Hey, it's not so hard.' :D I know I'll be eating those words when I delve a little deeper, because right now, my only resources are Teach Yourself Lithuanian and a rather thick Hippocrene book entitled, Beginner's Lithuanian (of all things.) 

Yeah, a "beginner" level book whose main content is nearly 400 pages (the book itself is almost 500.) That's saying something. I haven't even used this one yet, but I have flipped through it, and it seems promising.

Return of the Blog

I've been focusing a lot on vocabulary lately, especially Portuguese. The other day, I thought about giving up Spanish, but can't. You don't just give up something you've been working at for 15 years. I think Spanish has taken a back burner, because I've added so many languages to the list since beginning to learn it, and I take for granted that it's fairly easy (well, compared to some of the others I'm learning) + the numerous resources.

At the same time, I can't help but think about how advanced I would be if I had concentrated better on it all this time. It's useless to harp on that though, I just have to keep improving from where I am, and that goes for all of the languages on my list.

Drive-By Update

I figured after nearly a month, it was about time I posted to this thing, even though I don't really have anything exciting in the world of language learning to report.

I've been studying my Romanian for the last few days, as well as a little Serbian and Portuguese. I also tried to translate some Polish music this morning using this website.