If you follow my little blog regularly, you may be aware of that crazy experiment I started almost a year ago now: learning two languages at the same time (maybe even more), to feel like a student again. I even wrote an article in EL Gazette about it a few weeks ago ( http://digital.elgazette.com/december-january-2017/we-can-easily-forget-about-the-students-2.html
First of all, I can’t believe it’s been almost a year! I wanted to wait until the exact day to write about it, but 300 days is still a milestone, so here is some fresh news about the experiment.
You may recall that I was learning Italian and German at the same time, and I was planning to start Japanese in January. That was the initial plot. Spoiler alert: it didn’t work out. I stopped learning German at the end of December 2017, because I couldn’t focus enough, and I was stuck. I needed a real teacher, someone to help me break this glass ceiling, but I couldn’t afford one, and I didn’t have enough time on my own anyway. I didn’t like the language enough to “fight” for it, to find long term solutions.
Concerning Japanese, I had another disappointment: my teacher bailed out. We were supposed to begin in January, but she never called me or answered a text, so I guess she wasn’t interested anymore. Finding another teacher is purely impossible right now, especially with my current timetable, so I decided to postpone this adventure.
The bright side of the experiment is definitely Italian. I fell in love with this language, I love listening to it (even if sometimes they speak way too fast) and I love talking in Italian (even if my grammar is weak). I found a way around it, and I am really proud when I am understood by natives (and non natives, of course). I have been encouraged a lot last week end (I was in Sicily), so I feel like I am actually learning for a good reason. They even told me that they didn’t really care about grammar because it was really rare to meet a foreigner who could pronounced Italian correctly!
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