Narrowing it down... to ten languages
A while back as I worked on multilingua.info, I realized that I had very seriously tinkered with an awful lot of languages, but hadn't gotten as far as I'd like on many. I decided it was time to set some quasi-realistic goals. Every time I do this - about every two years - something comes up to tempt me. But in the past, I've always had a goal of "knowing" certain languages, without any idea what that meant. Which meant that every time I played with another language, it was time taken from "knowing" the ones I was going to be serious about.
I've removed the temptation of studying other languages by allowing myself to do so, so long as I put in time on a core language first. At the same time, I set more precise expectations for that core group. I don't care, for example, about being fluent in German. If I can get through a short conversation and pick my way through bits of Wittgenstein and Heine, I'm good. The same goes for Chinese and the Dao.
My terminology for fluency with a language is as follows:
bare bones - if someone asks if I speak it, I can answer "barely" and prove it if they try to engage me in anything but very basic conversation, but I would know enough to order a meal and book a hotel room without help from an English speaker.
quasi-conversational - my grammar might not be great, nor my vocabulary, but I can talk to a native speaker about this and that and we'll each know what the other is talking about.
conversational - while I won't be taken for a native speaker, I should be able to get through just about any daily life situation, including scanning the newspaper, without too much trouble.
fluent/near fluent - were I to live in the country, I would have no trouble surviving and knowing what was going on around me, what was happening on the television, etc.
Now, here is my list of languages, after which, I will get back to the languages themselves:
1. English: goal: fluent (It's my native language after all!); status: fluent
2. French: goal: near fluent; status: near fluent
3. Spanish: goal: conversational; status: quasi-conversational
4. Italian: goal: quasi-conversational; status: bare bones to quasi-conversational
5. German: goal: quasi-conversational; status: bare bones
6. Mandarin: goal: bare bones; status: almost there
7. Portuguese: goal: quasi-conversational; status: bare bones
8. Indonesian: goal: quasi-conversational; status: less than bare bones
9. Turkish: goal: bare bones; status: a long ways to go
10. Arabic: goal: bare bones; status: a long ways to go
The next posts will look at where I am with each of these languages (French and Arabic already being done) and why I'm interested in them.
I've removed the temptation of studying other languages by allowing myself to do so, so long as I put in time on a core language first. At the same time, I set more precise expectations for that core group. I don't care, for example, about being fluent in German. If I can get through a short conversation and pick my way through bits of Wittgenstein and Heine, I'm good. The same goes for Chinese and the Dao.
My terminology for fluency with a language is as follows:
bare bones - if someone asks if I speak it, I can answer "barely" and prove it if they try to engage me in anything but very basic conversation, but I would know enough to order a meal and book a hotel room without help from an English speaker.
quasi-conversational - my grammar might not be great, nor my vocabulary, but I can talk to a native speaker about this and that and we'll each know what the other is talking about.
conversational - while I won't be taken for a native speaker, I should be able to get through just about any daily life situation, including scanning the newspaper, without too much trouble.
fluent/near fluent - were I to live in the country, I would have no trouble surviving and knowing what was going on around me, what was happening on the television, etc.
Now, here is my list of languages, after which, I will get back to the languages themselves:
1. English: goal: fluent (It's my native language after all!); status: fluent
2. French: goal: near fluent; status: near fluent
3. Spanish: goal: conversational; status: quasi-conversational
4. Italian: goal: quasi-conversational; status: bare bones to quasi-conversational
5. German: goal: quasi-conversational; status: bare bones
6. Mandarin: goal: bare bones; status: almost there
7. Portuguese: goal: quasi-conversational; status: bare bones
8. Indonesian: goal: quasi-conversational; status: less than bare bones
9. Turkish: goal: bare bones; status: a long ways to go
10. Arabic: goal: bare bones; status: a long ways to go
The next posts will look at where I am with each of these languages (French and Arabic already being done) and why I'm interested in them.
1 Comments:
I think your idea for allowing yourself the "pudding" of studying extra, "passing fancy" languages only after a helping of the "meat" of one of your primary ones is excellent, and something that I have tried to do myself.
Gratefully, the "obsessive" of my language OCD tends to beat out the "compulsive" enough to keep me at least remotely focused on my goals. Anyway, I look forward to the posts on your "top ten" list, as I have studied many of the same languages to one extent or another. I've really been enjoying your blog, and am very glad that I've found it.
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