Friday, December 29, 2006

New Year's Resolutions

The Aspiring Polyglot posted her New Year's Resolutions, which got me thinking that I should look at the goals I set for myself last year and how I'd done. To choose a generous phrasing, I could have done better. In 2006, I fussed with a number of languages and learned alot. In my work - at a language school - I have been able to do a lot in terms of helping potential and struggling students get a sense of what's up with their languages because of the breadth of languages I've looked at. Depth is another story, and one thing I've concluded is that, to be honest, while there are some languages I really want to be able to use, there are a lot that I'd just like to fuss with to satisfy my curiosity, without any real purpose in mind. For these languages, I'm going to try to stay away from serious goal setting.

Giving myself a little credit where it is due, my Spanish is much improved, my Italian is more solid and I have renewed my French. Additionally, I completed the beginning program for Mandarin at my language school and have the certificate in my office to prove it. Finally, though I'm light years from being able to use either of them, I've learned a great deal about Turkish and Uzbek and how they fit together. The year wasn't a wash, but I did come way short of my oversized goals.

My biggest goal for 2007 is to stick to a limited number of goals for a limited number of languages so that I can enjoy my fussing with other languages without eroding my skills in my core languages or spending too much time or money on "curiosity" languages. My more precise goals follow:

Spanish:
Low-level conversational: Able to tell stories, use past, present and future and have basic conversations without those awkward "I know this but I have to remember" pauses.
-Regular reading from self-teaching manuals to get structured examples of the language in use.
Update: Starting with Hippocrene's Mastering Spanish by Robert Clark.
-Regular reading of stories and poetry in Spanish.
-Read Borges' Ficciones in the original.
-Learn 4 songs in Spanish.

Italian:
Really low-level conversational: Able to handle basic conversations in the present tense.
-Michel Thomas Beginning and Advanced Italian courses
-Regular reading from self-teaching manuals to get structured examples of the language in use.
Update: Starting with Assimil's L'italien sans peine.
-Read Pinocchio in the original.
-Learn 4 songs in Italian.

German:
Regain at least basic functionality.
-Michel Thomas Beginning and Advanced German Courses

French:
-Re-read Les Misérables.
-Finish my translation of "Melancholia" from the Contemplations.

Turkish (a curiosity language):
Slightly greater familiarity
-Finish Pimsleur Turkish Basic Conversation (16 lessons).
-Read Le Petit prince in the Turkish translation.

Uzbek (a curiosity language):
Slightly greater familiarity
-Learn at least 3 songs in Uzbek.

This pared down list still has six languages, but with real expectations for only three - French, Italian and Spanish. There are a million other things I'd like to do, of course, and I will do many of them. But this is my checklist for 2007. Should I be able to cross off every item, I'll set second stage goals. In the meantime, I'll be starting the new year with the hope of building on the enthusiasm that comes when you can say, "I accomplished X."

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