Hello friends! I wanted to do something a little bit different this month. Instead of a retrospective look back on what’s been going on, I’d like to turn that on its head and look forwards to what’s coming up over the next couple of months.
Most of you who are active in the language learner community on Twitter will know what the Language Jam is. It’s an event that you sign up to, stating which languages you have learned in the past and then you’re given a completely new language to learn over a weekend. Your language is revealed the week before if you have a language with a script other than the Latin alphabet, so you can start a little earlier to get acquainted with the writing system. I was too late to sign up to the last one, but this time I could not be more ready. I’m so excited to find out what my language will be and to spend a weekend dedicated to language learning! It’s very rare that I get the time to truly dedicate to something like that. I’ll be providing an update maybe next month with how that went, and maybe I’ll even write a little bit in my target language! It’ll be interesting to see what level I can get to in just a weekend! If this seems like something that might interest you, you can find more information at languagejam.net.
Another project that I’m going to be working on over the next couple of months is starting the second draft of my Polyglot NaNoWriMo writing project. If you’ve been reading my blog for a while, you’ll know that I crapped out of the Polyglot NaNoWriMo project at the half-way mark, and I took it pretty hard. I’ve had some time to reflect on this, and now I’m ready to give it another go. This time, though, I’m writing it by hand (digitally). I’ve only written a chapter so far, but I’m finding the whole experience so much more enjoyable. Writing in a second language is a lot trickier than I had realised it would be, even though I’d say I’m very comfortable speaking, hearing and reading Swedish – actually writing it is much more difficult; and writing by hand just gives me that extra time to process. So the first chapter, which was originally about 300 words, has tripled in size as I’ve been able to expand and describe things much more eloquently. I would to take this moment to thank my utterly fabulous Swedish proofreader (who might be reading this), whose feedback was invaluable and whose enthusiasm gave me the kick up the pants that I needed to actually continue with the project after a fall. Tusen tack.
As for languages, I’m still soldiering on with Czech but I’ve been a little distracted by Italian recently… I’ve been trying out Duolingo Plus and enjoying it, but I haven’t come very far because I’m getting obsessed with getting to level five on every skill before I let myself move on. So that’s where I’m at with languages. There’s also been a little bit of dabbling in Old English but I don’t think that’s going to go anywhere substantial… it’s just a little bit of dabbling to satisfy my interest in etymology.
So that’s what’s coming up over the next few months. What are your language goals for the next few months – are you going to do the Language Jam? Get in touch, and I’ll see you all next month as usual!
– J.
den språkliga skatan 
Det var så lite 😚 Ser framemot att läsa fortsättningen!
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