A Million Languages

Going to try @amillionlanguages' One Year of Languages challenge, here are my rough goals for 2022!

January: Spanish

February: Arabic

March: Swedish

April: ASL

May: Russian

June: Czech

July: Northern Sami

August: Japanese

September: Hungarian

October: Mandarin

November: Serbo-Croatian

December: Yiddish

My alternatives are: French, German, Swahili, Catalan, or going back to Portuguese.

My daily goals are:

Do at least one lesson each day at the minimum

Watch or read educational content (on pronunciation, grammar, culture, etc.)

Try to write and/or speak a few sentences

Listen to music or watch non educational videos in target language (probably not every day but still frequent)

#1YearOfLangs is a challenge that I created in December of 2018 and did throughout 2019. I’ve had a lot of fun and have learned a lot throughout the year-long language learning challenge, and I’ll be doing it again in 2020 (with some modifications)! I wanted to create a central post with all the info about the challenge, so that’s what this is!

The general premise of the challenge is to learn a new language every month for a year! Yes, that’s a lot, but it helps a lot to learn what languages you’re interested in pursuing in the future. You can also see connections between different languages which is really interesting

Here’s the post with the original guidelines

Here’s my 2019 challenge recap post

Here are some alternative variations of the challenge (with different lengths of time spent on each language)

Here’s a list of resources for the challenge

Here’s a 1-month language learning prompt list for #1MonthOfLangs

Here’s 2+ months worth of language learning prompts

Here’s what a realistic day of the challenge looks like

Here’s what I’m planning to do for the challenge in 2020

I’ll try to keep this updated as I make more posts but here’s what I have so far! Hopefully y’all find this helpful lol let me know if there’s any specific resource that you’d like me to find or make!!!! I want to help you all as much as possible so PLEASE let me know if there’s any way that I can help support you and get you more resources!

Hi everyone, and welcome to my first lesson for learning Hebrew! I want to cover all the basics as a resource and hopefully move on to more interesting grammar points, vocabulary lists, slang, and cultural points. I plan on posting about once or twice a week, and each post will have tags to help sort through them. Without further ado!

To be able to read and study Hebrew independently, we need to look at the Hebrew /alef.bet/, or the Hebrew alphabet. Hebrew has 22 letters in total, with some letters having a second form. The letters as they appear in the dictionary are as follows. Remember that Hebrew is read from right to left. 

א ב ג ד ה ו ז ח ט י כ ל מ נ ס ע פ צ ק ר ש ת

I’ve grouped them into sets depending on difficulty, or how complicated the letter can be. 

No Drama Letters

ג - called /gimel/, and is always pronounced as a hard /g/ as in goat or go

ד - called /dalet/, is pronounced as the /d/ in dog

ז - called /zayn/, is pronounced as the /z/ in zoo

ח - called /xet/, is the the guttoral hacking sound like in the German Bach. It’s a sound made at the back of the throat with turbulence. In transcription, I’ll be writing an /x/ for this letter.

ט - called /tet/, is pronounced as /t/ in tip

ל - called /lamed/, is pronounced as the /l/ in lip

ס - called /samex/, is pronounced as the /s/ in sea

ק - called /kuf/, is pronounced as the /k/ in key. 

ר - called /resh/, is can be pronounced as either the growled French/German /r/ or the trilled Spanish/Russian /r/. But store bought will do just as fine.

ת - called /tav/, is pronounced as the /t/ in tip

And Dot Your P’s

Some letters will have their sound change depending on whether or not a דגש /dagesh/ is present. A /dagesh/ is dot found in the middle of the letter. In normal typeset, the /dagesh/ is not written, so its presence has to either be rote memorized or be expected by understanding some phonological rules, which I’ll get to hopefully in a later post.

בּ כּ פּ

ב - called /bet/, can be pronounced as either the /b/ in bed with the dagesh or the /v/ in vet without

כ - called /kaf/, can be pronounced as either the /k/ in kite with the dagesh or the /x/ in the German Bach without.

פ - called /pe/, can be pronunced as either the /p/ in piano with the dagesh or the /f/ in flow without.

My Final Form

כ - We already saw /kaf/ above, but not only does it have two sounds depending on whether it has a /dagesh/ or not, it also has two forms. The first is כ is appears either by itself, at the beginning or in the middle of a word. The second form is ך, and appears only at the end of the word, it also is always pronounced as a /x/.

מ - called /mem/, is pronounced as the /m/ in mat. The non-final form is מ and the final form is ם

נ - called /nun/, is pronounced as the /n/ in nap. The non-final form is נ and the final form is ן

פ - Like /kaf/, we saw pe above. The non-final form is פ and the final form is ף and is always pronounced as an /f/ in fit. 

צ - called /tsade/, is pronounced as the /ts/ in cats. The non-final form is צ and the final form is ץ

A Little Bit Extra

א - called /alef/, it has no sound on its own, rather it carries or precedes a vowel, which we’ll learn in our next lesson

ה - called /he/, is pronounced as the /h/ in hat. However at the end of words it’s generally not pronounced.

ו - called /vav/, is pronounced as the /v/ in vote. Often however, it carries a vowel like alef, and stands for an /o/ or /u/ sound.

י - called /yud/, is pronounced as the /y/ in yarn. Like alef and vav, it carries a vowel sometimes, and stands for an /e/ or /i/ sound.

ע - called /‘ayn/, it acts similar to alef, carrying a vowel. In transcription, I’ll be adding an apostrophe to differentiate it from an /alef/  

ש - called /shin/, is similar to the letters with/without the /dagesh/, and can be pronounced two different ways. In כתיב מנוקד /ktiv menukad/ if a dot is found above the upper right, it is called /shin/ and pronounced as the /sh/ in sheets. If a dot is found above the upper left, it is called /sin/ and pronounced as the /s/ in soak. 

Transformers, Letters in Disguise

As a final list to round out the /aleph.bet/, there are extra notations to represent some international sounds. A גרש /geresh/ or apostrophe is added after the letter.

ג׳ - is pronounced as the j in jam

ז׳ - is pronounced as the s in pleasure

Bonjour, I love Halloween because horror is my favourite movie genre (especially slasher). I’ve already noted some French horrors that I wanna watch but if anyone has any recommendations, please let me know!

Halloween - Halloween (but pronounce it like “a lo ween”)

Friandises ou bêtises / des bonbons ou un sort - trick or treat

Un déguisement - costume

Un fantôme - ghost

Un vampire - vampire

Une sorcière - witch

Un squelette - skeleton

Un monstre - monster

Un chauve-souris - bat

Une maison hantée - haunted house

Une loup-garou - werewolf

Avoir peur - to be scared

Faire peur à quelqu’un - to scare someone

Le maquillage - makeup

Un masque - mask

Une goule - goule

Une citrouille-lanterne - jack-o-lantern

#1YearOfLangs is a challenge that I created in December of 2018 and did throughout 2019. I’ve had a lot of fun and have learned a lot throughout the year-long language learning challenge, and I’ll be doing it again in 2020 (with some modifications)! I wanted to create a central post with all the info about the challenge, so that’s what this is!

The general premise of the challenge is to learn a new language every month for a year! Yes, that’s a lot, but it helps a lot to learn what languages you’re interested in pursuing in the future. You can also see connections between different languages which is really interesting

Here’s the post with the original guidelines

Here’s my 2019 challenge recap post

Here are some alternative variations of the challenge (with different lengths of time spent on each language)

Here’s a list of resources for the challenge

Here’s a 1-month language learning prompt list for #1MonthOfLangs

Here’s 2+ months worth of language learning prompts

Here’s what a realistic day of the challenge looks like

Here’s what I’m planning to do for the challenge in 2020

I’ll try to keep this updated as I make more posts but here’s what I have so far! Hopefully y’all find this helpful lol let me know if there’s any specific resource that you’d like me to find or make!!!! I want to help you all as much as possible so PLEASE let me know if there’s any way that I can help support you and get you more resources!

Link to the original challenge!

Duolingo

Busuu

Drops

Ba Ba Dum

Clozemaster

Wordbrewery

Wordeys

Mango

LinguaLift

Babbel

Udemy

Lingvist

Anki

Memrise

CoolJugator

Italki

HelloTalk

Fluentify

Coffee Strap

Lang-8

Readlang

LingQ

Mondly

Lingua.ly

LanguagePod101

Radio Lingua

FluentU

MindSnacks

101languages

LingoHut

LingoDeer

Beelinguapp

Hey everyone! Today, I’d like to introduce y’all to the 1 Month of Languages Challenge! (aka the #1MonthOfLangs Challenge)

This can be done as a stand-alone challenge, or it can be seen as a subset of the #1YearOfLangs challenge that I created last year! You could do this challenge for each month within the year-long challenge, or you could just do one month of it, or any other possible variation of it! It’s totally up to you and definitely NOT mandatory! This is just to get you started and inspired!

The Guidelines:

Post every day with an update about how your language learning progress is going

Optional: Follow the prompt list below!

Dedicate at least 5 minutes every day of the month to learning your target language

Tag your posts with #1MonthOfLangs so I can see what you’re learning!

The Prompt List (optional):

Goals for the month

Vocab list: basic sayings

Why you chose to study your language of choice

Vocab list: greetings

Vocab list: numbers

Grammar: present tense

Vocab list: food

Write a menu

Vocab list: kitchen supplies

Vocab list: family

Grammar: sentence structure

Write 5 example sentences

Vocab list: colors

Vocab list: animals

What resources are you using to study your language of choice?

Your language learning routine

Vocab list: home

Write a few sentences about your home and family

Grammar: sentence structure of questions

Vocab list: clothing

Look up some random/interesting words

Vocab list: countries

Vocab list: places in town

Vocab list: careers

Grammar: past tense

Vocab list: emotions

Write a diary entry

Vocab list: adjectives

Tips for new (insert language of choice) learners

Recap of the month!

Sometimes it can be tricky to know what to learn if you are teaching yourself a language. Here are some ideas for what you can focus on learning each day for the first two months of learning a new language! I formatted it so there is the general topic for the day and then in parentheses are some ideas to get you started but you can definitely learn a lot more than what I’ve written down! These are just to help generate some ideas!

This definitely would move pretty quickly if you covered all this material in 2 months so you could definitely spend more time on each topic if you need! This would require quite a bit of time each day in order to learn it all. This could totally work for a 4 or 6-month challenge where you spend 2 or 3 days on each of the topics I listed if you don’t have enough time to cover each topic in just one day!

Polite phrases (thank you, please, yes/no, you’re welcome, I’m sorry)

Introductory phrases (hi, my name is, I’m from, I speak, how are you?)

Pronouns (I, you, he, she, they, we)

Basic people vocab (girl, boy, man, woman, person, child)

Basic verbs in present tense (to eat, to drink, to walk, to read, to write, to say)

Sentence structure (how to form some basic sentences)

Negative sentences (I do not __)

Question words (who, what, where, when, why, how, how to form questions)

Numbers (0-20, 30, 40, 50, 100, 1,000, 1,000,000)

Time (hour, minute, half hour, reading the time)

Meals (breakfast, lunch, dinner, snack, dessert, appetizer)

Basic foods (apple, banana, rice, bread, pasta, carrot, soup, water)

More foods (beef, pork, fruit, vegetable, juice, coffee, tea, chocolate, cake)

Kitchen (stove, oven, kitchen, fridge, table, chair, bake, boil)

Eating supplies (knife, spoon, fork, plate, bowl, cup, glass)

More verbs (to make, to have, to see, to like, to go, to be able to, to want, to need)

Family (father, mother, son, daughter, aunt, uncle, cousin, grandmother, grandfather, parents, grandparents)

Transportation (car, train, plane, bus, bicycle, airport, train station)

City locations (apartment, building, restaurant, movie theater, market, hotel, bank)

Directions (north, south, east, west, right, left)

Adjectives (good, bad, smart, delicious, nice, fun)

More verbs (to give, to send, to wake up, to cry, to love, to hate, to laugh)

Colors (red, yellow, blue, green, purple, black, white, brown)

Emotions (happy, sad, calm, angry)

Physical descriptions (tall, short, blonde, brunette, redhead, eye color)

Body parts (arm, leg, hand, finger, foot, toe, face, eye, mouth, nose, ears)

Descriptors (rich, poor, beautiful, ugly, expensive, inexpensive)

Basic clothing (shirt, pants, dress, skirt, jacket, sweater, skirt, shorts)

Accessories (belt, hat, wallet, gloves, sunglasses, purse, watch)

More verbs (to keep, to smile, to run, to drive, to wear, to remember)

Animals (cat, dog, horse, cow, bear, pig, chicken, duck, fish)

More animals (turtle, sheep, fox, mouse, lion, deer)

Months (January, February, March, April, May, June, July, August, September, October, November, December)

Seasons (fall, winter, spring, summer)

Weather (sunny, cloudy, hot, cold, snowing, raining)

States of being (I’m hungry, I’m tired, I’m thirsty)

House (bedroom, living room, bathroom, stairs)

Furniture (bed, lamp, couch, door, window)

Electronics (phone, TV, computer, camera, radio, headphones)

Nature (tree, flower, plant, animal, grass, animal, outside, sky, sun, moon, clouds)

More verbs (to teach, to learn, to understand, to know, to listen, to hear)

School (classroom, elementary school, high school, college, student, class, grade, homework, test)

School subjects (math, science, English, art, music, chemistry, biology, physics)

School supplies (book, pencil, pen, paper, notebook, folder, backpack, calculator)

Classroom features (student desk, teacher desk, whiteboard, chalk, clock, bell)

Jobs (teacher, scientist, doctor, artist, dancer, musician)

More jobs (surgeon, manager, engineer, architect, lawyer, dentist, writer)

More verbs (to buy, to sell, to work, to ask, to answer, to dance, to leave, to come)

Comparisons (less than, more than, same, __er than)

Languages (French, German, Chinese, Russian, Spanish, English, Japanese)

Countries (France, Germany, China, Russia, Spain, Mexico, United States, Japan)

Religion (church, temple, mosque, to pray, Judaism, Christianity, Islam)

Past tense (I was, he ran, she wrote)

Hobbies (shopping, sports, soccer, chess, fishing, gardening, photography)

More verbs (to describe, to sleep, to find, to wish, to enter, to feel, to think)

Art (paint, draw, painting, gallery, frame, brush)

Morning routine (to wake up, to brush teeth, toothbrush, toothpaste, comb, soap)

Future tense (I will run, he will write)

TV + internet (online, internet, to watch TV, TV show, movie, documentary, cartoon)