#all languages

Not that long ago I started improving my English skills by drilling grammar and vocabulary. Sometimes study sessions can be boring, though language learners always find something funny during the learning process.

A week ago I started learning a new vocabulary list dedicated to people's positive and negative qualities. One word stood out from this list because I always messed up its spelling. To be honest, the word unscrupulous reminded me of the Russian word скрупулезный.

So, after fact-checking it in a Russian dictionary, I found out that my whole life I had been spelling скрупулезный as скурпулезный! My incorrect spelling of unscrupulous turned out to be the result of a lifelong mistake in Russian.

But why do these two words with different meanings have similar word stems? Well, in linguistics all roads led to Latin and Greek. Simply put, both words originated from the Latin scrupulus, which means "a small sharp stone" or, metaphorically, "moral doubt." In Russian, the word скрупулезный means "meticulous about details," while unscrupulous means "dishonest."

Because I talk about it a lot, I'm going to link Dreaming Spanish's site, their youtube channel, and the subreddit r/dreamingspanish. (And fyi Dreaming Spanish site is free to use and tracks which videos you complete - the premium version just has more lessons, the youtube is free and has the same free lessons as the website, and the subreddit is quite welcoming to people who study using DS lessons in addition to whatever else they're using - I've found them to be one of the most friendly and least gatekeeping language learning subreddits I've visited so far).

So here's my thoughts narrowed down to their most basic: I think the type of lessons Dreaming Spanish makes - which are designed to help a learner understand what's being said with visuals for context - are a wonderful way to learn a language for people who enjoy learning things by doing them, and guessing from context. If you were the kind of kid who learned new words by reading books and fanfiction, from watching shows/movies with your parents, playing video games with your older siblings and then trying to play them without your sibling around, and guessing what the new words meant? Then you're the kind of person who will likely enjoy this type of lesson. I love learning from context. I love learning by doing. I like to learn something by doing it with someone - and learning by trying to do the thing, to understand how it's done AS I'm doing it. Learning by simply listening to the language being spoken, and by using the surrounding context of visuals/physical gestures/words you know to figure out what the rest of it means? My favorite way to learn. Oh sure, I also like reading explanations of how things work, but I prefer to learn by doing if that's an option. If you're also the kind of learner who enjoys learning to understand a language BY immediately listening to that language and trying to understand? Comprehensible Input type lessons are excellent. (And will be much EASIER than just trying to make yourself watch a show or read a novel in the language with zero aids to help you). If you're the kind of learner who hates ambiguity, who hates trying to figure things out from context and prefers to have a task explained before trying it? If you're the kind of kid who looked up most unknown words in a dictionary or into google growing up? Then Comprehensible Input type lessons are probably NOT going to be enjoyable for you. And that's fine, there's many other types of lessons that may suit your preferences more.

*A side note, that if you do enjoy comprehensible input type lessons, this wiki has links to those kinds of lessons in many languages: comprehensibleinputwiki.org (And the old Nature Method textbooks one can find on archive.org, and Ayan Academy on youtube, also teach using comprehensible input)

Ek het jou lief (Afrikaans)

medɔ wo (Akan)

Unë të dua (Albanian)

አፈቅርሃለሁ (āfek’irihalehu) (Amharic)

 أحبك  ('uhibuk) (Arabic)

Ես սիրում եմ քեզ (Yes sirum yem k’ez) (Armenian)

মই আপোনাক ভাল পাওঁ (Assamese)

munsmawa (Aymara)

Mən səni sevirəm (Azerbaijani)

n b'i fɛ (Bambara)

আমি তোমাকে ভালোবাসি (Āmi tōmākē bhālōbāsi) (Bangla)

maite zaitut (Basque)

я цябе кахаю (ja ciabie kachaju) (Belarusian)

हम तोहसे प्यार करेलीं (Bhojpuri)

volim te (Bosnian)

Обичам те (Obicham te) (Bulgarian)

မင်းကိုချစ်တယ် (Burmese)

T'estimo (Catalan)

gihigugma tika (Cebuano)

تۆم خۆش دەوێت (Central Kurdish)

我爱你 (Wǒ ài nǐ) (Chinese (Simplified))

我愛你 (Wǒ ài nǐ) (Chinese (Traditional))

Ti tengu caru (Corsican)

Volim te (Croatian)

Miluji tě (Czech)

Jeg elsker dig (Danish)

އަހަރެން ތިބާ ދެކެ ލޯބިވަން (aharen thibaa dheke loabivan) (Divehi)

में तुगी हिरख करना (Dogri)

Ik houd van jou (Dutch)

I love you (English)

mi amas vin (Esperanto)

Ma armastan sind (Estonian)

Melɔ̃ wò (Ewe)

Mahal kita (Filipino)

Minä rakastan sinua (Finnish)

Je t'aime (French)

Quérote (Galician)

Nkwagala (Ganda)

მიყვარხარ (miq’varkhar) (Georgian)

Ich liebe dich (German)

हांव तुजेर मोग करता (Goan Konkani)

Σ'αγαπώ (S'agapó) (Greek)

Rohayhu (Guarani)

હું તને પ્રેમ કરું છુ (Huṁ tanē prēma karuṁ chu) (Gujarati)

Mwen renmen ou (Haitian Creole)

Ina son ka (Hausa)

Aloha wau iā ʻoe (Hawaiian)

אני אוהב אותך (Hebrew)

मुझे तुमसे प्यार है (mujhe tumase pyaar hai) (Hindi)

kuv hlub koj (Hmong)

Szeretlek (Hungarian)

ég elska þig (Icelandic)

a hụrụ m gị n'anya (Igbo)

Ay-ayaten ka (Iloko)

Aku mencintaimu (Indonesian)

Is breá liom tú (Irish)

Ti amo (Italian)

愛してます (Aishitemasu) (Japanese)

Aku tresna sampeyan (Javanese)

ನಾನು ನಿನ್ನನ್ನು ಪ್ರೀತಿಸುತ್ತೇನೆ (Nānu ninnannu prītisuttēne) (Kannada)

Мен сені жақсы көремін (Men seni jaqsı köremin) (Kazakh)

ខ្ញុំ​ស្រលាញ់​អ្នក (khnhom​ sralanh​ anak) (Khmer)

Ndagukunda (Kinyarwanda)

사랑해요 (salanghaeyo) (Korean)

A lɛk yu (Krio)

Ez hej te dikim (Kurgish)

Мен сени сүйөм (Men seni süyöm) (Kyrgyz)

ຂ້ອຍ​ຮັກ​ເຈົ້າ (khony hak chao) (Lao)

Te amo (Latin)

Es mīlu Tevi (Latvian)

Nalingaka yo (Lingala)

Aš tave myliu (Lithuanian)

Ech hunn dech gär (Luxembourgish)

Те сакам (Te sakam) (Macedonian)

हम अहां सँ प्रेम करैत छी (Maithili)

tiako ianao (Malagasy)

saya sayang awak (Malay)

ഞാൻ നിന്നെ സ്നേഹിക്കുന്നു (njaan ninne snehikkunnu) (Malayalam)

inħobbok (Maltese)

ꯑꯩꯅ ꯅꯪꯕꯨ ꯅꯨꯡꯁꯤ (Manipuri (Meitei Mayek))

Aroha ana ahau ki a koe (Maori)

मी तुझ्यावर प्रेम करतो (Mī tujhyāvara prēma karatō) (Marathi)

Ka hmangaih che (Mizo)

Би чамд хайртай (Bi chamd khairtai) (Mongolian)

म तिमीलाई माया गर्छु (Ma timīlā'ī māyā garchu) (Nepali)

Ke a go rata (Northern Sotho)

Jeg elsker deg (Norwegian)

ndimakukondani (Nyanja)

ମୁଁ ତୁମକୁ ଭଲପାଏ (Odia)

sin jaalladha (Oromo)

زه تا سره مینه لرم (Pashto)

دوستت دارم (Persian)

Kocham cię (Polish)

Eu te amo (Portugese)

ਮੈਂ ਤੁਹਾਨੂੰ ਪਿਆਰ ਕਰਦਾ ਹਾਂ (Maiṁ tuhānū pi'āra karadā hāṁ) (Punjabi)

Kuyaykim (Quechua)

Te iubesc (Romanian)

Я тебя люблю (YA tebya lyublyu) (Russian)

Oute alofa ia oe (Samoan)

त्वां कामयामि (Sanskrit)

Tha gaol agam ort (Scottish Gaelic)

Волим те (Volim te) (Serbian)

Ndinokuda (Shona)

مان توهان سان پيار ٿو ڪيان (Sindhi)

මම ඔයාට ආදරෙයි (mama oyāṭa ādareyi) (Sinhala)

Ľúbim ťa (Slovak)

Ljubim te (Slovenian)

waan ku jeclahay (Somali)

kea u rata (Southern Sotho)

Te amo (Spanish)

abdi bogoh ka anjeun (Sundanese)

nakupenda (Swahili)

jag älskar dig (Swedish)

Ман туро дӯст медорам (Man turo dūst medoram) (Tajik)

நான் உன்னை காதலிக்கிறேன் (Nāṉ uṉṉai kātalikkiṟēṉ) (Tamil)

мин сине яратам (Tatar)

నేను నిన్ను ప్రేమిస్తున్నాను (Nēnu ninnu prēmistunnānu) (Telugu)

ฉันรักคุณ (C̄hạn rạk khuṇ) (Thai)

የፍቅረኪ እየ (Tigrinya)

Ndza ku rhandza (Tsonga)

Seni seviyorum (Turkish)

men seni söýýärin (Turkmen)

я тебе люблю (ya tebe lyublyu) (Ukrainian)

میں تم سے پیار کرتا ہوں (Urdu)

مەن سىزنى ياخشى كۆرىمەن (Uyghur)

Men sizni sevaman (Uzbek)

Anh Yêu Em (Viatnamese)

Rwy'n dy garu di (Welsh)

Ik hâld fan dy (Western Frisian)

Ndiyakuthanda (Xhosa)

איך האב דיר ליב (ikh hab dir lib) (Yiddish)

mo nifẹ rẹ (Yoruba)

Ngiyakuthanda (Zulu)

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That's 133 different languages to say 'I love you' in. All translations were by Google Translate

So it looks like I may very likely be staying in a Spanish-speaking country for a few months starting in June for work.... so it looks like my language goals are changing!

My original plan was to focus most of my energy on Italian this month, but it looks like that due to these new circumstances, I’ll be switching it out for Spanish! My level is already quite advanced, but I’m hoping to take it even further and even brushen up on it a bit.

With that being said, here are are my updated goals for May:

🇨🇴

Focus: Speaking & Vocabulary

~ Take one iTalki lesson a week (or every other week)

~ Attend one (or two) online exchange groups a week

~ Read every morning

~ Write a journal entry for the month

~ Analyze a poem (may do this with an iTalki tutor)

~ Refresh myself on the idiomatic expressions and slang I’ve learned so far

~ Learn one new idiomatic expression a week

🇧🇷

Focus: Speaking

~ Attend online exchange group on Saturdays

~ Read from Brazilian Portuguese for Beginners every Friday or Saturday

~ Write one journal entry

🇮🇹

Focus: Writing

~ Learn how to use “ormai” and “magari” correctly

~ Read from Short Stories in Italian for Beginners once a week

~ Continue daily morning routine with Busuu (and maybe Online Italian Club?)

~ Also write one journal entry

🇩🇪, 🤟🏻, 🇫🇷: maintenance

No goals for 🇷🇺; just work on it whenever I feel like it

And that’s it! As for the quarterly updates, I’m not sure if I’ll be sticking to them, as my plans tend to fluctuate every month. So instead of quarterly goals, I’ll be setting them monthly instead!