French: Spoke with my francophone clients and I was thrilled to learn that kiddo said a few new words spontaneously following some of the advice I gave mom T_T. I tend to give the same advice but I'm always so surprised it works!! (and yes, I know it is evidence-based, but still feels like magic).
As for exposure, I watched some videos (Liv, Dairing Tia, The Serpent, Lupin) and wrote to people on HelloTalk.
Spanish: I wrote a few sentences in my journal app and said a few things to one of my Spanish-speaking clients.
Portuguese: Watched "Who Killed Sarah" on Netflix dubbed in Portuguese and did Duolingo lessons. Some dude on HelloTalk found me (my language setting is and has never been in Portuguese) and I decided why not... I can (poorly) string together sentences and understand quite a bit.
Korean: Did Duolingo and have been watching Miraculous Ladybug dubbed in Korean. It's nice because I know the show has some Korean roots so the dub is probably not horrible. The episodes are about 20 minutes each which makes it really nice to really focus on. I've been watching with French subtitles though and it feels harder to understand Korean or catch things I already know, probably because I usually translate to English and vice versa.
Persian: Met with a new tutor this week. His style is way more relaxed and conversational. I think it will be good for me to practice actually speaking more. I also did Mango Languages, Anki, and chatted with some people on HelloTalk. For listening I have been watching this show Asheghaneh. No subtitles though :/ I don't usually like shows but they hooked me by using an Enrique Iglesias song at the very beginning and reggaeton here and there throughout the episodes as someone's ringtone. I'm surprised at how much I can understand. I don't really know what's going on, but I can pick up sentences and know what someone said or asked here and there.
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French: Saw my client again this week. Interacting with the child is easy. It's the debrief with the parents that's tough, especially this week since I wanted to address some oral sensory seeking habits the child has that might be getting in the way of their progress. And, I literally know nothing about this so when Mom asked questions it was hard for me to defend my reasoning, especially in French. I didn't have the knowledge and on top of that didn't have the vocab.
I also re-downloaded HelloTalk so I can talk to more people in French. I've been talking to a few people but no one that I've gelled with.
Lastly, I started The Serpent on Netflix and there's bits of French here and there.
Spanish: I spoke a bit in Spanish with one of my clients and sang Pio Pio like 500 times because they kept requesting it (hey, anything to get them to use their functional communication). But nothing else :/
Portuguese: Really fell off the wagon for Portuguese. I watched 30 minutes of Girls from Ipanema and did 5 lessons on Duolingo. Korean: Also fell off the wagon for Korean. I did Duolingo and listened to 25 minutes of something but I don't remember. what I watched.
Persian: Watched a bunch of BPlus videos, a couple of Manoto videos and the Painting Pool all on YouTube. I read a little bit, wrote a few messages, and saw my tutor. My tutor won't be available for like a month+, though, so I'm thinking about finding another one to fill the gap. I haven't done a lot in terms of studying, though, and I really need to get back on that this week. I can feel my focus losing grip not just with Persian but in general.
French: This week mostly consisted of me speaking to my parents and binge watching videos by Jowti . I discovered his channel last week and I love his voice and the way he expresses himself. He's very eloquent but relaxed; not too formal or anything.
Spanish:Had a client on Friday and learned the word for alligator! Kiddo had a stretchy alligator toy and I had to ask mom for the word cuz I had no idea. I also used "sol" for "floor" when reading a book and describing the picture because for some reason my French took over for that word...
Portuguese: Duolingo and 30 minutes of Girls from Ipanema. The usual haha. My friend sent me a video of some guy slapping a salmon and he was speaking in Portuguese! It was really short but I understood what he said after listening to it the second time.
Korean: Duolingo and I watched 24 minutes of Love Alarm to see what the hype was about. I did not like it at all :/ will not be continuing it.
Persian: I haven't done as much as I have been but I'm hoping to get back in my flow. I do feel like I've gotten better at adapting my thinking to straying away from direct translation.
ManotoPlus: 50 mins. I felt a little frustrated because I feel like I'm plateauing in my ability to understand. Also I really wanted to know about their tips for sleeping better at night (and felt bad for the lady trying to do guided mediation with horrible feedback and a weird screechy alarm in the background). They showed a French car (Matra) that I've never heard about before. I'm not too sure the point they were making about it though. Something about a sale?
Reading
Advanced Farsi Reading: 15mins. About half a page (they are very small pages). I'm reading twice in a row because I have to do my assignment tomorrow and I will be writing for that.
Studying
Mango languages: 15 mins. Building on past lessons.
EasyPersianL42: 25 mins. Learned to form questions with the simple future tense .
Anki: 15mins. Reviewed my week2 deck. It's got about 50 words/phrases. For those of you familiar with AnkiApp, I'm fluctuating between a D and C lool
ManotoPlus: ~1.5 hrs. This week has been kind of a mess so I've been putting it on as background noise.
Session: 30mins. My tutor speaks almost exclusively in Persian. She speaks relatively slowly. We also are always talking about the subject that she is present which cues me and lets me fill in the gaps if I need to. I find myself not translating in my head as much before reacting or responding.
Speaking
Assignment: 2mins. I answered a question: who is someone in your life that you know that doesn't hide their emotions?
Session: ~5mins. I know I say this every time but I really do speak a little bit more each time. I had a bit harder time being accurate but I definitely was speaking more and using some compound sentences. My tutor asked if I think in English or Persian before speaking. I realize the truth is I don't think lmao I don't have any thoughts whatsoever. My mind is blank with panic. But, in session I told her that for routine phrases, it's typically in Persian. However, for more complex phrases, I springboard from English but know I have to also adapt my thinking into Persian. I think way more in Persian when I write than when I speak.
Reading
MMPS: 10mins. Read a paragraph. I really enjoy reading; I do have to stop often to translate but I'm much less intimidated by it.
Studying
Mango: 20mins. Learned how to say "to pour" and "oil".
EasyPersianL57: 15mins. Did the lesson and the drills. It's basically all been practice for present tense. I'm starting to rethink the frequency at which I do these lessons; I should be applying what I learn for a bit before moving on to learning something else.
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I started my langblr about three years ago as a side blog with no real aim (other than the fantasy of magically becoming fluent in my three targets). I'd kind of been coasting through, having bursts of studious diligence followed by long droughts that withered away all the knowledge I'd previously soaked up. So, during the early stages of the pandemic, I came up with a rigorous study plan for each target. The only problem was, I was getting too much information for too many different things. I also became so overwhelmed with studying so much that I ended up anxiously thinking about studying but not actually studying. Learning three languages at once at the same intensity was not possible for me, especially with everything else going in my life. It was a hard decision because I was (still am) afraid of regression in my other two targets. I also felt like everyone in the langblr community is effortlessly juggling two languages if not three at the same time. I had to let go of some of my pride and accept that I might experience regression in my other two. I made the decision to focus almost exclusively on one language for 6 months so I could really immerse myself, stay consistent and see proportional progress to the amount of time and effort I'm putting in before switching. I chose Persian because I felt it would be the one to suffer the most if I put it on the back burner. I know I’m only 1/6 of the way so far but I wanted to share my thoughts on my first month regarding all skills of language starting from where I feel like I've made the most progress to the least.
Before we get into it, though, I want to thank everyone who has been super supportive here on tumblr, both native speakers and language learners (either learning Persian or not), my tutor, and people in my life who know me and know that I love to learn languages. I started these “learning persian” posts for myself as a way to track my progress and hold myself accountable. However, they have turned into much more than just that and I’m really grateful to everyone who I’ve met through these posts. 🥰
Speaking (tot. ~30-40mins)
This has been night and day. Before my 30 days, I had met with my tutor a couple of times and I simply did not speak to her in Persian. I was not ashamed of my accent but I was terrified of my grammar. Not having control, not sounding "intelligent" because I had (have, let's be honest) the sentence structure of a drunk 4 year old was really my biggest block to starting to speak. I think having a tutor really really helped in the long run. Though it took a while, it's been nice to have a model and someone who will just listen and instantly correct and teach. I am still very slow and often wrong but I know I will try and have a better idea of what I'm doing than before.
Writing (tot. ~2hrs)
My writing has always been fairly strong, especially in terms of orthography. Since I've gotten better at expressing myself, I've gotten much better at it in writing as well. I'm much more comfortable writing and writing longer, and comparatively more complex sentences on my own. I can definitely create much more complex thoughts and ideas with writing than when speaking. The only reason I didn't put this category first is that in comparison to before the 30 days I don't think that the difference is as much as with speaking.
Reading (tot. ~10hrs)
Similar to writing, reading's always been an easier task. Over the 30 days, I have certainly felt an increase in fluidity and easier understanding (despite not knowing absolutely all the words). I'm increasingly able to use context clues to determine the meaning of words and overall meaning of the sentence. I used to see texts in Persian and feel my brain sort of glaze over it because I had a hard time registering the letters as words I could read (even though I could!). Now I can occasionally automatically lift certain words and even some simple phrases as I would when glancing at a page in latin script in a language I know.
Listening (tot. ~23hrs)
I think I have a problem because this is probably the skill I spend the most time on but feel like I have made the least progress in. It's incredibly valuable and has definitely contributed to boosting all of my other skills except the skill itself. I struggle to fully grasp what I just heard, even "simple" things. Part of the issue is I do a lot of passive-ish listening. A lot of the material I consume does not have subtitles. A lot of the times, I spend a whole hour back to back just listening and it can be quite draining especially when I'm straining to understand so I tend to lose focus quickly. Sometimes I also feel guilty because I hear an English cognate and can situate myself or I make use of the visuals to understand better. It makes me think that the only reason I could understand was because I “cheated”.
Overall, I know I have made so so much progress as compared to the last year I spent dabbling in Persian here and there. Sure, on paper, my level was a little bit higher; I could complete a lot of grammar exercises and knew how to form basically any tense. But using those concepts spontaneously and correctly when it mattered? Not a chance.
I still have a very long way to go and hope to continue to see progress over the next five months.
I will definitely be keeping some sort of updates on tumblr, hopefully in a more quantifiable manner and I also hope to transition to making or helping to make more resources.
Session: 30mins. I didn't really realize it during session, but my tutor was speaking almost exclusively in Farsi unless she was explaining a concept or translating some vocabulary.
Youtube: Day 52 , 53, 54. ~1.5hrs. The longer episodes, I watched mainly as background noise whereas the shorter episodes I can listen more intently. For a long time, I've been wondering how to say "I feel..." and there's a skit in the video on day 54 with a therapist and she corrects the client and says "no no, we say 'I feel'" . However, I still feel like overall I can't really understand more than 10% of a video (with visuals and topic known).
Speaking
Session: 5-10mins. Expanded on a few of my thoughts and answered my tutor as much as I could in Persian.
Writing
Journal: 30mins. Wrote two entries in response to the prompts from my DayOne journal app.
Studying
Mango: 60mins. Did a lesson every single day.
Weekly review: 30mins. Re-organized my notes from the session.
Happy (belated) Nowruz to everyone that celebrates it!!
Weekly Review: 30mins. Reviewed grammar points from the week. This week the only grammar point from EasyPersian was the past perfect. I also went over some key sentences from Mango and a few of the grammar points from Mango. A lot of the lessons focused on verbs/modals that are subjunctive triggers (including but not limited to: کمک کردن، خواستن، باید، گذاشتن). I also reviewed verbal nouns and to use قبل از before nouns.
Anki: 20mins. Reviewed week3 deck. I would say I'm pretty confident with the words from the deck. If someone were to quiz me I would probably be able to produce the right answer but the real test is if I will be able to remember them in conversation and use them appropriately. I also created my week4 deck. I also created a deck for important and re-occurring verbs, some of which I can get confused with (i.e., گذشتن vs. گذاشتن) especially if they sound similar to me or have multiple meanings. The tools I've been using to create my verb deck are: google translate, forvo, and the verb conjugator for figuring out the present stems. Both decks are still in progress. I will be done with week4 by tomorrow but the verbs deck will probably require a bit more time.
**Does anyone have recommendations for a good, up-to-date English-Persian online dictionary? I only trust google translate so much💀lol
