#language update

It's been a month since I've set the goal to get better in mandarin; however, I only started a few weeks ago. I'm still proud of myself for even getting out of the slump in the first place!

So far I have....

Cantonese

Had my first Cantonese lesson on italki today! I am at A0 for Cantonese but I think I felt pretty good about the first lesson. My tutor was a little bit disorganized at first but eventually found their rhythm and I felt like I learned a lot. They were super cognizant of my reasons for learning Cantonese and gave me excellent, relevant examples. They also provided me with excellent resources. After just this one session, I am starting to get the hang of basic sentence structure for declaratives and interrogatives. They let me know my tones are pretty accurate which is great because I feel like I am a little tone-deaf and it's a big concern of mine. I'm hoping tutoring will give me more structure and intensify my studying.

Cantonese pronunciation (tones and phonemes): https://www.polyu.edu.hk/cbs/pronunciation/cantonese/intro

Cantonese top 100 verbs: https://www.cantoneseclass101.com/blog/2020/08/25/cantonese-verbs/

Persian

These last few weeks have been a little bit slow. Still doing the On/Off method. It is working to alleviate the stress of feeling like I'm not doing enough. I'm inconsistently going through the motions, but don't feel like I'm absorbing or progressing. I do feel that some things come a little bit more naturally to me like reading and thinking in Persian.

French

Currently reading Les Impatientes by Djaili Amadou Amal after being tempted to join a francophone reading book club in my area. I missed their meeting in May and this is the book from that meeting. Jury's still out on whether I will join the bookclub because of my rampant imposter syndrome and self-diagnosed performance/cultural anxiety as a first generation francophone in a non-francophone country.

I still keep up with writing in French by dedicating at least one entry per day in my journal.

Spanish

I live and breathe this language every day, but am trying to increase my reading (still, *sigh*). Like French, I dedicate at least 1 day for writing.

Portuguese

I stopped studying Portuguese to make room for Cantonese, but am highly delusional and have been thinking of sneaking in some Portuguese to my already scattered and inconsistent routine.

Overall, though, my progress has been super super slow/stagnant. I really have not been focused or consistent with any of my languages (other than obligatory Spanish). These last few weeks have been blunder after blunder and very stressful. Even just today, I had a dreaded phone call with some parents at work today. I had to stand my ground and not let them bully me into giving into their *demands*. I already have given so much because I notice how much they are concerned and, clinically, I also notice the concern (albeit, not as intensely as they do from a clinical POV). I tried my best to explain and answer questions but after a while just ended up getting sucked into a vicious circle of a conversation about test scores with them who were hearing me but absolutely not fucking listening, I sort of got curt, interrupted them, and repeated my point kind of cruelly. And our mediator had to step in lol.

Core Keeper language update launches for the mining sandbox adventure game of Linux, Steam Deck, and Windows PC. Thanks to the skilled team at Pugstorm for leveling up the experience. Available on both Steam and Humble Store. Exciting news - Core Keeper, the mining sandbox adventure, is celebrating its second birthday, and it's doing it in style with a fantastic Language Update. Now, even more players around the globe can join in, with full localization support for French, Italian, Traditional Chinese, and Brazilian Portuguese. And that's not all - the update also brings some bug fixes and performance tweaks while making the experience even smoother on Linux and Steam Deck. Before the Language Update, when Core Keeper first hit Steam and sales took off like a rocket. In just the first two weeks, it sold over half a million copies, and now, it's crossed the impressive 2 million mark. The team behind this remarkable journey, led by Vincent Coates from Fireshine Games, is grateful to the incredible community that's formed around this adventure. And there's a promise of even more thrilling content at the 1.0 release.

Core Keeper Link's Awakening (before language update)

italki

had my first Japanese conversation lesson on italki in over a month today! missed talking to my teacher and it was fun as always. we bonded over k-pop which was very sweet and gave me a big boost of serotonin for the day lolol!

we were talking about music and she asked which genres i listen to. as soon as i said kpop she lit up and i asked

「先生もK-popが好きですか？」　

「好きじゃない、大好きです！！！」

ended up booking another lesson for next week to continue our fangirling shenanigans! 楽しみ〜

she also said that she could tell i've been studying since the last time we spoke. which honestly surprised me a bit because i haven't been keeping up with my studying as much as i would've liked to.

it was really nice to hear tho and gave me more motivation to keep going ＜3

wanikani

i managed to get to under 300 reviews by the end of august like i was planning to! i was at ~280 reviews today i think and i managed to get it down to 188 after today's review! (for now lol, tomorrow we're back at 200+)

irodori

havent been able to keep up with irodori because of work + thesis writing, but im hoping to find a way to fit into my schedule somehow, even if its just 10min bit every other day or something

100 days of productivity ?

I've put Russian on hold for now, as self study is just too difficult for me living with family.

~Some HUGE things (for me) that I did in September~

German:

-I attended a virtual meeting with a language exchange group, entirely in German! Speaking terrifies me in language learning, but this meeting showed me that I’m much more conversationally fluent than I thought I was. I still have a LONG way to go, but this was huge for me!

-I also made it halfway through my B1 course, finishing a lesson every other day

-I also wrote a journal entry this month, which I didn’t set out to do, but am glad I did!

Spanish:

-As I promised to myself, I attended language exchange groups (almost) every week, which again is a big deal for me

-I exposed myself to the language everyday

-I had a goal to write at least 1-2 journal entries in Spanish this month... unfortunately, I ended up writing 0

French:

-I set out a looot of goals for French in September and honestly... I didn’t achieve most of them

-I still need to work on listening to faster-spoken dialogue

-I didn’t complete a story on Parlez-vous FRENCH? per week, as I set out to do (listening + answering questions)

-I did attend maybe one or two meet ups during this month, but didn’t attend them consistently

ASL:

-I’m currently in an ASL-English Interpretation degree program, and half of my classes are Deaf-run and conducted in ASL

-I attended one meet up this month and consumed ASL content regularly in my free time

-But again, most of my exposure and output of ASL was through my program

~My Goals for October~

Focus: German, Spanish, Portuguese

German:

- Attend at least one meet up this month (attendance already confirmed!)

- Write at least 1-2 journal entries this month

- Finish 4 more units of online DW B1 course

Spanish:

- Attend meet ups on a weekly basis

- Work with an iTalki tutor at least once this month (already confirmed for a future lesson!)

- Write at least 1-2 journal entries this month

Portuguese:

- Write at least 1-2 journal entries this month

- 20 minutes of Duolingo review every morning

- 20 minutes of a podcast daily

- Record a video of self speaking once in the month

I’m not setting any goals for ASL, Italian, or French this month, and likely for November too. ASL because I’m already set thanks to my academic program, and Italian because it’s not my priority right now and I already have a plan to come back to it in December. As for French, I’m very lost on what my goals even are for this language, and honestly it’s also not a priority right now. I am also setting it to December, re-evaluating my goals (when I have the time, of course), brushing it up, and (hopefully) becoming more advanced!