[Update] Long Time, No See~

Hello! It has been a while since I’ve posted anything. ><

I’m sorry for not being very active for the last week or so. I’m currently finishing up this semester of college. I only have one more class to take care of and then I’ll be on winter break!

I do have a list of ideas that I want to post about. After this week, I should be writing them up and post them!

Just one more week and I’ll be more free to post. I hope you’ll understand. ^^

Those of you on your final week(s) of school before your break, continue to work hard! Finish strong!

[Languages] Swedish is Now on Duolingo!

image from here

Finally! On Monday, Team Swedish has released their Swedish for English speakers course into beta!

Out of all of the courses in the incubator, the ones I was most excited about were Swedish and Esperanto(but of course I’m excited for the rest of them!). I would have been very happy with whatever one got released first. 😀

I had a little knowledge of Swedish as you may have seen from my Babbel post previously. With that knowledge, I’ve gotten through the first couple of skills pretty quickly. Once I got to the first ‘food’ skill, I started slowing down a little bit…just a little. But for the most part, it’s pretty easy and it’s going well. ^^

According to a native Swedish speaker who decided to test the course, Swedish hardly had any missing translations or mistakes. To know that the Swedish course is already in good quality in the beta phase made a lot of us happy. So, there is a possibility that Swedish may graduate beta sooner than usual, but that’s just my guess. ^^ I know they said that voice that was selected for the Swedish words are terrible(such as it’s pronouncing ‘de’ /de/ instead of /dom/) and they’re looking into a new one.

I have yet to complete a language tree on Duolingo since I’ve made my account. A part of me has a feeling that Swedish may finally be the one that I’ll actually complete! Apart from Swedish, I’m also learning French and Dutch. I’m looking forward to Esperanto, and I’m patiently waiting for them to add any Asian language for English speakers(preferably Korean, which I hope they’ll add once English for Korean speakers exits beta~ :D). ^^

Do you use Duolingo? What language tree are you working on? What language are you looking forward to that’s currently in the incubator? What language are you waiting for Duolingo to add to the incubator? Let me know~

Until next time! Have a nice day. ^^

[Languages] Taking French in College

Starting next semester, I’ll be taking French classes as a part of the foreign language requirement for my associates degree. Out of all of the languages that my community college offers(French, German, Spanish and American Sign Language), French sounded the most interesting. Plus, I already took German when I was in high school, so I didn’t really want to take it again. Spanish and American Sign Language are languages I’m not interested in now, but would love to learn them in the future, preferably on my own by self-studying.

I do have a little bit of knowledge of French since I self-studied the language at one point on Duolingo, Babbel and Memrise. This is another reason why I chose French as my language requirement because I can get through at least the beginner classes with a little bit of ease. I could have done the same with German since I have prior knowledge, but I wanted to learn something different in a school setting.

Fall semester ends in December. After winter break, I would like to possibly talk about my journey to learning French on this blog. Spring semester starts in January and the plan is to take Beginner French I(January-March) and Beginner French II(March-May), two French classes in one semester.

I’m very excited to finally start a foreign language. I wish Korean was offered at my college so I can make the classes count toward my future minor, but there’s nothing I can do about that. Who knows, maybe I could double major and have French become another major of mine since I have thought about majoring in a language in addition to my psychology major and Korean minor(there are not enough Korean classes for me to have a major in it at the university I’ll be transferring to, the only language majors are French and Spanish and the rest are minors).

I’ll talk more about French when it gets closer to the second semester. It’s a couple more months away, but I know it will be worth it!

[Languages] Korean Goals

I recently made a list of Korean learning goals to keep myself motivated to learn something new almost every day. I put this list next to me on my desk next to the Korean workbooks I’m currently working on.

• Learn at least 10-15 words on Memrise

I’m trying to get back to where I used Memrise every day. I lost motivation a while ago when I didn’t have any motivation to keep going with Korean. Now that I found a reason to keep learning and that I’m more motivated than ever, I’m getting back into the habit of using the site. Most of the items per level in the Korean courses I’m learning from average between 10-15, which is plenty enough for me in one day. I also usually alternate between courses each day as well, learning from one one day and learning from another the next day and go back to the other one the next day and so on. The only time I don’t learn new items on Memrise is during the weekend, usually because I’m busy on those days.

• Complete one chapter from any Korean workbook

As you guys probably seen from my previous posts, I have plenty of Korean books. I like to try to work through one chapter a day in a book of my choosing. I also usually alternate between books, doing one chapter from one book one day and doing one chapter from another book the next day, etc. The only time I don’t work on a chapter is during the weekend.

I do have goals that I want to start implementing soon, such as working on reading Korean and creating my own sentences. Lucky, I have the sources I need to do these and I can get started when I’m ready.

To my readers/language learners, what are your goals like? ^^ Feel free to share in the comments!

Have a wonderful November!