
Why 19 languages? 19 is the number of languages I have decided I wanted to learn in this life.
I had a language wish list for decades, but last week, on a flight from Madrid, I actually sat down, thought about it methodically, and came up with three groups.
Group alpha includes 7 languages: English, French, Italian, Latvian, and Russian, all of which I master at different levels of fluency, plus German and Spanish. For these languages I want to have excellent passive knowledge and pretty good active knowledge.
Group beta included 4 languages: Czech and Modern Greek, which I studied and used to be able to speak, plus Polish and Portuguese, which I don’t know at all. I would like to have good passive knowledge of these four, and be able to converse.
Group gamma included Estonian, Georgian, Hungarian, and Japanese, for which I know the bare basics, plus two additional languages I want to learn but have not quite decided which ones. Current favourites are Swedish and Catalan.
A special case is Ancient Greek and Latin, my field of specialisation at university, which I want to continue to read.
That’s 19.
Sie können es schaffen!!😊
LikeLike
Vielen Dank! Ich werde es mal versuchen.
LikeLike
I’m impressed – and relieved to come across someone who is even more obsessed with language learning than I am. I started learning Welsh last year, using Duolingo, which was recommended to me by my grandson, who lives in Sweden. Since then I’ve added French, German and Swedish, all of which I have some knowledge of, ranging from good to moderate, and Hungarian, which I have studied before and used in Hungary but have forgotten almost all I knew. And yesterday I added Arabic, which I have dabbled in before but never got far with.
I shall follow your progress with interest!
LikeLiked by 1 person
Thanks! Language learning is a never ending process. I had learned some Hungarian years ago, but have forgotten most of it; and Swedish is on my wish list.
LikeLiked by 1 person