languages

Someone asked me again just how many languages I'm learning, which is an interesting twist on how many languages I 'speak'..  and I still say the number I'm making progress in is about ten - but to lay them out, it's hard to be so specific.  So I thought I'd lay it out here, instead, for my own reference.  So - I've had interest or am currently interested in 20 languages up to an introductory level.  I've only gotten a good working knowledge in maybe six, ten if I stretch it.  I've tasted a few others than these - Bulgarian and Navajo, and Zulu, Guarani, Dutch, Indonesian, Hindi and Chinese - just to get an idea what their structures were, but can't say I know more than a word or two here and there.

1. Welsh : I can watch TV and listen to radio and read simpler books without a dictionary - but some of the past and future tense grammar in books still can make me go 'huh?'  I can think up lots of simple things to say and feel I would catch on fairly quickly to the rest if I had a week immersion.  I need to make more time for it, as I often almost forget that I 'speak' it in between the long bouts of jumping around all the others.  Duolingo level 25+, have not done any other tests

2. French : Some of it is built in from way back in childhood, but I also can feel the sense that all that I learned was a bit archaic (and bad child grammar etc.) and things have changed in 'modern' French, again - more tv and radio immersion would help - and I can read a LOT and get the drift but when I go into more in depth grammar analysis again I wonder what I know and how much it is smoothed over in between the cracks etc.  Duolingo level 25+, have tested many places and come out with A2-B1 status.

3. Spanish : Still feels like I'm drawing all of it through the French, and that makes it difficult feeling, although I do have some fluency and can read and understand a lot in it.  I should pick up more podcasts, as there are a lot available.  Esme is taking Spanish next year in school - and I wanted to learn it better to help her out.. although, I'm not sure how much day to day she'll share with me either on that.  Duolingo level 23, have tested to A1-A2 status.

4. German : I can say a lot of easy stuff in it, from my language learning in high school.  I can read a lot of it, but not as much as I want.  Duolingo only level 14 or so, but that is because I don't focus on it.  Have not tested any further.

5. Czech : I always felt that somehow I was being helped by my knowledge of French with this one - because I've gotten to level 19 on Duolingo and I understand a lot of what I read.. have not done much pronunciation, and am doing a run at learning more vocabulary and spelling with the set of tiles Mark made.  Czech really helps with learning Russian and Bulgarian.

6. Japanese : Level 19 on Duolingo and some work with Kanji, but I still feel 'at sea' with more than hiragana - there is a lot there to take in, and I can't say too much useful although I can understand some basic restaurant stuff.  I would like to get back in the mood to want to do more of it, but I'm having too much fun over here on the other side of the map, Czech and Latvian and Russian and so forth... 

7. Romanian : Level 17 on Duolingo, started it after French and before I hit Spanish and Czech.  Again, it felt some other language as helping my understanding here - Latin knowledge from a child, and French.  I feel there is a link there to several other languages and would appreciate more time to work on pronunciation but there aren't as many resources.  I don't know how I'd do at a market or restaurant with this one - but I'd like to give it a whirl.  I found a news radio station in it once on radiogarden and it was moving way too fast for me - would like to try another station that was more pop music etc.

8. Russian : level 11 on Duolingo - and halfway through an A1 course on Busuu.  I feel I can read Cyrillic much better now after doing this much - and my pronunciation of things it has asked me to try isn't half bad, but Czech is definitely helping me out on this one.

9.  Finnish : Level 13 on Duolingo.  I have been able to read a very simple children's book story - and I just tested to my phone with it and I didn't remember a lot of the spelling.  I can't say I know Finnish well at all, based on that.  I can remember some words, count, colors etc - but I'm less than A1, definitely.

10.  Catalan - it's between French and Spanish - level 12 on Duolingo, some more on my phone account - I feel I would probably come close to understanding this if I lived in an area or took a vacation there etc.. it matches a lot of my natural 'patois' of French and Latin.  I don't give it a lot of time - because it's hard to practice and Duolingo and wandering around Barcelona google maps is about all I can do to work on it.  Out of the more obscure languages, I feel this one would be one of the best fits for my brain, and it really really helped me learn Spanish over the 'hump' that I was stuck at, because it was that in-between stage with the Spanish interface.  // insert here I've also done up to level 14 of Spanish from the French interface, but not before I had gotten pretty far in the Catalan and realized those connections were helping so much

11.  Portuguese : level 16 on Duolingo.  I pick it up and drop it off pretty easily - when I come back to it after a long time, I remember a lot of it.  I should find that cookbook site again that I was using, because it was very good practice - nearly got me dreaming in it.  I might get along okay, or not.  I can't say I actually speak it, because I know French and Spanish would come out and I would have to correct myself a lot to get in the proper channel.

12.  Greek : Level 14 on Duolingo.  I have taken a few other lessons with Greek101pod etc, and I've tested really well on reading the alphabet, but have a long way to go with learning the grammar.  I can understand a lot of what I hear when it's simple - but it feels like it is slingshotting through the Spanish and the Spanish feels like it is slingshotting through the French, so... there's that.  I could give it more time - I pick it up on my phone app sometimes for a brain change with the alphabet.  I can't say I know it, but I have an interest in working with it more.

13.  Italian : Level 15 on Duolingo.  No, I do not know Italian.  I don't know what I know on this one - I get by because of all the other languages I know, and adapt.  But then, I studied Romanian and Spanish and Portuguese to make the attempt at Italian, because I wasn't getting any of it before that.  So, I've made progress.  I know some Latin, which has helped.  If there was more reason for me to look at it as more than 'another one in the big wheel to spin', I'd study some more of it.

the meme I had made back in 2019, 2020? 

I'm on par *ha* so far

14.  Swedish : Level 11 on Duolingo.  I get by on here through my German language learning - and could put some more work into it.  It's another resource thing, and time, and interested in other things.

15.  Norwegian - same thing as Swedish - level 11 on Duolingo, haven't really felt like going further with it, and interested in other things.

16. Hungarian - level 10 on Duolingo, I have no idea what I'm doing there and poking in the dark, mesmerized by the grammar, but not enough to give it the study it deserves.

17.  Turkish - same as the Hungarian, mesmerized by the grammar changes and the SVO (subject verb object) but I haven't went beyond level  10 on Duolingo.

18.  Ukrainian - did a little of this, up to level 10, but Czech draws me more, and then I began learning more Russian because it was in the Cyrillic alphabet and I wanted to get that under my belt.  Ukrainian is it's own language but I haven't focused on it, and the programs were available more for the other languages.

19.  Latvian and Lithuanian - I'm in the vocab stage on these, done a little bit reading children's books, game sites, and I know they are also two separate languages with a bit of overlap here and there.  There aren't a lot of resources and I'm lucky to have what I do have to poke at them with.  

so, tonight - after thinking this through here, I went and did a bit of Catalan and a good dose of Italian (an hour of VERY rapid-fire answers, maybe I'm not so bad at it.. but the spelling still gets me, and it's picky about the spelling) and then I decided to do a different kind of chart for a week to see where I'm at - here is it with today filled out - the bottom bit should be that A1 Russian for every day, if I keep at it, it's about 10 minutes a day and a little review, so it's not a big commitment, I just have to remember to head to that site sometime after I get home from work usually.  Vocab only is baltoslav or babadum, and I will count that but I didn't do any of it today... instead I went over to the audio site Clozemaster and did some Romanian.