Language Goals
English

Language Goals

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language learning

English post today to share my language background and goals.

  1. Cantonese - technically the first language that I learned to speak. During elementary school, I had Cantonese classes Monday-Friday after all my English classes (plus study hall). But my in-laws never taught my husband so I rarely speak it now unless I see my parents. Over the past few years, I've definitely noticed that I'm slowly forgetting more and more words. Goal is to improve vocab, writing, & reading.
  2. English - my strongest language because I was born in the US. No real goals for this besides to read more Stephen King and Terry Prachett books.
  3. Mandarin - my parents speak Mandarin a lot on the phone but they never taught me. I started some classes in 5th grade but nowhere near as much as Canto*. When I attempt to write in Chinese, I tend to think in a mix of Cantonese & Mandarin since written Cantonese is much more formal than how it's spoken. Not really a priority but improving my Cantonese (and learning Japanese Kanji) has been improving my Mandarin vocab too.
  4. French - took 2-3 years of classes during high school. I've forgotten most of it but it's not a priority right now. Maybe my goal will just be to do Duolingo occasionally to prevent my skills from degrading even further.
  5. Japanese - started during quarantine. My exposure to Japanese has mainly been through anime, so I knew the obvious simple words and honorifics. This is my highest priority language right now. I don't have a deadline but my goal is to spend at least 5 days/week working on this. My main resources right now are Pimsleur, JapanesePod101, and a couple of YouTube channels of native speakers.
  6. Korean - also started during quarantine. I've had much less exposure to Korean than to Japanese. It's mostly been through kpop; I've watched some kdramas but they're usually too dramatic for me... Hangul has been so much harder for me than Hiragana/Katakana so my progress has been super slow. I think it's because Hiragana/Katakana have a pretty standardized way to organize all the sounds whereas Hangul seems more unorganized. Like a latin-based alphabet I guess. This is lower priority than Japanese so my goal is to learn one HTSK lesson every 1-2ish weeks? Still working on my plan for this.

(we can only do one level of numbering/bullets?)

*Do you guys get offended when Cantonese and Mandarin are shortened to Canto and Mando, respectively? There was a post one time on Subtle Asian Traits where the poster said they were offended by this. But I (and a lot of people I know) use Canto & Mando all the time in casual conversation. Maybe it's a generational or regional thing?

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