Good evening! Today I'd like to write overall about my (language-learning) life these days to get back into the habit of writing. Not really to write daily, but rather to get rid of the idea that I need to prepare a lot before writing and stop overthinking this. After all, it's much better to write some lines every other day than to write a long text once a month.

I recently finished reading a book in English. It was "Peril at End House", one of Agatha Christie's novels. I think I had read it several years ago in French, but I didn't remember much of it. I liked the story and was surprised by the outcome. As always, I didn't expect that that person would be the killer. I am glad I've read that book because it helped me notice how much my English improved this last year. I've read two Agatha Christie's books a year and a half ago and it was much more difficult, because I was nearly constantly asking myself "How should I pronounce this word?", but now it's become much better. Even though I don't know how each and every word is supposed to sound, my pace has got faster and it's a lot more comfortable now. I think it's all thanks to the podcasts I listened to. Before last year there has always been a huge imbalance between how many words I knew by eye and how many of them I knew by ear. It's especially important because English spelling and pronounciation are often difficult to predict, you just have to know them.

That's for English, what about German? Since September I've read 5 short stories for intermediate learners. It was thrilling to see that, even though I couldn't understand all words, I understood enough to enjoy the story. But I'll have to admit that I've neglegted my German reading a bit these days. Since my level in German is lower than my level in English, it's just much more compelling to read in English than in German. But if I don't continue reading and listening to German I'll never be able to enjoy reading books that were meant for natives, which is one of my long-term goals. So, I'll just have to force myself a bit to go back into the habit of reading short stories in German. Let's see how it goes.

There is still one last thing I'd like to talk about : this week I went to a French-German Exchange gathering for the first time. I was a bit shy about it at first but it went really well. Because of the holidays there was only one person at the gathering, a French woman. I really enjoyed meeting her and talking with her in German. I hope I'll be able to go to future gatherings and exchange with German-learners and natives.

Thank you for reading my text. Have a nice day or evening!:)