Today I'm going to hopefully get into a new habit, at least for a month (I set goals I might actually meet, screw Newy Year's resolutions), of writing here every day in each language I know or am learning. I've been studying Chinese for many years, though my proficiency level isn't where I'd like it to be, and have just recently started self-studying Swedish. I have also been self-studying Japanese, though I had a foundation in it as a child so that has helped a bit. I'm sure I still make a ton of mistakes :D
This is hopefully be my only post in English, all the rest should be in the languages I'm trying to learn!
中文 I learned Chinese because I find Chinese language and culture fascinating and think there are a lot of beautiful, natural places I'd love to visit one day. I also have friends from China and wanted to speak with them. I can do that now which is great, but I'd love to become more fluent and sound closer to a native speaker. My dream used to be to become a translator of Chinese literature but that is seeming more far-fetched these days as I don't have the money to go through any more schooling than I already have. I'm trying to learn to be content with that and still finding ways to challenge myself so I don't lose interest in the language!
日本語 As for Japanese, that's a longer story. I grew up in a very small town. I mean really small. But I met a Japanese girl who moved there for a short time with her parents. We became really good friends and lived across the street from each other so we'd go to each others' houses and celebrate holidays together quite a bit. Her mother was Japanese and her father was an English teacher. They were all extremely welcoming and warmhearted people and they got me very interested in Japanese culture. When I was in the sixth grade, our school brought in a Japanese teacher and I immediately signed up for the class. It was really great but didn't even last a whole term because for some reason she had to go back to Japan. I was really disappointed and never had an opportunity to study Japanese after that. When I finally did, I ended up studying Chinese because it was more relevant to my life at the time. I don't regret that decision, though I do wish I had studied both at the same time while I had the opportunity. Funny enough, I've met a lot of people who study Japanese because they want to watch anime that don't have subtitles. I guess that is a perk, though I'd never really thought about that as a primary reason to study Japanese. I am more interested in the real people, the culture, the land, the history... though I do admit I like watching anime every now and then. My favorite is Non Non Biyori! (のんのんびより）
Studying Japanese has been fairly easy so far but I'm still learning the basics. I can read kana and kanji thanks to my studies in Chinese but I still lack a good grasp of a lot of things like what to study first (formal vs informal speech) or if I should study it all at once. That seems kind of confusing though. I wish I could afford a tutor so I could work on my conversation skills because that's what I'm most interested in. I think you can learn reading and writing, and even listening to an extent, on your own but conversation would be far easier to learn with a partner. Anyway, I will try my best! ^_^
Svenska Lastly, Swedish. This was not a language that ever crossed my mind to learn, actually. Half of my family is from Finland so I always tinkered with the idea that I'd one day try to learn Finnish (and maybe I will, who knows) but then my best friend came along and asked me if I'd like to try learning Swedish with him because his family is from Sweden and he'd like to learn the language. Me being someone who loves languages and challenges, I said sure, that sounded like fun. And it has been an extreme challenge. Fun, but a struggle so far. We have no formal teacher or tutor, only a random textbook, youtube videos, and half-useful, half-confusing explanations from internet searches. It has been a good learning experience in terms of how to figure things out on your own, that's for sure! So you'll have to excuse me if my Swedish is rather poor, I'm trying my best. Please help me if you can, I appreciate the feedback more than words can explain!
Anyway, this turned into a really long post. May your language learning journey be filled with fun and exciting discoveries and hopefully new friends!
