Clear the List - December 2018

So I haven't made a Clear the List post since July. It's called avoidance. Basically if I've procrastinated the month (or months) away instead of doing language stuff I'll disappear. It kinda means that the accountability aspect of this blog doesn't work but anyway moving on....

In my July post I'd set some really lose goals for Gàidhlig and some firmer goals for new language Arabic. I got through most of July having daily contact with Gàidhlig, even if just 5 minutes on Memrise. For Arabic I spent the first week going through the Read And Write Anything In Arabic In Only 6 Videos on Youtube and then did some of the Mango languages MSA course for the rest of the month.

Then I procrastinated for most of August and September. October was better as I did some Gàidhlig on most days of the month. I also started to put my own Gàidhlig Memrise course together just for my personal use.

At the start of November I did the unthinkable. I started learning Welsh. At this point I suspect experienced languages learners will be headbutting their desk. I started the Duolingo course and I did the 1 Sentence in Welsh course from Say Something In Welsh. 1 Sentence In Welsh was amazing and I managed to learn the sentence in a week. I even posted a video of myself saying the sentence on Instagram. I'm now on a 33 day streak of Duolingo, though I think I'm doing it wrong.

November was good for Gàidhlig too. I did 5 mins on Memrise every day except one (I was sick and fell asleep before I got to it). One major thing I did was I covered the monthly class at Brisbane Gaelic as the usual teacher was unavailable. The teacher is unavailable for the foreseeable future so the class is in my hands!! Mo chreach!! It's terrifying as I'm still at such a beginner level myself but it's going to be awesome motivation.

What about Arabic you ask? Well, I haven't done anything since July and I was thinking of just doing 4 or 5 Mango lessons a week for a while just to dabble but then Lindsay Williams did her Clear the List video for this month, where she showed off a new book called Arabic Script Hacking: The Optimal Pathway to Learning the Arabic Alphabet by Judith Meyer. Well now I have to get that book and dabble with it. Thanks Lindsay. lol

Right, before this turns into a full novel here are my goals for December:

Gàidhlig

Daily contact with the language, which will include:

5 units of Progressive Gaelic per week
Daily Memrise
1 An Litir Bheag per week

Cymraeg

Maintain my Duolingo streak
Continue with Say Something In Welsh

Arabic

4 to 5 Mango lessons per week
Dabble with Arabic Script Hacking when it arrives


In terms of tracking all this, I'm just using a simple little app called Streaks. It has been very effective over the past month for language stuff and other stuff such as exercise and meditation.

Tioraidh an dràsda!

Clear the List - July 2018

Well, here I am doing Clear The List three days late. Well actually a month and three days late. I skipped Clear The List last month as I had just got so demoralised and demotivated with language learning. I felt I hadn't been getting anywhere and hadn't learned anything in my target language and was basically ready to give up completely. So I decided to take (yet another) month off.

Now I'm back and I'm here to break all the rules (learning two languages at the same time is verboten in some quarters). I've decided to pick up a dabble language. It's actually a language from my mental list of six or so languages I'd like to learn one day but I'm trying to keep it playful (to steal a phrase from Ryron Gracie). The idea is to try to re-capture some of that feeling of excitement when you learn your first basic phrases in a new language. There's that initial endorphin dump of accomplishment when you first manage to introduce yourself or ask someone's name (or ask where the toilet is) without reading off a bit of paper. The hope was that the return of the enthusiasm will re-ignite my passion for my other target language and it's working but I'll get to that in a bit.

So the language I've chosen to pick up: Arabic!!

I started yesterday and I'm so excited. It took me a while to decide if I was going to go with MSA or start with a dialect straight away. It seems that everyone on the internet has a different opinion on the best approach. MSA seems like the way forward for the time being, then I'll add in Egyptian Arabic once I decide I want to stop sounding like an Al-Jazeera anchor. One brilliant piece of luck has been discovering that my Brisbane City Council library card means that I get free access to the paid Mango Languages courses, which include MSA and Egyptian Arabic.

Goals for July
Arabic
Week 1: Learn the Arabic alphabet using the Read And Write Anything In Arabic In Only 6 Videos series
Weeks 2 to 4: One Mango lesson per day.

Gàidhlig
Daily contact with the language.

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All my previous attempts at Clear The List have been grandiose goals that I was unlikely to fulfill. Setting myself up to fail basically. This time I'm setting smaller goals with the hope of developing a habit, while having fun and still learning.

Clear The List - May 2018

Depending on what mood I’m in April’s language learning can either be viewed as positive steps forward or as a bit of a failure. 
In terms of the goals I set at the start of the month, I didn’t fully achieve any of them. 

Areas of Opportunity
* On the LearnGaelic.scot beginners course I only did 10 units not the 20 I was hoping for.
* Mango Languages I only did 10 lessons not 30
* Didn’t re-do any of  An Cùrsa Inntrigidh
* Only did 27 daily sessions on Memrise as opposed to the full 30 days
* Only watched 4 episodes of Bannan for the whole month

Areas of Celebration
* Realistically the above is actually more language learning than I’d done in months.
* Unexpectedly the teacher of the monthly Brisbane Gaelic class was sick so I stepped in and took the class. It was a good opportunity for some revision.
* Been listening to some Gàidhlig music from bands such as Whyte and Marit and Rona.

I could make excuses for last months failures but I won’t. I’ll just focus on goals for this month:

Active Learning
* Memrise for 5 minutes every day
* At least 5 Mango lessons a week
* 5 LearnGaelic.Scot Beginners Course units per week

Passive Learning

* Watch more Gaelic TV (at least 1 episode of something a week)
* Listen to at least 1 Gaelic podcast a week.

Another thing I want to do is improve my tracking of my study so I’ll be using some tracking sheets created by Kerstin Cable.

Clear the list - Weekly check in. April 2008: week 1

So, I’m a week into my renewed, serious, crack at my language learning. I’ve set goals for the month, some of which are broken down into weekly and daily goals. 

Areas of Celebration
* I managed 5 mins of Memrise every day for the past week
* I managed 1 Mango lesson every day for the past week

Areas of Opportunity
* I only watched 3 out of my intended 4 episodes of Bannan
* I only completed 4 out of my intended 5 units of the LearnGaelic Beginners course.
* Have not started on Cothram Ionnsachaidh
* Have not started re-doing Aonad a h-Aon of An Cùrsa Inntrigidh

Overall, I’m happy that I’m doing something every day. Building a daily habit is important (Isn’t that right @fluentlanguage​) and I’m on my way towards that.

This coming week, I want to set specific times to do my language learning, as opposed to just doing it whenever I find the time. Also, I’m going to hold off on the Cothrom Ionnsachaidh but will have a look at my An Cùrsa Inntrigidh materials. 

Clear The List - April 2018

As I’m still the world’s worst language learner, I’ve decided to give #ClearTheList a go and see if it motivates me to study during the month of April. Clear The List is hosted by Lindsay Williams ( of LindsayDoesLanguages​)  and Shannon Kennedy (of Eurolinguiste) and is basically a monthly goal setting and accountability community for language learners. 

I’m kinda sick of making, what feels like, zero progress in my Gàidhlig learning so I’m being a bit adventurous with my goals for April. Here’s what I hope to achieve this month:

Active Learning

* Complete 5 units of the LearnGaelic.scot beginners course per week
* Complete 1 Unit of Cothrom Ionnsachaidh per week
* Re-do Aonad a h-Aon of An Cùrsa Inntrigidh
* Do 5 mins on Memrise per day
* Complete 1 lesson of Mango per day

Passive Learning

* Watch 4 episodes of Bannan per week

This seems like a lot but we’ll see how it goes. I also need to sort out a VPN and a BBC iView account to watch some other Gàidhlig telly too. I think watching An Là (a daily news program) a few times will be useful because I’m a boring old fart who finds the news interesting. 

Once all this is place, I’ll look at throwing in some attempts at producing the language (both writing and speaking).