New Year's pledges about language learning

[nighean-neonach]

Which language(s) do you want to focus on during 2009? Is there a language you have neglected and intend to take up again? Any plans for becoming fluent in a certain language? Determined to start a new one? Have you promised yourself or someone else to improve your skills in a certain language for work/travel/love reasons? Any language books lying ready on your desk because you want to sit down with them first thing on the morning of January 1st?

Wouldn't this be funny to look at this topic again by the end of 2009 and see what has become of our good intentions?

My own plans... well, I usually don't start new things at this time of the year, my own rhythm is more like starting new things in autumn (when the autumn term at university begins) or after Samhain/Halloween, but anyway:
I'm determined on publishing several things in Gaelic and want to stay more in touch with the language, as it is awfully difficult to think and write sophisticated stuff in Gaelic if you are surrounded by German all day.
I want to get my French back to a good level again - I know that I could be really fluent in French and it would not even take that much effort, just regular practice. Keeping my fingers crossed to find a friendly tandem partner again.
I want to be diligent with Icelandic and Lithuanian because I've made good progress in these and don't want to lose it again. Especially I want to keep the inspiring friendships with my tandem partners, because practicing these languages on a regular basis in real life with lovely people is just great. Reading a few novels in each language would be a fine success.
I finally want to make significant headway with Saami, as it is so tiring to repeat beginners' stuff again and again. I'm thinking about travelling to Lapland next summer, so maybe that's a medium-term goal.
I want to take up the good old habit of reading a bit of Ancient Greek again several times a week.
I want to finish Finnish 1 ( ) successfully this semester, and take Finnish 2 next semester.
And finally, I want to start Hebrew, and later, maybe during the summer break, Turkish.

[Ilayde]

I have quite well-specified plans for 2009, language-wise at least. As for the other areas of my life, it is - and it going to be - pure chaos, I'm afraid

For one thing, I'd like to get to a decent level in my Spanish studies (which I have started about a month ago). My goal is to have read (and enjoyed!) at least one Spanish novel by the end of 2009.

Also, I'd like to get a certificate of proficiency in Swedish that will allow me to take up university studies in Swedish. It shouldn't be too difficult, from what I've learned, so I should have passed the relevant courses by June / July. It will be pleasant, because my Swedish studies so far have been extremely enjoyable and effective, so I'm really looking forward to it. And it's the first time I'm actually going to take a course in Swedish, because I've been studying on my own so far.

After that, that is in the second half of the year, I'm going to take up another languague that I will be studying simultainously with Spanish. It might be Russian, though I'm still not sure, as I have a penchant for Modern Greek as well (which I studied for a few months last year, and enjoyed it very much, but unfortunately had to interrupt). But I have 6 month to make up my mind, so I'll hope I'll make a good decision. I really regret neglecting Greek, but Russian will be easier to learn and so much more useful for me. And by "useful" I mean "there is so much cool literature in Russian, I have to read it all!"

Plus, if everything goes well, I'll be studying towards my bachelor's degree in English, but I've almost forgotten about it - it doesn't even feel like a foreign language.

With so many languages to study, I should also put "try not to forget Polish" on my list

[darkina]

Pledges are for efficient people. I believe in chaos and in not making promises to myself that I will not keep

[Kasuya]

continue to improve my Japanese. Read more novels, take kanken 5kyuu
start either Korean, Russian, French, or Chinese.

I don't have the time to study another language as intensely as I studied Japanese so my language learning will be more casual and fun.

[loqu]

Pledges are for efficient people. I believe in chaos and in not making promises to myself that I will not keep

I feel totally identified!!!

I read today my goals for 2008, and I had as a goal to improve my German and get an official certificate in Catalan.

I did nothing of the above and began learning Latin.

That's what it is to be chaotic.

[Dminor]

Wouldn't this be funny to look at this topic again by the end of 2009 and see what has become of our good intentions?

This is already possible for 2008.
Dit kin al dien wurde foar 2008.

Finally finish Bachelor Greek & Latin, maybe start with Comparative Indo-European Linguistics already
Keep on tutoring in Latin/Greek
(Re)start with: Lithuanian, Turkish, Basque, Sign Language of the Netherlands, Sanskrit, Swahili, Russian/Czech/Polish/Croatian, Gothic, Hittite, Cantonese...
Practice: Swedish, Spanish, Afrikaans, Italian, modern Greek, Frisian
Continue with Pilemo, the conlang of me and my little sister
Write some more on Proto-Greek until ego leaves
Establish a Frisian forum
Participate in or host Broken Translation Games
Post bilingually (if anyone is interested in Dutch or Frisian)

Check
Check
I only (re)started with Sanskrit and a little Hittite and Gothic...
I only practiced Italian and Frisian
Nope
Well, since ego left right away, check
Nope
Check (first one)
Check

Next year I won't have much time to do anything besides study really (although that is language related as well), so I have only one:
Yn it nije jier sil ik net in protte tiid hawwe foar oare dingen as studearje (alhoewol't dat hat ek te krijgen mei taal), dat ik haw der mar ien:

Learn a Slavic language (Polish, Czech, Russian or Serbo-Croatian)

[sa wulfs]

Holy shit nooooo

Learn enough German to be able to have a conversation. I should force myself to post bilingually in English and German. NOPE
Resume learning Finnish. NOPE
Resume learning Hebrew. DID IT FOR 3 WEEKS OR SO?
Start learning Swedish and/or Dutch. NOPE

I don't think I'll do any of this, though. NAILED THIS ONE

[loqu]

I don't think I'll do any of this, though. NAILED THIS ONE

[JackFrost]

Euh...not much of a goal but...

-Improve my spoken French

I use way too much English in Montreal.

This is also for 2009.

Though my spoken French has gotten a tee bit better. -_-

[Sol Invictus]

He he he I never start something just because it's New Year, that's just so cliché, but, well, I could finaly start to learn Spanish (I hope there will be Spanish for beginers available in this semester and I get in the group with my grades, otherwise I might pick a random language, since I realized how bad idea it was to pick something in my faculty as a free choise course), I finaly won't have English (I should improve my speaking however), I also could learn German and Russian, but most likely won't

[voron]

I want to set only one goal so that I don't dissipate between too many:
- Improve my Italian to a level that would allow me easy communication

[Kasuya]

I finally want to make significant headway with Saami, as it is so tiring to repeat beginners' stuff again and again.

Ich hab auf Wikipedia (wo sonst? ) gelesen dass Saami keine Sprache sondern eine Sprachgruppe ist. Stimmt das irgendwie nicht?

[Mikael]

Goals for this year as far as languages go:

Spanish: The most rapidly approaching would be the annual National Spanish Exam for US high school students. I hope to gold medal again. I hope that I successfully complete the university course in Colombia. Actually, I hope I don't die in Colombia. ... I wanna pass into the university courses next year so I don't have to take Spanish at the high school anymore... Hopefully I keep up my reading and watching of movies.

French: Stop hating it so goddamn much. Read more and stop feeling like I have to learn it because I take it at school. Also pass into the university courses for the same reason as Spanish. Gold or Silver medal on the National French Exam.

Icelandic: Study it regularly and use it just as regularly. Reading a book in Icelandic in 2009 would be fantastic. I actually can't find a good bookstore online with Icelandic books. Better PM nighean-neonach or ask Almar on MSN... Whichever I think of first after this post.

Most importantly, get accepted to a great university when I apply in the fall! I apply for university this fall...that's so bizarre. And pretend like I enjoy my senior year (last year everrrrrrrrrrr ).

Most of those are pretty realistic goals. I'm shocked.

[ILuvEire]

Well, next year I plan to work on a different language each month. I seem to be stagnating because I "don't have enough time." Anyway:

Stick to my language "calendar."

Is to get a job.

Reach a conversational level in Korean, because I'm going to Korea next summer.

Successfully purchase and read a book in all my languages.

Reach a level that I can read a book, in all my languages.

Quit speaking English on Unilang!

[eskandar]

These are my language learning goals for 2009, I've bolded the ones I really want to focus on.

Spanish: at least use it enough so that I don't start forgetting what I already know.

Persian: my major goal for 2009 is to improve my Persian. Get better at reading/writing Nasta'liq, improve my conversational abilities, and do more translations!

Arabic: finish a conversational course in Arabic and focus on memorizing a lot more vocabulary.

Azeri: start a blog for learning Tabrizi Azeri, start an Azeri forum here at Unilang, and make it through my Elementary Azerbaijani book.

Urdu: finish Teach Yourself Urdu and attempt some translations of songs or poetry.

French: get my French reading skills up to par for grad school.

Turkmen: master the basics and find some good materials for learning so that by 2010 I can start working on translations.

Chaghatai: find some learning materials and get the basics down!

[Mutusen]

• Improve my German.
• Relearn the basics of Spanish.
• Reach a basic conversation level in Finnish.
• Begin to learn a language like Hungarian or Czech.
• Try to learn the basics of Breton. I have a book but I didn't use it yet.

But I know myself, I hardly ever keep my pledges.

• Améliorer mon allemand.
• Réapprendre les bases de l'espagnol.
• Atteindre un niveau de conversation basique en finnois.
• Commencer à apprendre une langue comme le hongrois ou le tchèque.
• Essayer d'apprendre les bases du breton. J'ai un livre dessus mais je ne l'ai pas encore utilisé.

Mais je me connais, je tiens rarement mes résolutions.

[nighean-neonach]

Ich hab auf Wikipedia (wo sonst? ) gelesen dass Saami keine Sprache sondern eine Sprachgruppe ist. Stimmt das irgendwie nicht?

Doch, das stimmt schon, Saami als Überbegriff bezeichnet eine Gruppe von mehreren eng miteinander verwandten Sprachen. Die am meisten verbreitete - und quasi die einzige, für die es ordentliche Lernmaterialien gibt - ist Nordsamisch.

[Narbleh]

* Improve my spoken French
* Reach an intermediate level in Swedish
* Reach a basic level in Finnish

[Danysh]

Like many who have posted I never do well with fulfilling goals, but I'll post some anyway, even if it only gives me something to laugh at next New Years.

• Finally narrow down my list of languages to a realistic number
• Refresh my Spanish, especially spoken
• Make a friend who speaks Spanish or French I can talk to regularly
• Listen to news daily in French
• Read a book in Romanian
• Take a course in a new language (probably Hebrew or Arabic) when I start university in the fall (I can't believe I'm starting university in less than eight months )
• Get a job that I can use my language skills in

[kibo]

Resolutions are made to be broken. Even though I generally don't like the Unilangish mania about learning hundreds of languages at the same time, I'll play along this time.

• I will improve my Russian to the required level necessary to pass my test (this has nothing to do with New Year )
• I will refresh my Spanish (since Portuguese has become my Romance language #1 ) - this means watching Spanish movies and tv shows
• I will start learning max. 2 of the following languages in October - Slovenian, Macedonian, Turkish, Arabic. Since my uni's schedule is most likely to crap on my plans (as usual), I will probably end up learning Korean or something.
• I will try to start learning Old Church Slavonic and maybe take up old boring Latin again.
• You want more?? Are you insane?!?