Decided to take stock of all my current and future languages:
Arabic: I'm giving up in colloquial Arabic for a while. Maybe I'll come back to it someday, but for now I really want to get decent at fuS7a. Still working on
Kalila wa Dimna. Skimming this
frequency dictionary of Arabic I feel like I know 80% or more of the words on any given page, though closer to 60% on the last pages (ie. least frequently-used words out of the 5000 listed). According to
one study, a vocabulary of 8000-9000 "word families" (not sure how that would work in the context of Arabic roots
) is needed to read a text with 98% comprehension. Testing myself on the
top story on BBC Arabic at the moment, I was able to read the headline and first five sentences, but needed to look up the following:
ذخيرة ammunition (I knew the word only in its older sense 'supply, reserve')
متاريس barricades
لجنة committee
طعن piercing, stabbing (knowing the word طعنة
defamation, vilification didn't help here)
جسور bridges (sing. جسر ; cf. Hebrew
gésher)
المرافق الحيوية vital facilities
اعتقلوا they were arrested
Of course, a news article is much easier to read than something with a less straightforward style, like a literary text. So in addition to scaling the mountain of words, I need to read more. I plan to just keep plowing through Arabic readers to the best of my ability, and hope to gain at least 500 more words over the next year. (1000 would be a better goal, but feels too ambitious).
French: Mostly dormant, but my best friend is studying French actively now so we text in French sometimes. My output has gone to total shit. Might try to do some reading in French soon.
Hebrew: Pretty happy with my level. I've focused on communicative skills and feel like I've reached B1 in speaking/listening. My pronunciation, syntax, and grammar are usually correct, so I think all I need to hit B2 would be to learn a couple thousand more words and continue speaking a lot. I'm not setting a new goal for vocabulary for the time being; I'll get to B2 when I get there.
Italian: My main focus for the moment. I'm reading with a dictionary, trying to do a few pages a day and looking up words only when needed. Will also try to do some more Michel Thomas and Pimsleur when I get a chance, and I'll visit Italy next month. My only goal is to read and understand my book.
Persian: Really need to put more time into reading manuscripts. That's my only goal.
Spanish: I read an
interesting article the other day. Otherwise it's mostly on hold for now, but I'm going back to Mexico in January so I'll probably watch a series or do something else to practice Spanish before I go.
Turkish: Dormant.
Urdu: Kind of dormant these days, but I'll probably need to read some stuff in Urdu later in the year.
Wanderlusts:- German - I will (re)learn to read it someday, just not anytime soon.
- Somali - Probably never going to learn it, but wanderlusting after it terribly...