Aiming for fluency by 2013 | My language mission and my log | Forum

Hello everyone! 

I tried many times to learn a language all by myself but never was serious about it. So, I thought I should try again, this time seriously!

But I wanted to make it even more challenging. I don't want to learn only ONE language, it isn't for me; I decided to learn FOUR languages at the same time! 

For me it isn't impossible at all. While learning a little bit here and there, I saw that I never mix up languages. I don't know why though, but it's way better! I'm a lucky guy :P

Anyway, I'll focus on Esperanto, French, Spanish and Bulgarian.

Why Esperanto? Because I love it. I already know a little bit of it, but I want more.

Why French? I need to learn it at school anyway, but I don't want to learn it slowly!

Why Spanish? My girlfriend is Argentinian, do I have to say something else?

Why Bulgarian? Simply because a friend of mine is Bulgarian.

I choosed languages that I can use everyday, so I'll never stop practicing even when I'm doing something else. 

Ok, I still don't know when I'm going to start, because I'm still searching for resources! I would be glad if you could help me. :)

What I have done so far and things I can use:

- Switched Facebook to Spanish, French and Esperanto (sadly there's no Bulgarian interface)

- Spanish dictionary.

- French dictionary.

- Many school books for French, even grammar book.

- Listening to music in these languages.

- Using the words I know.

- Learned the Cyrillic alphabet.

- Decided how to use my freetime (I have lots of freetime!)

What I have to do:

- Search resources.

- Change other interfaces in these languages.

- Open a blog for every language (I still don't know where, if you'd help me with this too I will love you forever).

- Decide when and how.

- Install an Esperanto, French and Bulgarian keyboard (I use standard Spanish one).

- Actually START learning.

Sadly I can't buy anything, so I need to focus on free resources. I'm looking forward to it! :D

Gxis revido!

I don't use US keyboard because I'm already used to Spanish keyboard! Thinking about it, I don't really need French keyboard since I can do the same letters with this keyboard too. I have to just install Esperanta klavaro and Bulgarian cyrillic one, though I think I'll use latin letters for that language too (My friend talks to me in Bulgarian sometimes and uses latin letters so..) 

I don't care actually for my own domain, I just need a base xD I think I'll try Wordpress or Tumblr, thanks!

I know the risks of learning many languages at the same time. I wouldn't suggest it too, since it isn't really good for everyone, but since I don't mix up anything I wanted to try! Of course I have some basic knowledge of French, Spanish and Esperanto too, so it is easier. I would never learn Japanese and Mandarin Chinese together, for example! 

Thanks anyway :3

Thanks! :D I myself know it is wrong, but hey, I want to see if it is possible! I'm happy just learning only two of the languages too, but I wanna try! :3

Enigmagico said:

Please bear in mind this is not to demotivate you or anyone, and only my own experience: I've tried learning both Italian and French at once – I did learn the 101's but often confused both. It didn't lead me as far as I'd have got should I have studied only one of either at once.

 

In my opinion, learning languges is like having tattoos (and I love both!) – Both 'gonna stay with you forever, so there is pretty much no point at all in rushing either.

You don't demotivate me at all! I often studied languages and then dropped them without a reason; but thanks to that I saw that I just don't mix up languages! I don't know why though. I mean, I studied once Norwegian and Danish. I could easily tell which one was Norwegian and which one Danish! 

And well, since I already have a basic knowledge of both Spanish and French, I doubt I'll ever mix them up anyway! xD 

I don't want to rush at all. I've read many stories of people like Benny or you in the forums, and I saw that anyone was trying something new. So I decided to take on this challenge, to see if I actually CAN learn languages together without any problems! If I'll only learn Spanish and Bulgarian, for example, I don't care. It's a goal too. It means that I managed to learn two languages together! That's my real goal, seeing how many languages I can take.

Thanks anyway! :3

So, I decided when I'm going to start seriously: Exactly on March 1st. Until then I search every single resource I have and start talking a little bit in Spanish and French with my GF and another good friend of mine. I'm not going to do any videos, sadly I don't have a camera and like I said I can't buy anything, so I'll have to fix my pronunciation myself. Ah well! 

Stay tuned!

Enigmagico said:

Sweet!

Even though learning two languages at once doesn't work out well for me, I do find terrific that you're willing to commit with such a challenge – I say go for it!

Thanks! :D

I'm going to start to study a little bit here and there before March. I'm downloading Anki, I'll use it for every new word I see. I have a few resources now, like the free courses on 101languages and others. I'll use the couses on lernu! for Esperanto, for French and Bulgarian I only have 101languages for now. I'll spend one hour everyday for every language, and if I have some time maybe one hour and half! So I'll spend 4-6 hours a day just for languages. I'll take some breaks of course, otherwise I just force myself and then I'll stop the challenge!

Now I'll take a look on the forums for other resources, I didn't saw a Bulgarian thread. Maybe I'll open it xD

Here is my current list of Esperanto resources, use at will:

1. Phrasebook: http://wikitravel.org/en/Esperanto_phrasebook#b
2. General: http://www.esperanto-chicago.org/esprimoj/
3. General: http://lernu.net/
4. Audiobooks: ~/vlt/language/eo
5. Literature: http://www.retkompaso.com.ar/?page_id=51
6. Local: http://www.retkompaso.com.ar/
7. Wikipedia: http://eo.wikipedia.org/wiki/
8. Books: http://www.bretaro.net/novajhoj
9. Writing: Lang-8
10. Pronunciation: http://www.forvo.com/
11. Unua Libro: http://www.genekeyes.com/Dr_Esperanto.html
12. Dua Libro: http://www.gutenberg.org/files/20006/20006-h/20006-h.htm
13. Chat: http://esperanto-panorama.net/angla/babilu.htm
14. Chat: http://www.babilejo.org/
15. Chat: http://esperanto.net/veb/irc-esp-en.html
16. VOICE Chat/Exchange: http://www.mylanguageexchange.com/HowTo.asp
17. Chat: http://eo.chatonic.com/
18. Chat: http://pp.kpnet.fi/jhii/sablo/
19. Chat: http://www.unilang.org/voicechat.php
20. Music: http://www.vinilkosmo.com/
21. Book: http://www.odaha.com/antoine-de-saint-exupery/maly-princ/la-eta-princo
22. Podcast: http://radioverda.com/
23. Video: http://farbskatol.net/dotclear/index.php
24. Dictionary: http://esperanto-panorama.net/vortaro/eoen.htm
25. Dictionary: http://reta-vortaro.de/revo/
26. Chat: IRC: irc.rizon.net#/lang/
27. Music: http://www.youtube.com/user/eobo49821
28. General: http://eo.wikipedia.org/wiki/Listo_de_falsaj_amikoj
29. Video: http://esperanto-tv.com/
30. Video: http://worldtv.com/esperanto_2.0_tv/
31. Video Course: http://www.youtube.com/user/mazigondolando?feature=watch
32. Podcast: http://retradio.posterous.com/
33. Chat: http://babilejo.org/
34. Chat: IRC: Freenode ##esperanto.
35. Podcasts: http://www.kafejo.com/audio/index.html
36. Music: http://www.kafejo.com/muziko/index.htm
37. Podcast: http://www.kafejo.com/radio/index.html
38. Video: http://www.kafejo.com/video/index.htm
39. Reading: http://facila.org/ (easy texts)
40. Testing: http://en.lernu.net/komunikado/forumo/temo.php?t=8508
41. Reading: http://nunonia.com/
42. Podcast: http://radioaktiva.esperanto.org.uy/
43. Podcast: http://www2.polskieradio.pl/eo/
44. Video course: http://esperantofre.com/edu/kino01a.htm
45. Community: http://groups.google.com/group/soc.culture.esperanto/topics?hl=eo&oe=UTF-8
46. Books: ~/vlt/language/eo
 
The books I have are basically some I collected from LibriVox, Lernu, and from here: http://i-espero.info/files/elibroj/
If you are running some form of Unix (Linux, Mac OS X, FreeBSD, NetBSD, etc), you can get the book collection with this nice, short, and very memorable command:
$ wget -e robots=off -v -r -p -k -np -c -U Mozilla http://i-espero.info/files/elibroj/
 
And here is the rough staged plan I intended to follow. Some of it may be useful:
Noob:
* Course: Lernu: La puzlo Esperanto
* Course: Lernu: Bildoj kaj domandoj
* Course: Lernu: Vojaĝu kun Zam
* Chat: Lernu/IRC: Follow minimal and write minimal
Beginner:
* Course: Lernu: Mi estas komencanto
* Course: Lernu: Ana Pana
* Course: Lernu: La Zagreba Metodo
* Course: Lernu: Pri La Fundamento
* Course: Teach Yourself Esperanto
* Chat: Lernu/IRC: Follow 50% and maintain simple chat
* Voice Chat: Basic, simple things
* Text + Audio: UDoHR-UN
Intermediate:
* Course: Lernu: Ana renkontas
* Course: Lernu: Jen nia IJK
* Course: Lernu: Gerda Malaperis!
* Course: Lernu: Metodo de Ilja Frank
* Course: Lernu: Kio okazas?
* Course: Vojaĝo en Esperanto-lando
* Chat: Lernu/IRC: Follow 80% and maintain complex chat
* Voice Chat: Reasonably fluent, complex
* Book: Marvirinstrato
* Text + Audio: Alicio en Mirlando
* Book: Manifesto de la Komunista partio
* Book: La eta princo
* Book: Doktoro Jekyll kaj sinjoro Hyde
* Audiobooks: All acquired short stories.
* Course: Pasporto al la tuta mondo
* Writing: Write/translate 10 wikipedia articles
Advanced:
* Course: Lernu: Laŭ mia opinio
* Course: Lernu: La tuta Esperanto
* Chat: Lernu/IRC: Follow ~100% and maintain complex, long, and diverse chats
* Voice Chat: Fluent, complex, long, diverse
* Books: ADD AND READ 25 BOOKS.
* Writing: Write/translate 50 wikipedia articles
* Writing: Add Esperanto as an internal-use language (journal, notes, project
files, etc).
* Writing: Write Esperanto translation of my Website's prototype.

On Linux: just download and burn a CD image of Ubuntu or LinuxMint. The latter is so user-friendly and easy to install, I actually had my mother install hers when she switched over. She thought it was easy.

On La Puzlo Esperanto: it's a nice course, if a little dry and boring. Definitely complement with something else.

On Spanish: I have no idea what you would use to learn the language to be honest. But I'd be inclined to look for an Assimil course, if one exists in a language you speak. You could also look for some for-children books you can read side-by-side in Spanish and one of your fluent languages ("El Principito"?).