On my world, it means hope.

This link: www.claritaslux.com/blog/the-hardest-language-to-learn/

First of all, I have to disagree with that list. I don't have any knowledge of Polish, but I have a hard time believing it's harder for a native English speaker than Chinese or Arabic, which are from completely different language families and therefore are much, much more different in terms of vocabulary, grammar, structure, etc. (Not to mention the infamous four tones of Chinese.)

But I won't dwell for long on that topic, as it has already been beaten to death by some of the commenters. I started reading the comments, some of which were rather interesting, some of which...made me cringe/bang my head on the desk.


( Cut for the sake of length )

Argh, this ended up a lot longer and more rambling than it should have been, and now I have the overwhelming urge to call my sister and ask her how things are going.

Taken from: foreignlanguageexpertise.com/about.html, with some modifications.

I.  Aural comprehension:  1) At a slow speaking rate, with simple words and sentences. 2) If the speaker has clear enunciation; sometimes getting the gist more than specific details and missing specific/technical vocabulary. 3) With ease and depth of understanding at the native rate of speaking in a wide array of topics.

II.  Reading comprehension:  1) Slowly deciphering with the aid of a dictionary, or annotated texts, or simpler works. 2) Smoothly and freely, but sometimes getting the gist more than specific details, and certainly profiting from dictionary use. 3) With ease, pleasure, speed, and depth of understanding comparable to that with which I can read English.

III.  Writing ability:  1) Within a limited range and with heavy dictionary use. 2) Within a full range, but sometimes paraphrasing or searching philological reservoirs for expressions and using the dictionary occasionally. 3) Freely and without constraint, in a fairly sophisticated manner and with limited recourse to a dictionary.

IV.  Conversational ability:  1) Within a limited range and/or with the indulgence and assistance of my conversation partners. 2) Within a full range, but sometimes paraphrasing or searching philological reservoirs for expressions. 3) Freely and without constraint.

	I	II	III	IV
French	2-	2+	2+	1+
Chinese	2+	1+	1+	2-

Japanese: Beginner (日本語が少しはなせます)
German: Just started

----

Current goals:
(Concrete)
- Finish one year of college Japanese, decide whether to take it for another semester/year or continue independently
- Finish the Assimil German and see where my level is at, then decide what to do (should be done February 2010)

(Abstract - Less to More)
- Improve French through reading, possibly writing, listening to radio
- Improve literacy in Chinese, attempt to learn more vocabulary & understand TV news & strengthen idiomatic sense
- Go through Teach Yourself Norwegian/Colloquial Norwegian...at some point
- After learning German, look at Dutch?
- Look at Italian?
- Decide on other languages: Russian, Finnish? Borrow a ton of language books from the library when I'm home and see if anything strikes my fancy; attempt to get Assimil for any other languages I seriously plan to learn

 Right. So, I've been reading up a lot of articles about languages and polyglots (or multilingual people) in my free time, meaning I am now entertaining the notion of learning many languages in my lifetime. (Which is never going to happen, but hey, it doesn't hurt to try.)

I'm going to be taking Japanese in college, which has been an ambition of mine for quite a while, but I'm hoping to not let my Chinese and French stagnate (Chinese because it's my heritage; French because I've learned it for seven years, even though my level is still pathetically low). Which probably means going out and finding French articles and news broadcasts/podcasts, Chinese news broadcasts, writing e-mails in French/Chinese just to confuse my family...

Unfortunately, I also have a long list of languages that have caught my eye that I would like to learn or try my hand at learning, such as Finnish, Norwegian, German, Russian, Turkish...

Okay, that's not exactly a very long list, but consider that some of these languages can be used as jumping-off points for other related languages: French -> Spanish, Portuguese, Italian; Norwegian -> Swedish, Danish, Icelandic; German -> Dutch; Russian -> Polish, Ukrainian, other Slavic languages; Finnish -> Estonian; and I you have a super-impossible goal. XD

In terms of immediate, reachable goals, I think I will try to learn Finnish in my spare time, and keep exercising French/Chinese, while learning Japanese in college. And maybe dabble in reading Norwegian on the side. Then I could die happy. XD (Seriously, though, Norwegian grammar is actually easy for a native English-speaker to pick up. I'm not kidding. It's much easier than German or even the Romance languages.)

(On that note, I'm starting to think German is an absolute nightmare to learn...)