There is probably a way to make this text right-aligned, but I don't know what it is. 😅
2023 Goal: Attain a B2/Intermediate Advanced Level in Farsi by the end of the year.
Yes, I know it's overly ambitious.
To reach the goal, I've divided the year into quarters:
First Quarter: Jan, Feb, March - Reach an A1 Level.
Second Quarter: April, May, June - Reach an A2 Level.
Third Quarter: July, August, September - Reach a B1 Level.
Fourth Quarter: October, November, December - Reach a B2 Level.
The goal for January is to learn the alphabet (alefba, but my Farsi keyboard is... presently non-functional. See below), numbers, basic grammar/sentence structure, pleasantries (hello, how are you, nice to meet you, please and thank you), self-description, and have a 15-minute conversation with a native speaker (the length of the end-of-month conversation will increase throughout the quarter, to an hour at the end of March, and then it will ideally turn into shorter, more frequent conversations in following quarters).
So how's it going, two weeks in?
Reading: I've studied the entire alphabet, but I struggle to recognize some of the letters in words, and I am very, very slow to read even the letters I do know.
Writing: You probably can't read my handwriting. I've also not learned the alphabet well enough to produce the letter I'm thinking off, with some exceptions. Compared to Japanese, the characters are easier to produce, but I've found fewer neat tools to help learn them (fewer annoyingly perfectionist apps for letter tracing, I mean). I'm also struggling to get my keyboard set up where I can type in Farsi. I need to get some stickers, I think.
Tools: I spent way too much money on a subscription with PersianPod101, which I will use for part of my studies - primarily because it has a built-in testing program for the CEFR levels, and gives me some structure to my study. The rest will be a combination of The Internet (which I've used to study the alphabet), free apps (such as a Persian-English dictionary and a couple of vocabulary apps and letter-tracing apps), conversations with language partners via Tandem or iTalki (the latter costs money, but it has the benefit of allowing me to start conversing earlier, because a teacher is hypothetically going to be more accommodating when I can't understand anything than another learner might be), reading kids books in Farsi (I've got this adorable one about the solar system), and flashcards. So. Many. Flashcards. 0.0
Hours: As of yesterday morning, I have studied or listened to Farsi for 12.5 hours. That's about 3.5% of the year, in case you're curious. That's also way behind my goal, but considering I logged 62 hours at work the first week, and then was sick for three days the second week... I think I'm doing pretty well.
Most interesting fact: I learned the word "mibinamet" yesterday, which I cannot type in actual Farsi because Keyboard - it means "I will see you in the future," (future tense of "to see," "am" means "I," "et" means "you" {direct object}) and because I am fascinated by compound words, I love it. ❤️
