For 2020 I’ll be following @amillionlanguages ‘s Year of Languages Challenge! I love learning about different languages, and this seemed like a focused & disciplined way to gain a basic understanding of a language without committing to years of study. My main resolution for the new year is to maximise my productivity by breaking the months up into short study routines, so this challenge is a perfect starting point!
The languages I will be studying for this challenge are:
January: Egyptian Arabic dialect
February: Egyptian Arabic dialect
March: Polish
April: Estonian
May: Moroccan Arabic dialect
June: ‘Levantine’ Arabic dialect
July: Maltese
August: Turkish
September: Welsh
October: Thai
November: Tamil
December: Spanish
I will very likely be visiting Egypt in February, so I didn’t want to study another language while visiting and forget the Arabic I learnt when I needed it most!!! Other than that, I will be following the original language-a-month formula.
I’m studying Modern Standard Arabic, so I thought this challenge would be a good opportunity to familiarise myself with some of the spoken dialects! I limited myself to 3 dialects so they wouldn’t take over the challenge, but I’ve yet to choose between either the Lebanese, Palestinian or Syrian dialects. I’m going to see what resources I can compile for each and decide closer to June.
I also would love to study some Maltese because a Romance-influenced descendent of Sicilian Arabic sounds fascinating! The little bits I’ve seen of the written language look stunning and I want to learn how the phonology & grammar of a Semitic language adapted to the Latin alphabet.
Estonian and Polish are the first languages of two of my close friends and although they are lovely languages in their own right, I want to learn these to be able to speak a little with them. Hopefully they get a good laugh out of my pronunciation!!!
Welsh is an important language for me, it was my Taid’s native language (he didn’t speak a word of English until he was 12), so I’d love to learn it to keep my family history alive. I live very close to the northern Welsh border, so I’ve always visited and had opportunities to experience the language first-hand, which I can’t say for any other language.
My favourite thing about language learning are the beautiful scripts. Tamil & Thai have drop-dead GORGEOUS scripts, so I will be focusing more on writing in their respective months. I am excited (& intimidated) for these because they are both from language families I have never studied before!!!
I’ve studied a teen tiny bit of Turkish in the past, so I’d like to revisit it. I remember loving the vowel harmony systems and the aesthetic of the written language (I think it’s interesting how a script/writing system fits the language, maybe in this month I will also look into Ottoman Turkish to see how the Arabic abjad fit the language in comparison to the Latin alphabet!).
I have a basic (re: Tourist) knowledge of Spanish, but it has a lovely phonology, is spoken in many countries and has loads of resources for study, so it looks amazing to learn! My dream is to visit Andalusia and see the beautiful Islamic architecture. One day I WILL see the Court of Lions!!!! I’m interested in seeing the extent of Arabic’s influence on the language, even if it’s limited to arcane vocab.
I am 99% sure I’ll stick to these languages, but I might rearrange which months they correspond to if need be.
Tbh it was hard narrowing it down to 12 languages (and then 11, RIP Nahuatl), but a concise, focused month of study will not only teach me more of a language than looking into one as fancy strikes me, but also how to structure short-term, effective study plans/projects, which is a life skill I NEED to learn this year!
Good luck to everyone else participating in this challenge, I wish you all the best in your language studies and 2020! Happy new year!
