Dia dhuit! I was wondering how you manage studying multiple languages and more importantly how you stay on track with learning. For me it seems so important "see" the progress in my target languages (Perfektionismus lässt grüßen) to keep motivated but my day just doesn't seem to have enough hours. And to make this ask even longer: Do you have any study method or material you really like?
GRMA (is é sin a rá: go raibh maith agat) as do cheisteanna, @oneanxiousstudybuddy!
I hope I can answer your questions thoroughly without going into full essay mode, especially since it’s the end of the year and I’m in a pensive mood and have been reflecting on my language learning goals/study plan for the new year. So, short answers only. Here goes! (:
How do you manage studying multiple languages at once?
My daily life is multilingual, so I can use my main languages and study/improve my current* target languages without thinking about it too much. (*My main or side target languages may change throughout the year or every few years, depending on what my various projects require.)
I usually limit my intensive studies to 2-3 languages at a time and try to avoid focusing on languages that I learn at the same level of the CEFR unless they are in different language families.
How do you stay on track with learning?
I’ve been keeping track of my language learning progress/projects/goals in detail since the end of 2019, and I assess my progress and adjust my timeline at least biannually or quarterly (detailed overview during a break period) or once or twice a fortnight (incremental tracking when I’m in the midst of a major project). My life and career goals directly relate to the languages I study, so I have a fairly good understanding of which concepts or languages I need to focus on and in which order at any given time.
I also find it incredibly helpful to ‘see’ the progress I’ve been making or the topics that I’ve been covering, even if it's only in list form. If you can’t remember what you worked on in the past month because your busy schedule had you all disorganised and stressed, you might feel like you’ve done nothing and become demotivated; but if you list out the films that you’ve watched in your target language or the articles you’ve read in your calendar, you may see that you actually averaged 2-3 films and 1 article per week, which are reasonable enough for a busy person (it just didn’t ‘feel’ like you did as much until you saw it all listed out).
Do you have any study method or material you really like?
It’s hard to narrow it down, as I use a variety of approaches to learning each language that are drastically different from each other. I both teach languages and learn language with teachers in addition to learning on my own, all of which constantly influences the methods or materials I use.
Most importantly, my personal study method often involves distancing myself from certain hardline mainstream notions about language learning which I find too rigid, allowing me to be flexible in my approach. I also love working on self-designed projects, since my learning is tied to intrinsic interests that are fun to work on despite their level of difficulty.
