Thursday, February 09, 2012

Time for some language study

If you've read me the past few years, you know that language courses (and education in general) are my weakness areas. Even in Germany, where I didn't like the sound of the language, I still fell into the trap.

The past few years, I've been distracted with other things: the UK driver's test, law coursework, and my work permit paperwork. Finally, some free time, it's time for language study again!

I have an Excel with various options and my requirements to rate them against.
Here's my short list of languages:

german
dutch
spanish
portuguese
polish
lithuanian
french
british sign language
italian

You may notice, I'm taking it easy and aiming for the continent languages. I love my Asia colleagues to death but I'm awful at tonal languages like Chinese.

And my criteria for judging:


ability to find a native teacher in the UK
ability for native practice in the uk
future location for living
ability to move towards fluency
worth of learning, when locals can speak english instead
current knowledge level
enjoyment of the language

For background, my levels are the following:

-I've tested out at German B1

-I have an undergraduate degree in Spanish. My fluency 10+ years on? I can lead business meetings and fully get around as a tourist amidst local dialects. I'm not going to improve that one until I live there.

-Polish: A1

Thoughts? Anything I'm missing?

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