A year and a week ago I wrote the first post on this blog. I created this blog to be a source of information on the current schedule of language tables and resources available in the Bemidji area. My secondary reason was to give me an incentive to write in the languages I am studying, to help me develop my understanding of these languages.
Although I've not added any new languages to my "survival" list, nor have I brought any of my "survival" languages up to the "pretty good" level, I've made small progress in most of them. Participating in language tables does help one maintain current skills in that language, but without significant outside study, improvement is very slow.
For that reason, I've decided to concentrate on Mandarin Chinese and Norwegian for the next four months. I will do something in these two languages every day, and write about some mundane aspect of my life in these two languages every week. By the end of December, I hope to have survival skills in Norwegian, and speak "pretty good" Mandarin Chinese. Look for the first written report in these two languages by next Thursday, August 30.
I will continue to spend some time each week to maintain my Spanish and other survival languages, and of course if I get a surprise opportunity to visit some distant corner of this globe, all bets are off, and I'll concentrate on the language and culture of that area. Questions, comments or suggestions? click on "comments" below.
