I don’t know when I came to this conclusion, but I want to become a polyglot. Sometime in 2016 I had this unavoidable longing to learn another language… or three. Out of nowhere I got irritated with myself that I only spoke English. I took Spanish in high school for three years and my proficiency is elementary level (at best). Something about knowing another language just makes me feel like a more open-minded and culturally aware person. I’ve started self-studying different languages in the past, including: Norwegian, Italian, German etc. but none of them really stuck. It wasn’t until I started studying Japanese that things started to turn around. I blame my great interest in anime and Japanese Rock music for this.
I started teaching myself Japanese early April 2016 with the help of a website I found. I still have not clue how I came across it but it really changed everything for me. I kept a notebook of everything I learned and within a few months I had all of hiragana and katakana down (two out of the three writing systems in Japan). Reaching that milestone was really exciting.
After mastering hiragana and katakana I became more ambitious and I wanted to learn even more languages. I only knew a few words in Japanese, but I was determined to also take up Korean and Spanish (again). Only God knows why I would want to self-study three different languages at the same time, but here I am. So far things are going alright. It’s difficult to make big learning strides when I’m studying multiple languages at the same time. It can get discouraging, but I won’t let that deter me. My ultimate goal is to achieve elementary proficiency in all three. I want to be able to hold a conversation and speak a little of each language I study. I do not want to be what is seen in the video below. With Spanish I am pretty much there, I just need to brush up. Hopefully, I will remember to document my progress. I think it will be assuming for me (and maybe other people) to look back see my language journey.