Tag: Irish

Okay so I did half-start trying to get into Irish and was quite enjoying it, but the more I think on it
I just don’t actually have the time to add a second language to my routine until I’ve really achieved my goals in Japanese. I think partly I just needed a break in my intensity in Japanese, but I’ve had a couple weeks of doing little-to-nothing, not listening to Pimsleur in the car, not doing lessons with JOI, and only minimally reading (partly because I had company, but partly I was just a bit burnt out and needed a break), and I’m feeling more like I want to jump back in now.

I’m sort of just frustrated at what feels like a lack of progress (even knowing I’ve made considerable
progress since the beginning of the year!) in things like iKnow and RTK, where I’m still working through the very basic levels. It’s mostly review practice for really making the vocabulary accessible to me in speech/writing without even thinking about it, but it’s awkward in my mind that I know I am in some respects a low-intermediate level learner with my grasp on grammar, but in some ways am just a beginner due to my still limited vocabulary.

iKnow gives approximations of how long it will take you to finish each set, and it’s estimating 8-12
weeks for me to finish set 6 at the current pace I have, which would mean I wouldn’t finish Core 1000 in its entirety for another year, which is sort of ridiculous. I did meet my 30 minute goal for this week, but I wonder how realistic I would be if I tried to increase it. I’d love if I managed to get through Core 2000 by the end of December or something, but I don’t know if I’d be able to keep up that kind of pace.

Hm, the forum rollback ate a post, heh. Well it ate a couple posts, but it ate my last update for sure, even though I can’t remember what I said in it, so I think it doesn’t matter that much.

I keep listening to the Brave OST lately and there’s a song in (Scottish) Gaelic on it, and it keeps making me want to learn Gaelic. I’m thinking of going Irish Gaelic actually, partly just because I think it’s easier to find learning materials for it online, and it would be kind of an excuse to go back to Ireland at some point and see some of the places I missed. So I’m kind of going back and forth on it, because I have somewhat limited time, and have been trying to focus on Japanese to get up to where I think I ought to be in that, and if I add Gaelic to the mix that’s yet another “extracurricular” activity I have to balance that I technically don’t have time for (I also write code/fiction and draw in my off hours and occasionally try to have a social life). But I was poking around Bitesized Irish Gaelic last night, and even after only the first lesson feel like it’s easier to just “pick up” than Japanese ever was despite my supposed “headstart” in Japanese. And even though it’s not particularly useful to me in any way, I’ve always loved the sound/look of (any form of) Gaelic.

Thus I’m considering just doing it because language should be fun, and often Japanese (and Mandarin) is like a job I have to do because of family and less like something I just do because I simply enjoy it. I mean I do still like Japanese, and moreso now that I can start to do things like read short stories, but it’s somehow aside from the pronunciation and the initial grammar always ended up this major uphill struggle because of the vocabulary barrier and my issues with rote memorization learning, so I have pushed myself to learn it because “I want to be able to have a conversation with my grandmother” or “because I’ve already put so much effort into it I have to reach fluency or why have I bothered” and less just because when I sit down to learn Japanese I’m excited by the act of learning Japanese. Which I don’t know, maybe I will get bored if I reach harder materials in Gaelic, too, but I guess I sort of want to find out how it works when I’m learning a language that’s not quite so “backwards” to an English speaker.

As far as Japanese goes, I’d had a friend staying at my place for a couple weeks and slacked off a lot on Japanese studies, but I’m going to be trying to pick up the pace again starting this week. I’m halfway through CCS 5, starting to pause a little to look up some words I can’t make out from context instead of just saying “got the gist, let’s move on” which is both helpful and not, since once I get started looking up words I seem to have a tendency to do it too often. So I need to limit myself somehow to really just key words. Or maybe just write them in a notebook. I would do an SRS, but I’m still working through iKnow and Read the Kanji and fall behind a lot on iKnow (I’m going to try to stick to my 30 minutes a week minimum for real now), and I feel like adding a personal SRS deck at this time would just be something I’d end up feeling guilty over not really utilizing, so I haven’t wanted to bother.