Cheating on languages
I have been learning Swedish, on and off, for about 2 years now. I can read it fairly well, write it ok, barely speak it, and hardly understand it in conversation. Regardless of the poor “fluency,” I am proud to be able to say I could at the very least “get by” reading signs and ordering food if I ever visited there. I mostly just need to build my vocabulary - just don’t have the time to actually hit it very hard.
I have used DuoLingo and have done some extremely minor supplementary work in passing over the past two years. I never took it serious. It’s just been a fun little hobby to keep my brain active.
I enjoy the process of learning a language. I recently got bored, though, and started some Duo courses in Irish (Gaeilge). I have plenty of Irish/Scottish heritage and figured it would be cool to learn (also a Kneecap fan 😅).
This has me feeling like I’m “cheating” on Swedish. I have put quite a bit of effort into learning that beautiful language. Despite that effort winding down in the last few months, I’m almost missing Swedish in a way. I can switch over to that Swedish Duo course at any time and resume my journey, but that would mean I have to lose focus on Irish. Not a very smart thing to do when learning a new language.
Anyways, I just feel silly having this weird sense of sadness about not doing Swedish practice and trying something different instead. Has anybody else ever felt that way? Like you’re ditching a friend to go try something new? You’re excited about the new adventure ahead, but sad about not having your old buddy with you. Those are normal episodes we go through in life - but with language learning?
So… all of that to say that I am going to start using bits of Irish within the site to practice (hopefully!) I’m even considering redesigning the site a bit to go with this new theme in my life. If you made it to this point… holy shit! Thanks for sticking with me. What a senseless rambling.
Grá mór 💚