Language learning

A new year. I've decided to start some better habits.

I feel like I try to start better habits every other week, but some of them have been sticking, which I see as a very positive thing. If you do enough things poorly, it might just amount to doing one thing well. Or whatever.

I'm fluent in two languages. I think so, at least. My English isn't perfect, but I'd say it's functional enough to satisfy. Actually, I remember reading some Reddit posts I had made many years ago, as a kid, really, and finding them completely incomprehensible. I posted to r/Jokes; I must've thought whatever I meant to say was absolutely hilarious, but it was just gibberish. I point this out to say that I'm at a point in my English language learning that I can tell that I've improved a lot even from a point where I thought I was already really good. I'm hoping this means I'm actually really good now.

Digressing, Japanese. I don't really speak it, per se, but I do hold what I consider to be a walk around level of Japanese. If I were to need to make my needs known to a random Japanese person, I would more than likely be able to do so. I would struggle, no doubt, but I'd get it done. I'm confident. Similarly, if a Japanese person---with the patience of a saint---wanted to tell me something, I would probably be able to understand them, provided they speak slowly and choose simple words. I think I fucked up my tenses there, by the way, in case you---the reader---noticed, just know I'm aware.

I also want to know---speak and read and write and listen---French, because I think it's one of those languages that a lot of people just randomly know, so it'll provide a very good bridge for communication with people whose languages I don't speak. A lot of African countries use French as a lingua franca or have it as an official language, for one. My Portuguese endows me with a good-enough understanding of Spanish, in my opinion, that learning the language would probably be very unsatisfying and not really change much of my interactions with Spanish content online.

The other language I want to learn is Hindi. There's lots of Hindi speakers all over the world, though mainly in India, of course. I'm just a bit... Well, the problem is that I don't really know anything about Indian culture and the linguistic landscape over there, so I don't know how useful it'd actually be. At the end of the day, I guess it's fine. I know there's lots of Hindi stuff online, so it'll probably be fine, but still, I'm slightly concerned about whether or not it's the right choice. My other idea was learning Arabic, but I don't like the idea of having to learn MSA and then a dialect, likely Egyptian Arabic. It just sounds really annoying. Also, I feel like learning Chinese after learning Japanese is such a cliché for a European guy that likes anime that I'd rather not do that. Perhaps a bad move, but learning a language, regardless of which one it is, seems unlikely to be to my detriment, regardless.

And with that, I conclude my diatribe.

In other words, byebye.