Tag Archives: language learning

New Year New Language?

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Have you ever made it your New Year’s Resolution to learn a new language? I speak 3 languages: 2 fluently (English and French) and one considerably less fluently (German). During the pandemic, I started work on a fourth language, but it was Klingon, and once the world started up again, it fell by the wayside.

Illustration of a Klingon bat'leth (weapon from Star Trek).

(For now: I have EVERY INTENTION of picking it back up again in the future. Is it useful? No. Is it suuuuuper fun to be able to say, “I’m learning Klingon?” HIja′!) Learning a language is hard. Learning a language as an adult is very hard.

Kids and grown ups learn in very different ways. Kids’ brains are like information sponges. Adult brains are more rigid: always trying to save energy by reusing what they already know. If we grew up here in Canada (which I didn’t but that’s beside the point for the moment), we probably learned French as a second (or third) language in school.  That’s important: we learned French as kids, and we probably stopped using it just as soon as we weren’t being forced to take it anymore.

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The Anti-Bed Rot Bucket List of 2024

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I’ve been writing up bucket lists for a few years now, and while I rarely cross off everything on them, I do find that they’re a great way to remember what fun thing I wanted to do or try…especially when the humidity of summer and the humdrum of working has put me in a fugue state of just wanting to rot in bed on my days off.

While I do think taking some time to yourself to not be ‘productive’ is both healthy and occasionally even necessary…I also don’t want to get too stuck in the rut of mindless media consumption in the guise of ‘resting’ for days on days.

April just so happens to be the month where I get all aspirational about life again, so I thought, why not share some of my bucket list items with you? Maybe this will inspire you to join me in creating your own bucket list, or adding to yours if you already have one! Therefore, in no particular order, here’s a short list of things I would love to do in 2024.

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