Posted in 2020, 3 Day Projects, Russian on 18 September, 2020| 2 Comments »
Conversation practice and vocabulary mining (travel; coronavirus; environment): 20 hours.
It’s been an absolute age since I last posted here, but I’m back baby! In just three days, I’ve learned close to 500 new Russian words and phrases, and my wife assures me that both my fluency and accuracy have simply skyrocketed.
Posted in 2019, 3 Day Projects, Irish on 23 November, 2019| Leave a Comment »
Dive into Buntús Cainte and breathe life back into my moribund Irish: 8 hours.
Having completed almost half of the first textbook, I’m finally “back on the capall (horse)” after all these years… I absolutely love the melodious lilt of the Irish language, and the cheeky retro illustrations used throughout this course are great craic (fun)!
Posted in 2019, Filipino, Motivation, Tagalog on 22 November, 2019| Leave a Comment »
I used Filipino to buy a couple of items in a local convenience store this morning. The lady was happy to hear her native language for a change, and in the course of our short conversation, asked me if I’d lived in the Philippines. When I said I’d never been but would like to visit one day, a look of worry spread across her face. Then she softened to a big beaming smile again, and with a knowing sparkle in her eye, declared: “Ahhh…your wife must be from the Philippines…that’s it!”
Posted in 2019, 3 Day Projects, Filipino, Tagalog on 16 November, 2019| Leave a Comment »
Try out a new online grammar course (Tagalog Lite, currently in beta) and provide user feedback: 9 hours.
I’ve made my way through just over a third of the course so far, leaving corrections and suggestions in my wake as I go. Each chapter and appendix unlocks new mysteries, and I feel my grasp of the language’s grammar is slowly but surely starting to fall into place.
Posted in 2019, 3 Day Projects, French on 10 November, 2019| Leave a Comment »
Kick-start my French back into action with the help of Assimil’s New (old) French with Ease: 11 hours.
Ignoring supplementary exercises, I pushed through more than half of this textbook and picked up a few hundred phrases for productive review along the way. My wife says it took her close to forever to finish this course, so I guess 63 lessons is a respectable result for 3 days.
Posted in 2019, Filipino, Motivation, Tagalog on 4 November, 2019| Leave a Comment »
I had a short conversation with a waitress in The Original Pancake House this morning while picking up some take-out breakfast for my wife and I. We chatted about work and family in Filipino, and I received a big smile and fist bump at the end when leaving! I also made a Filipino taxi driver laugh out loud when I switched from Tagalog to Bisaya toward the end of our conversation (having heard that his mom speaks Bisaya too). Ayo-ayo! (take care) 🙂
Posted in 2019, 3 Day Projects, Filipino, Tagalog on 3 November, 2019| Leave a Comment »
Study a small subset of Filipino words and phrases to enhance everyday conversation in Honolulu: 6 hours.
Out of respect to our extensive Filipino community here in Hawaiʻi, I finally got round to learning some Filipino (the official standardized form of Tagalog, used as a lingua franca in the Philippines and abroad to unite people across 182 indigenous languages!) It’s amazing how peppering conversation with simple token phrases can lead to a spinning Wheel of Fortune of beaming smiles, suspicious snake eyes, and the occasional free dessert.
Posted in 2019, 3 Day Projects, Russian on 26 October, 2019| 1 Comment »
Go through the next 300 words and phrases noted down during my trip to Russia: 8 hours.
I’m a proud dad again (my wife gave birth to a handsome baby boy)!! And given that my feet have barely touched the ground, nor my head enjoyed the gentle caress of a pillow since, fitting in this project marks a monumental achievement.
Posted in 2019, 3 Day Projects, Russian on 15 October, 2019| Leave a Comment »
Review 300 words and phrases taken down during my last trip to Russia (2016), including notes from iTalki lessons leading up to my visit: 5 hours.
Sifting through this eclectic bundle of scrap paper, words and phrases reignited happy memories. Vocabulary gleaned from my wife dealt primarily with shopping, while words from my father-in-law tended towards DIY, and my mother-in-law proved once again to be a boundless source of rare herbs, berries, and mushrooms (many of which I hadn’t the faintest clue how to translate into English without a helping hand from Wikipedia).
Posted in 2019, 3 Day Projects, Japanese on 12 October, 2019| Leave a Comment »
Relearn the 228 characters and modified forms used in Japanese to represent sounds (hiragana + katakana): 3 hours.
With little time to spare this week, I chose to fast-track proceedings by downloading a pre-made deck on Flashcards Deluxe, which I studied in rounds of 20 cards at a time during dead time. I’ve wanted to do this for absolutely ages but never got round to it, and thanks to this project, I’m now able to translate loads of words written in kana on shop windows and buses for my family who are visiting.
Travels with Teango 