Trans.Lingual

I bought myself a little belated birthday present… 🤭

I’m in the process of a career change, and in that (along with some deep therapy) I’ve been working on separating languages (my primary passion in life) from my career and my identity. (It’s a long story- I can explain privately to people who care to ask.) One of the results of this is the desire and push to study languages FOR FUN again, like when I was in high school and college, and not let my job and career goals dictate what languages I prioritize.

During a long conversation with the other week, the question “if I died tomorrow, what languages would I regret not having studied more extensively?” came out of my mouth. And my response was immediately “Mandarin and Japanese.” So, after 20 years of language learning, and after having studied over 100 languages living and dead, I’m finally letting myself pursue Japanese seriously, while also studying Mandarin Chinese “for fun,” and not “for work.”

So, here’s to my new adventure. I hope y’all will stay for the ride with me. 頑張ります！
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#日本語 #普通话 #中文 #汉语

2024 has been a hard year for me. I’ve let go a lot of things in my life and I’m definitely on a personal, emotional and spiritual journey. Through it all, languages have always been a guide post, offering me something to focus on when things have been hard. I’ve studied several languages this year, spending the first 5 months of 2024 really leaning into Southeast Asia. Then I moved in June and I started a new adventure. Things are still hard and I’m still growing, but languages still somehow sit at the center of it all for me.

So, here’s a little peak into what I’ve been doing this year. What I did Jan-May, and what I’ve been doing since. I’m trying to focus again on the joy of learning a language, and be less stressed about the “use” or “usefulness” of a particular language. Let’s see what’s to come in the rest of 2024.
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November was a very productive month!
I started a major new project that involves multiple new languages and the return to a couple of previously-studied languages. For now, they remain a secret… but I’m very excited to see where this all goes!
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