This post is my attempt at making an update into what's been going on over the past few months. In March when I went into self-quarantine due to COVID-19, I looked ahead I saw limitless free time. So I started a garden, a youtube channel, and a podcast. I also switched from learning Norwegian to learning Italian with my wife. Well, life was not done changing my life yet. The biggest change came about a month ago when I decided to go back to school. See, I never finished college. I have no degree, and its something I regret every day. What I have decided to do has changed my language learning plans quite a lot. I have chosen to pursue a degree in Education with the aim of becoming a French Teacher. With this goal in mind, I have decided to put aside Italian, Norwegian, and Irish. I will instead focus on French as much as I can so that I can have certified competency in French by the time I am done with school. There are some other changes too of a non-language learning kind, but all of it contributes to the fact that I have next to no free time to work on my various hobbies and projects.
Going back to French has yielded some revelations for me, both in terms of what I loose when taking a break and about myself as a language learner. First, I guess I should say that though my language focus was not on French until now, I never really stopped studying it completely. I was still having conversations with my best language buddy and was still reading French news and a few books. Still, when I came back to focusing on French I realized that I needed to make a focused study of the French past tense.
For instance, I had not remembered that when you use the Passé Composé (That is sentences like "I have thought" or "I did" (J'ai pensé - J'ai fait), there are some verbs in which you use "être" instead of "avoir" as the helping verb. These verbs are usually verbs of motion, such as "Arriver" (Je suis arrivé - I have arrived). I had totally forgotten about the verbs that use être instead of avoir, though when I read about it I immediately thought about what my GPS says when I have it set to talk in French "Vous êtes arrivé"
Going back to French has also given me insight into where my language learning interests lie, and what sorts of languages I enjoy learning. Here's the thing. I love French, but it's really difficult for me. It is not at all intuitive for me. That doesn't mean its that way for everyone, but for me it is really hard.
Norwegian, Icelandic, and even Irish are much more intuitive for me. They also call to me more than French does. I've been wrestling with this in my head for a few weeks now. If my linguistic passion lies in the celtic and nordic languages, why not focus on those? Well, I think the thing I thought would never happen to me has finally happened. I am focusing on a language specifically to further my career options. It feels weird to say that because until now my language learning has been an activity of passion and curiosity. However I need to advance my career options, and language learning is something I would love to make a career out of. So focusing on French even though the celtic and nordic languages are more interesting to me does not lessen my passion or interest, and it doesn't mean I won't ever come back to them. Focusing on French is just a good move for me and my family... Besides, I still get some Norwegian study from time to time.
My life has almost never taken the road I expected, especially my life as an adult. One of the great lessons I have learned from my life so far is that life does not owe you anything. Life does not give, it takes. So if you want to achieve something, you have to go get it. Make it happen because life isn't going to gift anything. Also, roll with it. Just because the path before you does not seem to go where you wanted does not mean it's a bad path. Enjoy the walk, and pay attention to the small beauties along the way. This is especially true in language learning. Often we get so caught up in the nitty-gritty that we lose sight of the beauty of the journey. You're learning a language you did not grow up speaking. A language that is capable of expressing all the complexity, beauty, and horror of the human experience. Think about that... It's a beautiful thing.
