I, like duh, run (as and when) Surface Languages and like so many others have language aims of my own. New year is a time for reflection, resolutions and so on and so forth and I don’t want to be left out.

My language goals for 2014 were :

To improve my Italian from B1 to B2 (on the CEFR) scale.

Learn to count to twenty in Polish and say more than hello, and slimak, slimak pokaż rogi.

Did I get there?

I didn’t reach B2 in Italian orally but am closing in on this. (My comprehension is above this so that’s cool).

I can count to twenty in Polish and know more of slimak, slimak.  So a big tick there as well. Aim high that’s my motto.

My language goals for 2015 are :

To improve my Italian from B1 to B2 on the CEFR scale.  I’ll carry on improving my Italian during 2015 mainly by reading and chatting. I like to talk, and I like to read, so nothing too onerous there. I particularly like reading Italian thrillers and as I like reading crime novels all I’ve done is shifted some of my reading into Italian.

To reach B1 in Polish.  I’m going to make a real effort with Polish this year. I feel (perhaps erroneously) that I’ve reached a point where the language is starting to make sense to me. I need to find someone to talk to and will do this the second half of the year.

To reach A2 in Russian (reading) 

I also wanted to dabble with another language, and especially with the current international situation Russian is particularly interesting.

Still, I know my limits and there is no way that I will have the time (or mental strength) to start speaking the language.

My primary interest is reading. I want to be able to read Russian. I’m particularly interested in reading the news (at the moment), and although it is definitely the case that slavic languages are difficult for English speakers this seems like an achievable goal.

Russian (like Polish) is a difficult language but my goal is only to read and not to reproduce or understand the spoken language.

We will see.

Besos,

MF