Wow, it’s been a while, huh? So I meant to post this just as the challenge ended, but life (and Christmas) got a little in the way. How was the holiday for everyone, too? I know we’ve still got a few days until 2016, so hopefully some of you at least are still managing to relax and can go into the new year feeling a little chill.
But anyway, here’s my (short-ish) reflection on how I feel this 6WC went and what my future plans are for Slovak!
Time logged in total: 4285 minutes (71 hours, 25 minutes)
Time spent learning Slovak: 1066 minutes (17 hours, 46 minutes)
First things first: I’m very happy with my time for this 6WC. As I’ve repeatedly pointed out, resources for Slovak are limited, so this means that the vast majority of this time was spent actually studying Colloquial Slovak, not just watching TV or messing around on the internet. I did spend quite a while on Memrise too, but these were my main activities for the six weeks. I was also a teeny bit irritated I didn’t hit my eighteen hour goal (I forgot until about 23:45 on the last day so I didn’t have enough time to log it), but all in all, the time was great.
My overall time was something I was very happy with too; admittedly, a lot of that time was spent watching TV, but I don’t think that’s a bad thing. I definitely rekindled my love of Mandarin (which wanes from time to time) and I’m looking forward to developing that even more as we move into the new year.
I am a little concerned about how I feel about Slovak right now, however, and I feel like I may end up dropping it for the time being. The proximity of Slovakia to Austria is great for trips and I enjoy going there, but a lack of resources means that I am beginning to feel like learning is a chore and I’m starting to lose interest. Yes, I should probably get out there and speak to people, but honestly, speaking is never really my top priority for languages (I really enjoy reading, you guys) and though I can develop my other skills, I’m just not really feeling it.
Hopefully this is just a lull, but I think that I may give up actively studying Slovak for at least the first few months of 2016 (I have another project or two lined up anyway) and then see how I feel after that.
What I do feel – 100% – is that this 6WC is one of the most successful I’ve ever taken part in and I have most definitely made progress. That is down to the amount of time I’ve had to study and my organisation, but it’s also down to the knowledge that I would be writing an update on this blog, which pushed me to make progress even if I wasn’t really feeling like it. Accountability doesn’t half effect the amount I procrastinate!
The next 6WC will be in February 2016, so I hope some of you will join me in that. (And it still gives you a while to pick your language!) For anyone who took part this time: well done! And though I’ll be back again this week with posts, I just wanted to wish you all a Happy New Year now anyway. I hope it’s been a good 2015! 🙂