Oof, it’s been a while since I posted. Of late I’ve felt that what I post needs to be worthy in some way I’m not sure exists, and that’s prevented me from hitting “publish.” I also wasn’t happy with my last book review post. (And I’ve read 30 more books since then. Do I have it in me to review all of them?)

In any case, I’ve decided that I’m going to post about things I find interesting or projects I’m working on without worrying about whether it fits into an overall theme or contributes to a personal brand. Keep reading if you like. Or don’t. It’s up to you.

Last week I finished the Swedish “tree” on Duolingo. I’d hit a point of just not caring during the last few units, so I had to push myself to finish them. I didn’t feel a sense of accomplishment as I approached the end, just a grim determination to get it over with already. And was there a celebration or (even an acknowledgement) on the app when I finished? Nope, just a new screen for a daily review. So “finishing” wasn’t quite worth it as a goal. In general, I’d recommend Duolingo for vocabulary building–I’ve occasionally noticed words from the lesson I’d just finished in an episode of Livet på lätt svenska. But keep in mind that memorizing words is not the same thing as learning a language. There’s that pesky grammar part of it as well, which Duolingo mostly avoids tackling.

However, a few months ago when I was obsessively hitting the French lessons in Duolingo, I discovered that I was able to understand the French conversations in Agatha Christie: An Autobiography. That fact made me consider returning to Duolingo French now that I’m done with Swedish. I reset my progress, so I’m back to the beginning. I’ve also bought a few French textbooks, but I’m a little nervous about diving in on my own, without a class/teacher.

Speaking of which . . . because of scheduling conflicts, I recently had to decide between my weekly Swedish class at ASI and my community band rehearsals. I chose to stick with the band–after all, we just went on an international tour of Estonia, Latvia, and Lithuania in late July. Though I have to say goodbye to my Swedish cohort, I’ll still be learning Swedish via a translation class starting in September. We’ll be reading Bröderna Lejonhjärta (The Lionheart Brothers) by Astrid Lindgren, who also wrote Pippi Longstocking. And I’m looking at language learning opportunities for next summer, though that’s still a long way off.

Here’s hoping that I’m able to keep the languages separate and that they don’t start interfering with each other. Lycka till!