While I am pretty busy teaching, coaching, searching for students, writing and occasionally practicing guitar, I still feel I have energy for one more project. I find that I am able to follow my internet semi-fasting (where I don't use youtbe or social media messaging apps for about 12 hours of my waking day, but that my so-called productivity and my excitement has kind of plateaued. I feel as if I've gone from 20% full power to about 50% full power, but I'm not really moving beyond that.
A big reason for this is that I am spending a lot of time stretching and self-massaging to improve my back. It's something I need to do and it's fun cause I get to learn a lot about the meridians of the body and their pressure points. But I can end up spending up to 2 hours a day doing this in combination with exercise and meditation. If it's after my internet-fast period, I'll watch some youtube or tv show. None of those shows or videos really excite me though. I feel as if I'm just searching for something to do while I stretch.
I was hoping to use some duolingo to study another language or brush up on my Japanese or Chinese during this time and I haven't had much motivation to do so. So I came up with a new plan.
30 Days of ________
As long as I am spending most of my time at home, I want to keep track of the time somehow and have some goal that is specific to this time at home, something that I can keep an interesting diary of.
I had planned on travelling a lot this summer. I wanted to go to Indonesia, Malaysia, Spain, Portugal and Germany. I was hoping that maybe the year after that I could try to go to South Africa, Nigeria, Ethiopia, and Uganda if I could figure out the logistics. Obviously things aren't going to go as planned. So I thought of a way to do it from home and prepare myself to have a much more rich experience when I finally can travel.
30 days of
- lite language learning
- documentaries
- a little historical background
- vlogs about culture
- sharing my learning experience
- making new friends from Hive and apps to practice the language
- music and film from that country.
This is not the primary goal of my life right now which is why I say "lite language learning". I still need to prioritize work and writing but I want to put just a little bit of time into this every day. I will think of it like a background to my every day life at home. I think it will blend pretty seamlessly into my daily routine.
One other positive side effect is: It's something to get people focusing on besides Corona! So I hope I can keep it up and I welcome anyone who wants to do the same. I'll be using the tag #30daysof and posting to the communities of said culture
These are the cultures I personally will be choosing from every month
Indonesian
I planned to visit Bali last year but I ended up with job before I planned on having one and so I skipped it. @macchiata has been a great friend at Hive for almost 2 years. I go to a bar run by an Indonesian friend pretty often and I've met soooo many Indonesians there. It's the 5th largest population in the world, and I literally knew nothing about it a year and a half ago. It's also said to be a really easy language, and our friends have lots of connections to Indonesia. So I'll be starting with Indonesian.
Cantonese
I've spent a lot of time in Guangzhou and Hong Kong and have countless friends and acquaintances who speak Cantonese. When spoken softly, I think it's the most beautiful language of Asia, when spoken loudly it's ridiculous. The way you can use bad language is an art. Hong Kong is, in my opinion, the center of the world. I've already studied a bunch but never really got fluent. So this is a given!
Spanish
How many countries speak Spanish? How many Hivesters speak Spanish? If that's not enough, I spent 6 years learning it in high school and cause I didn't care back then, I didn't learn to actually speak. Now I know how to learn a language and care and so it will be much more fun. After Europe and Africa, I do eventually want to do a long trip in South America. @trucklife-family and @vincentnijman, two of my favorite people are based in Spanish and Portugese speaking places (If I speak spanish I can probably understand a bit of Portugese and Italian :-D) There are just too many reasons for learning Spanish. When I visit my grandma in the US, all her neighbors speak it too.
German
This was not originally on my list but I just keep connecting with more and more people in Asia with some ties to Germany. Aside from the 3 or 4 German friends I've made, some of my best friends are Japanese and Chinese who are fluent in German. Everyone loves Berlin, and it seems my friends are becoming more and more connected to Europe through Berlin so it's a must. My friends have also lived in Leipzig, Hamburg, and random country areas.
African?
I don't really know where to start with Africa. I would love to learn an African language but I don't feel a particular pull to any one of them. This is mostly because every single one of my 10 or so African friends and acquaintances seem to have different mother tongues. I'm a little pulled to Zulu and Xhosa because of some of the South African music I've heard. I really want to see what the black South African community has to offer now that they seem to have more and more of a presence on the international stage. But I'm also really moved by all the wonderful Nigerians I've met at Hive and made friends with a wonderful Ugandan couple and Ethiopian family in Tokyo. I don't choose stuff randomly anymore, so I will wait to see which African culture pulls me the most or if I just need to keep it general and focus more on culture than language so I can learn about the endless culture of Africa.
Japanese
I live in Japan, and I've studied it for a long time. I do want to become fluent enough to read at a decent speed again though, and increase my damn vocabulary. So there is that. 同になれば、日本のHIVE Communityともっとつながりたい！
The others
Italian and French have always seemed so close to me. ARABIC WOAH what a challenge that I'd love to give myself, and while I'm at it why not Hebrew. And Hindi! India is much like Africa, I don't know where to start and so I just put it off.
I think we have enough with Indonesian, Spanish, Cantonese, German, and potentially some African language to last a while. I don't even know if I'll be able to keep this going. I've got to stay dedicated, so we will see, but anyways, let's go Indonesia!
Indonesian Day 0
Today I watched a pretty old documentary about random tribes. It wasn't the best but I have 0 context so today is mostly about figuring out what I'm going to be watching this month.
I realized I still don't know numbers so I practiced those. I turned it into a song.
Satu, dua, tiga
empat, lima, enam
tujuh, delapan
Then I got my self introduction down pat:
Selamat Siang, nama say Zack, Senang bertemu dengan anda.
Apa Kabar?
I am watching a video with all the common phrases again but I'm not finished with it so that's all. I'll be back to some grammar tomorrow.
I'll try to find more interesting stuff to share with ya'll and I'll get a little blog going in bahasa Indonesia so I can hopefully engage with some Indonesian users.
What documentaries or topics should I check out to learn about Indonesia? Any topic is welcome, but hopefully something interesting.
And @macchiata,don't hate my for eating the wrong noodles, ok?
If you would like to try something similar let me know and maybe we could do it together. I would love to study Indonesian with someone else (@ryivhnn looking at you!!) or if you want to study another language or culture I would love to watch your progress. Like I said, I'll be using the #30daysof tag and posting in the community for that language.
Love you guys, stay well.
