Eight Languages. Eight Years.

Introduction

Greetings to the blogging world! I go by "dystopianist" online, a portmanteau of "dystopian" and "pianist". I view societal equilibrium as a place filled with suffering, and I like to play the piano for fun.

I've thought about learning languages for a long time. I've played word games competitively since I was six and played poker to fund my university tuition. I am exceptionally competitive, but have stepped away from competitive strategy gaming in recent years. Simply, I am past my gaming prime and am moving on to new adventures. I am riddled with the phenomena known as "ladder anxiety" and want to have a more fulfilling passion. As my word game history has had me interested with letters and parts of speech for many years, I always thought that acquiring a language might be rewarding. However, I've been on and off with the language of my heritage (Mandarin Chiinese) for over ten years now and passive learning just doesn't do the trick.

I'm convinced that adults with busy jobs can learn just as well as children. I've read countless studies on neuroplasticity in children and why they can pick up multiple languages with ease. I've met people who can speak multiple languages; who have acquired multiple languages. I've come to accept where I am and what I fully believe I am capable of. I want to show that with planning, hard work and dedication, anybody can maximize their potential.

"If you couldn't learn a language in ten years, what makes you think you can learn two, three, seven, or N languages?" Taking on any project is an exercise in constant doubt. There's no way to determine if the doubts are correct unless I try.

Vanity and Privilege

Is this project vain? Yes, it is. Part of my ego requires me to impress those around me. I'm grateful to have a career where English will be sufficient for my existence. There's no business-driven reason to learn another language. My survival doesn't depend on it. I have the privilege of choosing to spend my time on this.

Finding Truth

I believe the world is a real wreck right now. It always has been, and disparity is growing. I believe that having a better understanding of culture is one way to improve my understanding of how the world works. How cultures collide. How countries work together, how they work against each other. I believe we have the moral responsibility to understand each other. I can't read a room. I'm awkward at parties. I can't make small talk. I love documentaries and opinion pieces. I want to read the other side of the story for myself. How can I have an opinion on a global topic when my source of information is heavily biased by the language it's written in?

I love to travel and learn about other cultures. I want to gain insight on the world to get closer to the truth. Not as if there is a grand unifying theory that ties the world together. I want to understand the truth to the best of my ability. That makes it uniquely my own truth. This is the self fulfillment that every lifelong learner dreams of. This is the vision that inspires relentless motivation. This is the closest I've come to a calling in my life.

Motivations and goal setting go hand in hand. In order to understand my truth, what is the minimum I need to know? This is a map of the English-speaking world: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/English-speaking_world

 

By Chubit - Own work, CC BY-SA 4.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=109784011

Goal Setting and Reasons

I intend to learn the languages necessary to interact with the media sources from non-English sources. That means that I must be able to:

1. Read online news sources in their original language.
2. Listen or watch a news broadcast and understand it.
3. Have a conversation about current events and daily life with locals from any stage in life.
4. Enjoy popular culture like movies, books, or music.
   

The languages I am planning to learn, in order (subject to change,) are:

1. Mandarin Chinese
2. Japanese
3. French
4. Arabic
5. Spanish
6. Russian
7. German
8. Italian

I consider myself in the late-beginner stages of Mandarin, and have very limited exposure to Japanese and French. Past that, I have almost zero experience in the remaining five languages. This order is arranged for somewhat specific reasons:

• I should be able to reach my desired fluency in Mandarin within a year.
• I have a trip scheduled for Japan in 2024.
• As a Canadian, I have some exposure to French and believe my English understanding will help with vocabulary.
• Arabic represents a large population of non-Anglophones. This is the language least related to any other on the list, and I want to use the experience I've gained by this point to go after a "hard" language.
• Spanish is a "break" from hard languages. A well-deserved break.
• Russian is an opportunity to pick up yet another alphabet.
• German "rounds out" the European languages.
• Bonus language! I don't know if I can acquire 8 languages (that's almost one a year) so one more European language to celebrate my love of food.

Languages are fluid. Most people won't ever know the full breadth of their main language. The point is to know enough to converse, not to speak natively or fit in with the locals. It's a sign of respect for the culture and a thirst for knowledge. Passive understanding. Languages and etymology unravel cultural history in a way that cannot be taught.

July 2030 I will be 40 years old. By then I hope to continue down this journey to find my truth. I hope you join me. I hope you watch. I hope this blog serves as a reference for tools, methods, and motivation for fellow learners. This journey will not end. Though one day I will pass, the journey of language-learners worldwide will live on. The insatiable hunger for knowledge is not a unique trait.

Welcome to the blog.

Welcome to The Nth Language.