Rethinking languages...

Well my lovelies...

I've started the TAC, and I'm really enjoying it. It's an amazing idea, and a great challenge. It's so far been really forcing me to stick to my languages and stick to learning.

Throughout my study of World History in school, I've really found a renewed fascination in ancient cultures. This new fascination is really bringing me towards learning dead languages, to read their literature. It's mostly European languages, but what can I say? I loves me some Europe.

So I'm learning Hebrew, Finnish, and Portuguese for the TAC this year. That's a given, no matter what. This year though, I'm thinking about adding some other languages to my study, however not to my TAC. I'll be tracking their progress, but at all times my TAC languages will be my main focuses. I want to list the languages that I'm intersted in learning at this time and why:
The Right Nows:
Hawaiian
Turkish
Faroese

The "Someday"s:
Estonian
Georgian
Icelandic
French

Dead Languages:
Old Norse
Latin
Ancient Greek
Biblical Hebrew

The right nows are languages that I'd like to try at some point in the following year. Georgian, Estonian, Icelandic, and French are out because Estonian and French would very much "get in the way" of my TAC languages, Icelandic I just don't really want to do right now. :P Georgian is just too difficult to learn randomly for fun, I'm going to need some serious study and some serious motivation to learn it, maybe for the TAC '11.

Now then, Hawaiian is a language that I've been crushing on for quite some time, I'm not sure if I should dive in, but we'll see. A friend is really pushing me to learn it, but I'm wary, as it's an incredibly useless language for me, despite my love of it. Same for Faroese really, Turkish on the other hand would be wildly useful, and it would be a fabulous match to Hebrew. I'm being pushed pretty hard to Turkish myself, but right now I don't have any time to scratch my ass, let alone start another language. I'll be thinking more about it at a later date really. :P

See ya later alligator! <3

TAC - Total Anihilation Challenge!

I'm going to try to be a part of Unilang's total anihilation challenge. Essentially the TAC is simply you and your languages. You pledge yourself to study certain languages and document your progress throughout the following year.

This is EXACTLY what I want, to keep me strictly on track. It's going to be just what I wanted to help me along  on my journey through my languages. I signed up in a heart beat.

But now, I'm stuck with a problem. Which languages? Pooh, I'll definitely study Hebrew and Mandarin, but what of my other languages? I've posted previously about my language plans, and this will definitely impact it, but for the good I think.

I'm trying to decide between three other languages, two of which I will take with me into the TAC. I've narrowed it down to Levantine Arabic & MSA, Portuguese, and Finnish.

Arabic, specifically the Lebanese accent of MSA and the Levantine dialect, I've been wanting to learn for the longest time. I started it back last summer, but then I found Hebrew and fell in love. What can I say? But I still feel a strong tie to it, and most semitic languages, in all honesty. Islamic history and semitic grammar, nothing better than that! Well, except for Jewish history, that's just slightly more amazing.

Now, for Portuguese, it's a bit of a tumultuous relationship. I learned a little bit, back about a year ago this month. (Damn I'm old :P) I've been restruck with my interest, and I'd like to get back into it. Portuguese is a romance language, a family of languages that have held and always will hold my undying affection.

Finnish I've been learning for this time, along with Hebrew, but I seem to have hit a stand still. I've worked my way totally through my course, and I'm pretty happy with my level at this point, but I don't know where to go next...I plan to ask on the Finnish forum on UL and see what they have to say. Right now, I'd usually get a novel and peruse my way through it, learning vocab and usage along the way. But I've no way to get ahold of a Finnish book or periodical. I need something that I can mark in and highlight, not a PDF, although at this point I am getting a bit desperate. :P

Useful links:
Unilang's TAC
How to Learn Any Language's TAC