On Wednesday, August 16, I’ll start my first 30 day language learning speed run.
As a target language I chose Portuguese, but mostly for practical reasons. I’ll be spending a week in Lisbon from September 7-14, so knowing some Portuguese would be handy. Given that I know some French and Spanish, I also expect Portuguese to be relatively easy. Not easy. But definitely relatively easier than, say, Japanese.
This is my plan:
I took a Portuguese language test yesterday and also did some self-assessment based on the CEFR language reference framework (see results below)
Starting on Wednesday, I’ll give myself 30 days to learn as much Portuguese as possible
I’ll only use free resources
At the end of the 30 days I’ll do another test and a second self-assessment
I haven’t made a specific plan yet for what I’m going to do in those 30 days. Part of the challenge is to figure this out along the way, so I’ll start thinking about that in detail on Wednesday.
My first steps will probably revolve around using the flashcard app Anki. With Anki, you can download and use flashcard decks created by other users. I’ll look for a vocabulary deck with the most frequent words. I’ll also be looking for basic grammar resources, particularly for conjugations. Maybe there is a good Anki deck for conjugations as well. I might also check out a few language learning apps along the way. Armed with some basic grammar and vocabulary I’ll look for a book to read (reading Portuguese and English side by side) and a good TV show to watch, as well as some podcasts or music to listen to.
If you have suggestions for any resources, I’m all ears!
My current language skills
(based on self-assessment)
German: Native speaker
English: C2
French: B2 (technically I have a C1 certificate, but really I’m not entirely sure I deserve it. My spoken French is fine, but I lack vocabulary and grammar and also I find French quite difficult to understand)
Spanish: B1
Turkish: A1? (barely… I maybe had A1 once, but sadly forgot most of it)
Italian: A1? (I had lessons in school for a year, but never was any good at it and wouldn’t be able to produce a single sentence now…)
My Portuguese language skills
Well I never learned any Portuguese in my life, so I guess my Portuguese skill level should be zero?
To make the progress a bit more measurable I decided to take an online test. The test I took asked 70 different questions with 4 answers to choose from. Annoyingly, my internet connection crashed after I had already answered the first 60 questions, so I had to do the test again (without seeing the answers, of course). This is what the test looked like:
Before I started the test, I was expecting to do rather badly. Sure, I knew some Spanish, but I’ve never studied any Portuguese before.
That was not what I had expected.
So what happened? I think the result doesn’t accurately reflect my language level, but is mostly due to the following factors:
The test often asked for vocabulary and conjugations that are very similar to the ones I know from Spanish
It was a multiple choice test. You don’t have to be able to actively produce knowledge - rather, it suffices to recognise the most likely answer. Also I spent 6 years studying Medicine and we only ever did Multiple Choice testing. Over time, I became quite good at it
I took the easier parts of the test twice - reading all those example sentences sometimes gave me a few clues for what the answers could be in other questions
I quickly took a second test which just asked for vocabulary (another Multiple Choice test, this time with 5 options). Here is the result:
I also took a quick listening test on the same site as the first one. That felt more difficult, but again most answers were pretty easy to answer even. Often, I only understood one or two words, which was usually enough to answer the question.
Self-assessment
All these tests don’t really inspire confidence. So here is a self-assessment based on the Common European Framework of Reference for Languages (CEFR):
Reading: A1/A2. I think words are often sufficiently similar to Spanish that I’d be able to understand basic sentences
Speaking: zero. I can say hello, but that’s about it.
Listening: A1. Probably not A2. Whenever I hear a word that’s sufficiently close to Spanish I might understand it. But listening comprehension isn’t my strong suit in any language…
Writing: zero zero. I don’t even now how to spell ‘hello’ in Portuguese…
So overall I’d say my passive understanding is a lot better than my ability to actively produce anything (which, of course, is zero…). Since online tests usually check understanding, rather than active speaking / writing, I tend to have an advantage there.
I’m curious to see how far ahead I can get in 30 days. See you all on Wednesday!