My 2014 language challenge - German and Swedish

Exams approaching quickly, Polyglot Gathering is only 2 months away, meanwhile my languages are on a very low levels. After wondering, thinking and cursing under my breath I decided NOT to learn any new language before the Polyglot Gathering, but to work on my current languages, so I can use them correctly and confidently when this big event arrives...

Yesterday I planned a new challenge that will start today and end in three months...yeah, after the Gathering, but it doesn't matter.

Languages I am going to study are my worst languages: Swedish and German.

SWEDISH
I live in Sweden, I go to a school here and I use this language a lot...but I still think that there is something missing in my Swedish...and that's why I set these particular goals for this language:

- Improve on my pronunciation and learn Gothenburg dialect (I live in Gothenburg).
- Increase my vocabulary, so I won't have many problems with reading more complicated texts about biology, history and other subjects that I am probably going to need to understand for school.
- Reach C1 or C2 level (Not very important, but it would be nice).

GERMAN
I am studying German on a quite high level for somebody who's been learning this language  for only 8 months. My teacher told me that I can write our final exam on a lower level and repeat the level I am at right now next year, but I want to finish this god damned level and get a good grade. That's why I would like to improve on my German. Also in June I am heading to Berlin for Gathering and I really want to be able to function in German as best as I can, so this is a good motivating factor...

My goals are:
- Improve on my listening comprehension so I can understand more than a half of what's said on the radio.
- Get more confident. Practice speaking so even if I lack vocab, I can still speak confidently.
- Increase my vocabulary so I can read newspapers with a good level of understanding. If I could read books by Anne Rice and understand them, then I would be even happier.
- Maybe reach B2 level...it would be nice...and it seems possible..

I am going to do a journal in which I will be writing everyday about what I did, what I learned and waht I would like to learn next. I am going to write in the respective languages.

Main tasks are going to be based on using languages rather than „learning” grammar rules. With Swedish I will listen, read novels, speak with my friends and do some writing, while with German I will do the same stuff but I will also study a little bit of grammar because I lack some skills there...

That's it! I will try to update you on YT, but I don't know how often. It would be nice to do a public challeng so people can watch and follow my journey. I'll figure something out soon.

Bye!

Am I losing my mother tongue?!

Hello people!
The first REAL post on this blog is going to be about a problem that I encountered quite recently. Simply, I realized that when I am speaking Polish (my mother tongue), I am making horrible mistakes when it comes to syntax and even declensions. Before I came to Sweden in 2011, I knew fluently only one language. Now, I am quite fluent in 3 and I can communicate in another 2. Also since then English became my first-second language and I am using it more than Swedish, even though I live in Sweden.

I can't say that my Polish is bad. I am quite educated with big enough vocabulary to not sound dumb, but since few months, I started to make mistakes that I would never make before. This is creepy and I need to consider improving on my Polish.

It was long ago I watched something in Polish or even listened to radio. My day is simply full of any other languages and my daily "language schedule" looks like this:

- School: Swedish, English, German, occasionally Serbian or Russian.
- Home: Some Polish with my mom, English, Swedish, German, Norwegian, Serbian and many others while using internet (listening, chatting, watching stuff and writing blogs)
- Outside: Some Polish with one of my friends, English and Swedish with everybody else (more English actually)

This little "schedule" shows that Polish is the language I am using least. Does that mean that I am slowly "losing" it and that in a few years I'll be speaking like Yoda? Maybe...

I think it is time to improve on my poor and abandoned Polish. How could I ever let it happen?!
My mission for this week, since I have holidays, is to read at least one challenging book in Polish. A book that will teach me something new and that is written in some harder language. I have few of those on my shelf, so only reading is left.

I hope you enjoyed reading this horrible, literal failure. I would like to get better at writing but I keep standing in one place and I don't see any improvements. This blog is slowly going to hell and I don't know if I can do anything about it.

Peace...