2023 Language Learning Recap + Reflections

If you like copious metaphors, reflections on my year, and a recap of how my year of language learning went, then boy do I have the video for you (it's this one).
✨ Check out my goals for this year
↳ • My 2024 Language Goals...
Thank you to my current patron Josh K for supporting my content! I appreciate you so much :)
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↳ / polyglotprogress
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↳ polyglotprogress.com/
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✨About/FAQ
↳ Hi! I’m Abigail (she/they). I love learning languages and using them to live a multilingual life. I post videos sharing my honest experience learning, improving, and maintaining multiple languages, and tips and advice based on the things I've learned along the way. My goal is to create a supportive community of people who love languages and the things we can do with them as much as I do! My current languages-- English (native), French, German, Spanish, Italian, and Bulgarian.
✨ Music
↳ share.epidemicsound.com/1vufuq
✨ Chapters
0:00-4:57 Year Recap
4:57-6:55 Some Accomplishments
6:55-9:00 2023 Language Stats
9:00-13:04 French Check-In
13:04-13:54 German Check-In
13:54-14:59 Spanish Check-In
114:59-18:00 Italian Check-In
18:00-19:21 Bulgarian Check-In
19:21-20:39 ASL Check-In
20:39-21:13 Outro
✨ Disclaimer
↳ This video is not sponsored.

[@klaudiamultilingual]

It's so good to see someone sharing honest reflections about yearly goals and not pretending like everything always has to go in a super amazing way. I feel you so much. There are so many factors that can influence your language learning or any other goals that you have made for yourself, but we often end up blaming ourselves for all the unchecked boxes on the goals list. At some point I started feeling extremely discouraged by the image that people try to maintain in social media and make you feel bad about yourself if something doesn't go according to plan and I still feel that's it's hard to get away from this vicious circle. So I really appreciate that you make a content that is honest and inspiring. I remember binge watching a lot of your videos, when I first came upon your channel and I loved all the long natural talkative videos, so I'm glad you're back :))

[@kandyviris]

well.... i think 2023 was a shitty year for a lot of us... and just now you made me realize I am falling in a trap with chinese, once I felt guilty for trying out Italian because Chinese is meant to be my main language... but i shouldn't feel this way... thank you for sharing your reflections... I hope this year 2024 will be amazing for you and all of us ❤

[@PolyglotProgress]

It's such an easy trap to fall into! Wishing you the best this year too

[@SurprisedPika666]

Don't be so hard on yourself. I'm a year older than you and also had a pretty crappy year and then had an existential crisis this january. I was so stressed that I almost quit learning languages altogether. But don't worry. Surround yourself with friends and family and you will find your way. It's almost impossible to see light at the end of the tunnel while you're in it but just trust me. You'll find your way through. Just hold on. I also enjoy how open and honest you are about your struggles. The authenticity of this channel always warms my heart. So many people pretend to have it all together and it's refreshing to see real genuine emotion, especially on youtube.

[@bunnyteeth365]

Things haven't been going great with Hebrew for the past two years. In 2022 I could stay consistent, but my progress was bad. I was starting to get stressed out by the idea of reading and listening to Hebrew. I sort of improved my reading, but it was stressful and hard. 2023 was even harder. I was finding it super hard to be consistent and of course I barely noticed progress. I was also realizing I lost touch with the reason I wanted to learn Hebrew in the first place. I had a vague but intense interest in Judaism at one point. It got even more intense when I discovered I have distant Jewish ancestry. Even though I realized that, I knew language learning in general played an important role in my life. Which is one reason I started Hebrew in the first place. I was in a deep depression and I knew I enjoyed language learning. Hebrew was what I was the most interested in even though I didn't have the best reason to learn it. I think in about February or March 2023 I "officially" started learning Finnish. It was the main language I would dabble in. Mainly because it was sort of fun and interesting, but I didn't have the best reasons to learn it. I also do better with not too many languages at once. I didn't want to take any time away from Hebrew. For most of the year I was sort of studying both languages at once. That made me wishy washy about both, but it's the only thing that made sense. I find the beginner level super boring and at least I can do more interesting things with Hebrew. I sort of naturally like Finnish more, so I thought I didn't have to put effort into liking the language. I was wrong. My study routine was super boring and I wasn't ready to take a break from Hebrew. So I took a month or two off of Finnish. When I got back into it I forgot a bit, but not too much. I was ready to make things more interesting. It was still hard to manage studying two languages at once. One day towards the end of September I was just super fed up with Hebrew. I decided to just watch a Finnish KZbin video even though I didn't think my level was good enough. I didn't do as badly as I thought. The video even had captions, so there was something for me to work with. It wasn't a total waste of time. After that I decided to make a bunch of Anki cards and get even more into Finnish. Since I was burnt out by Hebrew for a while, I decided I should just take a break. It's pretty funny this happened right before Israel declared war. Perfect timing. Just like I started being able to understand Hebrew podcasts right when the COVID lockdown started. My goals for Hebrew are just to get back in touch with why I wanted to learn it. I think that's been my goal for the last two years, but I haven't been able to really achieve it. Maybe a break will help. I already miss studying Hebrew once in a while. For Finnish it's still yet to be defined. I'm still not sure what's realistic. I'm already starting to sort of be able to follow what's going on in KZbin videos, so maybe I'll be able to actually understand those KZbin videos soon.

[@sonjah.6209]

I'm sending you a lot of positive energy and hope this year will be much better for you!

[@PolyglotProgress]

Thank you so much!

[@pamelar774]

I'm really sorry to hear that your year wasn't that good :( I truly hope you can do and feel better in 2024 and I'm happy to see you back here! Rooting for you and your new goals

[@PolyglotProgress]

Thank you

[@daniel.mojimaki]

As a longtime fan of yours, I want to thank you so much for sharing this with us all, kaj dankon pro ĉio vi faras.

[@saintfuki]

you're one of my favorite language learning creators because of how real you are! i struggled a lot last year as well and i'm only just now beginning to get a better grip on everything. all i have to say is: to a great year with lots of learning!!

[@PolyglotProgress]

I hope 2024 is great for you!

[@AmbassadorSoriano]

I let go of having multiple language goals halfway through the year in order to focus on career. By goals, I mean carving additional space in my life to achieve a higher level. I still have a French club I see just about every week because we do a lot of activities together. I also watch Lingopie about 2-3 hours a week instead of Netflix or any other streaming platform. But it's more maintenance or pure enjoyment, and I never feel pressured to learn more. I attempted Polish for 2 months. Having a background in Russian helped. But I gave up because it's not an overall life goal. I am in the same boat with German as you are with Italian. I started 2023 with a couple months of German. I really struggled to find a motivation other than just to flex. I wanted to take it from A2 to a solid B1. But I don't have it in me right now. I am starting to dip my toe in learning Russian (A2) again. I have many Russian speaking friends to practice with (though it gets dicey when I speak Russian to some Ukrainians). I don't see myself having a tutor anytime soon, or studying my grammar book. But I like watching KZbin videos of my content creators. Thanks for the video update. It still sounds like you had a good year.

[@PolyglotProgress]

It sounds like you've built a really great maintenance routine!

[@AmbassadorSoriano]

@@PolyglotProgress I just like spending time a few nights a week watching KZbin or reading. It just so happens that I do it in French. I maintain my languages only because I have so many friends who speak different languages.

[@joreneelanguages]

I hope your 2024 is so much better!! I always appreciate your honesty and perspective

[@PolyglotProgress]

Thank you!!

[@melaniegrace7707]

Congrats on the website! It’s ok to take time to recuperate - I’m happy to see you upload again and am excited to see what’s to come moving forward

[@PolyglotProgress]

Thank you so much!

[@johnguzmandiaz]

Hi! It's interesting to see that we've had basically the same problem. On your 2022 recap video I commented that I was feeling the exact same as you and funny enough I still do in your 2023 recap. For good or for bad lol. Your words always inspire me and encourage me to keep going even when I think I'm a failure. Thanks for your encouragement and let's see if by the end of 2024 we feel the same again, but this time positively haha. Cheers!

[@PolyglotProgress]

Hopefully this year we both get to say we had a great year!

[@BlakeFealy]

Thank you for sharing your lower moments on language learning, as someone who beats themselves up over failing through a few months, it helps to see that I am not the only one every now and then.

[@PolyglotProgress]

And thank YOU for reminding me that it's not just me!

[@claireabadie3981]

So happy to see you back!

[@PolyglotProgress]

Happy to be back! Hopefully for the year this time haha

[@J17891]

Sorry you had a bad year! I’m happy to watch your new videos. I started the year feeling inspired to study Spanish but by August I got a beginner Norwegian book. I’ve been so inconsistent with both languages but it’s still been fun 😅 I still want to study Mandarin cause that’s my friend’s first language but I struggle to choose a resource and stick to it

[@PolyglotProgress]

Sometimes fun is what we need haha!

[@Tighris]

I'm sorry to hear about your bad year :( Mine was amazing, speaking about language learning. I made a lot of progess in french and even visited france for vacation where I could actually use it (I learn mostly throu books, KZbin and podcasts). I also thought about adding russian to my learning schedule but I still enjoy french so much and still hava a lot of things to improve on. I pretty much would like my french to be on my english level before I start another language. Let's see what 2024 brings. I don't have very specific goals, just to spend time with the languages, having fun and integrating them into my life.

[@PolyglotProgress]

I'm glad you had such a successful year! Wishing you the best for 2024!

[@janiceknepp4604]

You aren't the only one who had a bad year last year, I recently got a full time job so finding time to focus on my languages is very difficult let alone trying to find a good balance between the now four languages I learn, Korean, Chinese, ASL and now Igbo which is my boyfriend's native language. I'm hoping that this year I can not only find the time but find the right balance as well any suggestions would be great

[@eldredsashes]

Je suis désolé que l’année 2023 était très mauvaise pour vous. J’espère que cette année sera meilleure. J’adore la couleur de vos cheveux.😊

[@loraivanova8635]

I'm a Bulgarian and I don't manage to have conversations in Bulgarian for 30 minutes to an hour. 😂 Jokes aside, I was watching the whole video waiting for you to mention Bulgarian. When you said it was the language you made the most progress in, I was like "YES 🥳"! I'm looking forward to new videos in Bulgarian or about Bulgarian. Good luck with all other languages as well. As to my language experience in 2023 I can say it definitely was a good year for my language learning process. 2022 was absolutely awful but 2023 was dedicated to my Greek and Turkish and I can say I improved my skills so much, I made such incredible progress for one year that I couldn't made for 5 years before that. In December I finally came back to Romanian after a 2-year-long pause and I'm really excited about it.

[@ErnieTheDailyLearner]

Seems 2023 was a tough year, I can relate. I took a break from Italian and back with it in 2024. Can, I makr a suggestion. Keep watching ASL videos from time to time, you’ll be surprised how much you can learn. Blessings in 2024!

[@PolyglotProgress]

That's a great suggestion! I definitely should keep watching things in it. Good luck with your Italian this year!

[@Diana.Lingual]

I'm sorry 2023 was rough, I hope you meet your 2024 goals!! If you need any Spanish practice, let me know!!

[@PolyglotProgress]

Thank you!

[@buddhistbeer4409]

only honest language channel so much love

[@PolyglotProgress]

[@paulwalther5237]

I get burned out studying one language I can’t imagine trying to improve on several at once.

[@annap1871]

Hi, don't worry. I had a looong break in language learning during University. It was so frustrating, but what could I do? Sometimes you have to choose and not always what you want.

[@PolyglotProgress]

Very true. Happy New Year!

[@Brighht]

So you stopped with bulgariaaan??? noooooooooooooooooo, this was my way to understand starting conversations

[@PolyglotProgress]

Oh no, I definitely didn't stop! I haven't met with my tutor recently, but I'm very much so still learning Bulgarian and you'll definitely see more videos about it in the future :)

[@Brighht]

@@PolyglotProgress I hope you stick to it! If you want, i can also recommend to you my online tutor. She is very friendly!

[@jackchen8367]

you are the best