Baseline self-assessment in all languages that I'm learning

So far, I have finished 6 lessons, using the Assimil with Ease series in 5 languages, and the first lesson with the Czech step-by-step book. With Assimil's first 50 lessons, I just plan to listen and to translate them from the language I'm learning into English in Google Docs. Also, I'm putting vocabulary into Anki decks to remind me later what I have studied. After lesson number 51, I will go back to the first lesson and translate it back from English into the language that I'm learning. That is the so-called active state. With the Czech language, I will try to translate some short texts first from Czech to Serbian, then the next day vice versa. We shall see how it goes. 

First impressions:

- Spanish goes really easily since I'm mainly doing vocabulary that I understand. Nothing new for now, but I'm trying to put every word into an Anki deck, just to memorize it easily

- Italian simple words so far, but I'm noticing that they are more complicated than Spanish ones. It will take more time to remember them. 

- German, I was surprised that I know so many basic words. It turns out that 7 years of learning it at school left some impact on me. 

- French: This one is by far the hardest. I never heard these words in my life, and written and spoken language seem quite different. I will have to introduce some other source for this language, like Language Transfer (free online) or the Michel Thomas course (the expensive one). 

- Russian first lessons are really short and nothing new for me. The only new thing is that I'm using Anki decks to catch them all. Vocabulary is really simple so far. I'm translating it into English using Google Docs, and I plan to go back later and translate it from English to Russian. That will be a real test. 

-Czech is the only one that I'm learning without Assimil. I hate course textbooks, but this one seems pretty good. The first lesson was ok, nothing new so far. 

Mixing languages so far has been really minimal, but I'm just starting. Real test will come in the second phase, when I start translating it from English to ltarget language. I get so bored easily, maybe I will do two lessons per day. Can't wait to finish everything. The speaking part will come when I finish with ease series. 

Keywords: Assimil, Anki, Language transfer, Michel Thomas, Google Docs

Learning 6 Languages at the Same Time: My Experiment

Hello everyone let me introduce myself. My name is Darko and I'm 35 years old desperate polyglot from Bosnia and Herzegovina. I have been trying to learn second foregin language for years now. I have passed C2 English exam in May 2023 and now I would like to focus on other languages. Short history with langauges I'm going to learn: 

    - Russian, I started learning 10 years ago, but I never managed to pass it beyond the basics

    - Italian, I finished A1 level in 2015 and never had a chance to practise it 

    - Spanish I understand well because I grew up on Spanish-speaking TV shows when I was a kid. This will be the easier part of the blog

    - Czech I studied at the university 10 years ago, but I forgot it. My native language is Serbian, so I'm speaking some Slavic Esperanto as a mixture of Russian, Czech, and Serbian. Would be interesting to see how I separate those languages.

    - German, I had it for 7 years in school, but I was never able to understand it. We shall see how it goes with this new method that I'm using

    - French sounds really hard, and the reason why I will study this language is that I got a free copy of a French textbook.

The reason why I'm doing 6 languages at the same time is the fact that I did them all before, and I never saw someone try it. The plan is to upgrade this blog into a YouTube channel where I will talk about strategies and plans how to learn a language. 

The method that I will be using is Assimil with ease series for all languages. Maximum one short lesson per day for 5 languages. I will do Assimil Using series next for French, Spanish, and German. Italian and Russian, I will move to audiobooks when I finish the With Ease series. For Czech, I was not able to find an Assimil course, so I will be usingthe  Czech step-by-step book. It goes up to B1, which is more than enough.

Later on, I will move to talking with native speakers who want to practise Serbian or English. The goal is to have a nice conversation with them. Nothing too complicated. 

Why Desperate Polyglot? As I said, I started numerous times and failed. Also, I'm in desperate need of time and money. The reason I'm learning 6 languages is that I have a very short, yet very good, focus. I think I will be able to focus on a short lesson, such as Assimil.