Polyglot In Progress
Issue #8: August 17 - August 30th
This report provides an overview of my language acquisition activities from August 17th to August 30th. The two weeks were steady overall, with Spanish and French continuing to lead in active input, while Telugu, Portuguese, and German moved forward in smaller but noticeable ways. New interventions: subtitles, Copywork , and grammar study created valuable disruptions that shifted my perspective.
Two Week’s Data
Spanish and French input hours via TV series were consistent, keeping both languages at the center of my acquisition process. Telugu saw balanced activity between Language Priming and Anki, revealing more tangible signs of progress. Portuguese and German were maintained through steady Language Priming. Missed several planned CBL sessions in French and Telugu; copywork highlighted decay in French productive skills despite high input volume.
The Good, The Bad and the Ugly
French
Comprehensible Input: I continued with Plus Belle La Vie S3, Episodes 728–780, completing the season. During binge-watching sessions, comprehension was high, prompting me to test subtitles to catch missed details. YouTube’s auto-subs were often wrong, so I quickly dropped them. By the last four episodes, French unexpectedly felt like “a language I was learning” rather than feeling a part of me, signaling some detachment. Sud Radio also played in the background throughout the period.
Mass Sentence w/ Anki: I only completed 100 reps in 36.92 mins in this period where I had a few encounters issues with the future, conditional tense indicated I have not mastered theses tenses yet, but overall articulation was generally fine.
AudioReading: I read several Substack articles from
who used clear language, I had a little trouble keeping up with the audio. The articles from were also easy to follow as she wrote about Veganism. I was able to easily keep up with the audio and I learnt a few vegan related vocabulary. Her content is educational and can be slightly opinionated.Copywork: I restarted this activity on Aug 28 with an article from le Journal de Québec titled Air Canada doit humaniser ses communications. Copying this article revealed significant gaps in verb forms and accent placement, confirming attrition in orthography.
Quick-Grammar:: Targeted practice on Passé Composé (PC) vs Imparfait (IMP) was done using Chatgpt as these areas still create friction in production and remain less automated.
Life Integration: French being one of my most recent languages and core languages has already been integrated in my life as a form of Entertainment (Listening & Reading), Social Communication and Journaling. However my emotional connection to the language is still weak thus needs further development.
Spanish
Comprehensible Input, I watched Al Fondo Hay Sitio Episodes (123-156)/190. Comprehension felt near native for most episodes. Subtitles were now added to clarify this new level of comprehension, which ultimately showed many missed vocabulary whether cultural or otherwise.
Life Integration: Spanish was also been integrated in my life as a form of Entertainment (Listening & Reading) and Social Communication (to a lesser extent than French now). I already have a deep emotional connection to the language via the music and my many travels to South America.
Portuguese - German
Language Priming (LP): I continued listening to book-related YouTube channels, vlogs, health videos, and dubbed anime. Exposure remains consistent, though comprehension is still at a low activation stage with no noticeable breakthrough moments this period.
Life Integration: Both languages are in their early stages so integration is not possible at this point, however Portuguese will require more effort than German due to it being a core language of mine. A deep emotional attached will be required for Portuguese.
Telugu
Language Priming: Daily input via web series and short films (12–62 min). Exposure continues, though productive skills remain minimal.
Mass Sentence w/ Anki: I completed 192 reps this period. Sentences were easier to articulate; even structural patterns like the conditional tense were recognized.
Life Integration: Telugu, my newest language, is not ready for integration as is, but it can be integrated before attaining than B1 level due to it’s application in Meditation and Cooking, however Social Communication still requires a higher level.
Slovene, Japanese and Mandarin
No activities schedules for these languages until 2026.
Psycholinguistic Review: What the Data Revealed
The data suggest two main things:
Spanish – Lexical enrichment. Episodes now feel natural to watch, with subtitles acting primarily as a tool for exposing vocabulary gaps marking a transition into lexical enrichment rather than global comprehension building.
French – Automaticity to Monitoring. Turning on subtitles briefly shifted processing from automatic to analytical mode. This reflects a temporary regression from proceduralized automaticity (fast, unconscious processing) back into declarative monitoring (slow, conscious checking).
Overall Language Activity to Date
Next 2-Week’s Goals
French: Intensive 2-week sprint to improve all skills.
Spanish: Maintain Daily Al Fondo Hay Sitio Episodes.
Telugu, Portuguese & German: Continue passive LP exposure and Mass Sentence with Anki.
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Je suis très contente de savoir que tu apprends le français avec Sois gentil. Merci de me lire!