Three Years!!

Remember “The Blob”? It was a horror movie from the 1950s, starring Steve McQueen, in which a red slimy blob from outer space kept eating people and growing bigger and then eating even more people. I saw it as a kid and found it extremely scary.

This language project sometimes makes me think of the Blob, even though it is entirely benign. It’s just that it keeps expanding! First I was going to finish after one year—so in the summer of 2010. Then I added a second year. That wouldn’t do either, so now I have added a third, thus committing me and my poor addled brain through July 31, 2012.

Expanding to three years allowed me to include two more languages, Polish and Dutch, which I felt were critical. I hear Polish here almost every day! And New York used to be New Amsterdam!

Adding a third year also allowed me to stretch out the time per language from two months to three (except for French, which I have studied previously and which I am therefore limiting to two). I am really happy about these changes.

For one thing, I did not want to leave Japanese after two months! That would have meant just a few more days after today—painful!