About Me

Hi everyone!

I created this blog to document my language learning journey.

My native language is English but I aspire to learn Korean, Spanish, Thai, Brazilian Portuguese, Vietnamese, Japanese, Indonesian, and hopefully in the future, Chinese Mandarin as well. I have had a desire to be multilingual since a very young age (around age 14) but I never knew how to do anything about it.

My History of Language Learning

I took a few compulsory Spanish classes at the beginner level from 2009 – 2012 but never retained anything besides basic phrases.

I bought my first Korean language books in November of 2016 but due to university assignments, and a part time job,  I have never made it past basic introductions. And after being rejected from the Critical Language Scholarship program, I lost my motivation to learn Korean.

All the other languages I want to learn, I have no experience with.

Goals

Spanish, Korean, Thai – To reach native or near native fluency in speaking, reading, and writing, and to be able to watch films/dramas without subtitles.

Japanese & Brazilian Portuguese – To reach an upper intermediate/advanced level and be able to watch movies/shows with minimal to no subtitles. I am hoping that becoming fluent in Spanish will make learning Portuguese a little easier, but I guess I will find out along the way 🙂

Vietnamese, Chinese Mandarin, Indonesian – For now, my goal is to reach everyday conversational skills.

My Blog

I created Speak Simply as a space to document my journey, and to share my experiences / overall love for languages. Self studying a language is super fun and I find it can also be quite therapeutic. My motivation to learn is in full effect and I hope to motivate other language learners along the way!

This blog will also contain any new things I discover and come to like such as music, tv & film, and cultural tidbits I pick up on this journey.

Happy studying ♥

2009 – 2012 > Compulsory beginner Spanish classes in school. Retained nothing.

November 2016 > Purchased my first Korean language book. Learned Hangeul and proper greetings.

All of 2017 > Life drama. Learned nothing.

March 2018 > Starting fresh!