Language Tracker

May 20

I started learning languages in middle school, I took Spanish and continued for 4 years. Later, that allowed me to travel to Spain where I taught English privately through art.

Language learning didn’t feel like a hobby until I got Crohn’s disease and lived with my cousins. My cousin Kimmy was 8 at the time and we started learning French for fun. By the time she graduated high school recently, she had 7 years of Korean and 4 years of ASL under her belt. I asked Stephen, who’s fluent in computer parts, what language he would learn and he said Latin. So for Christmas gifts, Kimmy gets a Language Tracker and art supplies, and Stephen gets food labeled in Latin. When I think of language learning, it’s a little bit of what I did in school but moreso giving cousin energy.

Since 2020, I’ve been dabbling in Spanish, German, and Japanese. I would walk around my neighborhood with Japanese flashcards but that technique didn’t stick so I did some language-learning research and designed a tracker for a relaxed studious approach.

I designed it to be interactive enough that I would want to use it and give it a sense of time so that it would keep me on my toes. It’s spaced out to be completed about one box a day but since I missed a few months, I’m filling it up as much as I want.

Creating a mood board alongside my Language Tracker helps guide what words to learn and builds a stronger connection to my eventual goals.

A soft goal or ten-year goal of mine is to learn as much German as I know Spanish. I mainly play language games like Duolingo and watch Comedy Central that’s shown in Germany and I’m getting a lot of enjoyment from understanding what I didn’t before. I write down words, phrases, and notes and when there are commercials or ads, I review them. I read and spell out loud and this uses the speaking, hearing, reading, and writing parts of my brain to create more neural pathways.

The Japanese writing system is comprised of three alphabets: Kanji, Hiragana, and Katakana. A measurable goal or hard goal for me is to be able to phonetically read Hiragana and Katakana by 2025.

I’m inspired by people in my life who have learned languages like Mollie who speaks Spanish, German, and French and has lived in France, Jill who speaks Japanese and has lived in Japan, and Melody who speaks Japanese and lived in Japan in the 80s. I consider them influencers because they worked hard and it brought them so much adventure.

Learning languages has been so much easier after implementing meditation into my life. Compared to when I was stressed out, learning a language took 5x times longer so it felt like a huge task that I could never accomplish. Implementing stillness regularly keeps my mind gentle, malleable, and attentive which makes a big difference in mechanizing memory and retrieving information.

Some languages are more difficult than others but it’s really a matter of perspective. If you have an interest in learning a language but it feels impossible, meditation will cure you. I proved it to myself and you can too by learning for yourself and tracking it.

Learning a language is more than speaking in another country. The process for me electrifies the far reaches of my brain, expanding my mental capacity, and bringing me joy.

2021 Seattle, WA / Language Tracker for Spanish and German

2023 Three Rivers, CA / Melody lending me The Yoga of Time Travel and other words of wisdom. Mollie and Jill are featured in Hanging Out.

May 19th, 2024

Emily Kosciuk

Language Tracker

Cushion Cover

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