Wow very impressive! It’s so beautiful that you can speak so many languages and you have such motivation to go on @Tam-Mandarin_Simplified_HSK_1 @crystal
And welcome @Nathaly-Mandarin_Simplified_HS ! I’m sure you can do it 
加油!
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No problem! I shortened my name because so many people had trouble saying Tamieka. 
edit to add: I think it’s time I add my picture…
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Very impressed with everyone’s goals and language skills 
当然，说中文！
I have two language goals this year:
- Main goal: pass Chinese Mandarin HSK-6
- Additional/bonus goal: reach intermediate Korean level (ideally Topik-4, or at the very least Topik-3). I started learning Korean about 3 months ago.
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How are you finding Korean compared to Mandarin Thierry?
I always find it interesting to draw comparisons between the two as opinion seems to differ so much.
I am delving into a bit of basic Korean this month also.
I am in my early stages of learning Korean, so it is difficult at this stage to draw a fair comparison. So far though, I am under the impression that reading Korean is way easier than Mandarin; on the other hand, Korean grammar seems to be way more difficult. So I assume both languages require a similar amount of tremendous learning effort, but for different reasons.
Note that the American FSI language ranking system ranks both Mandarin and Korean at difficulty level 5 (the highest level of difficulty for English native speaker).
FSI language difficulty (fsi-language-courses.org)
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That was an interesting read, thank you for sharing! I actually disagree that Mandarin, Japanese and Korean are " “super-hard languages” in Category 5, whilst Vietnamese is only in Category 4. I would’ve put Vietnamese in the most difficult language group.
Passing HSK 6 is the dream
Are you finding that it’s a big leap from HSK 5, or is it just a case of learning a lot more technical/niche vocab?
I’m actually not at HSK-5 yet (trying to get there in the next couple of months); I want to clear both HSK-5 and HSK-6 by the end of the year! 
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My pleasure!
They base the difficulty level on the << average amount of time it takes students to reach “Professional Working Proficiency ” >>. I was similarly a bit surprised to see French being listed in category 1 only. I would have placed French in Category 2, based on the (anecdotal) feedbacks of people who shared with me their experience about trying to learn French and its well-known difficult grammar.
Oh wow, that would be an amazing achievement 加油！！
Being a French native speaker myself I completely agree with you!
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Czech Czech Czech!!!
I just read that it is one of the top 10 tough languages to learn for English native speakers. I do want to get semi-fluent to fluent this year with Czech. The grammar is one big hinge which is what I am learning first, pronunciation and other aspects are easier than grammar.
Along with that, I learn Mandarin words daily in a passive way as I work in that environment so I think I can say a little bit of Mandarin in there too.
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Wow that’s a niche one!
You got this, Rushi. Keep us posted on your progress.
Little steps everyday…
多谢！
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Bumping this to see how people are getting on as we pass the halfway mark of the year.
Here is my quote from January 4th
“I typically get too caught up in changing language when I watch something on TV or travel somewhere! I want to stay focused on my 3 targets this year (Mandarin, Japanese and Italian) and just enjoy the journey.”
And here I am now… studying Korean 
I’ll never learn!
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Spanish - So, I finished a class in the fall and one in spring so I could focus more on the grammar. That worked out well, as I’m better able to know how to speak and write properly, which was my goal. Technically, I flunked the spring class though, because I missed the final. It was the end of the year, and I’m both a full time teacher (new to teaching two grades together) and fully involved my kid’s end-of-year event, so I just missed it. My goal wasn’t a grade though, but the learning, so I … actually don’t care. I play around on Duolingo Spanish, and that’s actually helped reinforce the grammar rules I learned in class, so I do it daily.
Mandarin - "continue studying. I want to KNOW and read at least 1000 characters by the end of the year. I’m actually pushing for 6 months." This didn’t happen in 6 months. In fact, I’ve not focused on vocabulary at all, and just immersed in input. It’s really all the time I had. I love my Cdramas! I sometimes watch a minimum of 2 hours a day. I’ve also added in Chinese podcasts in the background when working around the house, or just turning on my all-time favorite Cdrama which I know by heart, so don’t have to watch it. All in the name of input. I’ll eventually get back to consistent Skritter practice and Mandarin Blueprint. I’m listening to the Kickstarter phrases and adding those audios to my playlist as well.
German - continue re-learning. I used to live in Germany as a teen, and am relearning how to speak. This is still in the works. I’ve mostly been tooling around on Duolingo daily because I can’t find my texts that were packed when we were moving. I want to add in a German show daily, but…Cdramas!
Japanese - continue re-learning… This will take a bit longer since my priorities are Mandarin, German, and Spanish (in that order), but I try to do something with it a couple of times a week. This is mostly done through Jdramas and movies, anime, and sometimes I’ll get on Duolingo to practice hiragana and kanji. I still can’t look at kanji and not think hanzi, though. There’s an app called Umi I like. It mines phrases from shows and anime to teach. It’s good for listening practice too, since you’re hearing the same thing from different people, so get used to hearing the variances.
Portuguese - I’m just dabbling right now, my teen daughter wants to learn because she has in her head she wants to visit Brazil! It’s so close to Spanish, yet, not… This is on hold. I’ll periodically get on Duolingo (again! It’s just convenient) and work on it in Spanish.
Korean - just dabbling, because what I really need in my life is another character system. Not. 
I mostly watch Cdramas, but will periodically watch a Kdrama, just because. I much prefer Cdramas! I’m still just dabbling, mostly trying to learn specific phrases I want to say. There’s this guy on Instagram who raps vocabulary and meaning. I like watching him. For some reason, I’m not catching the correct pronunciation of words, so have a hard time speaking it. If I’m not watching a Kdrama, I may do something with this every couple of weeks or so. When I want to practice hangul, I do it on Duolingo. It’s not a high priority.
My oldest daughter has now added Hebrew to her list (besides Japanese) because her fiancee is Jewish and speaks it with his family. I added it to my Duolingo list, but I have 0 motivation to learn it, so probably won’t. His whole family speaks English and Spanish anyway, so there’s that.
Polish has also been added to the list, another dabbling language. There is a Polish family in our school and I taught one of their children last year and will teach another this school year. They are fluent in English, but like to share their culture and songs, so it would be nice to be able to say a thing or two. But again, not a high priority thing.
That’s about it for my update.
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Wow, that’s impressive, and you must be a very disciplined person. You are learning different languages at the same time. I am curious how you can make time to manage your job, 2 kids, all other responsibilities and learning languages.
How many hours per day do you spend on language learning apps?
@Tam-Mandarin_Simplified_HSK_1 you are genuinely an inspiration!
Hats off, keep us updated with your story because I absolutely love it 