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I’ve tried learning other languages in the past and have so far failed to learn four different languages. Italian has been a failure multiple times, with the most recent attempt being five years ago.

The problem has always been that I memorize nouns, I memorize verbs, I try to learn grammar rules, but then I realize how much there is to know before I can speak without making mistakes constantly. I get overwhelmed and quit. I get stressed about making mistakes in front of others, which is a problem common to adult language learners.

So this time, I’m trying something different. I’m going to learn like a toddler: picking up words as I come across them and learning by playing. I’ll use what I know and kludge it together to make something. As long as I can plug it into a translator and the English translation makes sense for what I was trying to get across, that’s good enough.

I’ll gradually learn more and improve naturally along the way, but the goal is simply to work on Italian for a minimum of fifteen minutes a day and see where I am in a year. Working on it can be flashcards, Babbel or another app, trying to read in Italian, listening to Italian podcasts, writing attempts at Italian sentences into a translator, etc. It’s about exploring rather than structured, rigid practice. Toddlers learn by doing and experimenting, not sitting down with grammar books.

So let’s see what happens. I’ll try to update this every day with what I’ve done. I don’t expect this journal to be interesting to anyone (other than possibly language nerds who might be interested to see a learning process unfold), but I’m hoping just having the journal will keep me more accountable, and I’ll (hopefully) be able to see progress over time.