Step 1: Choose a Foreign Language
Maybe you know what you want to study? You fancy someone from there, or are moving there. Maybe you already have. For me learning a new language was a requirement related to a degree I am in the process of obtaining. It doesn’t matter which one, but I need to achieve the Advanced-Mid ACTFL score on the OPI test if I am going to opt out of taking language classes.

To make my selection I tried to find a balance between interest and difficulty.

Another way is to look to where you have previous experience or knowledge. Maybe you heard the language around you as a kid. I has previous experience with Chinese, which I took in high school and college. However, it has been over a decade since I had practiced it. Research shows over this time I have likely lost 90% of my vocabulary and general knowledge. But I did have a foundation. The problem was I had zero interest. In the last decade my husband and I have travelled extensively and yet we haven’t visited China and its not on the list of Top 10 places we want to go next. Also, Mandarin is a Category VI on the FSI list, this means it is one of the hardest languages to learn and requires approx. 2200 class hours. Back of the napkin math meant that I probably would have 2000 hours to go. Even a Category III language would only require half of that.

Feel free to let yourself off the hook. If you’re interest isn’t there, don’t feel like there is a should.

Spanish or French can also seem like an obvious choice. Afterall, they are the main two other languages people learn and there are a lot of independent study resources. Well, I needed a language not taught at the university. I was a bit afraid they would say not good enough to our subjective standards. A little backward I know, but I didn’t want to be forced into taking a class on campus and I wanted a language that the faculty could not proctor testing directly.

So how did I decide? I looked at where we have travelled in the last 10 years and topping that list was Scandinavia. We have made 3 separate trips each to Iceland and Norway, while also visiting Sweden, Finland, Svalbard, and the Faroe Islands once each. I feel at home in Scandinavia (my family can be traced back to the area in the 1600s) and I sometimes imagine moving there. Interest plays such a large role in motivation and motivation is key to learning any language. So a Scandinavian language felt right, but which one.

Norwegian and Swedish are both Category 1 (575-600 hours), while Icelandic and Finnish are Category III (1100 hours). If my interest was the same in all three, then I need to go with the easiest, which meant Icelandic and Finnish was out. Conveniently, both Norwegian and Swedish are offered at the local state university near my house. My interest was similar to both, but I felt a slightly stronger pull to Norway. The deciding factor ended up being that my company has an office in Oslo. Norwegian it is!

Step 2: Set a Fluency Goal
This OPI oral test consists of a 15-30 minute video conversation with a proctor who probes at different levels until they are confident in your ability.Achieving an Advanced-Mid ACTFL score on the OPI test translates to a high C1/low C2 on the CERF.

Step 3: Back into a Timeline and Course of Study
I need to achieve about 600 hours of study and 10,000 words. It is conceivable to learn 30 new words a day at most in a spaced frequency program.

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