Is it worth nothing?

I stared at my phone screen and found myself stumbling upon the streak I've accomplished on Duolingo. It's 246 day streak!

Well, maybe it's not the best achievement if I compare myself with other Duolingo learners. The 2023 Duolingo Language Report shows that a lot of people have achieved their 365-day streaks.

Well, I keep on telling myself that there's nothing to worry at all. It's not about me vs everybody. It's about yesterday's me vs today's me.

Last year, I don't think I have done something nice for myself consistently. Often, it was just a one day or a one-time action. Then I would desert it, just like what I've done with crocheting (well, maybe I'll give it another try, some day). But, accomplishing this streak day made me realize that there's a small thing that I've done every single day, perpetually, and it's not just a meaningless activity. I learn languages.

I started to use Duolingo back in 2016 and I began with English. It's not my first language. Not even my second language. As most Indonesian like me would have Bahasa Indonesia as our second language. It's our national language. Sundanese (not to confuse with Sudanese), is my first language because I was born and raised in Sundanese family. As a side note, Clear Global data shows there are over 800 languages spoken in Indonesia according to the 2010 census. That being said, a national language is for sure needed.

We do learn English at school, yet I (for some reasons) feel like I didn't get the most of it and I have to overcome the circumstance. It then led me to discover Duolingo.

Long story short, I got fascinated by language learning. Well, after knowing a little English for quite some time, I started to get interested in German, for then Spanish sounds very compelling, well Russian too, Finnish, etc. and I started to add some more courses (in fact, none of them I have finished). It then makes me questioning the thing that I've been doing.

I couldn't say that I didn't gain anything from this activity. Learning German and Spanish makes me understand some simple sentences in those languages when I watch movies or read it somewhere, and it sparks joy in my soul.

That was when I think I got something (in fact, I do) from learning those languages. But then, I'm thinking that I don't really get the most of it. I keep on switching courses, jumping from one language course to another, and it makes my learning journey inefficient. I don't want to say it is useless. It's just time-consuming, yet I don't even get into a basic users proficiency level in either one languages that I learn. I know something is off.

I came into conclusion from my afterthought, that I didn't have a specific goal from learning those languages. Well, the goal is not always have to be a big goal. It could be just a simple goal, like watching movies in that particular language without having the needs to look at the subtitles as an example.

Now, that I've learned my lesson, I don't want to fall into the same pit. I've reshaped my way of thinking, ensuring that I put my energy and effort into getting the most out of everything I do. Not only for language learning, but also in everything that I try to accomplish.