Learning a new language (or maybe just analysing?)

One of my very favourite hobbies, when I have the time is to look into languages and maybe also learn?
As a teacher of languages, I love to get to know more about a language, the structure, how it works and also find out more about similarities and differences between languages.

My first foreign language was English, followed by German, continuing with studying German Literature and Language at the University, following by TESOL, so I have to say, that I know prtty much about morphology, phonetics, syntax etc of these two languages, which are related believe it or not. They are both West Germanic languages - maybe a lot of years ago they were more similar with each other than they are today.
English has changed a lot, influenced by other languages, while the other West Germanic languages keep a lot more in common.

So, to get back to my language learning, after experimentin with Spanish ( I reached level B1 in CEF with great difficulty, since this was not a Germanic language) and a little bit of French (this lasted a couple of months), I decided that Latin origined languages were not for me, so I took up Dutch.
Well, yes, you guessed correctly, this is also a West Germanic language, with a great similarity to German and English. In fact, is you speak both, you can actually understand a lot of written language. Pronounciation is something you have to study and practise, but I found it really easy to understand. I can't say I am fluent, I have not dedicated a lot of time to it, but I definitely can communicate as a traveller or read simple texts and that is enough for the time being. I also found out that Flemmish and Afrikaans have  a lot of similarities, so again, I could communicate if needed.

Exploring these language, I discovered Frisian, which is a language spoken in the Netherlands. I thought it was a Dutch dialect, but it is not. It is a language with similarities from English and the other West Germanic languages. I took up a course in Future learn, of course I haven't been able to actually learn the language, but I was happy to explore the similarities and differences it has with Dutch and how it all connects.

Next on my list is Norwegian ( a North Germanic language) - I have enrolled on a Future Learn course again. Of coursee I don't expect to speak a language in 4 weeks, again it is fascinating to explore.

More to come!