I'm going on a short "vacation" from blogging (personal note)
Hello Everyone!
Normally I write articles with advice about language learning or information about Polish and American culture. Today's article is going to be a much more personal!
As of right now there are 224 articles and almost 4000 comments on this blog.
I'm extremely proud of my blog and I love the community that exists around it. I've met TONS of interesting people here and developed a few close friendships.
You guys have helped me with many things over the years: corrected my Polish, sent me encouraging emails, translated my ebook into Polish, recorded an audio version of my ebook and much more.
Thank you so much for reading, commenting and helping! I'm extremely grateful. :-)
(BTW, Tobiasz Karoń, who recorded my audiobook is releasing a new audiobook soon! Check out this video to learn more about it.)
However, it's also a lot of work!
Of course, there is the time to actually write the articles, record videos and respond to comments. But I also receive about 50 emails a day connected with this blog, mostly from people asking for advice specific to their situation.
Due to some changes in my life recently, I've had trouble finding time. So, I've decided to go on a short "vacation" from blogging.
Read more to find out why and what this means!
Changes in my life
I won't go into the details, but our living expenses are increasing. Unfortunately, Bibliobird and our online lessons aren't making us as much money as we had hoped.
So, I've had to devote more of my time to freelance software development, and less to my blog and Bibliobird.
Too many emails
50 emails a day is a lot.
For years, I managed to respond to every single one! Sometimes it'd be a couple weeks late, but I'd respond.
In March, I fell a little behind. And then a little more behind. And suddenly, there are hundreds of unread emails from you guys in my inbox...
If you're waiting for a response from me, I'm really, really sorry! But at this point I have no idea how to catch up. And more e-mails keep coming.
I'll try to filter through the emails for anything important, but I can't promise a response.
I need to focus
I'm slowly realizing that I'm only one person. :-) I can't help everyone one-at-a-time over email.
However, I think I could build the tools that allow a lot of people to help each other! I think those tools could live on Bibliobird.
So, I'm going to spend a few months where I blog less (maybe once a month), refrain from replying to the majority of emails (sorry!), and focus less on the commercial side of Bibliobird...
... all so that I can use my remaining free time to work on making Bibliobird.com more collaborative, so that everyone can contribute to and learn from it.
Once again, I'm sorry that I haven't been responding! But I hope you understand.
Take care,
David.
English
Polski
Not good to hear such news. But I'm keeping fingers crossed. I hope that better times will come and I'm wishing you that. Take care! See you on Bibliobird meetings.
Thanks, Juliusz!
I think overall this will be good for Bibliobird users. In the next few months, I will hopefully get them all the features they've been asking for (Anki 2.0, adding custom texts, etc) and then when I return to seriously blogging and marketing I'll have both a better free and paid product to offer people.
And in the meantime I can have a break from writing so many e-mails! ;-)
Regards,
David.
Hi David,
You conducted a awesome job in this blog. I learnt a lot from your articles and from your book. Sometime ago I read an article from Scott Young that said we oscilate by moments of introversion and extroversion for carreer growth (http://www.scotthyoung.com/blog/2013/03/15/network-or-skills/). You're just going to your introversion mode to get more productive.
I sincerely wish all good for your family.
Regards,
Vinícius.
Chcę dziękować ty dla czas kłasz do blogu.
I have really enjoyed reading your blog. I hope that your economic situation improves quickly.
That up there, by the way, is the first sentence I ever composed in Polish. Wouldn't have done it without LinguaTrek.
Best regards,
David Isenhower
Yup, I understand, people really don't get how the money side of this can dictate what you can and can't do and how the blog moves forward. If you're going to spend any significant amount of time on it, unless you're independently wealthy, you have to get paid for it, which means you have to monetize the blog and spend time on doing it, there's no getting around it.
I'm not posting much or doing much of anything else now because I'm working on a book I'm going to sell via the blog (I expect to do better with that than with the affiliate stuff I'm promoting right now). Writing a book is a pain in the ASS, I mean it just keeps growing and growing and the expected release date keeps getting moved farther out again and again, but it has to be done right otherwise it's a waste of time and effort. I was thinking I'd have it out by end of last year, now I'll be lucky if I can have it out by late summer or fall of this year. Ugh.
Anyway, good luck to you.
Cheers,
Andrew
I'll be missing you David. but anyway, thank you for being here ;)
Have good holidays! Rest and restart your priorities in order to improve your live!
Regards from Spain!
I just found your blog - great stuff! It helps when I can read about what others are dealing with when learning a new language and helps to keep me motivated toward my goal. Have a restful time away, and I hope to see you pick this back up.
It's sad, like the guy above said, I just found your blog (like 20 minutes ago) and this is the first post. At least there is plenty of past content to go through.
I understand your need to take a break though, good luck!
Hey David,
Just found your blog and downloaded your ebook - thanks. Enjoy your 'blog vacation'. I'm sure your ebook will help me with my Spanish learning - I'm off to get reading through it right now, thanks again.
Joe.
It's good to take a break sometimes and recharge the batteries. 50 emails a day is too many. I used to have the same problem.
Have you thought about using a Help Desk rather than email? I'm guessing a percentage of your emails are about the same subjects? Most Help Desk scripts will allow you to enter "standard" responses. You can also set up a FAQ page so people can hopefully find their answers in there rather than sending you an email.
Do a Google search, you'll find lots of alternatives. Don't waste your money paying for a Help Desk script, the free ones are more than good enough.
Good thing I found your blog. It's quite interesting as I personally love learning new languages. Enjoy your vacation.
I can totally understand you. Still happy to have discovered this blog. Looking forward to reading from you again. Best Tobias
Any idea when you'll be back? I'm looking forward to reading a new post!
Hi Robin,
I was hoping to already be back. :-/ But as soon as I can!
Best regards,
David.
David,
So happy to come across your blog. Any suggestions how to teach children ages 7, 8 and 11, Polish as a second language? We reside in USA. We speak English at home, however I want to start teaching our children Polish. I am fluent in Polish. I have some experience in teaching English as a second language.. so I hope I could be somewhat successful in teaching my children Polish with some guidance or helpful links. Polish school is not an option since there is none locally. My dilemma is what to start with? Vocabulary or perhaps a book (I purchased "Lubie Polski" books and workbooks by Agnieszka Rabiej)? When do I introduce grammar? Any advice is appreciated. Enjoy your time off from blogging, but when you get an itch to come back and have any suggestions how to "attack" teaching Polish to youngsters... please let me know. Thnx!
Hi Teresa!
It's great that you're going to teach your children Polish! I hope to one day teach my future children as well. :-)
Anyway, I'd recommend looking at general language teaching for children resources. I have to confess that this is an area that I have no experience with. But I don't think it'd be a Polish-specific process. I've heard (from loose conversations with people who teach language to children) that stuff that is light and fun is best, like: songs, cartoons, games, etc.
My advise would be to never teach grammar directly to children. But again, consult more experienced resources! It's just my feeling that they don't yet have the abstract thought necessary to really use it for anything. But they will unconsciously learn grammar simply from experience with the language.
Sorry, I couldn't help more!
Regards,
David.
Good luck with your, should I say, hiatus. I will look forward until you come back in updating your blogs. You have a great time!
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