Hi everyone, I'm faced with a dilemma.
I discovered a passion for language learning about 2 years ago when I moved to China. In the two years I lived there I managed to get myself to a decent level in Mandarin Chinese (I passed my HSK5 last October!). I am about a third of the way through my HSK6 books, and I speak to my friends back in China in Chinese almost every day, either via text or video-calls. I don't struggle to communicate in Chinese, but there is plenty more for me to learn (especially Chengyu and expanding my vocabulary in general).
I no longer live in China. I currently work for a French company in England. There are some French speakers, but the company's business language is English. I feel like improving my French would be useful (albeit not necessary) towards my career. I studied French in middle school and revised it recently, and I can have basic conversations in French but my French skills pale in comparison to my Chinese. However, French is similar to my two mother-tongue languages (English and Italian), so it shouldn't be exceedingly difficult for me to pick up, and I have pretty much already wrapped my head around French grammar (it corresponds practically one to one with Italian grammar conjugations).
Now, onto my third target language. My fiancée is an Afrikaaner from South Africa. She speaks fluent English, however, Afrikaans is her first language. I have, despite the limited resources for this language, achieved a basic level in Afrikaans, which is quite an easy language to learn overall. My listening comprehension leaves a lot to be desired at the moment, but I can express basic sentiments in the language.
What is boils down to, ultimately, is what language should I focus on? Should I work on mastering my strongest language, Chinese? Should I push my French up to a higher standard, for a potential career move? Should I deepen the cultural ties to my better half's background and family via Afrikaans?
I am aiming to achieve a high level in all of these languages in the next 5 years, but the question is, what should I focus on now? Should I divide my attention between the three languages, and work on them simultaneously? Or should I concentrate on one at a time for, say, 6 months at a time?
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