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I’ve thought about learning Korean for a similar reason, to understand more about the DPRK and Juche.
I had a classmate from the DPRK when I was studying in Beijing for a time. We were both pretty advanced in Mandarin, so that’s how we spoke with each other. She actually had me tutor her in English a few times. She was a really cool person and I regret not learning more from her.
Do you know of any resources that focus on the northern dialect?
Up until a couple months ago, I was learning a bit of Japanese. But lately I’m not so much learning any particular language as I’m maintaining what I’ve already gained some proficiency in.
Like I’ve been making an effort to read more and listen to more content in Mandarin. I started learning it… well, my Mandarin proficiency is old enough to sign a contract, so I’m pretty far out of the “characters are inscrutable and tones are unhearable” phase. But I’m still definitely not native level, and I do want the language to be a bigger part of my daily life.
I text in Vietnamese pretty much every day, but I really ought to improve my listening comprehension with it, plus I was reading a collection of cool Vietnamese myths and folk tales that I ought to get back into. I could stand to dive back into serious study too.
Spanish I use for work sometimes, and I get by well enough that I don’t feel a need to work on it specifically. It’s nice for following along with a lot of the recent political happenings in Latin America though.
It might be wise for me to learn Filipino/Tagalog for work purposes. And I’m not opposed to it, but I can’t say I’ve ever met a Filipino who doesn’t speak great English, so it’s not like there’s a pressing need as far as work goes.
Russian has been interesting me lately. My brother is learning it actually. Not sure I want to commit to an undertaking from square one when there’s a lot else where I have a head start.
So basically I’m not actively studying any language currently, but if I do start, it’ll be between resuming Japanese and/or Vietnamese studies and starting Filipino or Russian. (Getting into more Chinese content is a must for me either way.)
Quick tip from someone who’s studied two tonal languages as an adult:
Tone isn’t pitch – or it is, but it’s more fundamental than that: tone is how the sound “feels” in your throat. Focus on that when you practice producing it and you’ll start to hear it.