I haven't learnt a foreign language during the pandemic but I have finally read "A Dance To The Music Of Time" by Anthony Powell. As Tony Hancock said, there ought to be a badge.
I started the first volume, "A Question Of Upbringing" back in March. Last night I finally laid down the 12th, "Hearing Secret Harmonies".
I was helped in reading this by Andy Miller of the excellent books podcast "Backlisted". I read a fair bit but people like Andy read an an awful lot more. He told me that one of the things he sometimes does is supplement his reading with an audiobook of the same title. This made me get hold of the excellent Simon Vance version of Powell's book which you can get on Audible. Once I read one of the books I would then listen to Vance's reading of it and I found this sealed it in my memory and then made the reading of the later volumes easier.
I can't pretend it was all easy. Powell writes in the way that Sir Humphrey speaks when he's trying to avoid giving a direct answer. However after about three volumes I did get into its stately rhythm and was starting to look forward to the next appearance of favourite characters like Uncle Giles, General Conyers, Charles Stringham, Mrs Erdleigh and Pamela Flitton.
I enjoyed it most when it had a strong sense of place, which is why I found the three books dealing with his experiences in the war so compelling.
The temptation now is to go back to the beginning and start again, taking in details of the introduction of characters now that I know what happened to them.
Furthermore I'm writing this the day after the government announced a further six months of restrictions.
I may have to find another, full immersion reading project.