Hi, all! First things first, Happy New Year! I hope you’re all feeling fresh and excited and ready to tackle the next twelve months.
I am—I didn’t really have a chance to work out any New Year’s goals in December so instead I’ve spent the last week thinking about what it is I want to achieve this year.
One of those things is to get back into language learning; I’ve been having trouble balancing this with other hobbies I have. I also want to start blogging about language learning again. The more I learn, the more I have to talk about, and I want to share that with all of you.
Like last year, I’ve started a log over at the language learners’ forum to track my progress and get advice from people much more knowledgeable than me. Part of that log involves me setting weekly goals.
Now, I have taken part in things like Clear the List in the past, and I find that monthly goals are somewhat useful. The problem is that I often don’t achieve them. A month can feel short, but it’s a decently long period of time—and if I don’t check up on those goals at regular intervals, I forget about them.
Hence, the weekly goals. A week isn’t long enough to really see substantial progress (unless you’re working really intensely), but it’s long enough to set a reasonable, smaller goal that works toward an overall larger one. For example, reading ten percent of a book in an intermediate language in a week is not difficult. Reading half of that book in a month therefore becomes more achievable because it’s been split up; I know that if I set that as a monthly goal, I’d forget about it until the last minute and then probably wouldn’t bother reading it at all because I’d know I wouldn’t be reaching that goal.
What are my goals for this week?
I’ve set one goal for each language (I’m trying not to go too hard too fast). I didn’t set any goals last week because, as mentioned, I spent it working out what I wanted to do.
German
Read 25% of Stormbreaker (Anthony Horowitz; tr. Karlheinz Dürr) so I’ll be three-quarters of the way through it. This book isn’t too difficult, so the goal is simple enough.
Mandarin
Maintain my 365-Day Language Challenge streak. The 365-Day Language Challenge was created on the language learners’ forum and its basic premise is to study one (or more) languages for a minimum of thirty minutes every single day. I’ve mostly been using apps so far, but I’ve got an eight-day streak (and only need around ten minutes today to make it nine).
Spanish
Watch two TV episodes. Likely to be Brooklyn Nine-Nine (Netflix has a Spanish dub) and this time will be added to my Super Challenge total.
Basque
Review one Assimil lesson. This language is kind of on the backburner, but I want to get back into it.
Polish
Do two Pimsleur lessons. I started learning Polish last year, though not with any long-term commitment, so I’m starting from scratch again now. I’m really getting into audio courses and I’m hoping Pimsleur will be effective.
Korean
Study Integrated Korean Beginning Level 1, Lesson 1. Same as for Polish, I started last year but didn’t really get anywhere—though I do have a tenuous grasp on the alphabet. I’m going to use the Integrated Korean book for now, though I think it’ll take a while to get through.
That’s it! They’re my goals for this week (until next Tuesday), so I’d best get cracking on with them.
What are your language goals for the week? Or for the year, even? Has anyone picked up a new language? Let me know!
Happy New Year and good luck with your goals! I love the idea of having weekly goals because they make the monthly goals much more achievable!
Happy New Year! Thanks, and same. I found last year weekly goals was just the right point for me; I need regular accountability haha.
I think that I need to do that too! I always start out a bit over-ambitious and lose steam fairly quickly. Small, achievable goals are definitely the way to go!