Clear the List | Monthly Language Learning Strategies Update | February 2022
We’re a month into the new year and you’ve likely set language learning goals for 2022, so now Is a good time to check in and join us in sharing your language learning plans as a part of #CleartheList
So without any further ado, it’s time for a new analysis of my language goals as a part of Clear the List, but also the latest Language Conqueror Quest!
We’re heading into February with a Quest all about building habits. It’s hosted by my good friend Caitlin, and you’re going to get all kinds of good info from her! She’s a fitness trainer and has helped loads of people build healthy habits.
What is Language Conqueror? It’s a course I work on with a monthly Quest focused on passion-driven learning. You can learn more, get a feel for my teaching style, and download our free PDF here: Get the Free PDF
And if that’s not enough, you can also get a feel for my teaching style with Snack-Sized Language!
Snack-Sized Language is a free podcast where we teach you snack-sized language lessons. So far we have episodes teaching general language learning tips, Japanese, French, Mandarin and Korean. Plus, we recently added Russian, Spanish, and German. Not to mention, more languages are coming soon!
You can subscribe to the podcast on your preferred podcast platform.
And if you enjoy Snack-Sized language, we would absolutely love it if you left us a review!
And now, on to #clearthelist …
Wondering what #clearthelist is? Let me clear it up for you (see what I did there?). #CleartheList is a linkup where we share our monthly goals, and by we, I mean myself, and you!
We’d absolutely love for you to be a part of our community. You can join us by adding a link to your own goal post in the comments below.
So let’s get started, sharing our goals and motivating one another to #clearthelist!
Please feel free to tag your posts or photos with either #clearthelist on your favorite social media channels!
Last Month’s Highlights on Instagram
Last Month’s Goals
Continue filling the gaps in my Mandarin vocabulary I’ve noticed since Little Linguist’s arrival. // We’re still working this back into our schedule with YouTube video lessons and other regular interactions in the language.
Maintain my vocabulary learning streak + maintain my Duolingo learning streak. // I, believe it or not, missed getting this in before midnight a couple times this month. I still completed it those nights but my streaks no longer show on Memrise. Because I still studied before I went to bed, I don’t count this habit as lost. And thankfully, I started using Streaks to keep track. I have been keeping this habit up though.
Keep working through my YouTube Queue. // I slowed down on this quite a bit this month. I’m still getting through videos but not at the pace I was before, so the number of videos in my queue is creeping back up. It’s around 2,300 videos now. I still count this goal as a success, however, because even though I’m not getting through as many, I am still getting through them consistently.
Keep reading Game of Thrones in Russian. // I totally fell off the tracks with this one.
Keep reading Eye of the World in Hungarian. // Same as above.
This Month’s Goals
Continue filling the gaps in my Mandarin vocabulary I’ve noticed since Little Linguist’s arrival. // As usual, I’d like to continue to incorporate this more and more until we’re an OPOL household. It’s fallen off slightly, so it’s something I want to bring back. And while we’re heading in the right direction, it definitely needs more attention.
Maintain my vocabulary learning streak. // This has been a great way to rebuild my language routine, so it’s staying on the list indefinitely! I share my stats over on Instagram in my stories nearly every day, so if you’re ever curious where I’m at, you can check out my stories. I am learning Persian, Hungarian, Croatian, Russian, Japanese, Chinese, Korean, Spanish, and Portuguese. I’ve reduced doing Drops to every other day because it’s all I need to do to keep up my streak and I want to save that time as often as I can.
Keep working through my YouTube Queue. // As always, there’s a lot I need to get through. I hope to continue working at this in order to make consistent progress. Like last month, I’d like to break 2,000 this month since I missed it before.
Keep reading Game of Thrones in Russian. // My goal is no longer to just generally read, but I need something more specific since I dropped off. I want to get 26 LingQs each day this month.
Keep reading Eye of the World in Hungarian. // Same as above.
Read in French. // I’d like to add reading in French each day to this list because I’m not using the language as much as before. For this language, I’d like to get 13 LingQs per day.
Resources I Used This Month
A quick recap of the materials I am using.
What I Am Using to Learn Chinese:
- LingQ – my favorite tool
- iTalki Lessons – I have weekly Chinese lessons
- Memrise
What I’m Using to Brush Up/Improve My French:
What I am Using to Learn Russian:
What I am Using to Learn Persian:
What I’m Using to Learn Japanese:
What I’m Using to Learn Croatian:
What I’m Using to Learn Hungarian:
What I’m Using to Learn Korean:
What I’m Using to Learn Spanish:
What I’m Using to Learn Portuguese:
Not Currently doing any study for: German, Hindi, Norwegian, Hebrew, Italian
What I’m Using for Little Linguist
- Lots of books
- Day-to-day interaction
- italki Lessons
- Duolingo ABC
- Droplets
- Movies in Chinese
- Gus on the Go Chinese
Resources That Aren’t Language-Specific
- Fluent in 3 Months Challenge
- Todoist (to keep all my language lessons and to-do’s organized)
- Notion – my new favorite app for taking notes (I just set up a template for the way I use Notion to take notes if you’re interested in duplicating it for yourself)
The Biggest Lesson I Am Taking Away from This Month
Knowing a bunch of words in a language doesn’t necessarily mean you can use it.
I really like bulking up on vocabulary. And sometimes I get too much into that headspace and leave out using the language in other contexts.
In fact, with Norwegian, that’s all I did — learn loads of words in Drops.
And then I had an opportunity to use it last weekend and… I couldn’t.
It’s a good reminder that if you want to be able to actively use your languages, daily consistent study with an app just isn’t enough. I knew this in theory, but I’ve been doing this for so long I sometimes just get into a routine that I need to remember to break out of every once in a while!
Don’t forget that I would love to hear all about your goals for this month!
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