Clear the List | Language Learning Strategies Update | November
Only two months left in the year! I hope those of you who went out or relaxed at home enjoyed your All Hallows Eve. It was our first with Little Linguist and that was just too much fun.
So, as in the past, I’d like to once more welcome you to #clearthelist. If you’re new around these parts, #clearthelist is a linkup where we share our monthly goals, and by we, I mean myself, Lindsay of Lindsay Does Languages.
We’d absolutely love for you to a part of our community. You can join us by adding a link to your own goal post 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 Blog Highlights
Travel
Wangfujing Night Market // Things to do in and around Beijing, China.
9 Interesting Facts About Serbian Culture // A continuation of my series with Kuperard.
Language Learning
What Should You Study to Learn a Language // A post about the types of materials and resources you should use to learn a new language
Why You Shouldn’t Let Perfectionism Get in the Way of Language Learning // A post about why you shouldn’t wait until “perfect” happens for you in your target language.
Last Month’s Goals
Keep working on my vocabulary in Korean. // I ended up taking a break from Korean a bit earlier than I anticipated. I was really starting to enjoy the language, but then I started to study Spanish to review a product and my priorities for the month just completely changed. I think I am going to focus on Spanish for now and then pick Korean or Russian back up once I get to a comfortable level in the language.
Fill the gaps in my Mandarin vocabulary I’ve noticed since Little Linguist’s arrival. // Yup! I started doing this. Did you know that peekaboo in Mandarin is 躲猫猫?
Read one more language related book. // Yes! I finished Colloquial Chinese and started Language Hacking Spanish.
Start watching that Korean show.// Yikes, no. Mini M has kind of taken over all our screen time with Jackie Chan films and movies about dogs.
Keep watching that new Mandarin TV show that I had bookmarked. // Nope. See above.
Start up Pimsleur Korean II. // Again, no. But I did listen to a ton of K-Pop this month.
Read my language reading challenge book for this month// Yes! And I started the next two.
Keep working through my YouTube Queue. // Yes, but not as many as I hoped.
Start reading The Lion King in Chinese // It never came in the mail, but we read books about brushing our teeth and naps and things in Chinese.
Work through one of the Language Hacking books // Working through the Spanish book.
Have something I’m reading that’s in French. // Yes and yes! I have another Pierre Bordage book even though I didn’t really like the first one and I also just got the second Wheel of Time book.
This Month’s Goals
Continue filling the gaps in my Mandarin vocabulary I’ve noticed since Little Linguist’s arrival. // This will probably be something I need to do from now until eternity.
Read one more language related book. // Because language related books are awesome.
Keep playing Zelda Ocarina of Time in Mandarin Chinese.. // I’m surprised how much more I understand than when I first made an attempt to start the game and it’s motivating to actually work through more than just the first dungeon now despite the fact that I’m literally writing out all the dialogue I come across by hand and so the going is so slow.
Read my language reading challenge book for this month and next month.// Well, finish them.
Keep working through my YouTube Queue. // Because I add videos faster than I can watch them.
Start reading The Lion King in Chinese // Hopefully it will come this month.
Finish working through one of the Language Hacking books. // Since Spanish is now my focus.
Have something I’m reading that’s in French. // Since I have new material to work with this month.
My Language Learning Strategies and Updates
This month was a bit of a surprise for me because, in all honesty, I didn’t think that I would ever learn Spanish. But things change, so I decided to roll with it and here I am.
Resources I Used This Month
A quick recap on the materials I am using.
What I Am Using to Learn Chinese
- iTalki Lessons – I have weekly Chinese lessons
- Pimsleur
- Memrise
- ChineseClass101
- Melnyk’s
- Antosch & Lin email newsletters
- FluentU – I watch anywhere from 3-6 videos per day and then work on the “Learning” section for each of the videos
- Colloquial Chinese
- The Lion King
- DramaFever
What I’m Using to Brush Up/Improve My French:
- Immersion (we speak franglais at home)
- Reading books written by French authors
- Listening to French radio/podcasts
- Chatting with family that stayed with us all month
- Watching movies and other video in French
What I am Using to Learn Russian:
- Perfectionnement Russe
- RussianPod101
- iTalki Lessons
- The penmanship practice books from Russian Step-by-Step (a lot of you have been asking me about these)
- Memrise
- Pimsleur
What I am Using to Learn Korean:
- Memrise
- Assimil’s Korean Phrasebook
- Pimsleur
- Practical Korean from Tuttle Publishing
- Making Out in Korean
What I am Using to Learn Spanish:
- Language Hacking Spanish by Benny Lewis
- Lingoda (use code FM2J6Y )
- Coffee Break Spanish
The Biggest Lesson I Am Taking Away from This Month
The biggest lesson I learnt this month is that sometimes you just need to go with your gut.
I really wanted to learn Korean, but there was just something about it that didn’t click with me. So when I started studying Spanish, it was just so easy to give into the temptation of continuing on with it and setting Korean aside. In my gut, I knew that Korean wasn’t working for me (for now) and that Spanish was, so I went with that feeling.
That being said, I want to return to Korean one day soon (and Russian, of course), but for now, my focus is español.
Don’t forget that I would love to hear all about your goals for this month! Please join us by adding your post to the linkup below! An InLinkz Link-up
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