Clear the List | Monthly Language Learning Strategies Update | November 2021
October is at an end and we’re creeping closer to the end of the year. Let’s get into this upcoming month’s goals.
It’s time for a new analysis of my language goals as a part of Clear the List, but also a new Quest as a part of Language Conqueror!
And this month… it’s all about time management, which you know is a big passion of mine!
I share different techniques for using time management and energy management in your language learning and so much more. So if you’re looking to finally find the time to make language learning part of your day, this month is perfect for you.
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. // This month didn’t happen so much, but he hasn’t forgotten what he knows.
Maintain my vocabulary learning streak. // I am now in the 450-500+ day range on my streaks in both Drops and Memrise.
Keep working through my YouTube Queue. // Same as last month — I have been working on this, but it is still impossible to catch up. At the end of last month, I had 2,000 videos queued up, and between what I’ve watched and what I’ve added, that’s still about where I’m at this month.
Keep reading Game of Thrones in Russian. // Gladly, I am still making steady progress with this. In a week, I read, on average, about 2,000 words in Russian.
Keep reading Eye of the World in Hungarian. // Same as above though my reading pace is much slower in Hungarian.
Start getting into course book study again. // I started in on my Portuguese course book, so I’ll count this as yes, but I did also want to dive back into the course books for some of my other languages, too.
Maintain my Duolingo streak. // Yes! I’m at 50+ days and I’m now using it for Spanish, Portuguese AND French.
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 always a work in progress!
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 was learning Persian, Hungarian, Croatian, Russian, Japanese, and Chinese and have gone on to add Korean, Spanish, and Portuguese.
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. I’d love to break the 2,000 video mark this month and get it down below that number.
Keep reading Game of Thrones in Russian. // Same as usual.
Keep reading Eye of the World in Hungarian. // Same as usual.
Continue getting into course book study again. // In addition to working on my Portuguese coursebook, I’d at the very least also like to get into my Japanese coursebook.
Maintain my Duolingo streak. // I’ve been enjoying the new version of the app (new-to-me).
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
- Drops
What I’m Using to Brush Up/Improve My French:
- LingQ
- Listening to French radio/podcasts/music
- Duolingo
What I am Using to Learn Russian:
What I am Using to Learn Persian:
What I’m Using to Learn Japanese:
- Genki I
- Drops – they just added hundreds of new culture-specific words for Japanese!
- iTalki Lessons
- Pimsleur
- Memrise
What I’m Using to Learn Croatian:
- Colloquial Croatian
- iTalki Lessons
- LingQ – they added Croatian, woot woot!
- Drops
- Memrise
What I’m Using to Learn Hungarian:
- Colloquial Hungarian
- iTalki Lessons
- Drops
- LingQ – they added Hungarian, too!
- Memrise
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
Learning new languages helps you with your old languages.
In picking up Portuguese, I’ve noticed that it’s helped me pick my Spanish back up, too. The two languages are similar and it’s acted as a trigger to remind me of a lot of things I know in Spanish. It’s been great, especially because I’m also trying to pick my Spanish up again.
Don’t forget that I would love to hear all about your goals for this month!
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