Clear the List | Monthly Language Learning Strategies Update | October 2021
It’s officially September — my birthday month! And to celebrate my birthday… I’m learning a new language! I’ll share more in an upcoming post, but in the meantime let’s get into this 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 social media.
I share different techniques for using social media in your language learning and so much more. So if you’re looking to modify something you’re likely already spending time on into a productive 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. // We’ve been working on this, and he’s very proud of the fact that he knows some Chinese. I try to get him to use Gus on the Go a little bit each day on his own. He’s been asking a lot more questions and we often talk about words in the different languages he speaks whenever we’re in the car together.
Maintain my vocabulary learning streak. // I have continued maintaining this. I have 400+ days for all my active languages.
Keep working through my YouTube Queue. // 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. // I’ve 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.
Read everyday in Mandarin and Croatian. // I did this about half the month, but then dropped it towards the second half of the month.
Catch up on creating my flashcards. // I succeeded in doing this and have been able to continue keeping up with them.
Watch one episode of Terrace House each week. // I only missed doing this once.
Maintain my weekly lessons in each language. // It hasn’t been weekly, but I have been having regular lessons.
Start getting into course book study again. // I didn’t really get to this, but I hope to in the next month.
Maintain my Duolingo streak. // I’ve been maintaining my streak and am using it to learn both Portuguese and Spanish.
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 Japanese.
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.
Keep reading Game of Thrones in Russian. // My tutor and I are working on this weekly.
Keep reading Eye of the World in Hungarian. // My tutor and I are working on this weekly.
Start getting into course book study again. // This has been the one thing I’ve struggled to incorporate.
Maintain my Duolingo streak. // It gives me extra practice with Spanish and Portuguese.
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
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
This month, I recently announced my new language — Portuguese. It will be my 17th language (16th if you consider the fact I didn’t keep learning Norwegian after my three months learning with Drops). I’m excited to dive in and I’m curious to see how starting over with a new language impacts my existing languages.
Don’t forget that I would love to hear all about your goals for this month!
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