Clear the List | Monthly Language Learning Strategies Update | September 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 journaling.
I share different journaling techniques, how to use them and apply them to language learning, and so much more. So if you’re looking to start a journaling habit or improve your writing skills in another language, 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 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. He’s now started learning Korean as a part of his taekwondo and he’s quite proud of the fact he speaks “French, English, Chinese and a little bit Korean”.
Maintain my vocabulary learning streak. // I have been 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 seems impossible to catch up at times. At the end of last month, I had close to 1,900 videos on the list but I now am up to around 2,000 which is the most I’ve ever had queued up.
Keep reading Game of Thrones in Russian. // I’ve been doing a little bit of reading each day and am 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. // I have been able to do this! Back on track.
Start getting into course book study again. // I only did this one of the four weeks, but that was more than I was doing in the past.
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 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. Though I’d like to add Korean back into the mix because I once more, finally, have the occasion to use the language.
Keep working through my YouTube Queue. // Once again, there’s even more I need to get through this month than there was the last. 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 isn’t something I’ve been doing lately and I’m at the point with several of my languages where it’s needed.
Maintain my Duolingo streak. // I decided to give Duolingo a solid try this month as I’m picking my Spanish back up and starting to learn a new language. There have been a lot of updates made to it since I last tried it, so I want to give it a new effort.
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:
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’m taking on a new language for work and while I didn’t think I wanted to add any more languages, I’m actually excited about getting to add this one. And I can’t wait to share more about it with you in an upcoming post!
Don’t forget that I would love to hear all about your goals for this month!
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