My language learning goals for January and going to be very short and focused. I am going to set a very specific time limit on my language study. One hour first thing every morning and one hour last thing at night are my new times for language study. I am not going to worry about how much material I get through in that time. My aim for January is to get into a new routine of having Spanish study time in the morning and French reading time before bed. I have chosen specific resources to use but at the moment I don’t know how much of those resources I will get through in the allocated time. What is important this month is that I spend one hour in the morning on Spanish study and one hour before bed reading a novel in French. Once that becomes a habit, I will have more of an idea of how much material it is possible to get through in that time.
Spanish, Spanish, Spanish, Spanish…. 2017 my year of Spanish
I am going to focus on Spanish this year. Last year I did study some Spanish but I kept getting sidetracked by other things. My goals for January are to work on my Spanish for at least one hour a day, five days a week. The resources I am going to focus on are the dialogues and transcripts within Olly Richards Fluent Spanish Academy. I am going to listen to this material for one hour a day first thing in the morning. Plus I am going to have two italki sessions a week in Spanish, this will increase once I know the dates of the italki challenge. I will create a separate blog post to document my progress in Spanish to keep my motivated and accountable. If I am not keeping up with my goals for Spanish please comment to ask me why not. If anyone else is starting to work on Spanish this year please get in touch and we can work together to keep each other accountable.
French
I am going to limit my French for the first few months of this year. I am still reading the Hunger Games in French and listening to the audio book. The Hunger Games Reading Challenge Facebook Group is still active. My French reading time is the half an hour before bed. I am keeping the French goals low so as to not interfere with my Spanish learning. Reading a novel in your target language is a great way of maintaining the language whilst you focus on actively studying a new language.
We hate SPAM and protect your data in accordance with our privacy policy.
I wish you good luck with Spanish this month.
+1 for reading a novel in French to keep your level up.
I think it’s very courageous to make the effort of reading in your target language rather than in your native/primary language.
All the best!
Thanks for the good luck wishes – I think I will need them ! My tactic for maintaining my French whilst intensively studying Spanish is to try and do things in French that I would usually do in English eg reading a novel before bed, watching the news, listening to music etc etc. But it hard to resist the temptation to actively study French when i find a grammar construction I don’t know or I want to brush up on a tense that I am not sure of.
Helen these are fantastic goals! I am so excited because so many of the people participating in Clear the List this month are taking up Spanish in the new year! So you should have a lot of people to work with and chat about it 🙂 If you have any questions let me know.
Also, jealous that you are already at the point where you can read The Hunger Games. I’ve been trying to read more little stories in french mostly aimed at a beginner level. I did recently purchase Harry Potter in French and am hoping to slowlyyy get through it.
Buena suerte!!
Reading the Hunger Games in French is a challenge. I am trying to read without stopping to look up too many words. My tactic is to read the chapter in the English book, and then read the chapter in the French one. That way if there are any idiomatic expressions I don’t understand I can look at how it is translated in the English version. There are 30 people reading the Hunger Games in 7 different languages in the Hunger Games Language challenge – and we are all testing out different reading methods as we go through the books.
Hi Helen – great goals for this month. I’d love to know what you think of Olly’s Spanish Academy. I’m also studying Spanish this year and am always on the lookout for new resources. I have the Hunger Games in Chinese but I don’t think I’m ready for it yet.
Fluent Spanish Academy is great as all the resources are in one place. Listening files and transcripts, short stories for reading which look at specific grammar points, pronunciation videos, and more I have not even used yet. I am going to write a specific blog post each week to document my progress through the Academy so I will let you know more next week.
Going through the Clear The List posts and so many people learning Spanish this year. Don’t worry – I’ll definitely hold you accountable! 😉 Good luck for your español in January! 🙂
Thanks Lindsay – yes, I wonder why everyone is learning Spanish?
Wow, you learn Spanish too! I I have heard about the Olly’s Academy, although… i decided to go for a regular intensive course to Spain next month >_< (this is the tricky way to have holiday and work at the same time!).
I keep my fingers crossed for you!
Fluent Spanish Academy has all the resources in one place, plus a great community to keep you accountable. Good Luck with your course!