Everyone sets goals to succeed and become successful. Each month, I set a few goals that i aim to achieve throughout this month. This was inspired by Lindsey from Lindsey Does Languages :) Every month, she sets goals for herself in multiple language learning platforms, and I thought that was a GREAT idea. After all, goals keep me in tract with what I want to accomplish.
So here are my goals for November! I hope you will be inspired to make one too!
Spanish goals
HelloTalk- This is a great app for talking and meeting native speakers for free. I've been using it for 2 weeks so far. I want to continually keep in touch with my friends on this app and try to avoid using the translate button as much as possible. I'm also planning to start jotting down the new phrases and words that I learn from there. Maybe even post a pic or two?
italki- I've been hearing a lot about this, so I'm going to try it out. There seems to be a lot of tutors at a relatively low price, so why not? I'm hoping to work more on my speaking with my tutor and ask her any questions on my mind.
Read Chapter 3-8 of Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets- There's no better way of learning your target language by reading a favorite childhood book! I'm such a potterhead and now I get to enjoy the story in my target language. (If you want to know my Potter house, comment: "Casa?") So far I'm on chapter 2 and I'm understanding most of it. (I've heard that your language skills can improve a lot when rereading a novel in the target language.) Though I'll admit, there's a lot of times where I skim over words I don't know simply because there's too many. But, at least I'm expanding my vocabulary even more and seeing grammatical rules being used in context
Daily Duolingo
I know, I know, you might hear that Duolingo doesn't work and what not, but I still LOVE the stories and it's a great way to review my skills. Also, the light bulbs are really helpful and clarifies my understanding of grammar. 31 day streak?
Podcasts/YouTube
This is probably my favorite part of practicing a language because I get to hear real people talking. If you want to know what podcasts I listen to, I am making a separate blog post. As for YouTube, I watch EasySpanish interviews and also Curiosamente (A Spanish channel that covers topics from science to history, and basically any questions that you could be curious about. I highly recommend this channel because the narrator speaks relatively slow, the pictures guide you if your ever stuck, and the content is interesting and easy to understand. Check it out!)
Chinese Goals
Talk in Chinese every day
I'll admit. This is actually one of the hardest to do. Though I have fluent Chinese parents right at home and I acknowledge that a lot of people would actually love to have this free resource, surprisingly I don't use it a lot. Chinese is hard and still after 14 years with this language I'm pretty much still at an intermediate level. However, every day, I report to them about how my day went, and what do you know? I encounter many words that I don't know! Just yesterday, as I was telling them about my English class and I stumbled upon the word 'comic book'. Fortunately, I was quickly told the definition, but you can still do this on your own! As you reflect upon your day, talk to yourself. Make sure you have a dictionary or translator handy because once you find yourself stuck, just search the word up! Trust me, you get significant results from this practice!
Read my Chinese texts and upload more voice memos
Really behind on these so I'm aiming on catching up. You can listen to them here
I also fall behind on homework sometimes (whoops) but I'm aiming to follow my schedule and do a little each day
ASL goals
This is the current new language that I am starting this year :) So far, I borrowed the ASL for Dummies book from my local library and am following free lessons online from Bill Vicars (He has a great personality and I think his teaching style really suits me as he often reviews the vocabulary that I just learned and applies them in sentences) I am on lesson 06 and aim to be at 08 by the end of this month
Check him out:
That's all my goals! I highly recommend you guys make one yourself too to keep yourselves motivated!