Language related New Year's resolutions for 2019

[zenmonkey]

Oh, boy.

Instead of resolutions, I think I'll go for hopes and aspirations. For 2019, I'd like to actively continue with my language learning. Dabble a little with French and Spanish and do a bit of reading and writing, just for maintenance. Reduce my constant use of English. But my real aspirations for the year, in terms of language learning are:

German

• Prepare for the C1 test. This means being fairly fluent and will require work in grammar, vocabulary and even pronunciation. Read and listen a lot. Watch a bit of German shows - I've got a great list. I'd hope to continue our exchange sessions with Brun Ugle.
• Focus my activity much more on native material.
• Spend at least 2 hrs a week.

Hebrew

• Complete Assimil & FSI. Really I'd like to move this to a solid A2 level. I've been futzing around this last year and need more consistently, if I want to get anywhere with this.
• Take a pause from italki lessons until February.
• Spend at least 2 hrs a week.

Tibetan

• Complete Colloquial Tibetan and Modern Tibetan Language Volume 1. I really like what I've achieved in the last year and think that continued work here will be truly enjoyable.
• Take a pause from italki lessons until February.
• Spend at least 2 hrs a week.

Setswana

• I'm going to complete that damn Memrise course. I've fallen behind! I may not go beyond the Polyglot conference (if I attend) but I would like to continue studying Setswana at least up to that date.
• Spend at least 1 hrs a week.

Other Languages

• Activate my Portuguese - over the winter vacations I had two opportunities to speak it and mostly waffled. I was nicely reminded that my father and brother are pretty fluent, if hesitant. So I have family resources to practice.
• Tzotzil and Nahuatl - do a bit of exploratory study to figure out which of the two I want to tackle next. No real solid goals there but mostly feed the dragon. And have fun with it.
• Esperanto - I want to continue to fervently avoid learning this language. I am involved in projects where some of the communication is proposed in Esperanto. I do not want to spend time on it. It isn't part of my goals, so I hope to actively avoid it.
• Norwegian - Someone keeps trying to distract me with this language. I have some material, I hope to barely look at it.

Seven hours a week of language learning seems aspirational to me. We'll see! I plan to continue to enjoy myself.

[Chupito]

yielding a minimum of about 25 new podcasts for 2019, all above my current level.

That's a great number. I intend to spend a lot of time listening to podcasts and audiobooks later in the year but won't devote as much time looking for them and trying them out so I would love to hear your reviews/recommendations. The one I've tried and loved so far is radio ambulante, but I'll want to introduce more variety at some point.

[coldrainwater]

yielding a minimum of about 25 new podcasts for 2019, all above my current level.

That's a great number. I intend to spend a lot of time listening to podcasts and audiobooks later in the year but won't devote as much time looking for them and trying them out so I would love to hear your reviews/recommendations. The one I've tried and loved so far is radio ambulante, but I'll want to introduce more variety at some point.

You bet. I will be glad to share what I find. This year, I am definitely giving myself more flexibility with respect to what I read and listen to. It has already been interesting (so far more in the reading department than in the listening but the pendulum swings both ways). I have your log bookmarked and wish you the best of luck in the coming months. Enjoy the journey.

[Chupito]

You bet. I will be glad to share what I find. Enjoy the journey.

Thanks. I've bookmarked yours too and will read it when I'm in the mood for some forum Spanish reading.

I'll post my resolution for Spanish. I begun in November 2018, so they are based on 14 months rather than a year.

• 500 hours of Spanish
• 5 000 "words" AKA 5 000 active Anki cards from a deck I am creating based on the courses I'm doing, the content I see, and a frequency dictionary.
• 300 hours of audio (TV shows, movies, podcasts, audiobooks, etc) to complete the Double Super Challenge Audio only. I'm including dubs and translations as well as original content but it needs to be recorded by natives and for natives, not learners. I'm OK with using subtitles and transcripts but I want to be able to follow along most content without help and with relative ease and a good understanding by the end of the year.
• I'm hoping to start a new job this year and my potential employer offers language classes, based on the results of a placement test. On a scale from 0 to 9, I'm aiming for 4 in April or 5/6 in August to get access to more interesting classes. From what I surmise, it means having achieved A2.
• By the end of the year, it would be nice to have reached B1.

[Ug_Caveman]

2. I'd like to add to my own collection of materials, currently hunting down a copy of Assimil "Zweeds Zonder Moeite"... Think I may have found one but not 100% sure yet

I think this must be the first time in my life I've managed to complete a New Year's resolution

This is officially my most non-procrastination-y year ever (*ignores the fact I've already blown resolution #1 on the list, but this was mainly due to logistical reasons as opposed to anything within my control*)

image1.jpeg

[Rosewyne]

Belated New Years Resolution: I want to become bilingual in another language, hopefully German.
I'll set the goalpost low by making "bilingual" around A2/B1. Not exactly fluent, but attainable in 8 months maybe?

[Bilingual_monoglot]

This is not late. I am simply posting my resolutions on Tamil new year.
1. Tamil - A for my A level Tamil paper
2. Malay - reach at least an B1 level in the next 6 months, study for at least 30 mins every day, maintain a language log
3. Chinese - reach at least an A2 level in the next 6 months, study for at least 30 mins every day, maintain a language log, sit for the HSK level 2 test by June next year
4. Dabbling languages - complete the course for whatever dabbling language I start, avoid having more than 3 dabbling languages this year.

Hopefully, this will be doable.

[trui]

Late resolutions, but maybe I'll actually succeed at it now that I have a good idea of where this year is headed.

I'm going to try and get to C1 in Dutch-- the biggest challenge when it comes to this will be getting my speaking up to snuff-- and B1 in German. I've been busy with university, so I haven't had much time for German yet, but even so, I've made some good initial progress since I started it in February. Dutch has really given me a big advantage when it comes to German, so I'm hoping it'll mostly just be a matter of mastering the grammar and learning lots of vocab.

I am planning on learning French sometime, but according to Wikipedia, German is actually slightly more lexically similar to French than English is. Slightly. It'll still be a lot harder than Dutch and German and I won't get much of a boost from my existing languages, unlike how Dutch is helping greatly with my German. So while French is definitely worth it, I'm still not looking forward to the workload and I'll be making no concrete plans about it this year.

[smallwhite]

6 months in -- How are your 2019 New Year's Resolutions going?
30 June 2019