No one has to create *new* goals at the beginning of each year…but I do like to take the time to do some reflection. It reminds me about what I’m aiming for, and realigns my practices to take me where I want to go.

Language goals for 2022

French: I want to get back on track with my monthly book & film goal. In 2019, I tried to start doing this and managed to read/watch a few things at the beginning of the year. In 2020, I read a few books and watched some movies during the initial quarantine, so I met my goal at that point but fell out of it for the rest of the year. In 2021, I only managed this during February (and particularly during the My French Film Festival season). So In 2022, I’d like to try to make this a sustainable activity that I can keep up with throughout the year!

Spanish: I’m going to bite the bullet and start italki lessons this year. I adore speaking French- and it would be possible to use in my day to day life maybe- but Spanish is a more practical option in my area. (Not that everything has to be practical…but I know my life, and this is my decision at this time.) I’ve skated by over the past few years, by practicing it on my own (lots of reading & listening practice, and then a little writing & speaking). But it’s been more than enough time and I need to get back into speaking it with a tutor. I bookmarked a few tutors I was interested in over the holidays, so I’m going to test them out over the next few weeks, and see what tutor/day & time works for my schedule!

Italian: I’m happy with where my Italian level is at the moment. I was watching the episode of “Fat” from “Salt, Fat, Acid, Heat” on Netflix recently, and I was totally comfortable getting up to do something in the kitchen while the episode was running. It wasn’t a fast Italian conversation, but it was a natural chat between the main chef and a local Italian farmer, and I didn’t need the subtitles. Olives, oil, and farming was also an easy enough topic for my vocabulary level haha! I’m going to continue what I’m doing, and I’m looking forward to learning even more this year.

Chinese: I passed the HSK1 exam last year, and was really proud of myself! I started learning Chinese in 2014 with a mainly speaking-focused class, and then played around with it for a few years after that before figuring out how to study it seriously on my own. Now that I have more of a handle on it, I’d like to make more steady progress, and to feel more comfortable to eventually travel and visit a friend of mine who lives there.

So in the fall, I had decided to push back the HSK2 exam that I’ve been working towards. Now I need to find some free online practice exams, and set a date for this year. Maybe in April or May of 2022! Exams aren’t necessary to prove anything…but I’m using the HSK exam series as a way of making sure I’m not missing out on any vocabulary or grammar as I’m learning, and it gives me a deadline to push myself to work toward.

Polish: My listening has improved a lot this year. I paid for 1 month’s sub to the patreon for the Easy Polish youtube channel just to try it out last October, and they had lots of transcripts and extra practice materials available! I’m still going through these materials, and still using my Teach Yourself Polish textbook. Looking forward to continuing to learn the basics this year, and hopefully finish my first textbook!

Icelandic: I’ve kept up with a lot of Icelandic cultural news this year (it’s mainly in English), but I’m not sure how much my language skills have improved haha. That’s okay, sometimes that’s how life goes! Icelandic is one of my lower priority languages, and I’m just learning it for fun at this point (no trips planned in the near future). I’m not close to finishing my first textbook, but maybe I’ll finish some youtube series I’ve been learning from!

ASL: I kind of fell out of my routine with ASL in 2021. It is fun, but it’s not the same learning process as spoken languages. I think I need to add some more silly or low-pressure learning practices to keep up my interest, and keep myself coming back to my bi-weekly lesson.

German: This has been really fun so far! I’m pretty good with my pronunciation and listening skills right now, but I need to work on adding more vocabulary and sentence structure to my practice. All in good time!

Japanese: I have absolutely delighted in being able to read little bits of hiragana and katakana in English manga and on random insta posts. So fun, it feels like I’ve unlocked a mystery. I’m going to try to introduce more Kanji characters, and maybe try to do some language laddering with Chinese? I don’t want to confuse myself, but it might be helpful if I can get both meanings/pronunciations to stick in my head that way. I’ll continue to work through my Genki textbook and youtube videos. I also might do a rewatch of Studio Ghibli movies, but in Japanese with eng subtitles this year! Should I memorize all the names of the First Generation Pokémon? I’ll see how this year goes haha.  

Here’s to another fun year of language learning xx bis

À la prochaine!