Welcome to 2019!
*fanfare*
A new year means new opportunities to improve my languages and add a couple new ones along the way. The past 6 months or so have been difficult because of life things, but I’m ready for the fresh start that only January can bring. I don’t want to do too much this first month and wear myself thin though, so my goals for January are going to be simple.
Before I get into what I’m doing this month I definitely want to recommend this post over at Hobby Help for anyone planning to take up Spanish this year! It’s super thorough and not only lists resources (most of them for free 99, my fave), but it also walks you through how to choose the best way to study for you.
What I’m Studying
I’m continuing my focus on Korean for January.
The first thing I’d like to do is start keeping better track of the time I’m spending doing different tasks. I already block out my day for study time but I want to be more specific about how that time is allocated. At the very least I’ll be tracking how much time I spend on the big 4: Reading, Writing, Listening, Speaking.
I’m breaking out my textbooks again and I imagine I’ll be starting up with my exchange partner again in the next couple weeks.
My local study buddy and I decided to start up our sessions again next week as well! Super excited to buckle down this year.
What I’m Reading
Back when I was super active on LiveJournal (leave me alone, I’m old remember) I was first introduced to the concept of reading around the world.
There are a few different ways people partake but the gist is that you read books written by people from different countries. They can either be translated into the language you speak or in their native language. They can also either be set in that country or written by someone who’s from the country. I’ve been wanting to do this for like a decade now so, no time like the present!
This month I’m going to cheat a little bit and reread a book I read a long while ago. It’s called Evil and the Mask by Japanese author Fuminori Nakamura. I vaguely remember really liking it but it’s been so long. Great place to jump off the challenge.
See? Short and sweet! What are your goals for this year?