Clear The List | Monthly Language Learning Strategies Update | August

At the end of July, I began a new Add1Challenge and that means my focus language(s) have once again changed. In the last challenge, I did Japanese as a part of Add1Advance and Korean as a part of the normal challenge. This time around, I’m returning to Croatian for Add1Advance and Russian for the regular challenge.

My Day 0 Video for Russian:

My Day 0 Video for Croatian:

Pronunciation in Russian has always been a struggle for me and that’s clear watching my Day 0 video (and from all the downvotes!). But it’s something I’d really like to work on improving. 

August also means that LangFest is just around the corner — and I’m speaking! If you’re planning to be there, be sure to come say hi. And if you haven’t got your tickets yet, be sure to do so!

On to #clearthelist …

If you’re new around these parts, #clearthelist is a linkup where we share our monthly goals, and by we, I mean myself, and Lindsay of Lindsay Does Languages.

We’d absolutely love for you to a part of our community. You can join us by adding a link to your own goal post below.

So let’s get started, sharing our goals and motivating one another to #clearthelist!

Please feel free to tag your posts or photos with either #clearthelist on your favorite social media channels!

Last Month’s Highlights on Instagram

 

A post shared by Shannon Kennedy (@eurolinguiste) on Aug 1, 2018 at 3:43pm PDT

Last Month’s Blog Highlights
Travel

International Festivals in Southern California // How to travel the world without a plane ticket.

Language Learning

Language Learning with Video Games // How to make games an effective language learning tool.

Last Month’s Goals

Continue filling the gaps in my Mandarin vocabulary I’ve noticed since Little Linguist’s arrival. // Yes! We’ve been doing a lot of reading and going to Mommy & Me Chinese classes. It’s a great way for us to spend time together and learn.

Read the next Language Reading Challenge book on my list. // In July, we read something written by someone who lives in a country that speaks our language. I used it as a chance to read several articles about the Croatian language in Croatian.

Keep working through my YouTube Queue.  // Yes! Though much more slowly this month as predicted.

Continue to meet my daily goal on LingQ for Japanese, Chinese, Korean and Russian. // I had a couple days where I missed my study goals, but overall I did this.

Add1Challenge // In July, I finished Add1Advance for Japanese and started the Add1Challenge for Croatian and Russian.

This Month’s Goals

Continue filling the gaps in my Mandarin vocabulary I’ve noticed since Little Linguist’s arrival. // A permanent item on my monthly list. We’ve been doing a lot more reading together lately, so he’s keeping me on my toes!

Read the next Language Reading Challenge book on my list. // In August, we’re reading book about a language, a family of languages, a writing system, or something related to linguistics. I’m reading several books about Croatian (and other Slavic languages). 

Keep working through my YouTube Queue.  // I really one day hope to zero this out.

Continue to meet my daily goal on LingQ for Japanese, Chinese, Korean and Russian. // Because reading is a fun way to learn languages.

Watch the rest of Novine and then watch it again. // I recently discovered that Netflix hosts a Croatian tv series called Novine. Needless to say, I’m pretty excited about this! I’ve been watching the series and writing down phrases I’ve found useful. Once I finish it, I want to go back through and see if I can get down even more. 

Add1Challenge // I really want to get my Croatian and Russian to the next level, so I’ll be giving this my all.

Resources I Used This Month

A quick recap of the materials I am using.

What I Am Using to Learn Chinese

LingQ – my favorite tool
iTalki Lessons – I have weekly Chinese lessons
Memrise – I do 18,000 points minimum per day 
Drops – they have a new character tool that is fantastic

What I’m Using to Brush Up/Improve My French:

LingQ
Immersion (we speak franglais at home)
Listening to French radio/podcasts
Lingoci

What I am Using to Learn Russian:

LingQ
Perfectionnement Russe
iTalki Lessons
Memrise
Pimsleur

What I am Using to Learn Korean:

LingQ
Memrise
iTalki Lessons
Pimsleur
Glossika

What I am Using to Learn Spanish:

LingQ

What I am Using to Learn Italian:

LingQ

What I’m Using to Learn Japanese:

Lingualift
Memrise
iTalki Lessons
Pimsleur
Glossika

What I’m Using for Little Linguist

Baby Bear, Harry the Dog, Disney Fairy Tales, and a book about an Imaginary Friend
Little Pim
Finding Dory, Cars and other films/tv shows
Day-to-day interaction
Mommy and Me weekly classes

Resources That Aren’t Language Specific

Add1Challenge

The Biggest Lesson I Am Taking Away from This Month

This month taught me that I still have (and will always have) room to grow. Because I’ve made the choice to study several languages, my progress is slower than it could be. I’ve accepted this, but sometimes a desire to rush to the finish line creeps in — even though there is no finish line in learning new languages.

Every day is one day more of getting better at my languages and of getting better at being a language learner. 

Don’t forget that I would love to hear all about your goals for this month! Please join us by adding your post to the linkup below! 

Clear The List Linkup Rules:

1. Share your goal post whether it includes your aspirations for the month or year. Submissions unrelated to the theme or links to your homepage will be deleted.

2. Link back to this post. You can use our button if you wish.

3. Follow the hosts: Lindsay from Lindsay Does Languages and Shannon from Eurolinguiste.

4. THIS IS THE MOST IMPORTANT RULE: Please visit the site of the person who linked up immediately before you and leave them an encouraging comment! By hosting this linkup, we’re hoping to create a positive community where we can all share our goals. If you do not do this, you will be removed from the linkup.

5. Share on social media using #ClearTheList

An InLinkz Link-up

The post Clear The List | Monthly Language Learning Strategies Update | August appeared first on Eurolinguiste.