Clear the List | Monthly Language Learning Strategies Update | May 2021

Welcome to May! We’re almost at the halfway point for the year. I’m still continuing to focus on Russian, but I’m also still working on Japanese, Hungarian, and Croatian.

And, as it has for the first several months of 2021, a new month not only means a new analysis at my language goals as a part of Clear the List, but also a new Quest as a part of Language Conqueror!

And this month… it’s all about learning with mindfulness! It’s a practice I’m fairly new to as I tend to me more from the time management and productivity side of things, but it’s something I’ve really enjoyed diving into.

What is Language Conqueror? It’s a course I work on together with my friend Caitlin Sacasas of 5 Minute Japanese. And each month, we highlight a new topic to help you learn a new language through passion-driven learning. In the month of March, we’re all about dramas. You can learn more, get a feel for our teaching style, and download our free PDF here: Get the Free PDF

And if that’s not enough, you can also get a feel for our teaching style with Snack-Sized Language!

Snack-Sized Language is a free podcast where we teach you snack-sized language lessons. So far we have episodes teaching general language learning tips, Japanese, French, Mandarin and Korean.

Here’s a snippet:

You can subscribe to the podcast on your preferred podcast platform.

Listen on Apple Podcasts Listen on Spotify Listen on Google Podcasts

And if you enjoy Snack-Sized language, we would absolutely love it if you left us a review!

And now, on to #clearthelist …

Wondering what #clearthelist is? Let me clear it up for you (see what I did there?). #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 in the comments 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

View this post on Instagram

A post shared by Shannon Kennedy (@eurolinguiste)

Last Month’s Goals

Continue filling the gaps in my Mandarin vocabulary I’ve noticed since Little Linguist’s arrival. // This month hasn’t been as active for us with Mandarin, so I’m hoping to turn things around this coming month.

Maintain my vocabulary learning streak. // Yes! I’ve been keeping this up and it’s a great way to keep my vocabulary fresh while learning new words.

Keep working through my YouTube Queue.  // Yes, I’ve done this. Each week, I add new videos to the list so I try to get through more than I add. As an update on my progress, from the 1,738 videos last month, I’m up to 1,709 in my queue.

Keep reading Game of Thrones in Russian. // Yes, I’ve done this! We’re slowly making progress through the book.

Keep reading Eye of the World in Hungarian. // Even after a week, I wasn’t able to get through the prologue, but I’m happy to be reading a book I love in the language.

Get through at least three chapters in each course book I’m working on. // I’ve been determined to do this for several months now but my focus has been on reading the fiction books.

Maintain my weekly lessons in each language. // I have been doing this!

This Month’s Goals

Continue filling the gaps in my Mandarin vocabulary I’ve noticed since Little Linguist’s arrival. // As usual, I’d like to continue to incorporate this more and more until we’re an OPOL household. Last month wasn’t what I hoped so I am aiming to get back on track this month.

Maintain my vocabulary learning streak. // This has been a great way to rebuild my language routine, so it’s staying on the list indefinitely! I share my stats over on Instagram in my stories nearly every day, so if you’re ever curious where I’m at, you can check out my stories. I’m currently far beyond 200 days.

Keep working through my YouTube Queue.  // There’s still a lot here I need to get through, and there’s just so much good learning content. I plan to continue to work through this until it gets to a more manageable number.

Keep reading Game of Thrones in Russian. // My tutor and I are working on this weekly.

Keep reading Eye of the World in Hungarian. // My tutor and I are working on this weekly.

Maintain my weekly lessons in each language. // It makes sure I’m using all my languages each week and helps me a ton with accountability.

Resources I Used This Month

A quick recap of the materials I am using.

What I Am Using to Learn Chinese:

LingQ – my favorite tooliTalki Lessons – I have weekly Chinese lessonsMemrise  Drops

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

LingQListening to French radio/podcasts/music

What I am Using to Learn Russian:

Colloquial RussianLingQiTalki LessonsDropsPimsleur

What I am Using to Learn Persian:

LingQPreply LessonsDropsPimsleurTeach Yourself Complete Persian

What I am Using to Learn Spanish:

LingQ

What I am Using to Learn Italian:

LingQ

What I’m Using to Learn Japanese:

Genki IDrops – they just added hundreds of new culture-specific words for Japanese!iTalki LessonsPimsleur

What I’m Using to Learn Croatian:

Colloquial CroatianiTalki LessonsLingQ – they added Croatian, woot woot!Drops

What I’m Using to Learn Hungarian:

Colloquial HungarianiTalki LessonsDropsLingQ – they added Hungarian, too!

Not Currently doing any study for: German, Hindi, Norwegian, Hebrew, Korean

What I’m Using for Little Linguist

Lots of booksDay-to-day interactionitalki LessonsDuolingo ABCDropletsMovies in ChineseGus on the Go Chinese

Resources That Aren’t Language Specific

Fluent in 3 Months ChallengeTodoist (to keep all my language lessons and to-do’s organized)Notion – my new favorite app for taking notes (I just set up a template for the way I use Notion to take notes if you’re interested in duplicating it for yourself)The Biggest Lesson I Am Taking Away from This Month

I know it’s something I talked about in the past, but it’s been something I’ve really gotten into in new ways.

Before, I would read in my languages, play video games, and do other things that I enjoyed to have a more enjoyable way to learn languages.

And lately, one of the things I’ve gotten back into is Pokemon. I’ve been diving into content in different languages and… collecting the cards in the languages I speak as well. So far, I’ve been able to find cards in Russian, Chinese, Japanese, and several other languages. And it’s been a great way for me to enjoy a revived hobby in my languages.

So my takeaway is that you can enjoy your languages in all sorts of places if you’re creative and look at other things you’re already doing or plan to do!

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

The post Clear the List | Monthly Language Learning Strategies Update | May 2021 appeared first on Eurolinguiste.