I don’t usually write out my goals. Reason being: I never stick with them. Life gets in the way, I procrastinate, I give up on the resources I had decided to use. The reasons change, but the results stay the same: I do not work towards set goals.
However, today I was scrolling through twitter and I saw someone post their goals for August and I felt the need to do it as well. What’s different this time? I’m just now getting out of a dark place, I am halfway through with college and wondering whether or not I am able to do it, if I am able to be an adult. I am considering applying for an internship – and stressing over how I am going to do it being bad at managing my time, at interacting with people, at having responsibilities. And on top of that I, I did add a new language to the mix.
I don’t want to give up on a language right off the bat. I know that my hobby shouldn’t get in the way of my duties, that I should take it easy. But I do want to study all those three languages, and I want to create some sort of plan to attempt to manage it all. So, here are my plans for August!
The basics stay the same: I will do a little bit of a language every day, but not stress too much if I am not able to accomplish it. I won’t give up at the first struggle, but I will be kind to myself. I will make the best of my time: review on the bus (I will try to take the bus more often!), I will study on the corridors while waiting for the time to go to class. That kind of stuff.
Then come some changes, and more specific things.
1) I will create a schedule, and give my languages specific days of the week. Monday? Oh! Focus on Japanese! And so on and so forth. The idea behind it is to make sure I will give the same amount of attention to all my target languages (kind of. I don’t think it’s possible to split my efforts so equally into the three of them).
However, if I do get the urge to study a language on a different day I will do it. The schedule will be there to help me, not to hold me back. I cannot leave the fun behind. If I do, then what’s the point, right?
2) I did order a 原稿用紙 (Genkō yōshi) notebook that has yet to arrive. In case you don’t know, Genkō yōshi is the paper you use for Japanese characters. And when the notebook arrives, I will carry it around with me. Everywhere. And whenever I have spare time, I will practice my writing for either Chinese or Japanese. And I will try to learn kanji on this notebook. I still don’t think that studying kanji individually will help me, but it’s a bit of language that I’m doing, and I am willing to try it. If I can use the notebook on a daily basis, that will be fantastic!
3) I will work hard on the N5読むbook and on my French Language Hacking. I had hopes I would progress a lot with them this vacation but that didn’t happen. C’est la vie! I will keep trying. I can even carry those books around as well to study when I am bored (don’t judge me! I will focus on college stuff, I promise!)
(I will leave the Try! book for a holiday I’ll have in September).
4) Lots of LingQ. I do intend on renewing my subscription (the separated LingQ post comes out this week!) and I want to do one or two lessons per day?! That does seem doable to me. Plus, they have lots of audio material. Listening is something that has been lacking on my studies, so this month I hope to listen a lot. I will even try to keep track of how much time I spend on it.
That’s basically it.
My goals aren’t too specific, I don’t think, but that seems like a rather consistent plan. Those things can be easily fit into my daily routine, even if life ends up becoming too much – I just have to learn how to manage my time and the things I have to do.
Will this work? I don’t know! I don’t have a good track record when it comes to planning ahead (my copy of Alice au Pays des Merveilles has been sitting at the top of my shelf for ages, even after that super positive and excited post!!!), and I am terrified of everything that has yet to come. This semester… I am terrified of it. But hopefully I won’t have to abandon my language learning, and I will still be able to enjoy it.
I am going to cross my fingers and do my best. I hope you guys have an amazing month! And I will work hard to have one too.
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