How I Study Languages: A Quarterly Check-in for Welsh, Italian & Chinese

This blog post is an my own language learning goals and progress.

Read on to hear about

• what happened in my life and business so far this year
• which languages I’m learning and how I’m doing in them
• which courses I’m taking and creating
• what I’m planning to do next!

I’ll be referring to January-March as “Q1” from here on, since it was the first quarter of 2021.

Lockdown Language Life in Q1 2021

I live in the UK, and our winter was not exciting. Shortly after the new year started, our country went into a pretty strict coronavirus lockdown which is only now beginning to ease.

Cue…another 3 months spent in and around the home. I’m unbelievably lucky to have space and quiet available in my home, and the rules allowed for just enough outdoor activity to help me avoid loneliness and depression.

I am so happy to know that our vaccine programme is progressing well, and the relief it’s going to bring vulnerable people, their carers, and all who work in healthcare.

We held another Women in Language online conference!

Let’s start with the biggest event first: Women in Language 2021! The conference was another smash hit and we learnt SO much over the course of 4 days - it’s impossible to sum up everything, but here are some of my personal highlights.

• Kaché Knowles from The Bahamas helped us kick off the event in the best possible, sunniest, most celebratory mood. I loved her energy!
• I moderated the “Language Learning in Australia” panel and learnt just SO much about languages down under from Michele Frolla, Bec Howie & Karla Zuluaga. Australia is a 360 degree language space with so many indigenous, regional, and immigrant languages. Wow wow! Loved it!
• We added our first ever bilingual presentations with contributions in Spanish, French and Mandarin

We had an entrepreneurial streak running through many presentations, including

• Inspired Teachers Create Inspired Learners! by English language icon Lindsay McMahon
• A 5-Step Manifesto on Becoming a Language Teacher Rebel by Swedish teacher and Author Anneli Haake
• A wonderful conversation on Mindset and Self-Worth as you grow your language business by Gwyneth Jones & Marija Dobrovolska I found myself engaged and excited for the many baby language businesses in the chatroom, loving the opportunity to share my knowledge through mentoring.

Stats round-up: 599 participants, 34 speakers, 56 countries, 1145 Facebook group comments over 4 days. PHEW! It is really cool to see more and more men attending this event each year.

Mobile Mentoring by Kerstin Cable

Through February, I have been quietly trying out a new mentoring offer for online teachers and I’m so excited to share that this is now LIVE! I have offered coaching/mentoring for online teachers for a few years now. It’s the perfect mix of

1. Talking shop
2. Helping language business owners find the answers that they need for all those decisions about prices, offers, marketing and more
3. Lighting that fire of excitement in them about the many fantastic ways they can create a business that makes a difference in the world (and makes some money, that's important too)

Long story short, you should consider booking one!

It’s a 1:1 deal with a twist: you get a whole day with me and we’ll be chatting via voice message! Want to learn a little more and try it out? Here’s my booking page link!

Learning Languages in Lockdown 3

When you don’t plan ahead and set myself manageable goals, you don’t achieve as much either.

But when languages are a habit and always form part of your life, you never stand still even in a super busy month.

Closing the 书 on Chinese for now

At the end of last year, I had just completed level HSK 1 in Mandarin Chinese and I wasn’t sure whether to take it any further. Well, after sitting on a very vague intention to do something or other with Chinese, in the end I decided it was time to pack it in.

I am really happy that I took 2020 to learn my first East Asian language, and I’ll happily return to Chinese at some point in the future. I didn’t find it scary or uninteresting, but equally I never quite found my Chinese passion either.

Guess for now we’ll choose to stay friends. 谢谢for the good times, 中文！

La signora nuova on the scene…it’s Italian!!

One of the reasons I wanted to let go of Chinese was to create space for just one of the many languages on my list: Italian! I studied Italian for 2 years as a teenager and I’ve got plenty of cross-language skills from learning other Romance languages over the years. But speaking Italian? Quasi ninety!

In 2021, I’m finally spending a little time with Italian again. I had a really lovely time with it in the late 90s, so I'm looking forward to playing around with Italian again!

I’m not ready to speak to anyone quite yet, but will get there in the next 3 months. Until then, I’m working with my own Vocab Checklist to build a bank of essential phrases and listening to a few learner-friendly podcasts to get into the groove.

Want to find out what I love for learning Italian? Click here to view my page for Italian learners!

My 6th Year of Learning Welsh (Y 6ed blwyddyn yn dysgu Cymraeg)

I love learning Welsh! Yes, even 6 years in I still do. My language level is B2, and I reached it without ever pushing super hard. I have so much fun with Welsh.

My attendance at the Advanced 1 course continues, a friendly weekly evening with other learners. I’m the only one who is joining the group from England, so I’m getting a great treat here from the 2020 online lessons.

My Welsh conversation skills and my grammar have improved. I now feel more confident and competent expressing myself in the language, and I CANNOT WAIT for everyone’s vaccinations and all those festivals and trips I’m going to enjoy after covid. C’mon, world!

Want to enjoy a quick dabble in the beautiful Welsh language yourself? Try my Language Dabbler’s Guide to Welsh!

Also on the Scene: Le Français

In French, I’m in the lucky position that I’ve got a strong basis to fall back onto even if I don’t study for ages. In Q1, I practiced my French mostly with Call My Agent/Dix Pour Cent on Netflix, and in March by listening to Cathy Intro’s awesome My Polyglot Life podcast.

Every now and then, I practice speaking or writing French but it’s not at the top of my priority list.

Want to find out what I love for learning French? Click here to view my page for French learners!

In Conclusion: Steady Effort Wins for Me

That’s it for reviewing my Q1! After many months thinking I’m ready to move on from Chinese for now, I’ve finally done it. It feels good to have taken the pressure off myself, though I want to continue to look beyond Europe for my language education in the future.

A 4th language I’m eager to learn is BSL (British Sign Language), but I’ve decided I’d like to start that in an offline class so it’s on hold for obvious reasons.

2021 is off to a great start, with a successful Women in Language event under our belt, and I’m excited to dive into more support for online teachers and language entrepreneurs through my mobile mentoring days.

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Courses & Classes I Use for Languages

• A few italki lessons in Chinese and Welsh
• In Chinese, lessons used this (not so riveting) textbook and sometimes I also used Assimil Chinese False Beginners which is a good resource
• Welsh for Adults Uwch 1, where we’re also reading Cyffeision Saesnes Yng Nghymru
• The Intrepid Guide Italian course
• Bought Italian Tutor (not started yet)
• Using my own Language Habit Toolkit to stay organised
• For added input, I watch Yabla, listen to breakfast radio on Radio Cymru and watch the odd show on S4C

Believe it or not, I don’t watch YouTube. some of these links above are affiliate links

Courses & Programmes I Created / Promoted

• Women in Language 2021 (our 4th one)
• Mobile Mentoring for language teachers and businesses
• A new live round of the Language Habit Toolkit (including BINGO with prizes…I love games!)
• How to Get Fluent When Life’s Chaotic (free class, link coming soon)

Blogs & Podcasts

• Language Coaches: What They Are and How to Work With Them
• The Languages of Western and Central Asia with Erin Morgan
• Our big line-up of Words of the Year 2020
• The amazing story of how your brain processes code-switching
• 5 Ways to Set Your Language Goals for 2021
• Top Tools: Winter of 2021
• Stylistics: The Science of Hemingway and The Wire

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This post is part of the #clearthelist round-up hosted by Shannon Kennedy and Lindsay Williams. I used to do these check-ins on a monthly basis, but since I’ve found relaxing the pace recently, I decided that a quarterly check-in is just as good.

The world is feeling like that cloud over our heads is starting to move a little. What about you? Do you feel the same? Leave me a comment below if you have any thoughts or questions for me!

Clear The List June 2020: This is Fine for Chinese and Welsh

Hello there! Why don’t you grab a cup of very gentle camomile tea and join me on my latest post in the Clear the List series. Clear the List is a monthly language learning round-up where I share my goals and progress.

If you’re inspired to try your own check-in, why not join our #clearthelist blog round-up hosted by Shannon Kennedy and Lindsay Williams.

Previously On Clear The List..

I barely remember typing my last Clear The List entry. That was back in early April, so I missed a month on documenting. As you probably know, it’s almost impossible to grasp all the many things that have happened in the world since then.

During lockdown, I’ve celebrated Easter, my birthday and my 5th wedding anniversary. This also makes it nearly 5 years of learning Welsh and I’m very happy to call that TWO love affairs in my life.

The Fluent Show

The podcast has been back on its usual weekly schedule with renewed energy.

Here are 3 highlight episodes for you:

1. How to Learn a Language Every Day
2. An interview with the lovely Sara Maria Hasbun on languages, lockdown and long-term success - perfect episode for world travellers who love languages
3. A special statement about racism, only 6 minutes long and inspired by recent events

I’m very very proud and grateful to the Fluent Show patrons. There are 36 of them now, making a real contribution to the podcast. Patrons of the Fluent Show get extra show notes, news from behind the scenes, and discounts and bonus audio on a regular basis.

If you are interested in becoming a patron, go to www.patreon.com/fluentshow to get involved.

How I Learnt Languages in April and May

Having moved house during the truly frightening anxieties of Coronavirus overwhelming the UK, I didn’t find it easy to focus on languages for the first half of April. But slowly, the stars started to align again.

italki Language Challenge

90% of language learning will have to happen online for the foreseeable future. Fun events like cultural festivals are cancelled. It’s a GREAT time to make friends with online lessons.

During lockdown, lots of new teachers opened the doors to their very own one-person language schools. This included my friend Dafydd who shared that he’d just started teaching on italki. Dafydd has been a super patient practice partner for my Welsh on several occasions, so it felt like the perfect time for me to book some classes.

If you’ve never tried italki before, check out my review here for more information.

And while I was over on italki, I spotted that they were running a new language challenge and signed up on the spot! This challenge isn’t complicated: simply set a goal of at least 12 lesson hours during the challenge period and work towards it.

During the last italki challenge, I didn’t manage to hit 12 hours. Travel commitments got in the way, and I found it hard to fit it all into 4 weeks. This time, italki offered an extended challenge period of 6 weeks and obviously I wasn’t going anywhere.

Welsh Speaking Progress

Since April I’ve been taking regular one-hour practice lessons in Welsh, chatting about everything and nothing with Dafydd. Just like every other tutor I’ve worked with on italki, he’s fab and very patient. I’m comfortable with Welsh now and that hour a week is a great way to keep going and get better.

Chinese Speaking Progress

In Chinese, April was a great time for me to try again in terms of speaking. I booked new classes with my old “Google translate read out loud” partner Zuo, who’s always fun to talk to. And behold, this time I was able to say that much more!

I’m still far from “conversational” in Chinese, but it’s always nice to feel that my work has actually paid off.

The conversation based lessons are fairly loose and chaotic (and short!) and I wasn’t going to reach 12 hours that way alone, so in addition I signed up with a more established teacher in China. She took one look at me, said a few incomprehensible things, and then exclaimed “HSK 1!” and sent me a huge PDF containing the full HSK1 materials. These lessons are different, they mostly consist of us working through the textbook and there’s a LOT of non-entertaining content. But as I had misplaced my textbook anyway during the move, it felt kinda right to bring in this element of structure.

The “start right at page 1” approach might have been disheartening to some, but my ego was restored very quickly as I found I’m breezing through pages 1-50.

Language Goals for June

Nearly halfway through the year, I’m still refusing to give up on learning Chinese. No, we’re not on cloud 9 together yet. But I have hope, or at least I have my ambitions! It’s great to be learning my first Asian language, too.

Chinese Language Goals

My most important commitments are to improving my listening, reading and speaking skills. I’m a natural doodler, so I’ve found that writing down vocab and even practicing Chinese characters tends to happen as standard with me. That’s enough for now.

Listening

I’ve got into episodes of iPartment on Yabla and neglected them during the italki language challenge, but I’ll be happy to return to these. I do love Yabla because of the super easy rewind and loop functionality!

Yabla used to be my morning activity and I’ll aim to bring it back for 10 minutes (minimum) on weekday mornings.

Speaking

In terms of my pronunciation, I’m happy. People can understand me and make positive remarks. Now if only I could express myself better… the goal is simple here: Take 3 Sunday lessons with my HSK1 teacher and 2 conversation classes with community teachers, all through italki

Reading

My favourite study app for Chinese is Lingodeer and I’m about halfway through their HSK1 skill tree. They’ve also added more reading exercises, so my goal is to focus on Lingodeer practice and reach the next checkpoint in the app.

Having finished all mini stories, I’ve got a bit of a Lingq gap at the moment, so let’s save Lingq practice for July.

Welsh Language Goals

Usually around this time I’d start to get excited about planning my Eisteddfod trip to Wales, but due to Coronavirus this was not to be. I have lots of Welsh in my life through conversation lessons and exchanges, television and social media.

The only extra goal I’d like to add for the summer is to find a new book to read! After finishing Ffenestri last year, I had planned to buy a new one in Wales and again Coronavirus blocked me there. So it’s time for a trip to Hive.co.uk to find new entertaining Welsh writing.

What are Your Language Learning Goals?

I hope you’re safe and healthy, and finding consolation and calm in a linguistic refuge right now. What are your language goals? Did you put a tenner on my commitment to Chinese? Leave me a comment below or say hi over in my Facebook Group to chat more!

#clearthelist April 2020: Should I Stop Learning Chinese?

Hello and welcome to another blog post in the Clear The List series, the monthly language learning round-up about language learning goals and progress.

What can I say. It’s been two months rather than one month since my last update. That’s less than 100 days, and still the world has turned upside down for many of us.

Earlier this week, my husband stated that one “corona day” is about 6 days in the real world. Do you feel like this too?

What Happened in February and March 2020?

Back in February, I enjoyed running a brand new live round of my course Your Solid Vocab Memory. The course also got a brand new sales page, check it out here.

I also got inspired and launched the Language Dabbler’s Guide to Welsh. This class was refreshing and fun for me and for my students. It’s a chance to enjoy a fun introduction to the Welsh language, entirely designed for language lovers.

After 5 energised, positive weeks, I was just as swept up as you in the anxiety and shock that hit the world when Coronavirus became a cruel reality in our lives.

I got sick with a cold, then the world got sick with a global virus, then I moved house on the last day of March. I had been looking forward to being a speaker at the first ever Polyglot Cruise in April 🛳, but as you can imagine this even has been postponed to 2021.

The Fluent Show

My favourite episode from February and March is this discussion of language teaching methods with Lindsay: \

The show is now on a much-needed break until 6 May so I can produce new episodes and tinker with the format. But you don’t have to miss it for too long, as I’m publishing mini episodes called Fluent in Isolation over on Patreon during the current Coronavirus crisis. The episodes are about 5 minutes long and give you tips for learning languages during the crisis.

Learning Languages at Home

This year is becoming an indoors-themed year, with announcements of an event-free summer coming thick and fast.

My favourite Welsh language event, the National Eisteddfod, has fallen victim to this as well, and it’s been cancelled for this year. The same goes for Machynlleth Comedy Festival, where I volunteered at the Welsh stages last year.

One of the things that keeps me motivated and excited when learning Welsh is the prospect of travelling to Wales. I love practicing my language with people out there, and of course we’re under lockdown right now.

Luckily, I maintain a healthy language habit and I know what works for me. A more routine-focused person than me may find that these things ruined all progress and activity in language learning. As it is, I don’t follow my own routines anyway so I’m still here and still going.

My Positive Goals for Language Learning

The key for me at this point is to revisit the language learning goals I had set myself and to set out positive, exciting goals for myself. In tough times, excitement and joy are even more important than they have always been. Tough times also call for tough decisions, so let’s start with the first one.

Doubting My Dedication to Chinese Learning

Back at the start of February, I felt a little more confident with my Mandarin studies. Then, most of March disappeared. I continued studying Chinese using Lingq (so handy!) and my Teach Yourself course book. On a placement test, I am now classed as a ‘middle beginner’ and that seems right.

But even though I can communicate a little better in Chinese and I appreciate the language very much, I still feel self-conscious about the super slow pace of my progress.

When you’ve studied Celtic, Germanic and Romance languages in the past, it’s way slower to add an Asian one.

Not impossible, but slower and more challenging as a result.

Back in January, I said I’d give me & Mandarin another 3 months. It’s time to move on from Chinese as my focus language. That doesn’t mean I’m going to drop it completely and utterly. In fact, I’m still curious. I feel the benefits of the time I’ve invested and I wonder if I’m about to turn the corner. But am I? Not sure!

Decision Time

My dilemma is this:

• I’ve made progress in Chinese, but it’s been a bit of a slog
• I don’t want to start feeling frustrated here
• There are other interesting languages I’d like to study for a while
• I don’t believe that my Chinese is strong enough to stay active if I stop studying now.

So here’s the big polyglot question:

Can I have it all?

Well, why not? No one is measuring my progress in Chinese. In fact, no one cares except me. I can continue to pootle along here at my own pace. The real answer is not for me to double down or go home, or any of that macho kind of BS. It’s to continue doing what I’m interested in!

(Funnily enough, I used to feel this same way about Welsh and that didn’t stop me from becoming better and better anyway.)

At times like these, only one thing works: Getting back into planning with the Language Habit Toolkit, working out my goals for the month and becoming very consistent about tracking until the habit is established.

For the month of April, my one Chinese goal is to track what and when I study by writing it into my bullet journal.

Ok, but what about the other languages?

YEP the other ones!!

I am so excited to see more Welsh online tutors becoming available, so I’ve booked a lesson with friend-turned-tutor Dafydd and I’ll keep my skills up with Welsh in the same way I always have.

I am feeling drawn to a few other languages, but I won’t go beyond any dabbles at this point. My energy is low as a result of moving house and fearing Coronavirus, so for now that part of my life is reserved for fun.

What do you think? Can we have it all?

If you’re a multi-language-learner like me, I’m sure you know the odd feeling of frustration and temptation. My tendency is always to stick with my efforts for a little longer, just to see what happens. What about you?

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Click here to enter

#clearthelist February 2020: Slow and Steady (缓慢稳定)

Welcome to #clearthelist, my monthly update on my language learning goals and progress. This month it’s going to be a pretty speedy update because January was pretty full of good stuff!

Fluent Language Updates

The biggest project I worked on in January was Your Solid Vocab Memory, my new online course about learning and remembering vocabulary. We’re running a live round right now with group calls and a pop-up forum - great way to light a 🔥under everyone's 🍑.

On the Fluent Show, there were so many awesome episodes. My favourite is “How to Find Fantastic Language Tutors in Your Network Right Now” - catch up here if you haven’t heard it yet!

In my personal life, I was lucky to have the opportunity to swim in the sea several times! 🌊 Winter swimming without a wetsuit is fairly new to me and I still struggle to make myself dive in, but every year it’s a little bit easier. Have you ever tried it?

My Language Goals and Progress

After it felt like January was about 60 days long, this month is promising to be almost the opposite: short and bursting with activity! I’m typing this on my way to London for an exciting new project. It’s also a big birthday for my mum this month, meaning I’ll be spending a week travelling to Germany.

I struggled with high stress levels towards the end of last year, so in terms of language goals I’m going to keep it loose in February and just study when I feel like it. Luckily, something has started to feel like….fun!

Chinese: Loose Ends Come Together

If you look back at my goal from last month, you’ll see that I had some difficulty staying committed to Mandarin Chinese. It’s no surprise that this language isn’t full of instant success moments, and I had to revisit my reason for studying it.

My decision at the time was to stay persistent with this language for another 3 months, and it’s been pretty good since!

I added the Teach Yourself Chinese course to my list of resources, and its structured guidance is the glue that’s bringing all my learning together. After about a month, I’m in chapter 6 and making good progress. I’m also beginning to feel all the benefits of 10 months of study, as I finally put together all that loose knowledge.

It can’t be said enough….learning another language means consistent progress over time, rather than a blast of knowledge forced into the brain all at once.

What I’m Using for Chinese Right Now

I’m enjoying Memrise Lingodeer and the Teach Yourself Beginner’s Chinese book I mentioned. I’m also using LingQ and it’s excellent, but I prefer printed materials most of the time. Just this week, I tested out of 13 Duolingo skills. I’m not learning with the Duolingo course at all, but using it to check in on my progress through an external marker.

What’s Next in Chinese?

I know I’m supposed to get more speaking practice already and I really want to do it, so that’s one for March probably. I’m enjoying the language content of the Teach Yourself book so I’ll try and push past chapter 8!

Welsh Practice

Although I still LOVE and practice Welsh all the time, I will no longer focus as hard on it during #clearthelist. My level is roughly B1-B2, so I’m absolutely functional and it’s a joy to speak Welsh.

In January, I watched and LOVED the S4C drama “Craith”, which you can also get in English. It’s probably WAY better in Welsh though, and good enough for me and my husband to binge several episodes. The show is set in Blaenau Ffestiniog and it’s so pretty!

What About You?

How was your January 2020? Leave a comment below!

This post is part of the Clear The List series, the monthly language learning round-up about language learning goals and progress. You can join us! Find out more about#clearthelist, which is hosted by Shannon Kennedy and Lindsay Williams.

#clearthelist January 2020: The Big Plan for 2020

Welcome to #clearthelist, my monthly update on my language learning goals and progress.

This month’s update is a little different from the usual fare because it’s the start of a new year! I will be going deeper into my progress with the Chinese language, and have chosen to record my update as a podcast this time.

You can listen to the show right here:

Fluent Language Updates

At the end of November, my life here at Fluent Language entered an intensive phase with the launch of the new Language League membership programme. Many people joined us during the Black Friday promotion, and in December I sat down to record my first video training for these language learning heroes.

German Retreat

I followed Black Friday with another highlight: the 2020 German Retreat in Berlin! What a week. In Berlin, I met 3 hyper-motivated language learners, the most dedicated group I’ve ever seen. The participants committed to speaking German almost 24/7 as we explored the amazing stories Berlin has to offer.

I was supported at this retreat by a wonderful vegan chef who looked after us for the week, and emerged both happy and exhausted from a week of stellar teaching and learning.

My Language Goals and Progress

With such a busy season in my working life, I was not able to give myself a lot of spare learning time. So the Christmas break came in, a perfect opportunity to regroup and consider where I’m at in December 2019.

In Chinese I feel like I’ve covered most of the basics but I’m untethered. I need to get better at following a clear guiding resource. And I’m wondering if it’s worth continuing with the slow slow progress I’ve been feeling.

In Welsh I’m loving the language just as much as always. I understand and speak well now, almost fluently, and I don’t want to neglect this language too much.

My other language with regular contact is French where I can still drop into a B-level conversation and most of a podcast at any given time. I don’t actively study French, but I make sure to check in and maintain that level.

Should I Keep Learning Chinese?

There are lots of other languages I’d like to dabble in, study, enjoy. 2019 was a busy year for me, especially in the second half, and I want to stay realistic about my goals and keep languages as a source of joy in my life. This means that every now and then I consider what I’m doing.

My Chinese studies are enjoyable enough, but they haven’t given me that buzzy reward of progress at the same rate as other languages do.

There might be lots of reasons for this, here are my suspicions:

• The completely different and very intricate writing system takes up a lot of learning capacity, and it feels like it doubles the study effort
• Words and expressions are made up of short syllables, and in the past I’ve found that I’m better at remembering long words…I love a compound noun
• I’ve not had enough listening practice, so spoken Chinese is still a book with 7 seals

In order to work out what’s next, I asked myself a few questions:

What did I come to Chinese for?

For me, it was curiosity and the wish to show myself that I can absolutely pick up an Asian language and understand it.

What have I got from Chinese so far?

I am much more aware of how the language works as a system. This is what I look for at the beginning of learning any language as it makes me feel capable of learning more. The foundation is there, and I am not a complete beginner.

What do I enjoy when learning Chinese?

Mostly, I feel like I have got good tones and pronunciation. My Skype lessons supported by a computer translation are chaotic, but they’re also fun and make me feel capable of expressing myself. I’ve even started putting together my own little sentences.

I’m enjoying Lingodeer and Assimil’s “Chinese False Beginners” workbook.

What don’t I enjoy when learning Chinese?

Obviously, no one enjoys forgetting words and making slow progress. This is the challenge. I know from my experience with other languages that this doesn’t mean I need to stop right now…in fact often this moment is where something does fall into place.

I can see how persisting a little longer would get me over that hump and provide me with the kind of skill and knowledge that means I don’t forget it all as soon as I take a break. So for now, Chinese will play a part in my 2020 plan.

My 2020 Language Plan

Planning out languages for an entire year right now feels like it would go nowhere, so let’s focus on January-March instead.

Mandarin Chinese in 2020

I’m gonna persist! At least until March, Chinese will be my focus language. As I get the feeling it would all progress much faster without the added layer of the writing system, I will skip those and focus on interaction and structure.

I recently found a used Teach Yourself Beginner’s Chinese course and will work with that to tick off those foundations. My goal is to feel more at ease in interactions and try out some role-play scenarios in my lessons.

Welsh in 2020

This language still makes me so happy, and I can’t wait to work with it at an even deeper level. I’ve finally managed to get Level 3 of Say Something in Welsh working for me. My other plans are

• to go to Wales, of course!
• to learn more about the song Myfanwy and use it as a cultural study opportunity
• to take more Welsh classes and keep chatting to the friends I’ve made who are Welsh speakers

There is no hard-and-fast goal here except to continue and learn ever more about the language. In particular, speaking more will be great.

I’ve been reducing my use of Instagram overall so I’ve not been using my Welsh dedicated account as much…watch this space.

Onwards

My curiosity and heart are drawn to so many other languages and I don’t think I want to spend a whole year resisting all of them and getting my Chinese to a higher level. So once I hit March, it’s time to slow down on Chinese and decide which level I’d like to maintain. Or if I happen to love it by that point, I might just take a few months off Welsh? Who knows!

Here are the other languages I’m hoping to improve this year:

• BSL: I loved the trial sessions I took online in October, and BSL is taught locally at most adult colleges so I could join an IRL class.
• Italian: I studied Italian when I was a teenager and adored it but then swapped it for Latin and Spanish as my full-time education changed. I have been hoping to return to Italian for years and think I could hit a B level with some focus and effort this year.
• Polish and Swahili: Now we’re in the more experimental choices where it may be fun to have a dabble for a while, but I know very little about these languages at this point.

What About You?

What are your plans for language learning in 2020? Leave a comment below and let me know if you enjoyed the podcast format for my personal check-in!

This post is part of the Clear The List series, the monthly language learning round-up about language learning goals and progress. You can join us! Find out more about #clearthelist, which is hosted by Shannon Kennedy and Lindsay Williams.