#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.

#clearthelist September 2019: The Eleven Languages I Spoke in One Month

Imagine you’re on a long-distance cycling trip, perhaps through all of a country or state. You know the destination and you’re pedalling every day, always pushing ahead even if you know you may not arrive for many days. On a journey like that, what would you be without a necessary stop to find yourself on the map now and then? Can you do it without GPS? I don’t think I could!

Learning a language is a lot like navigating a long trip like that. We often know our destination before we get going and we set off in the right direction. But without regular check-ins, we may pedal and pedal until we fall over.

Here on the blog, I write a monthly check-in like that to keep you up to date with my own language learning goals. It’s part of the #clearthelist round-up hosted by Shannon Kennedy and Lindsay Williams.

Want to try out this check-in process for yourself?

Why not check out my Language Habit Toolkit, an in-depth course designed to help you set useful language goals, track them easily and achieve a new milestone every month.

What Happened in August?

Last month was dominated by my biggest trip of the year, visiting the USA and Canada to participate in two conferences. First, I attended Podcast Movement in Orlando to learn more about how to make great podcasts and support myself well while doing it.

And while I was across the pond, how could I have missed Langfest in Montréal, Canada? Impossible!

The trip in between these two cities was a lot of fun: I took Amtrak to Charleston in South Carolina, having long wanted to try the American train. My impression was…that Europeans love the train even in America, haha!

The Langfest team another excellent language event this year, with so many highlights including meeting the creators of Klingon and Dothraki, and running my own creative writing workshop with María Ortega Garcia.

The Fluent Show

First of all let me say how amazing it was for me to meet so many listeners on the road in August. I’m over the moon to know that the Fluent Show is popular!

This month contained a whole range of amazing episodes so let me share two with you today:

1. Langfest 2019 captured in audio, with almost a dozen interviews and voices directly from the show

1. What is the Right Mixture for Language Learning Success?, an episode about why so many methods feel like they’re THE best method

If you’re not a Fluent Show listener already, you’ll find lots more exciting shows to listen or subscribe to at www.fluent.show.

Language Goals and Progress

I had pretty clear goals for August 2019, so this time I’ll run through them without breaking it down too much into listening, speaking, reading and writing.

Mandarin Chinese

• Listen to Mandopop

I neglected this, spending more time on podcasts.

• Get 100 Lingqs on the LingQ app

Overall I now have lots of LingQs, the challenge is becoming more about noting and remembering them all! Still enjoying this app and using it in the mornings.

• Post 2-3 speaking videos on Instagram

I only posted one, then travel threw me off the wagon. I did learn some more Chinese from a new friend at Langfest though, so I feel positive about my speaking.

• Find a new Chinese tutor

So here’s what happened: I wanted a new tutor but felt guilty about ghosting the current one. Then as if by magic, she decided she’s taking a break and sent a messaging saying she won’t be available until December. So yay, I was free for a new tutor.

But then I didn’t book one. Hah! I count this as a goal half achieved 😅

• Figure out how to type Chinese characters on the iPhone

Done!

• Practice characters by hand every week

In the weeks I was at home, this was done.

Welsh

• Book a class to practice speaking

Sadly no, but I still got my speaking practice on one occasion this month in conversation with a Langfest buddy.

• Read the book Ffenestri

This book is LOVELY and I’m nearly finished. I’m reading well at all 3 levels, as I should :)

• Plan my next trip to Wales

Sadly this fell through as I prioritised visiting my family in Germany first. Chwarae teg, wouldn’t you say?

• More stuff!

I can now watch Welsh TV without subtitles! 🎉

Other Languages

It’s impossible to travel without practicing other languages, so August also became an opportunity for me to speak my long-neglected languages.

Counting in Klingon

In bilingual Montréal, I spoke lots of French with people from all over. Québécois French is never 100% comprehensible to me, but as always when I speak French I felt reassured that I’m entirely capable.

I bungled my way through a taxi ride with a lovely Colombian in Spanish, though I never did end up where I originally wanted to be. But I blame Lyft and GPS for that instead of my language skills, haha.

And talking of bungling, I also spoke more Italian than I have done in 20 years. The Italian sounded like that, too. It’s R.U.S.T.Y. and has essentially turned into bad Spanish.

I also attended basic workshops on the fictional languages Klingon and Dothraki, as well as Breton and Signed Languages.

Language Goals for September 2019

It’s handy to start setting goals by remembering the time frame available. In other words, the question is “What do you want to achieve in the next 30 days?” - seems a little less intense than wondering how to achieve a lot.

This month I’ve been inspired by intense learning projects and the book Ultralearning by Scott Young (interview coming up on the podcast). What can I commit to that would stretch me, challenge me?

Listening Goals

In Chinese, I’ll look for a tutor and ask them to help me listen, perhaps through some dictation rather than the pressure of conversing instantly.

In Welsh, I’m getting so much better so I’ll keep up what I’m doing.

Reading Goals

I don’t have firm goals here and want to focus on other skills, so I’ll just commit to the tools and say I want to finish Ffenestri in Welsh and use LingQ 4 days a week in Chinese.

Speaking Goals

Here I would like to take it up a notch!

In Chinese I am still fairly shy about speaking - I wish I had a few sample conversations to practice with. Comment if you can recommend any? Meanwhile it’s a good idea to push ahead and find that new tutor!

In Welsh I so want to practice speaking and everything, so I’m going to book myself 3 sessions to speak bad Welsh at people. Yay!

Writing Goals

I’ll go easy on the writing beyond what I usually do, which is to text people. In Chinese I’m also making vocab lists by hand now and writing down set phrases in characters and pinyin.

Here’s an instagram slideshow showing my vocab system in more detail:

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\A post shared by Kerstin Cable (@kerstin_fluent)\ on \Aug 22, 2019 at 4:20pm PDT\ \

And that’s it for September’s #clearthelist!

How are You Getting On in Language Learning?

Comment below and tell me how your month of August went! Did you come to Langfest? Would you like to attend it some time? Have you got any strong speaking goals?

Looking forward to hearing from you!

#clearthelist August 2019: How I Keep Motivation for Learning Languages

Hello and welcome to #clearthelist, a monthly language learning goals round-up. This blog round-up of goal trackers is hosted by Lindsay Williams and Shannon Kennedy here.

What Happened in July?

July 2019 seemed like a long month with lots going on. Here at Fluent, I’m currently head down in some preparation work for big things to come later in the year, such as my first membership community and a course update for the Language Habit Toolkit.

I spent 10 beautiful days on holiday visiting Hamburg and the German island of Fehmarn. My first island and my first ever experience of the famous German Strandkorb. Fehmarn is gorgeous and I didn’t want to leave.

In the following week, Britain braved a heatwave and I achieved a particular personal goal: my British citizenship. I am now a dual national, which was a move entirely motivated by Brexit and therefore bittersweet at best.

Fun fact 1: At the ceremony I had to say a pledge of allegiance. I asked to do it in Welsh but was denied because "we have to be able to understand you". I now speak more British languages than the Brits who held my citizenship ceremony.

The Fluent Show

This month I was pleased to publish five podcast episodes, all of which just stand their own. My favourite conversation was with María Ortega Garcia, giving me such a zest for play in how I teach.

And I can’t leave you without recommending the episode Indigenous Languages Explained, which is a topic that you’ll find both important and interesting.

The Fluent Show also hit a huge milestone this week. We counted ONE MILLION DOWNLOADS 😲in the last two years. It’s an absolute whopper number and made me so excited and proud. Thank you, listeners!

Time to get to those language goals now then…oh my.

Citizenship ceremony in 38 degrees 🥵

Language Goals and Progress

Fun fact 2: When I do not print out my goals or write them by hand and pin them on the wall behind my computer monitor, I don’t do as much towards them. Fancy that. It’s a reminder that even faint awareness of our goals can help us move towards them.

Let’s talk about Welsh first.

Welsh Language Maintenance

This was a maintenance month where I didn’t focus so much on the Welsh language. I picked up the book Ffenestri by Lois Arnold - picked it up from my shelf, that is - and finally started reading it during our long train journey to Hamburg. This book is so lovely. It is divided into 3 levels and I breezed through the beginner section and most of the intermediate section. I’m a B1/B2 reader in my book!

After the holiday, I’d not had the chance to pick the book back up…but I look forward to the next parts.

In terms of listening and writing, there wasn’t daily contact but still a consistent stream of language input through S4C and even my Intermediate Grammar book.

Only thing…I didn’t speak a lot of the language at all. It’s a classic problem for those of us who live further away from our target language communities, and the answer is to simply rope in friends or book more online lessons.

Welsh is now a pleasure language for me, one that I enjoy every time I get to experience it. Sadly I’m missing the Eisteddfod this year, but I’m eager to plan my next trip to Cymru.

Chinese Language Progress

Now, for my little Chinese progress.

Listening

I watched the odd YouTube video and tried out a few resources, but like in previous months I know I’ve got a gap here. Might be time to purchase a course with practice audio.

The good thing: I’ve discovered Mandopop and am now happily bouncing around Spotify so that I can get into more of a positive mindset with Mandarin Chinese.

Reading

I had high hopes that I would make lots of progress using Lingq, but instead the progress was somewhat slack as I found myself reviewing vocabulary rather than adding new words.

In the long run, I’m sure I’ll be glad that I didn’t just press on to get ego numbers. But right now, it’s a bit of a ¯(ツ)/¯._

My biggest reading contact comes from the language learning apps that I fall back on while I’m studying: Drops, Lingodeer, Memrise. This month was a strong showing for the apps, which kind of goes to show how little concentration time I put in.

Speaking

I took one italki lesson and enjoyed it, didn’t really speak a lot more than that.

Writing

2 pages of vocab notes after reviewing the italki lesson, and I’ve been writing a few little pages of introduction stuff as well.

A Word on The Value of My Vision Goal

In July I lost track of tracking, and now that it’s coming round to review time I can feel the impact. I’m a great Chinese student when I sit down and focus, when I’m in the habit, when I want to. But after some time off, I wasn’t in a good routine.

When you are at a beginner level in any language, that routine is incredibly important. Once you can speak, enjoy TV, read, everything becomes easier to integrate.

So I’m definitely a beginner and for a few minutes I was even considering throwing the towel. But I am not ready to abandon this project! I want to understand more Chinese when I hear it, chat to a few people, initiate conversations. I am happy to get the study materials back out and spend 15 minutes on them every day.

You can’t always keep up the same levels of motivation and action. To learn a language in a busy life, you need a moment to remember the big picture.

If you want to learn more about the importance of a vision goal, this blog article is a good start: How To Learn A New Language With Smart And Useful Goals

Language Goals for August 2019

Let’s be realistic: I’m spending almost 2 weeks of this month travelling. I’m unlikely to be carrying around a Chinese book or running into lots of Welsh speakers.

With that in mind, who am I to give up, right? Here are my goals for the month:

Welsh Language Goals

Mae popeth yn iawn, everything’s okay with Welsh. I’d only love to speak more so I’ll have to make sure that I have one or two real conversations with someone. Please volunteer in the comments. 🤗

Chinese Language Goals

I am going to travel with my phone and iPad, so this month my goals are digital.

Listening

Skipping this, except for more of the Mandopop.

Reading

I am reading a story on Lingq and will continue with it, hopefully making more Lingqs in the process. I will say I’d like to get to 100 Lingqs, bearing in mind my slow pace as I do review everything several times.

Speaking

I am in the market for a new tutor, and I’m also going to record a few videos of myself speaking Chinese to post on Instagram or share with a tutor. I live in such a student town that I also imagine it might be lots of fun to find a local exchange partner…but I’ll do that once I have acquired some basic level of decent skill.

Writing

I’ll continue to write by hand (characters and pinyin) while I’m home when I have time, but my only firm goal is to figure out how to type characters on an iPhone.

And that’s it for my round-up and goals for August 2019!

How do You Record Your Goals?

How do you keep track? Tell me in the comments below!

#clearthelist January 2019: 中文 Language Dabbling, and I Finally Hit My Reading Goal

Ho ho ho, Christmas is over and I’m here to catch up with you all on my language goals and progress since the last Clear The List post in November. This is a great opportunity for me to check in and prepare for the new year.

Just in case this is your first #clearthelist post here at Fluent, let me say welcome and explain what this is about. Clear The List is a support and accountability blog group sharing monthly language learning goals, hosted by my friends Lindsay Williams and Shannon Kennedy.

I’ve been tracking my goals and progress with this group since April 2018, and I use the Language Goals worksheet from my Language Habit Toolkit to keep track.

Click here to check out the Language Habit Toolkit - a handy tool for kicking off your language routine in the right way.

What Happened in December?

View this post on Instagram

A post shared by Kerstin Cable (@kerstin_fluent) on Dec 9, 2018 at 12:57pm PST

My biggest language event of December 2018 was the Fluent German Retreat in Trier! I hosted this language retreat for four motivated German learners who joined me for daily classes, excursions, Glühwein stops and more. Our theme was Wein und Weihnachten, and we honoured that name

Retreats are my big discovery of 2018 as a language teacher. Again on this occasion, it was amazing to see hesitant speakers warming up and starting to chat more and more in their target language. Plus, nothing beats a week of all-in travel in a beautiful location.

If you need a confidence boost and want to join one of my future retreats, make sure you register here.

Apart from this, December was the usual festive flurry of activity, with more trips to see family and exchange lovely presents for the season.

The Fluent Show

The Fluent Show had 3 episodes this month, as we’re currently on a short holiday break until 7 January 2019.

Are you catching up during the break? Here’s a link to our full archive.

My favourite episode of December was this discussion of what to do and how to react when you find yourself in an intermediate speaking dilemma. Thanks to Elizabeth for this great question!

Language Goals and Progress

I have a confession/announcement: This month, I’ve decided I’m officially dabbling in learning Chinese!! I feel like I’m documenting some kind of new list of learning stages:

1. “Not that I’m learning Chinese, but I’m just here with an app”
2. Officially dabbling

I’m guessing that number 3 might be “learning” and that would be when I’d think more deeply about my goals. For now, dabbling means I continue to add more Chinese vocab and I may get myself a notebook. It’s fairly pressure-free over here.

I’m using the Streaks app to track my time spent with this language in 10-minute blocks. In December, I completed 7 blocks so that’s about 70 minutes spent studying Chinese.

Welsh

Here’s how I got on in Welsh - still my number 1 language.

Listening

Ughhhhhh. I wanted to listen to an episode of Nicky’s Mynd am beint gyda.. podcast and listen to the radio a lot. I got 9 minutes into a 2-hour episode. The language level is about right though. I remember putting the radio on about 5 or 6 times. Listening practice continues to be my big challenge. (In ANY language, tbh.) What am I to do?

Reading

I HAVE FINISHED THE BOOK SGWP!!!!!! My goal was to get to page 185 and by that point the story was wrapping up, so I found myself wanting to follow. Great book for Welsh learners - if you’re anywhere in the B levels, get yourself a copy here.

Speaking

I had a lesson with my Welsh tutor but that’s about it. To be honest, this month was so stressful with a lot of travel and the intense German retreat, I’d have struggled to fit in much more. In addition, I completed challenge 21 of Say Something in Welsh level 2. I’m happy enough with all that.

Writing

Mostly centred at the start of the month, my writing progress was focused on completing exercises from the WJEC Welsh GCSE Past papers. I didn’t find these particularly hard and I enjoyed having something to write about for a few more minutes. The challenge is to ensure I have someone correcting me.

Daily Contact Goal

Every month, I log my “daily contact” with the Welsh language. Given the retreat and Christmas time, December looks ok with 14 days out of 30 (bei Redaktionsschluss as they say in Germany). I don’t track the length of each “contact”.

As always, this depends on me remembering to tick a box, so it’s not a 100% accurate number.

If you’re interested in a tracking template for your own language routine, again let me recommend the Language Habit Toolkit which you’re going to love.

Year Review

In the next podcast episode, we’ll have a new year special with Shannon Kennedy where I’ll share a few year end review questions. Look out for it by subscribing to “The Fluent Show” wherever you get your podcasts.

Goals for January 2019

To kick off the new year, I’m participating in an Instagram challenge with the Drops app. You can find it at #90dayswithdrops on the Instagram app. I’ll be using the app for Chinese, throwing in some Russian, and perhaps playing in a few more.

If you have only ever used Duolingo and want a new language app to play with, by the way, here are my top 3 for the year 2018:

• Smartcards Plus
• Drops
• Say Something in Welsh

Now let’s get to the Welsh goals.

Listening

Above, I identified that listening time can be a challenge for me and I do think that understanding spoken language is important. I feel like I want to get away from “entertainment listening” for a little while and make this a stronger study focus, so my goals are

1. Listen to the Say Something in Welsh practice audio twice a week
2. Parallel.cymru has a news in simplified Welsh section, and my goal is to listen-while-reading or make notes on 10 of these in January

Reading

Reading a whole book (Sgwp!) was a great benefit during the last year, so I’ll take January off but I already know I’ll be back in Feb with a new reading goal.

Speaking

I’ll crack on with Say Something in Welsh and complete challenges 22-24 of level 2, and I’ll take action on posting that little ad asking for a language buddy say’s siârad Cymraeg around here.

Writing

The exam papers were a great prompt last time, and my next goal is to use a few writing prompts from a writing prompt book (Lindsay and I discussed this technique on the podcast a few times - see here) to fill more pages in Welsh. The goal is 6 double-spaced pages.

What Are Your Language Goals?

It’s time for a new year - are you studying a new language?

How was your December? Leave a comment below and don’t forget to check out the Clear The List linkup by Lindsay Williams and Shannon Kennedy.

And don’t forget to follow me on Instagram to see how I get on during the month.

Happy new year!!