One of my favorite language learning clichés is the new years language goals. It is always exciting to see how enthusiastic learners are over the new year. Something I cannot help but notice is the quality of these goals. If I had a nickel for every time I heard someone make the goal “to reach B2 by the end of the year,” I would be a very rich man.
There is a problem with language goals like reaching an abstract marker or “be able to read better.” Of course, in our daily lives, we can have the desire to reach these things. However, these goals should be called “wishes” instead of “goals.” They are merely wishful thinking with no actionable plans. What can we do to make better language goals?
Avoid “I want to reach B1”
Reach B1 by the end of the year
One of the worst language goals possible
The worst kind of language goal you could make is related to the Common European Framework of Reference for Languages. Saying you want to reach a certain level is meaningless for XXX reasons:
One, it’s obvious. Who doesn’t want to reach the next level of their language? Sure, some people can be happy with knowing the basics, but I don’t know a single person who would be unhappy with B2 or C1.
Two, there is no implicit plan. Because everyone wants to get to the B1 or C1 level, there is an infinite variety of ways to get to that level. How does it affect your reading skill? Will you do pronunciation work to reach this? How many words do you need to memorize? The goal of “B2” or “C1” tells me nothing about your path.
Three, it might be wishful thinking. Are you taking time into account? One year is finite and might not be enough for your B1 or C2. Even if you dedicated all your free time to improving, that level might be meaningless because there just isn’t enough time in the year. That means that your goal is not a goal; it’s a dream. That Instagram story or YouTube video you posted about your new year’s goals is actually just a fantasy and not an announcement of intent.
Define what it means to succeed or fail your goal
Like A2 or B1, I cringe at abstract goals about “being able” to do something or reaching an arbitrary level that already is incredibly subjective. It ensures that you always fail because you can push and modify those goals until it matches what you want, regardless of effort. Instead of elastic wishes like this, it is much better to create goals that have an explicit success criteria and failure criteria.
Introduce myself to 20 different native speakers by the end of the year
Good goal
This goal is good because introducing is not an ambiguous action. Everyone understands this to mean “my name is…” “I am X years old…” “I live in…” 20 is a good goal because we cannot bend numbers to fit our laziness. 19 is a failure, and 20 is a success. There is no ambiguity about this goal to yourself or the people around you.
Make a goal that accumulates
Procrastination is a huge problem for all people, and the enthusiastic language learner needs to plan around this problem of human nature. Personally, I don’t like goals related to one big trial like a test. The goal of “pass the N3 JLPT language exam” has explicit success and failure criteria and cannot be stretched to your whims. It can be a good goal, but I would not do this because I am only making a goal about one task: take a test. This says nothing about the months leading up to this test.
Rather, I prefer to make goals that are impossible to complete in one sitting. One of the 2022 goals I have for Japanese that has particular energized me is to reach Kanji #1000 in my Joyo Kanji book. This means completing about 365 entries over the course of 2022. I would not naturally have done that, but I can work at this goal daily.
Memorize 400 new verbs before December 31st.
Good goal
Accumulation is key to making better language goals because your goal ought to create a path for you that can become a habit. I could say I want to pass the N3 JLPT exam, which might include 1000 Kanji, but I could procrastinate the whole year and fail. Instead, giving myself a daily, weekly, or monthly task can help me actually make language progress. Being able to pat myself on the back for reaching beautiful numbers like #100 or #200 for the year is also a plus for my monkey brain.
Choose a goal that pushes but doesn’t exhaust
You might follow every recommendation I mentioned before but still fail because you went too hard or too easy on yourself. Knowing myself and my schedule, 365 Kanji for 365 days is perfect. Some parts of the years, I am way ahead of schedule. Other parts of the year, life happens, which makes me fall behind my goal. You might be able to manage 5 Kanji per day. If that works for you, I recommend it. However, there is no one-size-fits-all goal. We all need to take into account our schedules.
Memorize 5000 words by December 31st.
Bad goal destined to fail
The best goal is one that requires you to do something you would not have done unprompted, but still you look forward to working on this goal. If your goal is brutal, you risk burning out and completely failing. If your goal is too light, which you probably would have already done, you are like the dieter who rewards themselves with a pint of ice cream after a workout: no discipline.
I cannot say what will work for you, but I personally try to create a +10% goal for languages. If I add 10% to what I am already doing, I won’t feel burden, but I really am progressing significantly.
Actually follow your goals
I can give you all the theoretical ideas about your language goals, but the #1 piece of advice is just do it. It’s cutely naïve when I see language learners post these lofty, unfocused goals that are given up as quickly as their gym memberships in February. Whether it is a bad goal or a lack of motivation or attention seeking with no intent, these learners are doing a disservice to themselves and their language skills.
We ought to be using goals as checkups for our languages. Just like we go to the doctor to check our health, we should use the clichéd January 1st to reassess what is working and what is not. Is there a task that isn’t helping? Mix it up. Are you in a rut? Push yourself with a goal. I’ve talked about getting out of language ruts on my YouTube channel if you want to see more.
You can say you want to reach whatever level you want, but if you don’t put in the work, your goal was just another scar in a long line of demoralizing failures. We should be looking at how to improve and get better, and that only can happen with focused, helpful goals.
If you want to read more about language learning, I have plenty of articles like this one on my website.
Good luck with your better language goals!
