The only people who are more into resolutions than gym enthusiasts are language enthusiasts. January 1st is the time of the year when all the casual language learners come out to start working on their language resolutions, but they drop them one week later. Why do they drop their language resolutions? And how do you choose better ones that set you up for success?
What is a Bad Resolution?
It’s okay. We’ve all done resolutions like “this year, I’m going to speak more French,” and then done absolutely nothing.
A resolution like this leads to nothing. You cannot accomplish anything because you set yourself up for failure with that resolution.
I’ve written a blog article about this topic before, and the biggest problem I see online with language learners’ goals is that they are too vague. They don’t mention the time it will take them, the specific skill they want to develop, or what they consider success or failure. You need at least these things to even have a resolution.
Fortunately, I’ve put together 8 good resolutions that you can use or modify to suit your needs.
Learn 30 Words Per Month
This is a good goal because it’s pushing you, but not beyond your limits. 30 words per months ends up as one word per day on average. That’s not too unreasonable, right? We usually have 5 minutes here or there to learn how to use a word very well. If you don’t have time, that’s okay because you can make up for it with the flexibility of this goal.
Flexibility is okay as long as you have a way to get back on track if you fall off. I tried to learn 365 Chinese characters this year. There were months where I did nothing. However, because of the flexibility of the goal, I was able to quadruple up at the end of the year, and I still reached my goal. It wasn’t as smooth as I had hoped, but I achieved it. My push helped me learn to read and write 365 Chinese characters I wouldn’t have known if I didn’t make this resolution.
If I had made the goal one Chinese character per day, I would have beat myself up after the first failure and totally given up. Instead, having flexibility (but firmness) baked into the resolution meant that I actually made it without punishing myself for one mistake or overly busy day.
Do 6 Hours of Listening Per Month
I am a big fan of listening as I have talked about on my YouTube channel. I personally think you should drown yourself in native speaking examples. This is an amazing goal because of all the passive benefits of listening.
As for the specifics of the goal, this is very reasonable, but still allows for you to push. On average, you would need to watch 12 minutes of content in your target language per day. That’s totally reasonable. Follow a YouTube channel in your target language! If you want long-form content, that accounts for 4 movies of 90 minutes in length. This means you could watch one movie on the streaming platform you already pay for every weekend. This is absolutely doable, but the results accumulate so many good benefits.
Write 1 Sentence About My Day Per Day
A key to get better is to produce the language and get feedback. There’s no better way to produce the language than calmly, carefully making a good sentence.
On top of that, with a goal like one sentence per day, you’ll have so many good sentences after just one month. At the beginning of the year, you might start with “today was so busy” or “today I relaxed all day,” but after some time, your sentences will grow in complexity. For me, my goal would be to write a complex, rich sentence like “Originally, I was planning to run by the grocery store to grab a couple high-caloric snacks to treat myself, but I ended up falling asleep on the couch with my dinner in my hands stained with pizza sauce on account of my crippling depression.” Imagine the possibilities…
Take 1 italki Lesson Per Week
Consistency is so critical. Creating a regularly scheduled event, especially one connected to another person, will definitely keep you on track.
Even on weeks where your progress is slow, or you can’t find time to do language study, a regularly scheduled event keeps you on the path to improvement.
On top of that, although reading, listening, and writing can be fit into a busy schedule rather easily, it’s hard to regularly find time to speak the language with a native speaker unless it’s a speaker who has a set time to speak with you.
I’ve had so many busy weeks where life obligations prevented me from doing my reading or listening or any other goal on this list. However, thanks to my dedication to proving to another person that I have done something in the week, I do even get minimal progress in those weeks that would have been zero progress had I not had the recurring task.
To get $10 in your student wallet after spending $20, use this link to use italki as your tool to progress.
Record Yourself Speaking Once Per Week
Something we lose sight of with language learning is perspective. It often does not feel like any progress is being made. This is because change happens slowly, and we don’t notice when it happens. If we record ourselves from time to time, we can see the progress firsthand.
This goal also is really nice because you don’t have to worry about embarrassing yourself in front of native speakers. You don’t have to post this or show this to anyone. Just by recording yourself speaking, you’ve done two things: (1) you have a record of your level at that moment for future comparisons, and (2) you got your brain practicing speaking and forming sentences.
I accomplished this goal with Turkish, and it was very exciting to see progress. I love to go back to my old footage and noticing such a huge leap in my progress. It’s very motivating while being minimal commitment on your part. As a goal, this is beneficial because you do regular practice in a way you might not have done; you can get out of your comfort zone.
Finish 1 Novel By December 31st
This deadline might not be pushing the envelope for a lot of people, but if you have never read a novel in your native language before, it’s distant enough to not feel overwhelmed while being close enough that you don’t procrastinate forever.
Novels are such a great source of vocabulary. Authors tend to use a very sophisticated mélange in their writing, so you are bound to encounter tons of new, good phrases while hopefully enjoying yourself.
Even if you do want to do more listening or speaking, reading in general is such a great passive way to improve your speaking with deep, rich expressions and elevated speech. If you drop some idiom from a novel into your daily speech, you’re bound to impress natives.
Speak 1 Hour Everyday in April
“April” is just a placeholder for any month. What I am really suggesting is do something that is probably out of your comfort zone for an extreme push in a limited time. the duration is bound by a beginning and end so that you don’t continue until burnout. However, the time is long enough that sustained effort will make a difference to your skills.
Assuming you don’t speak the language regularly, a daily push is enough to get your brain to really take the speaking skill seriously.
Who do you speak to? That’s your choice. This could be a daily tutoring lesson, recording yourself, or making an agreement to meet with a native speaker friend or language exchange partner.
The main point is that one very good goal is to set a bound time where you will push much harder than you will normally.
Finish My Grammar Textbook by March 31st
Although grammar is not everything, you will never speak fluently until you have at least a basic grasp of the main grammatical concepts of the language. Grammar is somehow divisive in the language community, but I am firmly on the side of getting it done as fast as possible so you can start focusing on vocab acquisition, accent, and native-style sentences.
Giving yourself a due date for finishing a grammar textbook is a way to cut through the procrastination and get a critical piece of learning done.
March 31st is an arbitrary date. Choose a date that makes sense with your schedule and your book. A good speed could be one chapter per week or one grammar point per day depending on how your book is organized. What you should be focusing on is setting a due date for this thing that could take years if you procrastinate enough.
You need to eat your vegetables before you can have dessert.
Make your language goals SMART
Your language resolutions should always be SMART: specific, measurable, attainable, relevant, and time-bound. Keep this in mind if you want to create your own unique language resolutions.
So many vague language resolutions are something like “I want to speak more French,” but you can’t get anywhere with that. You have no way to measure success and failure. On top of that, there’s no reason for this goal to exist; this does not have a broader goal.
This New Year, try to choose language resolutions that help you reach success, not resolutions that sound exciting. Nothing reveals a language learner novice more than “I want to improve my Spanish this year.” Don’t be an amateur; be a pro!
If you want to read more about language learning, you can find more on my website.
For more on my personal language journey, I have YouTube videos that may be of interest.
I wish you good luck in the New Year, and I hope all your language resolutions are successful.
