Happy new year! Resolutions for language learners.

Hey! The year is over. I am not a huge fan of "new year's resolutions", but I am wondering if anyone has them for language learning. Maybe not really resolutions, but more like "I will do this during the year because it will improve my abilities in my target language".

I am going to focus on:

• Getting more sleep.
• A more consistent schedule for my German self-study. 
• Listening to more podcasts.
• Coming up with more techniques for learning vocab.

And so on. Does anyone have more "specific" habits that could help a language learner? What are you doing this year to get better? I'm honestly feeling a bit off track on would love to hear advice from fellow language learners.

Happy New Year!

Feliz año nuevo!

Frohe Neues Jahr!

Good topic! I have specific plans for this year.

Jan, Feb - Keep re-learning Swahili while I'm here in Thailand and outside my room use Thai only 

Mar - Use my Swahili all the time while I'm in Tanzania

Apr - Study Tagalog every day, using my textbook, and speak it all the time while I'm in the Philippines

May thru Oct - Continue studying Tagalog frequently while I update and publish my textbook.

Nov, Dec - Travel and practice my languages

All year - Maintain all my languages on a weekly or biweekly basis, depending on the language.

Students normally restart classes after Carnival, so I have 1 and a half months to work on my weaknesses as a teacher. I'm thinking about taking college time texts from their files, so I can remember language problematizations, as well as teaching issues. I want to give special attention to the didatics of listening exercises, because I feel that's the biggest problem for Brazilian students.

I also need to refresh my Italian because I intend to travel in April, so I'll start reading about the region I'm visiting and watching videos on Italian culture. It's hard for me because when I have to speak Italian my mind switches to Spanish mode!

leosmith wrote:

Good topic! I have specific plans for this year.
Jan, Feb - Keep re-learning Swahili while I'm here in Thailand and outside my room use Thai only
Mar - Use my Swahili all the time while I'm in Tanzania
Apr - Study Tagalog every day, using my textbook, and speak it all the time while I'm in the Philippines
May thru Oct - Continue studying Tagalog frequently while I update and publish my textbook.
Nov, Dec - Travel and practice my languages
All year - Maintain all my languages on a weekly or biweekly basis, depending on the language.

Thanks! I thought it was a relevant topic given many people celebrate New Year's around the same time :)

Also, I have never tried breaking stuff into months. To be honest, everything that has to do with organizing stuff is quite difficult for me. However, I think I could give this kind of thing a try :)

ZairaI.Uranga wrote:

Valeria.Fontes wrote:

Students normally restart classes after Carnival, so I have 1 and a half months to work on my weaknesses as a teacher. I'm thinking about taking college time texts from their files, so I can remember language problematizations, as well as teaching issues. I want to give special attention to the didatics of listening exercises, because I feel that's the biggest problem for Brazilian students.
I also need to refresh my Italian because I intend to travel in April, so I'll start reading about the region I'm visiting and watching videos on Italian culture. It's hard for me because when I have to speak Italian my mind switches to Spanish mode!

I bet you are a great teacher, judging for your involvement with the class. I am glad!
Also, a funny thing I experienced with an Italian teacher: I took Italian lessons for a semester in a US high school. Our teacher was very kind, Portuguese was his first language and spoke other three: Spanish, Italian, and English. When he was teaching us the numbers in Italian he started writing them in Spanish, and I remember thinking "either he got confused or numbers in Italian will be actually pretty easy for me". When he realized we laughed it off. So I think confusing Italian and Spanish is actually a pretty common problem! :laughing:

I love teaching! Some days I'm lazy and wishing to stay home, but I always get full of energy after a class.

Yes, it's a pretty common problem confusing both languages. I remember insisting on saying to my Italian teacher "apre la ventana", which got him mad!