Welcome to February’s Clear The List! Hosted by myself, Shannon of Eurolinguiste, Esther of Local Adventurer, and Mariah of Food, Booze and Baggage, we share our monthly goals and encourage you to do the same. Check the bottom of this post for more info on how to join in.

This is an exciting one because I’m starting a new language this month!

Well, I’ve already started a little bit. I’m not cheating. I promise. I’ll explain.

What a month January was.

It was always going to be a busy one with the pre-launch for Successful Self-Study dominating my life. It was the first time I have launched a new course or product in such a big way and I have to say I loved it.

So many chances to interact with you on Twitter in our #WeDoLanguages Twitter Chats and the webinars. And I’m loving talking to everyone who has enrolled so far in Successful Self-Study in our private Slack Community. It’s awesome!

It’s not too late to join the course! You can find out more here.

Successful Self-Study aside, I still had some language goals for the last month. How did they go?

Finish the add1challenge in Japanese

This was my primary language goal for January.

Given how busy I was work wise with Successful Self-Study, I didn’t want to overload myself when it came to languages.

And it worked! I completed the Add1Challenge! Hooray!

You can watch my progress from way back in October to now in the YouTube playlist of my Add1Challenge here.

Language Goals for February

Here’s a closer look at my February Goals.

Korean

I’m going to be learning Korean from scratch over the next 6 months or so with my buddy Shannon at Eurolinguiste (she’s a co-host of Clear The List too!).

It’s ridiculous how excited I am by this. One of the main points I share in Successful Self-Study is how important it is to not stay completely alone. So it’s pretty cool to have someone to turn to and say “what the heck?!” and “how’s it going?”

We’ve set ourselves weekly goals in terms of what we’re roughly going to study but are setting our own more specific personal goals. Here’s a look at our weekly joint goals:

Week 1 – The alphabet – I already took a long hard look at the Korean alphabet back in October for the Language Script Challenge but there’s nothing like a much-needed refresher!

Week 2 – Introductions – …and all of those essential early phrases. I’ve found a YouTube video that I’m going to use as a solid base for this.

Week 3 – Basic & Useful Verbs with I – Because it’s all me, me, me when you start learning a language.

Week 4 – Conjugation of these verbs for other people – Because eventually people will get bored of you talking about yourself all day.

Technically, we’re starting Korean together today, at least, we’re starting to blog about it and share the process. However, if you follow me over on Instagram or Snapchat (ldlanguages), you’ve probably seen that I already started learning Korean. I’ve started a little early.

That’s because…

French

Yup. Because French.

I’ll be working in France for the last two weeks of February and it’s unlikely that I’ll get the chance to get much Korean in, so I’ve been forward planning a little.

I’ve already had some Korean lessons on italki and started to work on pronunciation and getting familiar again with the alphabet, as well as those early phrases because I know I would have got waaaay behind if I didn’t.

Going to France means I’m also including some French in my current daily routine. I’m using the Metro News app from Belgium to give me a little exposure each breakfast time.

Read my next book for the Language Reading Challenge

Last month I read Wrong About Japan as part of Shannon’s Language Reading Challenge. It was an interesting look at the culture of Japan from an outsider looking in who then goes in, aka goes to Japan with his manga obsessed son. They met Miyazaki. It was pretty cool.

This month’s topic is a book in your target language. Check the full list here.

Since my Korean isn’t good enough yet to read more than 2 sentences let alone a book, I’ll be reading a French book. French Goosebumps to be precise that my sister got me for Christmas. Woop!

Instagram Language Challenge

To up that Korean knowledge so that I can read more than 2 sentences, I’m doing this month’s Instagram Language Challenge in Korean.

The prompts are numbers this month, so pretty handy for these early stages.

Of course, as always, they’re just prompts, and you can adapt them to be much more complex than your bog-standard numbers if you wish! Check the prompts here to join in.

Join Clear The List

What are your goals for this month? How do you plan to achieve them? Share in the comments!