Welcome to April’s #ClearTheList! This month, it’s all about moving on.

Hosted by myself and Shannon of Eurolinguiste, Clear The List is your chance to set monthly language learning goals + achieve them as part of the community. 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.

Clear The List is your monthly chance to check in on your language learning and life goals. Click through to read mine for April and download your free planner! >>

Your free planner for April!

Before we get started, here’s your chance to make the most of MONTH for language learning completely free with this month’s My Month in Languages Planner.

Click the image below to download your copy for April. Use it to keep track of your language plans and goals for the coming month. Woop!

Click here to subscribe

Or, if you want something with more detail to take things further, then grab a copy of The Solo Language Learner Planner, which contains calendars, goal setting pages, reviews, and a daily study session planner. Woop!

Join the #IGLC in April!

Did you join the Instagram Language Challenge last month to learn about lesser studied languages? I really enjoyed seeing your posts and learning about Manx, Romansh, Efik, and Basque to name a few!

This month it’s back to our regular style of 28 prompts to inspire you to learn, say, or write something in the language you’re learning.

It’s totally free + you get to learn a little language each day. Woop!

Clear The List is your monthly chance to check in on your language learning and life goals. Click through to read mine for April and download your free planner! >>

Language Learning Review for March

My Guaraní Course – What a joy this was! I loved everything about it from catching the bus each day (and hoping it would take my road back not the one running parallel despite having the same bus line number), to finding little cafe spots nearby when I arrived early, to the course and school itself.

It was such a boost to my motivation to speak with real life speakers of Guarani and to actively learn too!

I interviewed my teacher for the Language Stories episode about Guarani so I won’t say too much, but the course went well and I even found a bookshop on the last day where I was able to treat myself to actual Guarani study books, which was a real surprise as it’s impossible to find much beyond a dictionary in the UK.

Duolingo – I’m doing a good job (if I say so myself) of keeping to this. I either refresh one weaker unit per day (one that’s down to one or two bars) or two units that have three bars. It works as a great way to always get a little Guarani in each day even when I can’t study much.

Clozemaster – In addition, this wasn’t a goal but I managed to pretty much finish the Clozemaster course for Guarani! Now I’m just refreshing everything.

Sentence writing – Back in Cusco, I purchased a notebook after getting tired of not having a physical connection to the language. Since just before arriving in Paraguay, I’ve used the notebook each evening to write 13 (unlucky for some, but that’s how many lines each page has!) sentences in Guarani. When my brain is frazzled after a particularly busy day, I allow myself to do a quick Duolingo or Clozemaster session and copy these sentences out instead.

Language Reading Challenge

The topic for Shannon’s Language Reading Challenge over at Eurolinguiste this month is “A book written in your target language (a translation from your native language)”.

I opted for Bodas de Sangre as I picked up a small copy of the Lorca play in Nicaragua. I’m almost finished with the book now!

Language Learning Goals for April

Guarani

Once we get to Asia, I’m planning on taking a break from Guarani until we get home in July.

Duolingo + Clozemaster – At least while I’m still in Paraguay (until April 8th) I want to keep up with my streaks on these apps as best as possible.

Sentence writing – Equally, I’m enjoying this habit that’s formed since we’ve been here. I’ve only missed a couple of days – when we were away for the weekend and I didn’t take my book, and when we went to Asuncionico concerts and came back super late. Not too shabby.

Chinese, Burmese, Vietnamese, Khmer, Lao, Thai, Malay!

When we arrive in Asia, I want to do my best to use the basics of these languages for travel. Last time I visited this region, just before I started Lindsay Does Languages, I didn’t think it was possible to learn languages as far away and distant from my own.

I remember meeting a Swiss girl in Indonesia who was staying there for three months working on her research for her degree and she’d learnt Indonesian. I was amazed by how much she was able to pick up in such a short time – and how much she was able to teach me in just a few days together!

That inspired me to buy a phrasebook when I arrived in Bangkok and realised that for the first time, not only was I in a country where I didn’t understand the language, I couldn’t even read and make an educated guess.

It was that phrasebook that led me to some wonderful conversations with locals at noodle stands in Myanmar…and also gave me some symptoms to point to when I went to hospital in Bangkok! (If you’re curious, I pointed to around 8 out of 10. Yup. I was pretty sick.)

And going to hospital meant I came home and didn’t get to use the phrasebook in the other countries it covered – Vietnam, Laos, and Cambodia. Finally, it’s time to put it back to good use!

Memrise – I’ve been trying to get back into my simple Memrise habit with these languages as best as possible. For most of April, we’ll be in Myanmar (which I’m beyond excited about!) so the focus firstly will be Burmese.

Audio courses – I have a few audio courses and basic podcast series downloaded onto my iPad so I’ll be ready to go with these languages as and when I need them.

Phrasebook – We’re meeting Ashley’s mum in Singapore at the start of the final leg of our trip and she’s bringing out my Southeast Asia Phrasebook (the one I mentioned above), which I initially left home seeing as we were planning on being in Latin America for the whole year. I’ll be using the phrasebook to help me get to grips with the basics as and when I need.

Language Reading Challenge

The topic for Shannon’s Language Reading Challenge over at Eurolinguiste this month is “A book written by a language blogger”.

I’ve chosen to read Kerstin’s book Fluency Made Achievable.

Trip Update

As I’ve already mentioned above to explain my language goals for this month, we’re in Paraguay right now! Yay!

I really love it here. The people have been so welcoming and it’s been great to finally see first-hand how Guarani co-exists with Spanish here.

Also, Ashley did a running race this weekend, and he was the first Brit ever to compete, which, of course, means only one thing…a trilingual interview in English, Spanish, and a sprinkle of Guarani posted on a Paraguayan Facebook Page, showing my Guarani skills to the whole country!

Unfortunately, the week I’m writing this is Semana Sanat (Easter Week), which means transport is super busy so we’re staying put in Asunción, which means less time to see the rest of the country but we’re hoping to get away for a few days next week.

We leave Paraguay (and Latin America, where we’ve spent the past 7 months!) on April 8th and head to Singapore, arriving eventually on the 11th via a night in LDN. I’m so excited. I’m gonna get a Pret a Manger and everything. Yeah…what you miss when you’re away for a while is weird.

After a few days in Singapore, we’ve got our flight and visas ready for Myanmar, another country that I adore, where we’ll be for three weeks.

So, in short, between Paraguay, home, Singapore, and Myanmar, it’s basically a month in countries I love, so it’s shaping up to be a lot of fun!

In other news…

We’re still recruiting interviews for Series 2 of Language Stories, so if you or someone you know has an interesting story about languages in that region (in particular Myanmar, Vietnam, Laos, Cambodia, Singapore, and possibly Thailand and Malaysia) then please do get in touch and let us know. We’d love to hear from you!

Join Clear the list!

1. Share your goal post whether it includes your aspirations for the month or year. Submissions unrelated to the theme or links to your homepage will be deleted.

2. Link back to this post. You can use our button code below if you wish.

3. Follow the hosts: Lindsay from Lindsay Does Languages and Shannon from Eurolinguiste.

4. THIS IS THE MOST IMPORTANT RULE: Please visit the site of the person who linked up immediately before you and leave them an encouraging comment! By hosting this linkup, we’re hoping to create a positive community where we can all share our goals. If you do not do this, you will be removed from the linkup.

5. Share on social media using #ClearTheList.


Set your language learning goals as a part of the Clear the List Link Up hosted by Shannon Kennedy of Eurolinguiste and Lindsay Williams of Lindsay Does Languages. #clearthelist

<div align="center"><a href="http://eurolinguiste.com/tag/clear-the-list" title="Set your language learning goals as a part of the Clear the List Link Up hosted by Shannon Kennedy of Eurolinguiste and Lindsay Williams of Lindsay Does Languages."><img src="https://eurolinguiste.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/01/clear-the-list-sidebar-1.jpg" alt="Set your language learning goals as a part of the Clear the List Link Up hosted by Shannon Kennedy of Eurolinguiste and Lindsay Williams of Lindsay Does Languages." style="border:none;" /></a></div>

Your free planner for April!

If you missed it up top, click below to get your free My Month In Languages Planner straight to your inbox for free. Woop!

P.S. If you’re already on my mailing list, use your password to get it direct from the Little Language Library.

Click here to subscribe

And remember, if you want the beefy version of this planner, click here to grab your reusable copy of The Solo Language Learner Planner. Yay!

Which language are you learning this month? What do you want to achieve? Join Clear The List to share your goals or comment below!