Welcome to September’s #ClearTheList! This month, my language learning goals are all about making things regular!

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.

Your free planner for September!

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

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

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 September!

Did you join the Instagram Language Challenge last month to learn a little language each day?

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

Want in on the action in September? It’s super simple to make the Instagram Language Challenge part of your language learning goals.

All you have to do is share something on Instagram each day inspired by the daily prompt.

And they’re just that – prompts. That means you don’t have to learn the exact word you see on the prompt list each day. Instead, use that word to inspire your language learning whatever level you’re at.

For example, if the word is “red” and you already know your colours, use the prompt to inspire learning a sentence such as “The thief was caught red-handed” or “The garden was full of (red) roses until the gardener accidentally chopped them all down.”

Language Learning Review for August

Guarani

Vocabulary – My vocab goals were to keep up with my daily Duolingo and keep working on creating my Memrise course.

My Duolingo goal went well with the exception of a couple of days (one I was camping and had to save my phone battery and another was Ashley’s birthday!) but I haven’t got back to working on my Memrise course yet.

Grammar – The Memrise course was going to be my helpful activity for my grammar refreshers, but as I didn’t get to that, that didn’t happen. However, I did ok with my daily writing helping to remind me of certain grammar points.

Reading – My goal was to start using my books from Paraguay and read the Guarani Wikipedia tab on my phone when it queues etc.

This happened. Yay!

Listening – My goal was to listen to more music in Guarani and to download the religious podcasts available in Guarani for audio practice.

I’ve been listening to more music (this is a delightful place to start) but I haven’t yet downloaded the religious podcasts.

Writing – My goal was to write 13 sentences each day in Guarani.

I did this when I had the chance but as I’ve been training for a triathlon, my morning routine is still a little messed up as that’s the safest time to bike! Ha!

Speaking – My goal was to start speaking Guarani more on Instagram until September when I can book some lessons again with my tutor.

I haven’t done either of these things.

Korean

Memrise – My goal was to use Memrise as much as possible. That’s happened, not daily, but it’s happening a bit. I’ve also started playing with Drops.

Living Language – My goal was to start using the Living Language set for Korean, which I have – I’m on chapter 2!

Language Reading Challenge

The topic for Shannon’s Language Reading Challenge over at Eurolinguiste in August was “A book about a language, a family of languages, a writing system, or something related to linguistics”.

I read You Say Potato – A Book About Accents by David and Ben Crystal.

It was alright and I loved the way it was written between father and son. Ben, David’s son, is an actor who specialises in performing Shakespeare in Original Pronunciation (OP), aka, how the plays would have sounded back in the day. Those bits were interesting to begin with but after a while I found myself skim reading those chapters a bit to be honest. Overall, though, a good book. As always, approachable linguistics from David Crystal. Woop!

I also enjoyed reading Fluent Forever by Gabriel Wyner, Turtles All The Way Down by John Green, and In Order to Live by Yeonmi Park, which was both heartbreaking and inspiring, definitely worth reading.

Language Learning Goals for September

Guarani

Vocabulary – I’ll be keeping up with my daily Duolingo until I finish a whole second run through of the entire course. I’m close but I’m not expecting to get there this month at all!

I’d like to revisit the Memrise course I started to create as a chance to refresh that earlier language I learnt.

Grammar – I found that my writing practice helped to review and introduce me to new grammar so I’ll keep up with that.

Reading – Happy with my Guarani Wikipedia tab and the reading I’m doing in my course book. I’ll keep this up.

Listening – I’ll keep listening to Guarani music and will try downloading at least one of the religious podcast stories to use for listening and shadowing practice.

Writing – I’ll write 13 sentences at least 3 times a week in Guarani.

Speaking – I’ll start speaking Guarani at least weekly on Instagram until I can book some lessons again with my tutor.

Korean

Memrise + Drops – I’ll start to use both Memrise and Drops daily as much as possible.

Living Language – This is proving a useful tool so I’ll be using this and aim to get to the end of chapter 3 at the least by the end of September.

Figure Out a Plan! – I shared on Instagram earlier in August some of my planning notes from The Solo Language Learner Planner for Korean. Now I know what I need to do, I need to figure out when I’m going to do what to make it happen.

Other Languages (French, Spanish, Italian, German, Portuguese, Dutch, Mandarin, Japanese, Esperanto, Indonesian)

One thing I’m keen to do now I’m home and able to settle back into a regular language routine is to bring a little of my previously studied languages into my life again. Here’s my plan…

Study Time – I have an hour in the morning which I use for language learning. I’ll be trying 20 minutes Guarani, 2o minutes Korean, and 20 minutes of another language. As this is just on weekdays and there’s 10 languages, that’ll be a little 20 minutes direct contact with each of these languages every two weeks. Not much, but better than nothing.

Writing – I recently bought a book called 712 More Things to Write About and I’ve already started using this for these languages, so far with French, Spanish and Italian.

Listening – I’ve resubscribed to the SBS podcast feeds for all of these languages (and a different Esperanto podcast because they don’t have that) and aim to listen each workday amongst my other podcasts when I’m working.

Language Reading Challenge

The topic for Shannon’s Language Reading Challenge over at Eurolinguiste this month is “A memoir by someone who lives in a country that speaks your target language (can be from an expat who moved there or someone who is native to the country”.

I’ve found a book on the Kindle app called Which Guay Again?, which is a memoir from Peace Corps volunteer, Mick Dooley. I’ll be reading this in September.

I’m also going to be trying the 30 Day Reading Challenge hosted by Shannon. The aim is to read as much as you can in one month in the language you’re learning. I’m going to do this for Guarani.

Alongside my language related reading, this month I’m also reading Running Up That Hill about endurance running by Vassos Alexander and hoping to at least start Crazy Rich Asians before I see it in the cinema.

When we were in Asia, I kept seeing Crazy Rich Asians in the bookshops and thought it looked interesting (totally judging a book by its cover there) then got home and discovered there’s a film! Set in Singapore!

The film release has been brought forward in the UK now since it’s been so successful in the US, so I’m excited to see it the weekend the Online Teaching Starter Kit opens.

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.

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Your free planner for September!

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.

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!