We’re already in May! I guess that’s means it’s time to set some language learning goals for the month. You ready? Let’s do Clear The List for the month!

Your Free Language Planner

Before we dive in, be sure to grab a copy of your free My Month in Languages Planner. It’s got weekly planning and review pages, a monthly calendar, and more. It’s a great start if you’ve been struggling lately with organising your language learning and actually getting stuff done.

Click below to download it now.

Not sure how to use a language planner? This blog article will help you get started.

What happened in April?

April was all about getting ready to open up enrollment on the Online Teaching Starter Kit. And it’s been a busy one as a result.

I interviewed previous students of the program, Tamara from Spanish Con Salsa and Jessica from French Sunny Side on the Teach Languages Online Podcast.

I added a whole new Unit to the program, plus updates, which meant lots of days scriptwriting, filming, editing, and uploading well over 20 new videos for the program so it’s the best it can be.

At the time of writing, there’s still a few hours left to join if you want to and haven’t already. Click here to find out more and enroll now before enrollment closes (for at least 6 months).

As I’m sure you know by now, Easter also fell really late this year, which meant 2 weeks of last month I got to spend more time with Ashley while his school was on Easter break (he’s a teacher).

OH! And…big news…I’m going to South Korea with Shannon!

Language Learning Review for April

I love spending more time with Ashley but the school holidays always switch up my language learning routine, especially true given all the work we were doing on Online Teaching Starter Kit updates!

Not a problem though, as I hadn’t set myself any big language goals for April.

Language Learning Goals for May

Korean

Now that Shannon and I finally have our flights booked (seriously, we’ve been wanting to go to South Korea together even since we started learning Korean back in 2016!) I’m feeling more of a draw to Korean. I think finally having a date in the calendar has given me a solid reason to want to learn the language.

I’ve always felt a struggle with Korean. It’s not been an easy language for me to learn on my own, and I think now I’ve realised that a big reason for that was not having, well…a reason, I guess. Going to Korea felt really far away, I have no Korean friends or family, the nearest Korean restaurant is 40 miles away – you get the idea.

I still haven’t found my “love” for Korean yet, however, having the flight booked (for the end of August) is the deadline I need to study harder. Let’s do this!

Week 1

Introduction to Korean, Future Learn – I’ve just started this course. So far so good! The structure of it is one I’m really enjoying and possibly one of the best I’ve found (and that’s coming from someone who’s taken many an “Introduction to Korean” course!). My plan is to finish this within a week.

Drops – I’ve been using Drops pretty consistently at breakfast lately to help increase my vocabulary. I’ll keep using this.

Hyori’s Bed and Breakfast – I know that for many Korean learners K-drama was either a major inspiration to start learning Korean or something that you’ve discovered and enjoyed throughout your studies. With the exception of Boys Over Flowers, I have to admit I’ve never really been taken by K-dramas. I tend to find the storylines a little eyeroll-inducing and repetitive. But I’m not a huge fan of drama shows in general, so maybe that has something to do with it!

I am, however, a sucker for reality TV (Made In Chelsea, anyone?). So I’m quite enjoying casually watching Hyori’s Bed & Breakfast on Netflix right now. My plan is to keep watching this series in the mornings when I’m washing up after breakfast and sometimes in the evenings when I start to cook.

LingQ – I’m a pretty casual user of LingQ, but I’ve noticed that when I replace reading bits of news in the morning with reading one news article in Korean on LingQ, I do tend to then spot that story in English later on and understand what I’ve read that morning. My goal here is to replace my morning glance at the news in English with LingQ instead.

I also recently spoke to Steve Kaufmann, one of the co-founders of LingQ, about how to really make the most of it. If you’d like to check out that video recording, here’s the link.

Talk To Me In Korean – I used the first TTMIK Grammar course (available on their website here) to help give me a foundation of the grammar and am now working my way through the Grammar 2 course.

Week 2

italki lesson – My plan is to have an italki lesson with my Korean tutor once a month from now until I go to South Korea. I know I could definitely see more success with more lessons but I’ve also got a lot of other things to do before then too! I’m training for an ultra marathon (and I’m a slow and steady runner so that takes A LOT of time), I’m working with new students on the Online Teaching Starter Kit, and I may or may not have something new Language Stories related to share with you soon…so one lesson a month is a solid goal for me that I’m happy with.

Everything else – Drops, LingQ, TTMIK, and Hyori’s Bed and Breakfast will happen throughout the month.

Weeks 3 + 4

Transport – You may have seen over on Instagram a few weeks ago that I put together a mindmap for Korean and used transport as a base topic for my first attempt at this. I then used YouTube videos to extract useful sentences for the topic. My plan is to take this further and get active with learning the important bits from this through writing and speaking activities.

Everything else – of course, I’ll keep using Drops, LingQ, TTMIK, and Hyori’s Bed and Breakfast here too.

Your Free Language Planner

Missed it up top? Click the image below to grab a free download of your monthly language learning planner to help keep you focused this May.

Join Clear The List + Share Your Goals!

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.

Inlinkz Link Party

How did your language learning go this month? What are your language goals for next month? Share in the comments below!