The good thing about saying goodbye to a year like 2020 is that there’s a pretty low bar to follow. The only way is up…right? Here’s how I set my new year language goals for 2021.

The good thing about saying goodbye to a year like 2020 is that there's a pretty low bar to follow. The only way is up...right? Here's how I set my new year language goals for 2021. ➔

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Just before Christmas (also like 3 days after we finally moved house), the UK government changed the Covid rules again and along with so many others, we were thrust into a brand new tier of restrictions, which we’re still in as I’m writing this in early January. is now a national lockdown again. Fun times.

So even though travel is looking not too likely for another year (for where we are at least), I’m seeing this combined with a new year as a good chance to hit reset on my languages. How about you?

I ruminated over what languages I want to learn this year and what my goals are with them for a good few weeks. And this is where I’m at…

New Languages for 2021

The initial plan for what became our Language Stories trip was to travel overland to Papua New Guinea. As you know if you’ve seen or listening to the two seasons, we actually went to Latin America and Southeast Asia!

We still plan to take a long trip cycling overland across Europe and Asia in a few years time, so my new languages for this year are tied in to those longer term goals.

Russian

It would be great if I could be around an A2 level by the end of 2021. I might even take the A2 TORFL if that’s available later in the year – corona dependent!

As I work towards that, here’s what I’ll be using…

LingQ

I treated myself to a LingQ subscription* for Christmas! I know it’s a great tool, but I’ve never used it to learn a language from scratch so I’m really excited. (Plus, you get access to all languages, so it’s something I can use for my other languages too.)

I’ve only been using it for a few days at the time of writing, so I’m still figuring out my exact routine with it (how many lessons, how often, which lessons etc) but I’ll report back at some point.

Drops

I also decided to go for the Drops* lifetime New Year deal. Honestly, I’m a huge advocate of free and using what you have when it comes to language learning, so getting two new things like this is quite rare for me. However, I know both work so well and will help so I’m happy.

I’ve got the app downloaded both on my phone and iPad (I purposefully don’t have many apps on my phone), so I can really use those little moments in the day to keep topping up my vocab knowledge.

So far, one new topic a day seems to fit in, but again, I’ll report back.

Live lessons

Of course, a huge part of language learning, even when it’s self-study is live lessons.

In the past with new languages, I’ve sometimes taken the approach of diving in with lots and lots of lessons from the get go, and then going down to weekly or monthly as I begin to gain a foothold I can build from myself.

Some languages that’s worked, others not so much.

With Russian, I want to use my live lessons more sparingly. In part because I’m studying for my MA (Applied Linguistics if you’re curious), and in part because I still want to have space for lessons in other languages at various points too. Plus, working mostly sat at a computer, I like to get breaks from that!

Three old books on my shelf!

I have a collection of three Russian books I’ve gained over the years from charity shops, library sales and the like.

First, there Teach Yourself Quick and Easy Russian, which was written when the Soviet Union existed, so it’s quite interesting to see how things have changed.

Then there’s DK Hugo’s Russian in Three Months, and Berlitz Essential Russian.

I don’t have audio for any of them, which is one reason I wanted to get LingQ. Because there’s no audio, I’m going to be using these alongside my other learning to reinforce what I’m learning and give myself different dialogues to read aloud.

Language Life Prompts

Did you hear about Language Life? I’m so excited about this! Language Life is my new program for independent language learners who want a deeper and richer experience together as you become the confident language learner within. Give me a year, I’ll give you language skills for life. Want to apply? You can apply now right here.

One part of Language Life is the weekly prompts. These can be used for writing or speaking, and work at any level – yes, even when you’re a complete beginner. To prove how easy it is to get writing and speaking any language regularly, even from zero, I’ll be using the prompts for Russian to start the year.

Turkish

I’m thinking around 4/5 months into the year, I may introduce Turkish. However when this happens depends on how I’m getting on with Russian.

Arabic

Arabic is last on the list of “new” languages because technically I have learnt little bits in the past, so it’s the least “new” to me! Again, when this happens depends how I feel about Russian and Turkish as the year goes on.

Hold Steady Languages for 2021

Listed loosely in order of which I want to focus on, these are the languages I’ve already studied to varying levels and want to “hold steady”/maintain casually this coming year.

Indonesian

I really fell back in love with Indonesian in 2020 after my Language Marathon in May.

It’s definitely a place I’d love to revisit for some time so I’m sure it’s a language that will come in handy down the line.

Mandarin Chinese

I spent some more time revisiting Mandarin towards the end of 2020 and quite enjoyed it. Much like Indonesian, definitely a language I envision being useful for us in the future as we take our trip so one I’m keen to slowly improve over the years.

French

French is a stronger language for me but one that is often too easy to let slip because of that. I’ve found such joy with Spanish in enjoying native materials and want to do more of that with French too.

Spanish

Spanish is probably the language I’m most confident with, but it’s also one that I enjoy learning in a different way. I’m watching a film on Netflix called Tic Toc that I’ve been watching for MONTHS because I sit and write every word that’s new to me. There’s so much slang, so much swearing! It’s very fun to be doing totally different language learning processes with a language like Spanish.

German

With German, I have a language exchange partner (German/Spanish) that I’m hoping to restart this year now we’ve both moved etc!

Italian

Ahh Italy! The last country I visited before coronavirus happened in Europe. Visiting all those months ago definitely reignited a spark of interest for me with Italian. One that I’d like to start doing what I do with Spanish with – bring in more native content.

Portuguese

Same as Italian. I do alright in Portuguese, I just don’t use it and expose myself to it enough.

Korean

I think I always downgrade my Korean to a zero, which isn’t true. It’s certainly nowhere near the languages I’ve just mentioned (French, Spanish, German, Italian, Portuguese) but there’s something there!

I think there’s some languages that, for me at least, I feel you need to be “near native fluent” (whatever that means) before you can say “I speak that language”. I think this is what stops me from recognising and respecting what I can do in Korean. I guess my goal here is to boost my Korean confidence.

Japanese

I enjoy Japanese! But it’s not a big priority at the moment so my goal here is to keep enjoying it when I can.

Bulgarian

I gained a really good grounding in Bulgarian back in 2019 before a few days visiting Bulgaria. I’m curious to see how this helps as I get into Russian.

Guarani

Love Guarani, deep down. But I don’t know when we’ll next be on that side of the world, let alone in Paraguay. Plus I lost my Guarani teacher again, and it’s a trickier one to learn on your own without that connection as there’s less resources too. So it’s low down the priorities at the moment.

Dutch

My Dutch could be described as “passable”! But I suppose it depends who you ask! I did sit one evening in our old flat before my books were packed up, just casually reading through the dialogues out loud in my Dutch book, which was fun. But again, less of a priority at the moment.

Explore Languages for 2021

There’s a whole host of other languages I’m curious about, and I want to keep this open for exploration without the commitment of stronger goals.

When I’m just browsing my bookshelf or looking for a break, I’m open to casually learning a little of these languages.

Malay

Malay is pretty similar to Indonesian…or Indonesian is similar to Malay. Which way round depends who you ask, I guess! Either way, exploring the similarities and differences between languages like this is really fun. Plus I have a Colloquial Malay book I actually bought from a book seller at a market in Malaysia, so I’m all set!

Swedish

Somehow, Swedish is a language that’s made its way onto my bookshelf via various books. I spent a weekend exploring Norwegian in Lockdown 1.0 back in 2020, and I’ve learnt minimal Danish and Swedish for travel before, so I’m curious to learn a little more.

Kristang

Much like with Malay and Swedish – I have a book! In case you haven’t seen it yet, we made an episode of Language Stories about Kristang. It’s a really cool language, a Portuguese creole language spoken in Malaysia and Singapore, and I love seeing which words I recognise from Portuguese and which I recognise from Malay (or others too!).

Anything Else That Takes My Fancy!

I like to leave this open. Curiosity may have killed the cats, but if I’m allergic to cats, I think that means I’m ok to be curious, right?!

Want to learn more and set language goals that are right for you?

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You’ll learn how to understand goals, how to approach them, and how to set goals that actually work for you. And that’s just our first module of the 12 module curriculum. There’s a lot more to learn throughout the year.

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What are your language goals for 2021? Share in the comments below!