Welcome to June’s #ClearTheList! This month, it’s all about Guaraní…and every language that happens to take my fancy at the Polyglot Gathering in Bratislava!

Hosted by myself, Kris Broholm, Angel Pretot 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 June!

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

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

Join the #IGLC in June!

Did you join the Instagram Language Challenge last month to learn or share the basics of a language? This month it’s all about useful little words to take your language learning further.

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

Click here to find out more about 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 June 2017 and download your free planner! >>

Language Learning Review for May

Slovak

I was learning a little Slovak as part of the Language Challenge for the Polyglot Gathering.

To be honest, I’m not too happy with my minimal progress on this.

About a week in, it was clear to me that Guaraní was getting waaaay more attention, and sometimes when that happens you just have to go with it.

That said, I didn’t do too badly on my goals despite being very nervous about the presentation…!

30 minutes of study Mon – Thurs – Yeah this pretty much happened with the exception of towards the end of the last week of the month when Ashley was away so my routine was switched up slightly.

1 hour italki each weekend – I think I had three sessions in the end, again missing the last week. Not too shabby.

Slovake.eu – Ok, this is a prime example of not sticking with something if it doesn’t work for you. I finished the beginner course, which was ok but then the first main course wasn’t as good and I was done by unit 5, so moved on to using more authentic resources such as SBS news podcasts, music and Wikipedia.

Memrise – Yup. This was super easy this month! I only broke my streak intentionally on the last weekend of May, which was a bank holiday in the UK (aka a three-day weekend!).

Documenting my studies – This started well but as soon as I had to get planning for the presentation, I focused my efforts on practising that instead.

HelloTalk + Lang-8 + the Facebook Group – I used Lang8 the most. It’s my favourite thing right now it seems!

Plan presentation + topic – Eekk..so…I worked on a fun poem with my tutor and then decided maybe that was too ambitious, and what if they asked questions about what I’d said that I couldn’t answer? Hmm.

So I wrote a short and simple presentation with my tutor the next lesson. This is a lot more boring but hopefully easier to do. We’ll see…!

Guaraní

I’m in love! I love this language so much so far.

30 minutes of study Mon – Thurs – Yep, this pretty much happened.

1 hour italki each weekend – This was going well until my tutor went away for the past two weeks so I feel a little lost at the moment but he should be back soon!

Duolingo via Spanish – Well, I had a cracking streak going of 36 days…until I travelled to Bratislava for the Polyglot Gathering. Oh the irony!

I left early in the morning, had little time at the airport, very little signal on my train journey across Slovakia and then zero brainpower by the time I arrived and slept pretty quickly after making myself some dinner.

Noooo! I’ll pick this back up soon.

Videos for pronunciation + basics – I’ve found one video in particular that I keep coming back to.

It’s a song, with lyric in the YouTube description so I can sing along. I like the nice mix of glottal stops and nasals. Woop!

Indonesian

Memrise – This happened until that pesky last week. Grr.

Friday language focus – Hmm…not so much! I got so into Slovak and Guaraní that I didn’t do too much extra with Indonesian on Fridays.

Language Reading Challenge

Finished both my Dobu book and un-language-related The Casual Vacancy. Finally!

Language Learning Goals for June

Slovak

I’m writing this from Slovakia, so once I return from my trip, that’ll be the end of Slovak for me, at least for the time being.

It was fun to learn a little more about a Slavic language and maybe one day I’ll take one further.

Guaraní

Like I said, really loving this language!

There’s two months left of the Step Up Language Program but for the first couple of weeks while I’m here in Slovakia, I’m not going to be too strict with my time or goals as I know how busy these events are and how little language I actually learn while I’m here!

The following is for once I return home…

45 minutes of study Mon – Thurs – I’m not going for a full hour to allow me a little time each day to play with other languages that need a little refresh, or new ones that I’m curious about. It’s an experiment to see if allowing myself this time will help me focus primarily on one language.

1 hour italki each weekend – As long as my tutor is back when I am, then this will happen again.

Duolingo via Spanish – If I can get into the habit of at least refreshing the lessons that aren’t gold each day while I’m here in Slovakia then I’ll be happy. If needed then I’ll postpone things until I get back home.

My Song! – I’m enjoying coming back to my song every now and then and singing along!

Wikipedia – Wikipedia is proving a really useful resource for Guaraní so I’ll be using this as reading practice.

Language Reading Challenge

The theme for Shannon’s Language Reading Challenge in June is ‘A book written by a language blogger’. I’ll actually be reading Shannon’s book!

As well as this, I’m reading a book called Rest: Why You Get More Done When You Work Less, which I LOVE. When it comes to growing Lindsay Does Languages, one thing I’m very serious about is doing so in a sustainable way without being glued to my laptop until 1am or starting work right away when I wake up. So this book speaks to me!

I also have a couple of books from the library to get into including The Emoji Code. Another book that speaks right to me. Ha!

Trip Update

So…quite a big change to our plans for our trip. Initially, we were due to travel overland across Europe and Asia to Papua New Guinea, hopefully going onto the Americas after.

Then we changed plans to travel via the Americas because of LangFest in Montreal! We were going to spend 6 months on that side of the world, and 6 months in Asia and Papua New Guinea.

But now, big change time…we’re planning on spending most of our time in Latin America now. Exciting!

We’ve booked our flight out of Cuba to Cancun, Mexico, and will be going overland downwards from there through Central America with a little flight hop from Panama to Colombia/Ecuador and onwards from there.

I’m already hunting out the best caves and places to see sea turtles (two of my favourite things) as well as interesting language stories en route.

Video Update

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, Shannon from Eurolinguiste, Kris from Actual Fluency and Angel from French Lover.

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, Lindsay Dow of Lindsay Does Languages, Angel Pretot of French Lover, and Kris Broholm of Actual Fluency #clearthelist

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Your free planner for June!

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

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