It’s the end of 2019 already! That means it’s time to start thinking forward to 2020 and setting some language learning goals for the new year. Here’s where I’m at…

Best of 2019

Language Stories Season 2

The year started half way through Language Stories Season 2. Season 2 was all about languages in Southeast Asia.

If you’ve missed any episodes, here’s the full list: Learning Vietnamese, Singapore Takes The Floor, Teaching English in Laos, Discovering Hmong, Make Hokkien Cool Again, Hands for Vietnam, Kristang: A Tale of Two Cities.

Once the season was done, in May I also released Not A Year Off: The Story Behind Language Stories, my first book! This told our story – how we made Language Stories (and edited and shared an entire season whilst still on the road filming a second!).

A big highlight of the year was back in March, when Keeping K’iche’ from season 1 won Northampton Film Festival!

It was such an overwhelming honour. One of the initial reasons we created Language Stories was to spread language inspiration beyond people we knew would already find it interesting (aka me and you reading this!) and make it accessible to a wider audience.

To think that the episode won a film festival is just incredible. It also came just as we’d wrapped up publishing season 2, which was pretty cool.

If you’d like to support Language Stories as we begin production for season 3, the best way to do that is to tell a friend about the series, and to get your copy of Not A Year Off. Thank you in advance.

Teach Languages Online Podcast

The Teach Languages Online podcast has been going strong in 2019! I’m now up to episode 50-something, which is awesome.

If you’re teaching languages online, or you’d like to, be sure to subscribe now wherever you get your podcasts – there’s plenty in the back catalogue to keep you busy over Christmas.

My Language Learning in 2019

I started the year expecting to focus on indigenous languages from different parts of the world every few months to celebrate the International Year of Indigenous Languages. This didn’t happen at all!

To be honest, I think the reason for that was that I was working on a sponsored blog article with Lusa Language School in January, which involved lots of Portuguese lessons online in the first month of the year.

On top of that, I was also really enjoying my 20/20/20 routine in the mornings (20 minutes for a different language). Early in the year, this involved 20 minutes of Korean and Guarani each day, and then a rotation from 10 previous languages I’ve studied on a 2 week basis.

This pattern worked so well, that I kept it up a lot early in the year until I needed some more time to focus in on Korean once I had my trip booked there with Shannon (Kennedy, of Eurolinguiste – fellow Clear The List & Women in Language host!)

Despite that extra focus on Korean and actually visiting the country, I still feel pretty novice in the language. I think some languages are just harder nuts to crack for some of us!

When I returned from Korean (actually, before I returned, on the last few days of my trip) I began learning Bulgarian for a little crash course, ready for a few days in the country.

Bulgarian proved itself to be a lot easier for me than Korean, and within a matter of weeks, I was having my italki Bulgarian lessons predominantly in Bulgarian, which is crazy.

Now, I’m back on my rotation of 20/20/20 in the mornings.

The only difference is that I’ve been rotating 15 languages this time (French, Spanish, German, Italian, Portuguese, Japanese, Mandarin, Korean, Bulgarian, Guarani, Burmese, Malay, Indonesian, Thai, and Kristang)

Although, I really enjoyed the intensity and quick progress of the Bulgarian, I love these times where I can slowly learn many languages at once too. I think it’s important to find a balance that suits you!

My Language Learning in 2020

I didn’t start 2019 year expecting to end it speaking Bulgarian! Proof that despite how fast it seems to have flown by, a year is still a long enough time to get a lot done.

With that in mind, I’m not setting myself a specific language learning goal for the entire year just yet.

However, one thing that will be happening in 2020 is Language Stories season 3. You might remember me saying at the end of season 2, that the next season would be about the languages of the UK.

I’ve been reaching out to people across the country over the past few weeks of 2019 to make the first contact and figure out how the season will take shape. It’s a lot of work that we don’t get paid for, so it takes time.

It only seems right that I attempt to learn some languages closer to home as we begin to make this season.

Here’s my plan from January…

Welsh, Manx, Cornish, Scottish Gaelic

I’ll be learning these languages somewhat simultaneously.

By that, I mean I’ll create a list of essentials and things I want/need to learn how to say and understand and use different resources to fill it out for them all.

My 20/20/20 will become 40/20 – 40 minutes Welsh, Manx, Cornish, Scottish Gaelic followed by 20 minutes of…

…Other Languages!

To keep my foot in the door with my other languages, I’ll use 20 minutes each day to check in with one. Of course, this will take 3 weeks to work through my rotation of the 15 languages I’ve been learning for December. That’s totally fine, I’m in no rush with them and just enjoy the contact with such a variety of languages.

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Be sure to grab your free My Month in Languages Planner for January 2020. Click the image below to join my email list and get it now.

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What are your goals for 2020? Do you have your entire year mapped out or are you keeping things open? Share in the comments below!