So the first month of the year ends. I've spent it, inter alia, tinkering with a new language-learning schedule.

Given my failures of last year, something new was clearly needed. Definitely something less ambitious. Something -- for example -- that followed Steve Kaufmann's suggestion: "In the coming year I want to follow my own advice and make sure I enjoy my language-learning activities without worrying about how much I am improving. That’s my major New Year’s resolution." Sounds good to me...

Lindie Botes, one of my favourite language-learning gurus, was also communicating the go-easy message.

She started by listing her current languages and levels (she has twelve). Then she selected her focus languages for the year (she has seven), and identified some goals for each. And then she listed them in order of (current) importance.

Her next move was to use quarters of the year to split up her language-learning. Each quarter would involve one focus language and one or two maintenance languages. She also decided on a main language for the entire year. In her scheme, that language popped up in every quarter, either as the focus language or a maintenance language.

Her ideal week would consist of three active learning days, two passive learning days (reading, watching TV, and so on), and two rest days.


We're surrounded by inspirational multilingualism here in Sarawak...

This all sounded very good to me, so I drew up my own scheme, based on hers:

-- My main language for 2023 is going to be Russian. Russian... Russian... RUSSIAN...
-- Parked, for the moment, are Korean, Thai, Maori, and Hindi.
-- My focus languages for each quarter are (in order) Turkish, Russian, Chinese, and Indonesian.
-- My maintenance languages (maintenance in the sense of not going backwards, and maybe making a tiny bit of progress, but not looking for great things) are Manx, Portuguese, and Japanese.

Quick digression here:

Japanese?? That (for me) untimely-born language that I didn't do very well with? I know it makes no sense, but I can't quite come to terms with the idea of dropping it. So I'll just try to keep what little I know ticking over, and maybe just add a word or two here and there. And we'll reassess again next year.


I would like, next time we go to Japan, to not have to rely so much on the "translaterator", which is definitely better than nothing, but often leaves out important adjectives like "raw", or -- as in the case of the zaru udon dish above -- "cold"...



Anyway, where was I?

-- I also have what I call "passive enjoyment languages", which I can and do read and/or listen to on a regular basis -- but as part of my general reading list, as opposed to my language programme. These languages are German, French, Spanish, Italian, and Indonesian (yes, Indonesian features above as a focus language as well, because it's a language I would really like to make progress in, as well as just enjoy).


Always good to be able to read the trams...

-- Each quarter I'll schedule in one focus language plus two maintenance languages for the active and passive learning days. No session needs to be long. Something is always better than nothing.
-- For January, for example, I scheduled in Turkish (major), Russian (minor), and Japanese (minor minor). For February, I'll move to Turkish (major), Russian (minor), and Chinese (minor minor).
-- Over the course of the year, that should amount to (for Russian) 200 exposures (10 slots x 4 weeks x 5 sessions), which has got to start having some impact, you'd think... For Chinese, Indonesian, and Turkish it would be 120 exposures.

And goals? Well, I'd like to...

-- Russian: See significant progress in reading (one good sign of that would be finishing an Agatha Christie, for example, without a support text). And finish the Story Learning and Russian for Everyone courses.
-- Turkish: Finish the Story Learning course, and get started on some easy reading.
-- Chinese: Complete the Story Learning course, and try to have some local conversations...
-- Indonesian: Tackle some more complex literature (perhaps using comparative translations).
-- Portuguese: Read a book, any book, just one book... (I'm aware that this goal is starting to be a bit of an old chestnut...)
-- Manx: Complete the Manx Radio course.
-- Japanese: Just not forget the little I know...



For the first couple of weeks of the year, this all worked fabulously. I filled in my "language activity" record in my new diary app every day, and thought I'd cracked it.

But then came three long days of travelling in Japan, and a couple of sleepless nights in Nagasaki, and the slightly exhausting journey home, and the fact that I've been a little under-the-weather for the last two weeks or so -- and all this totally decimated my new plan. It's only really yesterday that I got going on my new schedule again, even though it's really very doable and anything but arduous.

So, realistically, with more travel coming up (always a good thing, of course), it's going to be June before this really gets a chance to be fully operationalized. In the meantime, it's a holding operation -- do what you can, when you can, and don't worry too much... Even so, it's still better to have some sort of structure than no sort of structure, I feel. If you aim at nothing, that's exactly what you'll hit.

I'm very much on the same page as Daniel (from the amazing Online Italian Club), who wrote earlier this month:

"Focus on including 'easy' learning activities in odd minutes of your day, ideally with a view to creating positive learning habits. Then, what should, in theory (and in all likelihood), happen is that, OVER TIME, your knowledge of the language will improve. As if by magic! Slow magic. The trick is to select 'easy' activities and resist making them 'hard'... If it’s 'hard'..., then it risks not getting done. Eventually, there’s always going to be something more important. And the magical learning that comes from 'easy' learning habits, won’t happen."

So, in 2023, I'm going to try to have the kind of structure that creates habits ("if it's Monday, I read some Russian") -- but stay relaxed, adaptable, and focused on easy stuff.

We'll see...