March will be a really exciting month for me. I move to a new flat (still in Prague), I start to have private czech lessons instead of the group ones, and I will start a new project which will take up a bit more of my time. Also, the #TLreadingchallenge is still ongoing, I will read a novel in german in March.
So what happened so far? How will I juggle all these things? Well, of course, I have a plan. But we will see in action how it will go. Let’s start with checking in my languages.
Czech
Czech is one of my focus languages in 2021, and March will be an intensive month to level up my knowledge. I will try to immerse myself in the language as much as possible: revising my textbook and notebook, listening to podcasts and reading articles. I will have private lessons twice a week, and also a study group session once a week. I don’t plan more now, but if I feel like it, I will also watch something (like a movie or short videos) in czech. I will record myself speaking czech at the start of the month and at the end of the month, so I can see how much I progressed during this time. If you want to follow my journey real time, then follow me on instagram, where I will share my updates. I am really proud of myself, in February I talked a lot, even with strangers (and on the phone), and I felt that finally I am able to express myself quite well.
German
This is my second focus language this year. I don’t have german lessons now, but I regularly listen to podcasts and talk with my mom and opa in german. For March – since it will be a czech-focused month – I plan to keep it simple. I will read a novel in german for my target language reading challenge, and also plan to speak more, using my knowledge. I think I will not push it this month, just maintain my level. I have plenty of resources to use, and I am fortunate to have people to speak with at any time.
French
I have regular lessons once a week, and I really enjoy that my knowledge is slowly coming back. I will still learn the vocab we get on the lessons, but I do not plan to do much more in march. I like this slow progress with french, and as I do not need it right now, it is enough for me. My goal for the whole year is to get back to a level, where I can read simple stories or a short novel in french.
Romanian
This is a new addition to my languages, and this is nothing else than fun. I like the sound of the language, and since I work in a romanian-hungarian-turkish team, I hear my colleagues speak romanian sometimes. For a while I was postponing the start of a new language, since I am already quite busy with the above ones, but I decided to just take it easy and try. For now, I only do daily duolingo lessons, and I write down the sentences and vocab from the app to my dedicated notebook. Romanian is fun and a relief beside the focused and serious czech learning. My goal for now is to be able to say a few sentences and to “surprise” my colleagues with my small knowledge. I also have a colleague who helps me with the pronunciation if I ask her.
Spanish
This year, I didn’t learn spanish at all. Since it is also a “fun-language” for me, I am not hard on myself, I will get back to it in the second half of the year. I take it as a challenge: I have the Living Language spanish box, and I only use this system for my spanish. I am somewhere in the middle of the first book (the elementary one). I am really curious, how far you can get with this system: they say intermediate, but I am not completely sure I can get there with only one resource. I am not taking any classes, but I am thinking about taking extra books as easy readers to practice. We will see later.
So for language studies, this is the plan. I will track my progress with my usual method: on the bottom of my weekly planner’s pages, every day. This way I see if I neglected a language, or if I study really one-sided (for example only reading or only speaking practice, etc.).
Regarding other projects, I am quite busy with moving and settling in my new place. We also start a new project with my mom, and although we are in the planning and preparation phase, it is already really exciting. Now, beside my weekly planner, I needed to start a daily planner to be able to track all my to dos. I am still testing this new system, but so far, it helps me a lot.
What are your plans for the next month? How do you track your progress and studies? Let me know in the comments!