Q3 summary
The third quarter of the year is done and time sure flies! I set some high level goals for June to September and today I spent time going through how the past few months went.
I also did a monthly review for September, and now I’ll think about my goals for Q4.
Overall, I spent more time on Hungarian this year (which is a good and exciting thing) and I feel a little lost thinking about what I’ll do in the next few months. A part of me feels like taking it day by day, but I also know it’s important to have some kind of a framework for me to track my progress by if I want to stay motivated.
Q3 hour counts
Hungarian: 11H22M
French: 8H30M
Spanish: 4H45M
Korean: 2H4M
All of these amounts exclude passive learning like listening to podcasts, watching content or chatting to people. These hours mainly consist of active studying and italki lessons.
Video: The goals I set for September
September language goals review
Goal: Take 3 Hungarian italki lessons
Result: I did 4! My tutor said I’ve been improving a lot and it feels good to finally be making progress in a very difficult language.
Goal: Review chapters 1-3 in my Tagalog textbook
Result: Unfortunately I didn’t have time for this. I was focusing on Hungarian and updating my design portfolio, so Tagalog fell to the back of my list. That’s life!
Goal: Start 101 Conversations in Simple Spanish book
Result: Just in time before the month end, I started reading it this week and am already a few chapters in. I really enjoyed Olly’s explanations about intensive and extensive reading and I’m trying to read the book extensively instead of focusing on each word I don’t understand.
Goal: Go to Spanish language exchange at least 2 times
Result: This was impossible because Singapore suddenly got a lot of new cases and we are only allowed to dine out in groups of 2. We could manage previously at language exchange with socially distancing within groups of 5, but unfortunately all Spanish events were cancelled this month 🥲
Overall Q3 memorable moments
- Featured on the Speakly podcast where I had a delightful conversation about why people fail to learn languages and what our tips are, with the founder, Ott. I learnt a lot from him!
- My Android phone kept breaking and I couldn’t use my apps well. I finally, for the first time in my life, bought an iPhone and using language apps has been much smoother!
- After months of having it on my to-do list, I started the 101 Conversations in Simple Spanish book!
- I can feel myself getting better in Hungarian day by day, even though it is still a challenge. I had my first ever in-person conversation (as in, not via video call or online) with a new Hungarian friend in Singapore. He was also so kind to give me 3 Hungarian novels via a teacher of his who happened to watch my videos. Now I have some advanced Hungarian content to try and dive into in the next few…years probably!
- Started doing freelance UX consulting at my favorite Chinese learning app, Skritter! (Use code CHINESEWITHLINDIE if you’d like to try it out!)
- Consistently sent out my Monthly Language Roundup newsletters and hit 1600 subscribers in just 4 months! Thank you everyone!
- Bought an intermediate+ Korean vocabulary book after recognizing that I am comfortable at speaking but lacking more wide vocabulary knowledge
- Took time off Instagram and Twitter to relax and refocus my life, and it feels good!
What’s next?
It’s already the 2nd of October, but I will take my time to think about what I want to achieve in the next 3 months of 2021. I’ll update my progress here and on YouTube.
Let me know in the comments what your goals are, and if you’d like to see a video version of this review, or a video of my upcoming goals. Thanks for reading!
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