July Language Study Recap

Welcome to another monthly recap! It’s August, which is my birthday month, and that means I’m going to take it easy with my language studies this month.

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On average, this month I spent 1.42 hours a day on my target languages. This included one missed study day during the final week of July and two days that were under an hour of study.

When I see this chart, I’m reminded that consistency looks different and even with missed days, progress can still be made.

I mostly spent my time with French, but I did spend some time with Japanese, Mandarin and Icelandic. Let’s recap my language studies in July.

Original July Plans:

• ✅ Study French for at least 1 hour each day

  • My average daily hours were still a little above an hour even though I missed a day at the end

• ➖ Read 2 chapters of Le Petit Prince each week

  • I missed a week, but I’m a third of the way through the book!

• ✅ Read Mon Mari

• ✅ Continue reviewing vocabulary from part 1 of L’Étranger

• ❌ Reach 3,600 known words on Migaku (currently at 3,400)

I was doing pretty well with my goals, but since I stopped reading as much and reviewing vocabulary, I wasn’t able to increase my known words on Migaku.

Despite this, I did have some great wins this month. I took my first French lesson in a year and a half and have decided to continue taking weekly lessons from now on.

I completed two French resources, my vocabulary workbook and the pronunciation course, both by French with Dylane.

August Plans

• Take weekly French conversation lessons

• Finish reading Le Petit Prince

• Read 50% of Mon Mari

  

Original July Plans:

• ✅ Start Chapter 4 of Migaku Japanese Academy.

• ✅ Increase known words on Migaku (currently 170)

• ❌ Read short stories on YomuYomu.

I had planned to read more, but I actually only did 3 things in Japanese this month. I watched Anime, did some lessons in my textbook and reviewed words on Migaku.

A demo of a JRPG comes out on my birthday, and I know I’ll be playing it, which means more listening exposure to come!

August Plans

• Finish watching Clannad

• Play video games with Japanese audio

Original July Plans:

• ✅ Find a resource to use to study Mandarin

• ✅ Increase Migaku vocabulary

Like Japanese, I also only did 3 activities in Mandarin. I watched a few episodes of a Drama, worked in the 50 Chinese Coffee Breaks workbook and watched YouTube videos.

One of the tasks on my project board for the year is to read Kai Duan (开端)1. I still plan on doing this, but before I get to it, I want to continue rebuilding my vocabulary and get back to a comfortable place in Mandarin.

August Plans

• Do exercises in 50 Chinese Coffee Breaks

Since August is the last month before schools start back up and I go back to work, I want to make sure I’m still able to enjoy my time off outside of language learning.

As for 75 Fluent, I’ll still be tracking my language studies until the challenge ends, but if I don’t meet the 1-hour minimum requirement, that’s okay. The first half of the challenge encouraged me to be more consistent with my studies, and I think that was the push I needed at the start.

I hope you’re all having a great summer. And don’t forget, you can upgrade your subscription at a 50% discount until the second week of September!

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