New Year New Start
Make your goals your mission
Happy New Year!
We’re a week into 2014 and raring to go! Our New Year’s resolutions are in place, our diets are underway and we’ve been thinking about plans for the year ahead.
But what’s going to make this year different from any other? Why will this year be a success? And what makes us so sure we’ll realise our New Year’s resolutions this time round?
When thinking about our own goals and New Year’s resolution for 2014, we try to think of them as an adventure, a journey and not just a destination we need to get to.
Draw up a new plan of action for learning a language
It’s good to start the New Year by setting a short term realistic achievable goal. If your objective is to ‘learn Spanish’ or ‘speak Italian fluently’, what do learning Spanish and speaking Italian fluently mean to you?
Define your goal. Then set a timeframe to achieve it by.
Before writing anything down, take a moment to think about your own mother tongue. You speak fluently but you might find yourself learning new words every now and again, or thinking ‘I’ve never come across that saying before’. That’s because language learning is a lifelong process that never stops. Of course, this is not to say that you can’t start using the language you’re learning interactively after a short period of time, but it does demonstrate that many levels of attainment can be reached.
So, back to defining your goal: we know that it can be tricky to know what’s realistically achievable at each stage of the learning process, luckily The Common European Framework of Reference (learners have a copy of this in their files) provides useful insight and guidance which can help you with this.
When you’re considering a timeframe it’s important not to look too far into the future as it can become far too easy to postpone a task until tomorrow, next week or next month if the deadline is more than a year away. The trick is to set shorter time limits as this pressure will help to motivate and drive you.
With this in mind, break down your goal into bite size chunks. What can you achieve in a week or a month? And what could you accomplish in a 3 month period? This is where the adventure begins!
You’ll need to be disciplined and organised to achieve your language learning goal, but above all, you’ll need to make language learning part of your everyday life. Think about what it is that you like doing and then put it into practice in the target language. If you like sports, for example, perhaps you could set yourself the task of reading a sports article or listening to a radio broadcast of a live match once a week. And then for your quarterly objectives, you could consider completing a course where you get to practise your speaking skills, reading a book on a famous sportsperson or preparing yourself for a trip that includes a sporting event. The same applies to lovers of food and drink, the arts, travel, business or anything else.
The all important first step
People will often find excuses as to why they’re unable to make their resolution or goals happen: they’re either too busy socially, overloaded with work or have unexpected things happen. But actually, the biggest barrier to accomplishing your goal is taking that all important first step.
So, put a plan together and push yourself now, today. Book that holiday to that Italian, Spanish or French speaking destination, enrol on that course you’ve seen and buy that book you’ve been eyeing up. Start your adventure and commit to the outcome you want to achieve.
If you have any comments on this article or suggestions for ensuring you realise your linguist goals this year please do share your tips via Facebook or email.