Okay, I need to put down my 2026 goals once and for all. I’ve had some drafted for a while, and told myself I’d get to posting them here as soon as I was done with [other thing], and it never happened, and now it’s January 6th. So no more feet dragging!
Japanese
- Translating
- I started working on a long-term translation project last year, and I want to continue working on that this year.
- Goal: Finish translating CDs 3-5
- Goal: Find somewhere to actually host the translations (or create the website myself)
- Reading
- This year is my Year of the Sequel! So my goal this year is to read sequels to series I’ve started in years before as much as, if not more than, non-sequels.
- Goal: No specfic numbers for this; I’ve set up a library tag so I can easily check what I’ve been reading and working on.
- On a related note, I’d like to continue my focus on novel-reading I started last year.
- Goal: Read 25 non-manga books.
- Goal: Achieve another bing(o) blackout.
- And on yet another unrelated note, I really want to continue working through my physical manga. Last year I read almost 40 manga volumes, which isn’t bad, but I’m gonna need to actually put in effort this year if I don’t want all my reading time to be swept away by novels.
- Goal: Have 50% of current unread manga total finished. (Current as in time of checking, not me writing this post now.)
- Stretch goal: Have 75% of current unread manga total finished.
- Listening
- My 1 hour/day and/or 30 hours/month listening schedule went pretty well last year, so I’m going to do the same this year.
- Goal: Listen to 360 hours of Japanese this year.
- Stretch goal: Listen to 430 or 500 hours (roughly breaking down to 36 or 42 hours listened to in a month)
Chinese
I’m continuing my “slow and steady learning until I lose interest or become able to read simple stories” in 2026.
- Reading
- I’m going to be starting out with easy graded readers, and hopefully work my way to children’s books by the end of the year.
Goal: Get through all of the free beginner content in Du Chinese: First quarter check-in, deleted.- Goal: Get through some proportion of Little Fox Chinese stories. I really should add a number to this, but there’s like a bajillion stories.
- Goal: Once the above two are sufficiently finished, start looking at the Mandarin Companion books, maybe try one or two
- Stretch goal: Read 2 manhua in Chinese
- Stretch goal: Read 1 children’s book in Chinese
- Listening
- In order for my listening comprehension abilities to not fall quite so far behind as they did in Japanese, I’m starting a small listening regimen early in the learning process. My goal is to listen to at least one video/podcast every other day for at least the first quarter this year, alternating with straight vocab SRS.
- Goal: Watch at least one video/listen to at least one podcast episode half of the days in the month.
- Stretch goal: Watch at least one video/listen to at least one podcast episode 75% of the days in the month.
- Vocab / Grammar
Goal: Finish learning/reviewing through all HelloChinese vocab: First quarter check-in, deleted.- Goal: Finish learning/reviewing through all 1k Refold deck (may nix this if the vocab overlap is too strong with the HelloChinese vocab)
- Goal: Finish learning/reviewing my Elementary Chinese Grammar book by end of June
- Goal: Finish learning/reviewing intermediate Chinese grammar by end of year (or have made a really good attempt at it)
- Writing
- Text my friend in Chinese at least once a week
I…might be overreaching this year, we’ll see; I have a slew of non-language goals I would like to work on as well, so if you guys see me collapsing in a puddle later this year, crying, you’ll know why. 
The good news is is that I feel like I’ve got a pretty decent rhythm with all the Japanese stuff so far, so Chinese-wise it’s just a matter of finding time to fill. The bad news is that the government continually refuses to hear my petitions to extend the day by another 10 hours, so we’re still stuck at a measly 24. 
