I’ve already made some goals for next year, so this is more of a look at where I’m at and how I’d like to continue with various languages.
Multi
Anki
I’ve been pretty inconsistent with my Anki use so far, so I’m going to try to make it a daily habit to finish all the reviews at least.
The vocab I’m learning is usually either from exam lists or the vocab from whatever book I’m currently/planning on reading; the sentences are generally to learn grammar, although I’d like to move on to sentence mining native material once I’m past textbook stuff.
I’ve (reluctantly) started using https://jpdb.io/ to learn vocab for specific books I’m planning to read, but I’m hoping for a good export option to appear at some point, since I don’t want to use it long-term.
Audiobooks
Since my focus is on reading, I feel like this is the easiest way to incorporate listening into my routine. I’ve got audible for Japanese, and my Storytel subscription includes books in Korean and Chinese. Storytel also offers Thai books, but I guess you’d have to have a separate subscription for that.
Audiovisual
My focus is on reading, so I don’t have specific plans regarding TV shows. Still, it would be good to watch some Korean and Japanese TV series, possibly some Chinese, too (with subs where possible).
I’m not sure I’d get much out of watching Thai shows at this point unless I prepped using frequency lists, subs2srs, or something similar.
Book Clubs
Try to keep up!
Korean
Novels
The intensive reading I’ve been doing with Week 5 of 소리를 보는 소년 👁👂 Korean Fiction Book Club 🇰🇷 has been really rewarding, so I’d like to continue with that method, at least for book clubs.
I’d like to read (non-book club books) more regularly, and actually finish the books that I’ve started… Especially the ones with audiobooks available on Storytel. I’d also like to try web novels, since I’ve never really read any before.
Manhwa
Although I have been reading some manhwa/webtoons in Korean, I still read a lot of them in English out of habit and convenience. I’d like to change my reading habits and tip the scales in favour of Korean.
There’s also all the 만화경 series which I have barely made a dent in. This one even has a time limit, so I need to start reading in earnest!
Grammar
I made an anki deck of all the example sentences and conversations from the intermediate and advanced volumes of Korean Grammar in Use (series) | L0-27, so I’ve started working through that. It should take about 3 months to do the intermediate cards - I’m fairly comfortable with most of the intermediate grammar points, so this is just to solidify my knowledge. Advanced may take longer, since I’m studying most of the grammar for the first time. It would be nice to complete the series in 2024.
Japanese
Graded Readers
My goal is to finish all the tadoku series (I’ve read most of them):
After that I can take a break from graded readers for a while and just focus on native content.
Novels
I’d like to read some children’s novels in the L20-26 range; some with the 🥳 Children's Book Club 📚 Next: ふしぎ駄菓子屋 銭天堂, but also some on my own. I’m sure I’ll also attempt other types of novels - BC or not - but I’d at least like to become comfortable reading children’s novels.
Manga
I’d like to read through more of my physical manga (I have plenty, after all! ), as well as reading the freebies on BookWalker and MangaZ. Like Korean, I just need to shift the balance so I’m reading a greater percentage of manga in Japanese.
Grammar
Working my way through an anki deck of grammar sentences pulled from various sources. I’m almost done with N4, so I’ll just keep chugging along…
Chinese
Graded Readers
I’m enjoying the Rainbow Bridge Graded Readers, so I’m planning to read all the ones I’ve purchased… And then buy some more? I’ll also continue making my way through the free stories on Little Fox Chinese and Mandarin Bean.
Novels
I’ve started 撒野, and although there are a lot of lookups, it has been enjoyable so far. I’m learning the vocab by frequency using anki, so hopefully it’ll get easier as time goes on. I’m quite happy to just slowly make my way through the story, however long that will take.
Handwriting
I don’t plan on writing in Chinese, but I think learning to write the characters will help with memorisation and recognition. I’ve got grooved copybooks which cover the characters learned in grades 1-6 (and, of course, pens with disappearing ink ).
I’ve started working through the characters: the rules of stroke orders make it easy to guess how a character is written (I check on http://www.strokeorder.info/) and out of the couple of hundred characters I’ve learned so far, I’ve only needed to double check a handful to remind me of the stroke order (I say “learned”; I’m not writing them from memory yet).
So the plan is to just continue through the books, which cover about 2800 characters. Sadly I couldn’t find something similar for traditional characters, so I may have to make my own reference sheets for those.
Grammar
I’ve got an anki deck of example sentences from the Chinese Grammar Wiki, which should cover most HSK grammar. Once I’ve made my way through most of the deck, I’m planning to get a good reference book, possibly Mandarin Chinese: A Functional Reference Grammar or 博客來-當代中文語法點全集(二版).
Thai
Maanee
The Maanee books helped children learn to read and write back in the 70s-90s, and covers the first six years of education. The PDFs are available online for free.
I’ve started the first book, and I’m really loving it so far! Each chapter introduces a few letters, followed by words made using those letters (and ones you’ve learned in previous chapters), then a short story, again using only the letters that have been learned so far. The first half of the first book also uses spaces between words so it’s easier to read.
The plan for this is pretty simple: just keep working through the Maanee textbooks. I don’t really have plans for after that because I’m sure it’ll take me a while, although I do have a few textbooks (in Korean! ) and some novels I picked up second-hand for later.
Novels
It’s a bit premature, but I had a look for the well-known BL author JittiRain’s works and it looks like I would be able to listen and read concurrently quite easily. Technology is great.
Handwriting
I don’t plan to write in Thai, it’s just an aid for memorisation. Although it is fun!
I’ve been using a grooved copybook + pen with disappearing ink to practice individual letters, and writing out the sentences from the Maanee stories.
Typing
I would love to actually finish learning to touch type in Thai! It would make dictionary lookups and google searches so much easier. I’ll make the effort to practice daily until I’ve finished the lessons, then I’ll work on bringing my typing speed up to the same level as Korean and English (~70wpm).