Goals & Plans 2025 + Review 2024

All Languages
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So, I’ve actually started the intensive side of this when I read through the 1st book again and found it much more my level now that I can understand a lot of it without having to break things down as much as I was before. It’s a much easier read than it was when I last read it so I progressed onto the second book though I am reading at my own pace.

I also read a fair few new booked for my Bingo challenge, think I managed about half of them before I hit a wall and struggled so much with 坊っちゃん putting me on the back foot a bit with the bingo challenge which I will pick up again in a bit.

My tutor has changed this year and there is a possibility that one of my Language exchanges has dropped out though I still have one that I meet with regularly and I am looking at taking more lessons with the tutor when I have more time away from work, or work has settled down after I get moved into my new department.

For Dogen’s course, I might look at it next year in February when I should have almost 4 weeks off work so plenty of time to work through it and see if it will suit me, though my new tutor is correcting me real time so I’ll need to see which will be more beneficial at that time.

I have been refreshing my knowledge on the grammar both in self study and in lessons while we get up to speed, though I haven’t progressed with Tobira or Quartet.

I have been listening more regularly, even starting up audio flash cards to help train my ear better and speed up my understanding alongside both audio books and comprehensible input videos on YouTube.

I have been writing more frequently and have been restudying writing Kanji as well as writing short prompts both for my language exchange as well as for my tutor lessons for the free speaking part.

I have been trying to do something in Japanese daily, with listening on most days, reading when I feel up to it, formal study at least 2-3 days a week (textbook, language exchange and tutor led lessons). I’ve been keeping up with the audio flashcards most days too which I feel is helping alongside the YouTube comprehensible input videos.

So far I have managed 14 books this year (not including textbooks or graded readers) so hitting 18 for this year is totally do able :slight_smile:

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TLDR: Things are going surprisingly well??

  • 26/36 read! This definitely feels achievable.
  • I kind of forgot about this goal for a while, but I’m (somewhat inadvertently) back at it this summer, since I’m alternating an easier KU book with a harder library book.
  • Done, finished, feeling accomplished! I’ve found a couple of new series to add into my reading mix, but I’ve also been doing a fair amount of standalones as well.
  • I haven’t done this yet but I DID read 2 other entire web novels! One was only a single volumes, the other one was about three volumes and had an audiobook. I noticed a marked increase in my listening skills and ability to follow along with the audiobook while reading it and had a great time overall!
  • I completely forgot about this goal. However, I have watched an entire C-drama and parts of several others, so I’ve gotten ~15 hours of listening per month on average, which is fantastic for me!
  • 6.5/12 so far, so doing pretty good!
  • I’ve been doing listening, but not watching dramas, since they’re still too hard to do comfortably.
  • I went, it was snowy but fun, and I had a great time!
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This is progressing well due to the WK book club for 香君. We’re halfway through the first book out of two, so I’ll probably hit the goal just from this. The only downside is that the book takes up a lot of my reading time, so I’m not reading any other novels/LNs. :sweat_smile:

This is going relatively well so far. I did buy a bunch of volumes of スキップとローファー | L24 and 君は放課後インソムニア | L24 earlier this year, but I finished the former and I’m reading the latter now, so it won’t impact my 積読 pile. I haven’t counted precisely, but I think my 積読 pile is about the same as it was at the start of the year.

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The midpoint of the year finds me in a hectic time where I had to stall most of my studies.

  • reach level 45 on wanikani deck : level 40, it is not great that I have only went up 3 levels in as many months, but I am taking an intentional break from new cards now, and I’m on track for hitting this anyway.
  • read 6 novels: done
  • read 75 manga volumes: done
  • finish 1 vn: done
  • read the pyhsical manga tbr: last time I mentioned this is on hold because I might move soon, and now I’m in the middle of a move. So still on hold.

new goals

  • wk: keeping at 45
  • manga : 100 volumes, a nice round number
  • books: 12
  • vns: 2
  • physical tbr: keeping this goal as is

gave up on my listening goal immediately because tracking is a pain.
For books I made little progress. But still doable until the end of the year.

I had no real goals for mandarin but I had to put even what little I did on hold due to life. My new goal is to start again until autumn.

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Wasn’t originally gonna make an update till next month, but I have a new, significant goal related to Yurihime.

In-progress:

  1. Read 1 issue of Yurihime magazine backlog per month (started in August, with vol 1 Summer 2005). Progress
  2. Read all of the physical books I own - Current: 48% - I’m reading 5 books/month to make this happen. Progress
  3. Get comfortable with L27+ fantasy/sci-fi manga - no direct progress, but have been reading more fantasy LNs + doing SRS for a lot of fantasy anime. Have recently read some L25-26 fantasy manga
  4. Read 薬屋のひとりごと | L37 and 裏世界ピクニック | L33 - no additional progress
  5. Complete 1 route of Fate/Stay Night - some progress, but gotten distracted by 月姫 remake, and now Hollow Ataraxia remake
  6. Watch Fate/Zero | L39 - I’ve done SRS for Fate/Stay Night (DEEN) and Unlimited Bladeworks anime. Fate/Zero has a jpdb deck as well. So maybe in the next months or two
  7. Read Japanese books and papers on history of yuri, shoujo, and/or Class S - I have one I started reading
  8. Finish flowers visual novel

Fate/Stay Night was originally “read all of”, but Fate/Stay Night is incredibly long. So I’ll just aim for Saber route

Completed

  1. Finish 42 Light novels

Dropped

Dropped
  1. Translate more book reviews into JP
  2. Speak along at speed to things I’m watching/reading (though sometimes I try that for fun)
  3. Read a lot of Class S lit - I discovered that most Class S was published in the magazines, but not book form. I’m reading more of 吉屋信子’s books when I’m in the mood though
  4. Read a lot of 1970s-80s yuri - I’ll get around eventually, but not rn
  5. Read a lot of Year 24 Group works - I’ll get around eventually
  6. Watch more L34+ anime - finished all of 薬屋のひとりごと S2. Dropped b/c I don’t think this is particularly beneficial, since it’s too far above my comfort zone
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I have clearly found my people! I have a few friends who learn languages as a hobby, mostly playing around with DuoLingo, but it is rare to find so many people who are genuinely invested in learning a language in-depth (and multiple languages, at that!). I do have one or two other good friends from college who fit this description, and I am trying to get them to take a look at this website and community.

I will post my goals for the quarter - since I am late to the party.

Japanese

  • Genki 2: Complete grammar notes and exercises for Chapter 16 (currently in Chapter 13)
  • WaniKani: Level 20+ (currently just started Lvl 18)
  • Complete the Tadoku Level 0 readers, start Level 1
  • I have decided I just need to learn more grammar and vocabulary before I will be happy with attempting to read more than graded readers, though I have a few books and manga on deck

Russian

  • Review first year Russian (using Golosa textbook): complete at least first volume (currently in Chapter 2 of 10 chapters)
  • Work though textbook “Verbs of Motion” over 4 years - book is made up of ~ 580 exercises, so goal is about 12 per month: complete 50 exercises before the end of the year
  • Find my old college textbooks in the basement
  • Read a novel in Russian (will start after our Spanish group is done)- currently waiting for my order to arrive and decide which book I will start first

Spanish

  • Read along with the Spanish book club to improve my vocabulary (currently reading Esperanza renace, Chapter 3)

Korean
For next year - learn the alphabet so I can read the labels at the grocery store.

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Welcome aboard!

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I swear, every time this thread is updated I panic, thinking, “oh no, is it time to evaluate goals already?? I haven’t done anything since last check-in!” :scream:

But whew, false alarm, haha. Glad to have you!

Oh, now that’s a fun one! I’m surprised it’s taken this long for anyone on here to mention they’re learning the language; I would have expected it to be a semi-popular one, but maybe I’m mistaken? I had a roommate in college who decided to take it as their language credit and got to hear a few stories about it; it sounds pretty complicated, at least initially? Lots of declensions and whatnot?

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149

I don’t know what I was thinking when I made this list :rofl:

20k pages is totally unrealistic, where did I get that number? I think I have now reached 20k cumulative pages for this and last year. Maybe I’ll just count that, haha. I had the realization that you can’t count manga pages and novel pages the same, and since I read a lot more novels this year, this little number is suffering.

I’m not against re-modelling goals so let’s see if we can fix that a little:

Textbooks / Grammar:
Tobira (chapter 5-15) will restart in November at a pace of 1 chapter/month = chapter 9 (bonus if I finish chapter 10)
Sou-Matome N2 (done with Vocab and Kanji, almost done with Grammar and Reading, Listening not yet begun)
Shin Kanzen Grammar N2 (on a good way to finish until December)
Nihongo no Mori N2 playlist

Vocab+Kanji study:
13k unique words in Renshuu (300 left :+1: )
2.2k kanji

Reading:
read 6 novels (8 done, will count every extra one as a bonus)
20k pages 3k novel/8k manga pages read (as per my current monthly projection)
200 days read (~30 days left)
read 10 books/manga series from Owned pile (future me can do the tracking)
Fnish Tadoku graded readers (28 left)

Watching:
watch more live action dramas (basically non-anime)
150 100 hrs watched (miserably failing this goal, adjustment required)

Misc:
take N2 in December (already registered, following study plan as planned)
download hellotalk or tandem (stopped interacting though)
use SNS in Japanese (twitter/bsky, IG) (same, stopped interacting)
go to jp-ger meetup (once a month? depending on my social anxiety levels) (anxiety levels were high, went about 3 times so far)
try to use monolingual dictionary more often
participate in 3+ bookclubs (nothing caught me so far, and I’m busy catching up with my TBR pile)

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Haha this is me too. Somehow using social media in Japanese is just so much more work even if formulating sentences no longer requires as much brain power. I think for me if I’m talking to the same people it’s fun, but the constant re-introducing of myself gets so tedious :skull_and_crossbones: (applies more to HT/tandem… I fell off bsky because it’s just not the type of social media I’ve ever enjoyed using)

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Same, I barely interact with anyone even if it’s in English…

Yeah, on those language apps I got tired of the constant cycle of looking for new people, trying to find out if we’re a fit interest-wise, also I can’t even blame them for ghosting if I do the same because of life, stress, etc.

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Every time this thread gets updated I get reminded that I didn’t make a post because I thought I didn’t need a post but I want to UPDATE MY NON-EXISTENT POST.
You are all so motivating with your fun updates, and reassessments, and shiny new languages.
Anyway, I’ve drafted my 2026 goal post, only 3 months left to join in on the fun!

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Can I add a goal with 3 months left in the year? My goal is to read 64 books in Korean this year. Why? Because it’s a square number and afaik the largest number of Korean books in a year that has been written about in a post is 62.

This has been my goal for most of the year, but I didn’t know that this thread existed.

I’ve finished 45 books and am on my 46th.
I also just hit 35,000 cumulative pages (of novels) read!

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I don’t see why not!

lmao, that is dedication, haha.

Daaang, congrats! That takes a while to build up! I’m at just under 20,000 pages read in Japanese; I hope to one day have numbers like yours. :saluting_face:

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You can do it! I had 20k pages at the start of this year. Now I’m looking at doubling that this year. Probably since 15k pages or so it’s only been vocab holding me back.

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Similar, and even with talking to the same people, I only have so much energy for direct conversation with people I’m not already close with

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Wow, really? :open_mouth: Maybe there’s hope for me yet, then…

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Third quarter check-in time? There’s just a few months left of the year; I should probably start thinking about ruminating on my 2026 goals. There’s a few floating around in my head, but nothing definite yet.

(The quoted updates are from July.)

  • Translate (JP) : I haven’t taken the plunge to get my translation hosted anywhere yet, but I’m still steadily working on it; my excuse at the moment is I want to build up a good stock of already-translated material. I’ve hit a few roadbumps with it, but that’s more due to inexperience on my side than anything; I’ve still been making consistent forward progress, slow as it may be. Going well.
  • 50 physical manga from TBR : 29/50. I had a good bump in August when I dedicated most of that month solely to reading manga, but I’m still behind and generally unwilling to put aside novels in favor of manga at the moment. I’m going to have to dedicate my winter readathon to manga for sure at this rate, but that’ll give me like 4-6 volumes at max when I need 21… I need to figure out a plan for this.
  • 25 non-manga from TBR : 21/25. I’m wondering if I made a mistake somewhere and miscounted and/or used/didn’t use consistent criteria with past counts, because a jump of 8 novels since the last update definitely isn’t right, but I can’t figure out how I calculated that 13 number. :thinking: Was I only counting physical books for some reason? But those aren’t my only TBR…

I am participating in the current Spanish book club, and’ve been working on the Refold 1k Spanish deck, but I’m not gonna lie: it’s looking a bit dire in terms of me continuing Spanish too much farther past this year. The effort involved in learning it hasn’t really motivated in terms of what books it’ll give me access to. My current goal is to finish the book club, finish the Refold deck, then pick one book from my goal list of Spanish books and see how that book goes. There’s a good chance that any of the books I pick will be too hard for me, but if something’s sufficiently interesting I know I can push through from past experience.

If by the end of all that I still feel like I’m just learning Spanish due to the sunk cost fallacy, then I think that’s my cue to stop beating myself up over constantly neglecting it and set it free.

Mandarin’s actually been going pretty well since, though I think I’m hitting another “I need a break” periods my brain goes through with new languages. I’d been hoping to finish the HelloChinese course before my sub expired, and when that didn’t pan out I re-subbed for just 3 months, sure that I could finish it by then, and now I’m too scared to tally up my remaining days vs. lessons. :joy:

I decided some time back to try to view any new languages I may be interested in dabbling in solely as “hobby” languages, mostly to try to give myself a sense of perspective that it’s okay not integrate every single new passing fancy into my daily schedule. Mandarin’s still pretty firmly in this hobby section, and will likely remain that way until I ever theoretically become good enough to read ~L25 content or so. No clue if I’ll ever reach that point or if I’ll drop it before then, so in the meantime I’ll do my best to learn, and if I have a week where I don’t feel like it, then I don’t feel like it.

1 hr of JP listening/day : I’ve definitely noticed that as the year moves on, it’s gotten easier and easier to just not listen for a span of days, then frantically try to make that up later in the month. I believe I’ve been successful in hitting my base 30 hour goal each month, but it’s been a hot minute since I’ve hit any of my stretch goals. What I want to do for listening in the new year is still a hot topic in my mind, and one I’ve come to no firm conclusion on yet. Perhaps I’ll make an audiobook goal to work towards, and any extra listening is just bonus? We’ll see.

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Sorry to hear you’re not feeling in a great place with Spanish. I had a look at your list - I like the look of Cuatro días de enero.

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Oh - I would echo that, let’s add it to the list!

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