Should You Have Language Learning Goals?

Рет қаралды 16,671

4 жыл бұрын

Goals are important to be successful in learning a foreign language, but they can cause problems if not done the right way.In this video which was inspired by Lindie Botes and her video 12 languages for 2020 New Year Language Goals, I go through some of the ways people can go wrong when setting goals in language learning and how to make sure it's done right.
Whereas Lindie speaks about 12 languages, I only speak 3, so although Lindie Botes' 2020 language learning goals inspired me, I need to be careful not to try to be Luca Lampariello, Steve Kaufmann, Benny Lewis, Lina Vasquez or Ed from Double Deutsch - I like all those people and I want to be like them but my language learning goals can't be at that level yet, they can only be at my level. I can only improve on the language learning stage that I am currently at; fluent in English, reasonably conversational in Swedish and starting to become quite conversation in French. I am thinking of learning a 4th language in 2020. You can watch Lindie's video here: • 12 languages for 2020 ...
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Thumbnail photo is by Estée Janssens on Unsplash. The other photos in this video can mostly also be found on Unsplash, a free stock photo website.
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Пікірлер: 79

@Tomanita 4 жыл бұрын

I'm one of those people who sets too many goals, gets overwhelmed and ends up doing nothing😅 So it's really important to be realistic with oneself. Thanks for the great video!

@daysandwords 4 жыл бұрын

I think a big part of it is acknowledging that you (anyone) may not be in a place to have the goals that would be perfectly reasonable for someone else. e.g. I could run 200km in January. I could totally do it, 6.2km a day average (in fact I did it in January 2015). But right now, it is just not realistic that I actually WILL do it. Whereas someone who has been consistently upping their miles since June, and has reached a stage where in December they did 150km could definitely set the 200km as a goal. And to take yourself as an example - you do uni, you do your videos, you read a lot, and whatever else you've got going on... If someone else did that, they probably wouldn't also be able to improve their French. They'd probably struggle with just that stuff not because they are bad at "uni" or French, but because they are not used to having such a busy life, and would just not be accustomed to squeezing French into their day. So basically what I'm saying is, we need to work on being better at the process of juggling everything, not just on the actual things themselves. e.g. Right now, I am replying to comments because it's time consuming, but it's 5pm so normally I am pretty brain dead around this time... there is no point trying to study French right now. A year ago I probably would have been trying to power through a French KZfaq video or something and wondering why I hated it so much. These days I know that 2pm-7pm (dinner) is a write off; so I either need to sleep or do something like reply to comments haha.

@Tomanita 4 жыл бұрын

Days of French 'n' Swedish Yes, that's absolutely true! It's hard when you compare yourself to others and I always have the feeling that I could do more/better so that is a bit stressful. I really need to work on my time management. Haha, it's great you use that time on replying to comments.

@lemmyboy4107 4 жыл бұрын

I was a guy who had 1 month a lot of goals and next month no goals... doing nothing. Mainly bcs i didnt know what i want to work to. How i fixed it was i decided 3 Main goals i want to archive in life, then i looked what i can do now to archive these goals, so i always have a route.

@Michael-xb1el 2 жыл бұрын

Try the tier system.

@racpatrice Жыл бұрын

This is me ....😭😭😭

@guidodelpapa3875 4 жыл бұрын

I've been learning languages all by myself for the past 12 years. I've listened to tons of podcast and seen tons of KZfaq videos about language learning. This must be the clearest explanation about "goal setting" I've ever heard of. I set myself mini-goals that are within a month on how many hours of self-study I should put into each language I'm focusing during the current period. Then I have macro-goals which end up being the sum of each month of study. What I always find amazing is that after more than 6000 hours of study (counted since I started setting myself mini-goals on 2014) I keep on finding new ways/methods to become better and more efective. I will keep on learning languages for decades to go, knowing that I will always find people that can bring me something new and get inspired more and more through the passion that we share. Thanks for the video! Keep on the good work! :)

@daysandwords 4 жыл бұрын

Great comment, and very nice of you - thank you. It makes me want to do a full series on this.

@marta.melnyk 3 жыл бұрын

hi, Guido! nice to see you here ;) I also agree that huge goals just make it worse.

@marta.melnyk 3 жыл бұрын

@@daysandwords nice video, thanks :)

@nurailidepaepe2783 3 жыл бұрын

lmao your last name is almost mine but in a different language

@gringa23 3 жыл бұрын

This comment is amazing, as an adhd person it isn’t easy to stay with one thing 😂😂 but it is a working process with languages. I will use this advice, thanks!

@Voluseraptor 4 жыл бұрын

Great video! I’m really glad I discovered your channel. Your content is solid and way more motivating than the fluff that exists on KZfaq.

@daysandwords 4 жыл бұрын

Thank you!

@andreborges9926 3 жыл бұрын

I speak 6 languages and watched many YT videos about language learning for some years now and your channel is by far one of the best one (my top 3 you, Luca Lampariello and Lina Vasquez). I like the way you criticize, always giving a sort of solution and it is very nice. It helped me very much to fix/change my goals. Congratulations for your channel!

@daysandwords 3 жыл бұрын

Thank you!

@bluecladchipmunk 4 жыл бұрын

This is the exact video I needed. As a grad student, I do not have as much free time to do language learning as I would like. I need to set time-based goals and not level-based. That clicked an extraordinary way in my brain. Thank you!

@daysandwords 4 жыл бұрын

My pleasure, thanks for your comment. What's your target language?

@bluecladchipmunk 4 жыл бұрын

@@daysandwords Thank you for responding!!I am trying to learn both, French and Japanese. I want to lean a non Western language on top of a western one. It will balance me out. I know that sounds weird.

@daysandwords 4 жыл бұрын

Nah not really! Although if I were you, I'd get some French learnt first, and then pick up Japanese, that way French will always be the stronger language, and having one of them as the stronger one is a good way to separate them and not get things like WORD ORDER confused. People think that if languages aren't similar, they won't get them confused. This isn't true - you might still say "You (me) miss" in Japanese when it's supposed to be "Miss you I" or whatever. Since French is much closer to English, if you start it first, then Japanese will always be the "trailing" language, which is a good thing.

@bluecladchipmunk 4 жыл бұрын

@@daysandwords Ohh~ That's a great Idea! Thank you for the tips. You are definitely one of the more honest language KZfaqr's. All of your insight is very helpful and puts things into perspective.

@daysandwords 4 жыл бұрын

Thanks. 😀

@malabuu 4 жыл бұрын

This has to be said: This one of the best motivational videos I have ever watched! Thank you so much for the great content!

@daysandwords 4 жыл бұрын

Wow, thank you!

@malabuu 4 жыл бұрын

@@daysandwords You are welcome! I received a motivation boost from this video so the least I can do is to say thank you!

@fernandoaldado 4 жыл бұрын

One thing I always keep in mind is to be better today than I was yesterday (or current week/month vs last week/month, whatever). Sometimes we feel stuck and don’t seem to be improving as it was at the beggining, so it’s always nice to see that taking small steps per day (consistency is essential!), we can go pretty farest than we actually expected. Greetings from Brazil, have just discovered your channel.

@daysandwords 4 жыл бұрын

Hi! Thanks so much for your comment and just by the way, your English is fantastic, so well done! That's just it. I was feeling guilty for not having practised French for almost 2 months, but what I am getting better at is DOING MY PRACTICE NO MATTER WHAT (I have been working on Swedish recently), but what I mean is, for example: 1. In 2016, if I had to get up too early? No language that day. In 2017, I could do language on a day that I had to get up early. But I still would not do it if my work day was hard. 2018 I could do language when my work day was hard. But not if I had work AND say, baseball training. 2019 I could do language if I had a hard day at work plus baseball training (that's just an example, I don't actually play baseball). 2020 I want to do language EVEN IF I have a hard day at work, AND I got up early AND I had baseball training AND I wrote a KZfaq script. Etc etc. Like you said, better than yesterday.

@sweepy7 2 жыл бұрын

My biggest problem is that I'm always pushing everything back. "I will do it later" is what I catch myself thinking every single time. I think pushing myself a little more and forcing a little more out of myself is important. Maybe I should write down my goals so I can visually see them instead of having them only on my mind. Laziness can be really annoying, I have to get out of this "being lazy"- habit.

@Flauschbally 4 жыл бұрын

I love setting goals but after watching your video I realized that I didn't set my goals very "good". So here I am... thinking about the month May and making a plan and setting a goal. Thank you from Vienna 🇦🇹

@daysandwords 4 жыл бұрын

Danke!

@Whatsjonosaying 4 жыл бұрын

For 2020 according to my excel file of annuals goals, my goal was "to be better at Arabic", but the adjacent column was "write 500 words a week". My goal for the month of april was "study (or directly interact) with the language for 4 hours a day". That's what has worked for me.

@altyrrell3088 4 жыл бұрын

This is one of the best videos I've ever watched, on any subject. Great work!

@heyjianjing 4 жыл бұрын

Thank you very much. If I'm ever going to reach a level that I wished for myself, the series of videos you posted would be a big reason behind that. This video and the video about recording the progress impact me far more than all other KZfaq videos about language learning I can find combined.

@aussiesurfer7236 4 жыл бұрын

Wow!! How is that I haven't come across you before. This is Gold man!!! You have nailed it. This is so true. I have been learning languauges for 8 years and I wish I knew this at the beggining.

@TheDsasadsad 4 жыл бұрын

Great video indeed! I was vibing to background music while listening and cooking. Very informative video! Thank you :)

@justnoticing 3 жыл бұрын

Great video, thanks. So good to have an Australian language vlogger that I can relate to. I started learning a European language in my 50's, and have found it difficult to find ways to practise conversation skills as we are on the other side of the world and in a completely different time zone. The native speakers near me mainly speak dialect and make lots of mistakes. Luckily, we live in a time when there are so many wonderful resources available thanks to technological advances.

@stephenlefty 2 жыл бұрын

Tbh I needed to see this, as I’ve been struggling with feelings of inadequacy on my language learning. Thanks dude!

@rocknroll909 4 жыл бұрын

Love your videos. A lot of what you talk about not only could be applied to learning languages but learning other kinds of skills as well, such as learning a new instrument. Very glad I subscribed👍

@daysandwords 4 жыл бұрын

Yeah, honestly I'd love to talk about general life goals stuff and I will a bit in the future, but for now, people want the language stuff.

@rocknroll909 4 жыл бұрын

@@daysandwords count me in with the aforementioned! Your videos have been really helpful as I've tried to get a grip on Spanish, but I'm looking forward to whatever kind of content you choose to put out.

@TheDsasadsad 4 жыл бұрын

You will be 100k+ channel if you continue. I subscribed to you yesterday and watched at least 4-5 videos already.

@carolineJakovinen 3 жыл бұрын

Man, your videos has helped me so much! This one, for example: I've been comparing myself with my mother and grandfather because they can speak lots of languages, and I am only studying Finnish and French, besides of English. After watching it, I felt like "Yeah, that's it, that's me. I'm gonna only speak those languages but it is alright. I'm not my mother, nor my grandfather". Thank you for the video! :)

@rife133 4 жыл бұрын

I have been diligently learning Japanese for a year now, and I recently discovered your channel and I’ve been watching all of your videos and they have been a big help. You videos are always really interesting and informative and the quality is also really high. Keep up the good work!

@daysandwords 4 жыл бұрын

That's great! Thank you!

@Ash834 4 жыл бұрын

This makes sense, I am excited to hear what your goals are in your next video. Since I found your channel I've been using busuu for about 4 days and with the goal of 30 mins German a day I've been really learning so much more then duolingo! Love your content, always staight to the point. Thanks!

@daysandwords 4 жыл бұрын

Thanks Ashleigh! Yeah... that's great about your German progress! Hopefully by about April or May, Lingvist will have added the Course Wizard feature to German, which can do insane things for your reading ability in that language.

@MisterGames 4 жыл бұрын

Great content man, deserving of more subs.

@daysandwords 4 жыл бұрын

Thank you! They are climbing fast enough, although KZfaq still hasn't monetised me haha.

@Michelle-go4io 4 жыл бұрын

I'm just so happy to hear someone say "With regard to". I think Botes is pronounced like the Afrikaans surname "Bothes", which is something like the "boo-" from "boorish" and the "tus" from "lotus".

@daysandwords 4 жыл бұрын

Yeah she put out a video on it a few days after this actually, "bw-uh-tes". So it's more like "Bjotess" if we were to write it in, say, Dutch or German or something.

@noodletribunal9793 4 жыл бұрын

as someone who is harsh on them self, lacks proper discipline, and has no teachers, i think this may end up being rather helpful for me ^.^

@InnerProp Жыл бұрын

This is the best language learning goal setting video I've seen.

@daysandwords Жыл бұрын

Not sure how I didn't see this comment, but wow, thank you for saying so!

@adamclark1972uk 4 жыл бұрын

We love you because you tell the truth

@fuumaxkamui 4 жыл бұрын

Affect = Quantify Yes I agree. I discovered this way of reframing goal setting when learning Korean. It’s so true tho

@katiehill6440 3 жыл бұрын

Great video! Just what I needed to hear. There's too much emphasis on fluency levels with languages and I think this takes away from the language learning experience.

@mellorocks Жыл бұрын

thank you for this :)

@Bjornbloodeye 2 жыл бұрын

My initial goal for this year was a time by the end of the year thing. But then I decided that was too low from watching your videos and so now my goal is double that for the end of the year but I broke that up to monthly and daily requirements to make it

@Carlos-zz9he 4 жыл бұрын

"Fluency goals don't mean anything" PUM. What I see is that people set goals, which are kind of arbitrary because there is so many factors that influence the result. Instead we should set ways or habits which have a direct impact on the goal. Thanks for the video, as always I enjoy listening you a learning english. Even if I don't agree 100% .

@Driesipops 3 жыл бұрын

"I only speak French and Swedish" he says in English

@elmomelmo3177 3 жыл бұрын

7:22, that was really good advice

@James-wf8nu 2 жыл бұрын

This is a great video

@daysandwords 2 жыл бұрын

Thanks for saying so! ✌

@coltonledez4852 4 жыл бұрын

👍👍👍

@daysandwords 4 жыл бұрын

Thanks for the encouragement!

@franzneubauer6877 2 жыл бұрын

My main goal at the moment is setting less goals.

@USEDtoRule 3 жыл бұрын

My language goal is to be French teacher in France

@readisgooddewaterkant7890 4 жыл бұрын

I am doing goal but I don't realize I am making them.

@Ryanisthere 4 жыл бұрын

My japanese learning goal is to be able to comfortably hold a conversation with any japanese person and watch anime without subtitles

@erenparla3869 4 жыл бұрын

I would quantify that further if I were you, like maybe learning a certain number of verbs or vocabulary learned every week

@devonoknabo2582 4 жыл бұрын

You also have to use it

@daysandwords 4 жыл бұрын

Use the language? Yeah it depends what you mean by use it.

@CubingMaster124 9 ай бұрын

2:42

@justemichel 4 жыл бұрын

Tail and lead ? Very interesting. N2 ? So you read about Japanese.

@daysandwords 4 жыл бұрын

Read, past tense, or present tense? 😜 Actually I haven't read very much about other languages, but talking about languages every day to people, I hear different things about languages that I've never studied. It was in fact my friend who is at a very high level in Japanese, he is from Quebec, so Japanese is his 3rd language, but he lived there for 6 years. Speaking 3 languages to a very high level makes him a bit of a hero of mine (because a lot of people speak about 6 or 7 to a lower level, but none of them to a high level).

@justemichel 4 жыл бұрын

@@daysandwords I am going to work a little because I only understand 4.