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In March, I went to a local bookstore and got Benny Lewis’ book Fluent in 3 Months.   One of his first recommendations for learning multiple languages at the same time is to make concrete goals for each of the languages you intend to focus on.

So I wrote down a multilingual learning plan for the month of March 2016.    The purpose of today’s post is to review the plan, and improve upon it in drawing up a plan for the month of April.

1. Multilingual language goals–Long-term

I am fluent in five foreign languages if you measure that fluency in terms of B1 level or higher on the Common European Language Framework.

So for those languages, I have put my goal to become one level higher by 2017.

For the languages I have been studying but which I have not achieved fluency, I am also putting my goal to become one level higher by 2017.

For those languages I have not studied before, but which I want to study in 2016, I’m putting the target as BEGINNER (A1).

Although I put all languages on my level goal list, certain languages have higher priority level, which translates into studying frequency.   Also, although my ultimate goal is to speak with native speakers, my intermediate goal  is to use textbooks in order to prepare for proficiency tests.

2.  Multilingual goals–method, priority level

3.   Multilingual goals–March 2016

Here were my goals for March 2016.

Based on what I actually accomplished in March (whichever goals are listed as DONE), here’s how I will improve my plan for April.

a.  High-priority languages–having the Chinese lessons twice a week already gives me enough practice for Chinese; for Japanese, I found that the first step of the  review I can do for the JLPT N2 level exam is to review the Kanji and vocabulary for levels N5, N4, and N3.  In turn, the way to do this is to go through the elementary school Kanji grades 1 through 6, which means in terms of the Kanji Kentei (the Japanese Kanji Proficiency test aimed at native Japanese) to review levels 10 through 5.   This month I reviewed level 10 (grade school 1) by going all of the readings in a workbook and putting them on flash cards.  I’m practicing listening skills by watching the NHK historical drama Ryomaden on Drama Fever.

b.  Medium-priority languages–I finished the skill trees for Spanish and French on Duolingo.   Now I’m starting the 5th level of the German skill tree.   It works well to concentrate on completing one skill tree at a time while periodically reviewing the ones I’ve already completed.    So I’ll work on completing the German skill tree in April for example, followed by Italian in May, and Portuguese in June.

c. Low-priority languages–I was WAY too ambitious by listing all of the languages.   I started Arabic using a great textbook Mastering Arabic Vol. 1.  I found that is way better than the one I had been using before.    I will pick ONE language, Korean, to finish doing the preparation work for studying by going through the chapter on pronunciation and writing.

d. Metalanguage–I found that Benny Lewis’ book Fluent in 3 Months was a great motivator for my language studies.  I’ve decided to get an online subscription to his Fluent in 3 Months website in order to go into more depth the principles that were in his book.

4. Multilingual Goals for April 2016

Here were my goals for the next month..

Those languages which are in bold are high priority, those that are in regular font are medium priority, and those which are in italics are low priority.

Let’s see what I accomplish in the month of April!

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