My Language Learning Goals in 2020

As the new year has started I'd like to give input on my thoughts about my personal goals and feelings regarding language learning in 2020.

Much like in recent years, I keep on improving my Japanese. As I just passed N3, I already started studying for the N2 exam. It's a huge amount of more vocabulary, kanji and grammar I have to remember and understand.

I continue studying with the Anki app having a personalized deck, but I also downloaded a separate deck with N2 words. I study grammar with YouTube channels, and it's best to use some channels where the explanation is all in Japanese (like Nihongo No Mori, 日本語の森). 

Also, I can keep reading a lot of manga, but I feel that I should try reading an unknown story from a novel at some point this year. And manga with no furigana on the kanji would also be important. But for now I'm busy reading through all 42 volumes of Dragon Ball as well as catching up One Piece and Detective Conan with their recent volumes.

Also, as much as I'm able to read manga quite well, I still have lots of trouble understanding keigo in restaurants or combinis. Also it's spoken quite fast making me often unable to follow. Yeah, that's something I need to get better in.

Therefore, Japanese is keeping me busy on daily basis, but I also have some thoughts and plans regarding other languages:

As I grew up near Luxembourg, I speak a German dialect very close to the Luxembourgish language, and can also read news articles in that language. However, interestingly: I cannot really write it, I don't know the exact spelling of words. So I set myself also the goal to use the language more in written form, like texting.

And what about improving other languages? I know basic French and Spanish, but I've currently no ambition or even focus to pursue that. Could it be a something to focus on in the future? Maybe, but for now it's ok to just use it in a basic way, wherever needed. 

About learning any languages from zero? There are surely languages I have an interest to learn, but not this year. Another Germanic language would be interesting. I already understand and can read a bit of Dutch as it's quite close to my native German. 
Swedish or Norwegian would also be interesting. Or even Finnish, which is completely different language, but special in many ways. Also Italian could be interesting as I like the sound of it.

Other Asian languages? I studied a bit of Korean characters on my trip to Seoul by the end of last year and figured that it's actually quite simple. Still, when I sometimes see a name somewhere on social media I try to figure out the reading. Apart from that, I don't really have a connection to the language to further pursue it. And that's something which I feel is quite important. But I wouldn't exclude that there could be something which motivates me on that in the future...

Currently I have no deeper interest in learning other Asian languages. Learning Kanji can keep understanding a bit of Chinese. But I'm pretty sure I would struggle with the correct pronunciation. 

Anyway, I have enough goals right now anyway to keep myself busy. Let's see where this year will bring me.

「Ｎ３へ」今の日本語はどうになった？ 「五月の考え」

僕の目標は7月の日本語能力試験のＮ３を合格したいです。しかも挑戦は僕は自分で勉強しています。去年の失敗後に今年の夏にチャンスはどうかな。

僕は今もうほとんど九ヶ月に日本で住んでいる。最初からいっぱい勉強した。毎日に日本語話すし、新単語はアンキのモバイルアプリで追加し勉強しています。でも問題はたくさん言葉は漫画とアニメから。僕はときどき使うけどでも答えは「あまり使わない」とか。

好きな漫画はドラゴンボールとワンピースと名探偵コナン。この漫画ほよく買いに行く。漫画を読む中面白くて必要な新単語見つけると僕はアプリに追加します。特に仕事の前に電車中。私の次の駅から会社の近くの駅までには多分40分ぐらいです。その時に僕のカバンの中に持っていた漫画読む。特に去年に僕はすごくゆっくり読み方のせいで一つの単行本は数週の間かかった。でも最近は自分の記録は六日間だけ！おっけ、これはドラゴンボールのが外伝だったのに、自分の早さに本当にびっくりした。しかも前に名探偵コナンに巻９５読んだけどよく分かりました。でも実はワンピースはドラゴンボールと名探偵コナンより難しいです。多分たくさん昔の単語のせいで、でも漫画は海賊時代から、今編はワノ国。

漫画以外、私の文法はまだ下手とおもう。日本語の文章を読むと誰が何をするは分かりにくい。たとえば、男の人と女の人が買い物について話せば、誰が何を買うときどき分からない。文章を調べる時間があれば、多分分かるでも会話中に問題です。それよりいっぱい文法的なルールがある。去年よりもっと分かるけどまだ満足じゃない。

だから六月にもっともっと勉強しています。七月のN3の合格のため。頑張ります！

N3 not passed - as expected!

As I live in Japan now I wanted go to the next level and tried the N3 last December, but it was clear that was it bit too early for me to pass.

Looking back, my JLPT history is certainly not the best read at the first glimpse:
- Failed N5 (07/2016)
- Failed N4 (07/2018)
- Failed N3 (12/2018)

But if you look at how much my Japanese improved during the last year is stunning. Taking part at the tests pushed me further even though I failed. Even one year ago I was considering trying N5 again, but then I thought that would not have given me the challenge I wanted.

And since I live in Japan since August I my level is increasing on a daily basis by conversations, learning vocabulary/grammar, reading manga (yes, currently on Volume 91 of One Piece), seeing characters every day,... Generally living here really helps.

Anyway, back to the test. The biggest issue I had was my lack of reading and understanding speed. Also lots of unknown words. But understanding is a big point and I'm in the situation many Japanese learners are: I understand what a text or a dialogue is about, but not exactly. Who is buying the shoes? Did she only really the yellow ones and bought the blue ones instead? Okay, this could be an issue in any language^^ But seriously, exact understanding is something I really need to focus on. That's why I need to comprehend the grammar better, it's necessary.

Although I thought that the listening was the easiest part I got still more than half wrong, the part of the test where I expected more as I knew I would struggle at longer texts. Maybe the same issue as before.

Anyway, there is still a lot to do, I keep on learning and this time I'm intending to take N3 again in summer. Not planning on N2 just yet, maybe in December if everything goes well in July.