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How to Commit to Learning a New Language over the New Year
Or any other time of the year
I’m gonna hurt a lot of people by saying this: learning a new language is easy.
The hard part is sticking to it. A lot of people think language learning is just one habit, it’s not. Learning a language — especially if you want to get really good — is a series of small habits.
If you want to start your year off right, get started on these small habits and language learning will start to feel that much easier.
Commit to just one month
If you want to learn Russian, it’s a better idea to learn the Cyrillic alphabet before you try to read Преступленіе и наказаніе (Crime and Punishment.) You won’t get past the title if you don’t accomplish this small task.
When I started learning Japanese, my goal wasn’t to master Japanese. I was at a time in my life where all I did was go to work, go to school, go home and watch anime. I spent most of my time repeating almost the same exact day over and over.
I started learning after Christmas, and my only goal was to learn Hiragana. Forty-six characters and that’s it, if I wanted to stop after, my goal would be accomplished. This year is the fourth anniversary and I still study Japanese.
