The biggest indicator to being successful in a language, in my opinion is consistency. Regardless how “fun” language learning might be for you, no amount of gamification takes away the amount of vocabulary and grammar you need to acquire to get to a desired level of fluency. For me I think it is important to know why you are learning a language, and to create realistic goals for specific time periods and that is what we discuss in this post! 

Why are you learning a language: This can be any reason

I am learning Turkish because I remember having a layover at the Istanbul airport and thinking wow these Turkish men are really handsome. This was in 2017 and since then I have had many moments where I have started and stopped learning. This goal can be as simple and basic as mine. This goal can also change. So that might have been the initial reason for learning Turkish, buying a book, reading the first chapter, and then letting it collect dust. Now I am making progress and my goal is – okay ya Turkish men are generally handsome, but Turkish has the most L1 speakers out of any language in Europe, it has an awesome culture, it is an international language and the grammar is really cool. 

Just like for you finding that why is what is going to make you come back to learning that language, even when you see some other language that might catch your eye, or life gets challenging and you need to take a break. This language is part of you, the new you that you are growing into and I think knowing what brought you to the language, and who you are becoming in the language is going to set you up for success. 

Reasonable goals: Wanting to learn a language in a day, week or month is something that is promised by many language learning programs, but it is an unreasonable proposition. There is work into learning something new and speaking something new. Even if you have a grasp of the language, say you can speak in the present, past and future tenses but want to be more fluent. That level of fluency that you might desire could take years of hard work and it is okay. 

Much like how businesses organize themselves into quarters – well you can do the same. And work down to a specific month long goal or week long goal that will provide your self-study some structure.

90 days – This is your major reach goal. 

• For a beginner would be: I will become really good at using present and past tenses.

• For an advanced student: I will read a book and write a review about it. 

This goal should be something new for you, something that you have never done in this language so you are stretching yourself and making some level of progress. Also know that this goal can change just because you stated on January 1st I will do XYZ, when April 1st comes along you don’t have to have accomplished it. If you do that is awesome, but if you don’t that is okay too. Language learning should be an enjoyable endeavor! 

30 days – This is a realistic milestone that gets you to that ultimate goal. 

• For a beginner: Intense revision and acquisition of the past tense(s).

• For an advanced student: Chapters 1-5 of XYZ book, some notes about the reading, and an intense vocabulary list. 

This milestone also acts as a moment to reflect on the progress through the month. If you had successes or “failures,” this allows you to change your formula to make sure that the next month is successful. Also, this is a major step forward to your 90-day goal, and hopefully, you can see that incremental progress 

1 week – These are the small steps that provide you with your momentum.

• For a beginner: introducing a key grammatical concept 

• For an advanced student: Read Chapter 1, take notes, and review new words

This goal influences your daily or near-daily routine. If you’re able to look at the language for 5 minutes each day and remain consistent, you’re making progress! I also recommend that when you’re at the end of the week and might have some time to devote 45 minutes to language learning, you take some time to plan the following week. This way you can ensure that you’re managing life’s challenges and making continual progress toward that 30-day goal.

Each one of these milestones can be flexible and should be applied to your life and lifestyle. The major thing is to make continual progress toward your ultimate goal, whatever that may be. For me, when it comes to Turkish, I want to be able to have a conversation in Turkish, read a book someday, and use it to show that language learning can be a fun hobby. Whatever your goals are in your foreign language I wish you the best of luck and I hope that this helps!