...

Previous years:
2022
2023

Another year, another language learning report. This is the third year I've been doing this and it is helpful in that I can see the progress I've been making over the years. Hopefully it's helpful or at least interesting to read for anyone else. This year is in a slightly different format than previous years since I didn't make any goals for 2024, it'll just be one section for each language rather than broken up into subsections. Still gonna go with no goals for 2025, just works better for me. Also won't show any pictures for my grammar flashcard decks since as you will see, I barely did any grammar study…

Japanese

I think altogether this felt like a quieter year for Japanese study than previous years. Or rather it was more of the same. Didn't really do any grammar study, didn't do any writing, didn't do any speaking. For listening it was about the same as last year, ~100 episodes of anime without any subtitles and a random podcast or vtuber video here and there.

The most progress I feel I made was in reading, even if it wasn't a lot overall. I finished the first volume of the 石川晶康日本史B講義の実況中継 (~180 pages read this year, ~340 pages overall) books I started last year and got ~130 pages into the second volume. I ended up just jumping into the academic/historical books I was more interested in. I finished ジェンダーX小説ガイドブック (248 pages). Last year I said I read more interesting books in Spanish, but this book alone was my favorite book this year. Might make a post just for it, but I didn't when I first finished because I thought I'd finish more books and put them all in one post. That did not happen lol It also put me in the direction of a lot more books I want to read. I read ~75 pages of 忘れられた思想家・山川菊枝：フェミニズムと戦時下の抵抗. This one has been slow going since it is so dense. Having to look up a lot of historical terms or name readings I don't know makes it go much slower, but it is building my endurance for harder texts in Japanese, which is what I need currently. Stuff like manga, games, even vns are not usually challenging in this regard for me anymore, but for books like these or novels I really need to sit down and work through it, taking notes to help lock things in.

Aside from that I read 8 volumes of the Oregairu light novels, ~30 volumes of manga(the lowest number in years for me!), and played through ~30 games. I didn't really fall into the VN hole like previous years lol

Due to the books I read this year, I actually added slightly more vocab flashcards than last year! I didn't expect that.

I think next year will mostly be the same with possibly one major exception. If I can work up the courage, I might have the opportunity to actually start practicing my speaking abilities! We will see if I end up actually doing that…

This is a picture of my Japanese vocab Anki deck stats for the year.

Spanish

Last year I wanted Spanish to be the language I studied most. This year I didn't have that goal, and predictably it was not my most studied language this year. I did do better in at least one way though! I watched more shows/movies originally in Spanish! My parents got a Vix subscription so I just watched a bunch of stuff on there, comparable to the amount I watched in Japanese. Speaking still didn't do anything though… And no writing…

For reading I finished two books, El marxismo en México(~330 pages) and El gallo de oro(~140 pages). I wish I would've started the practice of taking notes on harder books earlier in the year, would've helped with retaining information from the former book a lot. I played through 5 games with Spanish subs/dubs. Ended up adding less new vocab words than last year.

For next year I think things will be about the same. Will I start speaking or writing again? Who knows, I have no excuse of few opportunities like with Japanese… I worry if I try writing again I'll see I have deteriorated a lot, which has happened before. When I did translations of my videos, things started improving again, but it's been close to 3 years since then, and it's not like I was great then either. We'll see…

This is a picture of my Spanish vocab Anki deck stats for the year.

French

This was the most active year of French for me in a while! Mainly because I played some games in French. The big ones were rewatching Syberia 1/2 and then playing through 3 in French. Led to my biggest jump in vocab flashcards for French. Still doesn't compare to most of my other language studies, but still pretty good! I feel like I need to do a refresher on French grammar though, I'm pretty rusty currently. Hope things continue in this direction next year!

This is a picture of my French vocab Anki deck stats for the year.

Mandarin Chinese

This ended up being the biggest jump for a language this year! Surpassed most of my predictions for this year! Almost doubled my vocab flashcard deck! Finished 3 games in Simplified Chinese when I thought I'd only finish one. Also the only language I did some grammar study in, but since it was more looking up while reading, I didn't make any grammar flashcards. If I can do something similar in 2025 I think it will really prime me for a big jump in understanding in 2026. Or maybe I'll surpass my predictions again lol

This is a picture of my Mandarin Chinese vocab Anki deck stats for the year.

Brazilian Portuguese

Brazilian Portuguese was about the same as last year. The majority of vocab has come from playing Metaphor: ReFantazio with Brazilian Portuguese subs (also using it as Japanese listening practice for voiced scenes where I don't look at the text until I've heard the Japanese dialogue, then read the Brazilian Portuguese text). Wouldn't have played the game if it didn't have subs in this language, since there's not many games with official Brazilian Portuguese translations, though in recent years that seems to be changing. Will probably be about the same next year.

This is a picture of my Brazilian Portuguese vocab Anki deck stats for the year.

Conclusion

This year I think things were a little more equal in terms of time spent studying each language than previous years. This is probably due to not having goals, which is why I don't have any strictly defined ones for next year. All in all a pretty decent year in language study for me. I feel like next year, depending on how some things go for me, I will either have a bunch more time or much less time to put into language study. We'll see, nevertheless, the studying never ends!