november 2025 language goals
It’s been a while since I set myself very concrete monthly goals, but it’s the beginning of the month and I have just watched a Q3 recap video by Seriinudesu, and suddenly got the urge to make a list of things I want to focus on in November.
Here’s everything I’ve come up with:
Italian
- Read 4 books in November. Although I have only skipped one day in my challenge so far (it actually happened yesterday!), I’m starting to get a little frustrated with how slow I’ve been when it comes to actually finishing books. In November I want to focus on some easier books that I own (which hasn’t necessarily been the case since the start of the challenge) and I’m hoping that this will allow me to pick up the pace.
- Finish Grammatica della lingua italiana per stranieri (B1-B2). I’m taking a little break from the Congiuntivo book I started in late September (?) to finish this general grammar book and thus be done with the whole series. I think it also makes more sense to get a general overview of the topics I need to know before I zoom in on specific details.
- Listen to 2 audiobooks. I am already halfway through Il dono del silenzio by Thich Nhat Hanh, so it shouldn’t be too difficult to finish this one and one more book (I might even try to finish La libreria sulla collina by Alba Donati which I kind of abandoned despite getting to 42%).
- Use my writing prompts to write 2 texts a week. Despite having a good routine in September, I really fell off in October, which is a shame because writing often was really helping me turn my passive knowledge of grammar and vocabulary into active usage.
German
With German, I am keeping my goals very simple this month because humble as they are, they will still require daily attention.
- Finish the Jenny Erpenbeck book I’m reading on LingQ right now. It’s been very, very challenging so far, but the book is short and the story sounds intriguing enough to keep me engaged, so fingers crossed this will be my second novel in German.
- Finish one more book (I have a couple of options, so I’m not entirely sure yet what that will be).
Spanish
One of my main goals for 2026 is to bring my Spanish back into the mix of languages I use/study all the time, so these are some steps that should prepare me for the new year:
(I am not one hundred percent sure I’ll have time or energy for all or any of these, so I’m allowing myself to push these goals back to December or January if I feel like it.)
- Watch 1 Netflix show. I am currently watching a new show called Animal (Old Dog, New Tricks in English) on Netflix and unless it gets really bad, that’s probably going to be the one that I'll count towards this goal.
- Schedule 1-3 italki classes in order to find a teacher I like. I have been very happy with my Italian tutors and how consistent I have been the second half of 2025, so I’d like to have something similar for Spanish. I have scheduled one lesson for mid-November already, but if it doesn’t work out with that teacher, I might end up scheduling more trial classes.
- Read one of the books I recently got at the Feria internacional del libro here in NYC. Here are the books, by the way:
Now that I wrote all of this down I'm starting to feel both excited about and intimidated by all of these goals, but I actually think it can be fun to compare plans to what I actually manage to do, so I want to have that point of reference when December comes.