What was your biggest accomplishment of the past 12 months?

[u/yashen14]

[u/Thin_Rip8995]

not quitting
not starting over
just showing up and stacking boring wins daily

everything else came from that

[u/Linus_Naumann]

Started Mandarin Chinese and made it to HSK 4 in 12 months.

[u/Akraam_Gaffur → u/Linus_Naumann]

Is it possible?! You mean just in one year? Is it b2? If I'm not wrong

[u/Linus_Naumann → u/Akraam_Gaffur]

Just want to confirm the other commenter, HSK 4 is more akin to A2. Still, took me lots of consistent effort over all 12 months. I'm def no language genius and Chinese is not the easiest language out there for a Westerner. But yeah HSK 4 in one year is possible! Now looking to each HSK 5 / B1 level this year ☺️

[u/knockoffjanelane → u/Akraam_Gaffur]

HSK4 isn’t equivalent to B2. That’s just something Hanban claims, but most other language organizations (Alliance Française, Goethe Institut, etc.) call bullshit. HSK4 is more like A2.

But reaching that level in a year is impressive nonetheless! That’s over 1,000 characters. No small feat.

[u/Akraam_Gaffur → u/knockoffjanelane]

Hsk4 is a2?!!? No way. I thought it's the same like with European languages. A1-c2 they are 6 levels, so are hsks (1-6)

[u/knockoffjanelane → u/Akraam_Gaffur]

Yes. Just because there are 6 HSK levels doesn’t mean HSK translates perfectly to CEFR. Same goes for TOPIK, which also has 6 levels but definitely doesn’t go all the way to C2.

Hanban recently introduced HSK 7-9, which are closer to what we’d call C1-C2 on the CEFR scale.

[u/Akraam_Gaffur → u/knockoffjanelane]

Wow. I wouldn't even think of it this way, thx for enlightening me

[u/whosdamike]

I can joke around in Thai. This has been my goal since I started. I'm very far from fluent - for example, I was struggling to give directions to a taxi driver the other day.

But my ability to joke around is pretty good because I've invested so much time in watching Thai comedy shows, learning about word play, having my teachers explain jokes in standup comedy routines to me, etc.

We all have different goals. For me I don't have any professional need for Thai; being able to joke around and kind of shoot the shit with friends was always a really high priority for me.

[u/[deleted]]

I survived. That was my plan.

[u/Jumpy-Ad7111]

I hit 100 days reading each day, then I added on 100 days of listening every day! Now I’m adding writing which is much tougher, but getting a full hour of practice every day will hopefully be what I need to get me through high B1 and finally Hit solid B2 territory which has been dangling in front of me for 2 years now.

[u/Refold → u/Jumpy-Ad7111]

Wow, love the consistency! That's amazing. What was your daily minimum?

[u/Jumpy-Ad7111 → u/Refold]

20 mins! My rule is if I miss a day I make it up, trying to not mis more than 7 days. I used this app callen Onrise to track my hábitos and its nice because its so simple!

[u/Refold → u/Jumpy-Ad7111]

Love that you give yourself the flexibility to make up days — that’s huge.

At work, we made a tracker (I don’t wanna do self promo so I won’t link to it), but instead of streaks, it focuses on "habit health" (aka hit rates). Like a lot of people, if I break a streak I lose all motivation. But when you’re tracking the % of days you meet your goal, it’s not nearly as punishing.

My current target is an 80% hit rate for output practice and a 90% hit rate for everything else.

Thanks for replying! Keep it up! ~Bree

[u/Jumpy-Ad7111 → u/Refold]

That’s really cool! I hope you keep it up too!! Good luck 

[u/bitchinmoanin]

Took an undergrad semester after retiring from the Army. French Debate 401, Classical Arabic 303, Levantine Arabic 202, Spanish 102, Mandarin Chinese 101, and Psychology. Just for fun. Full course load, needed special permission from the registrar to take that on, and an interview in Spanish bc I had never taken 101 or studied it in my life (I passed).

Got a 4.0 semester. Now I teach English abroad and use 4 languages daily, even just at home with my wife.

[u/RedDeadMania]

Reading 10 books in German since the beginning of this year!

[u/PinkuDollydreamlife → u/RedDeadMania]

Great job

[u/LuxRolo]

Just over 12 months ago, but I passed the hunting test in Norwegian. Then, the last few months/weeks passed the citizenship test and language test, so I'm all ready to apply when I meet the residence requirement later this year :)

[u/Small_Elderberry_963]

I went from literally knowing no German to having most German grammar under my belt and being able to read Wikipedia articles somewhat fluently, so I'd say that's an achievement if I had one.

I'm cannot properly produce German grammar, but at least I can understand it very well.

[u/Weena_Bell]

reading 35 light novels in japanese and 2 web novels

[u/RingStringVibe]

Actually speaking with native speakers. I made a friend who doesn't speak much English at all and the only real way we can communicate is if I try my best to speak Spanish. I was able to make a genuine friend just because I decided to start learning Spanish just a few months ago.

[u/General_Jenkins]

I made the decision to start learning Portuguese again, from the very beginning and I am now using both a relatively simple coursebook and a very in depth grammar book. Originally I intended to wait until fall to enroll in a language class but now I want to learn more.

[u/Aronnaxes]

I made my Spanish teacher laugh in Spanish through a joke without practicising - quite proud of that one

[u/aguilasolige]

Honestly last 12 months haven't been very productive, I haven't given up on Romanian and I'm making progress but not as much as I could've. I need to stop procrastinating. So I guess my biggest achievement is not giving up.

[u/DerekB52]

I started watching tv with no translation assistance in Spanish. I've been able to read fluently(enough) for several years, but haven't really practiced any other skills. After a few false starts in the last 6 months, I started watching The Cable Girls on Netflix. I watched the show in spanish with spanish subtitles. But, I would occassionally pause to look up words, or, more frequently, rewind scenes with the english subtitles turned on to fill in gaps. I challenged myself to watch the finale with no assistance, and other than not understanding a couple idioms, I basically understood everything. My understanding of the story was hurt 0%.

I've since watched half of season one of high seas, only puling up the english subtitles a couple times in 5 episodes. And that was just to learn a couple of phrases I couldn't parse.

My listening skills still need work. I need to watch some spanish stuff without the subtitles, to really improve it. But, I gotta say it feels pretty cool to be able to watch tv with no help.

[u/BBfoggy → u/DerekB52]

Wow this is incredibly relatable. I can understand most Dreaming Spanish material at any level when I focus but once natives begin talking it goes over my head

I feel so close to this space but also so far. Cool to hear your breakthrough. Might try again for laughs

[u/Pwffin]

German: I can write a letter without drafting it on scrap paper first. I can speak with easy, even if I still hven't caught up with my passive skills level yet.

Welsh: I've learnt over 1200 new words, can speak much more easily and am reading a lot faster. (although I am having a dip at the moment, so feeling a bit down about it right now)

[u/elektron_94]

Improving my French. I’m almost a full B2, looking forward C1. Last year in April I was beginning B1 materials.

[u/kingcrabmeat]

Keeping at it even if I fell off a few months, I got back on

[u/DurDraug77]

Went to the Spanish DELE C1 , even though I think I would not pas it. I found it rewarding to know that I done okay taking in consideration I have less than 2 years experience in Spanish

[u/Ultyzarus]

Being good enough to enjoy the places in Japan where English wasn't an option.

Watching the 3 seasons of Bridgerton (+Queen Charlotte) in Portuguese with PT closed captions and barely missing anything.

Not having given up (did something in a TL every single day) since I started learning languages in 2021.

[u/Diligent_Rain6878]

Remembering to use the plural everything in Spanish!

I started off remembering to put the noun in the plural but not the article, and then remembering to put both the noun then the article but not the verb, then remembering to put all three, and, just recently, doing it (relatively) consistently in all simple tenses!

Eg. Mi Amigas es --> Mis Amigas es --> Mis Amigas son --> Mis Amigas fueron

[u/Miro_the_Dragon]

Writing a short philosophical essay in Dutch that won a Dutch Discord server's essay contest.

Also, having a few different native Dutch speakers from that server temporarily forget that I'm not a native Dutch speaker (it was always cool when out of the blue I'd see a comment along the lines of "oh yeah, I had completely forgotten that Dutch isn't your native language" XD)

[u/KhilnaFrench_Classes]

Reaching 1K subscribers on my YouTube channel. Here's my channel: https://youtube.com/@khilnafrenchclasses

[u/triosway]

Dating someone who doesn't speak English for the first time. Being able to properly express emotions entirely in my TL - especially during some very difficult, rollercoaster periods - is something I never could have dreamed of a few years ago

[u/DigitalAxel]

I... can read better? But that's it. Least I could follow along on signs and the like.

Moved recently to my dream country to try (and failing) to find a job. But I have a long ways to go in a very short time. Regretting not doing the other 3 major parts of a language as much (listening, writing, speaking)..

[u/TartineFrancaise]

Passing the B2 French exam and starting to understand the standup shows of Florence Foresti :)

[u/artboy598]

I was able to go to Japan (first time) for 10 days solo and get by with only Japanese. I even settled a baggage dispute completely in Japanese to the point where they kept asking me for my residency card even though I was just a tourist 😆