・31 Days of Deutsch・

I’ve never done it, but I always liked the 100 days of Productivity challenge—being productive doesn’t mean doing the same thing(s) every day, because all it requires of you is accomplishing even the most basic of tasks on certain days. 100 days is also just over three months, and that’s a great amount of time to build good and better habits! That said, I’d like to apply that line of thinking to German, so here’s to 31 Days of Deutsch.

I love challenges, especially when I’m looking to push myself forward in something I’m passionate about, and I went off to hunt down any kind of language challenge that would help motivate me in my German studies. I may have skimmed the tags—(I’m sorry if you’re like me right now and hating on the new tags page layout)—but I couldn’t find anything that was suited toward my goals and level, so why not just create the challenge myself? 

Starting tomorrow (1.8.20), I challenge myself to jump into my German studies for a consecutive 31 days. Some ground rules:

Not every day has to be a long study session. As a bare minimum, I will study or indulge in something German-related for at least 5 to 10 minutes every day.

Be it studying grammar, vocab, reviewing noun genders, reading about the culture, watching something with German subs, or just listening to German—as long at it applies to the German language and culture, it counts.

Share what I’m doing throughout the 31 days using the #31daysofDeutsch tag.

Thirty-one days is not a hundred, but I think 31 is a good place to start and might feel more bite-sized than the prospect of three months. This is something I created and am doing purely for myself, but it’s open to all at any time (because no, you don’t have to do it in August only).

31 Days of Deutsch | Day 02 - 03

A tough couple of days to get things done! On Sunday we celebrated my mom’s birthday, which was a pretty cramped day as it was, so I barely managed to squeeze in some quick article/noun gender practice with the German Article Busters app again. It’s seriously become one of my favorite resources for memorizing genders and articles since I first started using it!

Today I did have more time, but with my usual luck I had dumb computer problems. Long story short: it underwent a problematic update that I had to reverse, and I have been ignoring the update notifications since. It decided to do an auto-update while I was away, though, and there was nothing I could do for a whole four hours. Around 11 PM I was finally able to submit a timesheet due for work and sneak in some grammar review from Deutsch im Blick --- so far I am actually enjoying this. I’ve known about DiB for a long time but guess I was being judgmental because it’s free, and I assumed the content couldn’t be that useful? Ah! But it is, and so far I like its approach. I decided to work with DiB since, for whatever reason, I am perpetually getting stuck in Treffpunkt and find it difficult to study from.

31 Days of Deutsch | Day 04 - 09

Today carries strong autumn vibes, and that makes me want to curl up with a blanket, some coffee, and language study all day long. Sadly I can’t do that, so I’ve been listening to the Slow German podcast while doing house chores or running errands, practicing genders and article changes with the German Article Busters app, inching my way through DiB’s first chapter (nearly done with it now!), and having some fun with Nicos Weg.

When you’re short on time like I was this week, incorporating the small things a little bit each day seriously helps.

31 Days of Deutsch | Day 01