2025 Language Learning Roundup!
In 2025 I explored using more extensive listening to improve my language skills, in particular listening skills but if other areas happened to benefit that's awesome too. I found Dreaming Spanish early in 2025 and wanted to test out how it's idea to mainly extensively listen to comprehensible input (stuff I understood the main idea of) would work for 1. Improving my listening skills in languages I had a reading foundation in (result: listening skills improved as expected and caught up closer to reading skills) 2. If overall language knowledge improved such as picking up new words from context (result: yes just like extensive reading to stuff I understood the main idea of, extensive listening had similar benefits of picking up new words and phrases from context). 3. How the process might go with a language I barely knew anything in.
Here's 2025's study hours! All of the study hours in 2025 were extensive listening.
Chinese hours (547 prior hours of extensive listening): 698
Japanese hours (300-600 prior hours?): 9
French hours (600-1000 prior hours?): 12
Spanish hours (115 prior hours): 104
The prior hours for Chinese are all hours prior to 2025 I extensively listened to Chinese (did not look up words). I did not count my other study time prior to 2025, such as all the reading I've done (over 1 million characters), because to compare my improvement to Dreaming Spanish I decided to only compare the same study activity (extensive listening). So my Chinese study in 2025 was my main "experiment" of if Dreaming Spanish's study approach would be useful for me (and the result is: yes for Listening skills for sure). The prior hours for Japanese and French are complete guesses of how much prior study hours of ANY kind I had in the language. The prior hours for Spanish are the best estimate I had of the actual hours I'd studied Spanish in any way before 2025. Spanish was the language I had nearly know prior knowledge of, so my experiment testing how extensive listening to comprehensible input works at the beginner stage, and if I find it useful and doable (result: for me yes enjoyable and useful especially for learning to LISTEN quicker - I am already enjoying lets plays and learner podcasts and occasionally regular Spabush youtube channels despite only being a 100-200 hours in depending on how I count it, but for reading ASAP cramming a common word vocab list and reading a grammar guide then intensively reading is still Faster to get into reading - that's what I did for French years ago. So I do think... at the beginner stage, what works "best" definitely depends on your most urgent goal activities you want or need to do first.)
Goals for 2026?
1. Keep it simple. Continue doing extensive listening for Chinese as it IS improving my listening skills, and improving vocabulary like reading does. And I still have a long term goal to understand Mandarin Audiobooks and Audiodramas as easily as English ones. So I want to listen at least 365 hours in 2026. Hopefully more.
2. In that line of goals - FINISH rewatching The Untamed no subtitles. LISTEN TO SAYE AUDIOBOOK. LISTEN TO MODU AUDIODRAMA. LISTEN TO MODU AUDIOBOOK. That's a lot of hours right there. I'd like to listen to other stuff too, like learner content which I do think helps me nail down things faster. I'd also like to challenge myself to watch more dramas in Mandarin with no subtitles, or only Mandarin subtitles (if I want to practice reading).
3. My reading goal is to finally finish reading one of my my favorite pingxie fanfic 寒舍.
4. I'd LIKE to try reading one of my print Chinese books this year. But my reading got rusty and slow, and children's fairy tales are a slog now. So maybe I'll only get through some manhua. On the upside, reading more books GENERALLY in any languages is a goal of mine this year. So I will read more.
5. For Spanish, I'd like to keep learning. Not sure what that will look like yet. I'd like to read Poco a Poco this year. And get to an intermediate level where I can read some stuff and watch some stuff, even if I only vaguely understand things. It'd be cool if I could follow YA audiobooks by the end of the year but who knows.
6. Japanese and French are NOT priorities this year. They were not last year either. But if something interests me, I might focus on them a while. For example, I was playing some Japanese audio games recently, and all the words I DO know come flooding back in recognition. And the grammar I DO know well. And when all that floods back, it makes me want to not be so rusty. Then I dive into japanese podcasts and learning stuff I got again. So who knows what this year holds. There's also some French shows I've been recommended, so if any of them capture my attention I might be focusing on French listening for a while.
Biggest surprises of 2025?
1. Happy with how consistently I studied! Simply counting the hours up on my phone counter in a note, which I pasted into this post, kept me studying almost every day for at least a few minutes! And making it super convienient to listen to stuff in the languages like making a Mandarin specific playlist on youtube, downloading the app AntennaPod to open up for all the language practice podcasts in one spot. Also reddits r/dreamingspanish and r/dreaminglanguages were really motivating and friendly overall, and the made this year r/ALGMandarin really helped with motivation.
2. USING MY LIBRARY AND THE APP HOOPLA MORE. So many free books and audiobooks in other languages!
3. Bilibili, Youtube, Tubi, Pluto, so many free shows in other languages! And audiobooks, and audio dramas.
4. Wildly excited how fast my French listening improved despite barely any hours this year, but I suppose if your reading skills are STRONG then listening skill jumps up very fast? That's how its gone for me. I did not expect it.
5. Happily suprised to find that listening to a language a lot, for me at least, makes my active vocabulary a bit bigger. At least, easier to recall words to say in conversation, compared to when I only read a lot.
In conclusion WOOH WHAT A YEAR WE GOT THROUGH IT YALL. ITS OVER. 2025 IS DONE.
I HOPE 2026 IS KIND TO YOU, AND BRINGS JOY. I HOPE YOU HAVE LUCK IN YOUR GOALS AND PURSUING THEM. YOU'RE AWESOME!
