Starting again

After watching a series of recent TED talks, I've decided that I'm going to once again begin the 30 day language challenge. I have modified this to reflect some new things I've learned, like the importance of speaking the language during the learning process and the importance of reviewing. Some of this I learned from my previous attempt with Indonesian.

I have been debating between Russian and Arabic, but I think that I have more Russian resources at home. Therefore, without going out and bankrupting myself to buy the necessary equipment, I chose Russian out of convenience. We shall see how this goes.

I will be posting videos of my progress, so I hope that any readers would be willing to watch those. I will have to post them to my Youtube Channel, so hopefully that goes easily.

Again, here's what I need to do the challenge

• Notebook
• Coursebook in the target language (“Teach yourself Chinese,” etc.)
• Grammar book for the target language
• Dictionary for the target language
 • Phrase book for the target language (Both Farber and Hawke recommend Berlitz)
• Blank 3x5 cards
• Language CD/MP3’s
• A Quick Reference sheet
• Newspaper or Magazine
• Interactive Computer programs to do instead of computer games
• Movies and music in the target language
• Highlighter pens

Here's what my week study will consist of

	Monday	Tuesday	Wednesday	Thursday	Friday	Saturday	Sunday
Week 1	Grammar (5), Vocab (30), Listen (30m)	Speak (40m), Vocab (30), Review Grammar	Listen (30m), Review Vocab (60), Review Grammar	Grammar (5), Vocab (30), Speak (40m)	Grammar (5), Vocab (30), Listen (30m)	Speak (40m), Vocab (30), Review Grammar	REVIEW

That should help things along quite nicely. It means, though, that the 30 day language challenge will draw out to a 180 challenge (6 months) to go from NOTHING to EXPERT. However, at the end of 30 days, I should be able to go from NOTHING to INTERMEDIATE.