New Years Resolutions

Making this the year you add a new language to your repertoire

Welcome, aspiring polyglot! Another year has come and gone. I hope you have some incredibly wins to celebrate from 2025. Now, however, it is time to start working towards the goals you have not yet accomplished. If 2025 wasn’t it, make 2026 the year you add a new language to your skillset. With the right strategies, you could be speaking to native speakers by January of 2027, or sooner!

Choosing a new language

The first thing everyone has to do when they make the decision to learn a new language is choosing what the new language will be. For those of you just embarking on this new journey, let me offer you some things to consider as you make this choice. I will list them in the order of importance for myself, but you might find that one or more of these things maters more to you than the rest. Follow that instinct. Learn that language.

Above all, utility is likely the best reason to learn a new language as being able to use it often is what will keep you motivated during times where motivation falters. In line with utility is proximity. If there are native speakers around, you are going to be far more likely to practice which is what really matters at the end of the day.

After those two comes heritage. Family heritage is a powerful reason to learn a new language and there is nothing quite like seeing the light in your grandparents eyes when you speak to them in their native language. Finally, we have interest. Being interested is a good thing and I don’t want to steal the wind from beneath your wings if that is your primary reason for choosing a language. Just remember that interest demands discipline.

Work through those four considerations as you decide which new language you want to add to your skill belt in the year 2026 and choose wisely. Don’t spend too much time thinking about it, though, you can always learn your second or third option in the following years. Once you have chosen, little matters more than the first 3 months of execution.

Getting the ball rolling

Far too many people spend the beginning of the year making plans to realize their new year’s resolutions. These plans are great, but too much planning can have a negative impact as, invariably, there is always something that is going to be more important. Rather than spending weeks or months planning, getting the ball rolling on day one is the best thing you can do for your future skill development.

Starting today by learning 50 new words (yes I know that sounds like a lot), writing 10 sentences without any help from any software, and reading a page in a book you’d like to start will put you miles ahead of the people who start planning today. Learning a language is incredibly simple. Not easy, but simple. Sometimes that is part of the problem.

I always think about it like this, sometimes things work so well that we stop doing them. Why? I wish I could tell you! But on this New Year’s Day I would urge you to think about all of the things that worked really well for you in 2025 to ensure you bring those things with you into 2026. That goes for language learning strategies and all other life hacks you have learned in your time on this earth.

Continuous improvement

Remember, the only person you are competing against this year is the person you were last year. Aim to be 1% better every single day. You won’t succeed every day. Life happens. But if you can succeed 4 times per week you will win more than you lose all year every year. It has been said before, but it bears repeating, people drastically over estimate what can be accomplished in a month while drastically underestimating what can be accomplished in a year.

Whatever strategies you decide to implement for this new year, the only goal is to continue to improve. Small, incremental improvements will make all the difference in the world on a long enough timeline. Fortunately, languages are one of those things that the timeline itself is actually not incredibly long. But without a record of progress it will be difficult to convince yourself that you are actually improving.

Keep a journal this year. Keep it in a second language if you think you can handle that challenge. Even if you don’t, though, having a written record of more than just your language learning study sessions is important. Year after year it will become more difficult to remember things and, in my experience, having a small journal full of your yearly activities is game changing.

Conclusion

If you remember one thing for this year, I want it to be this. No one is coming to save you. More importantly, and therefore more dangerously, no one is coming to stop you. Let this be the year where you don’t stand in your own way. The year where you don’t wait for someone else’s permission to live your life. Let this be the best year of your life so far.

I am incredibly grateful for all of the support over the past years. 2025 was AMAZING. I cannot wait to see what 2026 brings. We are now THOUSANDS of language learners adopting Second Language Strategies every single week. I can’t believe I have the privilege of saying that. Thank you all so much. Cheers and Happy New Year.

-BtOdin