2025 Language Study Review & 2026 Language-Learning Plans

As 2025 ends and 2026 begins, I wanted to briefly consider my language study during the last 12 months and my plans for the next 12 months.

Let's start with the review of this year's stats:

Overall, my language study was okay in 2025. I kept up with it in a consistent way and, as the graphs show, did a fair bit of study each month, following roughly the priorities I had planned out. I had intended extra focus in different languages each month alongside my major plans, but that didn't always work out, so I probably won't pursue that again this year. The slight dip in September is because I was away visiting family in the UK for the entire month and could only really keep up with podcasts and vlogs during that period and didn't get any other study done.

In Korean, I managed to get in some speaking practice this year, aided by attending some in-person classes, but increasing speaking, writing and reading further will definitely be a goal for 2026, and that is generally the case across all my other languages too. Although Japanese study time looks okay for 2025, it was mostly listening and I am only maintaining understanding but not advancing, so I need to work more on output in 2026. The same is true of Chinese.

This year I also worked hard to produce a series of blog posts and vlogs about language study, the essence of which I then turned into a 50+ page PDF that is now available for free here on my blog. You can find out more about that HERE.

In terms of 2026, I want to again work hard to establish a better balance between input and output (even if that is sometimes easier said than done). My Asian trio of Korean, Japanese and Chinese will remain my principal focus, but I will do my best to maintain my European languages as well, so they don't get too rusty. I do not intend to add any new languages this year, as I already have enough on my plate. 

Now, let me share some graphics outlining more detailed 2026 study plans for each language:

How was your language study in 2025 and what plans do you have for 2026?