new year revolutions

This year (2012), I didn't accomplish much in the way of achievements.  I have no achievements to brag about.  I didn't watch much Chinese TV.  I didn't take any language tests.  I did, however, start a new job where I am working in an English bubble.  I used to work in a Japanese office.  Yes, I am still in Japan, but now I work where there are very few Japanese people and English is pretty much the only language spoken.

But for 2013, I have a number of things I want to accomplish and so it's going to be a year of revolutions.

First of all, I am studying for some more Oracle database certification exams.  I'm going to take two exams and I'm going to take them in Japanese.  I did this before when I got certified on Oracle PL/SQL.  I don't have to take them in Japanese.  I could go to the testing center and take the English version of the tests.  I choose to take them in Japanese.  I have already bought a study book for the first exam and have read more than half of it.  After I pass those two exams, then I'm going to study for and take the Java programmer certification exam.  I'll do that in Japanese as well.

After I finish those exams in Japanese, I will continue to study in Japanese.  I want to pass the Japanese Language Proficiency Test N1 exam in December 2013.  For that, I need to do a lot of reading of articles of the type that will appear on the exam.  Reading comprehension is very important for the exam.

At the same time, I would like to take my Chinese to the next level.  By the end of the year, I would like to be able to hold a conversation in Chinese without too much trouble.  For that, I am going back to Assimil Chinese with Ease to make sure I know every word and phrase in the course.  I am also going to write out every lesson so that I will be sure to reinforce some of the words that are not used very often in the course as well as be able to read and hopefully write Chinese characters.

I am not too worried about any of the usual hiccups that come with using textbook lessons since I have already spent a lot of time with Chinese.  I seem to already have acquired pretty good pronunciation and I know I'm at a point where I can really take off.  Either before or after I finish Assimil, I will practice speaking by engaging in some conversations.  That will allow me to gauge where I am at with the language. To date, I have only spent 6.8 hours speaking Chinese, and only once this year.  This year, I watched Chinese TV dramas for about 140 hours.  I will try to watch some next year too, but I have not set any target hours.

I will be really excited when I can carry on a conversation in Chinese well.

Good luck to everybody in 2013!