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Week 32/53 | Study Log 2026
Last week I shared a bit about the pressure I was feeling to meet the goals I set out for the 75 Fluent Challenge. Reflecting on my studies in July has led me to take a more relaxed approach to my studies in August.
Itās been nice taking things easy and not thinking about whether Iām hitting the 1-hour minimum. Even still, my average study time was just under an hour a day (0.94 hours).
It feels like I've gained more time to spend on other hobbies. Iāve been reading more books and have started working on writing a novel draft I started many years ago.
This week, I spent more time immersing myself in Japanese and taking conversation lessons with a French tutor. It was a nice balance of just enjoying my target languages.
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š„ French
I am now officially taking weekly conversation lessons in French! In my last lesson, my tutor and I spoke about my hobbies. I got to talk about all the shows and movies Iāve been watching and the games Iāve been playing.
In the past, Iāve always only taken 30-minute lessons, but since I want to be speaking more, I decided to try 45 minutes. It didnāt feel too long or short, and I felt comfortable speaking the whole time.
The structure of the lessons has involved my tutor and me talking. When she notices a word I struggled to say or a pronunciation mistake I made, she notes it down in a Word document. Depending on the word or phrase, we spend a few minutes talking about it and then continue our conversation.
The great thing about a tutor is that you get direct feedback, and one quick moment of correction can help you notice future mistakes.
I like this lesson structure, but I was also wondering if there are other structures used in conversation lessons. Maybe picking a specific topic or debating?
How are your language lessons structured?
š Japanese
I finished watching the first season of Clannad! Every time the end credits roll and the end song starts playing, I tell myself Iād like to learn it. Itās very simple and includes some useful vocabulary to learn. My partner and I plan on watching the next season together, so I think Iāll make an effort to learn the song.
In excitement for the Trails in the Sky 2nd chapter demo coming out this month, I played a few minutes of the first chapter. With only half an hour of playing, I had some of the dialogue stuck in my head. As much as I want to start reading and understanding more in Japanese, I need to enjoy getting input before getting too ahead of myself.
āØLanguage Wins of The Week
Enjoyed my French conversation lesson
Finished watching season 1 of Clannad in Japanese
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Next Weekās Plans
š„ Attend French conversation lesson
š Learn Japanese song: ć ćć大家ę (Dango daikazoku)
Thanks for being here. See you next week!
Bonjouuuuur !
You are asking "How are your language lessons structured?". If you mean speaking lessons, mine are mostly language exchanges with native speakers. With some of them, it's just a simple discussion about whatever come as a topic or just us catching up. With others, we choose a topic we'd like to discuss/are interested in. Usually we do 50/50 (30 minutes in each language then switch up). I personally like the mix of casual conversations and more topic-focused one. The topic-focused conversation push me a bit more out of my comfort zone and I get to learn more vocabulary than when talking about daily stuff.
I've done speaking practice with Italki lessons with a teacher too, and it was useful. I probably got more feedback than with just talking with a friend (even if it were topic-focused). But the money-aspect of having teachers holds me back. A part of me thinks: why should I pay for this when I can do it for free as part of a language exchange? Language exchanges also allowed me to make very good friends (which is different with a teacher, even if the teacher is very nice!).
How about you? Did you try language exchanges as well? Or only paid-lessons with a teacher? :)