So in this video, we're going to talk about how to set SMART goals when you're learning a foreign language. So before we begin, I want to make a distinction between two key terms that I've come across when I was learning languages. The first one is active vocabulary. So active vocabulary is vocabulary that you can quickly remember and actively use when writing speaking and thinking. Passive vocabulary, however, is recovery that you're passively able to understand when you see it or hear it. But you can't use our you're unsure of how to use it when you speak.

Right or Tink. So for me, that's a key distinction because when I was learning French, I started to realize that I was able to understand more than I could speak. The simple reason behind this is because I just wasn't practicing my speaking that much. So as long as I was being passive, and I was listening, I was absorbing stuff, but there was understanding I wasn't able to use it. The more I started the practice, the more I started having more activity. vocabulary.

So I started getting more of a balance there and I started becoming better at French. So now on to the SMART goals, so how to how to set SMART goals. So smart is basically an acronym that means specific, measurable, ambitious, realistic and time bound. We're going to start with specific. So when it comes to setting a specific goal, the more specific you are and the better the progress. thing was with a specific goal is clearly defined.

It's focused in a sense of direction. So an example here is I'm a sports journalist reporting on soccer matches, I want to be able to speak to other sports journalists in French and I want to speak about sport in a bar when I visit France. As you see here, it's very directed, it's very focused this The advantage of this is that you're gonna have specific vocabulary specific phrases that you want to learn is the scope is pretty narrow, so you're not overwhelmed by the prospect of learning French, so it makes it a lot more manageable, very specific and you can build some momentum it's in progress. The next one is measurable. So your goals need to be measurable so that you know if you're progressing, so if you're not measuring anything at all, it's gonna feel like there's no end to it. So an example here is getting very specific on unknownst, the adjectives, the adverbs, even the verb tenses.

So when I was learning Spanish and Italian, I had the objective of 2500 words that was the number I was aiming for. With that I reverse engineer the process. So I said how many nouns the need to learn per week, how many adjectives how many adverbs how many verbs they need to learn? What tenses do need to learn, as you see an example here, it's very specific. And that way you can test and measure more easily as well when it's measurable. The next one is ambitious.

So when it comes to goal setting, you don't want to set goals that are too easy because it's not going to be challenging for you, you're not going to grow. You want to be ambitious. So an example here is a person who has been learning words every week but has not been actively attending a language exchange online or offline. So are not developing that proactive vocabulary. An ambitious goal for somebody like that will be to go to one language exchange per week consistently, and then build on top of that. Realistic then is the flip side of the ambitious, you don't want to sit on realistic goals too often.

Because if you're not meeting the goals on a regular basis, it's going to be highly demotivating. And you're going to tend to believe that you're just not a language learning person. You can't learn the language. So with realism, it's best to just incrementally increase it every week. So for somebody who's learning example, here is 20 new words per week. If that's too easy for you shift up to 25.

Don't go straight up to like 100 straightaway, go to 25 hours if that's still too easy, go to talk to keep going until you reach that limit where you're struggling. It's like going to the gym you don't go from 20 kg to 200 kg all at once you gradually incrementally build it up. And time bone. So this again, comes back to your motivation. So when something's time bound, you've got the end goal in mind, you know when what you're aiming for, you know when it's going to end. And with this too, will give you a sense of progress will give you a sense of momentum that you wouldn't get if you don't have any targets.

So here, the example is I want to learn 20 verbs in the present tense this week. As you can see, it's this week, it's not this month, it's not some day it's not some year and the other ones by the end of the first month, I want to be able to use 20 verbs in the present tense and past tense again, it's very specific is very manageable. We're not saying 20 verbs. To learn all the tenses we're saying specifically, the present tense in the past tense. Another thing to keep in mind here is that routine is the killer of creativity. So remember to keep your process fun and stay creative.

So the thing is with a SMART goal, that's very routine, it that's a good thing. You're trying to find a balance you're trying to find a balance between routine and creativity. With all creativity, there's a sense there's a lack of a sense of direction and focus with all routine is a lack of fun and creativity. So you want to try and find a balance for yourself. So that's basically SMART goals and how they can help you in your language learning journey. On the next module, we're going to talk about emotions.

So when you're talking to real people, uncomfortable emotions can come up. So in the next module, we're going to talk about how to do these more effectively, so that you can get more practice and accelerate your learning. So thanks for listening, and I'll see you in the next module.