It’s the beginning of quarter 2, which means it’s time to reflect on my personal curriculum for quarter 1 and set one up for quarter 2. In quarter 1, I made goals related to reading, blogging, language learning, and health – and I’ll be keeping those same areas for quarter 2.
We’ll start with a quick review of how well I did on my Q1 goals, and then we’ll look at my plans for Q2.
Reflection
Reading
I read 20 books this quarter, putting me ahead by 7 books, and I’m pretty much bang on my page count goal. I completed some quarterly goals to satisfaction (and will be adjusting in the new quarter), but I did buy more books than I might have hoped (and more than I earned according to my book buying restriction rules, so I’ll need to make up for that later in the year. I’ve made some progress towards some of my yearly goals – I’ll probably do a mid-year update for those some time in June – but so far I’m not overly worried about those.
Blogging
I’ve seen some good progress with my blogging statistics, with the first quarter of this year significantly stronger than the final quarter of last year. I’ve been somewhat more consistent, although I still end up posting much more regularly at the beginning/end of the month and kind of tailing off in the middle, so that’s something I need to work on.
Language Learning
I didn’t have as much time or energy for language learning as I might have liked but I did still make some decent progress towards the goals I set for myself.
I managed to keep the bare minimum goal for Japanese (going to my night class), but not much of the additional study I had planned. Still, I completed 46 active study hours for Japanese. For Korean, I managed to read 2 books (for a goal of three), taught quite a lot of beginner’s material to a friend, and also did some TOPIK practice. Vocabulary study kind of got abandoned though. I didn’t touch Classical Chinese – I just didn’t have time for it. I did however manage to talk frequently in Chinese with friends and I also finished exactly 3 C-dramas, so I did complete my modern Chinese goals.
Health
I managed to be consistent with ballet and swimming. Going to the gym started out strong but I had a bit of a scare after a session left me really exhausted for a couple days, so I stopped going regularly. I switched swimming to the evening and may need to do the same for the gym.
New Goals
Reading
My reading goals are mostly just going to be keeping up with my page, day and book goals for the year, and to better about sticking to my book buying restriction. To help me slightly with this last one, I’m decreasing the number of books off my owned TBR that I have to read before buying a new book to two (it was three). I was also inspired by Annemieke @A Dance With Books to join in with r/fantasy bingo!
The nine new prompts for my quarterly bingo are:
- Two books related to my dissertation on the autobiographical writings of premodern Korean and Chinese women (this counts as two prompts!)
- A 2026 release
- A book written by a POC author who is not East Asian
- A short story collection
- A book I acquired in 2025
- A book about tea
- A book that fits one of the StoryGraph Reads the World prompts
- A book by an author on my to-revisit list (Tan Twan Eng, Han Kang, Elizabeth von Arnim, An Yu, George Orwell, Becky Chambers, Taylor Jenkins Reid, Lisa See, or Fredrick Backman)
Blogging
I have managed to up the number of reviews I’m writing, but I want to increase the number of discussion posts I write, including participating in the Fantasy with Friends and Let’s Talk Bookish weekly memes – I keep meaning to, and then running out of time to write the post. So in general I will be trying to do better about scheduling posts in advance, and also reading blogs more consistently throughout the month.
Language Learning
The Japanese night class that I’m taking continues until the end of May, so this will be a high priority for most of Q2.
- Complete night class + write up notes
- Complete six additional chapters of other textbooks
- Do dedicated vocabulary revision on at least 30 days
- Watch at least 9 hours of YouTube/dramas/anime
The TOPIK exam for Korean is in the middle of April, so this will be a priority for a couple of weeks before dipping a bit.
- Practice for and pass (again) the highest level of TOPIK
- Read three books in Korean
- Take at least 2 classes after finishing the exam
Chinese has been my most used but almost least studied language for quite a while, but one of my friends that I have been using to practice teaching Korean needs to practice teaching Chinese, so I think I’ll end up being a guinea pig!
- Complete at least 30 hours of active study
- Read an academic article in Chinese
- Read a graphic novel/manhua in Chinese
Classical Chinese has once again been majorly neglected, so I’m trying to set lower goals so that I’m more motivated to complete them.
- Complete at least six lessons from the online course
- Read and use one text written in literary/Classical Chinese in my dissertation or essays
Scottish Gaelic is a new appearance on this list. It’s something I’ve wanted to learn for a really long time – although I’m half Scottish, none of my family actually speak the language. I tried learning online but found the pronunciation tricky to pick up, so I’ve registered for a one-month night class in May to pick up some basics.
German is very much not a focus language this quarter, but I would like it to be in quarter 3, so I’m including a few things to help me gear up for that come June.
- Read 1 book OR 3 news articles
- Watch 1 season of a show OR 6 hours of podcasts/YouTube
Health
I’m going to continue with swimming – I’m aiming for twice a week. I’m also going to try and do another form of exercise at least once a week, whether that be a drop in dance class (or a regular dance class, although I’m hesitant to sign up for one when I’m not sure where I’ll be in June) or a gym class – or even just going to the gym by myself.
I’ve also got a vitamin D deficiency, and I think that might partially be why I’m quite tired and sick quite easily at the moment, so I want to be better about taking my vitamin D every day! Finally, I’d like to try and cook one new recipe a month to encourage me to cook more and eat more healthily!
And that’s it! Since I’m still working on finishing up my master’s and also trying to look for a job for after I’m done, I’m just keeping the same “courses” as in quarter one and not doing anything particularly academic for my personal curriculum. I am looking forward to being done with my dissertation so that I can start little mini research projects for the various random things I’m interested in reading up about!
What are you trying to work on this quarter?
Keira x
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