First week of the year and first lessons of the year.
Tell me: how do you say “happy new year” in your target language?
I know there are others learning German here so I’ll use the Austrian version:
Prosit Neujahr!
Nulla dies sine exercitiis!
I know new years in Japanese is 正月, but don’t know how to say happy new years despite so, also probably not going to try Spanish or Irish either just because languages do it all differently and I haven’t really gotten around to seasonal greetings yet, even birthdays for me have been hardly touched, so memory is vague.
I’ve gone absolutely ape shit diving into my languages. Doing well over an hour, maybe 2, of Japanese a day. Doing my vocab for Irish on Anki and Drops and also finally my Irish book arrived, so incorporate that and another book. AND also a friend of mine decided to pick up Irish recently, so I have that to also look forward to! And then next the Spanish. Felt like years since I’ve studied it properly, when it’s only been a week or two, and already things are clicking, so that’s also been quite motivating for me too. I want to push for a full hour in Spanish now too. A friend mentioned to me their office is looking for WFH translators for English-Spanish, so if I ever get a C1 credential, I could potentially chase after that as a job, which is hella neat.
That all being said though, the biggest disappointment of 2025 was looking at my languages through the eyes of a translation job. Pay can be quite poor despite the countless hours needed for such skills. So for me it’s best to enjoy the ride rather than work myself up for some overarching goal that might never happen (not that I’d give up, just that I might not get a translating job).
2026 is the year I go full send on all my studies. Including languages, maths, Blender and other courses. 2026 has been a complete shit year for me so far, so at least I can look forward to studying in the near and far future.
As I like to tell my friends, “I’m in my gitgud era”.
Onnellista uutta vuotta!
Hyvää vuotta!あけおめ！ There’s also a customary response, ことよろ, short for 今年もよろしくお願いします, with the classic impossible-to-translate Japanese word, yoroshiku. Here I see it as a “looking forward to our continued friendship/relationship/partnership this year.”
I’m back on the textbook trail this week. Still spending more time on listening and it’s…okay. Just trusting the process that it’ll get smoother. I guess I do have a focus issue with listening, so gonna do my best to work with it.
Also started the Dragon Quest III Remake. It doesn’t have full furigana support, which is a little annoying, but it’s workable. Already feeling pretty good about it after my first session.
@Lazycog one of my resolutions for 2026 is to learn and practice Esperanto and Japanese, so that will be my focus. I’m trying to find easy things to read in both languages.
Esperanto seems fairly easy to pick up but it’s difficult to find interesting things to read- at least for a beginner like myself. Japanese, on the other hand, has a steep learning curve but lots of books I want to read. I have some manga I imported a while ago and while I enjoy looking at the art, it would be nice to read it properly! No one else has bothered to translate them so this is my only option.
Try out https://tadoku.org/japanese/en/free-books-en/ for free to use Japanese books. I’ve heard good things about this site. Books for all levels too.
@arxaseus thanks!
Nice, we’ll be following your journey this year!
Learning a language with a clear goal (e.g. reading your choice of manga) is exciting and very rewarding.
Might give up on Korean. Not sure yet what to learn instead, maybe I’ll give Latin another try.
Why give up on it?
Due to motivation / frustration or just lost interest? Latin is cool and from what I’ve heard it’s fun.
I think it’s mostly motivation. Wanted to learn something completely different from the european languages I already speak and I had free courses available. It’s an interesting language, but I have no use for it. Also had some bad interactions with people in some Korean learning communities.
I’m honestly not sure Latin would be any better. I started learning it three times and I gave up three times, because ultimately I wasn’t that interested in reading texts about slavery.
Maybe I need to try some other language.
Hmm yeah I understand. Communities can be super toxic too with all their gatekeeping.
Hope you find a language you enjoy learning.
Gëzuar vitin e ri!
I have writers cramp, I can’t say that, or happy new year, but I think it’s going okay. End of message :)
In Japanese, from what I understand you use different phrases around the new year.
Up until the year switches over - よいお年をお迎えください (yoi otoshi wo omukae kudasai), probably usually shortened to just よいお年を. It means something like ‘please welcome/receive a good year’.
On (maybe after?) the first of the year, it would instead be 明けましておめでとうございます (akemashite omedetou gozaimasu). Which, I’m not sure exactly about… maybe something like congrats on a new beginning?
Yes, if literal, it’s something like “[a new year] has dawned, congratulations.” The first one’s a lot like how we’d say “wishing you a happy new year” in December.
And of course, since the Japanese love shortening things to four mora when speaking casually, there’s also あけおめ.
Interesting, Austrians do the same and say "good sliding [into the new year] right before new year, which they switch to “happy new year” when it’s actually new year.
Bonne année !
During this week I focused mostly on listening comprehension and was able to practice every day. Some days went really well and others not so much. I am not sure what I will focus on next week. Especially with going back to work starting tomorrow. But I feel learning vocab would be a good idea.
