– B2-C1 (intermediate to advanced) –

Practice Your Listening Comprehension

Practice Your Reading Comprehension

Yes, I understand that this expression is usually reserved for more physical changes (weight loss, meeting beauty trends, etc.), but why can’t we become a newer version of ourselves intellectually or mentally, too? After all, New Year’s resolutions come from the mind, don’t they?

Speaking of which, happy New Year! It’s 2024! I hope you had–and for some, are still having–a wonderful holiday season! One thing that I love about a new year is the freshness of life that seems to come with it. A chance to start over, or to start at all. It's also always a great opportunity to reflect on the decisions we made and the things that we experienced the year prior to see what we can do to further our progress or try to make things better in the future. For me, New Year’s is full of hope and self-development. And who among us doesn’t need to do some more developing? We are all works in progress. And New Year’s allows us to progress together. I think that’s beautiful.

So, in the spirit of progressing together, I wanted to chat a bit about my resolution this year. As I mentioned, intellectual and mental change can occur, too, and that is exactly what I plan to make happen in 2024.

As with every year for the past seven years, I have made it my mission to incorporate more literature into my life. This year, I have found that reading before bed consistently every night helps my mind from being scattered from stress and anxiety to something more focused and intentional. As a result, I have experienced deeper and more restful sleeps, more pleasant dreams, and less IBS symptoms. Plus, who doesn’t like watching a good movie? That’s what reading is like for me. Whenever I jump into bed and crack open that book, my mind palace is illuminated with vibrant cinema! It’s no coincidence that most Hollywood movies and shows are adapted from books, you know….

Anyway, back to goal-making! This year, I would like to continue my tradition of setting a reading challenge for myself. Not only do I want to read at least 24 adult books (because I do like to dabble in children’s literature every now and then–the quality has really risen since I was a child; some have even made me cry!), but I also want to be more intentional with my reading choices. One of the ways that I would like to do that is to not read just because it is a habit or because it feels like an obligation. I want to read what interests me. I want to read books that I added to my GoodReads TBR years ago and still haven’t picked up. I want to read one book at a time so that I become more invested in the stories that I am reading and, therefore, less pressured to finish reading books. Because when you’ve got seven on the go, you’re going to prioritize one over others, and sometimes that makes for a really long and unenjoyable reading period for certain pieces of literature. This is especially true when reading books in other languages from your native one, because you’re probably going to choose the ones in your first language over the others–they’re easier to read, after all–but then your list of ongoing reads becomes endless and you feel guilty for not practicing your reading comprehension; it’s an endless cycle, really. But as of yesterday, I am making that cycle have an end! Reading should be fun, not stress-inducing. So, this year, I am changing my relationship with it. I am changing my mentality regarding it.

In addition to changing my dynamics with reading, I would like to explore more Indigenous fiction. It can be hard to come by, as there seems to be more non-fiction available, but I am going to make more of an effort to peruse the CanLit section at the library for Indigenous stories. The reason I want to do this is to better understand both my heritage (Plains Cree and Saulteaux) and less privileged peoples’ experiences so that I can be a better ally to the community and a better overall human.

Equal to this, I would like to continue listening to audio books. I started regularly consuming audio books in November of last year (2023), and it was life-changing! No joke! I originally wanted to do it to make going to the gym more exciting–turns out it’s pretty hard to pay attention to your exercising when a detailed narrative is being poured into your ears–but, instead, it made doing chores like meal prepping and vacuuming more fun. I even found myself looking forward to cleaning the toilet because I couldn’t wait to continue my book. Not only did listening to audio books keep me more accountable to taking care of the house, it also positively impacted my mental health and, as a result, reduced IBS symptoms. Oh! The power of literature! I mean, it makes sense that if you have a less cluttered environment your mind will be less cluttered, too. But have you actually put this into action!? Audio books are the thing to do, I guess.

Anyway, enough rambling of my goals this year. What are your goals? Do you have any New Year’s resolutions? What did you learn about yourself last year? If you feel comfortable, let me know in the comments below.

To learn about more Canadian holidays, including vocabulary related to these holidays, check out the Holidays link in the Tags section of our blog.