Milestones are an excellent way to track progress in life, and in language learning as well. Many students ask me if they are progressing in their English language learning and I respond by asking them to think about milestones in their learning. For some this might be passing a test or graduating from a course or being accepted into a program. For others this might be traveling abroad alone or using English at work or talking with foreign tourists in Kyoto.
A lot of students struggle with discussing milestones as they simply don’t know how to express this concept. I would like to suggest a few verbs and forms to use and then give some examples.
When discussing milestones we can use verbs such as hit, reach or achieve. Other expressions such as “the first time” or “I had never ~ before” are also useful. Here are some examples of usage:
My Youtube channel hit 1000 subscribers.
After 6 months of riding my new bike, I have reached 2000 kilometers of riding.
I achieved black belt 3-dan level in karate. My next goal is 2-dan level.
Yesterday I went to a restaurant and I ordered entirely in Japanese for the first time.
I had never climbed a 1000m mountain before, but now I do so regularly.
These expressions can be used with the word milestone as well. Here are a few real examples from my life:
I hit a new milestone in my Japanese study when I passed JLPT level 4.
I achieved another milestone when I had my first phone call in Japanese. It was only 30 seconds, but I was very proud of myself.
After several years of study I reached a great milestone: 500 kanji studied.
At the annual community sports day I had a conversation with a neighbor entirely in Japanese for over an hour. This was the first time for me to have such a long conversation all in Japanese and it was a great milestone for me.
I had never imagined reaching such a great milestone in my language study before: being complimented on my Japanese skill and being told that I am more Japanese than most Japanese! Of course this is an exaggeration, but I appreciated the compliment.
Milestones are a great way to keep track of progress, mostly because they are personal. You decide what your personal language goals are, you decide what the milestones are, and you decide when you have achieved those milestones. I also like the general concept of milestones, although it is an old expression (most of the world no longer uses miles) I find it very visual. I imagine I am walking down a language learning road and passing these markers, these stones marking the miles I have walked in my journey. The language learning road has no end, but these milestones mark our passage. Keep walking!
Edward Iwaskow
SSE Otsu
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