Happy New Year - Reflections, Goal Setting & Planning

Happy New Year! 新年快樂！ Hoping the new year will bring good health, more peace and harmony and happiness to all. 祝大家健健康康平平安安. Praying this would be the year we get COVID under control.

Goodbye 2020, and welcome 2021! We did get to say this earlier than many people, with Australia being one of the first countries to usher in the new year with spectacular fireworks. It was nonetheless a very much subdued new year celebration this year for reasons that require no expounding, but we are grateful for our many blessings.

Reflecting on 2021, Planning for 2022 回顧2021, 展望2022

We’ve spent the past few days reflecting together as a family about the past year and planning for the new year (回顧過去的一年, 展望新年) and setting new year goals 訂新年目標. We do these both on a personal level and as a family. This is a new family tradition we have started, and have found it immensely beneficial. 2020 and 2022 had been a tough year, but taking the step to reflect has helped us to find the silver lining, evaluate what is truly important, reminded us to count our many blessings. We also gain clarity in determining our focus for 2022. Doing this activity as a family has also stimulated deeper conversations, and allow us to connect more.

2021 Reflections 回顧2021

Things/ People we are grateful for
Memorable events
Lessons learnt/ things that we got better at / things that we tried
Achievements

2022 Planning 展望2022

Set new year goals 訂新年目標
Determining area of focus as a family
Projects, both for individual, and as a family.
Things to learn, to try, to get better at
What we are looking forward to
Ways we can help others
Words of affirmation

There are many things that can be included – I looked through various ideas online, and came up with a list that was most suitable for our family and situation. If you are looking for specific pintables or more ideas, just google “Year in Review Printables” and “Family Goal Setting”. (These are mostly in English). Some are more detailed, and suit older kids, some are simpler, and suit younger kids. The important thing is to include the child(ren) in this activity.

As our family language is in English, we are conducting the exercise in English, and I verbally translate what I could for my kid in Cantonese. Of course improving on Cantonese made it to one of our goals.

Here is the Cantonese vocabulary list from Cantonese101 for Top 10 New Year’s Resolutions. (more suited for adults)

Plan Your Best Year of Teaching Your Kids Chinese

Spot of Sunshine offers a free printable to help you reflect upon the past year and set goals for teaching your kids Chinese in the new year. (Because I am sure you have read in most multilingual blogs that you need to be deliberate about teaching your kid Chinese, and plan, plan, plan. )

Happy New Year worksheet from Twinkl

If you have a Twinkl account, you might be able to download this for free – a worksheet for reflecting on previous years and planning next’s years goals. (If you are an email subscriber, you will often get a free resource of your choice regularly.) This Traditional Chinese version is developed by Twinkl Taiwan, but you can find download it form your local Twinkl. For example, from Twinkl Australia.

Goal setting and Monitoring Chart 目標訂立及檢視表 by Learn Better 學好一點

I am not sure of the website is still active. I found their worksheets to be the most comprehensive of the freely available Chinese worksheets for goal setting – 7 pages. There is a boy-themed and a girl-themed worksheet, though in reality, it doesn’t really matter which you use. The ones available are for 2021, but you can use it for 2022 too.

Word of the Year 年度的代表字

This has been around for a while, but I only jumped on the bandwagon last year. The idea is to choose a word that represents what you want to focus on. Last year, I picked a word for myself, and the word was balance (平衡). This year we will decide on a word as a family. I will encourage you to do this as well, either individually or as a family. Just google “Personal Word of the Year” for inspiration – you will find hundreds of words to choose from. You can translate it to Chinese as well. You can use a phrase or character. e.g Patience (耐心), Growth 成長, improvement (進步), Gratitude 感恩 Forward (前進), Delight (喜悅), Love (愛), Family (家). Place this word somewhere prominent that you can be reminded of it. (You can create some fancy artwork in free apps such as Canva).

New Year Crown from Spot of Sunshine

Get optimistic about the new year with this crown. (Note: The 2022 crown has not been released yet, but it is quite easy to change 2021 to 2022 by modifying the 一 to 二. )

New Year Headband from Michigan Cantonese School

2022 calendars

If you are looking for 2022 calendars in Chinese, head on this post 2022 Chinese Calendars 2022年日曆（中文）for some free printables.

How About Your New Year?

How are you planning to start this new year? Everybody does it differently, and I would be most interested to hear about yours. What goals are you setting? What would you like to achieve in Cantonese journey? Please leave a comment and let me know!