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Time management and multiple languages | ||
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 Language Learning Forum : Advice Center |  | |
| tristano Tetraglot Senior Member Netherlands Joined 4038 days ago 905 posts - 1262 votes  Speaks: Italian*, Spanish, French, English Studies: Dutch | Message 1 of 14 17 March 2014 at 11:40pm | IP Logged | ||
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Hello all. After less than three months since when
I decided to commit myself in languages I have to recognize that time management is my weakness. I am used to have hard and inconsistent schedules with frequent burnouts. Good news is I see the results when I work hard on one language. Bad news is: a simple change of habits (going at work with the bike instead the tram) can be fatal and difficult to recover. In particular there are activities that require an incredible amount of time (like creating flashcards) that make me really lazy with that language (in my case, mandarin). Considering that I work fulltime and I can only study before and after the work, and I have one language which I am intermediate (but I have classes for that one) and three new, how can be a smart way to use my 30-to-120 minutes a day? - dividing time in equal parts - a day for language - depend from the languages (intermediate: french., new: Persian, Mandarin, German) - others...? Thank you very much in advance! 2 persons have voted this message useful | |||
| kujichagulia Senior Member Japan Joined 4838 days ago 1031 posts - 1571 votes Speaks: English* Studies: Japanese, Portuguese | Message 2 of 14 18 March 2014 at 2:31am | IP Logged | ||
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Everybody is different, but I found that for me, dividing my time each day among both languages I'm learning was better than having a whole day for one language, then switching to the other language the next day. I found that having contact with each of my languages daily - even if for as little as 15 minutes - makes a big difference for me.
As for how to divide your time, I think it depends on the activities you do. I'm a beginner in Portuguese but intermediate in Japanese. I do a multi-track approach for both, meaning I do a variety of activities. So I simply divide my time 50-50, make a list of the activities I want to do for each language, then do them by rotation. If that means you only have 15 minutes a day for Persian, so be it. But if you have a lot of things you want to do for French, but maybe just one or two activities for Mandarin, for example, maybe you want to dedicate more of your time to French. It's up to you. As for creating flashcards, I find that I don't burn out if I put a limit on the amount of flashcards I create per day. I adjust it depending on the time of the year and how busy I am, or how much I feel like making flashcards, but right now my limit is 5 (although I haven't hit 5 in a day for a while). Even if I have more flashcards to make, I leave them until the next day. That way, you don't feel that creating them takes a lot of time. In fact, sometimes you feel like, "Man, I really want to go over my limit and make a few more cards... be strong, be strong... yeah, only five today. Wait until tomorrow." If your limit leaves you wanting to make more flashcards, then it's probably a good limit. Lastly, about habit-changing... you mentioned taking the bike instead of the tram. A huge chunk of my study time is on the train. But when the train is delayed, or I can't sit in a chair, or it's more crowded than usual, or if it's a work holiday, or in your case, you take the bike instead of the tram... whatever it is, I find that it's a good idea to have a Plan B - something easy you can do in that situation, instead of your usual schedule. For example, if the train is really loud or crowded, and I can't study from my Portuguese textbook, I'll just put my headphones on and listen to some music in Portuguese. Don't be afraid to step back from your schedule when you have to, or even if you need to take a break from it, to prevent burnout. Edited by kujichagulia on 18 March 2014 at 2:40am 6 persons have voted this message useful | |||
| Serpent Octoglot Senior Member Russian Federation serpent-849.livejour Joined 6588 days ago 9753 posts - 15779 votes 4 sounds Speaks: Russian*, English, FinnishC1, Latin, German, Italian, Spanish, Portuguese Studies: Danish, Romanian, Polish, Belarusian, Ukrainian, Croatian, Slovenian, Catalan, Czech, Galician, Dutch, Swedish | Message 3 of 14 18 March 2014 at 3:51am | IP Logged | ||
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Hi! There's a thread exactly about this.
The wikia article describes the options you have, but basically the smartest one is the one you'll actually use. A perfect schedule is useless if it only exists on paper but not in reality. Experimenting is the key. 3 persons have voted this message useful | |||
 Iversen Super Polyglot Moderator Denmark berejst.dk Joined 6694 days ago 9078 posts - 16473 votes Speaks: Danish*, French, English, German, Italian, Spanish, Portuguese, Dutch, Swedish, Esperanto, Romanian, Catalan Studies: Afrikaans, Greek, Norwegian, Russian, Serbian, Icelandic, Latin, Irish, Lowland Scots, Indonesian, Polish, Croatian Personal Language Map | Message 4 of 14 18 March 2014 at 10:21am | IP Logged | ||
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I have a number of languages to deal with plus a repertoire of standard activities, which can be more or less tiring and more or less sensititve to outside disturbances. And I have a notestand and a table with dictionaries etc. near my armchair for my weakest languages - but all of my dictionaries and grammars are within a couple of meters from both my armchair base and my computer base. Laziness is a factor to be reckoned with! And then I have of course the outer world which for instance consists of positive things like the available programs on my television and negative things like the amount of noise produced by my irritating neighbour.
So basically I don't start out in the evening with a plan for things I must do, but I check the TV programs, and if there is something I absolutely must see then I'll do something easy which only requires a pen and some paper. If not, then I can start a computer and do some listening - the only problem is of course that I more often than not find something to watch on TV. But basically I know that I have to spend time on wordlists, copying/retranslation, free reading, listening and all the other activities in all of my languages on a regular basis, and the longer it is since I for instance did wordlists in Irish the more likely it is that I choose to do .. well, wordlists in Irish. In that way I have an ultra flexible study plan, but I still manage to get around my languages on a regular basis and also to do a variety of standardized activities in each language. Besides I always have an assortment of magazines, printouts or thin books plus some random dictionaries in my bag, so when I go by bus to my job I read a newspaper, but on the way back I mostly manage to squeeze in 20-20 minutes of reading - which I then duly report in my log thread. As Kujichagulia observes buses sometimes are crowded, and there may be noise, but so far I haven't got any alternative MP3 listening organized for such situations - on that point many other learners are ahead of me. The general rule for me is always to have many possible things to do, including some that can be done even in crowded and noisy places, and then I choose in the same way as I would choose from a wellstocked buffet table in a restaurant. And no, I can't see the point in keeping track of the minutes I spend. How do you compare half an hour spend on a hard and intensive activity in a new target language to relaxed reading in a wellknown language with the TV blaring in the background? Edited by Iversen on 19 March 2014 at 10:53am 4 persons have voted this message useful | |||
| Expugnator Hexaglot Senior Member Brazil Joined 5157 days ago 3335 posts - 4349 votes Speaks: Portuguese*, Norwegian, French, English, Italian, Papiamento Studies: Mandarin, Georgian, Russian | Message 5 of 14 19 March 2014 at 9:44pm | IP Logged | ||
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I second Iversen's opinion on having many possible things to do. I need stuff I can do
only listening for - for when I'm busy at repetitive tasks; if at a given day I know I'll have to wait - taking a bus, which I don't usually do, or waiting for an appointment at the doctor's - then I schedule my reading stuff to be done at this time. If I have idle times and an internet connection but no computer, I can study through the apps I normaly use, such as Memrise and Duolingo. I study about 7 languages daily and I rotate activities within a day. I read a textbook then a novel in Georgian then I watch a video and listen to a podcast in Chinese, for example. I prefer to leave my quality time - the beginning of my routine, for example, for more time-consuming tasks, such as the textbook study. Others like extensive video watching can be done almost anytime. 2 persons have voted this message useful | |||
| tristano Tetraglot Senior Member Netherlands Joined 4038 days ago 905 posts - 1262 votes Speaks: Italian*, Spanish, French, English Studies: Dutch | Message 6 of 14 19 March 2014 at 11:43pm | IP Logged | ||
Hi, thank you very much for your reply. Here the beautiful thing is that a lot of successful learner have different habits, the bad news is that it doesn't exist a one size fits all. But in any case is really enlightening to read you all and compare your experiencing with mine and see if I can recognise myself particularly in someone. Here you communicated me something important a gave me a lot of practical advices. I admit it, when I feel the pleasure particularly with one language I tend to overdo and overlook the others. So basically it is really important that I fix an upper limit, other than a lower limit. Just a question, how do you divide your learning process in activities? 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| tristano Tetraglot Senior Member Netherlands Joined 4038 days ago 905 posts - 1262 votes Speaks: Italian*, Spanish, French, English Studies: Dutch | Message 7 of 14 19 March 2014 at 11:57pm | IP Logged | ||
Hi! "Many possible things to do" + some standard activities. You are in a school of thought the doesn't like to log the time; I read people suggesting to assign different points to different activities (if I'm not wrong, also Benny the irish polyglot suggests that). Maybe these two visions are not so separated. Anyway, I still haven't decided if logging time is for me or not, but at least can give me a number while logging skills can be more difficult... But in any case, I never thought about the "many possible things to do": I already did something like that but I had the impression that I was not following a plan so it gave me an idea of inefficiency (most probably my professional career doesn't help me hehehe). Is it for you optimising the learning process a priority or is it not? Or at least: I think you optimised your learning process several years ago, was it a priority or it just came? how do you assure yourself that you're keeping learning fairly quickly (another time, is it a priority for you the learning speed?) Thank you for the answer! 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| tristano Tetraglot Senior Member Netherlands Joined 4038 days ago 905 posts - 1262 votes Speaks: Italian*, Spanish, French, English Studies: Dutch | Message 8 of 14 20 March 2014 at 12:05am | IP Logged | ||
Hi, thanks :) I read some page of your log, it is impressive what you do! I am really time boxed so that is why my obsession to eliminate slow activities and optimise the learning process. what are in your opinion the worst errors that can be done while allocating time for language study? 1 person has voted this message useful |
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