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Minimizing Work Impact of Language Learni | ||
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 Language Learning Forum : Advice Center |  | |
| Gemuse Senior Member Germany Joined 4073 days ago 818 posts - 1189 votes  Speaks: English Studies: German | Message 1 of 7 29 December 2013 at 3:05am | IP Logged | ||
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I need to learn science stuff (non-memory based) for my work. I have also been
concurrently learning German in order to open Germany as a potential work market. The work, and work learning take priority. Is it possible to learn a language without it interfering with other (non-memory based) learning, for example mathematics/engineering? What is the maximum time one should devote to language learning in this case? In the winter holidays, I have been studying German for 3-4 hrs a day, and I have not been able to do anything else. 1 Assimil lesson + previous lesson review+reading a coursebook + looking up the new words in the dictionary. It is leaving me exhausted. Is it possible to make decent progress on a language with only 2-3hrs per WEEK? Which works out to maybe 2 assimil lessons per week and nothing else. Or 1 assimi lesson per week+some reading. Edited by Gemuse on 29 December 2013 at 3:16am 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| kublu Newbie United States Joined 4021 days ago 2 posts - 3 votes Speaks: English* Studies: Japanese, German | Message 2 of 7 29 December 2013 at 7:33am | IP Logged | ||
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Well, I'm no expert, but 20 minutes a day sounds like it should be enough for steady
progress. Others will give you better insight, but remember that as long as you keep building upon your knowledge of German everyday, that's decent progress, at least in my book. You could try to find ways to sneak in minutes here and there. Podcasts to and from work, figuring out how you would say something related to your job, etc. Little snippets can make up a lot. Though, that's up to you to figure out how to do if that sounds like a good idea. Again, others will probably have better advice. Good luck to you. 2 persons have voted this message useful | |||
| dbag Senior Member United Kingdom Joined 5013 days ago 605 posts - 1046 votes Speaks: English* Studies: Spanish | Message 3 of 7 29 December 2013 at 10:30am | IP Logged | ||
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The Foreign Service Institute found that there students would need around 750 class hours to reach general professional proficiency in speaking and reading. That's under ideal condition's, and not to mention the 3-4 hours a day of homework they would have to complete over about 30 weeks. Language Learning Difficulty
So you are going to have to put in at least this amount of time before you can even think about opening up Germany as a potential market. I guess it depends on when you want to achieve your goal by? You certainly can make progress with 20 minutes a day, but I find there comes a point where you really have to put the hours in, as you have been doing. Although Assimil shouldn't leave you feeling exhausted, so you may want to tinker with your study schedule. Have you looked in the sub-section of the forum called "lessons in polyglottery"? Proffesor Arguelles gives some great advice about study schedules in there. I will have a look and see if I can dig out something useful for you. 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| James29 Diglot Senior Member United States Joined 5366 days ago 1265 posts - 2113 votes Speaks: English*, Spanish Studies: French | Message 4 of 7 29 December 2013 at 12:31pm | IP Logged | ||
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You can certainly make progress on 20 minutes a day. A little every day would be preferable to a bigger chunk on the weekend.
I too make work my priority. Some things to think about are whether or not you can learn for both things at the same time? Can you simply learn your work material in your target language? Maybe not, but I am trying to do that and it is both fun and I feel like I am being doubly productive. Also, as you progress to higher levels the "studying" time for the language becomes much more relaxing, fun and less intense... watching TV, reading books, etc. Is there something you do just for fun that you could simply do in your target language... read Harry Potter, watch the Simpsons, etc? 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
 emk Diglot Moderator United States Joined 5523 days ago 2615 posts - 8806 votes Speaks: English*, FrenchB2 Studies: Spanish, Ancient Egyptian Personal Language Map | Message 5 of 7 29 December 2013 at 12:55pm | IP Logged | ||
As dbag points out, you will probably need some periods of intense study sooner or later, especially if your goal is professional proficiency. But that doesn't mean you need to study hard right now. You just need to make some forward progress and not give up. When I was doing Assimil NFWE, I put in anywhere from 2.5 hours to 7 hours per week, and I managed to do a lesson every day. That was enough to get me to a slightly wobbly A2 in less than 6 months. But I was perfectly willing to let stuff go and to forget anything that wasn't reinforced by later Assimil lessons. You don't need to spend 3 hours on every lesson! In fact, even 1 hour per passive wave lesson would be slightly suspicious. The idea is to be able to be able to understand most of the German audio and nearly all of the German text without looking at the English—not to memorize each lesson. There are ways to slow Assimil down to about a lesson a week, or even pause it outright, and these methods can be applied very early in the course. But these methods rely heavily on knowing how to use Spaced Repetition software effectively. But there are two downsides: It would take a year or two to reach A2, and most first-time language learners will find some creative way to misuse their spaced repetition software. But if these methods really appeal to you, I'd be willing to write up a longer post explaining them. (I use these techniques for Egyptian.) Still, I'd focus on getting Assimil down to no more than 30 or 40 minutes for a passive wave lesson first. My guess is that you're probably heavily over-learning each lesson, and that you're not letting enough stuff go. But that's just a guess, and I may be way off target. And as James29 points out, once you can more-or-less understand native materials, there are lots of agreeable ways to study that can be done in your leisure time. But you may not be at that level yet. 8 persons have voted this message useful | |||
| Gemuse Senior Member Germany Joined 4073 days ago 818 posts - 1189 votes Speaks: English Studies: German | Message 6 of 7 29 December 2013 at 6:57pm | IP Logged | ||
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Yes, I'm not at the native level fun part yet. What is the level required for that -
would having completed B1 suffice? Uptil lesson 21 or so, I could do Assimil in 45 mins per passive wave. Now the time has doubled (lesson 30 now). I am guessing I am in a semi active stage. Having done two months of intensive German, I know the grammer (or at least the logic) of the assimil sentences for the most part. I do however have to look up a lot of the words in the dictionary. A lot of the time is also spent ruminating over the "language words" like "noch, mehr, an" or prepositions which are used in several contexts. The assimil previous lesson revision time has remained stable at 15 minutes or so. dbag: Thanks for the link. I guess that works out to about 1300hrs to get to complete b2. I am estimating that I have put in about 150hrs by now. Long long way to go. EDIT: Did Lesson 31, full concentration, and it took me 65 minutes. Earlier I was being a bit slow, and taking some breaks. Thats why it was taking me longer. If I'm all serious, it takes me 65-70 minutes. Edited by Gemuse on 29 December 2013 at 10:40pm 1 person has 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 7 of 7 29 December 2013 at 7:19pm | IP Logged | ||
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Depends on the kind of materials. In a European language, music can be useful from the beginning.
I agree that you seem to be overlearning Assimil. You're not supposed to master all the material the first time you go through it. 3 persons have voted this message useful |
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