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Routine | ||
Tags: Motivation | Study Plan | ||
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 Language Learning Forum : General discussion |  | |
| Kinan Diglot Senior Member Syrian Arab Republic Joined 5568 days ago 234 posts - 279 votes  Speaks: Arabic (Written)*, English Studies: Russian, Spanish | Message 1 of 7 11 February 2010 at 9:24am | IP Logged | ||
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I think most of the language learners have some kind of daily routin, for example i practice Anki every morning, practice words in Spanish-online-course, read an article in Lingq and maybe read some very short kid story in Spanish if i have time.
Do you people thnk that a routin or a pattern is enough to improve your target language? is there anyone who doesn't stick to some routin? and also, what about the motivation and excitment? won't following a certain pattern would kill the joy and make the learning boring? I have thought of maybe considering adding some different and new thing everyday to the process, something that i do today and then won't do it again till like in a month or two. 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| Hydrolyzer Newbie Australia Joined 5404 days ago 2 posts - 3 votes Speaks: English* Studies: Russian | Message 2 of 7 11 February 2010 at 12:47pm | IP Logged | ||
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I'm only at beginner levels so I cant speak from great experience, but when I consider other skills I have taught myself as well as my experience with language, routine is pretty vital, but you certainly have to spice it up. Not only to fight boredom, but to avoid training your mind. I'd say you need to expose yourself to all kinds of inputs from the language so you dont only assosciate the language with a certain method of input.
For example, I use pimsleur and FSI for my russian, but there is also a girl at work who only moved to Australia five years ago, and is a native Russian. So I always greet her in Russian and whenever we cross paths we try to have a small conversation. I think this unscripted exchange is pretty valuable in my learning, the spontaeneous conversation I think is even more valuable then having a native to correct my pronunciation. 2 persons have voted this message useful | |||
| datsunking1 Diglot Senior Member United States Joined 5587 days ago 1014 posts - 1533 votes Speaks: English*, Spanish Studies: German, Russian, Dutch, French | Message 3 of 7 11 February 2010 at 2:24pm | IP Logged | ||
Speaking with a native is the best thing you could EVER do. I honestly learned more in a month speaking with a native than I did in a year of taking classes at school. My skill skyrocketed, and I really have that one month to thank for where I am now. It gave me a very good accent at a young age (14) by age 17, I could fool natives. There was a ton of TV and music involved (I personally love interviews, it's great for accents and colloquialisms) Which progressed me even further. Although my Spanish isn't where I want to be (SUPER HIGH FLUENCY:D) I'm pretty happy with my level. Russian pronounciation is very difficult for a beginner, but once its covered, it's easy :) Personally, I have trouble saying the word for "We" It's Myi or something, I can't say it right :( but I'll cross the Russian bridge when I get there :D -Jordan 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| BartoG Diglot Senior Member United States confession Joined 5449 days ago 292 posts - 818 votes Speaks: English*, French Studies: Italian, Spanish, Latin, Uzbek | Message 4 of 7 11 February 2010 at 7:55pm | IP Logged | ||
I have always thought it would be a great idea to have some daily routine. But it's never come together. I think a big reason why is that the few times I have managed to hang on to a routine, sometimes as long as a month, I just haven't gotten the payoff I think I was supposed to.
Look at what he's saying: Hanging out with the language intensively helped him take off. Going to class on a regular schedule for at least an hour a pop, not so much. I've always learned in fits and starts. When my interest and motivation are high, I make time to study. But when I'm super busy with other things and my motivation isn't high, I find myself resenting the routine. I don't like finding myself thinking, "Rats! I need a break but it's time for Italian." Making time to learn when I'm enthusiastic and squeezing in a little time otherwise makes language learning a treat at best, a respite from other things at worst. I know this approach takes longer than routine studying, of course, but it beats burning out and stopping studying altogether. I think the question of routine is a real personal one. Some people live more ordered lives, and figuring out where language learning fits into the order of things is valuable. Some people thrive on chaos, however, and in this case an attempt to impose order on language learning can make it just one more thing that irritates such people, which isn't beneficial at all. 2 persons have voted this message useful | |||
| Katie Diglot Senior Member Australia Joined 6720 days ago 495 posts - 599 votes Speaks: English*, Hungarian Studies: French, German | Message 5 of 7 11 February 2010 at 9:10pm | IP Logged | ||
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I have always been a fan of routine. I had a very particular routine in my early Hungarian studies. But in recent months it became more of an immersion experience - I would just do as much as I could in native materials in a day - but whatever I WANTED to do. I really became a fan of this.
This week only, I also began to study German. I am still looking for the rigth resources, so I'm sure once I find the right one I'll have a little more structure to my study. But at the moment, I have assigned 3 days to German and 4 days to Hungarian. That's the extent of my scheduling. On my Hungarian days, I continue to do whatever I please. On my German days, it is much the same - only I also will have some structured learning from a language learning book. I have no real grounding in German (apart from a half-hearted attempt many many years ago). Amazingly, it seems to be working okay at the moment. 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| Johntm Senior Member United StatesRegistered users can see my Skype Name Joined 5424 days ago 616 posts - 725 votes Speaks: English* Studies: Spanish | Message 6 of 7 12 February 2010 at 4:12am | IP Logged | ||
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I don't really have a routine, partially because I'm just starting seriously studying. I've decided to fit studying in when I can and letting a routine develop by itself. Mainly because I'm too lazy to plan out my day :P. I plan on incorporating more SRS into it, but I use Pimsleur frequently and Hugo in 3 months kind of frequently (kind of slacked off with it). I also listen to music in Spanish adn have some texting conversations in Spanish
1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| Sandman Diglot Senior Member United States Joined 5410 days ago 168 posts - 389 votes Speaks: English*, Spanish Studies: Japanese | Message 7 of 7 13 February 2010 at 11:38am | IP Logged | ||
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I definitely have a routine ... although I'm starting to think it's eating me alive and killing my passion in some ways.
Basically, my personal situation is I'm studying for JLPT tests (Japanese) and I'll likely be living in Japan within 2 years or so (I have a Japanese fiancee that wants to go back to Japan fairly soon, and I'll be going to Japan with her ... fluent or not ...), the sooner I gain proficiency the sooner I can interview for some more interesting jobs there. I know that in the 2 years or so I'm in the States I won't be able to get any true proficiency and that a few months in Japan will trump anything I've learned here, but nonetheless I've been targetting my studying toward those tests and have been otherwise trying immersive methods (music, streamed channels, many cut mpgs on my stereo, etc). In preparing, I've been basically using Anki to learn around 10 new words (20 if you include both input and output versions of the card) including the kanji, 3 translations of Kanji characters (including the multiple pronunciations), and 6 grammar sentences (representing a new grammar form for the most part, and usually with their own new vocabulary) per day. I actually have 8 decks I'm using, with various things (more things than I care to describe), and it's getting annoying. So at least part of my daily studies have been targetted toward a pretty heavy SRS learning of vocabulary, grammar, sentence forms, and Kanji characters that appear on those tests. Other than the SRS work I have scheduled things so that I get through 1 chapter of a textbook every 3 weeks, and (hopefully) fully internalize 2 lessons of Assimil each week with shadowing and massive word repetition. Words I learn from these things go into the SRS. Almost everying goes into the SRS. As of now I spend approximately 1.5 hrs of daily SRS work that I somewhat HAVE to do as I drink from my Fire Hose. I like it in some ways, in that every single day I'm pushing myself and I have things prepared that I have to do, but it is starting to sap my will to live. With the textbook work, Assimil, and listening to Pimsleur in the car, I definitely find it all to be difficult to work in with a full-time job, but so far it's been barely manageable. I'm not really sure what else to do at this point although I know I need to cut some things out to keep me sane but I'm at a point where I certainly don't want to cut anything. I do like the idea of a daily, or a least a weekly routine, I think it just might take some balancing. At least for me my aspirations seem to far outweigh my ability, or time, to achieve them. I would guess others have the same problem as they set up how much they would "like" to study and it bounces up against how much they are actually able to reasonably manage while maintaining sanity. Edited by Sandman on 13 February 2010 at 1:13pm 1 person has voted this message useful |
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