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Kuji’s Krazy Log II | ||
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 Language Learning Forum : Language Learning Log |  | |
| kujichagulia Senior Member Japan Joined 4837 days ago 1031 posts - 1571 votes  Speaks: English* Studies: Japanese, Portuguese | Message 153 of 706 24 March 2013 at 8:39am | IP Logged | ||
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Thank you for all the replies!
Well, that settles it... I'll stay with one log. I never thought about it before, but I do suppose that balancing study of Japanese with study of Portuguese makes for a nice story. :) I do remember way back in the summer, when I was wondering if studying a language like Portuguese along with Japanese would cause problems for me. Well, here I am, nearly eight months later, and I'm studying Japanese more than ever, not to mention having fun learning Portuguese. Edited by kujichagulia on 24 March 2013 at 8:43am 3 persons have voted this message useful | |||
| kujichagulia Senior Member Japan Joined 4837 days ago 1031 posts - 1571 votes Speaks: English* Studies: Japanese, Portuguese | Message 154 of 706 27 March 2013 at 1:14am | IP Logged | ||
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For a while now, I've made a point of looking for podcasts in Japanese and Portuguese aimed at native speakers - or even recording talk radio - and putting it on my portable media player to listen to when I'm away from home. I didn't learn any new vocabulary or grammar that way (although at one point, I tried pausing a Japanese podcast whenever I came across a new word, looking that word up, then continuing... that became tedious and boring very quickly), but my thinking was that I would get other benefits, like learning the "cadence" and "rhythm" of a language, learning pronunciation, how to parse sentences, etc.
Now, after reading a recent thread about improving listening, I wonder if I've been wasting my time. To summarize what was in that thread (mainly for my benefit and reference later), user Ari stated three rules: 1. Listen to material that you would understand in written form. I take this to mean something else: Listen to material that is at or slightly above your level. 2. If something is too easy (i.e. you understand, say, 98% of what is being said), look for audio that is a little more difficult. 3. Focus. If your mind wanders off while listening, refocus. There are some other things that were said or inferred from that thread, which I will state here as "additional rules": 4. Listen a lot! (said by Cavesa) The theory here is that the more you listen, the more you become better at listening. Sounds good to me. 5. If you do listen to material that is above your level, make sure that you have a transcript so that you can look up the words/grammar. (stated by Ari) 6. (Not really a rule, but this speaks to me specifically, so....) You can get some benefits from listening to largely incomprehensible audio (getting a "feel" for the sounds of the language, for example), but this is an ineffective use of study time. (said by Ari) If possible, spend that time on learning vocabulary/grammar, which leads to the next rule... 7. Spend time learning vocabulary and grammar before tackling native audio. Get a base of common vocabulary and grammar before listening to the radio, watching documentaries, podcasts, etc. (Said by both Ari and tarvos) tarvos specifically said that listening (I assume to native audio) was not of much help to him before he had a "truckload" of vocab and grammar "under (his) belt". I really want to become better at listening, so I hope that these guidelines help me out. 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| kujichagulia Senior Member Japan Joined 4837 days ago 1031 posts - 1571 votes Speaks: English* Studies: Japanese, Portuguese | Message 155 of 706 04 April 2013 at 3:25am | IP Logged | ||
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I've found that lately I've been spending more time searching for language learning
tips, hints, resources, Anki guides - anything to "get an edge" in my language learning - than I have actually studying. That is bad enough, but although I have found a lot of interesting things, I've frustrated myself by thinking about how I should go about studying my languages. I worry about if what I am doing is right and if I should do things differently. This is a bad situation for me, because it can lead to burnout. Today, I realized that I need to take a step back, relax and keep things simple. This is not a race. This is not a race. Last year I took a few yoga classes before I strained muscles in my hip (not in yoga, but in aerobics) and quit. In those classes, EVERYBODY was more flexible than I, and that made me angry. So sometimes I would go beyond my limits when stretching, and I ended up with a lot of sore muscles. Someone in the class gave me some advice: Don't worry if you cannot touch your toes. Just concentrate on doing the poses in the right position, relax, keep doing it, and one day you will say to yourself, "Hey! When did I start touching my toes?" I think this can apply to my language learning. "Don't worry if you cannot speak, read or listen at a certain level. Don't worry so much about trying to improve your study processes, or about finding the 'right' and 'fastest' methods for you. You have some good methods and resources already. Just concentrate on doing those, relax, keep doing it, and one day you will say to yourself, 'Hey! When did I become fluent?'" Now, I'm not saying that I shouldn't look for new ways to study, especially if a resource or technique no longer works. I'm just saying that I shouldn't obsess about it, and definitely not when things are going well already. And I shouldn't seek out ways to make my language learning faster. Japanese is not an easy language; it will take time. So enjoy the ride. With that in mind, I've decided to set some simple weekly goals and try to keep up with those. Here they are: My Goals JAPANESE * Do one chapter of An Integrated Approach to Intermediate Japanese (IAIJ) a month. Okay, this isn't a weekly goal, but there is a lot in each chapter. I just finished Chapter 7 (out of 15) and will concentrate on Chapter 8 in April. * Do one JP101 podcast a week, if possible. I say "if possible" because I have only a free account at JapanesePod101.com, and Lower Intermediate podcasts sometimes come out once a week on the free feed, and sometimes once every couple of months. * Add collected useful words/kanji from my notebook into Anki by Sunday. * Keep up with Anki reviews. PORTUGUESE * Do one lesson of DLI Portuguese Basic a week. * Do one PT101 podcast a week, if possible. See Japanese section about JP101 podcasts. * Add collected useful words from my notebook into Anki by Sunday. * Keep up with Anki reviews. This will probably not be all that I do during the week. For example, I'm leisurely going through The Little Prince in Japanese with audio and bilingual text. And for Portuguese, I have a ton of bilingual text PDFs and some audio, thanks to iguanamon! But the above goals are my priorities, and will probably take up most of my available study time every week. I'll also bring back my "Week in Review" posts in this log and state whether or not I met my weekly goals. 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| g-bod Diglot Senior Member United KingdomRegistered users can see my Skype Name Joined 5972 days ago 1485 posts - 2002 votes Speaks: English*, Japanese Studies: French, German | Message 156 of 706 04 April 2013 at 9:31am | IP Logged | ||
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I guess you crossed the line from doing research and into procrastination. I've been there too - spending more time reading about languages than doing them! Save the research until you really have plateaued and need to shake up your study routine.
I'm no good at yoga either. I went to a class a few years ago where there was a heavily pregnant lady who was more flexible than me! 2 persons have voted this message useful | |||
| HopeTea Newbie Japan Joined 4261 days ago 37 posts - 41 votes Speaks: English* Studies: Japanese | Message 157 of 706 04 April 2013 at 12:15pm | IP Logged | ||
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I too have fallen into the researching rather than studying trap. I think it's so appealing because at the time, it really feels like you're doing something! It can be useful if you find something new that helps you improve your study methods, but I guess we just have to make sure it doesn't take over. You seem to be doing great, regardless. :)
2 persons have voted this message useful | |||
| kujichagulia Senior Member Japan Joined 4837 days ago 1031 posts - 1571 votes Speaks: English* Studies: Japanese, Portuguese | Message 158 of 706 04 April 2013 at 1:37pm | IP Logged | ||
Hehehe... that would have made me quit a lot earlier! Anyway, thank you for the advice. I'll just keep doing what I'm doing until it no longer works. 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| kujichagulia Senior Member Japan Joined 4837 days ago 1031 posts - 1571 votes Speaks: English* Studies: Japanese, Portuguese | Message 159 of 706 04 April 2013 at 1:39pm | IP Logged | ||
I don't know if I'm doing great, but thank you. Yes, that's the thing; I feel like, "Hey, this is going to make my language studies AWESOME, MAN!!!", then I fall into the trap and it is hard to get out of. But I managed to climb out of the hole, and I'm ready to get back to studying. Thank you for stopping by my log! 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| Expugnator Hexaglot Senior Member Brazil Joined 5156 days ago 3335 posts - 4349 votes Speaks: Portuguese*, Norwegian, French, English, Italian, Papiamento Studies: Mandarin, Georgian, Russian | Message 160 of 706 04 April 2013 at 8:02pm | IP Logged | ||
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I've done this you mentioned for 10 years, kuji. I was so keen about collecting resources and never got down on using them. It was worse with languages with fewer resources, when I got so scared about finishing the book and not learning enough, and ending up stuck at that false beginner level. Then one day I decided "Less collecting, more learning" would be my motto. Now I do spend a few hours sorting out my resources and deciding for which books I'm going next, but once I get this list I try to focus and forget about whatever comes around in terms of similar resources. If I know I have one good beginner's book that focuses on dialogues and another one on grammar plus substitutes or complements of these (for the sake of reviewing) and I know where to start once I reach an intermediate level, then I decide just to focus on getting things done. It's useful when you set that path and you know where to get, at least for me.
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