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Kuji’s Krazy Log II | ||
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 Language Learning Forum : Language Learning Log |  | |
| Serpent Octoglot Senior Member Russian Federation serpent-849.livejour Joined 6587 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 481 of 706 27 March 2014 at 1:32am | IP Logged | |||||
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Yeah, it's things like this that show you how far you've come :) So happy to see that!
As for what you actually said, I think it's also the European accent. I'm the opposite, at one point I understood the European more or less at a B2 level, but I had so little exposure to the Brazilian variety that I practically didn't understand it at all. Fixed by now :) Pity that your wife reacted like that, but I hope it'll be a positive motivation for you :-) Also really hope that you'll get to visit Portugal! Yay :))) 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 482 of 706 09 May 2014 at 4:30am | IP Logged | |||||
Yeah, that is what I suspected. I probably should listen to more European Portuguese; I think it is highly likely that I go to Portugal before I go to Brazil, because of the distance from Japan and airline flights, etc. It's just easier to get to Lisbon than Sao Paulo. But...
1 person has voted this message useful | ||||||
| Serpent Octoglot Senior Member Russian Federation serpent-849.livejour Joined 6587 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 483 of 706 09 May 2014 at 4:44am | IP Logged | |||||
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Great to see you here again! How are your studies going? :)
Really hope it works out next year, with Portugal. 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 484 of 706 09 May 2014 at 5:01am | IP Logged | |||||
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Well, I'm back after a long layoff from HTLAL. I haven't been around because I've been really busy at work with the start of the new school year - moreso than previous years. But I'm less busy nowadays, so I thought I'd drop by and say hello.
Hello. Now that that is out of the way... The other day I wrote an email to iguanamon about how my past couple of months have been going: not well. I haven't been studying Japanese and Portuguese as much as I've wanted to. (Being in Japan and being at the level that I am at now, my Japanese has not suffered too much, but my Portuguese certainly has.) I listed some excuses, but I wonder if they are just that: excuses. I don't like to blame other things for my lack of success, but perhaps I did just that. So I started to think: What makes me different from those on HTLAL who have been successful learning one or more foreign languages? It's not the techniques, and it's not the materials. I use a lot of different techniques and materials, and it does work for me. I'm doing what they do, yet I go at a really slow pace. I think the biggest problem is the amount of time I put in. I study at a rate of roughly 7-8 hours a week for Japanese (that is dedicated study time, and doesn't include things like talking to people in town and watching TV), and 4-5 hours a week for Portuguese. That is my "sweet spot", to use a baseball term. Any more than that, and I burn out. But why is that? I think what separates the successful HTLAL learners from me is their drive. They don't merely want to learn another language. They want to learn it so badly that they are willing to sacrifice to learn it. When a person is driven, they are able to study a language for hours upon hours a day, and they are able to tolerate all the hard work learning a language requires because they want that language more than anything. I've never felt that way - not even with Japanese, even though I live in Japan. I've always approached it as a kind of "job". Hmmm... let me do my hour today, and after that I'll be free to do stuff I like to do. If I was driven, I wouldn't think like that. I would think like this: You know, I want to do this other thing now, but I really want to acquire Japanese, so why don't I go ahead and study another hour or two? In fact, why don't I just give up this other thing permanently? Then I can study an extra hour of Japanese every day. I have so many interests outside of learning languages. Some of them I can do in Japanese or Portuguese, like some sports. (Although it's impossible to watch cricket in any language other than English, some South Asian languages and perhaps Afrikaans. And it's hard to find rugby news in Portuguese.) If I was driven, I would have started doing that already, and given up most or all of the interests that I have that I can't do in Japanese or Portuguese. But I find myself thinking, It's so much easier to do it in English.. That's not to say that my system is not working. It is working. I'm learning every day. I'm progressing slowly, but I am progressing. And yes, Japanese is a "hard" language. But there are people that learn it faster than I do, and I guess that I am envious of them. I'm impatient; I want to know Japanese now. I don't want to put in the hard work to get there. But if I was driven, I would embrace the hard work. I want to learn Japanese and Portuguese, but do I want to learn them? 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 485 of 706 09 May 2014 at 5:02am | IP Logged | |||||
Hey, Serpent! I just wrote a long post about my studies, but thank you for your concern. That makes me happy! 1 person has voted this message useful | ||||||
| kraemder Senior Member United StatesRegistered users can see my Skype Name Joined 5174 days ago 1497 posts - 1648 votes Speaks: English* Studies: German, Spanish, Japanese | Message 486 of 706 09 May 2014 at 2:15pm | IP Logged | |||||
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Glad to see a post. I've seen longer hiatuses but it has been a bit of time. And it's a little funny that your post
mirrored what I was thinking about really well before I thought to check up on your log. I was thinking about my own progress and comparing it to some other people's. I'm one of those people obsessed with learning a language. It kind of annoys my friends and family although they also think it's cool that I am learning another language. I compare myself to other students in my Japanese class mostly. I think I've made the most progress just due to the sheer amount of time I put in. But it hurts my ego a little to acknowledge that in terms of talent I'm lacking. But for foreign languages it's not really your talent but how obsessed you are I think. Then again, slower progress and a more balanced life style sounds pretty good lol. In a way I respect people who make consistent progress without getting too obsessed and letting it take over. But I'm ok with my obsession. 2 persons have voted this message useful | ||||||
| iguanamon Pentaglot Senior Member Virgin Islands Speaks: Ladino Joined 5252 days ago 2241 posts - 6731 votes Speaks: English*, Spanish, Portuguese, Haitian Creole, Creole (French) | Message 487 of 706 09 May 2014 at 3:05pm | IP Logged | |||||
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There's no way I can "study" for hours on end but I can happily spend time with the language for hours on end. I enjoy it. During that time, I start to notice things. Connections are made. Maybe that might lead me to spend a little time exploring a grammar concept, or vocabulary aspect that seems to keep reappearing. Then, I go back to what I was doing, reading a long article or a book, watching a TV series or listening to a podcast. Slowly but surely, not methodically, I've learned something and I get better.
Goals are something we see here a lot, every day. I've been exploring the Fi3M forum and it's full of beginners with "Benny-like" goals. I'm torn. I see that having a specific goal to work towards is a huge motivating factor for a lot of people and better than, "it would be nice to learn French someday". I also see how goals can illustrate that it's our expectations which make us unhappy. Leo Babauta of zenhabits.net, talks about having "no goals".
That last paragraph, sums it up for me. I can't tell you how much I enjoy exploring what the world has to offer in my languages. I've often talked about how having a second language opens new worlds. Learning to handle a language better just improves that experience for me. What Leo is talking about is life in general. Obviously, if you want to acquire a language skill there are certain facets that must be mastered along the way. No getting around that. In Japanese, you've acquired most of the basic skills. A lot of people on this forum would be thrilled to have your level of Japanese. I think now is the time for you to explore Japanese and aspects of the culture that appeal to you where you need Japanese, maybe that might be a little different than what you like from your American life. Surely, there's something in Japan beyond anime, godzilla and transforming robots of interest. You can say that it's contradictory for me to embrace having "no goals" at the same time as I want to be the best I can be in my languages. My take on the no goals thing is to not let your goals be your enemy.
You can certainly explore your passion in sports with Portuguese and Japanese. Though Rugby isn't huge in either culture it exists, just not on an "internationally spectator popular" level: Rugby do Brasil and in Portugal as well: Rugy em Portugal. I used to walk by a rugby field in Lisbon on my way to the metro every day. There's even Rugby Union in Japan Kuji, you'll have to find your own bliss. Seeing learning the language as a "job" won't help. Forcing yourself to "study" because you know you should won't help either. Wanting to spend time with the language will. Seek and ye shall find, maybe not exactly what you want, but perhaps a segue. Rugby, and the other sports you enjoy, may not be huge in your TL's but you can find a way to enjoy what they have to offer. You could get involved. Good to see you back, kuji. Forgive me if my ramblings are making no sense. Edited by iguanamon on 09 May 2014 at 3:20pm 4 persons have voted this message useful | ||||||
| kujichagulia Senior Member Japan Joined 4837 days ago 1031 posts - 1571 votes Speaks: English* Studies: Japanese, Portuguese | Message 488 of 706 09 May 2014 at 4:52pm | IP Logged | |||||
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iguanamon, it does make a lot of sense. Thank you for the comments.
Yeah, there is information about rugby in Japan in Japanese, or about Portuguese rugby in Portuguese, but there is hardly anything about the major rugby competitions like the Super 15 or the Six Nations. I think I'm too immersed in my English-centric world, and languages are more of a diversion from that world, instead of being a world, or one of my worlds, if you understand what I mean. I think that, to get to the next level in Japanese especially, it is not enough to "do my time" every day. Instead of studying Japanese, I need to be Japanese. I need to immerse myself in a Japanese world. Yeah, I don't do anime and the like. But there must be something here in Japan that I can find that I like - something that I cannot do in English. Perhaps it's something as simple as cutting myself off from world rugby and focusing on Japanese rugby or Portuguese rugby. 1 person has voted this message useful |
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