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日本語 and me the next round TAC 2012 Team い | ||
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 Language Learning Forum : Language Learning Log |  | |
| g-bod Diglot Senior Member United KingdomRegistered users can see my Skype Name Joined 5974 days ago 1485 posts - 2002 votes  Speaks: English*, Japanese Studies: French, German | Message 249 of 333 07 October 2012 at 1:47pm | IP Logged |
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Talk about setting myself up for failure, since my last post I seem to have been stuck in something of a procrastination loop. It's not so bad if you procrastinate one language activity with another, however I've now stooped to the low of procrastinating everything with the BBC News website. I even tried spending the night in front of the TV the other day but I have to confess I couldn't stand that for more than half an hour (but it did not have the effect of pushing me back to the language books, sadly).
I guess it's normal to have points of low motivation, and it's normal to want to procrastinate everything when you've got 8 weeks until taking the N2 (which you're convinced you're going to fail anyway). My Japanese has definitely gone off the boil this week though. It wouldn't be so bad if I had something better to do with my spare time... 1 person has voted this message useful | |
| Brun Ugle Diglot Senior Member Norway brunugle.wordpress.c Joined 6612 days ago 1292 posts - 1766 votes Speaks: English*, NorwegianC1 Studies: Japanese, Esperanto, Spanish, Finnish | Message 250 of 333 08 October 2012 at 8:48am | IP Logged |
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As I found out recently myself, sometimes setting goals, even reasonable ones, makes it impossible to reach them. I suppose it is a combination of the fact that having a goal makes it possible to fail to reach that goal, and that having a goal makes what you're doing into work.
That's why I gave up on my goals almost as soon as I'd made them. I decided I had enough stress in my life without turning the fun stuff into stressful stuff. So now I just do whatever I feel like. At the moment, that means doing a lot of iKnow and reading some Harry Potter and if my internet gets fixed this week like it's supposed to, I'll probably add some dramas. Even though I'm not doing anything that isn't easy, lazy studying, I'm learning a lot, probably more than if I was forcing myself to do "real" studying. For example, I'm finding that all this vocabulary study through iKnow is doing wonders for both my reading and my listening. Harry Potter is getting much easier. And even though I've always struggled with listening (no kanji to help me), suddenly it's gotten much better. I hadn't listened to audiobooks for about three weeks, but I listened to one yesterday. Before, the only audiobook I could understand was HP, but this was Sherlock Holmes. I'd tried listening to some other Sherlock Holmes from the same reader and hardly understood anything. But this time I was understanding whole sentences and paragraphs. I was very distracted, so my mind kept drifting away, but every time I pulled myself back, I was able to understand a good bit. The point of all this is that if you just ignore your goals and what you have to do for a while, and just do whatever is fun, you will probably make much more progress than if you try to force yourself to do something. It reminds me of high school. When the teacher would force us to read classics, they seemed horrible and it was so hard to read them, but after high school, when I wasn't be forced to do it, I would read them for pleasure. Personally, I have no real intentions to take the JLPT though I might do it someday just to have something impressive on my resume or something. However, I would only take the N1 and I would wait to take it until it seemed easy for me. That's what I did with the Norwegian test. I waited until I could pass it almost as easily as I would've passed an English test, so it was no stress at all. I don't like stress. 1 person has voted this message useful | |
| g-bod Diglot Senior Member United KingdomRegistered users can see my Skype Name Joined 5974 days ago 1485 posts - 2002 votes Speaks: English*, Japanese Studies: French, German | Message 251 of 333 08 October 2012 at 9:42am | IP Logged |
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Yeah I always said I'd wait until I could comfortably go for a high level JLPT certificate but somehow changed my mind. I definitely levelled up an awful lot while studying for N3 so it was kind of worth it. I do feel a bit of a fraud for even attempting N2 though. I thought that to be able to go for this level of exam you'd have to be really good already. I know this time I'm supposed to only be doing it for practice, but regardless of attitude if I do pass it will be a real pass and I just feel I don't deserve that yet!
The thing is when I'm motivated to study I do find it really rewarding. I really like the kanzen master books I've been using and I love the feeling you get after a good study session! But if my brain isn't in the right place I can't do a good session... Anyway I know that studying Japanese is not the same as learning for a test and there are plenty of other language activities I could be doing. The problem is I really don't feel like it right now. The other problem is I don't know what I feel like doing instead! My level just seems to be all over the place right now. Sometimes I can switch on the radio and understand it and other times it just sounds like Japanese flavoured babble. The same goes with reading. I've tried writing some things this weekend (oh look, it seems I did something after all) but I really struggled. I could create some kind of coherent story but the language I was using was no more advanced than what I could have written a year to 18 months ago. It's kind of disturbing how much variation there is day to day in what I can do. 1 person has voted this message useful | |
| Brun Ugle Diglot Senior Member Norway brunugle.wordpress.c Joined 6612 days ago 1292 posts - 1766 votes Speaks: English*, NorwegianC1 Studies: Japanese, Esperanto, Spanish, Finnish | Message 252 of 333 08 October 2012 at 11:38am | IP Logged |
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I think that thing with having your level all over the place is a natural part of language learning. I have the same thing. Sometimes I feel like I'm doing quite well and other days I feel like I can't understand the simplest things. But overall, the curve still goes upward, so I guess it's OK. It would be nice without the "I'm an idiot" days though. And then there are the days when you wonder, "What is the point of this anyway? The whole thing is meaningless and there is no point to learning Japanese for me, so why am I doing it?" But that's another story.
Anyway, it probably isn't much comfort, but I have "babbling idiot" days in Norwegian too even though I've lived here for 13 years and use Norwegian as much as or more than English. But sometimes I can't pronounce anything correctly and I can't think of the right words for anything. It's rather embarrassing. 1 person has voted this message useful | |
| g-bod Diglot Senior Member United KingdomRegistered users can see my Skype Name Joined 5974 days ago 1485 posts - 2002 votes Speaks: English*, Japanese Studies: French, German | Message 253 of 333 08 October 2012 at 1:36pm | IP Logged |
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It's a huge comfort! I guess my Japanese is somewhere between B1 and B2 right now. I've never taken a language this far before so it's all unknown territory. I think part of me still wants to believe in the fantasy that one day I'll wake up and everything will fall into place and I'll magically become "fluent" - a bit like when you learn to ride a bike or swim for the first time. But in reality it seems that some days I can speak Japanese and other days I can't! It's a strange adventure.
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| Brun Ugle Diglot Senior Member Norway brunugle.wordpress.c Joined 6612 days ago 1292 posts - 1766 votes Speaks: English*, NorwegianC1 Studies: Japanese, Esperanto, Spanish, Finnish | Message 254 of 333 08 October 2012 at 5:32pm | IP Logged |
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If knowing that you'll always feel like an idiot is a comfort, then I'm glad I could help :P
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| g-bod Diglot Senior Member United KingdomRegistered users can see my Skype Name Joined 5974 days ago 1485 posts - 2002 votes Speaks: English*, Japanese Studies: French, German | Message 255 of 333 08 October 2012 at 6:23pm | IP Logged |
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Well if feeling like an idiot is "normal" I can live with it!
Anyway I think I've managed to establish today that the problem with motivation right now has nothing to do with learning languages and everything to do with my general state of mind. I found it so hard to get my head down and apply myself at work today too. I'm just really distractable at the moment. I think I just need to be a bit kinder to myself! 1 person has voted this message useful | |
| g-bod Diglot Senior Member United KingdomRegistered users can see my Skype Name Joined 5974 days ago 1485 posts - 2002 votes Speaks: English*, Japanese Studies: French, German | Message 256 of 333 09 October 2012 at 9:06am | IP Logged |
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When motivation is low, try listening to Japanese radio while playing Mariokart.
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