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Luai’s Fully Fluent in 2012: TAC team い | ||
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 Language Learning Forum : Language Learning Log |  | |
| Luai_lashire Diglot Senior Member United States luai-lashire.deviant Joined 5826 days ago 384 posts - 560 votes  Speaks: English*, Esperanto Studies: Japanese, French | Message 1 of 35 05 January 2012 at 9:15pm | IP Logged | ||
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Well, it's 2012 and time for a new log. I accomplished much last year and also fell short in a lot of ways last year
(see my final comments in my old log for details) and I have big plans and hopes for this year. In particular, I'm working hard to live up to the spirit of the Total Annihilation Challenge: obliterating all obstacles that bar my path. As my fellow teammates doubtless know by now, I've struggled for a long while with major depression and other mental health concerns. I also am just generally physically weak and unhealthy. Last year, my biggest language failing was not making good use of my time- mostly, because I felt bad all the time, I just sat on my butt and browsed the internet. And not even in Japanese! This year, I want to get healthy, get energized, and get organized. And I want to become fully fluent in Japanese! Hence the name of the log. ;) My goal this year is an ambitious C1 level in Japanese, maintenance of Esperanto, and some dabbling in French and German- maybe more than dabbling if I find time. Other, more specific goals will be outlined later, as I progress, but to start with: - I want to get an A in my Japanese classes this year. That's it for now. I want to observe my progress a little more and find out what I'm doing this summer before planning further. My materials will also be subject to change, but I'm continuing my classes, so I'll be continuing with Tobira and its accompanying kanji book, and of course still using Anki for vocabulary review. I'm toying with the idea of trying to plow through the first Harry Potter in Japanese this summer, but no solid plan yet. As usual, frequent anime viewings are my main listening exposure. Also, since I'm focussing on destroying my obstacles, I'll outline some of my basic health goals and give brief updates on them occasionally: - Eat well (healthy foods in proper amounts) and maintain a healthy weight (I am on the edge of underweight now) - Exercise regularly - Get a good night's sleep every night- 7-9 hours. - Get on medication and get it working for me (in progress!) - Get regular counseling and begin actually FIXING some of my problems Last, I want to give a big welcome to all the new team members on team い this year! Last year's team was fairly small, but we are huge this year! Good luck and everyone 頑張ってください! 3 persons have voted this message useful | |||
| Brun Ugle Diglot Senior Member Norway brunugle.wordpress.c Joined 6618 days ago 1292 posts - 1766 votes Speaks: English*, NorwegianC1 Studies: Japanese, Esperanto, Spanish, Finnish | Message 2 of 35 05 January 2012 at 10:27pm | IP Logged | ||
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Welcome back!
I see we have some of the same problems as we are both struggling with major depression and mental health problems, as well as the physical health problems that result from a long-lasting depression. I am also in the process of trying to put myself back together again and it isn't easy, so I fully understand your difficulties. So let's encourage one another and let's make this a great year for learning Japanese. 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| Sprachprofi Nonaglot Senior Member Germany learnlangs.comRegistered users can see my Skype Name Joined 6468 days ago 2608 posts - 4866 votes Speaks: German*, English, French, Esperanto, Greek, Mandarin, Latin, Dutch, Italian Studies: Spanish, Arabic (Written), Swahili, Indonesian, Japanese, Modern Hebrew, Portuguese | Message 3 of 35 05 January 2012 at 10:55pm | IP Logged | ||
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Check out hypnosis (from a professional, not a shifty new-agey character); it allows you
to "hack" into your mind and change a lot of unconscious thought patterns. Learn to hypnotize yourself. I was a big skeptic at first, but fortunately had the chance to try it out during an Esperanto meeting. Good luck in your language study! Stop by team "Ne Nur" occasionally, as there is a LOT of overlap. I'll be following this log too. Edited by Sprachprofi on 05 January 2012 at 10:56pm 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| Luai_lashire Diglot Senior Member United States luai-lashire.deviant Joined 5826 days ago 384 posts - 560 votes Speaks: English*, Esperanto Studies: Japanese, French | Message 4 of 35 06 January 2012 at 3:55am | IP Logged | ||
I'd be willing to try it out, but I'm not sure if anyone in my area does it, and cost is a major concern right now as my parents have two kids in college at once. I'm hoping to find someone who does biofeedback though, because a lot of my major problems are simply things that have become ingrained responses and I need to break the cycle. Just talking about my feelings is not going to cut it. I'm going to try to meditate regularly too, just to help myself wind down after long stressful school days. 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| g-bod Diglot Senior Member United KingdomRegistered users can see my Skype Name Joined 5980 days ago 1485 posts - 2002 votes Speaks: English*, Japanese Studies: French, German | Message 5 of 35 07 January 2012 at 2:59pm | IP Logged | ||
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Welcome back Luai, I did wonder why things went a bit quiet at the end of last year but I am glad you are back and feeling more positive. I know in the past when I have been run down mentally and physically, it can get you into a bit of a vicious circle, as lack of sleep and poor diet can have a real impact on your mood. So try and be kind to yourself.
I'm looking forward to following your progress in Japanese this year. It's a challenging goal but I think it is achievable. Oh, and if you already know the Harry Potter story, I doubt you will have much trouble reading the first volume extensively (that is, making the point of ignoring unknown words). I ploughed through it myself last year and I think my Japanese level is probably not as high as yours. 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| Sunja Diglot Senior Member Germany Joined 6083 days ago 2020 posts - 2295 votes 1 sounds Speaks: English*, German Studies: French, Mandarin | Message 6 of 35 07 January 2012 at 5:41pm | IP Logged | ||
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Wow, what an inspiring first post! I've been fighting my own uphill health-battle since August and it's nice to see I'm not alone in my endeavor to get back on track learning some languages. I look forward to reading this!
1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| Luai_lashire Diglot Senior Member United States luai-lashire.deviant Joined 5826 days ago 384 posts - 560 votes Speaks: English*, Esperanto Studies: Japanese, French | Message 7 of 35 13 January 2012 at 10:55pm | IP Logged | ||
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Checking in with my first real update of the year! I'm wearing a wrist brace so it's kinda hard to type, so I'll try to
keep this short. So far, things are going well! After a brief initial panic of "oh no, I've forgotten all my Japanese!", I feel I'm performing well again and impressing my new sensei. I actually asked her a question today about an expression in one of the example sentences in our grammar section, which was presented as though we ought to already know it although it had never learned it; she explained it to me and then remarked she was impressed with my thoroughness. I think I got brownie points. ;) Here's some anki stats: Vocabulary: 646 cards Sentences: 143 cards This weekend I plan to get ahead in my homework and add a whole ton of new vocab and sentences to my anki decks. I also want to revisit that bird watching article yet again. My other classes are going well too. My schedule is tough- I'm out 'til 5:30 most days and out until 10:00 on Mondays- and my classes have a lot of work. However, I love them. They are all fascinating and the teachers are all kind and supportive. I think I can make it work. My only concern is wearing myself out. I'm having a sudden bout of terrible insomnia (probably a side effect of my meds) and it's making me crash hard in the evening. I know I won't be able to keep up with the work load unless my sleeping improves. That said, my health goals are going well too. I've been walking to and from class a lot, and I went to the gym with my mom on Wednesday, although yesterday my recurrent tendonitis started up again so there will be no weight lifting for a while now. ;/ I've started meditating as a way of managing the stress and confusion of switching from the school environment to the home environment; it helps me refocus and organize my thoughts towards what I'm going to be doing next. And my diet is looking much much better. I'm eating a lot of fruit, slowly working veggies back in, and I've been having a lot of success taking yogurts onto campus to eat. I feel optimistic about the future. So, that's been my first week of the semester. I'll post another update sometime next week. :) 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| Sunja Diglot Senior Member Germany Joined 6083 days ago 2020 posts - 2295 votes 1 sounds Speaks: English*, German Studies: French, Mandarin | Message 8 of 35 14 January 2012 at 2:56pm | IP Logged | ||
It sounds like a good start into the semester!
I've changed my diet up a bit (part of my new yr's resolution) and I already feel better. I think food plays a major role in learning. I have to do everything I can to keep those kanji from slipping away into oblivion^^ 1 person has voted this message useful |
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