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jeff_lindqvist Diglot Moderator SwedenRegistered users can see my Skype Name Joined 6909 days ago 4250 posts - 5711 votes Speaks: Swedish*, English Studies: German, Spanish, Russian, Dutch, Mandarin, Esperanto, Irish, French Personal Language Map
| Message 25 of 40 07 January 2008 at 7:50am | IP Logged |
Professor,
Generally I do not listen and read at the same time, but I do this on occasions and feel that the "reward" is doubled. Anyway, now I have separate reading and listening columns - for me it is a good way to keep track of what I do in which language.
Mr Määtta told me how to solve the Excel problem. It was interesting to see which languages you prioritize (and not). I can adapt the chart for my own languages, hide those I have material for (but do not focus on at the moment) and so on.
Thanks again for your inspiration,
Jeff Lindqvist
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| virgule Senior Member Antarctica Joined 6840 days ago 242 posts - 261 votes Studies: Korean
| Message 26 of 40 07 January 2008 at 1:58pm | IP Logged |
Dear Professor,
I wish to thank you for sharing these tables. Some time ago you described your way of working as working like a monk. I found this an inspirational description of dedication to work. However, having now seen your tables, I am almost speechless. Although like many others I am unable to spend as much time on languages as you do, let me assure you that sharing these tables have inspired me a great deal. I am now resolved to stick to my own time table with no excuses.
Best regards,
Virgule
P.S. In line with this thread, here is how I manage my time: I have drawn up a timetable similar to the one I was given in primary school. Every week is the same, and the day is divided into hours. Most of this is taken by my work. I have one hour in the morning, and two hours in the evenings, each assigned to specific languages according to my priorities. I then keep a simple record where I tick off each of these slots.
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| Andy_Liu Triglot Senior Member Hong Kong leibby.comRegistered users can see my Skype Name Joined 6786 days ago 255 posts - 257 votes Speaks: Mandarin, Cantonese*, EnglishC2 Studies: French
| Message 27 of 40 07 January 2008 at 11:16pm | IP Logged |
I would second what Virgule said. I have, likewise, tried to learn at more regular time intervals. Actually, I kept on writing which lesson or what chapter of a language book I went through on a day since early last year, and wrote down how much time I spent. When I summed up the hours I spent, actually, without having read the professor's study chart before, I found that I have almost spent 400 hours on German, having gone through an Assimil course by the end of the year, even though I had not learnt in some of the recommended ways / ways that I now believe to be better in some sense, as time passed. That is to say, in earlier months, I spent more time on pure reading and at times became needlessly analytic, like checking dictionary translations back and forth and ending up forgetting them some time later.
I did not learn others that much, but I do realize how much knowledge I can retain. For example, I have retained a bit of knowledge about French phonetics, even after only read a book about it for a few hours in a few consecutive days some months ago.
Naturally, because I have not reached a stage where I can make my study chart similar to that of the professor (with columns shadowing, narrative and so on), my current practice is simply to put it as "writing" and something like "miscellaneous" for some activities I simply cannot / do not spend a whole 30-minute session on.
I tried to struggle for more time, but even on holiday, all I can get is around 3 or 4 hours. There might be different sorts of troubles for everyone, but then, I wonder what we may do to try to, naturally and realistically, spend as much time as possible, with some meditation skills. I think they might be of more help than trying to keep an all too rigid schedule.
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| Serpent Octoglot Senior Member Russian Federation serpent-849.livejour Joined 6597 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 28 of 40 13 January 2008 at 5:46pm | IP Logged |
ProfArguelles wrote:
After so much expectation and wait, almost anything is bound to be rather disappointing, but I hope these are indeed of some use to somebody. For me, keeping such charts is a real way to keep my balance, direction, and perspective. The even numbers are due to the fact that I have placed certain languages in alternating cycles so that they receive equal attention. |
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Thanks a lot for sharing the charts. They were certainly not a disappointment, but I expected they would show how exactly you balance your studies. Do you have an hour a day devoted to each language family and then study one language of this family for this hour, getting through the whole family in a week or so? Or how do you go about it?
I was also surprised to see quite a lot of scriptorium pages for English. Is it because you experimented with this technique a lot?
Edited by Serpent on 13 January 2008 at 5:47pm
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| ProfArguelles Moderator United States foreignlanguageexper Joined 7256 days ago 609 posts - 2102 votes
| Message 29 of 40 13 January 2008 at 9:01pm | IP Logged |
Ms. Evdokimova,
Narrative, analysis, and shadowing are comparatively free and spontaneous—I do what I do there when I feel need and desire. Scriptorium is highly structured on two alternating cycles (which are not necessarily reflected in the chart I provided, as I, too, have made New Year’s Resolutions…):
Cycle A:
English
English
Arabic
Arabic
Sanskrit
Sanskrit
Chinese
Chinese
Turkish
Persian
Greek
Latin
Latin
Romanian
Italian
French
German
Dutch
Russian
Serbian
English
English
Cycle B:
English
English
Arabic
Arabic
Sanskrit
Sanskrit
Chinese
Chinese
Turkish
Hindi
Irish
Latin
Latin
Catalan
Spanish
Portuguese
Icelandic
Swedish
Polish
Czech
English
English
English in the scriptorium is utterly different from the others—I do not copy anything, but write two pages freely, reflectively, and in an effort to be creative, first and last thing every day. My main goal for the year is to bring the languages on these cycles up to parity, be it two pages a day or a page every other day. I have some great deficits to make up, but I plan to make 2008 a year of intensive writing.
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| Serpent Octoglot Senior Member Russian Federation serpent-849.livejour Joined 6597 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 30 of 40 20 January 2008 at 5:57pm | IP Logged |
Thank you, that's very interesting.
I've now also started to keep charts, although since I'm more like Iversen as far as the attitude to time-tables is concerned, I only keep record of when I last did something in a particular language, because I tend to confuse wishes with reality - e.g. thinking I last did something two days ago while in fact it was 4 or even 5 days ago. I'll also keep track of some particular activities, for example going through the articles at getitwriteonline.com - a site for those who wish to improve their style in English. Each article has a short test at the end to make sure you've understood all the points, and I'll record my scores and also review some articles based on it. I'll probably systemize more activities in this fashion, but I don't know yet how.
Edit: url corrected
Edited by Serpent on 24 January 2008 at 11:12pm
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| andee Tetraglot Senior Member Japan Joined 7077 days ago 681 posts - 724 votes 3 sounds Speaks: English*, German, Korean, French
| Message 31 of 40 03 May 2009 at 4:49am | IP Logged |
This was very interesting to read.
I'm not very regimented in what I do, but I _want_ to be. So seeing the chart has given me the idea of attempting to do the same. I previously have kept a log, but it only clocked the total hours approximately.
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| atcprunner Pentaglot Newbie United States Joined 5927 days ago 17 posts - 17 votes Speaks: English*, German, Spanish, French, Mandarin Studies: Russian
| Message 32 of 40 19 January 2013 at 6:20am | IP Logged |
I know that this thread is somewhat old, but I would like to know if someone has a copy
of the Professor's spreadsheets available. The link from 2008 provided by Gilder is no
longer working.
Any other spreadsheets from others (especially people who must focus on a lot of language
maintenance) would be most appreciated.
Thank you.
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