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Going back to Europe TAC 2014 DE|FR|日本語 | ||
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 Language Learning Forum : Language Learning Log |  | |
| 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 49 of 142 22 February 2014 at 8:58pm | IP Logged |
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I guess French has really started to drop from my radar this February. The excellent iTalki tutor I spoke to a few times in January has not been available for most of February and I haven't been able to schedule a slot. I guess I could have tried to search for a different tutor but it's just turned into a very convenient excuse to let Japanese take over again.
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| yuhakko Tetraglot Senior Member FranceRegistered users can see my Skype Name Joined 4630 days ago 414 posts - 582 votes Speaks: French*, EnglishB2, EnglishC2, Spanish, Japanese Studies: Korean, Norwegian, Mandarin | Message 50 of 142 23 February 2014 at 12:59pm | IP Logged |
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Haha, Told you it'd happen! ;)
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| 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 51 of 142 24 February 2014 at 7:41pm | IP Logged |
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I feel that my return to Japanese deserves some kind of a log post, although on the whole I am trying to reduce the amount of time I spend posting on HTLAL. It takes time to put my thoughts into writing and can easily lead me down the path of introspection over action. It’s fine if I don’t know what I’m doing or what I want, and sometimes just trying to write everything down and then make sense of it is enough to find some degree of clarity or inspiration, but at the moment I think I know where I’m going and what I ought to be doing, which means anything else really is just procrastination!
My main activities at the moment are as follows: Regular language exchange and JOI lessons Listening to JPOD101 Watching TV drama Extensive reading Using 新完全マスター to study all the grammar I was supposed to know before I sat N2 Using the Kanji in Context workbook to fill in some gaps when it comes to kanji and vocabulary I’m trying to make sure I have a range of activities covering different skills at different intensities to pick from depending on mood and energy, but without trying to do too much, spreading myself too thin, or sending myself down the quick road to burn out. I have also decided that I am absolutely not allowed to buy any more books (either for extensive reading or textbooks) until I’ve made a significant dent in what I already own. This is partly due to my trying to avoid spreading myself too thin and feeling overwhelmed, but also due to the fact that it is all too easy to turn the hunt for the perfect textbook, or the perfect tadoku material, into another procrastination exercise. The one exception is that I’ve promised myself a copy of新完全マスター文法N1, but only once I’ve finished with the N2 volume! Last week I hit another one of my regular episodes of self doubt. I’m sure Serpent would have something to say about that one. But this time I somehow managed to ride it out and I’m still sticking to Japanese. I think it helps that I’m trying to make a point of not trying to do too much. I’m not setting any unrealistic or constrictive goals along the lines of “finish X chapters in X weeks”, rather just trying to stick to my menu of activities I set out above. Lang exchange, reading and TV should never get tired, but if I get fed up of any of the other things on the list there’s no reason not to swap them out for something else. I’m keeping track of things in a very simple spreadsheet, which means that I can see exactly how much I’ve covered at the end of every month, without having to put in updates about every single activity I do. I’m also making the point of taking regular breaks. For example, I never expect myself to study on Saturdays any more (although I don’t prevent myself from doing so if I really desperately want to). The idea is that I get a proper break, rather than just procrastinating, allowing my subconscious to get on with the business of making sense of the language while I enjoy myself doing something completely different! Edited by g-bod on 24 February 2014 at 7:42pm 3 persons have voted this message useful | |
| rewire Groupie United States learninglane.tumblr.Registered users can see my Skype Name Joined 4545 days ago 82 posts - 90 votes Speaks: English* Studies: Japanese, Mandarin | Message 52 of 142 24 February 2014 at 8:15pm | IP Logged |
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Hm, the spreadsheet sounds like a good idea. I also find myself procrastinating by posting just listening out
everything I did, even though it's not really interesting to anyone else. I might try to keep a spreadsheet instead also. That's good to take regular breaks, too. I keep trying to be better about that myself, but I seem to always end up doing more and more for a while until I can't and then don't do anything instead. 1 person has voted this message useful | |
| kraemder Senior Member United StatesRegistered users can see my Skype Name Joined 5182 days ago 1497 posts - 1648 votes Speaks: English* Studies: German, Spanish, Japanese | Message 53 of 142 24 February 2014 at 9:11pm | IP Logged |
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I feel your pain about neglecting other languages. Especially since I signed up to do mandarin. But Japanese
calls and I can't resist. I'm also making myself use the material I have before getting more. Hopefully that'll make me make better progress. 1 person has voted this message useful | |
| kujichagulia Senior Member Japan Joined 4845 days ago 1031 posts - 1571 votes Speaks: English* Studies: Japanese, Portuguese | Message 54 of 142 25 February 2014 at 5:47am | IP Logged |
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g-bod, you just couldn't stay away, could you? ;)
またようこそ！ 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 55 of 142 01 March 2014 at 7:50pm | IP Logged |
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End of February Summary
German I'll keep German to one side until I really feel like I need a break from Japanese or French. Success - I haven't touched German all month! I will keep doing my reviews in Anki. Anki says the last time I reviewed my German deck was 22 days ago, and Anki doesn't lie... Japanese - Keep reading, ideally every day I haven't read every day, but I have started reading more. I got through a graded reader for 3rd graders and a volume of ドラえもん. Still room to do more though - Dip into online news articles more regularly, the ones on NHK seem to be a bit more comprehensible to me right now I am indeed starting to dip into news articles more regularly. Also started looking at 天声人語 in 朝日 and 春秋 in 日経, both of which I read about on vonPeterhof's log. The content is often challenging, but the length is ideal. I get the feeling if I can improve my comprehension of these types of articles, sections of the N1 読解 should be a breeze - Limit textbook work to things which will directly benefit my reading, such as Kanji in Context, review of N2 grammar (新完全マスター) and possibly a bit of intensive reading with N2 level texts (either 新完全マスター or Unicom) I got through 4 chapters in Kanji in Context and 3.5 chapters in 新完全マスター文法N2. I decided that trying to get through a 読解 book as well would be too much, and I can get reading practice through reading real stuff instead - Regular language exchange Done! 4 exchanges in February - Take a few more Japonin lessons Done! 6 classes in February, and I now know what kraemder's Japanese sounds like! - Watch some more TV drama Done, and done some more! 19.75 hours of TV overall, including finishing off Proposal Daisakusen, rewatching Nodame Cantabile, and starting Moto Kare - 2 400 character essays Well, that didn't happen In addition to the above, I've also started listening to JapanesePod101 again, getting through 7 episodes at the Lower Intermediate level in February. I also decided to use the iTalki credits I couldn't spend on French lessons on some Japanese lessons instead. I had one half hour session with a tutor which went really well, but another half an hour session with a different teacher which didn't work out as we couldn't maintain a connection on Skype. French - Continue Skype lessons Ended up not having a single lesson this month, due to my teacher becoming unavailable - 2 250 word essays Didn't happen - Finish reading l'élégance du hérisson Still halfway through it - Read a few pages of Le Monde each week Kept up with this for the first half of February, but then trailed off - Keep listening to the radio/podcasts As with Le Monde, I did well in the first half of the month, but did not continue - pronunciation (Les 500 exercices de phonétique) Didn't happen - review of basic grammar (Grammaire Progressive du Français) Didn't happen either 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 56 of 142 01 March 2014 at 8:00pm | IP Logged |
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A Plan for March
I'm keeping things simple this month, in fact I'm just going to very slightly tweak the list above about what I've been doing in Japanese and use that. Japanese Speaking practice: Language exchange, JOI, iTalki Writing practice: Write something! Listening to JPOD101 Watching TV drama Extensive reading Kanji in Context 新完全マスター文法N2 It's more of a list of proposed activities than clearly defined goals, but I've found it really easy to track these things in a spreadsheet on Google Docs so that at the end of the month I can summarise how much of each I've been doing, and give some vague impression of progress! I'm going to be away for most of the first week of March and don't expect to be doing any language study in this time at all. However, as I will be in London, I am not sure I can stick to my promise above about not buying any more Japanese books... 1 person has voted this message useful |
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