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How do you manage your time and material?

  Tags: Study Plan
 Language Learning Forum : Learning Techniques, Methods & Strategies Post Reply
13 messages over 2 pages: 1 2  Next >>
Po-ru
Diglot
Senior Member
United States
Joined 5415 days ago

173 posts - 235 votes 
Speaks: English*, Japanese
Studies: Korean, Spanish, Norwegian, Mandarin, French

 
 Message 1 of 13
08 July 2011 at 7:48am | IP Logged 
Hi everyone. I am curious to see how much time you all study languages a day and how
you use that time. This is aimed at everyone. From a beginner studying one language
to an already established polylgot who studys two or three languages a day. I am also
interested in intermediate polyglots like myself who have studied a few languages but
are looking to break into some more, but can't dedicate the time in fear of other
languages suffering.

I study Japanese and Korean, regularly. Occasionally I do some Mandarin, French,
Spanish, and Russian. Though I would like to break into other languages like Italian
and Portuguese, but I just cannot find the time. My hands are full with Japanese and
Korean, but if I just drill myself with those two everyday I'll get curious of other
languages and become bored. I use these other languages to keep myself motivated and
refreshed in language learning. I am at a level where taking a few days off from
Japanese or Korean does my brain some good.

I am curious to see what you all do?
2 persons have voted this message useful



Animalia
Newbie
United States
Joined 4950 days ago

39 posts - 44 votes
Speaks: English*
Studies: Spanish

 
 Message 2 of 13
08 July 2011 at 8:06am | IP Logged 
I'm definetly at a beginer level of learning Spanish. Normally though with school and practices I try to do a hour at least every other day of "main study" Something like memorizing new words, trying to read something, writing my thoughts down or writing conjugations and what not. With normally 20 or so minutes of BS study listening to some Spanish music, flipping subtitles on a movie. Something that im not activly practicing but it sometimes helps.
1 person has voted this message useful



zuneybunny
Diglot
Newbie
United States
turkishtrip.wordpres
Joined 4872 days ago

32 posts - 52 votes 
Speaks: English, Mandarin*
Studies: Spanish, Turkish

 
 Message 3 of 13
09 July 2011 at 3:28am | IP Logged 
About 3 hours studying Turkish (A1 Level), but if you factor in the time I spend
passively listening to Turkish news, that'd be 4-6 more hours.

About 1/2 hour with Teach Yourself Turkish, 1 hour Pimsleur, 1/2 hour flash cards, an
hour chatting with Turks online.
1 person has voted this message useful



jarm
Newbie
Australia
Joined 4847 days ago

33 posts - 55 votes 
Speaks: English*

 
 Message 4 of 13
14 July 2011 at 4:31pm | IP Logged 
I keep logs of all the different things I'm studying. In total I'm working on four different languages, but they have different priorities. One has high priority, another medium (I stopped studying it for about six months, and want to get back to 'maintenance' level) and two more are low priority ones.

I do about two to three hours total of vocabulary learning a day, which I record into a log book. Then I have a log book of exercises, which is mostly of the one language, but I also record stuff I've done for the other three in it, like going over grammar notes, etc.

If I have time, I'll write one journal entry on the one language and then choose one of the others to write a paragraph on.

I think the most important thing for me is keeping very precise logs of everything, and planning the day in advance. That way you can just jump straight in and do it. Apart from the journal stuff, and preparation of some vocabulary, pretty much everything I do is not with a computer, so I don't get distracted.

In total, it probably breaks down to 1 1/2 hours for each of the low-priority languages, 2 hours for the medium and at least 3-4 hours of the high priority language per day. I'll probably be cutting it back a little though, because I'm afraid I'll burn out after a while...
1 person has voted this message useful



Cainntear
Pentaglot
Senior Member
Scotland
linguafrankly.blogsp
Joined 5946 days ago

4399 posts - 7687 votes 
Speaks: Lowland Scots, English*, French, Spanish, Scottish Gaelic
Studies: Catalan, Italian, German, Irish, Welsh

 
 Message 5 of 13
14 July 2011 at 6:30pm | IP Logged 
How do I manage my time and material?

Badly.
9 persons have voted this message useful



Mrs. Dalloway
Triglot
Groupie
Italy
Joined 4904 days ago

70 posts - 95 votes 
Speaks: Italian*, EnglishC2, Russian
Studies: GermanA2, French, Danish

 
 Message 6 of 13
15 July 2011 at 4:58pm | IP Logged 
I don't. I do what I'm willing to do at the moment and tend not to give priorities. That penalizes me sometimes, but, if you're not in a hurry, that's the less stressing method.

Although I noticed that most people here are organized and methodic, and will disagree with me (:
1 person has voted this message useful



Sunja
Diglot
Senior Member
Germany
Joined 6020 days ago

2020 posts - 2295 votes 
1 sounds
Speaks: English*, German
Studies: French, Mandarin

 
 Message 7 of 13
15 July 2011 at 5:49pm | IP Logged 
I'd lose out on all my languages if I tried tackling them all at once. It's too much for me to try and juggle so many, plus my responsibilities to work/family.

how much time I spend per day:

about 30 minutes all together, on average. Sometimes less/more, but never more than 40 minutes. Sunday is the exception. I spend hours studying on Sunday, if I can.

how I use that time

I'm with Mrs. Dalloway. I don't adhere to any one particular formula, unless not finishing anything is a formula. (hey, maybe it is!)

Because I'm really busy and I have to stay flexible in my schedule, my language learning has to be flexible too. I count on the fact that there will always be an interruption and I will never get through more than one page in a book. I have a lot of varied materials (I'm always at ebay or amazon) and I stop and start methods. I work in "spurts" of 10-20 minutes, which is easier than trying to find a one-hour slot somewhere in the day. The only problem is trying to find the discipline to go back to what I was doing before I got interrupted..


1 person has voted this message useful



hrhenry
Octoglot
Senior Member
United States
languagehopper.blogs
Joined 5065 days ago

1871 posts - 3642 votes 
Speaks: English*, SpanishC2, ItalianC2, Norwegian, Catalan, Galician, Turkish, Portuguese
Studies: Polish, Indonesian, Ojibwe

 
 Message 8 of 13
16 July 2011 at 5:35am | IP Logged 
I have a hard time with three.

My Norwegian is at a B2 level (hoping to get to C1 by the end of the year. We'll see). I have ample opportunity to speak it with a couple of locals.

My main focus is Turkish. I devote the most time to that, listening, reading, writing, and conversation with a Skype partner. I hope to get to a high B1 level by the end of the year.

My Polish suffers the most. I have the interest, but don't really have the time to search/practice with a language partner, so all I'm doing is listening and some reading, watching a movie or two - nothing active. Stuck at A2.

And all things considered, I probably have more time on my hands this summer than most people.

R.
==


1 person has voted this message useful



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