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’Rest area technique’ proposals? | ||
Tags: Vocabulary learning | ||
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 Language Learning Forum : Learning Techniques, Methods & Strategies |  | |
| mrwarper Diglot Winner TAC 2012 Senior Member Spain forum_posts.asp?TID=Registered users can see my Skype Name Joined 5218 days ago 1493 posts - 2500 votes  Speaks: Spanish*, EnglishC2 Studies: German, Russian, Japanese | Message 1 of 6 08 January 2011 at 1:22pm | IP Logged |
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Until I develop a method to keep flash cards stored in human-editable, plain text files, I'll stick with good ol' paper ones, instead of their computerized/cellphone counterparts.
The thing is, a couple of nights ago I was stuck at a rest area without the flash cards I always keep handy (you know about Murphy's Law, right?), so with 5 hours ahead of me and nothing better to do, I tried to recall the entire contents of my current decks of cards. Before getting bored and switching to something else, I recalled quite a few words alongside their corresponding definitions/translations from each deck, but I didn't do very well overall: Nouns: 34/109 Adjectives: 21/50 Verbs: 24/45 Plants, vegetables and gardening: 15/21 Picturesque expressions: 12/28 After getting hold of my cards again, though, I counted (upper numbers above) and reviewed all the terms and noticed that even if I couldn't recall what was on the cards, I still remembered perfectly well any of the items given one of the sides (95% accuracy actually, that's why I still use flashcards). So, I'd like to hear your proposals of what to do in such a situation, in order to better make productive unproductive interims like this in the future. Edited by mrwarper on 08 January 2011 at 1:24pm 1 person has voted this message useful | |
| JPike1028 Triglot Senior Member United States piketransitions Joined 5389 days ago 297 posts - 337 votes Speaks: English*, French, Italian Studies: German, Spanish, Russian, Arabic (Written), Swedish, Portuguese, Czech | Message 2 of 6 08 January 2011 at 1:44pm | IP Logged |
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Have a conversation with yourself, or if possible, just start writing.
1 person has voted this message useful | |
| Doitsujin Diglot Senior Member Germany Joined 5312 days ago 1256 posts - 2363 votes Speaks: German*, English | Message 3 of 6 08 January 2011 at 3:49pm | IP Logged |
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If you have a smart-phone, get an ebook reader app and store some foreign language books on it.
(You can get some free ones from Project Gutenberg.) Install a free StarDict-compatible dictionary app and some free dictionaries. 1 person has voted this message useful | |
| mrwarper Diglot Winner TAC 2012 Senior Member Spain forum_posts.asp?TID=Registered users can see my Skype Name Joined 5218 days ago 1493 posts - 2500 votes Speaks: Spanish*, EnglishC2 Studies: German, Russian, Japanese | Message 4 of 6 08 January 2011 at 5:30pm | IP Logged |
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Actually, I had a ton of pending TL videos to watch and that's what I did afterwards :)
I meant other possibilities wrt to 'lost my cards/stuff' situations, my point being that there surely must be things you can do at that point, regarding both your material and its temporary unavailability. 1 person has voted this message useful | |
| hypersport Senior Member United States Joined 5873 days ago 216 posts - 307 votes Studies: Spanish | Message 5 of 6 08 January 2011 at 5:51pm | IP Logged |
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Read a book.
Reading has to be the most underused tool in language learning. When you can get absorbed in a story you are learning new vocabulary as well as solidifying the words that constantly repeat because you are seeing them in context, it makes sense. The other huge benefit is that you are "studying" grammar without studying. You see the way sentences are formed and how people speak over and over again and it starts to feel just as natural as your native language. I always have a novel written in Spanish with me for any moment of free time and I find myself looking forward to the opportunities, not to study but to get back into the story which is way more fun. Currently I'm reading my 16th novel (avg. 500 - 700 pages). There's no way I'd spend an hour doing flash cards but I'll easily read a book for an hour if I have the time. Words in context that repeat stick. I think words that are learned with flash cards have to be translated and found (in your native language first) before you can effortlessly put one into a sentence when actually speaking the language. 5 persons have voted this message useful | |
| Sprachprofi Nonaglot Senior Member Germany learnlangs.comRegistered users can see my Skype Name Joined 6462 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 6 of 6 08 January 2011 at 7:56pm | IP Logged |
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If you have a smartphone on you, you might as well be studying Anki on it.
However, if you're truly unprepared, i. e. also not having a book on you or anything, you could... - create mind-maps in your target language - try to recall and write down the lyrics of songs in your target language (my favorite activity for boring classes at school) - write random stuff in your target language (my second favorite activity at school; you should see the margins) - practice drawing Kanji / Hanzi Edited by Sprachprofi on 08 January 2011 at 7:56pm 1 person has voted this message useful |
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