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Kuji’s Krazy Log II | ||
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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 625 of 706 11 December 2014 at 7:42pm | IP Logged | |||||
You only have three priorities? One of which is language learning? You are a lucky man!
It's not exactly a bad attitude to have, at least within reason. I am a lazy student, so I would probably benefit from approaching things more often in this way. However, I will say that getting used to dealing with a certain amount of ambiguity is an extremely valuable skill to develop in itself. There are many times in life where you need to communicate and you can't just pull up a pop up dictionary to help out. I think it's just a question of getting a healthy balance between intensive and extensive activities, both of which can be fun! 1 person has voted this message useful | ||||||
| Expugnator Hexaglot Senior Member Brazil Joined 5164 days ago 3335 posts - 4349 votes Speaks: Portuguese*, Norwegian, French, English, Italian, Papiamento Studies: Mandarin, Georgian, Russian | Message 626 of 706 11 December 2014 at 9:07pm | IP Logged | |||||
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The 'tão' is there because Brazilians don't like to affirm 100%...especially in the news. We tend to leave room for side explanations and such.
Funny how I'm exactly the opposite of you at this respect. I need to work on some texts intensively and trying to work my grammar, even if for a few paragraphs only. I have a lot of fun with stuff I can understand (usually because of translation), but most of the times I don't make use of those native materials (I study a lot of them each day) in a way that goes beyond the fun and that actually allows me to learn enough from it. Eu não consigo estudar meus textos ou meus vídeos de uma forma que esteja tão dentro do esperado. :P 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 627 of 706 12 December 2014 at 2:06am | IP Logged | |||||
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@g-bod - Ha! I wish I had only three priorities! I would have listed more for that example, but there are only 26 letters in the alphabet. I guess I could have done it like this: Priority BZXE, Priority BZXF, Priority BZXG... :) And that balance you speak of... that is what I'm aiming for. It's almost all intensive for me, and that has been a struggle from Day 1. And I know that - I've known it for years - but I still fall into the same trap, the same cycle, every time, because I don't know how to let things go. It's a bad trait of mine.
@Expugnator - Obrigado! With everyone's help here, that sentence now seems to be clear. And it's not that I don't need to do intensive study - I certainly do, because it takes longer for new words, phrases and grammar to stick in my mind than most people - but I think I need to have more of a balance between intensive and extensive, for my sanity's sake. 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 628 of 706 16 December 2014 at 4:11am | IP Logged | |||||
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Hmmm, just noticed that signups have started for TAC 2015. You know what... I'm not
going to do it this time. I think that the Total Annihilation Challenge can be helpful, but after participating (or not participating) in the TAC the last two years, I think that it's not for me. The passion for that specific challenge just isn't there, so no signup for me. That's not to say that I won't help anyone that needs help, or take advice from those that give it to me, but I certainly do not want to weigh down a team with my inevitable long absences during busy periods in my life. And to be honest... for me, it's one less thing to worry about. I'm finding that I have less stress in my life when I have less to think about - even something as miniscule as a TAC. Less clutter, more butter, I say. Edited by kujichagulia on 16 December 2014 at 4:13am 4 persons have voted this message useful | ||||||
| kujichagulia Senior Member Japan Joined 4845 days ago 1031 posts - 1571 votes Speaks: English* Studies: Japanese, Portuguese | Message 629 of 706 18 December 2014 at 3:34am | IP Logged | |||||
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WEEKLY UPDATE
JAPANESE More of the same: You're In Love, Charlie Brown video, a little bit of an article from October, diary writings, radio/podcast listenings, TV, and Anki reviews. PORTUGUESE I was "lazy" this past week in Portuguese. I still haven't started on Part 3 of the Deutsche Welle "Futebol: Mais do que um jogo" radionovela. I did do a little bit of review for Part 2. Other than that, just a lot of listening - mostly passive. I listened to podcasts, and at home I played the RTP news channel and TV Brasil while doing other things. Oh, and I got a lot of rare speaking practice in, thanks to iguanamon. We did some dialogue speaking practice via voice chat... which was really helpful for me. Edited by kujichagulia on 18 December 2014 at 3:35am 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 630 of 706 05 January 2015 at 3:23am | IP Logged | |||||
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Happy New Year!
開けましておめでとうございます！ Feliz Ano Novo! After a nice weeklong vacation in California, I feel... well... tired, because we do a lot when we travel. Oh, and sick, too. I caught a cold somewhere, and I became sick after returning to Japan. Perhaps it was because of the coldest weather in California in 80 years, according to the local news? I never thought I'd wear a skull cap, gloves, a scarf and a coat in Los Angeles, but it was necessary. Anyway, back to normal life. I'm not doing TAC this year, but I still want to have something to focus on for 2015. I think that, for Japanese, I'm at the point where I am not going to improve unless I use the language more and integrate it more into my daily life. I do use Japanese, but I think I can achieve some breakthroughs if I use it more, and study it less - if you know what I mean. Some ideas: * Daily writing/diary-keeping. I already try to do this, but it is not as consistent as I want. I can go for days without writing something in Japanese. I think this is important for me because I can play with the language with no pressure, practice what I've learned, and solidify that into my active language. * Watch more TV with conversation. I have the TV on every morning and evening, but during those times it's mainly news. I need to watch things that have more conversation in them, like dramas. Speaking of news... * Read less news and more conversational material. Most of my reading these days is news stories, and while that is not harmful, it might benefit my conversational skills more if I read more material with natural conversation in them. Subtitle files are good for this and easy to come by (kitsunekko.net). I should spend more time perusing at my school's library. It's harder to look up unknown words with a physical book, but I might have to just bear down and do it. I mean, I have free access to hundreds of Japanese books at my workplace! I should really utilize it more. * Whether it's reading or watching TV, do less intensive work and more extensive reading/watching. Use the language; don't study it under a microscope. * Keep looking for more language partners. I'm not going to stress myself out doing this, but I should make more of an effort. I have one good penpal I found at InterPals. She's kind of busy, so she doesn't write much. To be fair, I don't either, but I should, so I should probably look for more penpals. Portuguese ideas will come later. 2 persons have 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 631 of 706 05 January 2015 at 4:31am | IP Logged | |||||
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Would you say that penpals are better than just writing on lang-8? If so I think I'll try to find some too. I think
you should still do anki - like 20 min a day or 10 min a day or something. It's just a good way to make sure you are learning and not just cruising. But otherwise I like your plan to use the language more. 2 persons have voted this message useful | ||||||
| kujichagulia Senior Member Japan Joined 4845 days ago 1031 posts - 1571 votes Speaks: English* Studies: Japanese, Portuguese | Message 632 of 706 05 January 2015 at 6:46am | IP Logged | |||||
I thought that it might be better when I first sought some penpals, but now I don't think it is better. They probably both achieve the same thing. With penpals, you get to know one or a few people well, and you get used to their writing and they get used to yours. You can get better corrections that way. But if you do it right, you can do the same thing in Lang-8. In Lang-8, you can make friends and give weight to the corrections of those you trust more, or are more friendly towards. In Lang-8, you don't necessarily have to direct your letter towards one person; you can write in a variety of styles and get corrections on them, so that's an advantage. I suppose penpals are like one-on-one conversations, and Lang-8 is like being the center of a conversation in a corner at a party, but both of them are going to get you conversation practice and corrections. One thing I like about having a penpal is that it forces me to keep writing. If I get an email from a penpal, I'm eventually going to write back as soon as I have time, because I feel guilty just leaving that email in my inbox without a reply! But with Lang-8, I sometimes slack off, go away for a few months, and then come back to it.
I've been slacking off of Anki the past couple of weeks, but yeah, I'm not going to give it up. I'm kind of experimenting a bit with how I set up my cards, but I think that no matter how I do it, Anki helps give my vocabulary retention a nice boost. 1 person has voted this message useful |
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