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Kuji’s Krazy Log II | ||
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 Language Learning Forum : Language Learning Log |  | |
| kujichagulia Senior Member Japan Joined 4845 days ago 1031 posts - 1571 votes  Speaks: English* Studies: Japanese, Portuguese | Message 641 of 706 20 January 2015 at 2:30am | IP Logged | |||||
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One of the things I've wanted to do for a long time is to do more studying at home. But that is proving to be difficult. Let me give you an example; this is what I did last night after coming home.
5:30 PM - Arrive home 5:35 PM - Feed rabbit; refill his water bottle 5:40 PM - Start cooking 5:55 PM - Yell at the rabbit for digging the carpet 6:00 PM - Resume cooking 6:20 PM - Cooking finished 6:30 PM - Wife arrives home; we eat. 7:00 PM - Begin chores; wash the dishes 7:40 PM - Clean the rabbit cage 8:20 PM - Prepare lunch for the next day 8:35 PM - Shower and bath 9:15 PM - Bring in the laundry from outside, fold them, and put them away 9:40 PM - Wash the water pitcher and put a new filter in (obviously I don't do this every day, but there is always a "one-time" chore that comes up) 9:50 PM - 10 minutes of "language time" until I go to bed at 10:00 PM, so I just read a little of a Japanese article online There you have it. 10 minutes of language time last night. And the schedule becomes a bit more packed when I go to the fitness center. I don't go on Mondays, but I go on Tuesdays, Wednesdays, and Fridays - not including the weekends. On those days, I don't do laundry, and I go to bed a little later, say, 10:30 PM, but you can see that it is difficult to squeeze in more than a few minutes of language time at home during the week. This is why studying on the train was precious to me. I have a total of 80 minutes (the ride to work and the ride home, altogether) on the train, and in theory, I'm on my own, free of most distractions. If I can sit down, I can (theoretically) pull out my notebook, books, or whatever I might have and study. If I have to stand, I'm limited to activities I can do on my Android Walkman, but I can do those. But it's really difficult to study on the way home nowadays because I'm so tired - no matter how much I sleep the night before. I still have the 40 minutes on the morning commute, but it can be packed sometimes and it's hard to concentrate, so I have to do less taxing activities like listening to audio or watching a video - something more extensive. Anyway, enough whining. I think what I'm going to have to do is to just do more passive activities or small activities during the week. I could have on headphones and listen to something while doing chores, but my wife doesn't like that, because it's hard to get my attention when she needs me. But I could play some music or Internet radio on a speaker on the balcony when I'm doing laundry, for example. I could do a little self-talk while cutting vegetables. There are probably little things I could do here and there in between chores or before aerobics class. I just need to be creative. As for the more intensive activities, those can probably wait until the weekend, when I have more time. I should do language activities every day, but I don't have to do something intensive every day. Perhaps something as small as 10 minutes of passive listening would do. I need to find more creative ways to get my language time during the week. Edited by kujichagulia on 20 January 2015 at 2:32am 1 person has voted this message useful | ||||||
| iguanamon Pentaglot Senior Member Virgin Islands Speaks: Ladino Joined 5260 days ago 2241 posts - 6731 votes Speaks: English*, Spanish, Portuguese, Haitian Creole, Creole (French) | Message 642 of 706 20 January 2015 at 1:22pm | IP Logged | |||||
Hmmm, how about one ear with a headphone in it? Go back and review the "Hidden Moments" chapter in Farber's book How to Learn Any Language. Also see Serpent's thread on the topic.
Another option could also be becoming an early riser. Utilizing the "hidden moments" strategy can be trying and difficult at first, until you get used to it. The nature of my job means that I have more of these than the average person. I remember when I was learning Haitian Creole intensively I wanted to take no time away from my Portuguese. So I decided that it would be a strictly hidden moments and early rising strategy. At the same time, I decided to lose weight and my lunch time became useful because I was eating less of it. Instead of getting up at 6 am I got up at 5 am. I really started to use waiting time more productively and saw that I had all kinds of time I didn't know I had before. Using this strategy this intensely, utilizing every single possible moment, (for me) just isn't sustainable over a long-term. What it taught me was that after the initial push, I knew how to utilize hidden moments more effectively. That one month of what some would consider intense "sacrifice" (giving up my down time) trained me. So now I'm prepared if I find myself waiting somewhere for 5 to 15 minutes. I don't have to use every moment but I know how to do it and use quite a few when I want. It's not a strategy for everyone. Neither is "early-rising", but one thing that language-learning requires is time. So if you don't have it, you have to make it. It boils down to this- how much do you want to learn a language? Edited by iguanamon on 20 January 2015 at 4:30pm 3 persons have voted this message useful | ||||||
| Crush Tetraglot Senior Member ChinaRegistered users can see my Skype Name Joined 5863 days ago 1622 posts - 2299 votes Speaks: English*, Spanish, Mandarin, Esperanto Studies: Basque | Message 643 of 706 20 January 2015 at 1:45pm | IP Logged | |||||
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In addition to what iguanamon mentioned, it can be a good idea to prepare things that you CAN do in your spare time. Have a book around, have an audiobook or podcast on your phone/mp3 player, maybe start a small Anki deck and use AnkiDroid to review when waiting in line, keep a notepad around to jot down sentences you didn't know how to say or words you'd forgotten to look up later, etc. Getting up early is also a "technique" that Prof. Arguelles uses, i've also found i am more focused in the morning after just waking up.
Anyway, now i want to take advantage of this time to do some studying of my own! Thanks for the great post, iguanamon! 2 persons have voted this message useful | ||||||
| Serpent Octoglot Senior Member Russian Federation serpent-849.livejour Joined 6595 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 644 of 706 20 January 2015 at 4:11pm | IP Logged | |||||
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Aw, thanks for the heads up, iguanamon :)
I'm a bit concerned that you say you feel tired no matter how much sleep you get, Kuji. Can it be some health issue, hopefully nothing too bad? Or maybe you just need to tweak your schedule. I remember that Prof Argüelles said he found 6 hours were enough for him, but only if he got them from 8pm to 2am. Food can also affect how alert you feel, of course. Speaking of food, you can find recipes in Japanese and try them out? :) Edited by Serpent on 20 January 2015 at 4:15pm 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 645 of 706 21 January 2015 at 7:29am | IP Logged | |||||
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5:30 PM - Arrive home
5:35 PM - Feed rabbit; refill his water bottle 5:40 PM - Start cooking 5:55 PM - Yell at the rabbit for digging the carpet 6:00 PM - Resume cooking 6:20 PM - Cooking finished 6:30 PM - Wife arrives home; we eat. 7:00 PM - Begin chores; wash the dishes 7:40 PM - Clean the rabbit cage 8:20 PM - Prepare lunch for the next day 8:35 PM - Shower and bath 9:15 PM - Bring in the laundry from outside, fold them, and put them away 9:40 PM - Wash the water pitcher and put a new filter in (obviously I don't do this every day, but there is always a "one-time" chore that comes up) 9:50 PM - 10 minutes of "language time" until I go to bed at 10:00 PM, so I just read a little of a Japanese article online You're doomed. It's all over. No more learning. hehe sorry couldn't resist. Maybe take a couple minutes between chores to sneak some studying in? Not sure. Maybe skim a vocab list, do chores, quiz yourself after.. I don't know. I would rather not be single but when it comes to studying it can't be beat. Except for work my time is my own. 2 persons have voted this message useful | ||||||
 Iversen Super Polyglot Moderator Denmark berejst.dk Joined 6701 days ago 9078 posts - 16473 votes Speaks: Danish*, French, English, German, Italian, Spanish, Portuguese, Dutch, Swedish, Esperanto, Romanian, Catalan Studies: Afrikaans, Greek, Norwegian, Russian, Serbian, Icelandic, Latin, Irish, Lowland Scots, Indonesian, Polish, Croatian Personal Language Map | Message 646 of 706 21 January 2015 at 1:03pm | IP Logged | |||||
Get a dishwasher. That's half an hour earned (unless your wife and rabbit nick that half hour of your time for their own purposes). Clean the rabbit cage with a water hose - that's another half hour earned. I have some other timesaving ideas concering the rabbit, but I wouldn't dare to mention them here.
That's funny. I could say the same, except that my favorite hours would lie from 2am to 8 am. Edited by Iversen on 21 January 2015 at 1:11pm 3 persons have voted this message useful | ||||||
| 1e4e6 Octoglot Senior Member United Kingdom Joined 4288 days ago 1013 posts - 1588 votes Speaks: English*, French, Spanish, Portuguese, Norwegian, Dutch, Swedish, Italian Studies: German, Danish, Russian, Catalan | Message 647 of 706 21 January 2015 at 11:45pm | IP Logged | |||||
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I had a rabbit in the mid-1990's, and the cages were fairly rectangular and metal, it can
easily be washed with a hose and soap. But during the other time periods, why not use an audio programme or audio news, or something that requires only audio with no visual, i.e. radio? I still have the cassette players that are like the boombox, maybe use something like that or the CD players that play ambiently instead of the headphone ones. 2 persons have voted this message useful | ||||||
| daegga Tetraglot Senior Member Austria lang-8.com/553301 Joined 4519 days ago 1076 posts - 1792 votes Speaks: German*, EnglishC2, Swedish, Norwegian Studies: Danish, French, Finnish, Icelandic | Message 648 of 706 22 January 2015 at 12:13am | IP Logged | |||||
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What does you wife do while you do all her tasks for her (I bet even getting a rabbit was
her idea)? Let me guess: she learns languages. 2 persons have voted this message useful |
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