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Better than Nothing: 日本語/deutsch/español | ||
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 Language Learning Forum : Language Learning Log |  | |
| Lucky Charms Diglot Senior Member Japan lapacifica.net Joined 6940 days ago 752 posts - 1711 votes  Speaks: English*, Japanese Studies: German, Spanish | Message 1 of 40 13 September 2010 at 10:11am | IP Logged |
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Hi, thanks for reading :) I've decided to get off to a fresh start with a new learning
log. Why start a new log? Because I fell into a sort of funk and decided to reexamine the way I was learning languages every day. Because my old log focused almost exclusively on Japanese L-R, which I lost interest in and was probably not interesting for people to read about, either. Because I've taken up German again and am spending about the same amount of time on both. Because I created the old log by simply posting in the forum, rather than through my profile. This meant that every time I wanted to update I'd have to search for my own thread because it wasn't listed in the Learning Logs part of my profile. This time I've made it through my profile, which will hopefully make it easier to access. [Edit: I still can't access it through my profile! Does this happen to everyone?] Because my old title, 'No excuses!' (an attitude which I noticed was the greatest common theme among my favorite polyglots) actually became a counterproductive mindset for me. First of all, I started forcing myself to do things I didn't want to do ('one chapter of Harry Potter was the goal for today! Remember, No excuses!') without being able to distinguish between 'lazy excuses' and 'legitimate reasons not to do something'. It made language learning much less fun. Also, it reinforced my perfectionist tendencies by creating such huge, demanding goals and viewing them with an 'all or nothing' attitude. I don't have much of a problem playing the strict disciplinarian for myself, so maybe this motto wasn't all that necessary in the first place... What I do have a problem with, though, is letting myself be half-assed. What I mean by that is letting myself have fun. Forget about that huge goal I set for today and go watch some L2 TV instead. Acknowledging that I don't want to do SRS reps today, so letting myself only do 5 and go play ゼルダの伝説 after that. Forgoing my L-R for the day if I'm too tired, and just listen to the audiobook while taking a walk instead. Those kind of things. They aren't grand and noble things, I don't get to be a martyr, just having fun and listening to my inner voice and allowing myself to do whatever, as long as it's better than nothing. This is the motto of one of my students: 「センよりマシ！」 She's not a great polyglot, and in fact she came to our school a few months ago not even knowing how to string a sentence together. She told us, 'I'm already a middle-aged woman, and I'm an extremely slow learner. I don't know if I'm ever going to be able to speak English. But I'm going to try it and have fun and see how it goes'. In fact, her expectations are so low for herself, that she just takes each moment as it comes and tells herself that 'whatever will be will be', and as a result has progressed more quickly than our most intelligent, advanced students who make huge long-term plans for themselves and tend to overlook the small things. When I ask these kind of students how many times they've watched their English movie this week (they're currently undergoing a 'watch your favorite movie in English 300 times challenge'), these kind of students will usually say, 'I couldn't watch it this week... I was so busy'. But this older woman says, 'I watch it for just 15 minutes at a time a few times each day, telling myself that it's better than nothing'. Because she saw value in something small, she ended up doing much more than the other 'smarter' students. I think in some ways, being a 'smart' language learner can hurt us. We always look for the most efficient way to do things, the most logical way, the methods that are most consistent with current research on human memory, the actions that will provide the highest quality of language learning for our time and effort. And we may start to look down on things we don't see as high quality. For example, watching a TV show we're already familiar with from our native language and which has a transcript available and which features 'useful', everyday dialogue is the best-case scenario, so sometimes we might deign to make use of what we have available in front of our faces: say, a detective drama with lots of specialist language and no subtitles or translations in sight. Or a video game with little text, and the text which does show up contains a bunch of mythological terms you have absolutely no use for. In any case, it is L2 exposure, and it's better than not playing or watching anything at all, or playing/watching an English one, because you feel that you 'don't need that' or are 'not ready for that yet'. So from now on, I hereby swear not to look down on the little things. I will not force myself to do something I don't want to for 'the cause' or because it's good for me. I will break the big, noble, ambitious goals into small, fun, brainless, seemingly insignificant parts. I will play around. I will enjoy the process, rather than focus on results. I will prioritize useless-but-fun resources over boring ones. I will choose better than nothing every time a choice presents itself. I think this will end up being more productive than all the researching, calculating, theorizing, goal-setting, and procrastinating I'm doing now. Today, I'm going to make a 'procrastination list', something that has helped me greatly in the past. It's a list of suggestions of small things to do when I'm bored, when I can't be bothered to accomplish that one chapter or whatever big goals I have on my plate, and I start feeling the urge to check Facebook or the 'active topics' section of this site for the 3rd time that day. A few suggestions on the list might be 'play ゼルダ の伝説' or 'look up some lyrics for a Japanese song so I can sing it at karaoke next time'. Things that don't feel like work, but are more of a step in the direction of my goals than compulsive Facebook-checking. I'll have the full list up here soon, for anyone who might benefit from it. And of course, your suggestions would be appreciated, too! Even if you're tired right now or don't have a lot of time, why don't you do something small and unimportant in your L2 that's 'better than nothing'? Brianna Edited by Lucky Charms on 12 June 2011 at 5:29am 9 persons have voted this message useful | |
| The Real CZ Senior Member United States Joined 5640 days ago 1069 posts - 1495 votes Speaks: English* Studies: Japanese, Korean | Message 2 of 40 13 September 2010 at 1:22pm | IP Logged |
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I just want to let you know I agree with your "new" mindset. Instead of saying "I gotta add X cards or read X pages or learn X words," I like to kick back and watch a K or a J drama instead most of the time, or look up song lyrics because I'm tired of not understanding the song.
Have fun being "lazy"! 1 person has voted this message useful | |
| Lucky Charms Diglot Senior Member Japan lapacifica.net Joined 6940 days ago 752 posts - 1711 votes Speaks: English*, Japanese Studies: German, Spanish | Message 3 of 40 13 September 2010 at 3:28pm | IP Logged |
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Thanks, The Real CZ! I can actually look forward to language learning for the first time in a while, instead of putting it off!
Here's the list I promised: Productive Ways to Waste Time ※Play an L2 video game. ※Flip through an L2 book, reading random sentences/paragraphs that you feel like reading. ※Look up the lyrics to a song you want to be able to sing at karaoke. ※Watch mindless L2 TV. ※Take a walk/nap while listening to a podcast or audiobook. ※Spend time with your imaginary Japanese/German friend. Pretend she's blind and narrate to her everything that's going on around you, or pretend she can't speak English (or another L2) and interpret something you're reading/watching to her. ※Alternatively, pretend you're dictating your own autobiography in great detail: 'I opened the refrigerator door and enjoyed the feeling of the cool air inside. But I couldn't enjoy that feeling for long, because I was shocked to find that the cheese I wanted was gone! Who could've eaten it? I wondered, and I thought of everyone in the family....' etc. ※Read an AJATT motivational blog post in Japanese (I've already read them all in English). Don't start with the intention of reading the whole thing. ※Browse Twitter for more potential L2 speakers to follow. ※Watch part of a South Park episode in Japanese (thanks to the user who shared this recently on the forum!) To be updated :) 5 persons have voted this message useful | |
| Lexii Senior Member United States Joined 5213 days ago 162 posts - 194 votes Speaks: English* Studies: Japanese | Message 4 of 40 13 September 2010 at 4:27pm | IP Logged |
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Brianna, you've spoken to my heart here. This is the approach I've been trying to use since I (re)started learning Japanese. Any exposure, regardless of the source, regardless how short, is valuable. I try to keep reminding myself that learning happens, even if I'm not "studying".
Good luck with your new approach! 1 person has voted this message useful | |
| Lucky Charms Diglot Senior Member Japan lapacifica.net Joined 6940 days ago 752 posts - 1711 votes Speaks: English*, Japanese Studies: German, Spanish | Message 5 of 40 17 September 2010 at 7:56am | IP Logged |
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Thanks for the encouragement!
Now I guess it's time for an update. What I've been doing for Japanese The first thing I do after waking up and eating breakfast is play Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess in Japanese, referring to an online Japanese language walkthrough (by the way, I learned that game walkthroughs in Japanese are called 「攻略」). This sets the tone for the day, which is great because usually the last thing I feel like doing upon waking up is studying or listening to a podcast. These past few days I've made it a point to think in Japanese and translate things that I say/hear/are happening around me into Japanese. I'm even doing it now as I type! Again, I'm pretending that there's a little invisible Japanese Brianna living in my mind, and it would be very rude of me not to translate everything that's going on for her. Occasionally I'll also try to translate it into German (after doing so in Japanese), or translate something I hear in Japanese into German. I feel like this will get me used to switching between languages more fluidly, and also keep them in their separate domains within my brain so I don't mix them up. Sometimes I also L-R Harry Potter (L2 text-L2 audio) and underline words I don't know to make flashcards later. However, I do this in such small doses that, in retrospect, I'm surprised to realize that I've been doing it consistently once or twice each day. (It always feels like, 'eh, I haven't done it in a while, why not knock out a few pages until I feel like doing something else.') And it goes without saying that I've been interacting with my boyfriend, his family, our students, and people in the community on a daily basis, and reviewing my SRS. I won't mention this in future posts. My Japanese-related goals for this week * Watch more TV (not very hard since I currently watch zero TV!) * Learn a new song for karaoke * Continue to think and interpret in Japanese until it becomes habit What I've been doing for German Just one Assimil lesson every day. I'm currently on Lesson 36. I've discovered for myself an easy way to get the endings down, which I'm stoked about - speaking German feels so much less stressful now! I've known for a while that ProfA recommends walking while shadowing to improve bloodflow to the brain, and I've tried it once or twice with fantastic results. My concentration, interest in the content, engagement with the text (ability to vividly imagine scenarios where I could say this, ability to create my own variations on the dialogue), and retention all seem to skyrocket. But after a few times I gave up because I was too self-conscious about being overheard. Being strict with myself and saying 'You shouldn't be self-conscious! Get over it! Who cares what people think?' somehow didn't make me want to do it more. Lately I've found it more effective to say, 'OK, you're too self-conscious to do that, and that's okay. So let's find the next best thing instead of insisting on only the best and ultimately doing nothing.'For me, the next best thing to walking outside has been pacing up and down the hall while shadowing or even just while passively listening. The results have definitely been worth it! It was so effective that I actually took the trouble to go back and redo some of my older Assimil lessons for that higher quality shadowing experience. My new 'better than nothing' mindset about learning languages is already starting to yield its rewards :D The last thing I want to note about my German Assimil routine is that I use it in conjunction with SRS. I use cloze deletion and images to help cement in my mind the few vocab items/idioms per lesson I didn't know. They're very easy cards, and I input them after I've completed the lesson (rather than forcing myself to drill them as a requirement to move on to the next lesson), so that they serve as a light review without making me burn out on Assimil. My German-related goals for this week * Continue Assimil! (In the meantime, aside from Assimil, the rest of my time will be spent on Japanese immersion.) * Continue mentally translating some Japanese into German. Edited by Lucky Charms on 17 September 2010 at 8:01am 1 person has voted this message useful | |
| Teango Triglot Winner TAC 2010 & 2012 Senior Member United States teango.wordpress.comRegistered users can see my Skype Name Joined 5547 days ago 2210 posts - 3734 votes Speaks: English*, German, Russian Studies: Hawaiian, French, Toki Pona | Message 6 of 40 17 September 2010 at 10:21am | IP Logged |
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Great approach, Brianna! And I think your "productive ways to waste time" list in particular deserves another thread all of its own (and in Japanese as well, of course). ;)
In setting out to do better than nothing each day, I hope you end up achieving nothing but the best. Good luck! Edited by Teango on 17 September 2010 at 10:23am 1 person has voted this message useful | |
| Lexii Senior Member United States Joined 5213 days ago 162 posts - 194 votes Speaks: English* Studies: Japanese | Message 7 of 40 18 September 2010 at 11:47pm | IP Logged |
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It sounds like your new approach is definitely working. Fantastic!
1 person has voted this message useful | |
| Lucky Charms Diglot Senior Member Japan lapacifica.net Joined 6940 days ago 752 posts - 1711 votes Speaks: English*, Japanese Studies: German, Spanish | Message 8 of 40 24 September 2010 at 6:47am | IP Logged |
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Thanks, Teango and Lexii!
I'll think about starting a thread like you suggested, Teango :) 1 person has voted this message useful |
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