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 Language Learning Forum : Language Learning Log |  | |
| Kubelek Tetraglot Senior Member Switzerland chomikuj.pl/Kuba_wal Joined 6843 days ago 415 posts - 528 votes  Speaks: Polish*, EnglishC2, French, Spanish Studies: German | Message 1 of 44 03 December 2009 at 1:37am | IP Logged |
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Thanks for stepping by :)
Welcome to my prospective language log. TAC starts with the New Year, and by then I will have posted my specific and generic goals for the upcoming year. But first.... PreTAC December Boot Camp Before I start working extra hard on my languages , I have a few issues I need to address: - Unhealthy, ineffective, and downright weird sleeping habits. I am jet lagged in my own time zone. Ideas for improvement: developing and maintaining sleep hygiene, cutting down on caffeine, getting more sleep. - Inefficient study habits. My concentration falters quickly if the subject is not very exciting. Biochemistry bores me but I need to find a way to study it effectively. If I don't, I won't have more than a couple of hours to spare every day. - Internet abuse. Really, cutting down seems like a more difficult task than quitting smoking had been for me at one point. "I'm just going to check my e mail" - no more of that. - Wanderlust. In the following month I need to really decide on how much I can handle, then add two to the number I came up with to avoid depression, and post the final list here. - Finding materials for the upcoming year. During the challenge I will try not to do what I have been doing for the past 2 years, namely: read about scores of language courses I will never use, bookmark websites for learning at least 20 languages, buy materials that I don't really need (such as paper dictionaries). - The speed of reading. In December I want to read a couple of books on speed-reading and effective learning methods. It won't hurt. My reading speed is absolutely average - around 250words/minute - even though I'm an avid reader. I need to find a way of suppressing subvocalization. I'd really appreciate your suggestions for good books on the subject. That's it for now. to be continued :) -------- 27.05 I decided to change it from TAC log to just a regular log, as I won't be able to focus on languages for a long time, and that's just not very much in TAC spirit. Edited by Kubelek on 27 May 2010 at 11:40pm 1 person has voted this message useful | |
| neonqwerty Bilingual Diglot Senior Member United States Joined 6154 days ago 229 posts - 239 votes Speaks: French*, English* Studies: Spanish | Message 2 of 44 03 December 2009 at 2:15am | IP Logged |
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Hi Kubelek!
First, good luck on your impending tac! I wish you the best. Second, I've had the same frustration with reading speed. Grad school has a crushing amount of reading, and the books and exercises that I did to increase my reading speed did not help. Hopefully I'm an outlier and you'll find something that works wonderfully for you. :-) What DID work for me, however, was an attitudinal shift. I now approach texts with a bit of an annoyed sigh, and think "The message here is really simple, and I'll be able to express it in 2 sentences when I get it. So let's just try to figure out what the damn point is." The switch in attitude made me stop reading every letter of every word, and took away a lot of pressure. This is not a very fun way to read a novel or poetry, but it works well with me for non-fiction. Maybe something for you to try out. Like I said, it's the only thing that boosted my speed. 1 person has voted this message useful | |
| Kubelek Tetraglot Senior Member Switzerland chomikuj.pl/Kuba_wal Joined 6843 days ago 415 posts - 528 votes Speaks: Polish*, EnglishC2, French, Spanish Studies: German | Message 3 of 44 03 December 2009 at 2:30am | IP Logged |
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Thanks for your reply!
This is an interesting approach, and I use it to a certain degree - I usually skim through an article or a chapter of a textbook first, and then read it carefully the second time around. My comprehension and retention are much better when I read in this fashion. As for fiction, I think it's the improper technique that impedes me from progressing. My inner voice is not able to catch up with my eyes, so I slow down. It's silly given that I haven't read out loud anything longer than a few pages since kindergarten. I will share any useful tips I come across. Edited by Kubelek on 03 December 2009 at 2:32am 1 person has voted this message useful | |
| doviende Diglot Senior Member Canada languagefixatio Joined 5977 days ago 533 posts - 1245 votes Speaks: English*, German Studies: Spanish, Dutch, Mandarin, Esperanto, Hindi, Swedish, Portuguese | Message 4 of 44 03 December 2009 at 2:58am | IP Logged |
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For keeping myself on-track, I usually do a couple things. I suggest trying the "leechblock" plugin for Firefox, which can limit which sites you are "allowed" to go to, and you can set certain time frames for each site, or just an overall time limit. It keeps me from spending too much time on youtube or facebook.
Also, I track my language learning activities in a spreadsheet. I have the different tasks as columns (watching tv, listening, reading books, anki), and I fill in the amounts I did for each day. When I do nothing for a category, I color that square bright yellow, but if I do anything at all, even if it's only 5 minutes, then I get to color the square a nice relaxing blue color. If I pass my daily goal for that category, then it gets upgraded to green. This means that I really try hard not to let any yellows sneak in, but it's pretty easy to avoid those because at least 5 minutes of anything will let me color it blue. What normally happens, though, is that once I start on a task and do 5 minutes, it ends up continuing and I do an hour. Think about your youtube habit. Sometimes you go to "only view one video" and then suddenly you've viewed 10. You can do that same thing for your language learning. 5 persons have voted this message useful | |
| Kubelek Tetraglot Senior Member Switzerland chomikuj.pl/Kuba_wal Joined 6843 days ago 415 posts - 528 votes Speaks: Polish*, EnglishC2, French, Spanish Studies: German | Message 5 of 44 03 December 2009 at 3:18am | IP Logged |
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doviende: Thank you for your suggestion.
Apparently I erased the bit about you tube from my first post while you were writing your post. Sorry about that. I just figured that the shorter it is the more people will read it, and offer their feedback. I like your analogy though! 1 person has voted this message useful | |
| FVerschoor Bilingual Diglot Groupie United States Joined 6340 days ago 44 posts - 44 votes Speaks: English*, Dutch* Studies: Spanish, Russian | Message 6 of 44 03 December 2009 at 4:14am | IP Logged |
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I also use Leechblock, it has been very useful for me. I currently have it set so I can only check mail or use Facebook in the mornings and at night, and that has cut down on my computer time drastically (at least wasted time). Now, I find myself actually studying languages rather than surfing the net. But I restricted my access to everything else I'm interested in by quite a bit, so it's like I have no choice to do anything but. ;)
1 person has voted this message useful | |
| Kubelek Tetraglot Senior Member Switzerland chomikuj.pl/Kuba_wal Joined 6843 days ago 415 posts - 528 votes Speaks: Polish*, EnglishC2, French, Spanish Studies: German | Message 7 of 44 03 December 2009 at 11:21am | IP Logged |
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Leechblock installed. I decided to check the forum one more time before I click 'apply'. No forum between 0000-2000 on weekdays.
Thank you doviende an FVerschoor. 1 person has voted this message useful | |
| Sprachprofi Nonaglot Senior Member Germany learnlangs.comRegistered users can see my Skype Name Joined 6461 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 8 of 44 03 December 2009 at 11:41am | IP Logged |
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For speedreading, you should try http://www.fourhourworkweek.com/blog/2009/07/30/speed-readin g-and-accelerated-learning/. It's a lot faster than reading a book on it, takes only 20 minutes including the exercises and I managed to increase my top reading speed - when I want it - by 3.5 times.
1 person has voted this message useful |
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