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Weighted study plan? | ||
Tags: Study Plan | Difficulty | ||
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 Language Learning Forum : General discussion |  | |
| Arekkusu Hexaglot Senior Member Canada bit.ly/qc_10_lec Joined 5381 days ago 3971 posts - 7747 votes  Speaks: English, French*, GermanC1, Spanish, Japanese, Esperanto Studies: Italian, Norwegian, Mandarin, Romanian, Estonian | Message 1 of 10 15 March 2010 at 8:15pm | IP Logged | ||
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A lot of people here attempt to study various languages at once, and because these languages present various degrees of difficulty, I always assume that they are progressing faster in some of these languages.
For instance, certain classification systems have determined that for 24 weeks of French, you'll need 84 weeks of Japanese to reach the same level. Though I'd expect their Japanese to be far behind in the case of such a combination, surprisingly, that's not always the kind of answer I get. So, for those who attempt such a study regimen -- When you prepare to study languages that present distinct levels of difficulty, do you conceive lesson plans that take this into consideration, devoting more time to the more difficult languages? 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| numerodix Trilingual Hexaglot Senior Member Netherlands Joined 6783 days ago 856 posts - 1226 votes Speaks: EnglishC2*, Norwegian*, Polish*, Italian, Dutch, French Studies: Portuguese, Mandarin | Message 2 of 10 15 March 2010 at 8:33pm | IP Logged | ||
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Maybe it's just me, but why would you insist on spending as much time on the easiest language (shall we say the quickest) as on the most difficult? Wouldn't you rather ration them more or less the same, then to reap the rewards of the easier ones early?
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| Arekkusu Hexaglot Senior Member Canada bit.ly/qc_10_lec Joined 5381 days ago 3971 posts - 7747 votes Speaks: English, French*, GermanC1, Spanish, Japanese, Esperanto Studies: Italian, Norwegian, Mandarin, Romanian, Estonian | Message 3 of 10 15 March 2010 at 8:55pm | IP Logged | ||
Motivation is hard to maintain over a long period of time. If you weigh them accordingly, you can reach a equal level in both earlier than would otherwise be possible. 2 persons have voted this message useful | |||
| ManicGenius Senior Member United States Joined 5481 days ago 288 posts - 420 votes Speaks: English* Studies: Esperanto, French, Japanese | Message 4 of 10 15 March 2010 at 9:33pm | IP Logged | ||
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Just study what you damn well please, when you please. What will be will be. Theres really no point in doing any sort of "rationing" based on the difficulty of a language due to difficulty being biased by the learners background.
IE: A Japanese person learning Mandarin will have a far harder time than an English person learning Mandarin. Simply due to phonetic differences. You're better off not bothering dissecting your time, rather than just going forth and using the time to learn whatever you have the most drive for at a given time. 5 persons have voted this message useful | |||
| Arekkusu Hexaglot Senior Member Canada bit.ly/qc_10_lec Joined 5381 days ago 3971 posts - 7747 votes Speaks: English, French*, GermanC1, Spanish, Japanese, Esperanto Studies: Italian, Norwegian, Mandarin, Romanian, Estonian | Message 5 of 10 15 March 2010 at 9:37pm | IP Logged | ||
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I'm not worried about timing; I don't follow any such stringent study regimens. However, many people here do and I was simply curious about this point.
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| ManicGenius Senior Member United States Joined 5481 days ago 288 posts - 420 votes Speaks: English* Studies: Esperanto, French, Japanese | Message 6 of 10 15 March 2010 at 9:39pm | IP Logged | ||
Still the same thing applies. The time spent worrying about when they will finish learning a language (<hint> it never ends </hint>), or structuring their study, is better spent just plain studying. As I should be instead of surfing these forums all the time. 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| Johntm Senior Member United StatesRegistered users can see my Skype Name Joined 5422 days ago 616 posts - 725 votes Speaks: English* Studies: Spanish | Message 7 of 10 16 March 2010 at 5:21am | IP Logged | ||
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| robsolete Diglot Senior Member United States Joined 5385 days ago 191 posts - 428 votes Speaks: English*, Spanish Studies: French, Russian, Arabic (Written), Mandarin | Message 8 of 10 16 March 2010 at 6:35am | IP Logged | ||
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I don't strictly ration things out, but I do like to have pretty clearly defined goals for each language. Once you have your goals set, the amount of time you ration will come naturally.
My examples: Spanish - My Spanish is by far my best language. It has a lot of rust from disuse, but the skeleton in intact. My goals are mainly to increase vocabulary, review and master finer points of grammar, and increase my conversational fluency and confidence. This means that outside of scheduling language meetups, I have flexible work time with Spanish because I mostly just read Spanish for pleasure in spare moments and use flash cards. French - Starting from scratch, French is my most structured study of the moment. I schedule out minimum amounts of shadowing and FIA per day and throw a Pimsleur in if I can. I give French probably the most time now, since I am learning the basics. That said, I know that with Spanish and English in my brain, French will not take me a decade to learn. So I plan on putting in about a year of intensive effort until it gets to the level of my current Spanish, when I can more or less read and chat my way into further fluency. Arabic (MSA) - I am not technically studying Arabic yet, which is why it isn't currently listed on my profile. With two languages actively in the learning phase, Arabic is just too demanding. I am, however, doing 10 minutes a day of script learning and calligraphy practice as a sort of warm-up, and because it interests me. This practice will also, over the next year or so (while pumping up French and polishing Spanish), build some passive vocabulary and a library of vocab flash cards. That way when I properly start on Arabic, I will be able to read the script pretty well and might even have the beginnings of a functional vocabulary when I start studying grammar and usage. Sooo, am I technically 'studying' three languages at once? Yes and no. I could argue that I'm actually only studying French, in the traditional sense of the word, while simply using Spanish and taking an interest in Arabic calligraphy. Or I could say I'm studying all three. It depends on your point of view. And I guess that's the problem of your question. I think most people here, like me, are at different levels with different languages, and the point where you start and stop learning each is pretty murky. I honestly hope to never stop learning about any of the languages I study, especially English. But life, enthusiasm, and discipline tends to come and go over time, so overly strict rationing is hard to come by for most. 6 persons have voted this message useful |
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