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How long do you study per day? | ||
Tags: Study Plan | Time to learn | ||
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 Language Learning Forum : Learning Techniques, Methods & Strategies |  | |
| Splog Diglot Senior Member Czech Republic anthonylauder.c Joined 5456 days ago 1062 posts - 3263 votes  Speaks: English*, Czech Studies: Mandarin | Message 17 of 82 24 November 2009 at 11:30pm | IP Logged | |||||
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When I was working I rarely managed more than an hour a day (work left my brain frazzled). Now that I am retired, it is astonishing how the lack of a stressful job has energised me for other things. For the past couple of years I have tried out loads of different systems, of varying length, and have now settled on one that seems to work well:
36 session x 15 minutes each per day, with 10 minute breaks between each 15 minute session (for playing guitar, getting a snack, using the internet, "comfort breaks" etc). The short length of the sessions and the breaks between them seem to allow me to go for the whole day without any mental exhaustion. All other systems I have used end up with me getting progressively more tired throughout the day. To be honest, I have only be using this current schedule for about two months, but so far so good. I should say, I only do this 5 days a week. I do half the amount on Saturdays, and take most Sundays off to spend with my wife. EDIT: My wife still works, and he have no children. If my wife retired, or we had kids I am sure this schedule would be impossible. Edited by Splog on 24 November 2009 at 11:33pm 3 persons have voted this message useful | ||||||
 jeff_lindqvist Diglot Moderator SwedenRegistered users can see my Skype Name Joined 6696 days ago 4250 posts - 5710 votes Speaks: Swedish*, English Studies: German, Spanish, Russian, Dutch, Mandarin, Esperanto, Irish, French Personal Language Map | Message 18 of 82 25 November 2009 at 12:04am | IP Logged | |||||
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Roughly 1-1,5 hours of listening per language - German, Russian and Chinese. Not a problem since I can do other things at the same time. If I have more listening time, I usually devote it to Chinese. I save LingQs and do flashcards during other computer based activites. I read (Swedish/English/German/Russian/Chinese/Spanish/French) whenever I have time. I leaf through grammars.
According to the study chart (a spreadsheet once shared by ProfArguelles) which I update weekly, my daily "average" is (now) 6,24 hours. 5 persons have voted this message useful | ||||||
| Paskwc Pentaglot Senior Member Canada Joined 5464 days ago 450 posts - 624 votes Speaks: Hindi, Urdu*, Arabic (Levantine), French, English Studies: Persian, Spanish | Message 19 of 82 25 November 2009 at 12:33am | IP Logged | |||||
Do you have a pre-planned scheme with which you divide your 36 blocks or do you do whatever feels right at the time? 1 person has voted this message useful | ||||||
| Icaria909 Senior Member United States Joined 5378 days ago 201 posts - 346 votes Speaks: English* Studies: Spanish | Message 20 of 82 25 November 2009 at 1:14am | IP Logged | |||||
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I do roughly half an hour for Spanish and catalan, and then I do spurts of activity on some days where I'll spend hours watching El Cor de La Ciutat, or read the newspaper articles on EL Mundo.
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| Splog Diglot Senior Member Czech Republic anthonylauder.c Joined 5456 days ago 1062 posts - 3263 votes Speaks: English*, Czech Studies: Mandarin | Message 21 of 82 25 November 2009 at 2:07am | IP Logged | |||||
My overall goal for the day (which I call my "in-tray") is always planned, but the order in which I will tackle it is not. Importantly, when creating my in-tray each morning I am only interested in getting a general feeling that "this is an amount I can reasonably get through in one day" without much thought for the order in which I will tackle it or time required for each item in the in-tray. The day's in-tray is actually a pile of selected resources taken from my bookshelf at the start of the day and heaped on the corner of my desk. Typically, this will be a mix of books, audio, newspapers, magazines, DVDs, and just about any other kind of resource you can imagine. For books and other reading materials in the in-tray, each will already have a sticky page marker at the place I left off last time. For audio and video resources, I have a simple index card marked with where they too were left off last time. My goal for each resource in the in-tray is to ensure that by the end of the day I have moved its marker forward to some pre-planned point. For example, one lesson in an audio course, or one chapter in a book. By keeping these markers, I always have a defined starting point in each of the materials, and a sense of progress from the last time I worked with them. At any point when working with something I do allow myself to move the marker back if I feel I need to revisit something again in the future. Now, the goals for a given resource will usually be quite small. For example, a lesson in an Assimil book only takes a few minutes, and I will repeat it several times in a single 15 minute session, before moving its marker to the next lesson and then returning the book to my bookshelf for another day (therein eliminating it from today's in-tray). Some resources in the in-tray, though, will have more substantial goals and will take several 15 minute sessions to complete. My only "rule" is that I never work on the same resource for two neigbouring sessions. The overall idea here is based on the old saying that "a change is as good as a rest". By always quitting something before I am tired of it, I will have enough energy to work with a whole bunch of other resource and still come back to more challenging resource later in the day. For example, after 15 minutes on a chapter in a difficult novel I will stop, even if I feel compelled to keep going. I then move the sticky page marker to the current reading point, and put the book back in my daily in-tray to be picked up again and continued whenever the mood strikes me later than day. I then take a ten minute break (e.g. to play my guitar) and then pick up something else from the in-tray for the next 15 minute session. When that day's goal for a resource in the in-tray is completed, it is no longer returned to the in-tray and goes back to my bookshelf, so that the in-tray reduces throughout the day until there is nothing left. After a couple of months on this, my estimates for what I can get through in a day tend to be pretty accurate. Sometimes I do finish all the planned materials in fewer than 36 sessions and I then just do whatever I feel like - more often than not this means listening to audio or reading a novel in the target language. Other times I do run out of time and end up having materials left over after the 36 session, and I just return them to the shelf for another day. Their markers will already be in the correct place for me to start at again whenever I pick them back up in the future. 12 persons have voted this message useful | ||||||
| tommus Senior Member CanadaRegistered users can see my Skype Name Joined 5653 days ago 979 posts - 1688 votes Speaks: English* Studies: Dutch, French, Esperanto, German, Spanish | Message 22 of 82 25 November 2009 at 4:44am | IP Logged | |||||
This may be the best thing I have found on HTLAL in the year I have been here! It looks like a great approach to organising my language learning, and organising the rest of my activities. Thank you for sharing this. I looked at your web site too. I really like your approach to conversation and connectors. I am going to adapt the connectors to my target languages. Question: Why did you choose 15 minutes on and 10 minutes off? Doesn't that mean a different starting time each hour. In other words, why not 20/10 or 15/15 so it would be easier to keep track. But maybe you time with a timer rather than a clock. I would be interested in any other ideas or techniques you find useful, and I'm sure others would be interested. Thanks again. 1 person has voted this message useful | ||||||
| Splog Diglot Senior Member Czech Republic anthonylauder.c Joined 5456 days ago 1062 posts - 3263 votes Speaks: English*, Czech Studies: Mandarin | Message 23 of 82 25 November 2009 at 8:47am | IP Logged | |||||
To be honest, it is because I want to have the shortest breaks possible yet still be able to get plenty of work done in the day. The whole idea is to keep a maintainable pace throughout the day. After a bit of experimenting I found that the 15 on/10 off combination works best for me. Changing those numbers meant that at some point in the day I ended up being too tired from the work, or getting too distracted during my breaks. As a side issue: You are right, though, that a 15/15 or 20/10 schedule would mean "tidy clock times". But as silly as it sounds, seeing near-random times like "10:35" as my next "start" time somehow keeps it fresh and keep my mind more alert. 1 person has voted this message useful | ||||||
| jimbo Tetraglot Senior Member Canada Joined 6081 days ago 469 posts - 642 votes Speaks: English*, Mandarin, Korean, French Studies: Japanese, Latin | Message 24 of 82 25 November 2009 at 12:02pm | IP Logged | |||||
Wait until you have kids, then you'll really be trying hard to find some time. I'm trying to get some of that time back by reading children's books in foreign languages to my daughter. I suspect my wife is going to bonk me on the head if I keep adding languages. 1 person has voted this message useful |
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