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Going back to Europe TAC 2014 DE|FR|日本語 | ||
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 Language Learning Forum : Language Learning Log |  | |
| dampingwire Bilingual Triglot Senior Member United Kingdom Joined 4446 days ago 1185 posts - 1513 votes  Speaks: English*, Italian*, French Studies: Japanese | Message 137 of 142 15 December 2014 at 12:13am | IP Logged | ||
Do you mean three solid hours of study vs three hours of study spread out over a day? If so I suppose it's down to how you feel about that time. I don't think I could do 3 hours of book work, but I can do an hour of reading and then an hour of watching drama and then an hour of grammar. Watching drama never feels as intense as grammar work and reading lies somewhere between the two. It's hard to say how much benefit I derive from each of these tasks, but I suspect that they all help one way or another. I too find that if I slow down my Japanese reading then I can understand more. However, if I slow down too much (say to the point that I look up each unknown word or grammar point) then I have to go back and re-read the last few sentences or the paragraph to remember what on Earth was going on. So I guess the optimum reading speed depends on what you want. If you want to understand deeply you'll presumably just have to read more slowly. If you can't wait to see whodunnit, you'll have to skip the long descriptions of the angry sky. It sounds like you've found a happy balance with German. 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| kraemder Senior Member United StatesRegistered users can see my Skype Name Joined 4965 days ago 1497 posts - 1648 votes Speaks: English* Studies: German, Spanish, Japanese | Message 138 of 142 15 December 2014 at 2:04am | IP Logged | ||
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I'm going for the 2 hours at the beach theory myself. That wasn't my theory for a while however. I was all more more more. In trying to do Anki the way it's supposed to be done, I'm trying to make myself do the same amount of studying every day - so I'll be able to do something useful even on busy days, and on weekends I'll just well, go to the beach (or watch lots of anime =p) when my routine is done. I'm seeing it as pacing myself.
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| Evita Tetraglot Senior Member Latvia learnlatvian.info Joined 6333 days ago 734 posts - 1036 votes Speaks: Latvian*, English, German, Russian Studies: Korean, Finnish | Message 139 of 142 15 December 2014 at 9:47am | IP Logged | ||
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3 hours versus 1 hour, well, you will obviously learn more if you study for 3 hours but it's worth doing only if you are not tired, if you have a clear head and if you feel like studying. Since it's just a hobby for you, it's better to learn less and keep it fun than to learn more and get burned out. That's my philosophy and it has served me well for many years.
By the way, I'm impressed that you are reading Der kleine Prinz. I read it this summer but it was more difficult than I had expected and I didn't finish it. Maybe I should. 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| g-bod Diglot Senior Member United KingdomRegistered users can see my Skype Name Joined 5763 days ago 1485 posts - 2002 votes Speaks: English*, Japanese Studies: French, German | Message 140 of 142 15 December 2014 at 8:04pm | IP Logged | ||
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@dampingwire I guess that reading books and watching TV is both a means and an end, so if I have nothing better to do than marathon a TV drama over a weekend, I consider it time well spent! Having said that, I've noticed that when I sample a drama in installments over maybe 3 or 4 weeks I take a much more noticeable leap in comprehension between beginning and end than I would get from watching all or most of the show in 3 or 4 days - presumably because there is something of an SRS effect going on. Which maybe adds a little more to my 2 hours at the beach theory.
@kraemder I think Anki is flexible enough that you can use it however you want. But I'll be interested to see how you get on with your new approach. @Evita I'm not sure if it is so obvious that you will learn more in 3 hours than you will learn in 1. You can certainly cover more material in 3 hours than 1, but I wonder how much of that extra material you will actually retain longer term. Anyway, I think you have the right philosophy. I am learning languages for fun, so why take it too seriously? Don't be too impressed at my reading Der Kleine Prinz. It would be a disaster if it wasn't for the fact that I'm already pretty familiar with the story. It's almost like using a parallel text, except the translation I'm checking against is in my head rather than on the paper! 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| g-bod Diglot Senior Member United KingdomRegistered users can see my Skype Name Joined 5763 days ago 1485 posts - 2002 votes Speaks: English*, Japanese Studies: French, German | Message 141 of 142 23 December 2014 at 11:36pm | IP Logged | ||
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End of the year round up?
I'm finding it kind of amusing looking back at my first log post of the year, where I set out a number of goals I wanted to achieve this year. The fact that I failed to meet most of them turns out to be pretty irrelevant. In any case, I still spent some of my time having fun with languages in 2014, and here is a summary of some of the stuff I did: French I started the year making wild claims about aiming for the DELF B2. Well, that didn't happen! No more wild claims unless I actually one day register to do the exam. I did a few lessons with a really good tutor on iTalki at the beginning of the year, however the tutor's availability changed so was no longer available at the same time as me, which was a shame. I read some books. Muriel Barbery's L'élégance du herisson was an interesting read. I disliked it to start with, then began to really enjoy it, but, without wanting to give any spoilers, I really hated the ending. I also read Jules Verne's Le Tour du monde en 80 jours. A large chunk of it was consumed travelling to Spain by TGV, which felt rather appropriate. On the same trip by TGV I had the rather weird experience of being scolded by the ticket inspector for not carrying my ticket to the buffet car, being convinced that I'd been scolded in English, only to find out after grumbling about it to my husband that the whole exchange had actually happened in French, and he hadn't really understood what was going on at all! I also managed to settle an argument with a passenger who was convinced that I was sat in his seat, but had actually boarded the wrong carriage. I'm still not prepared to claim I speak French, but when it comes to rail tourism I seem to be reasonably fluent! I signed up to the Super Challenge and started to relive my 80s childhood in a second language by watching a few episodes of Les mystérieuses citées d'or. However, I ended up dropping out of the Super Challenge, mainly because I think it's overkill for what I want/need to do with French right now. Although I may finish Les mystérieuses citées d'or in 2015... Japanese I think I have just about managed to maintain my Japanese. There has definitely been some consolidation of my learning, but I also notice from time to time that I've forgotten things that I really should know. I've kept up my regular language exchange and take lessons with a tutor via Skype from time to time. I actually upgraded my Japanese to "speaks" because, yes, I do speak Japanese, but the leap between basic fluency and advanced fluency feels pretty much impossible to bridge right now. It's partly down to attitude and partly opportunity. Basically, since I don't plan to live and work in Japan, and don't have a community of native speakers to tap into in my home country, there is little motivation to grow my speaking skills, and little opportunity to practice anyway. Nevertheless I've no regrets about learning the language. I think it's probably the coolest thing I've ever done. My biggest weakness is still literacy. It's not something I've tackled adequately this year. It's something that I really ought to tackle next year. German I don't think I ever thought at the start of the year that I would end up signing up to a German class, but that's exactly what I did this September. I even convinced my husband to sign up with me. Sometimes we even communicate with each other in broken German. I'm so proud of him! My German teacher is one of the best language teachers I have ever had. She knows how to help develop memory, incorporating regular review into her lesson plans and creating some wonderful hooks to help remember certain words and concepts. I'm also learning about some cultural stuff which I think I simply would not have encountered if I was working on my own. And I have a nice sandbox in which I can start being productive, which is perfect for my current level. My German ability has definitely taken a little leap. Still a long way to go, but now I'm starting to be able to access native materials and starting to want to produce the language myself. Basically, I'm at the point where things start to get interesting! Spanish I started dabbling with Spanish in preparation for a holiday this year. I didn't get very far. Actually, although my French came in very useful on the journey, once I arrived in Spain I was able to survive surprisingly comfortably with English alone. I used to feel terribly ashamed travelling abroad and not being able to speak the local language. However, now that I can already be a tourist in three foreign languages, I don't feel guilty for not adding a fourth! Obviously if I was travelling somewhere that English (or any of the other three) wasn't widely spoken or well received, I would come prepared, but the tourist trail in Spain is not like that. Anyway, I thought Spain was a beautiful country with a wonderful atmosphere. I regret that I waited until my 30s to make my first visit. And maybe one day I will learn some Spanish, but I have my hands full with French, German and Japanese for now! Other stuff If anything, I think my biggest lesson of the year is that taking a goal-oriented approach is not a good fit with the way I want to do languages. Setting SMART objectives, working efficiently and beating procrastination are all really important for me in the workplace - but when it comes to my totally awesome and worthwhile language learning hobby, it really doesn't matter. I can follow my nose as much as I want and if I haven't got the motivation to study, it's ok if I do something completely different for a while. It's no accident that my log for 2014 is considerably shorter than logs I have kept in previous years. I have wondered from time to time whether to continue logging at all. I often find that the things that are most easily measured (hours studied, pages read) are actually the least important. I have also tried to refrain from too much introspection, which is a waste of my time, and nobody wants to read it anyway. However, if I find some resource that I enjoy, I still want to share it. If I hit some kind of milestone, I still want to brag about it. And although I'm trying to stay away from the introspection, a little bit of introspection still has the potential to turn into insight, which is far more useful. So I'll finish now with a big thanks to all my TAC teammates and anybody else who has been reading my log this year. As per my usual tradition, I shall start with a shiny fresh new log in 2015. 良いお年を！ 3 persons have voted this message useful | |||
| BAnna Triglot Senior Member United States Joined 4403 days ago 409 posts - 616 votes Speaks: English*, German, Spanish Studies: Russian, Turkish | Message 142 of 142 24 December 2014 at 12:32am | IP Logged | ||
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It's been great fun reading your log. Best to you in 2015!
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