General language log

[sporedandroid]

Today was a very productive study day. I wasn’t really in the mood for listening practice. After I did my Anki reviews, I realized I didn’t have too many reviews due tomorrow. So I ended up going through all my suspended cards. Based on those cards I made a bunch of new cards. Mainly for vocabulary words I wasn’t too solid on. I used the site glosbe to get example sentences. It seems a lot like Reverso. After doing all that, I still don’t have too many reviews tomorrow. So I’ll start studying new cards tomorrow.

[sporedandroid]

I think I’ll get back into reading books in Hebrew. Or maybe not. It’s hard to know what I’ll actually be motivated to do. I’ll probably start off with something easier like a kid’s book or self-help. I’ll try listening to an audiobook a reading a book at the same time. At the moment I’m not happy with my reading fluency. I can read, but even reading a tiny bit feels like a lot of work. I’ll probably stay clear of Anki or any overly strict routine. I find I can only be on a strict routine for one language at a time. Rather than trying to have a 50/50-ish focus, I think I do better with 90/10 or maybe 80/20.

My motivation is slightly lower because of my speed at learning Finnish. I didn’t exactly expect it to be all that fast. It started off feeling easier and less foreign than Hebrew even though I know it’s harder on paper. I also honestly didn’t study Finnish as intensely. Since I was low on motivation I experimented with a lot of passive listening. It’s not the most effective method, but I doubt I would have been doing more “effective” methods. I also like passive listening because I can also do other hobbies at the same time, so I feel more well-rounded. Even though I know my level in Finnish isn’t “high” enough for passive listening practice.

Lately I haven’t been getting as much passive listening practice for Finnish and instead I’m using that time to read some parallel texts and create flashcards. I also try to rewatch some videos that have captions and try to see what I missed.

[sporedandroid]

Making Anki cards from example sentences hasn’t been super effective. So far they seem pretty redundant. A few worked, but not most of them. I guess I’ll focus on a good mix of example sentences and sentences from articles and YouTube videos. Maybe they sort of helped me even though I’m not studying them normally.

[sporedandroid]

Today and yesterday I worked on some active listening. One was about young people living in a nursing home with older people and another one was about this man who likes to collect airline points. I also “read” an article about him. I can’t say I exactly read the article, but I did create parallel texts for the videos I watched and the article. I didn’t end up creating much Anki cards. Despite that, it was a huge workout for my brain. Even though I don’t feel like it should be. I think I am making some progress in my Finnish listening comprehension. A lot of sentences still don’t quite make sense even though I know a lot of words. Maybe it would make more sense for me to take a break from studying new cards and just go through the articles and video transcripts more.

[sporedandroid]

I think I created some Anki cards, but I mostly haven’t felt like it. I created a word document, but I really didn’t feel like reading anything today. Even with an English translation. It just feels like too much. Today I just felt like letting the words wash over me. Earlier on I did some more active listening and later on, mostly passive. I went through my suspended cards again and created some Anki cards based on that. I think my listening comprehension is getting slightly better. I don’t have a huge amount of reviews tomorrow, so I’ll start studying new cards again.

[sporedandroid]

I haven’t been doing the best job doing actual studying. Despite that I noticed some progress in my listening comprehension or maybe I’m imagining it. I watched a travel vlog and I felt like I could follow it pretty well. Since I haven’t been actively studying much, that made me do a bit more passive listening again. Usually about 30-45 minutes. When my energy and motivation comes back I’ll probably do more reading and active listening again. I think doing this mix of activities helps me progress faster. I also like that I’ve reduced the amount of time I have to spend on Anki while still exposing myself to a lot of sentences and vocabulary.

[sporedandroid]

I just bought a Hebrew book. Both an e-book and an audiobook. My comprehension doesn’t seem great, but it sure beats my Finnish listening comprehension. I liked the way the audiobook sounded, so that was one reason I got it. It turns out that I have listened to him before. I’ve listened to him read some newspaper articles and I really enjoyed the way he read them.

For now I’m trying to read at roughly the same pace that he reads. It mostly isn’t too bad, but on some sections I kind of stumble. At my current level I can sort of get into the flow of the story, but I definitely also notice unknown words or stuff I’m not sure about. I’m still unsure about how I want to approach that stuff. Maybe I’ll create Anki cards, but not bother too much reviewing.

[sporedandroid]

Today seems like a more productive day. I’m just way more focused and motivated. I didn’t end up having many reviews, so I worked a bit on sentence mining a word document. If this motivation and focus continues, I’ll probably do some active listening. I’ll rewatch a video I’ve watched before and see if I can understand it better. The stuff I still struggle to understand will be stuff I need to study more.

[sporedandroid]

I think rewatching a video actively is a good use of my time when I have more focus and motivation. It’s a video I’ve “studied” before. I couldn’t understand 100% of it, which is what I expected. So when I looked at the transcript I sort of had a better idea of what to focus on. I analyzed a bit of a the grammar structures and did a bit of sentence mining. I find I often can’t study a whole video in one study session. So I’m glad I have a word document with a machine translation and some notes. There’s some things that I think I get, but the real test is rewatching the video and seeing if I understand it.

[sporedandroid]

My mind was racing last night, so I could barely sleep. So I’m not too sharp today. I enjoyed a few chapters of my Hebrew book. There was some vocabulary and details I couldn’t quite catch, but I could still follow the plot and get into it. I don’t think I’d be into the book as much if I didn’t have the audiobook and book at the same time. I’ve sort of been wanting to get that book for a while, but I wasn’t sure it was my level. I’m still not sure, but having the audiobook makes it more attainable for me.

I didn’t have the best time studying. I tried watching a bit of a video, but I just didn’t want to. So I just went through my Anki reviews. I sentence mined a word document since that felt a lot more doable than watching a video. I was just annoyed that I couldn’t understand the video too well. I sort of think sentence mining is more productive at this stage anyways. There’s only so much I can get out of listening practice because my vocabulary is still so small. At this point listening practice is more for fun than actual studying. I definitely “learned” some new words. I just don’t expect to retain them right away, but I did make some new Anki cards.