Sayonaroo wrote:I use anki so I added whatever I looked up that I thought was worth adding. I know what you mean with the paranoia that if you don't use anki you may not rmemeber much or not as much as you could and you're just gonna look up stuff over and over again [...] The guy from ajatt wrote an entry about why he still uses anki which just resonates with me . Eventually I figured out that cloze deletion is way more effective and effortless.
Yeah, actually remembering the words and being able to use them spontaneously is a concern of mine.
I spent a few moments browsing AJATT and, I liked a lot of what he’s posted about SRS, in general and MCD’s in particular. I like that MCD’s the are fairly quick to make, always present words in context and that it’s an interesting way to work with fairly longer text if i’d like. Most importantly, the new format might make things a bit more interesting. I’m feeling good about giving it a shot.
Cavesa wrote:Very true. At the intermediate level, stuff takes a lot of time. Improvement at C2 takes even more. It is hard to be patient. But we don't have much of a choice.
You’re right. It’s encouraging to read that many experienced language learners, such as yourself, share the same experience. Intellectually, the ‘it takes time thing’ has been easy to grasp, the funny part comes the moment one has to give that time.
Cavesa wrote:There are no longer the resources that give you a tiny nice feeling of accomplishment after every unit or exercise. Or very few of them. There are many other resources, which are objectively more fun. But the feeling of accomplishment, the one "yeah, I am just one tiny step closer to my goals" is not that obvious anymore. Super Challenge, Course Completion Challenge, and surely others are very helpful in this area. They give us the opportunity to accomplish something. They are quantifyable. They give us back that nice feeling participating a lot on our will to go on. [...]
Join the challenges. 10000 pages are bound to make you improve. There is no guarantee that the chosen amount of material you sign up for will get you to C2 or perfection, or whatever crazy goals we tend to have. But it is sure to make you progress noticeably. Milestones in the right direction. The same can be done in any area. You can decide to write two hundred pages during the next two months (or any other thing and number like this).
I’ve seen the challenges and always thought they were ‘interesting’. Still, before your comments, I don’t think I stopped to fully consider some of what they can represent:
- Useful for creating or reinforcing healthy ‘study’ habits -With a challenge, I’m more like to consider, “What needs to be done and how much time per day/week needs to be dedicated to each task?”
- They act as a sort of measuring stick - As you noted, while no-one is guaranteed to exactly replicate another's language learning experience, something like the Super Challenge can be used as a reference point. One can say, “after two Super Challenges I was able to do so and so.”
- They suggest what a reasonable amount of work might be at a given level.- Great for accountability - The work is either being done, or it isn’t. There’s no way around it.
- Useful for focusing effort - It often seems like there’s an infinite amount of things to be learnt but entering a challenge can be a great way to focus and drive improvement in one or two areas.
- Community - One can see what others are doing and learn from others who have more experience, as they share their own. Seeing what works for them reminds you that you’re at least heading in the right direction, even when it doesn’t seem like it.
I’m already ‘kinda-sorta’ participating in the Super Challenge but the Course Completion Challenge seems interesting too. The Output Challenge might be better tackled next year since it would be pretty hard to keep up starting this late in the year.
Cavesa wrote:I had been doing the same activities for five years and felt little progress most times, I was taking breaks, and was doing much less rigorous stuff than you. But still, suddenly, my French was two levels higher, surprise. Two years are still not weirdly long. The only problem is, that doing activities you hate might make you give up completely. That is the problem, I believe. The way you spend the time, not the time itself.
Right again. Slowly, over the past few months, I think that I've subconsciously started prioritizing 'work' over 'fun'. As in, even if I genuinely liked what I was reading, watching or listening to, I was secretly trying to learn everything as opposed to just enjoying the material. While it's good to be always be attentive
(pay attention) to the language, it's probably necessary that I better distinguish between study and leisure time. I was studying all the time and so the actual study time started feeling a bit torturous - I think I'll return to
SprintsAnyway, thanks for the great comments. They were very helpful and provided 'a lot' of food for thought.
"Wax on, wax off" - Mr. Myagi