I am looking for a coach or a mentor

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mjb1971
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I am looking for a coach or a mentor

Postby mjb1971 » Tue Mar 07, 2023 1:11 am

Hello!

tldr; Motivated, if scattered, student with disciplined study habits-ish seeks a coach or mentor to check in with on study routines.

Long time lurker here. Long time dabbler at the A1-A2 levels in French, Spanish, German, Korean, Chinese (much less), Japanese (a bit higher), Amharic (oh, Amharic), Arabic (biggest regret), now Turkish (much lower) and Russian (much lower).

I have used many online tutors. Some have been great, some have been not so great. To be fair, I am a picky student and am particular about how I spend my money in the lessons. I do believe in input method and I do think that output should be carefully used at the beginning levels.

I have daily study habits, for my solo time it is reading and listening. The usual suspects: Assimil, Colloquial series, DLI, graded readers and parallel texts are what I aim for. I also use dedicated listening platforms such as Rosetta and Pimsleur, though not as robustly.

Biggest fear: that I am wasting time. I seek someone to check in with from time to time to say "hey, I have been spending my past two weeks on Assimil, but am getting bored...any ideas?" I do not think this check in needs to be language specific. More about habits and practice. Anyways. Just throwing this out there.

Thanks!

MJB
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jimmy
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Re: I am looking for a coach or a mentor

Postby jimmy » Tue Mar 07, 2023 10:04 am

mjb1971 wrote:Hello!

I do believe in input method and I do think that output should be carefully used at the beginning levels.


Thanks!

MJB


if I have understood it correctly, this idea is yes correct.

because , once you learn something in wrong way, then everything goes in that way wrongly.

I think there are many non native Arabic people who are also The learner for Arabic language and suffer by this point.
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tiia
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Re: I am looking for a coach or a mentor

Postby tiia » Sat Mar 11, 2023 7:00 am

mjb1971 wrote:Biggest fear: that I am wasting time. I seek someone to check in with from time to time to say "hey, I have been spending my past two weeks on Assimil, but am getting bored...any ideas?" I do not think this check in needs to be language specific. More about habits and practice. Anyways. Just throwing this out there.

To me that actually sounds like you could also just try having a log here on this forum.
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Re: I am looking for a coach or a mentor

Postby tungemål » Sat Mar 11, 2023 9:10 am

If you study everyday I doubt you're wasting your time. It doesn't matter too much what you're doing, as long as you're doing something. You will progress.

Some general guidelines that I think many here would agree on:
- Study only one language at a time, untill you are at B1 or B2 level.
- Follow a course book in the beginning (like you seem to do)
- Do something every day, or almost every day
- When you're finished with a course or two, start reading, first easy readers for learners, then real books
- have a system for notating and cramming vocabulary (like Anki)
- You need to practice listening, a lot, or you won't understand anything people say
- You get good at what you practice. To get good at speaking with people, you need to practice this (this is where you need a coach or someone to speak with).

I admit I haven't always followed these rules myself, because I'm lazy, but I've learned that this works well.
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Re: I am looking for a coach or a mentor

Postby Cainntear » Sat Mar 11, 2023 1:27 pm

mjb1971 wrote:I have used many online tutors. Some have been great, some have been not so great. To be fair, I am a picky student and am particular about how I spend my money in the lessons. I do believe in input method and I do think that output should be carefully used at the beginning levels.

Strictly speaking, you don't seem to believe in the input method at all. I agree that output should be used carefully, which means using output, which is something "the input method" basically forbids.

I believe carefully controlled output is the best way to train the brain how the language works.

Note: I am not saying that output should be the core focus -- it is quite often a technique used for less of the available learning time, but that shouldn't be misinterpreted as being less important.

Consider this: how much of your time in the driving seat of a car is spent starting the engine? How much of your time is spent pressing the indicator button? Switching the car lights on or off?
Occupying minimal time is not an indicator of low importance.
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Re: I am looking for a coach or a mentor

Postby leosmith » Thu Mar 16, 2023 4:32 am

mjb1971 wrote:Biggest fear: that I am wasting time
A1-A2 levels in French, Spanish, German, Korean, Chinese (much less), Japanese (a bit higher), Amharic (oh, Amharic), Arabic (biggest regret), now Turkish (much lower) and Russian (much lower).
Being at a low level in more than one language at once is a waste of time, imo, unless you are not trying to reach a high level in any language. We cannot tell from what you wrote, because you have not even stated your goals.
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mjb1971
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Re: I am looking for a coach or a mentor

Postby mjb1971 » Fri Mar 24, 2023 1:04 am

Thanks for all the replies. Some were thought provoking. I think the most reassuring reply was this:

"you study everyday I doubt you're wasting your time. It doesn't matter too much what you're doing, as long as you're doing something. You will progress"

I think that is the crux of the matter. If we are working, we will progress. Got it.

This sets up a second question, though. A judging part of the mind jumps in and asks "But what is the best way of doing?" Having recently watched a bunch of Paul Nation videos I am reminded of what he calls the Holy Grail of vocabulary learning research. Hello Parsival. The judging mind often drives us on quests for better, faster, stronger. There is some benefit and some peril in this. This discussion was a good reminder of that.

However, I cannot say that coaches, mentors, guides are not a good thing. As an outside element they can impose structure and direction that cannot be seen by the learner. And place material and equipment in their path. And advise pitfalls and false routes.

In the good discussion there were some responses that I think missed the mark? I appreciate the input though I see that I triggered a discussion on a strict definition of input method (versus a more nuanced version a la Nation). Someone drew a parallel between a life coach and language mentor, I think we are again dealing with vagaries of meaning here. I am not sure in the sense I am using the terms that these roles are that much different. Although I think the poster also was advocating for psychological help :).

I note the advice to keep a log, especially a log on the forum. I think that hits a point on becoming structured. I think one key difference is that a mentor/coach/life coach is someone who also has investment in the learner and the process. In addition, sometimes having one source of mentoring is more beneficial than opening up to many channels, such as in a log. Good point though and good use of this resource.

Someone did chime in, just as a mentor would, advising a re-assessment of my learning based on a spread of direction. Fair enough, and that is indeed a mentoring response. However, there was probably a premature response in that the mentoring/coaching ideas were not to assess the current stock of languages but more so (an unstated question) on specific practice methods in the specific active study ones.

Thanks for the comments!
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Re: I am looking for a coach or a mentor

Postby leosmith » Fri Mar 24, 2023 2:16 am

mjb1971 wrote:the mentoring/coaching ideas were not to assess the current stock of languages but more so (an unstated question) on specific practice methods in the specific active study ones.
Then you are probably better off not having a mentor, because any mentor worth their salt would warn you about all those low level languages and want to know your goals. You might get more satisfying advice via very specific questions on forums like this one, thus avoiding having to reveal red flags and give someone lots of background information.

You might find this comment irrelevant, but that’s actually what I normally do. Some people find my learning methods to be questionable, so it’s unproductive to reveal them when I post questions. I just reveal the bare minimum.

If you want a mentor, you should let them see the big picture, and be receptive to their sage advice. You don’t have to do everything that they say, but as a less experienced learner, it’s always good to have an open mind.

One last bit of unsolicited advice – learn to use the quote button.
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mjb1971
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Re: I am looking for a coach or a mentor

Postby mjb1971 » Sat Mar 25, 2023 1:34 am

Thanks for your opinion. I take it that if you were a mentor you would not agree with having multiple languages at an A1-A2 level. I do not think there is any need to continue the back and forth on that opinion, at the moment.
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Re: I am looking for a coach or a mentor

Postby rdearman » Sat Mar 25, 2023 10:27 am

mjb1971 wrote:Thanks for your opinion. I take it that if you were a mentor you would not agree with having multiple languages at an A1-A2 level. I do not think there is any need to continue the back and forth on that opinion, at the moment.

I am curious about what you are saying here. Is your intention to get to an A2 level in multiple languages and stop there? Or are you thinking about getting X languages to A2 at the same time, then taking them all to B2 at the same time?

I think many people here would advise you against the second course of action, but nobody would argue against the first course. Although I would point out that if you get a language to A2 and stop it will naturally backslide to A0, but the backslide is reduced the more you know and the higher level you get to.

It might seem counterintuitive but it would be faster to focus one one language at a time,get it to B1 (I would not bother stopping in the A's e.g. backsliding) then move to the second. The reason I believe this is faster is because by focusing on one language each subsequent language you spend less time on "meta" learning. By meta-learning I mean how to learn and how languages function.
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