Your Language Learning Weaknesses

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zKing
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Your Language Learning Weaknesses

Postby zKing » Thu Jun 21, 2018 11:18 pm

I took a moment of cathartic release and cataloged my language learning weaknesses.

  1. I can't take large scale flashcard grinding for long
    I can do the "3 day monk" thing with gusto. But longer term big volume grinds just lead to another abandoned deck. My threshold seems to be about 30 mins / day max. Anki IS very effective at helping me remember things! But in general I need to work with longer chunks of (somewhat) real content to stay sane and keep Anki usage light and focused.
  2. I VERY easily get sucked into "preparing" instead of "doing"
    I can spend hours getting my materials in the right format (trimming audio, making flashcards, searching for subtitles, ripping DVD's, etc), and realize I haven't actually USED them. I also can get enamored with the next most brilliant method that just a bit better than the last idea... "I just need to edit my materials into X format or find Y style material and use it like Z and it will certainly be 'more efficient' than what I've been doing." I'm better at this than I used to be, but I really try to watch my time usage and chant "good enough" a lot. :)
  3. I must fight my engineer brain's perfectionist side
    I feel a strong urge to look everything up and add EVERYTHING to my Anki deck. It is tough for me to "just guess and move on" --- my devil's advocate brain doubts all guesses too much, i.e. "It could mean X... or Y... or Z... or half dozen other things... oh what's the point? I just don't know."
  4. My ear for words isn't the best
    I've always had a tough time even just picking out English lyrics from songs. Although I do have an ear for pitch, so that helps a bit.
  5. I have maybe 5-10 hours each week I can use for language learning + some dead time driving, etc.
    Ok, this is really more of a limitation than a "weakness", but whatever. My wife and I spend a lot of time together and we don't watch a lot of TV, so there's little time for "extensive" language activities.

I think I've found ways to circumvent my issues adequately, but I'm curious to hear from others:
What does your list look like?
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eido
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Re: Your Language Learning Weaknesses

Postby eido » Fri Jun 22, 2018 3:14 am

1. Wanderlust
2. Related to the above, not sticking to one thing long enough to improve well
3. Getting attracted by shiny sales
4. Procrastination in general
5. Comparing myself to more advanced learners, to the point all I end up doing is fantasizing about how great I'll be and how I'll show them, treating them like the enemy in my jealousy, and not doing anything

I'll probably think of more, but here's what I have for now.
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Re: Your Language Learning Weaknesses

Postby philomath » Fri Jun 22, 2018 3:24 am

I spend too much time reading about other people's language learning methods and thinking of how best to study instead of actually studying.
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Re: Your Language Learning Weaknesses

Postby NoManches » Fri Jun 22, 2018 5:01 am

philomath wrote:I spend too much time reading about other people's language learning methods and thinking of how best to study instead of actually studying.



I'm guilty of this as well.

My biggest weaknesses are poor time management and being easily distracted.
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Re: Your Language Learning Weaknesses

Postby aaleks » Fri Jun 22, 2018 1:08 pm

Grammar rules. Or more precisely, the explanation of grammar rules one can find in traditional, popular, and well-recommended textbooks/grammar reference books. I don't understand them, and as a result I cannot apply the rules correctly. Probably more experienced and/or gifted language-learners know how to deal with those books but in my case, it seems, the books do more harm than good.
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Re: Your Language Learning Weaknesses

Postby Querneus » Fri Jun 22, 2018 3:36 pm

My main weakness is that I don't actually enjoy the process of learning languages all that much. I have all these fantasies about all the things I would do if I knew my languages well, but I don't actually do the necessary work to get there, as I have a bit of an aversion to it. And since on top of that I don't really need any language other than English in my regular life, I go at a turtle's pace. How long have I been learning or practising French again? Almost 10 years, and I'm still an intermediate speaker (I estimate somewhere past B1).
aaleks wrote:Grammar rules. Or more precisely, the explanation of grammar rules one can find in traditional, popular, and well-recommended textbooks/grammar reference books. I don't understand them, and as a result I cannot apply the rules correctly. Probably more experienced and/or gifted language-learners know how to deal with those books but in my case, it seems, the books do more harm than good.
I have the opposite problem: I understand grammars, but I find learning about languages more enjoyable than learning the languages themselves! I find the patterns in forms and sentence structures more interesting than learning tons of individual words and their quirky semantics (their various meanings), their morphosyntax (what specific forms they can take, what preposition(s) can accompany them, etc.), or the collocations and phrases they appear in.

I think this is a disease very typical of conlangers. I see it a lot among our kind at least. We almost always have polyglottic aspirations, but we never get anywhere because we'd rather learn grammatical patterns to steal into our conlangs, instead of making the commitment to learn a language and its culture well. :?
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Re: Your Language Learning Weaknesses

Postby kulaputra » Fri Jun 22, 2018 4:34 pm

These also apply to me:

zKing wrote:
  1. I can't take large scale flashcard grinding for long
    I can do the "3 day monk" thing with gusto. But longer term big volume grinds just lead to another abandoned deck. My threshold seems to be about 30 mins / day max. Anki IS very effective at helping me remember things! But in general I need to work with longer chunks of (somewhat) real content to stay sane and keep Anki usage light and focused.
  2. I VERY easily get sucked into "preparing" instead of "doing"
    I can spend hours getting my materials in the right format (trimming audio, making flashcards, searching for subtitles, ripping DVD's, etc), and realize I haven't actually USED them. I also can get enamored with the next most brilliant method that just a bit better than the last idea... "I just need to edit my materials into X format or find Y style material and use it like Z and it will certainly be 'more efficient' than what I've been doing." I'm better at this than I used to be, but I really try to watch my time usage and chant "good enough" a lot. :)
  3. I must fight my engineer brain's perfectionist side
    I feel a strong urge to look everything up and add EVERYTHING to my Anki deck. It is tough for me to "just guess and move on" --- my devil's advocate brain doubts all guesses too much, i.e. "It could mean X... or Y... or Z... or half dozen other things... oh what's the point? I just don't know."


Regarding the second weakness... this used to be a problem with me. Then I realized I could just keep L2 audio running in the background at the same time as I "prepare."

The last one is definitely one of my biggest weaknesses, but I've been getting better and better at just listening or just reading without looking up every word, and I've been pleasantly surprised how many words I've picked up this way without the tedium of SRS software. Something that's helped me: make an agreement with yourself to only look up every word on one in every 20 pages, or 50 pages, etc. (depending on your level).

eido wrote:2. Related to the above, not sticking to one thing long enough to improve well
4. Procrastination in general


Regarding wanderlust: I have wanderlust, but I never have followed through with it past looking through a book or listening to a few audio pieces for at most an hour or two. And even that, very rarely. Nonetheless, mentally, I fantasize a lot about other languages, which is kind of pointless, but not a huge impediment to everything.

Serafín wrote:I think this is a disease very typical of conlangers. I see it a lot among our kind at least. We almost always have polyglottic aspirations, but we never get anywhere because we'd rather learn grammatical patterns to steal into our conlangs, instead of making the commitment to learn a language and its culture well. :?


Have you considered studying linguistics instead? Either formally in a university or at your leisure.
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Re: Your Language Learning Weaknesses

Postby leosmith » Sun Jun 24, 2018 10:38 am

I'm very fortunate to say I no longer have weaknesses. The last one I had was grammar, but I finally found a method that works well for me. I might say that my hearing not being great is a weakness, but I barely notice the impact. Listening skill and vocabulary take a really long time to acquire, but I think this is the same for everyone.
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Re: Your Language Learning Weaknesses

Postby garyb » Mon Jun 25, 2018 9:39 am

- Perfectionism (slows down my speaking yet doesn't stop me making silly mistakes!).
- High ambitions, despite being aware that I don't have enough free time and routine in my life to reach them and I'm unwilling to make the time.
- Not enough confidence, social skill, or persistence to make the most of speaking opportunities.
- Terrible ear for pronunciation and prosody.
- I can't do "binge-watching" and struggle to stay focused on films and TV; I tend to watch TL media in lots of short chunks, losing the benefit of really getting absorbed in the story.

I have improved on most of these in the last few years (see reply in burnout thread), but that's mostly just meant learning to have more realistic expectations and to avoid my problems rather than face them: accepting that I'm not a social butterfly type and focusing less on speaking...

zKing wrote:I can't take large scale flashcard grinding for long

That sounds like a strength, not a weakness ;) Spending more than a few minutes per day on flashcards just sounds painful and unproductive. I've never studied Cantonese, however; maybe flashcards are good for learning the characters.
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Re: Your Language Learning Weaknesses

Postby tastyonions » Mon Jun 25, 2018 11:59 am

Unwillingness to use boring but (allegedly) effective techniques (flashcards, FSI-style programs).
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