CarlyD wrote:So what am I doing wrong? I just read a reply that cavesa made in another thread talking about language learning progress, and to wildly misquote--it's not the busyness of learning that makes progress, but the pain involved.
Being (mis)quoted should be flattering, but this is a bit scary
I am not sure whether I am advocating for pain
But I think I know what you mean that I mean (or at least I'm trying) and I'll take you quoting me as a compliment. And hope it turns out for the best for you. But yes, pressure works. But only until some point, and only if it is the right kind of pressure. It should not be pain just for the sake of pain (that's what my medical faculty's teaching style was like. I don't recommend that. Lots of suffering, lots of time, bad results). It should be a challenge, meant to help you achieve more and be happy with the results and proud of yourself.
So going from 30 minutes a day to 2 hours a day doesn't create progress if you're still doing the same thing. I still remember fondly a Spanish class I took. It was horrible. The teacher pushed and prodded and took me far out of my comfort zone. I was exhausted and traumatized after every class. But I learned more Spanish from that one class than from years of other classes.
Yes, these things stick. If it is traumatizing (to a certain point. beyond that, there is no excuse) but efficient, ok. It should never include humiliation though.
I've spent probably hundreds of hours so far learning German. Wonderful, comfortable, happy stay-in-A1 hours. It's time for some pain.
Yes, I've been an eternal A1 too, but because I haven't invested those hundreds of hours (and took looooong breaks)
I had signed up a while back for Rocket German when they had a special. It's good--but it forces you to talk, to think, to produce. In other words, not happy-learning. It's time to get serious with that.
Hmm, not that I wanted to try Rocket German (it somehow didn't convince me despite some of the reviews. But I'll be happy to read your experience!), but I feel like asking: will you be a not-happy-learner with me?
I need a fellow sufferer. (To make it clear to the innocent readers: no, neither of us wants to be unhappy or to reeeeaaaally suffer, we just both seem to be tired of not progressing in German).
Clozemaster and Memrise have been my happy places. Yes, I've learned a good bit of vocabulary there--but it's easy. And I've sometimes found that I remember new vocabulary better from reading it in context than just the word. So, I'm just keeping the official Memrise courses--I'm in German 3 right now.
I'm more lucky than you on Memrise, it seems, as I found a course fitting my main coursebook! Somebody did it! All of it, not just a few units! Just a few words are missing (the person put in all the wordlists but not the extra words from the sauce in the units). What do you think of the official courses? I was rather disappointed with the French ones (I don't think Memrise or anybody should call them "professional", as it is a chaos both in terms of content and form, and likely to cause some bad habits in beginners)
And German Uncovered--I'm returning back to Chapter 2 and making sure I actually know everything presented, rather than assuming that I do.
That's the spirit! Your post is inspiring me more than mine inspired you today
I think I will be doing a 365-day Challenge for 2021. But I think it will be a minimum of 60 minutes, rather than 30. I've had too many 30 minute day where I met that goal, but made absolutely no real progress otherwise. And 2021 will be the year that I finally actually learn German.
I feel like starting a small team log. Something like: Suffering Our Way Out of the German Beginnerland!