Postby gsbod » Sun Aug 22, 2021 11:14 am
I've realised that this last few months in languages, for me, has been one long period of dabbling. I think the only language I haven't dabbled with that's on my wish list is Swedish (there's always time before the end of the summer for that though...) I think dabbling is underrated, particularly for people who don't really know what they want yet. You have to try a few things out from time to time, to see what fits. The challenge then is to turn your dabbling into something more consistent, and stick to it long enough to achieve something.
Anyway, now I'm back to looking at German in a more-than-maintenance kind of way. Is this just a bit of advanced dabbling now? Probably... Still, I think I could do more to work on my reading. There are vocabulary gaps I am not happy with. It's enough to create a bit of friction when I read, or a little bit of discomfort, which I don't experience when I listen to German. I think I'd still ace the reading comprehension section of a C2 paper, so this is more about personal satisfaction than anything else.
So I have a specific problem I want to look at, but I don't quite know the solution. It's interesting to compare my listening and reading comprehension. I think there are two significant differences betwee the two. Firstly, that the range of vocabulary used in the spoken language is narrower than the written language. But secondly, I have spent many more hours listening to German than I have spent reading. Listening is the backbone of my maintenance activities and the one thing that I do regularly. So part of me thinks that I just need to put as many hours into reading German as I've put into listening, and all the discomfort will melt away. And part of me thinks I need to hit the books and do some targeted vocabulary work. And part of me thinks that targeted vocabulary work is going to suck the joy out of things and I'll probably give up before achieving anything with it. I don't know the answer, although part of the answer is definitely this: read more.
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