Postby schlaraffenland » Mon Jan 01, 2018 7:24 am
2017 in Review
Here are some quantitative data and some comments to wrap up 2017...
GERMAN
5,789 pages read.
9,612 minutes of AV consumed.
[In fact, these numbers come from the Super Challenge and include several hundred pages and a few hours of AV consumed at the end of 2016. But I did the bulk of the work during 2017.]
589 words learned.
FRENCH
1,672 pages read.
4,469 minutes of AV consumed.
2400+ words (re)learned.
JAPANESE
Learned to identify and write 2,200 kanji.
Good stuff:
I completed the Super Challenge in German a few months early, despite a late start, and I completed a half challenge in French for audiovisual materials. I didn't hit my vocabulary goals for either language, but I did get more than 50 percent of the way there in each case. I really enjoyed the Super Challenge and, on the assumption that one will be issued again in a few months, I want to sign up to do a double challenge for French. I feel that this would give me the boost I need to be on very solid footing in the C1+ range by the end of 2019.
I finished volume one of Heisig's Remembering the Kanji earlier this evening! Woohoo! All 2,200 kanji are floating around in my brain somewhere at this point (I hope). I had not believed that I could realistically learn more than 2,000 this year, especially given that I started late. This may be only the second thing in my life where I've said, "I'm going to do a thing," and then I did that thing. No, honestly, the first time must've been when I said, "I'm going to learn German" a few years ago. I really don't have a lot I can look back upon with pride in life where I can say that I set a goal and completed it. So it's nice, and rather stunning, to have a second thing, and to be able to say, "I couldn't do this thing twelve months ago, and now I can." I can also appreciate that I really did improve. I found by accident last month a few sheets of practice paper from my earliest days, the first twenty or so kanji listed in Heisig, and they looked really laughable to me -- clunky, out of proportion, more like something an earnest kid had drawn in imitation of the characters. I think it helped a lot that, almost without exception, I used a fude pen to learn and practice. (I took six fude pens and nearly 500 sheets of kanji practice paper to France for the Fall, and I don't regret it.) Well, now I can do what I had promised myself for 2018 and go buy RTK 2.
Lessons from the school of hard knocks:
1. Classes are not for me. I have been trying to escape this uncomfortable truth for a few years now, but it really hit home this Fall. I have had good experiences in language classes for adults about 65 percent of the time, objectively speaking: great teachers, wonderful fellow students who become good friends in many instances. Yet I still find that classroom time is among the least efficient ways for me to learn, for a variety of reasons, and I should refrain from enrolling in any more classes unless I can be certain I've mitigated the issues I've identified. (A few ways in which to set the bar: classes should be abroad, in the country where the language is spoken; should be intensive instruction; should not occur in the morning; should only be for a language about which I'm already wildly passionate, and never for a language I dislike or about which I'm only lukewarm.)
2. I've also figured out, to my surprise, that I just don't like talking. In general. It should've been obvious a lot sooner, since it applies to English for me as well. I really enjoy listening to others speak: my favorite bits of class in the Fall were the times when we went around and had an open discussion of a particular topic. But I always loathed the moment when someone noticed that I hadn't said anything. I would much rather listen for an hour than say a word. It's not shyness, and it's not fear; curiously, I found that even when the topic revolved around an area of academic expertise for me or personal passion, I had absolutely zero desire to contribute anything. I knew how to formulate a cogent contribution, but I just didn't want to. Leaving psychology aside, I think that the main enjoyment I derive from learning languages is that of understanding. Not speaking, not necessarily reading or writing, but simply developing the capacity to understand what is happening around me.
Anyway, I can't avoid classroom work 100 percent of the time, and I'm sure I'll find myself back in a traditional language course at some point or another. But I know now a little better how to get around such courses' shortcomings, and I know all too well what my own shortcomings are in this arena.
3. The audio-lingual method is probably not for me. This has been my discovery in the course of working with Assimil Norwegisch. I'm not claiming at all that it hasn't been effective -- in fact, I am impressed at its return, given how little effort I put in. But I constantly feel out of touch with the language for the simple fact that I haven't done much writing in it. I feel grounded only when I can write and drill grammatical concepts. So I probably need to supplement audio-lingual courses with a whole separate written course to feel like I am learning properly. Perhaps this just boils down to the discovery that I am not the sort of person who is able to do what Assimil promises on the tin and speak confidently at a B2 level after five months. Then again, I never put much faith in that claim to begin with.
This is all a bit dumb coming from a person who rushed to buy Glossika Cantonese in early November before the big overhaul, but I think Cantonese represents a loophole where audio-lingual makes sense for me: a language that I don't intend to learn to write and for which I don't intend to read literature at present. I figure that if I ever get serious about it, I can spend a year or two bridging the gap between the kanji and traditional Chinese, but that's a very low priority at present.
4. When my progress is stunted by health issues, there's not a lot I can do except to re-tool my learning schedule. No beating myself up for not learning all the vocabulary I wanted to learn this year, or for failing to be ready for my exam on a timeline that was insane anyway. There is no shortcut, no magic pill, no place where I can escape from such setbacks, I realize. And I must simply re-schedule based on the best information I have at any given time. I don't think my goals this year were too ambitious, but I also accept that there wouldn't have been any way to achieve them in light of the unpredictable life circumstances that emerged as of the late Summer and the Fall. So, that's that. Get up, calibrate, and go on.
Goodbye, 2017! I won't miss you, I've got to say. But I'm looking forward to doing my best in 2018.
6 x
: Expressions françaises (120/150)
I will make a hard push to remain focused through the time of the exam, then I'll re-evaluate. I bought a Provençal course that I'd love to tear into, bought Glossika Cantonese, and I could always go back to one of the back-burner languages that still interest me. One thing I do know: I definitely want Norwegian to have a place in my studies after June. I am excited that my Norwegian friends consider me "in" enough that they've started looping me in on group Snapchats or texts in Norwegian, which are good reading practice. I happened to spend a lot of the Fall around many Swedes, and I was delighted to find how I could often pull out the gist of what they were discussing thanks to Norwegian. It's worth investing in for these reasons and more, so I look forward to coming back to it.
