The Phoenix Rises (DE, FR, ??)

[phoenixofthemorning]

Hey guys, it’s edgeofthemorning. I’ve rechristened myself phoenixofthemorning because I’ve been struggling to get into my “edgeofthemorning” account for some weeks now. I’ve tried sending a new password to my email, nothing. I tried contacting the Board Administrator, nothing. Finally, I’ve decided to cut my losses and just start a new account. I’ve been having a few very productive language learning weeks and it felt like such a shame not to record it in a log. My new username is a slight twist on the old one, since phoenixes are mythical creatures synonymous with “rebirth”, and this is the rebirth of my log.

As I said, the past few weeks have been very busy, language learning wise. I’m also back at campus, so it’s exciting that I’ve found a way to incorporate daily language learning routines as well as regular study.

German Update

In short, I’m still reading Harry Potter und der Gefangene von Askaban. I managed to read 3 - 4 % a day up until last Saturday when I fell ill, and am hoping to pick it up again starting tomorrow (still not feeling 100%, and I like to pick up my old routines step by step rather than implementing it all back at once).

I’m one audiobook behind in HP, and have been listening to at least 30 minutes each day for over a month (Monday to Friday, on my way to and from campus). I’ve started really looking forward to my early morning starts, when the traffic is bad and it takes me nearly 40 minutes to get there, because that’s an enjoyable 40 minutes of listening practice. My listening comprehension is reaching exciting heights; I can now understand 98% of my audiobook, at worst. I can’t imagine what my listening comprehension will be like after I finish the series!

I also do 100 cards on Lingvist each day, which takes around 15 minutes. I usually get 80% accuracy or more, unless I do it really late at night, in which case I make a lot of silly mistakes, or confuse similar words. Thankfully Lingvist isn’t painful at all, so I can see myself keeping with it for a while still, which should do wonders for my vocab.

French Update

I’ve reached episode 200 of Bob Lennon’s Skyrim campaign, and am still finding each episode more enjoyable than the last. I try for at least 30 minutes (~2 episodes) each day, but often do more. I’ve worked out that this alone has been over 50 hours of listening practice, which is exciting. I’ve also worked out that, since the episodes get longer, the rest of the series is still 120 more hours, and he’s still making new episodes today! Basically, it’s longer than a Super Challenge, which should bring my French listening to a respectable level. I think a double Super Challenge (300 hours) would be enough for me to reach a C-level in listening comprehension. Dialang says my listening comprehension is already C1 (in both German and French), but I think it’s probably closer to a B1.

I’m also still reading Percy Jackson (still on book 2), also at a rate of 3 – 4% a day. As with German, I stopped when I got sick over the weekend, and am hoping to reintroduce it tomorrow, and finish it within the next week and a half.

Anki

I’ve finally given in and downloaded Anki again. I used to use it, but felt learning vocabulary through SRS was very inauthentic. However, I can’t deny that it is effective, so I’ve downloaded it again, along with German and French decks filled with a ton of sentences and audio. I’ve adjusted the decks a bit so that the English appears first, which makes them a bit more challenging. I’ve been working through roughly 25 new sentences a day for each, and the reviews haven’t gotten too overwhelming yet.

Polish

Perhaps the biggest update is that I’ve started studying Polish! Those who read my previous log might remember that I started Italian with immense excitement, and then dropped it after two days. Polish is different, though. I can often tell very soon into studying a language if it "clicks" with me, and Polish does. Today marks 2 weeks since I started, so it’s still very early, but the language is just more and more fun each day.

I felt like dabbling in a new language just because, with my German and French, I’m switching over from “language learning” to “language living” where I can read books, watch movies etc. While this is the most exciting times I’ve had with German / French, I do also miss the beginning stages of language learning, where nearly everything is opaque and you learn tons of new things with each study session.

So I decided to start dabbling in a new language. It needed to be a language that previously wasn’t too high on my priority list (so that I didn’t skip German / French study sessions to study this new language) and also not too difficult. After massive contemplation, I chose Danish, since I’ve enjoyed Danish TV in the past.

Of course, things don’t always go to plan. I did a few lessons of Danish on Duolingo, decided the similarities to German annoyed me rather than excited me (sorry, Danish!) and clicked the Polish course without much thought.

It was love at first sight.

Of course Polish doesn’t meet the second requirement I have of my dabble language “being easy” but I’m just pretending like I haven’t read articles titled along the lines of “Why Polish is the Hardest Language in the World”.

Right now I’m making my way through the Polish Duolingo course, doing 1 new skill a day as well as 50XP of “strengthen skills” to keep my tree gold at all times. I’m also doing the corresponding Duolingo-Memrise course to further cement the vocab. I think, given the amount of time I’m spending on reviewing vocab before moving on to new vocab, I’ll retain most of the 1500 words Duolingo / Memrise teaches, which is a helpful basis to have been delving into Assimil Le Polonais. I’ll also probably also use Pimsleur, for pronunciation, and Michel Thomas before starting Assimil around month 3 / 4. I haven’t decided between Le Polonais and Le Polonais sans Peine, so I might start both of them when I get there and see which one I enjoy more.

Goals for Week 1 (16/03 – 23/03)

I’m going to actually try and update this log weekly. Setting weekly goals might help with that. Apologies if my goals are too boring, since I pretty much do the same thing every day with only slight variations.

German

Read 15% of HP,
3 hours of listening,
Daily Lingvist (100 cards),
Daily Anki,

French

Read 15% of Percy Jackson,
3 hours of listening,
Daily Anki,

Polish

Daily Duolingo (minimum 50XP /day),
Daily Memrise,

See you next work!
- Phoenix

[Bluepaint]

What method did you use to contact the Board Administrator? Sounds like something needs looked into

[phoenixofthemorning]

What method did you use to contact the Board Administrator? Sounds like something needs looked into

Once I tried sending a new password to my email (it definitely was the correct email, since I've done it before) a few times, there was an option that said, "contact the Board Administrator". So I just sent an email.

I kind of think I know what went wrong. I had a password for the account, but used the "send password" feature for the first time, the last time I logged in, which worked. Then, obviously, I had a new password which was just a random collection of numbers / letters. I forgot this when I tried to log in again after a month or so, and tried with my regular password. Eventually I used "send password" again, meaning that I now had some unknowable third password in the ether. It obviously overrode the second password (that they sent me when I forgot my password previously) since that one no longer works. So all that's missing is the email telling me my new password. I've done it multiple times now, but I think just spamming the bot will probably do more harm than good, so I left it alone. Maybe it'll show up someday. It's definitely not in a spam folder, or something, btw.

I'm really not that worried if I don't get the old account back. I'm new to the community and wasn't that active on it, anyway. But sure, I might try again, so they can figure out if it's just a problem with me (maybe I should use a different browser? A different computer? The "send password" function spazzes out for a few seconds but then says it was successful, so I'm not sure) or something that needs to be fixed.

- Phoenix

[reineke]

Dialang says my listening comprehension is already C1 (in both German and French), but I think it’s probably closer to a B1.

- Phoenix

C1

I can understand extended
speech even when it is not
clearly structured and
when relationships are
only implied and not
signalled explicitly. I can
understand television
programmes and films
without too much effort

B2

I can understand extended
speech and lectures and
follow even complex lines
of argument provided the
topic is reasonably
familiar. I can understand
most TV news and
current affairs
programmes. I can
understand the majority of
films in standard dialect.

B1

I can understand the main
points of clear standard
speech on familiar matters
regularly encountered in
work, school, leisure, etc. I
can understand the main
point of many radio or TV
programmes on current
affairs or topics of personal
or professional interest
when the delivery is
relatively slow and clear.

[phoenixofthemorning]

@reineke,

Yep, almost definitely B1+ rather than C1. I probably could've gotten a more accurate result from Dialang if I completely ignored the questions I wasn't sure 100% about, rather than guessing. For example, if I vaguely understood that they were talking about ducks, I'd choose the answer that referred to ducks, even if I hadn't heard the details themselves in the audio.

[phoenixofthemorning]

Update for Week 1 (16/03 – 23/03)

Not a great week, but didn't completely bomb, either.

German

• Read 15% of HP - Nope. Managed 7%, which is pretty pitiful, but I always struggle to integrate things back into my routine after taking a week or more off. Thankfully my health has completely restored, so I don't see why I can't try for at least 15% in the upcoming week.
  
• 3 hours of listening - Yep! Kept listening to the Harry Potter audiobooks on my drives to and from campus, which is an average of ~30 minutes a day. Finished the second audiobook, and am currently three chapters into the third. Continues to be massive fun.
  
• Daily Lingvist (100 cards) - Nope. Did the usual 100 cards on day 1 and 2, but then just dropped it completely. I'm kind of getting my SRS fix from Anki, although I don't want to stay away from Lingvist for too long. It'd be nice to finish it within this year.
  
• Daily Anki - Yep! Took about 20 minutes a day to get through my reviews, which is totally bearable. Might increase the amount of new words once it's more solidly integrated into my routine.

French

• Read 15% of Percy Jackson - Nope. As with German, I only managed 7%, which is even more pitiful for French, because the Percy Jackson book is a lot shorter, and going through 1% a day is barely three full pages.
  
• 3 hours of listening - Yep! Actually managed a little more than 5 hours, which is nice. Mostly Bob Lennon's Skyrim campaign, although I also listened to a chapter or so of the first Twilight book in French, and a few more Let's Plays. Didn't really touch TV, although I'd like to get back into season 2 of Les Revenants and Un Village Français.
  
• Daily Anki - Yep! Took a little bit less time than German, since I'm doing 2 German decks and only 1 French deck (16k sentences with audio). It's becoming more and more clear that, even though my French often feels to be at a higher level than my German, my active French is definitely weaker than my active German. I didn't have trouble doing EN > DE cards, but EN > FR cards often had to be reviewed 5 or 6 times before I got them completely correct. I also think my French is too English-like.

Polish

• Daily Duolingo (minimum 50XP /day) Yep! I did 550 XP overall for the week, which is nearly ~80XP a day. I'm still only doing 1 new skill a day, and starting each session with 30 - 50 XP of "strengthen skills".
  
• Daily Memrise, Yep! Still doing the Duolingo-Memrise course, to consolidate all vocab learned on the Duolingo tree. I review all words that need to be reviewed, and do 1 new skill. I'm 2 skills behind on the Memrise tree than the Duolingo tree, so everything I do on Memrise is revision. Problem is, as I move through the course, less and less words seem to have audio, which makes them more difficult to stick. Anyway, I'm on Level 20 / 60 as of today, so a third of the way through the course.

The Way Forward

For German, I will keep reading HP for the foreseeable future, and listening to the audiobooks whenever I'm driving. I'll do Lingvist when I feel like it, but taking it out of my daily routine while I start feeling Anki more and more.

For French, I'll keep reading Percy Jackson mostly-extensively. I say "mostly", because I often click words (on my Kindle) to see their meanings, but I don't write them down, or add them to an Anki deck. Unfortunately, my literary vocabulary doesn't seem to improve at all, so I need to start intensive reading. I think I'm going to start reading the Twilight series intensively. I've been trying to remember all the series I read as a kid and, love it or hate it, Twilight was one of them. I think it's a good series for me to read intensively, because I don't mind getting sick of the series and starting to hate it. I wouldn't want to read Harry Potter intensively in French, for example, especially since I'm reading / listening to it in German. So I'll read Twilight, and highlight words I don't know. I'll then either put them into Anki, or Iversen Wordlists, which I've been wanting to try out. I'll then probably listen to the audio of what I've read, as extra listening practice.

For Polish I'll keep doing the Duolingo / Memrise trees. I'd really love to finish them both before starting Assimil, but I'm really getting itchy feet for Assimil, which I always love doing. Instead, I think I'll slowly start integrating Pimsleur and / or Michel Thomas Polish into my routine, just for some variety. Probably not this week, though.

Goals for Week 2 (24/03 – 30/03)

German

Read 15% of HP,
3 hours of listening,
Daily Anki,

French

Read 15% of Percy Jackson,
3 hours of listening,
Daily Anki,
Intensive Twilight + Iversen Method,

Polish

Daily Duolingo,
Daily Memrise,
1 Pimsleur lesson,

See you next week!
- Phoenix

PS I'm still trying to figure out how to format this log. Excuse the growing pains

[phoenixofthemorning]

I'm never going to be good at keeping logs constant. I think I need to drop all expectations on myself and just log what I feel like logging.

I think weekly goals aren't right for me, since I'm more focused on what I do in my daily routine than my weekly routine. For example, saying, "Use Anki everyday" isn't a good weekly goal, because just missing one day means I've failed for the entire week.

Short update. Still doing lots of extensive listening for French, and started intensive listening for German, using the TV show Dark. I've been watching 10 minutes a day, writing down each word I don't know, and then putting them into Iversen Wordlists. I'll comment on the Wordlist Method once I've done it for longer.

Still extensively listening to the Harry Potter audiobooks in German.

Still struggling to get extensive reading back into my routine.

Daily Anki is going well.

With Polish, I'm at 30 day streaks on both Duolingo and Memrise. I'm still doing the Duolingo-themed Memrise course, but also started the official Polish courses on Memrise. I've also finished the first two Pimsleur recordings.

- phoenixofthemorning

PS This is a shit update, but I think allowing myself to write these kind of updates might mean the log gets updated more regularly. Sometimes I don't always feel like writing structured updates like the previous ones.

[Elenia]

I always find 'do X every day' goals to be the worst ones. If I miss one day, I give up completely. So, if I want to read ten pages each day of a book (and, so you know, I'm pretty much never that ambitious: my goals are there to get me started, not the highest number I want to hit) then I say 'read seventy pages of X book'. That way, I can neatly split that reading into ten pages a day, but if I miss a day, I can readjust and make up for it, or I can split the load different ways if I know I'm going to be busy over some of the days for that week.

This is just a little advice on what I find works for weekly goals. If you prefer not to do them/do better without them, then feel free to disregard it!

Also, your log is for you, the updates are for you. Most of my updates are a mess, but oh well. They're for me (for the most part, they're for me to say: I haven't really done anything much but maybe I'll do more probablynotbutmaybe?).

[phoenixofthemorning]

I always find 'do X every day' goals to be the worst ones. If I miss one day, I give up completely. So, if I want to read ten pages each day of a book (and, so you know, I'm pretty much never that ambitious: my goals are there to get me started, not the highest number I want to hit) then I say 'read seventy pages of X book'. That way, I can neatly split that reading into ten pages a day, but if I miss a day, I can readjust and make up for it, or I can split the load different ways if I know I'm going to be busy over some of the days for that week.

This is just a little advice on what I find works for weekly goals. If you prefer not to do them/do better without them, then feel free to disregard it!

Also, your log is for you, the updates are for you. Most of my updates are a mess, but oh well. They're for me (for the most part, they're for me to say: I haven't really done anything much but maybe I'll do more probablynotbutmaybe?).

Yeah, definitely! I just started feeling how demotivating missing one day can be. It's kind of like dominoes falling down, and you feel like, "What's the point of picking them back up again?" That's something I've always struggled with (like how I'm currently struggling with re-implementing extensive reading even though I did it consistently for over 3 months and then only missed a few days due to sickness) and it's highlighted with weekly goals like "do X every day".

The best kind of log for me would be similar to Expug's, where I just write about what I did today, constantly adjusting etc, but I doubt I'd be able to update every single day.

Thanks for the advice! Love your log, so I'm definitely feeling some sort of starstruck-ness here, haha!

[phoenixofthemorning]

To add on about weekly goals, they're really hard to set! I, too, prefer avoiding set amounts of things when making goals, because inevitably I fail to factor in that life is not ideal and there will be obstacles in my path. I think weekly goals are good as long as they are motivating you, even if you don't check off every item, and they are bad if they are demotivating you, such as missing one day makes you feel like missing more days because nothing matters anymore because you missed one day and now the week is ruined!

Also, it's your log, do whatever you want! (so long as it falls within the rules of the forum )

Hmm, definitely. I had barely started the weekly updates thing and was already feeling the self-imposed expectation to constantly be adding more and more each week to "constantly test my limits". I just managed to read 20 pages last week? Time to aim for 25! And then 30! Then 50! To infinity and beyond!

Truth is, I already know what I can manage, and I've been doing it for months upon months, so my goals wouldn't really change that much weekly, or even monthly.

As with Elenia, I love your log!