PersianI wanted to share today my study time, and how I was working so that I could think about it and also as a reflection on things like blind shadowing, using Assimil, Anki. But I think today is really a study on interruptions and squirrels.
It's Sunday and I decided to start my study session by catching up on my daily Anki - 75 cards or so, that should be pretty fast. But sure enough, a couple of minutes in the dog interrupted me and wanted a walk. No problem, I grabbed my headphones and phone and we headed out.
I decided to start the next Assimil lesson (32) with just blind-listening since I didn't have the book with me; let the language and the lesson wash over me as I walked in the woods. That started out fine and I wasn't really able to repeat anything except a few half phrases under my breath. I listened to the full lesson intently 4 times before my mind began to wander. I did get a few words, one or two repeated chunks that I thought I would look up after but my understanding was basically zero. Not concerned, because I was expecting that and I'd work on it again once home and once I had the book in front of me.
Reigning in my thoughts, I did listen to the lesson another 5-6 times on the walk back with some more shadowing. But never really complete active shadowing. When I got home I had the intent to sit down, go over the lesson and exercises. But my wife interrupted me and asked me to brainstorm with her on a business project we have.
I asked for a few minutes, worked the Assimil lesson for a few minutes but noticed the different (to me!) pronunciations of ق in the lesson, off I went to first look for an IPA guide or the pronunciation for a specific word in wiki dictionary... and then I looked for videos on the pronunciation of |q|.
So, I've been completely derailed - but I did get to go over the lesson completely (stopping and restarting after each new sentence) only working on the sound and meaning. Not yet shadowing, not yet really reading the Persian text. And here, I thought I could pause for a few minutes and talk with my wife about our project.
Twenty minutes in, I'm teasingly accusing her of not having returned a relevant book called
Traction (really a great read for startups) which we can't find in the house. And we don't know if I had it last, or if we lent it, but then we notice that a few other books aren't in their place...
Well, we are now off into the deep dive of looking in boxes in the garage to find some business books - oh, and in the meanwhile, I found some unopened boxes of language books that I was also looking for. We unpack and arrange things for about an hour. The pile of books that are to be given away has grown with other stuff. And I suggest we pack all that, leave the newly opened boxes on the dining room table, and take this stuff to the local thrift shop.
And we are off to drop off books and junk and ... of course, to look around at the thrift shop where we found a few bookcases - that we didn't buy.
This meandering story takes us back home. I now have lots of books to put away. I did find the book I was looking for and the Assimil lesson is still waiting for me to complete. THat and all the other things I think I can get done today. And I still haven't even finished the Anki cards for the day.
Distractions. Distractions on my way to Persian.
Status Podcast 23 / review 12
Assimil 32
TYB 16
Anki 811 in review / 930 cards