Matt Neilsen's Hebrew Log

[MattNeilsen]

Yesterday's activity:

Pimsleur (Level 1, Lesson 16) - 30 minutes
Clozemaster - 30 minutes
Duolingo - 10 minutes
Anki - 20 minutes

Total study to date: ~73 hours

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Pimsleur goes pretty fast through the numbers during lessons ~13-16 - I feel like I'm drowning a bit. I'm probably going to need to go back and re-listen to them. Sometimes I feel like I'm not progressing very quickly, but then I'll listen to the intro dialogue in the next lesson and I can understand ~90% of it.

The Clozemaster section I'm working on (101-500) is very difficult - the last round I played I only got 1 right and 14 incorrect before I decided to take a break. I'm not sure if I should do Multiple Choice for a bit to get a feel for the answers and then go back to Text Input. Actually, now that I'm thinking about it, I think that's exactly what I'll do. The whole point of this is to inundate my mind with comprehensible input.

Installing new software in the brain (i.e. learning a language) is a slow process

[MattNeilsen]

Yesterday's activity:

Pimsleur (Level 1, Lesson 17) - 30 minutes
Clozemaster - 30 minutes
Duolingo - 10 minutes
Anki - 20 minutes

Total study to date: ~74.5 hours

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I'm still finding the jump to 101-500 Most Common Words to be quite difficult. I'm switching over to Multiple Choice for all new sentences for the next week or so, and I'll use Text Input for all reviews. I think that should give me the best combination of comprehensible input with reinforcement/practice.

[MattNeilsen]

Previous two day's activity:

Clozemaster - 120 minutes
Duolingo - 20 minutes
Anki - 10 minutes

Total study to date: ~77 hours

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My in-laws were celebrating their 40-year anniversary this weekend, so language learning took a backseat. I'll re-listen to the last Pimsleur lesson I completed and continue forward from there.

So far I'm still a fan of using Multiple Choice in Clozemaster for new sentences and then doing all reviews in Text Input, at least at the early stages of learning a new section. Hebrew is still opaque enough that using comprehension-improving tools is a welcome gift.

One of the fun things about Hebrew - and other Semitic languages? - is the way the language uses 3 or 4-letter roots to construct words. I'm starting to occasionally find that when I see a new sentence, I can guess at the meaning of the new words based on the root letters that form it. This is where I think Clozemaster really excels. I'm being inundated with variations of similar words in context and it's helping me to understand how words get formed. It's definitely a slow process and probably not for everyone, but I find it works for my personality. I do think I'm getting to a point where a little bit of grammar review would ramp up my learning quicker.

[MattNeilsen]

Yesterday's activity:

Pimsleur (Level 1, Lesson 17) - 30 minutes
Clozemaster - 40 minutes
Duolingo - 10 minutes
Anki - 40 minutes

Total study to date: ~79 hours

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Spent some time catching up on Anki reviews that I had let pile up over the past several days. I need to re-think how I'm using Anki. I actually really like the app, but upon reviewing the last couple of weeks I've realized that I haven't created any new cards because it seems like more work than value. Maybe I need to create simpler cards so I don't perceive the process to be such a time-sink. Anki has been a powerful way for me to memorize vocab quickly, so this needs to be a priority (especially in conjunction with Clozemaster).

[cjareck]

I put some effort into preparing templates for Anki. So when I put a sentence there, I can quickly create up to 10 cloze cards with that. It also saves space since I need only one audio file. I upload an image for each cloze. Similarly, I prepared a template for drills from FSI basic course.

[MattNeilsen]

I put some effort into preparing templates for Anki. So when I put a sentence there, I can quickly create up to 10 cloze cards with that. It also saves space since I need only one audio file. I upload an image for each cloze. Similarly, I prepared a template for drills from FSI basic course.

That's a good idea - I'll spend some more time thinking about how to tackle it.

Because my current ability is quite low, I think the biggest bang for my buck would be focusing on the first ~1,000 vocab words, so it's just a matter of gettings the words into Anki and then start drilling them. I'll relax my standards for how "perfect" each card should look and focus instead on simply getting them created. If a word continues to give me trouble then I can always add more information to the card to create more robust neural connections.

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Yesterday's activity:

Pimsleur (Level 1, Lesson 18) - 30 minutes
Clozemaster - 60 minutes
Duolingo - 10 minutes
Anki - 20 minutes

Total study to date: ~81 hours

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I'm going to try to remember to add a 5-10 minute listening segment to my morning routine. I'll try to find very low-level YouTube videos, kid's shows, etc. so I can get some listening practice in daily. Pimsleur and Clozemaster give me some listening, but I think it would probably be worthwhile to get more native-like input into my head. I'm thinking I'll add this listening segment at the end of my morning routine - after I've done Clozemaster/Duolingo - so that my brain is "primed", so to speak, to hear certain words.

[MattNeilsen]

Sometimes one finds resources in the most unexpected of places. I am a big proponent of strength training, and I recently found out that an article on Starting Strength was translated into Hebrew. You can find the Hebrew/English version of the article here.

[MattNeilsen]

Yesterday's activity:

Pimsleur (Level 1, Lesson 19) - 15 minutes (need to re-listen)
Clozemaster - 60 minutes
Duolingo - 10 minutes
Anki - 5 minutes

Total study to date: ~82.5 hours

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I'm glad I've started to incorporate some listening because it's quite evident how weak I am at it. Clozemaster is really good for improving reading comprehension, and Pimsleur does a pretty good job at developing basic speaking skills, but I'm realizing now how much I've neglected my listening skills. Granted, I've only been studying for ~7 weeks and it took me the first ~3 weeks just to get a hang of the alphabet, but I probably should have added a listening-only element sooner.

[StringerBell]

I'll try to find very low-level YouTube videos, kid's shows, etc. so I can get some listening practice in daily. Pimsleur and Clozemaster give me some listening, but I think it would probably be worthwhile to get more native-like input into my head.

I remember years ago on another forum unrelated to language learning where someone mentioned she picked up quite a bit of Hebrew from the Hebrew version of Sesame Street (Shalom Sesame, I think it's called) because she always put it on for her daughter. Probably not the most stimulating show for an adult, but lots of kids do watch it while they're learning to talk, and I bet you will learn colors and numbers 1-10 really well!

[MattNeilsen]

I'll try to find very low-level YouTube videos, kid's shows, etc. so I can get some listening practice in daily. Pimsleur and Clozemaster give me some listening, but I think it would probably be worthwhile to get more native-like input into my head.

I remember years ago on another forum unrelated to language learning where someone mentioned she picked up quite a bit of Hebrew from the Hebrew version of Sesame Street (Shalom Sesame, I think it's called) because she always put it on for her daughter. Probably not the most stimulating show for an adult, but lots of kids do watch it while they're learning to talk, and I bet you will learn colors and numbers 1-10 really well!

Thanks for the suggestion! I did some poking around and it looks like there are two shows: Shalom Sesame and Rechov Sumsum. Both seem to have a lot of content on YouTube. Definitely not the most exciting of shows, but it's probably exactly the level of dialogue that I need Thanks again!