Expug's 2019 Log - Reasonable Learning
Posted: Thu Jan 10, 2019 9:53 pm
A Happy New Year to Everyone!
After 2018's Sustainable Dabbling, this year I'm going to work especifically on making my learning process more efficient, solid and rational. I'm not planning on delving into any cramming sessions, rather on filling in the gaps so that I can finally advance in long pursuited languages. I'm also looking forward to making a better use of my learned languages, even more so than teaching them. Being able to reach C2 in a handful of languages and then teach them to Brazilians is a lifetime goal, but I want to be sure to make use of other opportunities knowing foreign languages grant; I'm going to seize those opportunities myself, which includes doing extra work on a few languages if those sound promising. I will not demise any of my new languages and I'll keep aiming for diversity in my choices - I've just started an Amerindian language. I'll just aim for more balanced learning portfolio and schedule now.
Whoever followed my 2018 log noticed that I wasn't that much keen on reaching goals, even if I did have some major breakthroughs. This year I want to be less strict on my daily schedule (or at least I'll try to, knowing beforehand my completionist self is hard to win against) and I want to be flexible enough to adopt situational resources that will help me push forward my skills. This reasoning has come after years of saying that I need to review/go in depth through specific materials for languages such as Estonian and Georgian as well as get my islands done for most of them...and then doing nothing at this respect.
Time has been even more critical, as I can't help but keep adding new languages. This makes sustainable dabbling an even more strategic card, especially what I've been calling pure dabbling through Clozemaster. I've been doing Turkish, Czech, Catalan, Finnish, Esperanto, Icelandic and Romanian at this category and I've just added Hungarian (after noticing it has groupings now) and Swedish to the mix, and I must say it's been a lot of fun with consistent results even.
On the other hand, time spent on app-learning - even those with an Espartan interface such as Clozemaster - has remained one of my main distractions and hindrances to reaching a personal goal of reserving at least 2 hours a day for working on personal projects. I'll keep aiming for that, not only chronologically but also in terms of quality time. I've already noticed some improvement in terms of attention and readiness - when I started my translations early last year, I'd have to keep 1 day for each text (I was doing English and French). Towards the end of the year, I was successfully reserving the final two hours of my daily routine in order to get it done, instead of just spending two days with no language study which is always a source of sufferance for me.
Being flexible involves not getting absolutely everything at the same order every day. I'm just rereading last year's first post and I saw that promised this to myself already and failed. I have no idea what else can help me with this other than strong willpower into habit changing - I should also say I need to stay away from the 'more input' trap which means whenever I have more free time I simply do more input in any given language instead of doing something different and more active, language-related or not. Anyway, I'll give this a try again. That might include replacing my 10-min French film with writing an island once in a while; same goes for Georgian soap opera. I should even go as far as doing no Spanish reading for a day and working on reviewing an Estonian textbook instead. Taking care of all this while avoiding making my schedule even more complex - like alternating every-other-day activities for over 15 languages, I really can't do this to myself - will be one of my challenges for 2019. I've gone so far as to writing a list of 'next best', which is watever most urging task I should do whenever I noticed I had more time to spend on a given day, and that included output, reviewing, non-language projects and such, but I kept this as a draft file on an email account and never got the habit of looking at it. Maybe a physical stick post would do. I've proven to myself that I can stick to a schedule in an effective way and I'm keen at reaching smaller goals, but now comes the challenge of integrating not so repetitive or passive activities into the mix to allow for language-wise and personal growth.
Sometimes just switching activities helps with efficiency. I start the morning with tasks that aren't that much practical to start running: the Estonian soap opera involves opening double subtitles; the Mandarin L-R means opening the browser with Mandarin text, the translation and then the audio on my phone; not to mention the enormous time the computer takes to open, while I play Papiamento news on the background. I might think about ways of starting with more practical, ready-to-go tasks, even if I'm still a bit reluctant to remove these two tasks from the best-quality-time slots, i,e. the first thing done in the morning.
Enough wandering, now for individual languages:
English
I want to study at least two important grammar books. Whatever tutoring I do is rather consulting than actually teaching, but I do want to get better at understanding how the language works as well as fill in some gaps. I have no specific writing goals and I won't promise any static posts until I am comfortable enough for doing them, but miracles can happen. No listening goals either, though I should give some series a try in their native release.
French
I'm not really in the mood for studying French grammar, really. I'd like to make my speech even more spontaneous and less bookish. Maybe writing a bit more to friends.
Papiamento
I'm happy with my progress so far and I don't foresee any speaking opportunities. No changes in the daily schedule then, but I do want to go through the Spanish edition of Papiamentu Textbook so as to prepare me to write learning material one day.
Spanish
Now I claim I can speak it, even if still rather portuñolish. I want to use it for laddering: asking questions about Guarani in the Spanish WP group. I won't set any goals for starting to watch a series, they will remain an off-schedule activity, but I'll try.
Italian
I'm happy with the audiobook part; wish I had more reading time, but like Spanish it comes down to finding absolute must-reads; reading a novel just because it's in Italian is no efficient use of time. I will keep watching series as an off-schedule activity and maybe seek some paragraph correction. I might alternate the audiobook with German, Norwegian and English, though.
Norwegian
No specific goals here other than to keep improving. My active skills haven't skyrocketed but they are there. I still have room to improve on listening. I need to be more present while doing activities in Norwegian, as it is the language where my mind tends to wander, together with Georgian. I also have a material writing lifelong goal but nothing concrete.
German
Activate or lose. I'm happy about reaching my reading goal, but in order to be able to claim I can speak it I need to be able to say a good deal of stuff. That means learning actively some conversational chunks, I might need to write some islands as it's still hard to produce the German word order. No specific goals for listening or reading as the audiobook test might still be a bit challenging (which is valid for Norwegian as well).
Mandarin
Activate or die, to a lesser extent (or not, depending on the opportunities). It's not the first time I realize that not practicing output is hindering my input comprehension as well. I need to be able to use some chunks that will then sound obvious and transparent from input material. I want to keep reading intensively, and the Slow Chinese podcast might be a better option than Yabla at this respect, but then...completionism.
Georgian
I feel I am improving but unlike German and Mandarin I'm not sure what to focus on. I can converse surprisingly better than in German and I got most of my islands done. Maybe writing is the key again, though I should also remain more focused when reading in parallel, so as to finally get to know some frequent words I keep overlooking. Before I forget: I need to review verbal morphology once and again, will probably use Basic Georgian as a start. It's something I've been postponing for years but now I've finally lived enough in the language to actually manage it efficiently.
Russian
It's more of a side language now. I'm not really looking forward to speaking that much, rather to reach some sort of basic reading fluency (which used to be my goal in German for the past years). I might not be that far and I might be on the right track as long as I stick to actual comprehensible input in the form of translated novels.
Estonian
This needs to get somewhere and it won't unless I do some grammar, whether drilling or just reading about it. I have had some important practice at Speakly.me but I need to reach the textbooks again. I'm a member of a WP group now so output is starting to turn into reality. Reading basic fluency is no utopical goal at all as I've always learned it more quickly than Russian, but for this I'll just stick to what I'm doing, 1 page a day, 2 if it gets easy enough.
Modern Greek
I need to review the main verbal forms. Clozemaster has been helping a lot, but maybe just re-reading some grammar will do most of the job. I don't need that much morphology that I do for Estonian and Georgian in order to progress, as Greek simply seems more intuitive. What I need is to get more active with the language, and WP groups might come in handy. So, a textbook or grammar is lined up but other than that just stick to listening-reading which is helping enough.
Hebrew
I'm happy with progress so far. I'm not advancing with textbooks that have turned unproductive just for the sake of completion, and that alone has been responsible for my sustainable progress in Hebrew. I want to keep doing dialogue-based textbooks while addressing some morphology to the side, as I get more comfortable with vocabulary. Like I said before, it's pointless for me to try and understand a grammar rule when I don't know the vocabulary behind it, the resulting sentence thus communicates too little for the learning to take place effectively. Watching TV with double subtitles is an off-schedule goal.
Indonesian
Clozemaster will take the lead at this as the textbooks bore me to death, their learning curves being all too steep. I have to make the main words stick before I can venture other things, though watching series with subtitles in Indonesian might help tackle the register issues. I'm a bit skeptical about seeing a breakthrough at this, but one never knows.
Guarani
Finally turning to the Southern Hemisphere. Swahili will have to wait, though (it wouldn't if it were on Clozemaster). I'm seizing the great opportunity of being on a WP group where native speakers keep chatting and translating and one of them goes to the extent of recording the many bilingual anthologies and posting the audio, thus creating simple, direct, XXI-century-made listening-reading materials. I never though I'd be so blessed in terms of materials for Guarani. Like I said, I want to learn as much from this set of factors and then just keep it slowly. The beginning will be tough as the grammar is rather challenging, agglutinative to the extent that you lose sense of word boundaries, but the joy of learning another language from a country I've visited, one that feels so close to home and even to the Brazilian old Tupi and Nheengatu, will make up for all that, I hope.
Prospects
None other than the usual suspects. All my pure dabbling languages mentioned above, plus Swahili. I really don't foresee adding any languages now, though. As with Russian and my struggle not to add a second Slavic language, I'll have to try hard to keep Hebrew my only Afro-Asiatic one, as Syriac and Arabic are tempting.
So that is it, this year I'm not tracing any audacious goals and I really expect to consolidate my existing languages all while enjoying the learning process through discovering more about other parts of the world in the form of good audiovisual and literary content.
Just a little disclaimer: I'm posting this today while chilling at my hometown at my parents' house, but real learning only starts next Monday, then halts on Tuesday, to resume on Wednesday. Meanwhile, I've been working agressively on app-learning.
I'm really looking forward to another year of sharing learning experiences and enriching our friendship here at LLORG!
After 2018's Sustainable Dabbling, this year I'm going to work especifically on making my learning process more efficient, solid and rational. I'm not planning on delving into any cramming sessions, rather on filling in the gaps so that I can finally advance in long pursuited languages. I'm also looking forward to making a better use of my learned languages, even more so than teaching them. Being able to reach C2 in a handful of languages and then teach them to Brazilians is a lifetime goal, but I want to be sure to make use of other opportunities knowing foreign languages grant; I'm going to seize those opportunities myself, which includes doing extra work on a few languages if those sound promising. I will not demise any of my new languages and I'll keep aiming for diversity in my choices - I've just started an Amerindian language. I'll just aim for more balanced learning portfolio and schedule now.
Whoever followed my 2018 log noticed that I wasn't that much keen on reaching goals, even if I did have some major breakthroughs. This year I want to be less strict on my daily schedule (or at least I'll try to, knowing beforehand my completionist self is hard to win against) and I want to be flexible enough to adopt situational resources that will help me push forward my skills. This reasoning has come after years of saying that I need to review/go in depth through specific materials for languages such as Estonian and Georgian as well as get my islands done for most of them...and then doing nothing at this respect.
Time has been even more critical, as I can't help but keep adding new languages. This makes sustainable dabbling an even more strategic card, especially what I've been calling pure dabbling through Clozemaster. I've been doing Turkish, Czech, Catalan, Finnish, Esperanto, Icelandic and Romanian at this category and I've just added Hungarian (after noticing it has groupings now) and Swedish to the mix, and I must say it's been a lot of fun with consistent results even.
On the other hand, time spent on app-learning - even those with an Espartan interface such as Clozemaster - has remained one of my main distractions and hindrances to reaching a personal goal of reserving at least 2 hours a day for working on personal projects. I'll keep aiming for that, not only chronologically but also in terms of quality time. I've already noticed some improvement in terms of attention and readiness - when I started my translations early last year, I'd have to keep 1 day for each text (I was doing English and French). Towards the end of the year, I was successfully reserving the final two hours of my daily routine in order to get it done, instead of just spending two days with no language study which is always a source of sufferance for me.
Being flexible involves not getting absolutely everything at the same order every day. I'm just rereading last year's first post and I saw that promised this to myself already and failed. I have no idea what else can help me with this other than strong willpower into habit changing - I should also say I need to stay away from the 'more input' trap which means whenever I have more free time I simply do more input in any given language instead of doing something different and more active, language-related or not. Anyway, I'll give this a try again. That might include replacing my 10-min French film with writing an island once in a while; same goes for Georgian soap opera. I should even go as far as doing no Spanish reading for a day and working on reviewing an Estonian textbook instead. Taking care of all this while avoiding making my schedule even more complex - like alternating every-other-day activities for over 15 languages, I really can't do this to myself - will be one of my challenges for 2019. I've gone so far as to writing a list of 'next best', which is watever most urging task I should do whenever I noticed I had more time to spend on a given day, and that included output, reviewing, non-language projects and such, but I kept this as a draft file on an email account and never got the habit of looking at it. Maybe a physical stick post would do. I've proven to myself that I can stick to a schedule in an effective way and I'm keen at reaching smaller goals, but now comes the challenge of integrating not so repetitive or passive activities into the mix to allow for language-wise and personal growth.
Sometimes just switching activities helps with efficiency. I start the morning with tasks that aren't that much practical to start running: the Estonian soap opera involves opening double subtitles; the Mandarin L-R means opening the browser with Mandarin text, the translation and then the audio on my phone; not to mention the enormous time the computer takes to open, while I play Papiamento news on the background. I might think about ways of starting with more practical, ready-to-go tasks, even if I'm still a bit reluctant to remove these two tasks from the best-quality-time slots, i,e. the first thing done in the morning.
Enough wandering, now for individual languages:
English
I want to study at least two important grammar books. Whatever tutoring I do is rather consulting than actually teaching, but I do want to get better at understanding how the language works as well as fill in some gaps. I have no specific writing goals and I won't promise any static posts until I am comfortable enough for doing them, but miracles can happen. No listening goals either, though I should give some series a try in their native release.
French
I'm not really in the mood for studying French grammar, really. I'd like to make my speech even more spontaneous and less bookish. Maybe writing a bit more to friends.
Papiamento
I'm happy with my progress so far and I don't foresee any speaking opportunities. No changes in the daily schedule then, but I do want to go through the Spanish edition of Papiamentu Textbook so as to prepare me to write learning material one day.
Spanish
Now I claim I can speak it, even if still rather portuñolish. I want to use it for laddering: asking questions about Guarani in the Spanish WP group. I won't set any goals for starting to watch a series, they will remain an off-schedule activity, but I'll try.
Italian
I'm happy with the audiobook part; wish I had more reading time, but like Spanish it comes down to finding absolute must-reads; reading a novel just because it's in Italian is no efficient use of time. I will keep watching series as an off-schedule activity and maybe seek some paragraph correction. I might alternate the audiobook with German, Norwegian and English, though.
Norwegian
No specific goals here other than to keep improving. My active skills haven't skyrocketed but they are there. I still have room to improve on listening. I need to be more present while doing activities in Norwegian, as it is the language where my mind tends to wander, together with Georgian. I also have a material writing lifelong goal but nothing concrete.
German
Activate or lose. I'm happy about reaching my reading goal, but in order to be able to claim I can speak it I need to be able to say a good deal of stuff. That means learning actively some conversational chunks, I might need to write some islands as it's still hard to produce the German word order. No specific goals for listening or reading as the audiobook test might still be a bit challenging (which is valid for Norwegian as well).
Mandarin
Activate or die, to a lesser extent (or not, depending on the opportunities). It's not the first time I realize that not practicing output is hindering my input comprehension as well. I need to be able to use some chunks that will then sound obvious and transparent from input material. I want to keep reading intensively, and the Slow Chinese podcast might be a better option than Yabla at this respect, but then...completionism.
Georgian
I feel I am improving but unlike German and Mandarin I'm not sure what to focus on. I can converse surprisingly better than in German and I got most of my islands done. Maybe writing is the key again, though I should also remain more focused when reading in parallel, so as to finally get to know some frequent words I keep overlooking. Before I forget: I need to review verbal morphology once and again, will probably use Basic Georgian as a start. It's something I've been postponing for years but now I've finally lived enough in the language to actually manage it efficiently.
Russian
It's more of a side language now. I'm not really looking forward to speaking that much, rather to reach some sort of basic reading fluency (which used to be my goal in German for the past years). I might not be that far and I might be on the right track as long as I stick to actual comprehensible input in the form of translated novels.
Estonian
This needs to get somewhere and it won't unless I do some grammar, whether drilling or just reading about it. I have had some important practice at Speakly.me but I need to reach the textbooks again. I'm a member of a WP group now so output is starting to turn into reality. Reading basic fluency is no utopical goal at all as I've always learned it more quickly than Russian, but for this I'll just stick to what I'm doing, 1 page a day, 2 if it gets easy enough.
Modern Greek
I need to review the main verbal forms. Clozemaster has been helping a lot, but maybe just re-reading some grammar will do most of the job. I don't need that much morphology that I do for Estonian and Georgian in order to progress, as Greek simply seems more intuitive. What I need is to get more active with the language, and WP groups might come in handy. So, a textbook or grammar is lined up but other than that just stick to listening-reading which is helping enough.
Hebrew
I'm happy with progress so far. I'm not advancing with textbooks that have turned unproductive just for the sake of completion, and that alone has been responsible for my sustainable progress in Hebrew. I want to keep doing dialogue-based textbooks while addressing some morphology to the side, as I get more comfortable with vocabulary. Like I said before, it's pointless for me to try and understand a grammar rule when I don't know the vocabulary behind it, the resulting sentence thus communicates too little for the learning to take place effectively. Watching TV with double subtitles is an off-schedule goal.
Indonesian
Clozemaster will take the lead at this as the textbooks bore me to death, their learning curves being all too steep. I have to make the main words stick before I can venture other things, though watching series with subtitles in Indonesian might help tackle the register issues. I'm a bit skeptical about seeing a breakthrough at this, but one never knows.
Guarani
Finally turning to the Southern Hemisphere. Swahili will have to wait, though (it wouldn't if it were on Clozemaster). I'm seizing the great opportunity of being on a WP group where native speakers keep chatting and translating and one of them goes to the extent of recording the many bilingual anthologies and posting the audio, thus creating simple, direct, XXI-century-made listening-reading materials. I never though I'd be so blessed in terms of materials for Guarani. Like I said, I want to learn as much from this set of factors and then just keep it slowly. The beginning will be tough as the grammar is rather challenging, agglutinative to the extent that you lose sense of word boundaries, but the joy of learning another language from a country I've visited, one that feels so close to home and even to the Brazilian old Tupi and Nheengatu, will make up for all that, I hope.
Prospects
None other than the usual suspects. All my pure dabbling languages mentioned above, plus Swahili. I really don't foresee adding any languages now, though. As with Russian and my struggle not to add a second Slavic language, I'll have to try hard to keep Hebrew my only Afro-Asiatic one, as Syriac and Arabic are tempting.
So that is it, this year I'm not tracing any audacious goals and I really expect to consolidate my existing languages all while enjoying the learning process through discovering more about other parts of the world in the form of good audiovisual and literary content.
Just a little disclaimer: I'm posting this today while chilling at my hometown at my parents' house, but real learning only starts next Monday, then halts on Tuesday, to resume on Wednesday. Meanwhile, I've been working agressively on app-learning.
I'm really looking forward to another year of sharing learning experiences and enriching our friendship here at LLORG!