Postby sporedandroid » Tue May 24, 2022 1:06 am
Getting into reading has been very challenging. This year I’ve been trying to get more into reading in general. At first I wanted to just improve at reading in Hebrew, but now I don’t even care which language it’s in. I’ve been back to using Firefox and I’ve been loving the articles they suggest. I like that they aren’t too personalized, but still interesting. I use it a lot to procrastinate on language learning.
My excuse is that I’m reading and getting out of the language learning slump. Language learning can be a pretty isolating hobby for me since I sort of made it my whole personality. I let myself do that because it definitely did help me get into a routine for language learning. I’m also just not naturally disciplined. I can sort of cheat by getting addicted to things. Right now I’m trying to gradually shift my focus to finding a good career. I don’t mind if that becomes my whole personality as well.
One thing I’m motivated to do in Hebrew, but not English is listening to podcasts. Listening to podcasts is pretty awkward for me in general. It’s just hard for me to find time to listen to podcasts. At least when it’s in English. When it’s in Hebrew it’s suddenly super easy to find time to listen to podcasts. Maybe because listening to podcasts in Hebrew is an easy way to study Hebrew. I also find a lot of English podcasts get too podcasty for me. I think another issue I have with podcasts is that a lot of them aren’t very dense. I find that annoying in English, but super helpful for languages learning. I also find as time goes on I naturally pick denser and more interesting podcasts. In English I definitely prefer more dense and short content like Reddit.
On thing I’ve been struggling with is specifically studying Hebrew. The main reason I’m motivated to study is that it’s part of my everyday routine. I sort of feel like I like the way studying Hebrew makes me feel more than the language itself. At least this is how I’ve been feeling for the past year or so. I know it’s not entirely true because when I try out more practical languages I definitely miss studying Hebrew. At least that shows Hebrew isn’t interchangeable with other languages. I can’t just switch to French and expect for it to feel the same. Since Hebrew has been part of my life for a while, I’ve just sort of gotten used to it. I know I’m still very obsessed with it, but it doesn’t feel like it to me. So I avoid talking about it with people because I know I’ll get carried away.
One thing I’m trying to do is get back in touch with why I wanted to learn Hebrew in the first place. It’s kind of hard to because it’s just a huge part of my life. I have moments of enjoying myself, but it isn’t quite the same. Not quite having a reason makes me feel isolated. Since most people’s reaction is asking me why I chose Hebrew. I guess the average person would have a real practical reason, while I just don’t. I guess filling a void is a practical reason, but it’s no one’s business.
I guess when it comes to reading I keep trying to find new approaches. I still find it hard to read articles. I guess I can easily read super short and easy articles, but it doesn’t feel like they count. When I read articles that feel like they count, it still ends up being super hard. I guess I’m noticing some progress in reading. Right now I can read summaries of TV shows on Wikipedia without putting much effort into it. I remember when that used to be super hard. I guess reading is sort of in a catch-22. I don’t read as much as I should because it’s hard and I find it hard because I don’t read as much as I should. For now I still find non-fiction books easier to read than articles. So I’m doing more of that. One approach I changed is how I learn vocabulary. I used to sort of chronologically go through unknown words I’ve highlighted. I found that very tedious, so I found it hard to stick to. Now I just look up the most recent words I’ve struggled with. That way it’s more likely they’re actually unknown words for me now. If they’re not truly unknown words I sometimes make a new Anki card to replace a stale card or a new card if I think the sentence structure is interesting enough. I’ve definitely noticed getting exposed to unique sentence structures in Anki makes it easier to understand them. My strategy is to pick a sentence where the structure is unfamiliar, but I know what it means based on context. Like I said before I find most of these sentences in dictionary definitions, but I also find them in non-fiction articles and books on a familiar topic.
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