Aloyse wrote:Let's capitalize on established habits
I should perhaps elaborate a little. I was referring not only to actively maintained habits such as listening to my USB key tracks or standing instead of sitting, but also to my default downtime activities i.e.
A/ Watching videos on youtube, almost always in English (I just don't watch TV shows or movies anymore).
B/ Reading fanfiction or public domain novels on my computer - almost always in English ( I haven't read the few physical fiction books I bought in the past 10 years).
C/ Browsing the news - both serious and trashy - in English and French (these days I only read magazines when I'm taking the train - a few times a year).
D/ Browsing reddit (in English)
In 2021 I did make an effort to read magazines in Spanish, and there were a few attempts to read the news in Spanish and Chinese by myself (i.e. not during my online Newspaper Chinese class) and watch videos in Chinese.
It didn't quite work as I expected for several reasons such as:
0/ Disinterest for printed materials. So I now focus on activities that can be done on the computer.
1/ Lack of tolerance for ambiguity (a term I read on this forum recently but I don't recall where) leading to too much "intensive" reading, i.e. I wanted to know the meaning of every word I was reading.
My guess is that since I understand 99% of what I read in English (and have for at least 1 or 2 decades) I totally forgot what it's like to start reading in a foreign language
while enjoying it. Well, I distinctly recall now that I did extensive reading of "A Princess of Mars" and "The Monster of Dr Frankenstein", tolerated A LOT of ambiguity, and only looked up words that came up several times and seemed important.
I think during 2021 I gradually let go of this need to master immediately "all the words" while still keeping reading/listening thanks to external motivation i.e. my online subscription to the Vocable Espanol learner's magazine, and my online Newspaper Chinese class, combined with my USB key mp3 habit - since I put the audio tracks from the magazine and from videos watched in class on the USB key.
2/ unrealistic language schedule: at some point I convinced myself that I could "do everything in language X" on such and such day of the week. I have since relented and I routinely mix languages everyday during my leisure computer time. Hopefully it will last.
3/ inadequate/inexistent logging:
I now log weekly per language and activity (Chinese/Spanish vs News/Fiction/Videos)
as well as daily per activity
- USB key
- News in any language other than English or French
- Fiction in any language other than English or French
- Video in any language other than English or French
So hopefully this will further dissolve the unrealistic "1 language per day" approach while ensuring ongoing self-congratulation as well as knowing that I didn't completely neglect one language or activity.
4/ lack of enjoyable material - keeping in mind that about 70% of what I read/watch in English is in the spectrum between fluff and trash, expecting myself to read mostly serious news in Spanish and Chinese was unrealistic. There's only so much coronavirus, dictatorial repression, and US/China summits I can stand.
So I've decided that reading my horoscope in Chinese also counts as "reading the news", and if I enjoy a video about tragic royals or camperized vans in English, I might as well watch one in Chinese or Spanish.
5/ in the same vein, I expected myself to read long articles in Chinese in one go... depending on the topic and difficulty, one paragraph or one short to medium length article will be enough. Same for fiction, let's start with ficlets.
6/ I explicitly review the same material time and time again with my USB key habit but somehow didn't think to do the same for articles or videos??
Solved. I now bookmark what I enjoyed reading or watching in Chinese or Spanish and will hopefully routinely
rewatch that hilarious video review previous material.
Ah yes - let' try NHK easy news, or small Tokyo appartment videos, or news titles in Arabic or trashy fanfiction in Italian. Maybe it will lead to new habits someday in the next few decades...
Future me already did it.