Aloyse's study log (ZH + some ARB, ARQ, KAB, EN, ES, JP)

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Aloyse
Orange Belt
Posts: 244
Joined: Sat Jan 19, 2019 9:00 am
Languages: Fr (N), EN (C1),
ES (B1?), ZH (B1),
JP (A1), ARB (A1?),
ARQ (A0), KAB (A0)
Language Log: https://forum.language-learners.org/vie ... php?t=9983
x 603

Re: Weekly log

Postby Aloyse » Sun Dec 19, 2021 11:04 am

2021年12月12~18日

USB key contents: unchanged

Listened to USB key: 6x
Language or culture classes: 1x through zoom (less distracted but still not 100% involved)
Videos: 1 video in Chinese (although I can't remember what it was about)
Fiction: 0
Articles: 1 short article from BBC中文

Weight: 76.0
Most Simple Miracle Morning: 0x (deliberately, I'm trying to sleep more so that I'm well rested before the holiday madness)
20' walking: 5x
6 flights of stairs: 0x
Reasonable eating: 0x :? coworker, canteen, everyone is conspiring to tempt me with chocolates
Falling asleep: 7x middle slot




luke wrote:el pecado original

Only one c in Spanish. Somehow it surprised me. Must have sung too many masses at (public-funded music school) choir. "Qui tollis peccata mundi" came to mind.
3 x

Aloyse
Orange Belt
Posts: 244
Joined: Sat Jan 19, 2019 9:00 am
Languages: Fr (N), EN (C1),
ES (B1?), ZH (B1),
JP (A1), ARB (A1?),
ARQ (A0), KAB (A0)
Language Log: https://forum.language-learners.org/vie ... php?t=9983
x 603

Re: Weekly log

Postby Aloyse » Sun Dec 26, 2021 9:53 am

2021年12月19~25日

USB key contents:
Berber track updated.
To be updated today: MSA, English, IT口语, まるごと.

Listened to USB key: 6x
Language or culture classes: 0x
Videos: 0x
Fiction: 5x Spanish fanfiction (counting days)
Articles: 0x

Weight: ??
Most Simple Miracle Morning: 0x
20' walking: 2x
6 flights of stairs: 0x
Reasonable eating: 0x
Water: 6x
Falling asleep: 7x early or middle slot
Standing instead of sitting: 5x
Some luggage lugging, lead-filled baby handling, energetic toddler tickling.
5 x
Future me already did it.

Aloyse
Orange Belt
Posts: 244
Joined: Sat Jan 19, 2019 9:00 am
Languages: Fr (N), EN (C1),
ES (B1?), ZH (B1),
JP (A1), ARB (A1?),
ARQ (A0), KAB (A0)
Language Log: https://forum.language-learners.org/vie ... php?t=9983
x 603

Re: Aloyse's study log (ZH + some ARB, ARQ, KAB, EN, ES, JP)

Postby Aloyse » Wed Dec 29, 2021 3:24 pm

Found in a papillote:
Joseph Joubert wrote:Le but n'est pas toujours placé pour être atteint, mais pour servir de point de mire.
1 x
Future me already did it.

Aloyse
Orange Belt
Posts: 244
Joined: Sat Jan 19, 2019 9:00 am
Languages: Fr (N), EN (C1),
ES (B1?), ZH (B1),
JP (A1), ARB (A1?),
ARQ (A0), KAB (A0)
Language Log: https://forum.language-learners.org/vie ... php?t=9983
x 603

2022 Language and Fitness Guidelines

Postby Aloyse » Sat Jan 01, 2022 10:49 am

Let's capitalize on established habits and remember that my main goals are to enjoy life and prepare the future.
Language learning falls under "enjoying life", i.e. should not bring any stress.
Fitness falls under "preparing the future".

Logging:

Logging in my notebook: daily
Logging on this forum: target 1x/week

Languages:

USB key updates:
target 25 updates (minimum) for Arabic, Berber or Darja, Spoken Chinese, Japanese (Marugoto), Spanish and English
target 10 updates for News Chinese

Listening to USB key: at least 1x/day
Language or culture classes: don't miss any, be reasonably alert
Videos: will count days where I watch 1 video in Spanish or Chinese or Arabic or Japanese
Minor goal: have the youtube algorithm propose only non-English/non-French videos (without cheating...)
Fiction: will count days where I read some in Spanish or Chinese (fanfiction, novels...), possibly Arabic (bilingual short stories, novels?)
Written news: will count days where I read either one article in Spanish, or one paragraph in Chinese, or one title or sentence in Arabic or Japanese
Note: they don't need to be different every day. Meaning I can/should review previous stuff.

Fitness:

Weight: current 76, reasonable target for this year: 71, final target: 66 to 69
Exercise: target 3x to 4x/week (includes *active* housework on Saturdays)
20' walking: everyday
6 flights of stairs: on work days at least
Reasonable eating: on work days at least (NoS diet and Okinawan 8/10 principle)
Water: everyday
Sleep: simple logging
Standing instead of sitting: target at least 1h/day

Bonus/Optional/One off tasks: (list can be expanded/reordered later)
- add some kind of timestamp to the USB key updates
- buy or improvise a standing desk for home
- record the grammar from "Manuel d'Arabe Moderne" lessons
- do some exercises from "Manuel d'Arabe Moderne"
- record myself speaking Chinese
- study something from my technical/scientific Chinese textbook
- alternate "regular" English tracks with some kind of scientific or technical English tracks
- alternate Seguridad del internauta tracks with Assimil El Español de los negocios
- find some way to incorporate a tiny bit of language learning in my technical studies
- take some kind of official language evaluation in any language
- learn songs or poems without making it a chore
- read a bilingual Arabic book
- read a children's book/school textbook/novel/... in Chinese
- review Chinese characters (2000 most frequent) and learn some more
- learn some common Chinese and Japanese surnames and characters used in given names
- drill myself on geography in Chinese, Japanese, Arabic, Spanish
- make my personal table of simplified Chinese vs traditional Chinese vs Japanese characters
- write blog entries on Lang-8 in Chinese or Spanish
- review Chinese grammar
- edit 25 Darja and Berber tracks in advance so that lack of prepared tracks doesn't block USB key updates.
- prepare Darja and Berber tracks from sources other than Assimil's "Guide de conversation"
- prepare/record "News Chinese" audio tracks in advance, on topics that I like (not necessarily same as those studies in class)
- master the Japanese conjugation tables at the end of the Marugoto A1.1 book
- review Spanish grammar and conjugation
- DO NOT take up Turkish just to be able to understand Dario Moreno's Turkish songs.
6 x
Future me already did it.

Aloyse
Orange Belt
Posts: 244
Joined: Sat Jan 19, 2019 9:00 am
Languages: Fr (N), EN (C1),
ES (B1?), ZH (B1),
JP (A1), ARB (A1?),
ARQ (A0), KAB (A0)
Language Log: https://forum.language-learners.org/vie ... php?t=9983
x 603

Re: Aloyse's study log (ZH + some ARB, ARQ, KAB, EN, ES, JP)

Postby Aloyse » Sun Jan 02, 2022 12:34 pm

No weekly log for the past week as I was completely disorganized.
All babies and toddlers have been returned to their progenitors so I have to go back to ordinary exercise methods.

I said I was reading fanfiction in Spanish didn't I ?
Well, I also started reading one in Italian, because only the 1st chapter was translated into English and I wanted to know what happened next.
And it's not very difficult to follow.
Ok, it's full of clichés and I don't get all the details, but still, not much harder than Spanish...
I guess native French + some Spanish + a smattering of Latin are enough for basic understanding of written Italian.

Why on earth did I start Chinese :?:
6 x
Future me already did it.

Aloyse
Orange Belt
Posts: 244
Joined: Sat Jan 19, 2019 9:00 am
Languages: Fr (N), EN (C1),
ES (B1?), ZH (B1),
JP (A1), ARB (A1?),
ARQ (A0), KAB (A0)
Language Log: https://forum.language-learners.org/vie ... php?t=9983
x 603

Re: 2022 Language and Fitness Guidelines

Postby Aloyse » Wed Jan 05, 2022 3:00 am

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...
6 x
Future me already did it.

Aloyse
Orange Belt
Posts: 244
Joined: Sat Jan 19, 2019 9:00 am
Languages: Fr (N), EN (C1),
ES (B1?), ZH (B1),
JP (A1), ARB (A1?),
ARQ (A0), KAB (A0)
Language Log: https://forum.language-learners.org/vie ... php?t=9983
x 603

weekly log : 2022 week 1

Postby Aloyse » Sun Jan 09, 2022 7:48 am

2022年1月2~8日 / week 1

Logging:
: 7 / 7 Logging in my notebook: 7/7 cumulated: 7/7
: 1 / 1 Logging on this forum: 1/1 cumulated: 1/1

Languages:
: 0 / 25 Arabic track updates total 0/25
: 0 / 25 Berber or Darja track updates total 0/25
: 0 / 25 Spoken Chinese track updates total 0/25
: 1 / 25 Japanese (Marugoto) track updates total 1/25
: 1 / 25 Spanish total track updates 1/25
: 0 / 25 English total track updates 0/25
: 0 / 10 News Chinese total track updates 0/10
: 7 / 7 Listening to USB key: 7/7 cumulated: 7/7
: 3 / 3 Language or culture classes: 3/3 cumulated: 3/3
: 7 / 7 Videos: 7/7 cumulated: 7/7
: 7 / 7 Fiction: 7/7 cumulated: 7/7
: 7 / 7 Written news: 7/7 cumulated: 7/7

Fitness/Health:
: 0 / 10 Weight: current 75.2 week1/5
: 4 / 4 Exercise: 4/4 cumulated: 4/4 (1 day "active housework")
: 7 / 7 20' walking: 7/7 cumulated: 7/7 (1 day "walking at home")
: 5 / 5 6 flights of stairs: 5/5 cumulated: 5/5
: 3 / 5 Reasonable eating: 3/5 cumulated: 3/5
: 7 / 7 Water: 7/7 cumulated: 7/7
Sleep: 1 bad night, but went to bed reasonably early
: 5 / 7 Standing instead of sitting: 5/7 cumulated: 5/7

Bonus/Optional/One off tasks:
✅ add some kind of timestamp to the USB key updates: done (week1)
- buy or improvise a standing desk for home: did some trials with some boxes to support keyboard and mouse, but the screen is too low. Looking at square or round bar tables/high tables.

Relatively easy week despite one sleepless night.
I even learnt and reviewed technical stuff for work, both at home and at work, and I was pretty proud of myself overall.
Watched and read a bunch of stuff in Spanish and Chinese. E.g. in Chinese "a housecat was killed by a stray pittbull 比特犬", camper van sales pitch, movie summaries, ficlets... In Spanish, historical anecdotes videos, Nadal vs Jokovic vaccine controversy, scams on Whatsapp...
"Read" a few news titles in Arabic and Japanese.
4 x
Future me already did it.

Aloyse
Orange Belt
Posts: 244
Joined: Sat Jan 19, 2019 9:00 am
Languages: Fr (N), EN (C1),
ES (B1?), ZH (B1),
JP (A1), ARB (A1?),
ARQ (A0), KAB (A0)
Language Log: https://forum.language-learners.org/vie ... php?t=9983
x 603

Gamification. Weekly log : 2022 week 2

Postby Aloyse » Sun Jan 16, 2022 10:19 am

2022年1月9~15日 / week 2

Let's talk about gamification. Last year I had a slight addiction to "Hero Wars" (the online Action RPG).
I then researched gamification and observed which elements were used in the game, in an attempt to apply them to my technical and language studies.

Hero Wars has daily tasks. The neat thing is that you don't have to tick them off, it's done automatically :mrgreen: and you are also automatically warned every time you can claim a reward or increase a character's level etc.

Tried counting "points", it didn't really work for me (since in real life you have to keep track and count yourself - too much work). But now that I'm logging more seriously, one could argue that I'm trying it again...

Tried "rewards" but since I'm trying to lose weight, an aspiring minimalist, and a homebody, I didn't find any that motivated me.

What seems to be working right now for technical studies is task randomification.
After I reviewed the basics by reading about half a textbook in normal order, I bought a second slighlty more advanced one, and three times a week I randomly pick a couple of pages to study. Sometimes I have to go back to an earlier chapter instead due to not having the prerequisite knowledge to study the randomly selected topic. Sometimes I choose to review a topic that came up at work.
Oddly enough, it's been fun.

Now I have also introduced some randomness to my language practice. Well, the Youtube algorithm and the daily news take care of it for me...
Could I perhaps also add a few randomized language textbooks? hmmm...

Another gamification technique is interaction with other "players" (competition, cooperation, socialization etc). Well, this forum does the trick nicely I think. I also used to go to polyglot meetings when I lived in a big city but in this small town and in times of covid it's a little more difficult.

Logging:
: 14 / 14 Logging in my notebook: 7/7 cumulated: 14/14
: 2 / 2 Logging on this forum: 1/1 cumulated: 2/2

Languages:
: 1 / 25 Arabic track updates total 1/25
: 0 / 25 Berber or Darja track updates total 0/25
: 0 / 25 Spoken Chinese track updates total 0/25
: 2 / 25 Japanese (Marugoto) track updates total 2/25
: 2 / 25 Spanish total track updates 2/25
: 1 / 25 English total track updates 1/25
: 1 / 10 News Chinese total track updates 1/10
: 14 / 14 Listening to USB key: 7/7 cumulated: 14/14
: 4 / 4 Language or culture classes: 1/1 cumulated: 4/4
: 14 / 14 Videos: 7/7 cumulated: 14/14
: 14 / 14 Fiction: 7/7 cumulated: 14/14
: 14 / 14 Written news: 7/7 cumulated: 14/14

Fitness/Health:
: 0 / 10 Weight: current 75.9 :|
: 7 / 8 Exercise: 3/4 cumulated: 7/8 (Left hip is complaining. I think I'm getting old. Might need to stretch or something.)
: 14 / 14 20' walking: 7/7 cumulated: 14/14
: 8 / 10 6 flights of stairs: 3/5 cumulated: 8/10
: 7 / 10 Reasonable eating: 4/5 cumulated: 7/10
: 14 / 14 Water: 7/7 cumulated: 14/14
Sleep: had a very regular schedule until Thursday (naturally waking up at 6 and getting up at 6:30 with no problem) but apparently accumulated a sleep debt. Fell asleep early on Thursday night and woke up at 5:30, fell back asleep, got up at 6:30 when my alarm rang but was unable to concentrate on my morning technical studies. Slept until 8 on Saturday.
: 12 / 14 Standing instead of sitting: 7/7 cumulated: 12/14 (I wonder whether I overdid it and thus caused my hip problems...)

Bonus/Optional/One off tasks:
none
11 x
Future me already did it.

Aloyse
Orange Belt
Posts: 244
Joined: Sat Jan 19, 2019 9:00 am
Languages: Fr (N), EN (C1),
ES (B1?), ZH (B1),
JP (A1), ARB (A1?),
ARQ (A0), KAB (A0)
Language Log: https://forum.language-learners.org/vie ... php?t=9983
x 603

Weekly log : 2022 week 3

Postby Aloyse » Sun Jan 23, 2022 7:31 am

2022年1月16~22日 / week 3

Synergy between Spanish and Chinese:
at first I was rather irked that I can read full length articles and fics in Spanish and not in Chinese, considering the difference in the amount of studying I did over the years.
But this week I found some synergy in two ways:
- reading/watching the news on the same or similar topic in Spanish and then Chinese ==> less frustration because I already understood the main points so I can focus on recognizing the Chinese words and sentence structure. I don't always do this. But it's been nice.
- reading ficlets in Chinese and ordinary fanfiction in Spanish. Less frustration that I'm re-reading the same ficlet in Chinese for the 3rd time trying to remember the vocabulary, because the relaxing effect of reading fanfiction has already been reached by reading in Spanish.
So all in all, I practice my Chinese passive skills more regularly now that I alternate with Spanish.

Random topics of the week:
"El gato gigante de más de 12 kilos que confunden con un perro"
"冷空氣明天最強!北部東北部低溫15度 高山有機會降雪"

I found out that my sleeping position was causing or at least aggravating hip pain. But I changed positions a few weeks ago due to shoulder issues. Now I have to find a couple of new non-snoring sleeping positions that don't cause hip/knee/shoulder/back pain...

Logging:
: 21 / 21 Logging in my notebook: 7/7 cumulated: 21/21
: 3 / 3 Logging on this forum: 1/1 cumulated: 3/3

Languages:
: 2 / 25 Arabic track updates total 2/25 (Assimil lesson 8)
: 1 / 25 Berber or Darja track updates total 1/25
: 1 / 25 Spoken Chinese track updates total 1/25
: 3 / 25 Japanese (Marugoto) trackS updates total 3/25 (several tracks otherwise I'll finish book A2.1 in a million years)
: 2 / 25 Spanish total track updates 2/25
: 2 / 25 English total track updates 2/25 (still hospitality :( )
: 1 / 10 News Chinese total track updates 1/10 (good old topic of 补习班 but in Taiwan)
: 21 / 21 Listening to USB key: 7/7 cumulated: 21/21
: 7 / 7 Language or culture classes: 3/3 cumulated: 7/7
: 21 / 21 Videos: 7/7 cumulated: 21/21
: 21 / 21 Fiction: 7/7 cumulated: 21/21
: 21 / 21 Written news: 7/7 cumulated: 21/21

Fitness/Health:
: 0 / 10 Weight: current 76.0 :|
: 10 / 12 Exercise: 3/4 cumulated: 10/12
: 21 / 21 20' walking: 7/7 cumulated: 21/21
: 13 / 15 6 flights of stairs: 5/5 cumulated: 13/15
: 11 / 15 Reasonable eating: 4/5 cumulated: 11/15
: 21 / 21 Water: 7/7 cumulated: 21/21
Sleep: not too bad. Tried melatonin once to fall asleep in the early slot and once to fall back asleep after waking up completely irate at 2 due to cigarette smells. Slept in slightly on Saturday anyway.
: 18 / 21 Standing instead of sitting: 6/7 cumulated: 18/21

Bonus/Optional/One off tasks:
- buy or improvise a standing desk for home: tried using some boxes. Works fine for Teams meetings when working from home. Doesn't work for leisure time activities - yet.
- find some way to incorporate a tiny bit of language learning in my technical studies: I did look up one technical term in Chinese on wikipedia and then found a vulgarization video on this topic on Youtube.
9 x
Future me already did it.

Aloyse
Orange Belt
Posts: 244
Joined: Sat Jan 19, 2019 9:00 am
Languages: Fr (N), EN (C1),
ES (B1?), ZH (B1),
JP (A1), ARB (A1?),
ARQ (A0), KAB (A0)
Language Log: https://forum.language-learners.org/vie ... php?t=9983
x 603

Weekly log : 2022 week 4 & 5

Postby Aloyse » Sun Feb 06, 2022 9:39 am

2022年1月23日~2月5日 / weeks 4 & 5

Apparently getting Moderna after 2 doses of Pfizer keeps you in bed the next day. Threw my routines out of whack.
Some trouble with moderating food intake and motivation for reading the news.

Logging:
: 34 / 35 Logging in my notebook: 13/14 cumulated: 34/35
: 4 / 5 Logging on this forum: 1/2 cumulated: 4/5

Languages:
: 4 / 25 Arabic track updates total 4/25 (Assimil lesson 10)
: 2 / 25 Berber or Darja track updates total 2/25
: 2 / 25 Spoken Chinese track updates total 2/25 (IT Talk chapter 4)
: 4 / 25 Japanese (Marugoto) trackS updates total 4/25 (Rikai A2.1 track 169)
: 3 / 25 Spanish total track updates 3/25 (seguridad del internauta)
: 4 / 25 English total track updates 4/25 (Cambridge English for Engineering)
: 2 / 10 News Chinese total track updates 2/10 (Winter Olympics)
: 34 / 35 Listening to USB key: 13/14 cumulated: 34/35
: 8 / 8 Language or culture classes: 1/1 cumulated: 8/8
: 34 / 35 Videos: 13/14 cumulated: 34/35
: 32 / 35 Fiction: 11/14 cumulated: 32/35
: 28 / 35 Written news: 7/14 cumulated: 28/35

Fitness/Health:
: 0 / 10 Weight: current 76.0 :|
: 16 / 20 Exercise: 6/8 cumulated: 16/20
: 34 / 35 20' walking: 13/14 cumulated: 34/35
: 22 / 25 6 flights of stairs: 9/10 cumulated: 22/25
: 14 / 25 Reasonable eating: 3/10 cumulated: 14/25
: 33 / 35 Water: 12/14 cumulated: 33/35
Sleep: Pretty good except this Friday (smells coming from outside)
: 23 / 35 Standing instead of sitting: 5/14 cumulated: 23/35

Bonus/Optional/One off tasks:
- buy or improvise a standing desk for home: Still using boxes when working from home. Still sitting during leisure computer time. Did some research and some thinking.
- alternate "regular" English tracks with some kind of scientific or technical English tracks: settled on Cambridge English for Engineering.
- review Chinese characters (2000 most frequent) and learn some more: started learning vocabulary (body parts).
4 x
Future me already did it.


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