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
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Weekly log : 2022 week 6

Postby Aloyse » Sun Feb 13, 2022 4:27 pm

2022年2月6日~12日 / week 6

This week passed rather swiftly, I was busy with work. I'm currently working on 4 different projects and quite often in Teams meeting for project A while preparing slides for project B, answering instant messages about project C and monitoring trials for project D.
The food intake moderation didn't happen. Morning technical study still going strong 3x/week.

I'm having some trouble with Marugoto. What happens with the other USB key tracks is that they are either self-sufficient (with help from my phone's dictionary or google) or I have the digitized version of the book on my phone. Either way I listen to the tracks at home and then I have the opportunity to check unknown words on the way to work. I haven't scanned the Marugoto book (yet) and I also didn't register for the matching website. Maybe I should do both. Or stop doing Marugoto and just keep the NHK lessons.

This week the newspaper reading class was rather uninspiring but the Occasional Chinese Saturday classes were fun.
I bought a Chinese calendar. I regret ordering the small version now because there's lots of astrological stuff that are written in tiny characters. Anyway I'm still quite pleased with it.
I also replaced my old broken breakfast tray with a new one that has china patterns on it Edit: the china which is made of clay. (Couldn't find one with Chinese text).

Aloyse wrote:I'm re-reading the same ficlet in Chinese for the 3rd time trying to remember the vocabulary

Fool that I am. I'm supposed to do extensive reading. There's no need to look up or try to remember words that came up just once.


Logging:
: 41 / 42 Logging in my notebook: 7/7 cumulated: 41/42
: 5 / 6 Logging on this forum: 1/1 cumulated: 5/6

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)
: 4 / 25 Spanish total track updates 4/25 (El Espanol de los negocios lesson 1)
: 5 / 25 English total track updates 5/25 (Cambridge English for Engineering)
: 2 / 10 News Chinese total track updates 2/10 (Winter Olympics)
: 41 / 42 Listening to USB key: 7/7 cumulated: 41/42
: 11 / 11 Language or culture classes: 3/3 cumulated: 11/11
: 41 / 42 Videos: 7/7 cumulated: 41/42
: 37 / 42 Fiction: 5/7 cumulated: 37/42
: 32 / 42 Written news: 4/7 cumulated: 32/42

Fitness/Health:
: 0 / 10 Weight: current 76.0 :|
: 20 / 24 Exercise: 4/4 cumulated: 20/24
: 40 / 42 20' walking: 6/7 cumulated: 40/42
: 25 / 30 6 flights of stairs: 3/5 cumulated: 25/30
: 14 / 30 Reasonable eating: 0/5 cumulated: 14/25
: 40 / 42 Water: 7/7 cumulated: 40/42
Sleep: Pretty good except one night when work stuff kept worrying me.
: 29 / 42 Standing instead of sitting: 6/7 cumulated: 29/42

Bonus/Optional/One off tasks:
- buy or improvise a standing desk for home: ordered the largest foldable bed desk I could find, to put my keyboard, mouse and (paper) notebook on (not in bed - on my regular size desk). Still need to find something for the screen.
- alternate Seguridad del internauta tracks with Assimil El Español de los negocios: started this week.
- review Chinese characters (2000 most frequent) and learn some more: will use my calendar for this.
7 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
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Non-weekly non-log weeks 7 & 8

Postby Aloyse » Sat Feb 26, 2022 3:14 pm

Week 7: métro-boulot-dodo.
Week 8: métro-boulot-dodo part 2. Also, I read some trashy fanfiction in Chinese (much easier than poetic fanfiction in Chinese) and updated most of the tracks on my USB key.

Right shoulder is unhappy that I haven't exercised in 2 weeks.
Selfishly annoyed that my favorite bakery is closed this weekend so I have to contend with subpar bread, viennoiseries and pâtisseries.
5 x
Future me already did it.

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luke
Brown Belt
Posts: 1243
Joined: Fri Aug 07, 2015 9:09 pm
Languages: English (N). Spanish (intermediate), Esperanto (B1), French (intermediate but rusting)
Language Log: https://forum.language-learners.org/vie ... 15&t=16948
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Re: Non-weekly non-log weeks 7 & 8

Postby luke » Sat Feb 26, 2022 7:39 pm

Aloyse wrote:Right shoulder is unhappy that I haven't exercised in 2 weeks.

I had a book, the "The 7 minute rotator cuff solution". (I think it was 7 minutes). Anyway, it had some relatively simple exercises that didn't take much time and used extremely light weight. (say you press 50 pounds for exercise. You might use 3 pound dumbells for most of the exercises. I was surprised and happy by how quickly it made a difference. (just a couple weeks).
3 x
: 124 / 124 Cien años de soledad 20x
: 5479 / 5500 5500 pages - Reading
: 51 / 55 FSI Basic Spanish 3x
: 309 / 506 Camino a Macondo

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
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Re: Non-weekly non-log weeks 7 & 8

Postby Aloyse » Sun Feb 27, 2022 2:00 pm

luke wrote:"The 7 minute rotator cuff solution"

Thanks :)
1 x
Future me already did it.

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luke
Brown Belt
Posts: 1243
Joined: Fri Aug 07, 2015 9:09 pm
Languages: English (N). Spanish (intermediate), Esperanto (B1), French (intermediate but rusting)
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Re: Non-weekly non-log weeks 7 & 8

Postby luke » Sun Feb 27, 2022 3:31 pm

Aloyse wrote:
luke wrote:"The 7 minute rotator cuff solution"

Thanks :)

Oh, and by the way, it said to do multiple sets. I generally just did one set. It was more like a 3 minute solution :). I wasn't training to be an athlete though. Just trying to get rid of pain that seemed to be caused by various repetitive movements. (like presses).
1 x
: 124 / 124 Cien años de soledad 20x
: 5479 / 5500 5500 pages - Reading
: 51 / 55 FSI Basic Spanish 3x
: 309 / 506 Camino a Macondo

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 » Mon Feb 28, 2022 8:50 pm

Thanks I'll keep that in mind.
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

Rambly Pseudo Language Log (week 9)

Postby Aloyse » Sun Mar 06, 2022 11:30 am

It seems I am not counting points anymore.
But I'm listening to my 7 languages audio tracks, watching videos (mostly in Spanish) and reading fanfiction (mostly in Chinese) and way too much Reddit (in English :( ) and mostly decidedly NOT reading the news.
Videos in Spanish: I understand about 90% of most and about 10% of a particular one. I'm not sure whether it was some kind of accent (how can someone speaking Spanish use an "sh" sound in every other word??) or some kind of pidgin or what.

I also restarted exercising, albeit even more moderately than previously.
Re: housework as exercise: keep it short, 30' to one hour, otherwise I won't get started at all. Start with a quick round of putting things away, then scrubbing easily reached surfaces, then places that require some reaching, bending or squatting, then vacuuming, then mopping.
Doing dishes does NOT count as exercise. But a language audio track is a nice accompaniment.

Re: technical studies. I've reached a point where I feel a little bit frustrated with my progress (20 minutes 2 or 3 times a week). I mean, I'm starting to understand a few things that are applicable to my job, but so much it still a mystery and/or forgotten the next day.
My job is multi-disciplinary. I was provided with some training when I first started. I got acceptable "marks" in all of the disciplines except this one. Okay, my colleagues also found this part of the training hurried and poorly thought-out but still. Now I'm wondering whether I had some kind of psychological resistance because of previously associating this discipline with unpleasant people in my life. I like to think that I am overcoming this association and I have indeed been enjoying (re)learning this discipline in the past few months.
Looking back to those times in my life when I self-studied rather seriously, it was languages (Arabic then Chinese) and at least one hour a day (up to 4 to 5 hours on weekends) - cue self-centered ramblings on other people's threads.
Can I/should I try to replicate this intensity with my current technical textbook for a few months until I master the topics in it?
But even this textbook only covers the basics... when I finish it I'll probably get another one... how long will it take to feel like I'm reasonably good at this particular aspect of my job?
Do I even want to keep working here or should I take advantage of the current job market to find something else?
Should I be studying something else, like investing/personal finances or something ?
3 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

Technical disciplines as languages

Postby Aloyse » Mon Mar 14, 2022 6:38 pm

Aloyse wrote:when I self-studied rather seriously, it was languages (Arabic then Chinese)

Let's put it this way: my team is multilingual, this is required for our job. We use MyMajorLanguage as well as MainCompanyLanguage, MainDivisionLanguage and a bunch of others.
I speak MyMajorLanguage at C1/C2 level, my colleagues speak it at B1/B2 level.
However my colleagues also speak MainCompanyLanguage at levels B2 to C2 while I've been stuck at A0/A1 despite studying it to a shaky B1 (25 years ago).
Time to put my butt in gear... whether I stay in this role or not, after working in this company for so many years, I can't be credible unless I get at least to "B2" level in MainCompanyLanguage.

With Arabic, I had two solid textbooks and some deadlines in the form of exams. (I floundered after finishing the textbooks).
With Chinese, I had an obsession (the first few years) and an overabundance of resources.

Now I have a good textbook, some motivation, some free time, let's get moving. My first target is one or two 20' sessions per day. I'll try to do more on weekends. And I will look up online resources and more advanced textbooks to buy after I master the current one.
2 x
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luke
Brown Belt
Posts: 1243
Joined: Fri Aug 07, 2015 9:09 pm
Languages: English (N). Spanish (intermediate), Esperanto (B1), French (intermediate but rusting)
Language Log: https://forum.language-learners.org/vie ... 15&t=16948
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Re: Rambly Pseudo Language Log (week 9)

Postby luke » Mon Mar 14, 2022 7:49 pm

Aloyse wrote:Re: technical studies. I've reached a point where I feel a little bit frustrated with my progress (20 minutes 2 or 3 times a week).

Can I/should I try to replicate this intensity with my current technical textbook for a few months until I master the topics in it?

You've got a lot going on, but on the point of technical study, if you're still considering it... Can you spend some time reading Wikipedia articles or watching simple YouTube videos in those CrypticallyReferredToLanguages that are at least related to the technical stuff you want to learn?
1 x
: 124 / 124 Cien años de soledad 20x
: 5479 / 5500 5500 pages - Reading
: 51 / 55 FSI Basic Spanish 3x
: 309 / 506 Camino a Macondo

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: Rambly Pseudo Language Log (week 9)

Postby Aloyse » Mon Mar 14, 2022 8:46 pm

luke wrote: Can you spend some time reading Wikipedia articles or watching simple YouTube videos in those CrypticallyReferredToLanguages that are at least related to the technical stuff you want to learn?


Hmmm. I was trying to convince myself that I can self-study technical stuff by (attempting) an analogy (or simile or... something) where various technical fields are the CrypticallyReferredToLanguages.
Obviously I skipped some steps when I wrote the post :mrgreen:

Anyway you are totally right that I can combine actual language practice with actual technical study. But I need the technical knowledge yesterday. And my other languages are not at a high enough level that I can use them for learning technical stuff without struggling. So for expediency I'll stick to French and/or English for technical studies for now.
And I can occasionally watch technical videos in Chinese or Spanish just for relevant vocabulary anyway, since watching videos is still part of my daily language routines. Same for reading.
1 x
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