How do you integrate language learning and taking a walk?

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Re: How do you integrate language learning and taking a walk?

Postby jeff_lindqvist » Wed Jul 14, 2021 8:27 pm

From Morgana lär sig svenska (22 Jun 2017):
jeff_lindqvist wrote:Many years ago I never left my home without my mp3 player. I planned my walks after the content, or vice versa, and this means that I sometimes shadowed up to one hour blindly, but content I was familiar with. To this day, I still have Assimil Russian (4 CDs equal a couple of hours), the Chinese material from my university course (probably another two hours there), a Russian audio book, another in French, an hour of Portuguese content... :)


I know that Pimsleur, FSI (including the drills), Assimil and other textbook material were on the menu.
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Re: How do you integrate language learning and taking a walk?

Postby IronMike » Wed Jul 14, 2021 10:15 pm

I do any number of things when I'm out taking a walk, which is often with a fairly young dog.

-Listen to Esperanto podcasts (Pola Retradio and Kern.info)
-Listen to Russian radio (Эхо Москвы, Что это было)
-Listen to other language radio (SBS Bosanski, Srpski, Hrvatski)
-Listen to Pimsleur (Swahili now, Russian, Italian, German before)
-Listen to Glossika (old style, Serbian)
-Listen to foreign language music

All those options are enough for me. And when I burn out, I listen to non-language-specific music or an audiobook for my current (English-language) read.
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Re: How do you integrate language learning and taking a walk?

Postby luke » Wed Jul 14, 2021 11:05 pm

rdearman wrote:I take a book with me when I walk the dog and read.

IronMike wrote:I do any number of things when I'm out taking a walk, which is often with a fairly young dog.

It sounds like the dog walkers have an advantage.

I definitely appreciate everyone sharing their experiences. Lots of good ideas here. Room for more.

I'm sure some of the dogs, cats, and other mascots want to weigh-in on what helps their masters....

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If we could talk to the animals, just imagine it
Chatting to a chimp in chimpanzee
Imagine talking to a tiger, chatting to a cheetah
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Maybe take an animal degree.
We'd study elephant and eagle, buffalo and beagle,
Alligator, guinea pig, and flea.

We would converse in polar bear and python,
And we could curse in fluent kangaroo.
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Re: How do you integrate language learning and taking a walk?

Postby IronMike » Thu Jul 15, 2021 12:04 am

rdearman wrote:I seem to be the odd one out. I take a book with me when I walk the dog and read. Otherwise I used Anki on my phone.

How do you not die or get hit by a car?
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Re: How do you integrate language learning and taking a walk?

Postby Le Baron » Thu Jul 15, 2021 12:54 am

IronMike wrote:
rdearman wrote:I seem to be the odd one out. I take a book with me when I walk the dog and read. Otherwise I used Anki on my phone.

How do you not die or get hit by a car?


:lol: Actually it's probably not all that funny, but reading very absorbing material could be an issue. I live in a tiny village, so it's easier not to get hit by cars.
I used to take books when I travelled by train between Manchester and Bangor weekly. Sometimes the trains would be delayed (good old privatisation) and I would lie on the near-deserted seating reading a book. I remember reading TY Cantonese when all the internal lighting failed, then I fell asleep and missed the train. :x
A rarely carry around language books these days; only in my bag on a long journey, increasingly in electronic form.
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Re: How do you integrate language learning and taking a walk?

Postby IronMike » Thu Jul 15, 2021 1:28 am

Le Baron wrote:
IronMike wrote:
rdearman wrote:I seem to be the odd one out. I take a book with me when I walk the dog and read. Otherwise I used Anki on my phone.

How do you not die or get hit by a car?


:lol: Actually it's probably not all that funny, but reading very absorbing material could be an issue. I live in a tiny village, so it's easier not to get hit by cars.
I used to take books when I travelled by train between Manchester and Bangor weekly. Sometimes the trains would be delayed (good old privatisation) and I would lie on the near-deserted seating reading a book. I remember reading TY Cantonese when all the internal lighting failed, then I fell asleep and missed the train. :x
A rarely carry around language books these days; only in my bag on a long journey, increasingly in electronic form.

I love reading on the train. It's funny, but my commute here in Boston is only 15 min on the train versus 45-60 min in Moscow. My one complaint about a shorter commute is that I read fewer books!
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Re: How do you integrate language learning and taking a walk?

Postby rdearman » Thu Jul 15, 2021 7:38 am

IronMike wrote:
rdearman wrote:I seem to be the odd one out. I take a book with me when I walk the dog and read. Otherwise I used Anki on my phone.

How do you not die or get hit by a car?

I walk in a huge empty field or in our local common which is basically a woods with paths and some fields. It is nice to live outside of a city.
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Re: How do you integrate language learning and taking a walk?

Postby Iversen » Thu Jul 15, 2021 10:19 pm

Question: How do you integrate language learning and taking a walk?

Answer: I don't. I separate them.
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Re: How do you integrate language learning and taking a walk?

Postby kelvin921019 » Fri Jul 16, 2021 4:47 am

Walk behind native speakers and try to overhear their conversation.

Jokes aside, Pimsleur / reviewing lesson recording (for beginner stage), listening to podcast and radio shows, or just hop in a speaking practice group and start talking on your phone
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Re: How do you integrate language learning and taking a walk?

Postby AnthonyLauder » Fri Jul 16, 2021 7:36 am

As several others have mentioned, having dogs helps.

If I am taking a walk on my own for sightseeing, then I am so focused on enjoying my surroundings that I cannot listen to any recordings. But when I am walking my two dogs, in my own neighbourhood, I have seen the various routes hundreds or thousands of times, and so can focus on audio completely without distraction.

It also helps that the morning dog walks are around 6AM (sometimes earlier) and the evening dog walks are often after 10PM, so the streets and parks are often empty. This makes it possible to shadow without embarassment.
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