A language learners’ forum

coldrainwater wrote:[*]Use a Windows based hotkey program to make lookups to google translate, wordfeference, forvo, google image search, etymology websites, or anything else I want in order to automate my TL questions and to help bring ES alongside EN (for me). This is important to avoid wasting extra time using the TL. Using TL as a part of the work day needs to be smooth and you need to have enough will power not to drop the reading/writing part every time a business problem emerges.
-Erizo

I use IMtranslator add in to Chrome. It also stores the history - so I can export that and turn it into memrise etc quizes.

Open a page (or several over a period of time) double click on less familiar words. Later on - export the history for that language combination and time frame to csv and do some stuff (sort, count, unique) to make it work in SRS. Therefore allows several languages to be done over time.


Hmm, I'm not sure the Zombieland things would work for me nor anything film-like as I'm not a big film/music fan with regard to remembering lines or lyrics.

But it's given me an idea.... https://es.wikipedia.org/wiki/El_M%C3%ADtico_Hombre-Mes

Zombieland Lista de normas de supervivencia - https://es.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zombieland

1. Cardio - Ejercicios aeróbicos.8
2. Mata y remata/Rematar.8
3. Cuidado con los baños.8
4. Usa cinturón de seguridad.8
6. Sartén de hierro fundido.
7. Viaja ligero. Además de con pocas cosas se refiere a viajar solo.
8. Pégate a un tipo duro (Columbus crea esta regla y anula la anterior al conocer a Tallahassee).
12. Toallas de papel Bounty.
15. Bola de bolos.
16. Agilitarse.
17. No seas un héroe, cambiado hacia el final de la película por Sé un héroe (Cuando Columbus se enfrenta a los zombis para rescatar a Wichita y Little Rock enfrentándose además a su fobia a los payasos.)
18. Entrar en calor (Calienta).
19. Bolsas Ziploc.
21. Evita los clubs de strip-tease (Aparece en un póster)
22. Por tu vida, asegura la salida.
29. El sistema de compañeros.
31. Revisa el asiento de atrás (es añadida por Columbus al estar a punto de morir por no hacerlo).
32. Disfruta de las pequeñas cosas, aunque eso signifique destruir muchas cosas (la añade inspirado por Tallahassee.)
33. La navaja suiza.
34. Calcetines limpios.
48. Higiene.
49. Siempre tenga copias de seguridad.

Another coder here. I can usually listen to radio or music while programming unless I'm trying to solve a particularly difficult problem, but other tasks like writing technical documents require my full attention. I know that it's background listening and it's no substitute for concentrated listening, but it's better than nothing and every bit of exposure adds up, right?

coldrainwater wrote:For those of you in a similar boat who have managed to do so successfully, how did you initally incorporate listening on the job (and how do you do so now)?

Before I had an office I listened to my mp3 player. Nowadays, I share an office. I listen to target language radio or (in rare occasions) audiobooks, but it depends on what kind of work I'm doing on the computer.

Is Background Music a Boost or a Bummer?
It depends.

"As research consistently shows, multitasking reduces the efficiency, accuracy, and quality of what you do. So whether or not music introduces a distracting second task is an important question."

Some interesting stuff here:

"Relaxing, repetitive, low-information-load, background music can enhance performance on some cognitive tasks."

"Typical popular music usually interferes with complex tasks and reading comprehension. Particularly when the music has lyrics, most popular music introduces a multitasking situation that interferes with reading comprehension and information processing."

https://www.google.com/amp/s/www.psycho ... mmer%3Famp

Listening to podcasts at work was my main strategy in my effort to crowd out English. I had a desk job where I'd hardly ever be interrupted so I was free to spend nearly the whole day just listening to podcasts from French radio. I was balancing learning three different languages but French was by far my best which made it the best choice for mindless listening while multitasking (I'd save the others for when I could concentrate more on the audio such as during my commutes on public transportation).

The main goal was to just have something going in my ear that wasn't English so if I wasn't always focused that was okay. Having a high level in listening comprehension made this work since I was able to pick up the thread of the conversation fairly easily as my attention wavered between my work and the podcast (at lower levels of comprehension you typically need more context to be able to understand). I would cue up podcasts that seemed more interesting and that had more depth for when I was doing the most mindless tasks (such as filing) so I could pay more attention to them. I found that the only times I really couldn't have anything going on in the background was when I was doing the most intensive mental work such as researching discrepancies. Later on when I got a second job I got very stressed and burnt out so I stopped most intellectual stimulation and just listened to music.

I take a slightly different approach to this. I have a job that could easily take over my whole life if I allowed it to - and I have allowed it to in the past. Rather than trying to multitask more at work by finding ways to sneak in language-learning, my goal is to multitask less, work more efficiently and with a stronger sense of purpose, and leave at a reasonable time, with nothing to work on at home. This leaves me with much more time and energy for language learning outside of work.

Stelle wrote:I take a slightly different approach to this. I have a job that could easily take over my whole life if I allowed it to - and I have allowed it to in the past. Rather than trying to multitask more at work by finding ways to sneak in language-learning, my goal is to multitask less, work more efficiently and with a stronger sense of purpose, and leave at a reasonable time, with nothing to work on at home. This leaves me with much more time and energy for language learning outside of work.

Hear, hear !!