How do you manage multiple resources/programs when self-learning?

[80Percent]

If that's more then you can manage, then either:

• Do less
• Don't care about "internalizing" everything. Be satisfied knowing you're internalizing something, which is always better then nothing.

I wonder which option is better. I feel like if i learn something and can’t reproduce it then does it matter that I even did it? Or will it still have some value later one that makes it worth doing anyway. Is understanding enough?

Tough choice here.

[kulaputra]

I wonder which option is better. I feel like if i learn something and can’t reproduce it then does it matter that I even did it? Or will it still have some value later one that makes it worth doing anyway. Is understanding enough?

Tough choice here.

If you plant a seed today and don't see a plant tomorrow, does that mean you even planted it? Read this.

[Cavesa]

I think a part of this problem may be more about not keeping up with all the new stuff. How much do you review?

Yes, it is important not to get stuck, especially in the main resource (one of my most common problems). But perhaps you could profit from reviewing the same chinesepod lessons for two or three sessions (or returning to older ones periodically) before moving on. That would give you more time and exposure. While I am all for extensive listening and reading at the later stages, I have found relistening to lessons as a beginner/low intermediate very valuable.

Also, it is useful to look back at older and more difficult exercises in the coursebook/workbook. If you give yourself a week in between the two attempts, you will not have it all fresh in the short term memory, but you should do better and further internalise the correct solutions.

I don't think you are doing anything wrong as long as planning and handling multiple sources goes. I would say pushing yourself forward too fast might be a big part of the issue. And it is no big difference, when you hurry too much in one book or a dozen at a time.

But there is perhaps one tip for learning from more resources I have found useful: Follow the main course and make the others complement it. That means not only being more consistent in studying it. But also progressing in the side resources only when you'll have encountered a majority of the issues in the main course already.

[80Percent]

I think a part of this problem may be more about not keeping up with all the new stuff. How much do you review?

Yes, it is important not to get stuck, especially in the main resource (one of my most common problems). But perhaps you could profit from reviewing the same chinesepod lessons for two or three sessions (or returning to older ones periodically) before moving on. That would give you more time and exposure. While I am all for extensive listening and reading at the later stages, I have found relistening to lessons as a beginner/low intermediate very valuable.

Also, it is useful to look back at older and more difficult exercises in the coursebook/workbook. If you give yourself a week in between the two attempts, you will not have it all fresh in the short term memory, but you should do better and further internalise the correct solutions.

I don't think you are doing anything wrong as long as planning and handling multiple sources goes. I would say pushing yourself forward too fast might be a big part of the issue. And it is no big difference, when you hurry too much in one book or a dozen at a time.

But there is perhaps one tip for learning from more resources I have found useful: Follow the main course and make the others complement it. That means not only being more consistent in studying it. But also progressing in the side resources only when you'll have encountered a majority of the issues in the main course already.

Thanks! that all makes sense. Excellent. I will slow down the pace of material but not wait til everything is fully internalized.

And thanks for the note about review. I was thinking about "review" the other day, but having never studied as a kid am not really sure how it works. But it makes total sense as well. So i will do either 30 minute review on a couple of days or 1 day of total review. Something like that. What a great note about the more difficult parts of the book, some of the exercises are tougher than others and that is definitely something i should take the time to revisit.

[Expugnator]

Late to the party, but I can relate to your issues, 80Percent. The fact you think of resources in terms of new grammar units and vocabulary units per day denotes a high self-consciousness of your learning process.

I've been through all of the Chinesepod101 (though rather loosely) and I tend to make it my complementary resource (or alternate it as primary and secondary resource). I find it a bit dry in terms of dialogues being too short compared to Assimil, 40 Leçons and Méthode 90, also the list of sample sentences at the end is usually totally ahead of level for beginners and early intermediates, so it rather adds up to the vocabulary struggle and mangles the focus on the main dialogue. That's one of the reasons I put it on hold for both Hebrew and Indonesian and came back only after consolidating a bit more on more detailed resources, reviewing rather than simply moving forward.

From my experience, when using two textbook-like resources, it can help to turn one into the other's review. I was using Assimil Hebrew (short lessons) which skyrocketed after a smooth learning curve; that was when I replaced Hebrewpod101 with Routledge Hebrew (longer sessions but much less intense on vocabulary and grammar, with only 1 new grammar point per lesson and around 5 new vocabulary points PLUS A LOT of vocabulary review in the exercises, when the point was familiarizing oneself with the new grammar point). As a result, I felt that my Hebrew is progressing in an authentic smooth, n+1 way and I'm not allowing my strategy errors from other new languages to repeat themselves.

In the case of Chinese, like others said, having two major resources behaving so differently might indeed add too much pressure into short-term memory. If that's the case, then maybe they should complement each other, like I said above and so did others. You could add other resources for hidden moments that feel more like reviewing and consolidating. You can use HelloChinese for that, too: I'm doing this with Duolingo Hebrew, never allowing it to move past what I'm studying from the textbooks, especially since I can't even check on pronunciation of a new word on Duolingo. You know, I'm using Hebrew as an example because I was guilty of all those issues in Chinese.

I haven't done any extensive listening on Chinese yet, but since you treat it with more dedication than I do, then it can be an option for moments when you can only listen, not tap on flashcards or sentences on your phone. I used to do varied approaches to TV series as well: one series with only the hard-coded Chinese subtitle, another one with L1 subtitles and another one with double subtitles...

... Which comes to my broader answer to your question: I write down on a schedule notebook every material I'm working on: which page of the textbook (and sound file of the audio), episode and timestamp for the TV series, I even copy-paste the exact paragraph I stopped at the novel I'm listening-reading online, plus writing down the page number in the translation and the file and timestamp on the audiobook. That way I can leave no room for stopping and thinking about what to do next, which leads to a search for the perfect next resource and other forms of procrastination.

I do have additional resources for the rare occasion I finish my main tasks earlier, and they would ideally involve doing some more explicit grammar in languages that require it; in practice it's mostly app learning: text input rounds on languages I only did multiple choice so far on Clozemaster; Duolingo and other sentence-based ones. Otherwise, I'd do some approach I haven't done at that day for that language: intensively reading one podcast like Slow Chinese, if all I did was "extensivy" listening-reading; the other series with different subtitle configuration and so on (in the case of Chinese, I'm more ok with doing what I can handle, diversely enough; I only miss doing more output and extensive TV watching).

[80Percent]

Late to the party, but I can relate to your issues, 80Percent. The fact you think of resources in terms of new grammar units and vocabulary units per day denotes a high self-consciousness of your learning process.

I've been through all of the Chinesepod101 (though rather loosely) and I tend to make it my complementary resource (or alternate it as primary and secondary resource). I find it a bit dry in terms of dialogues being too short compared to Assimil, 40 Leçons and Méthode 90, also the list of sample sentences at the end is usually totally ahead of level for beginners and early intermediates, so it rather adds up to the vocabulary struggle and mangles the focus on the main dialogue. That's one of the reasons I put it on hold for both Hebrew and Indonesian and came back only after consolidating a bit more on more detailed resources, reviewing rather than simply moving forward.

From my experience, when using two textbook-like resources, it can help to turn one into the other's review. I was using Assimil Hebrew (short lessons) which skyrocketed after a smooth learning curve; that was when I replaced Hebrewpod101 with Routledge Hebrew (longer sessions but much less intense on vocabulary and grammar, with only 1 new grammar point per lesson and around 5 new vocabulary points PLUS A LOT of vocabulary review in the exercises, when the point was familiarizing oneself with the new grammar point). As a result, I felt that my Hebrew is progressing in an authentic smooth, n+1 way and I'm not allowing my strategy errors from other new languages to repeat themselves.

In the case of Chinese, like others said, having two major resources behaving so differently might indeed add too much pressure into short-term memory. If that's the case, then maybe they should complement each other, like I said above and so did others. You could add other resources for hidden moments that feel more like reviewing and consolidating. You can use HelloChinese for that, too: I'm doing this with Duolingo Hebrew, never allowing it to move past what I'm studying from the textbooks, especially since I can't even check on pronunciation of a new word on Duolingo. You know, I'm using Hebrew as an example because I was guilty of all those issues in Chinese.

I haven't done any extensive listening on Chinese yet, but since you treat it with more dedication than I do, then it can be an option for moments when you can only listen, not tap on flashcards or sentences on your phone. I used to do varied approaches to TV series as well: one series with only the hard-coded Chinese subtitle, another one with L1 subtitles and another one with double subtitles...

... Which comes to my broader answer to your question: I write down on a schedule notebook every material I'm working on: which page of the textbook (and sound file of the audio), episode and timestamp for the TV series, I even copy-paste the exact paragraph I stopped at the novel I'm listening-reading online, plus writing down the page number in the translation and the file and timestamp on the audiobook. That way I can leave no room for stopping and thinking about what to do next, which leads to a search for the perfect next resource and other forms of procrastination.

I do have additional resources for the rare occasion I finish my main tasks earlier, and they would ideally involve doing some more explicit grammar in languages that require it; in practice it's mostly app learning: text input rounds on languages I only did multiple choice so far on Clozemaster; Duolingo and other sentence-based ones. Otherwise, I'd do some approach I haven't done at that day for that language: intensively reading one podcast like Slow Chinese, if all I did was "extensivy" listening-reading; the other series with different subtitle configuration and so on (in the case of Chinese, I'm more ok with doing what I can handle, diversely enough; I only miss doing more output and extensive TV watching).

Thanks! Yeah, finding complimentary material has proven quite difficult! I stick with whatever app is sorta where i'm at but eventually it goes too far or veers into something else then i hit up another that is generally where i'm at, etc. I'm currently at an impasse with my non-textbook materials, each one of them has gone in a different direction, but that,s okay. Right now i completely stopped all non-textbook resources because of the issue and now focusing on vocab and beginner characters only while my brain wraps itself around everything else i have already learned. After about 2 weeks of this i'm going to go back in. Sometimes I try doing specific topics so that hopefully things start complimenting each other, like i did a beach/vacation theme week but ran out of early material pretty quickly as not too much high beginner/vacation stuff. I'm very surprised how much beginner/early intermediate material are so different than one another. But that's okay. I think of it as just more material that i can use later on.

I've also been doing the schedule of material. Textbook days: Monday/Wed/Fri/Sun, listening is Thursday, Character focus Saturday type of thing. Been "ok" at writing down where i'm at, not as strict as yours but date/material, which is a big help in review so that my notes aren't out of nowhere. Although i have too many notebooks with too much randomness in them.

Listening material is the hardest to find in my range (high beginner/elementary) that doesn't end up adding in all new vocab but thankfully my textbook does have audio and here and there i can find topics in Cpod that doesn't have too much new vocab.

Juggling resources has been interesting but fun. Now i know there's a lot out there for me, it's just a matter of being patient and i feel pretty confident about my main resource being my textbook. I've actually even put that on hold for character/vocab week. I feel guilty almost for putting them all on hold, but right now i feel like it's the only way to play vocab and grammar catch up, so i guess that's fine too.

[Decidida]

It is hard when you have not yet found resources that overlap. Overlap without a lot of new topics is awesome.

When I run out of overlap, I have to accept a more shallow understanding, and trust that when I hit overlap again, that I can deepen my understanding.

I only expect mastery, when the topics are overlapping.

And I only systematically drill concepts in one (or as few as possible) resources. And I look for that core resource to be one that has a limited number of vocabulary words and focuses on grammar.

I purchased the online Haitihub lessons because of the limited vocabulary and focus on grammar. There were all sorts of cheaper and more recommended resources available, but I am finding that some of my classical language learning methods transfer over to modern language learning. Classical language textbooks from the 1800's often taught a limited vocabulary. That method is quite unpopular in more modern textbooks, but it works for ME.

For Spanish I prefer courses that start with modal verbs followed by infinitives. It took me awhile to figure out that Michel Thomas was an early producer for that type of lessons, and what the method was called. After that I started progressing so much more quickly.

[Decidida]

I also fill in with youtube videos when I need more support for a core resource that has no overlap with anything else I have.

[StringerBell]

Years ago, when I (unsuccessfully) attempted to learn Polish via a "grammar+memorizing vocabulary" approach I was really convinced that I needed to learn/memorize every single grammar point before moving on.

Now that I've revisiting Polish, I'm usually a totally different approach and it's working amazingly well. I did zero grammar and zero memorization. I focused on listening to podcasts of super short simple stories while simultaneously reading the accompanying text. I listened+read to each story probably 40+. As the months passed, I realized that by continually encountering vocabularly in various stories, I was automatically remembering most words. If I didn't remember a word, it was because I only encountered it once, which means it was not high frequency, and therefore not a word I cared about yet.

Now that I've got 600+ hours of listening and reading under my belt, I'm starting to investigate some grammar points, but not using a textbook explicit approach. I look for patterns in my stories and when I find one that I'm curious about, I make a list of every sentence where that particular issue appears. After I've got a page of these sentences, I try to figure out what the pattern is. By discovering what the grammar rule is for myself (instead of trying to memorize the rule from a textbook) the rules are making sense and I'm remembering them without going through the annoyance of trying to memorize anything.

If a grammar rule or a particular vocabulary word is important, you will come across it many times and eventually you will just start to remember it. I personally find that the more resources I use, the more likely I am to come across important words and expressions, and somehow seeing a word or phrase in various contexts really helps me to remember it better than only seeing in one source that I listen to repeatedly. So I think you should embrace all your resources, don't stress about trying to use them all at once; use one when you feel like it, switch to another one if you start to get bored. Having resources that you can swap in and out is one way to keep your routine fresh.

[Chung]

I'm currently learning using a few materials and think each has an important place in my learning but i'm definitely running into an issue b/c of my multiple sources, mainly that i have competing materials and only so much time in a week.

For example.

I'm using a textbook (Integrated Chinese) and going along systematically. 1 page at at time, doing all the exercises, doing my own exercises and trying to internalize the grammar points one by one. New vocab and grammar points every page. I need to learn them obviously, in order to move through. I consider my textbook to be my main resource and try to give it priority.

But I also use ChinesePod to help with my listening. Which means more new vocabulary that i need to learn to understand the lesson. (I do 1-2 of these a week). And of course, since i'm A1, a lot of the grammar and vocab is new, so that means more grammar points, phrases, etc to learn there too. There's some overlap, but not really.

Then i have my apps that i use during downtime and of course, different grammar points and vocabulary. Not too big a deal, but i do find the testing apps helpful and don't want to lose those either.

I try to do my textbook and Chinese pod on different days. Any tips on how to use multiple sources without getting inundated?

(bonus question: Where the heck do i put Pimsleur in all this?!)

If I do use more than one resource concurrently*, I stick to using resources that don't overlap that well allowing me to work on different areas, but all still at the appropriate level of difficulty so that I have a good chance at making progress without getting unduly frustrated. I also cap the resources in concurrent use for a language at three (with four being exceptional) because it forces me to cycle through them within 10 days. If I had more than three resources in the rotation for a given language, then I'd end up going about 2 or 3 weeks between times when using each resource (even 10 days between sessions seems long, but for the last several years I've been studying or working on from 2 to 4 languages concurrently and so I have to do some work with a language for about 45 minutes every day or two to keep the pace, vacations excepted. However I'm not as disciplined as Expugnator who keeps a log of the time spent each day on his languages. I just pick up my stuff and go for as long as I can, whether I'm on the couch or bus). This also means that I rarely use other resources such as Pimsleur (too expensive, and too dumbed-down for me compared to DLI Headstart or the first level of an old basic course from FSI) or online courses/videos (too easy to get distracted) when I want to "learn" in my old-fashioned, offline way because of time contraints and/or urge not to go too long between sessions using a resource.

For German, I'm currently using:

1) Main textbook: Geschäftliche Begegnungen B1+ - conventional textbook focused on business German with lots of writing and reading exercises and a CD with recordings of a few listening exercises
2) Secondary textbook: Menschen im Beruf - Bewerbungstraining A2+/B1 - somewhat specialized textbook focused on basic German useful when applying for a job with lots of exercises (albeit some are meant for a class) and a CD with recordings of a few exercises
3) Special resource: Hallo! Wortschatztraining für Deutsch als Zweitsprache B1 - specialized textbook of exercises to build vocabulary including some audio-based ones

I can also draw on several dictionaries (English <> German, and German-only) and Hammer's reference manual on grammar, but as reference material these don't count for me as "resources".

With the main textbook I expect this resource to meet my demands to increase my knowledge of grammar, vocabulary, as well as improve my overall skill level. The secondary textbook is just that, and it has to be distinct enough from the main textbook so that I don't get bored while using it. In this case, the focus on German for a specific area of business (i.e. applying for a job, writing CVs and cover letters, talking about your experience, abilities and/or professional intentions/plans) keeps my mind going. The main textbook tackles business German in general, and only parts of a couple of chapters deal with job-hunting. The special resource comes into play here because I feel very much that my active word stock is far smaller than it should be. It's distinct from the other resources not just in content, but also in approach (i.e. it's a drill-book for German vocabulary from many spheres rather than a textbook of business German). As a bonus, a set of exercises in the drill-book is short, and I can finish one within half an hour. I can't say the same about working on a sub-section in the other two books, but that's OK.

The only characteristics that these resources share are that they're at somewhat similar levels of difficulty (A2+ to B1+), and that they're in German only.

For Italian, I'm currently using:

1) Main textbook: Italian Demystified** - conventional textbook with some exercises, decent notes on grammar, and some audio (which I don't use very much because of better alternatives below)
2) Secondary textbook: BBC Talk Italian 2*** - something like a hybrid of a phrasebook and textbook for beginners with very short explanations of grammar and small amounts of touristy vocabulary taught per chapter but the relatively generous amount of audio in Italian contains a lot of exercises in listening comprehension.
3) Special resource: DLI Headstart Italian - audio-heavy crash course to compensate for the relative lack of guided speaking practice I get with the preceding two books.

I can also draw on a couple of dictionaries (English <> Italian) and the grammar manuals "Soluzioni! A Practical Guide to Italian Grammar" and "Berlitz Italian Grammar Handbook" yet as reference material this doesn't count for me as "resources".

I expect again that using the main textbook will help the most in building my grasp of grammar and a stock of basic vocabulary. I found out early on though that Italian Demystified was a little short on exercises despite having good explanations of grammar. I used Painless Italian by the same author, and apart from compelling me to spend more time on Italian, I did find it helpful to have two main textbooks. Painless Italian is marketed to beginners like Italian Demystified but has a lot more writing exercises and is meant for teenagers as opposed to adults like the latter. Despite my occasional annoyance at the somewhat chatty explanations of grammar and content suitable for a pre-teen in Painless Italian, I got a lot out of it since the extra exercises reinforced the content of Italian Demystified. BBC Talk Italian 2 as the secondary textbook keeps my interest especially because it allows me to develop my listening comprehension skills, which is not the focus of my other resources. The chapters are also short enough that I can finish one in about 45 minutes, and so get some sense of accomplishment as I move along with it. Lastly, DLI Headstart Italian gets me used to hearing and speaking simple Italian, and a good way to pass the time on the commute to work (each lesson lasts about half an hour ranging from listening to and repeating sentences in the short dialogues to doing substitution, transformation or translation drills based on that dialogue).

Like the German material, the only characteristics that these Italian resources share are that they're at almost the same level of difficulty (up to CEFR A2), and they use English as the intermediary language.

*(by "resource" I mean actual stuff with lessons or exercises as I ALWAYS start learning a language with at least one actual course/textbook (and supplements such as a workbook and/or audio, if included) and at least one "medium" dictionary (one with about 50,000 headwords/entries give or take between the target language and an intermediary one))

**I had been using Painless Italian concurrently until I completed it several weeks ago.

***I finished BBC Talk Italian 1 several weeks ago.

---

My current work with German and Italian reflects quite ideal conditions showing not just confidence in my learning techniques, but how the languages' popularity intrinsic to their comprising part of the FIGS-bloc means that I have a decent chance of finding resources that suit me. With other languages there're no such advantages. An extreme example is when I was learning Northern Saami from scratch like how I've been doing the same with Italian. Then my main textbook was the Finnish edition of the Davvin series, and my only dictionary was one for Finnish<>Northern Saami. There wasn't anything comparable for Northern Saami like BBC Talk or DLI Headstart to let me practice listening to or speaking basic Northern Saami respectively, nor could I reinforce what I was learning with Davvin with another course or consult any reliable reference material for the language beyond that dictionary of Finnish <> Northern Saami. On the plus side, I at least had the CDs accompanying Davvin. Beyond all of that, I was learning with material published in Finnish - an intermediary language in which I wasn't (and still am not) especially strong.

When it comes to the other languages that I've studied, I've never had it as good as with German and Italian (excepting perhaps Korean). It's true that there's more material for English-speakers to learn Turkish, Polish or Finnish, as examples, compared to Northern Saami, but the embarrassingly large amount of resources available for German and Italian makes it easy to devise a workable learning plan for those languages (just guard against getting more resources than you can handle!), not to mention find something that's specific to learners' needs and/or interests. In particular, I've never seen anything comparable to my textbooks/courses for business German in languages outside the bubbles of FIGS or CJK (i.e. Chinese/Mandarin, Japanese, Korean).