A language learners’ forum

Aloyse wrote:Combine fitness and languages

random thoughts
- listen to TLs audio while walking/running/cycling (could be dangerous if there is a lot of traffic)
- exercise videos in the TLs (need to find some...)
- count reps in the TLs (also, count various things with the appropriate classifiers in Chinese/Japanese)

This is a great idea! I’m in

Languages:
French:
- Finish Assimil
- try to hit 10 Italki Lessons.
- Finish Grammaire Progressive du Français niveau debutant.
- Try and watch 5 French movies/ series on Netflix
- Finish 1 French book (probably Harry Potter)

Hahahaha i think these are a little too optimistic but you never know! Aim high!

Fitness
I’m super into crossfit lately, and as we all know, the plan to start going to my crossfit gym more regularly was kinda scuppered by the lockdowns and all. But one silver lining is that I’m using online workouts of the day (called WODs for short) and actually working out more at home since I can workout any time of the day! like... I've done WODs at midnight before.

- try and do home WODs at least once per week, join my crossfit gym as a regular member once this pandemic simmers down a little bit
- try and run more often, once per week would be great
- get a handstand by end of lockdown
- get a pull up
- learn double unders!
- currently I can power clean about 20kg (safely), would be great to increase this to around 30kg which is around 65lbs which is the prescribed weight for most crossfit workouts.
- take part in the crossfit open this year, if it happens, if not next year!

ideas/ plans for combining fitness and languages
- I follow a lot of crossfitters on youtube/insta as well as French crossfit boxes so it helps to listen to their french and also read their posts if they write in french + some have translation as well
- I could also listen to podcasts e.g coffee break french when running!

OK thats it from me, a mix of practical achievable things and also some hopeful things that may or may not happen haha.

Nice thread. I'm in.

Languages

-Get a certified B1 French (Current certified level: none)
-Get a certified C1 English (Current certified level: B2)

Fitness

-Run a half-marathon (Current max distance: 12 kms)
-Go from 83 kgs to 70 kgs

Hi, I'd like to join as well.

Fitness:
1. Complete 150 days of kettlebell training by 31/12/2020 (Now at day 9)

Language:
1. Read 5 comic books in Mandarin (Now at book #1)

Thank you

I'm back after yet another hiatus.

Language wise things are a bit stagnant at the moment. I'm focusing on French and am getting back into the habit of watching TV shows in French. I also have various grammar books that I need to keep working through - but the current world is sapping my motivation.

Exercise wise things are going great. My rowing club "reopened" in a very modified way for the better in mid May. Everyone is in singles so I've been going out 3-4 times a week for the past seven weeks give or take. I'm also riding my bike on Zwift. At the moment I'm exercising between 4 and 8 times a week. Tomorrow I'm not rowing but I am acting as a volunteer boat carrier which involves walking up and down (and up and down and up and down) a very steep hill. I'll have to remember to check how many floors my Garmin thinks I walked up tomorrow after my volunteer shift.

Mid-year recap

Fitness:
F1. get rid of 4kg :oops: No progress
F2. daily moderate exercise :) Slight progress in the sense that during lockdown I got in the habit of purposefully exercising 15 minutes a day (but only 5' now).

Languages:
L1. Read 1 book in Spanish Ongoing
L2. Read 1 book in Arabic Nope, but reviewing my old textbooks
L3. Read 1 book in Chinese Not started.
L4. Adapt my (mostly passive) routines to encompass all 7 of my main target languages instead of only 4 today Successfully added 2 languages to my MP3 playlist, missing only a daily Spanish habit now.

Extra:
Combine fitness and languages Only anecdotical so far.

I'm back on the forum after a longish hiatus, and just discovered this awesome thread idea!

This is right down my alley, as lockdown restlessness has actually done very good things for my home fitness habits. Since outdoor exercise is an acceptable reason to leave home in my state, I've taken up running for the first time in my life, and plus I recently got a step aerobics platform for rainy days. So my exercise goal will be to do one or the other.

I've been having serious neurological difficulties over the past few years, including a possible small stroke involving my language centers (firm diagnosis impaired by the usual absurd US insurance issues), so I'm taking things very easy on the language front, mostly enjoying the fairly new development that I can now play successfully with language apps again. So my goal here will be to log at least 3 lessons with whichever language apps I find appealing that day: I love Lingodeer, like Memrise a lot, am amused by DuoLingo, and a friend recently got me a lifetime unlimited Rosetta Stone subscription, inspired by the social distancing discount which seems to have recently expired.

Since everyone is doing updates I'll jump in:

jmar257 wrote:Languages
I've been pretty solid with this so far this year, but generally I've been trying to knock out either an Assimil lesson or do some work on FSI (at least 10-15 mins) in the morning. Or now that I work from home every day, at some point during the day. In addition I've started doing iTalki Spanish lessons and want to keep that going with one every week or two, budget permitting. Another goal is to always have a Spanish book in progress--I read a lot, several books at a time, so making one of those be in Spanish isn't that hard.

Stayed pretty solid with this. I finished Assimil Business French, my morning focus on weekdays is solely on FSI Basic Spanish. I'm on lesson 50 right now so getting close to the end of that, next up is FSI French Phonology then Basic French. However, I might take a small break and make some progress on LLPSI, which I've been neglecting, or focus on Montaigne's Essays, which I've been reading in English as my weekend morning thing. I've actually been more productive with this stuff during quarantine, as I've been working from home and don't have a hard limit on when I have to stop, so sometimes I'll keep going while logged on at work if there's nothing too urgent.

Also, I've been reading a bunch in Spanish and some in French. Need to start my language log...

jmar257 wrote:Fitness
My plans were to continue weightlifting and get more consistent with Brazilian jiu jitsu as well as do more Muay Thai and boxing. Well, that's in the toilet now due to coronavirus. So I've been making do at home--bodyweight workouts, running (which I sucked at since I always focused on lifting, so this is now my focus), biking soon, and a couple of homemade implements (slosh pipe a la Dan John and a sandbag wrapped in trash bags, duct taped, and put in a duffel bag). Now it's just trying to do any of the aforementioned 3+ times a week. In addition, since it's tangentially related, I'm working on eating better. Given that I'm at home all the time now, I've been cooking more and throwing veggies in a lot of things I make, in addition I've been pretty regular making smoothies in the morning (this is doubly good, because while I drink it I'll do Assimil/FSI).

In order:
Bodyweight--was solid with early on, kind of neglected since. Push ups get boring.
Running--have been fairly consistent, seeing a little progress, going to keep at it.
Biking--nope, apparently trails near me have been super crowded
Homemade implements--I was consistent but kind of neglected as well, although I also made a wrist roller

I signed up for a gym recently and started lifting again, and feel a weird pain in my right knee. Not sure why...think I was making the motion too knee dominant? I tried sitting back on the last few sets and it still hurt. So I guess I'm doing upper body stuff until that feels right. Started doing Layne Norton's PHAT and am enjoying it.

As for the martial arts--I'm not signed up to any gym. Covid cases are rising near me and I'm trying to save money, so I'm waiting a few months on that but occasionally rolling at a friend's new gym that's got a small crowd.

aokoye wrote:Tomorrow I'm not rowing but I am acting as a volunteer boat carrier which involves walking up and down (and up and down and up and down) a very steep hill. I'll have to remember to check how many floors my Garmin thinks I walked up tomorrow after my volunteer shift.

My Garmin decided that I walked up 32 flights of stairs over the course of two hours this morning. This afternoon I did an hour and 22 min workout on Zwift and this evening I think i'm going to watch something in French becuase I'm too tired to actually do exercises of any kind.

Small success : 1 week of moderate eating. Saw 76.x on the scale one morning. (Goal : stable 74kg weight before the end of the year)

(Since our challenge host appears to have left the forum, I'd like to encourage everyone to post progress updates, issues encountered, successes, goal updates etc. )