Back at it

Continue or start your personal language log here, including logs for challenge participants
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Soclydeza
Orange Belt
Posts: 249
Joined: Mon Jul 20, 2015 9:36 pm
Location: United States
Languages: English (N)

Actively Studying:
German (B2)
Italian (False beginner)
Norwegian (Beginner)

Dormant:
French (Lower intermediate)
Language Log: https://forum.language-learners.org/vie ... =15&t=9066
x 530

Back at it

Postby Soclydeza » Sat Sep 29, 2018 11:18 pm

This is my 3rd log:

First/Main - https://forum.language-learners.org/vie ... f=15&t=758
Second/German Business Focused - https://forum.language-learners.org/vie ... php?t=7406

My reason for starting a new one is a) to start fresh, b) I kind of limited my main log when I titled it "German and French", so this will be my main log from now on.

I've been on hiatus for months, still doing German here and there but not really studying anything else until about a month ago when I went to refresh my French and cram some basic Italian for a trip to Europe (Italy, Switzerland and Germany). My first serious attempt at self-learning a language was with Italian over a decade ago and I didn't get very far (maybe upper beginner level); before going to Italy I figured I was screwed language-wise and hoped the people spoke English, French or German or that my ultra-basic Italian would get me by. What I found was that my Italian came back very rapidly and - though I am/was nowhere near conversational - I actually had no problem ordering things, asking directions, etc. so I fell in love with the language all over again.

This was my first time using any of these languages "live" (by "live" I mean on the terms of the native speakers, in their own country, not as an English speaker who is trying to learn/improve these languages) and it was an awesome experience. This breathed a whole new life into my language interest so here I am, back at it full force.

My fiancee loved Italy and agreed that we will go back there and do an entire vacation in the country; I am therefore making a fresh start with Italian and plan to take it to a conversational level. This log, at this current point, will be focused on German and Italian; I'll leave my French on the back burner for a bit since time is limited.

Current Italian Strategy
Babbel and Assimil. Just like I did with German, I'll start adding in some native materials (movies, radio/podcasts, etc.) once I'm about halfway through Assimil. Babbel will fill in the gaps. I'll reassess my plan in a couple of months once I'm near done with both courses.

German Strategy
I passed the Zertifikat B2 exam March, 2017. At this point, it's really just digging into native materials and doing language exchanges. I picked up some books on topics of interest to me when I was in Germany, so I plan to read these to shore up some more vocabulary and better my reading. I've been listening to different German podcasts (history, travel, etc.) that I use for listening throughout the day. I will resume my weekly conversational lessons as well. I'm also using Clozemaster for just some added light-weight vocab acquisition.

END OF YEAR GOALS
Italian - Finish Babbel (through intermediate courses) and Assimil (at least passive phase)
German - Finish three books. These are "layman's guide" books written about science/technology, philosophy and politics that I figure would be a great way to increase my vocabulary in these areas; I likely won't be able to finish all three since I have a lot of life events to take care of in the meantime, but it's something to shoot for.

And that's it. I'll be looking to join some of the groups on here. Please feel free to add your thoughts!
8 x
END OF YEAR
: 108 / 108 Babbel Italian (Beginner)
: 47 / 47 Babbel Italian (Intermediate)

CONTINUOUS
: 27 / 100 Assimil Italian

User avatar
Soclydeza
Orange Belt
Posts: 249
Joined: Mon Jul 20, 2015 9:36 pm
Location: United States
Languages: English (N)

Actively Studying:
German (B2)
Italian (False beginner)
Norwegian (Beginner)

Dormant:
French (Lower intermediate)
Language Log: https://forum.language-learners.org/vie ... =15&t=9066
x 530

Re: Back at it

Postby Soclydeza » Sat Oct 20, 2018 12:08 am

Haven't updated my log in a while, been busy and have been using every minute of my spare time toward learning.

ITALIAN
My Italian routine is pretty set, I do a minimum of 2 Babbel lessons per day, one Assimil lesson per day and one Pimsleur lesson per workday on my commutes. I've been making a lot of progress and I'm able to manage this routine so I expect to be in a good spot by the end of the year. My 2 end-of-year goals for Italian were to finish Babbel (Beginner + Intermediate courses) and finish Assimil. At this rate, I have 74 Assimil lessons left, I will probably have to take a day off here and I'm assuming I'll have to spread some of the more advanced lessons over the span of 2 days, so I'm not anticipating finishing this by the year's end. I should have no problem finishing my Babbel goal. After Babbel I'll start digging into readers. I plan to start Italki conversational lessons either toward the end of the year or as a New Year goal.

GERMAN
I decided to take the dive and buy the 17 Minute Language C1/C2 German Vocab course, which is basically a premade SRS system of a few thousand advanced words. I think it was worth it, it teaches a lot of more specific vocab but not so specific that I can't picture ever having to use the words. There are a lot of Verb-Noun phrases too, which is very important for German. I do it for 20 minutes a day, sometimes 30.

We have an engineering webinar coming up at work, presented by a German company, and I found out they are doing both a German and an English version. I asked my boss and he said it's fine for me to attend both, so my current project is to study the German version of the presentation manual and prepare myself for it (I don't have to speak or anything, but it will be a great experience to hear a real-time presentation auf Deutsch, especially because I'm still working on my goal of getting my German to a usable level for business and engineering interactions). The webinar is in two weeks from Monday.

I also started taking weekly business-focused Italki lessons (I've had two lessons so far). It's from a professional tutor and they're going great so far, he does a lot of activities from telephone conversations to working through an advanced Geschäftsdeutsch textbook. I'm paying a bit more than I'm used to, but I think these will really pay off in the long run.

I also spend time listening to native podcasts and audiobooks (currently listening to Harry Potter). My listening is hit or miss - some days I can understand most, others not - but at minimum I can understand the gist of what's going on and can pick out some of the details.

I had three books that were part of my year-end goal but I've put those on the back-burner since my current Geschäftsdeutsch project takes priority, so I guess they're not so much of a goal anymore.

====================================
I've also started messing with Duolingo Norwegian. I only do this for maybe 20 minutes a day before I go to sleep and it's more of a for-fun thing than serious studying, but figured I'd add it here. I may go full-force with Norwegian in the future but it's also a low priority language for me since practicality is important and I can't picture ever using outside of a trip to Norway, but it's something I've always wanted to learn and I'm really enjoying it, so we'll see what happens.
3 x
END OF YEAR
: 108 / 108 Babbel Italian (Beginner)
: 47 / 47 Babbel Italian (Intermediate)

CONTINUOUS
: 27 / 100 Assimil Italian

User avatar
Soclydeza
Orange Belt
Posts: 249
Joined: Mon Jul 20, 2015 9:36 pm
Location: United States
Languages: English (N)

Actively Studying:
German (B2)
Italian (False beginner)
Norwegian (Beginner)

Dormant:
French (Lower intermediate)
Language Log: https://forum.language-learners.org/vie ... =15&t=9066
x 530

Re: Back at it

Postby Soclydeza » Sun Nov 18, 2018 9:23 pm

Haven't updated in a while but still been at it

DEUTSCH
My routine has basically settled on three aspects:

1) Intensive study of the Deutsch Perfekt series - This allows me to review grammatical topics, intensive listening practice (you have to answer questions about what you hear, good practice for certification exams) and learn thematic vocabulary.

2) Extensive reading - I've been reading the Simplified Classics books, which are just that: simplified classics (currently reading Treasure Island/Schatzinsel). These are a bit below my level but they allow for continuous reading and it's enjoyable. My plan is to read more of these kinds of books over the next few month and then step it up a bit.

3) Readlang - I've been making a lot of use of Readlang lately, seeking out blogs and articles intended for natives. I treat this as kind of a mix of intensive and extensive; I look up words, stop to think about grammar and make note of things I think would be important, but otherwise I don't stress too much about every detail and just read.

I also still listen to podcasts and am currently listening to the Sofies Welt audiobook, but I throw these things in here and there when I get time to listen, so I count it as added fluff to my routine. I also haven't given upon my Italki lessons, though I haven't done a lesson in a couple of weeks due to conflicting schedules with my tutor.

For those of you who have been following me this whole time, you've probably notice that I'm constantly changing my German routine; I think this is mainly because German is my highest language and I'm am still new to advanced language learning, so a lot of this is due to experimentation. However, this routine seems sustainable and it's enjoyable, so I'm planning on holding it out for a few months before I reassess and decide if I need to change anything.



ITALIANO
I've still been chugging away at Babbel, which has been going great. I just started the intermediate lessons and am on track to complete my year-end goal by early-mid December. I put Assimil on hold due to time restraints but I think it's better that I focus my available time right now on Babbel 100% (2-3 lessons/day, plus vocab review) then resume Assimil in the new year with 100% focus on that. It's a bit early to develop a long-term post-Assimil plan but I think with Italian I'm going to do a phase of focus on massive input with writing exercises for correction by natives. This is a different strategy from what I used for German when I was at this point but my logic is to build and solidify the Italian in my head before I really focus on output/speaking, plus I'm not really in a rush so I can take it slow and experiment.

Babbel Review - I've completed the Babbel Beginner French, done a bunch of the extra thematic courses for German and will soon have finished the full Italian course, so I have a bit of experience with this program. However, I seldom see any posts or real reviews for it, which is a shame because I think it's an extremely valuable course (probably the best app/computer-based course I've used) and I'm surprised not more people are using it as novice language learners (in general). Because of this, I plan on doing a full honest formal review on this program and will post it on here for other learners to look to when they are seeking out programs, probably by the end of the year after I finish the intermediate courses.

=========
Figured I'd also add, I've still been plugging away at Duolingo Norwegian. Nothing really more than that but my intrigue in this language is definitely increasing.
2 x
END OF YEAR
: 108 / 108 Babbel Italian (Beginner)
: 47 / 47 Babbel Italian (Intermediate)

CONTINUOUS
: 27 / 100 Assimil Italian

User avatar
Soclydeza
Orange Belt
Posts: 249
Joined: Mon Jul 20, 2015 9:36 pm
Location: United States
Languages: English (N)

Actively Studying:
German (B2)
Italian (False beginner)
Norwegian (Beginner)

Dormant:
French (Lower intermediate)
Language Log: https://forum.language-learners.org/vie ... =15&t=9066
x 530

Re: Back at it

Postby Soclydeza » Thu Nov 22, 2018 6:28 pm

This post won't be so much about my progress but some musings on advanced methods.

Vocabulary Acquisition
I'm looking to experiment with new vocab methods; SRS works but it gets kind of stale after doing it for years. Here's one thing I've noticed about SRS/flashcards: when I look back to when I made earlier flashcard sets (back when my German was still in its infancy, I still used physical flashcards), I did remember a great deal, but there was also a lot I didn't remember. Some words I still remember just from making the card itself, others I reviewed many times and still can't recall. This tells me two things: 1) physically writing a word should be a core aspect to a vocabulary method, 2) continuous repetition is no guarantee that a word will stick. I was doing a method I devised myself for a while, which was basically SRS review but instead of saying the word, I had a dedicated notebook for writing the word down (I would say it out loud too). This took a while (I have an entire notebook of just random words written in them) but it did increase my ability to absorb the words. The only problem is that I tried to tackle too much at once. You can think of it as kind of a crude version of Goldlist or Iversen's Wordlist method, which brings me to my next point.

I came across the Goldlist Method recently and have been doing a lot of research on it. The one thing I couldn't find is positive results from people; normally I would just try this myself to see if it works but I was a bit reluctant since it's a long-term method and time is precious, so I don't want to waste a couple of months when I could be doing something more effective. I made a post on here recently regarding the Goldlist Method and I saw the recommendation for Iversen's Wordlist Method, which is similar in concept but a bit more straightforward and refined, plus I see a lot more praise for it. It's basically a more structured/controlled version of what I previously described with writing the words down. I've done some reading and watched some youtube videos on it and just have a couple of kinks in my understanding (how long-term programming is handled), but I plan on implementing this strategy and running a trial on how it works for me. I'll keep track of my progress with it here and see how it goes over the course of a couple of months but I'm excited to start playing around with it.


Self Translation Method
I've developed my own output (writing) method, in theory, and want to start implementing it soon. I'd be surprised if someone hasn't thought of this before but if not, hey, maybe now I can slap my name on a new method. The idea is based on two aspects:

Writing as Output
One of my tutors of the past (Emmanuel, he does German lessons on Italki and hosts the Herr Proffessor podcast; he was great but, due to time differences, I'm unable to take lessons with him anymore) made a good point that writing is a great way to practice speaking. The idea is that you have time to stop and think about things like structure and vocab (the problem with live speaking is it's real-time, so you either use well-known structures or use the path of least resistance, so it's hard to progress in this manner since you are relying on things you already know; plus, real-time correction hinders flow and even if your tutor/language partner writes down your mistakes for you to see later, you now have to see them out of context which makes it tricky). So with writing, you still have everything you said, right there, with corrections, you can review it as many times as you need. "Conversational writing" (such as in text messages or forum posts), as opposed to writing how one would in an essay or a letter, is more of a recent phenomenon in human history but one that I think can be seized upon and taken advantage of for language learning, since you are pretty much writing how you would speak; for this reason, if improving spoken-output is your goal, conversational writing should be the focus as it would act as a great supplement to conversational output.

Additional benefit: you don't need to arrange a time to practice this. Do it whenever you can.

Self Translating
I think translating can be a great way to activate the thought-to-ouput process but there is an inherent problem in this: if you are translating someone else's work, you are translating their thoughts. There is a simple way around this: translate your own words. We all have our own idiosyncrasies in our manners of communication; we have certain idioms we use frequently, we structure our sentences in our own ways, we have favored word choices to describe things, etc. (I have a whole theory on the thought-to-output communication process, but I won't bog this post down with it, maybe at a later time). If our goal is communication with our own words, it seems it would just be a waste of time developing a whole new set of thought patterns (unless it is necessary). In short: we have natural modes of expression; we should draw from these through our native language to our L2 (in a way that it also natural to how L2 is used).

The best way to learn to do this is by translating your own words. So in this method, you will pick a topic, any topic, and write about it naturally in your native language, without holding back or thinking "I'm going to translate this later", and also in a conversation register (if conversation is your goal; it could be essay/literary writing if that is your goal). You will then translate this into your L2. Simple. The idea is that you are learning to express yourself in your L2 by translating your own thought patterns and idiosyncrasies. If I never say anything like "It behooves me to..." or "No! Get out! He did not just say that!" in my native language, there is no use in learning the L2 version of it (besides passive use); doing so would be to try and create a new thought-to-output pattern on top of learning to do it in your L2 which is just wasted energy. You will learn to do it in your L2 at a later point if required, when it becomes much more independent, but there is no need to do it when your current goal is effective output/thoughtless communication.

So write in your native language, translate to L2, get it corrected (on Italki, with a language partner, wherever), study the corrections.

Of course, this is all just theoretical and can probably be explained in a more succinct way, which I will do once I've experimented with it a bit.

Anyways, these are just some thoughts of advanced methods to play with as I am now (have been) in the no-man's-land of language learning. For those reading this, share your thoughts!
2 x
END OF YEAR
: 108 / 108 Babbel Italian (Beginner)
: 47 / 47 Babbel Italian (Intermediate)

CONTINUOUS
: 27 / 100 Assimil Italian

User avatar
Soclydeza
Orange Belt
Posts: 249
Joined: Mon Jul 20, 2015 9:36 pm
Location: United States
Languages: English (N)

Actively Studying:
German (B2)
Italian (False beginner)
Norwegian (Beginner)

Dormant:
French (Lower intermediate)
Language Log: https://forum.language-learners.org/vie ... =15&t=9066
x 530

Re: Back at it

Postby Soclydeza » Fri Nov 23, 2018 8:18 am

Trial with Iversen's Wordlist Method
I've devised a four week trial that I will be using with Iversen's Vocab Method. Below are a few links that I used to learn about it for anyone who's interested:
Iversen's Guide - https://forum.language-learners.org/vie ... php?t=2036
Iversen's Video Explaination - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GPsXzMkESjY
Ruben Quinones Video - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U8HuhpsQDrc&t=177s

General Info
Language: German
Trial: 4 weeks
Material: Volta und die Seele der Roboter by Luca Novelli

Volta und die Seele der Roboter (I'll refer to it as Volta from here on) is a young-adult biography on Alessandro Volta - an 18th century scientist who did a lot of work with early electricity - that I picked up at the Deutches Museum in Munich. I started to read this a couple of months ago and found it to be a low stress read while also having enough scientific (and general) vocabulary to be worthy of treating as an intensive source for my interests. I will also be starting it over (I left off on page 27). I will be exclusively using the words from this book for this trial; I'll continue using Quizlet for any words I find out in the wild from my general German routine, that or write them down and save them for later.

Vocab Selection
My general rules will be:
1) Nothing greater than 2 words per entry (I may make an exception if one of the words in an article)
2) If I understand it passively, I don't use it. I have a habit of fluffing up my vocab lists with words that I already know but feel like I wouldn't be able to use actively. I will only use words that I do not know at all for this.

German is known for its Noun-Verb phrases (at least German has them a lot more than any other language I've studied) and I'm bound to come across them here; I will still make note of these but I will reserve these for Quizlet.

Approach
Each "mining" day I will be doing 3 blocks of 6 words. I have sheets printed out with an 18X5 matrix. Columns 1,2 and 3 will be for the method as explained by Iversen, 4 and 5 will be for a next-day review. I was originally going to do 3 mining days and 3 review, but I decided to do 2 instead since it will definitely be manageable and I won't have to worry about it if I have to skip a day, so 8 lists in total. By the end of the four weeks this should be 144 words learned, nothing crazy but enough to get a feel of how this method works with me.

Programming
DAY 1: List 1 (mining)
DAY 2: List 1 (review)
DAY 3: List 2 (mining)
DAY 4: List 2 (review)
DAY 5: Nothing
DAY 6: List 1 (review)
DAY 7: List 2 (review)
DAY 8: List 3 (mining)
...continue pattern
DAY 13: List 1, List 3 (review)
DAY 14: List 2, List 4 (review)
...and so (on the 13th/14th day will be the last review day for each list outside of the final total review at the end)

I'm also toying with the idea of doing a final review day for each list in which I actively use the word in a sentence and post it on Italki for corrections, but let me see how this goes for now.

At the end of the four weeks, I will completely step away from this method for a week or two, then go back and do a final review of all words. I will also be marking down my ability to remember these words with each review to use as data to graph out my progress (maybe over-the-top, but I'm an engineer, I like data and graphs).


My Hopes
If this method clicks with me, I will be making a full switch-over as my primary vocab method and only use SRS/Quizlet for phrases and sentences. For other languages like French (when I pick it back up), I will probably have to continue with some SRS app that talks back to me, but German (as well as Italian) is phonetic enough that I won't need this.

I will be starting this either tomorrow or Monday.
1 x
END OF YEAR
: 108 / 108 Babbel Italian (Beginner)
: 47 / 47 Babbel Italian (Intermediate)

CONTINUOUS
: 27 / 100 Assimil Italian

User avatar
Soclydeza
Orange Belt
Posts: 249
Joined: Mon Jul 20, 2015 9:36 pm
Location: United States
Languages: English (N)

Actively Studying:
German (B2)
Italian (False beginner)
Norwegian (Beginner)

Dormant:
French (Lower intermediate)
Language Log: https://forum.language-learners.org/vie ... =15&t=9066
x 530

Re: Back at it

Postby Soclydeza » Sun Dec 09, 2018 6:10 pm

Everything has been going steady, been sticking to the same routine.

Iversen's Method Trial Update: this has been going very well. I decided to cut the trial short by one week (I will do one more week, totaling 3 weeks instead of 4) since I have some important life events coming up later this month that I need to focus on and I've already determined that the way I'm using this is worth reconfiguring my vocab routine to incorporate it.

Babble Italian: I only have about a week left of this. I must admit, I'm getting kind of burned out from doing this but I only have a little bit to go so I'll stick it out. After I finish the intermediate level courses, I'll fill out the rest of the month with vocab reviews and start making the transition back over to Assimil.

Norwegian: I ended up buying Norwegian Verbs and Essentials of Grammar by Lois Janus, which signals to me that I don't want to just mess around with this language but I actually want to learn it to some appreciable level. This will be a "pick-at" language for me, so I won't be going into hardcore study with it anytime in the near future, but for now just spending 30 mins a night on Duolingo with grammar references seems to be bringing me slow but steady progress. For those of you rolling your eyes at my use of Duolingo as a (somewhat) seasoned language learner, I will say, I think the app has a lot to offer if treated intensively instead of just treating it as a game. It's not an optimal source (I could have been miles further had I been using more intensive traditional methods for the past couple of months) but it works well for me when working on side-languages (not to mention there aren't too many digital Norwegian learning resources). If this starts to pick up even more steam, I'll look into more intensive programs and may even spend the money on Assimil Norwegisch Ohne Mühe.

Italki: I've been doing 2 hours a week between two tutors (one formal for business, one informal for general conversation) for German. I'll try to keep this up; I don't plan on using Italki for any languages other than German for the time being as this is the language I have a current practical demand for.
3 x
END OF YEAR
: 108 / 108 Babbel Italian (Beginner)
: 47 / 47 Babbel Italian (Intermediate)

CONTINUOUS
: 27 / 100 Assimil Italian

User avatar
Soclydeza
Orange Belt
Posts: 249
Joined: Mon Jul 20, 2015 9:36 pm
Location: United States
Languages: English (N)

Actively Studying:
German (B2)
Italian (False beginner)
Norwegian (Beginner)

Dormant:
French (Lower intermediate)
Language Log: https://forum.language-learners.org/vie ... =15&t=9066
x 530

Re: Back at it

Postby Soclydeza » Sat Dec 22, 2018 6:18 pm

Babbel Italian (both beginner and intermediate series) are officially done. I will write my own full review on this eventually for future readers since I think this is a very valuable course for those more inclined towards app/computer style learning. After many uses of this program (French, Italian, some German), I can say that I review the actual course and content very highly, my criticisms are mainly with the actual software functions and structure of the app itself. As for my current use of it, I'm just filling out the rest of the year reviewing the vocab lists; I will pick back up on Assimil Italian in 2019 and may continue using Babbel for the vocab or the more specialized grammar/topical courses as a supplement.

Iversen's Wordlist Method (German)
I've pretty much employed this method full-time at this point and it is going very well. The main benefit is that is forces me to make more of a connection with the words by writing them and, since it's still somewhat new to me, it still has kind of a novel feel to it which makes me want to learn new lists and review old ones. I changed the scheduling/programming a bit: call me weird, but since the Fibonacci sequence is one of those mathematical structures that occur throughout nature, I figured it might be interesting to experiment with using the sequence as an SRS schedule (taking a day as the unit). Since this involves reviewing more frequently than the standard SRS scheme that I usually see, it really hammers the words to memory in the beginning. My first few lists were programmed as twice in the first week, once the following week, once every two weeks, and so on. Now that I'm coming up on a month since starting these first few lists, I'm noticing that I'm still having trouble with a couple of words from each list due to them dropping from my memory. I still have time before the Fibonacci programmed lists become more spaced out (seeing them only once a week or once every two weeks), but so far I'm feeling a lot more confident that these lists are becoming more etched into long-term memory than my original programming scheme. I'm at 144 words since starting with Iversen's Wordlist Method about a month ago; this is probably pretty slow compared to what some people do (I've seen people talk about doing more than this in one week, even some trying to do 100 words per day), but keep in mind that these are more specialized, advanced words that I don't see too often "in the wild" (though they are still important words to know). Also, it kind of acts as a limiter on the amount of vocab I can learn at a time; I used to get over-ambitious and try to pile on huge amounts of vocab, only to become overwhelmed and discouraged. This keeps me going at a steady pace.

General
My general language study has slowed down a bit lately (busy time of the year, plus events in personal life) but I've found that if I base my routines off of smaller fundamental units, it's much easier to keep the momentum going. What I mean by this is if I set my routine so that each session for each language lasts an hour and I can't keep this up for a stretch of time (which is usually the case), the routine falls apart and there's no consistency. But if I set the fundamental units to something smaller, like 10-20 minutes, it is not hard at all to manage this (even with three languages) if times get busy and during times when I can spare an hour or so, I just add on more units; my routines remain consistent and I'm constantly progressing instead of missing days and I'm not getting discouraged. By doing this, I haven't missed a single day (well, maybe one every now and then) of German, Italian or even Norwegian for the past few months and my sense of progress remains consistent and encouraging.

I've been toying with the idea of cycling phases (mainly with German). By this I mean going hard on vocabulary lists for a couple of months and really increasing my Wortschatz, then spending a few months focusing on massive input, with speaking lessons sprinkled throughout. If I try to do too much at once I burn out and my "fundamental units" start to increase, making it tougher to remain consistent. Another way of doing it would be to cycle intensive for a couple of months, then extensive for a couple of months, or maybe on a month-by-month basis. These are just ideas at this point, but I will work on implementing a plan once we get into the new year.

As for Norwegian, I was really feeling the itch to start going deeper into this but I'm just going to keep it at my usual 15-30mins of Duolingo a day for now. I do take it seriously when I do it, so I am learning from it slowly but surely, but I don't think it's time to really go full-time with this just yet.
4 x
END OF YEAR
: 108 / 108 Babbel Italian (Beginner)
: 47 / 47 Babbel Italian (Intermediate)

CONTINUOUS
: 27 / 100 Assimil Italian

User avatar
Soclydeza
Orange Belt
Posts: 249
Joined: Mon Jul 20, 2015 9:36 pm
Location: United States
Languages: English (N)

Actively Studying:
German (B2)
Italian (False beginner)
Norwegian (Beginner)

Dormant:
French (Lower intermediate)
Language Log: https://forum.language-learners.org/vie ... =15&t=9066
x 530

Re: Back at it

Postby Soclydeza » Sat Jan 12, 2019 2:57 pm

I've been waking up at 5am every weekday for the past week and a half and have been using this extra time (about an hour and 20 mins before I have to get ready for work) to study German. I noticed I am super focused during this time and tend to get a lot done. My basic routine is:

-Review Vocab Lists (about 20 mins)
-Deutsch Perfekt, listening, reading, vocab and grammar study (about 40 mins)
-Wind down watching German videos on Youtube (10-20 mins)

Then I typically listen to some German podcast for about 30 mins during my commute to work. I've found that I get a lot more done during this time and expect to see some drastic improvements if I can keep this up over the next few months. The only change I'm thinking of implementing is to switch off and use this time for Italian on some of these days.

I also decided to participate in the 365 Challenge and this routine helps that goal since there is much less of a chance that I'll try to talk myself out of studying for a day, which tends to happen when I study in the evenings.

I'm still using Iversen's Wordlist Method for vocab and this has been going really well. I'm currently on List 12 (216 words) and have been finding it to be very successful, especially since I started using the Fibonacci programming schedule. I've noticed that this method really puts weight on quality over quantity; I'm much quicker to recall these words when I hear them in the wild, as opposed to when I used to make mass vocab lists and say "oh I know that word, what does it mean again?" when I would hear them in the wild.

I'm still devising a plan to rotate input/output; I may alternate switch over to output (writing for corrections) this coming week and alternate weekly or biweekly. I was planing on using Italki for this, but if any of you know of any other good writing/correction online resources, please let me know.
3 x
END OF YEAR
: 108 / 108 Babbel Italian (Beginner)
: 47 / 47 Babbel Italian (Intermediate)

CONTINUOUS
: 27 / 100 Assimil Italian

User avatar
Soclydeza
Orange Belt
Posts: 249
Joined: Mon Jul 20, 2015 9:36 pm
Location: United States
Languages: English (N)

Actively Studying:
German (B2)
Italian (False beginner)
Norwegian (Beginner)

Dormant:
French (Lower intermediate)
Language Log: https://forum.language-learners.org/vie ... =15&t=9066
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Re: Back at it

Postby Soclydeza » Tue Jan 22, 2019 11:09 am

I wrote a short post/response on Italki (for correction) based on an Easy German episode from Youtube. The question is "Wenn es einen Gott gibt, wie sieht er aus?". To any German natives reading this, check out the link below and feel free to correct or respond!

https://www.italki.com/entry/967526
1 x
END OF YEAR
: 108 / 108 Babbel Italian (Beginner)
: 47 / 47 Babbel Italian (Intermediate)

CONTINUOUS
: 27 / 100 Assimil Italian

User avatar
Iversen
Black Belt - 4th Dan
Posts: 4768
Joined: Sun Jul 19, 2015 7:36 pm
Location: Denmark
Languages: Monolingual travels in Danish, English, German, Dutch, Swedish, French, Portuguese, Spanish, Catalan, Italian, Romanian and (part time) Esperanto
Ahem, not yet: Norwegian, Afrikaans, Platt, Scots, Russian, Serbian, Bulgarian, Albanian, Greek, Latin, Irish, Indonesian and a few more...
Language Log: viewtopic.php?f=15&t=1027
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Re: Back at it

Postby Iversen » Sat Jan 26, 2019 8:54 am

I'm happy to see that there are people who try my wordlist layout. I often refer to it as a layout more than a method since the constant part of it is the setup with three columns, whereas the actual memorization tricks you use to remember the words aren't specified in the system. Even the number of repetitions is up to the user, but personally I only do one or two repetitions since I don't see the point in doing them so late that I have forgotten the memory 'hooks' I used to memorize the words in the first place. Otherwise formulated: if a wordlist is one month old and I haven't worked on it in the meantime then I could just as well make a new list with new words - or better: make the new list based on the old text, which has the advantage that you then see the words in their original context again... and my experience is that I normally I remember the majority of them..

I noticed that you had trouble with certain words. OK, collect them on a separate list - not to do the usual wordlist methods on them, but to single them out for etymological research and for use in sentences or whatever. Maybe you can find some examples in the internet (the glosbe site would be an ideal place to start since it has parallel passages and translations of the words it contains) so that you can get a personal relationship to those words. And then I am confident that they will turn out to be learnable too.
0 x


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