==ACTIVITIES==
I have categorized all of my language-learning efforts into eight activities. Since two of them are considered "fun" rather than "work", I separate them out when logging.
- STUDY
- ACQ: Acquisition: Textbooks, courses, drills, vocabulary harvesting, Anki editing
- SRS: Spaced Repetition System: Anki, GoldList
- INL: Intensive Listening: L-R with target audio input, shadowing, listening to native material with references and repetition to get to ~100% comprehension.
- INR: Intensive Reading: L-R with native audio input, graded readers, reading native material with references to get to ~100% comprehension.
- OPR: Oral Production: iTalki
- WPR: Written Production: Writing practice with native speaker correction or resources to confirm grammar and colocation
- EXL: Extensive Listening: TV shows, movies, and podcasts. Must be focused on audio. Can only rewind once every 15 minutes to catch something.
- EXR: Extensive Reading: Content that can be measured in pages. Can only look up 1 word per page.
==TIME DIVISION==
Following my experience and the well-known FSI system, the following is the time planned to learn a language:
Cat I (540H): French, Portuguese, ASL, Spanish, German, Danish, Italian
Cat III (1080H): Amharic, Russian, Farsi, Hebrew, Sanskrit, Hindi
Cat IV (2160H): Korean, Mandarin, Arabic, Japanese
Each course of study is separated evenly into 3 phases, after which the language will enter the maintenance phase. Units of time are 7 days a week (WK), 4 weeks a month (M), 3 months a season (S). I aim to do 30 hours of language activity per week, divided into 12 units (U) that are assigned to each language. The breakdown of each unit by phase is as follows:
PHASE I: LEARNING
Mostly focusing on ACQ, starting INL and INR by the end. SRS should only be started towards the end of this phase, after getting a feel for the language and which words are so common they do not need to be in an SRS deck.
PHASE II: INPUT
- Study: 1h/WK
- Extensive Listening: 1h/WK
- Extensive Reading: 0.5h/WK
ACQ is de-emphasized, with EXL and EXR taking center stage. EXL should start with previously-seen dubbed content with non-target subtitles. EXR should start with translations of previously-read books.
PHASE III: OUTPUT
- Study: 1.75h/WK, including 0.75h/WK of Oral Production
- Extensive Listening: 0.5h/WK
- Extensive Reading: 0.25h/WK
Time shifted away from EXL/EXR to increase time dedicated to production. EXL should be native content with no subtitles and EXR should be previously-unread native novels by the end of this phase.
PHASE IV: MAINTENANCE
- Study: 1h/WK, including 0.5h/WK of Oral Production
- Extensive Listening: 0.75h/WK
- Extensive Reading: 0.75h/WK
Balance shifted to emphasize EXL/EXR as formal study should not be of much help at this stage. Time will tell if this is truly enough to maintain a B2 level in a language in the long run.
Interestingly, all four phases are represented in all four of my languages! Isn't that neat?