#duolingo give me new vocab challenge

[youhavereachedtheendofpie]

Favourite words in Spanish that I have learned so far:

Además

Insoportable

Abrazo

Words that I cannot for the life of me pronounce properly and which are therefore my sworn enemies:

Refrigerador

Aeropuerto

Ejército (ejercicio however is fine for whatever reason)

[zhuzhudushu]

Falou — Chinese Review ★1/2

So I paid for Falou (pronounced like Baloo from Jungle Book, but with an F, apparently) so you don't have to. Here is my review! You can also see a quicker summary on my resources page!

What is Falou?

It's an app that's designed to support your language learning journey through listening and speaking tasks.

Click here to see the app!

Pricing:

Free: one language (extremely obnoxious ads)

$149 / year - no ads, multiple languages, and full courses all levels

(Note: if you deny the subscription 2-3x, they give you a year for $30. This is what I did, but ended up refunding it)

My Review / TLDR Version:

I would not recommend this app for anyone, especially not for Chinese. I might recommend it for HSK2 learners who are past the pinyin-memorizing stage and can read pinyin and basic characters without difficulty, but only for muscle memory practice. The voices are bot-like (Duolingo style), the sentences can be awkward, some of the audios were wrong, it grades you harshly forcing 100% accuracy to move on, then gives you no way to review the words you miss, and there is a massive jump from HSK2 vocab to HSK5 vocab, with no transition.

For full rant, see below:

I was going to split this into a pros/cons list, but honestly, I couldn't think of any pros. So here are the issues I have with it, broken down.

1. The Entire Learning Method

It is solely speech-based and takes points off for missed tones and makes you redo it over and over until you get 100% accuracy on each sentence. At intermediate level, it is totally normal to miss 1-2 tones per sentence, and even more at beginner level. Also, sometimes it doesn't recognize tones well and will count off for the simplest words like 了，好， etc. and so it tells you to review the easiest words in the sentence, while ignoring the new vocab.

Basically this is each "course":

"Conversation" - a bot talks to you and you respond, mimicking what you hear with reading both characters & pinyin. You must achieve 100% accuracy on all of it to move on to the next sentence.

"Writing" - you listen and build the sentence fill-in-the-blank style (or from Chinese keyboard with typing). You must achieve 100% accuracy on each one before moving on to the next sentence.

"Challenge" - you must verbally say what you hear from memory and you have one try before losing hearts (you have plenty of hearts to finish, but you must achieve a perfect score to get gold). If you mess up, it gives you the pinyin, and if you mess up again it gives you the characters too.

For beginner sentences like "I like tea" this might be fine. But once you you get into the "intermediate" section, sometimes you would have to say 2-3 sentences without a break. Especially with the challenge section, this is a near-impossible task even in one's native language unless you have genius-level working memory and attention.

Also, you can click on the words in your dialogue to see definitions, however you can't do that with the other person's dialogue. So if the person you're talking to uses a new word and you can't tell what the pinyin is?? You're shit outta luck.

2. There is no true intermediate.

At the beginning, it asks you you're level. You can chose nothing, understanding basic sentences, understanding basic conversation, and being comfortable speaking. I chose "basic conversation" and it started me with HSK5 level vocab, with 4+ new words per sentence. This was obviously frustrating. I had to delete the app and re-download it to choose "understand sentences" but then it was HSK 1-2 and so simple like "what do you like to eat?"

I even went to the highest level right before "intermediate" started, and it was painfully easy. It literally jumps from "would you like brown shoes?" (hardest beginner level) to "you have to press the blue button on the screen in order to download the regulatory file into the database" (first intermediate level).

That's absolutely preposterous.

3. There is no way to review words from the lessons

They do have a vocab section, however it is simply flashcards with audio and they only teach you 4 words per section. Also, I could not find any HSK5 level words in the vocabulary section that corresponded with the level that I struggled with that was supposedly intermediate. The vocab sets seem completely separate from the lessons.

At the end of each lesson, it tells you which words you struggled the most with (which, again, might not be any new vocab at all and for me was often the easiest words like 好) but then... there is no way to review these words in the app? Especially if you're paying money, they should be able to make personalized flashcards for you with new words per level. Really, each level should have a set of vocab to learn before you go in trying to use them in conversation. But no, the only way to review the vocab is to do the lesson over again.

4. The goal isn't functionality, it's to perfectly mimic a bot

This is the main reason I wouldn't recommend it to anyone. The goal is to sound exactly like the bot does. This means perfect tones, no tone reductions/neutral tones, and awkward sentences structures. Using this app will not make you fluent in any way that's functional, in my opinion. It might be an okay supplement to practice speaking if you are already familiar with pinyin and tones well enough that you can tell if the bot is wrong. Because sometimes pronunciation and tones were wrong.

Functionally, there is nothing wrong with missing 1-2 tones in a long sentence, especially for beginner/intermediate learners. Functionally, it is not realistic for most learners to build or produce sentences that have 4+ HSK5 level words in them without first breaking down those new words. Functionally, a conversation where you are pretending to be a retail worker or gas station employee isn't really relevant—most learners are not learning the language so they can go work at a Chinese gas station. There are way more functional conversations that could include vocab about cars and clothing.

Basically, run for the hills with this one. If you're a high level but want to review easy sentences to practice pronunciation and muscle memory, maybe this might benefit you. Other than that, avoid like the plague.

[germanlang]

Audiobooks in your target language

Making TL-Audiobooks work (and why you should try :)

Here's my personal experience and some audiobook-tips:

I've got an advantage comprehending my target language (dutch) because it is (to an extent) made out of my two main languages (english and german) and most of it's idioms and weirder words are quite similar to their german counterpart. This being said, I was still quite unsure of listening to an audiobook of all things, that's scary! So despite having one at the ready, it took me a while to start listening.

Here's why audiobooks are great language input:

- The focus on listening - when watching videos or shows you can help yourself by using context clues from everything that is on screen and understandable from just visual input; with audiobooks you are limited to audio input which strengthens that skill!

- You're not limited to the audio - while it might be hard to easily get your hands on it in your country, there's a good chance you can get the book in the target language and read along; this can be a crutch if you feel more comfortable simultaneously reading the words but it can also generally help identify written words with how they're spoken

- The pace is not too fast - since this isn't a podcast or a conversation between friends or a recording made on a busy street, the narrators talk slowly, emphasizing speech, mimicking some sounds (like sighing) and all this in their quiet studio - perfect for getting used to just hearing the language

-  It is interesting - An important thing about language immersion (in my opinion) is that you care because if you don't, it easily becomes a chore. The audiobooks on Spotify tend to be more interesting than the made-up pharmacy conversation you have to listen to in class.

- It's a whole, well-written story for real people - These were not made for language learners, so they're not easier or more comfortable, but instead try to tell a good story, instead of one with x amount of new vocab-words. And since it is a whole story that doesn't actively shy away from "easy" sentences in order to challenge the learner, you get all types of sentences and there OUGHT to be one that gives you enough context to go on

And here's how I listen to an audiobook:

(Spoiler alert: it's much  more time consuming than just a listen-trough)

Like I said, I was wary of staring an audiobook with only half of Duolingo done (PLUS my advantage) so I had to give myself some rules and a push:

1. Listen to at least 10min at a time, do not stop, do NOT look anything up. This maybe sounds drastic - 10min of constant input even though I might not understand a word? Yes.

If you've even considered maybe listening to an audiobook, chances are you know a couple words in the language - so you WILL understand something! Might that be only the pronouns? Maybe, but then you can already tell whose perspective the book is written in. Might you only understand every 10th sentence? Maybe, then you have a basic story-structure (1. He goes somewhere, 2-4: ???? 5: He fights a pig) which you can then fill later (Where’s the pig from? Why are they fighting?) The first listen of a 10min-sequence has the following goals: 1) Get used to the narrator 2) Hear the words being said (they're new and strange now but you will recognize them in the second listen - they will not be as strange anymore) 3) Recognize the protagonist or names involved (MAYBE gather basic information (where, who, when, what))

2. Listen to the 10min again, do not stop, do NOT look anything up. Again? Yes, sorry. You can't argue "it's boring, I know what happens already!" ;) Listen again, you will recognize things you've already understood, you might then be able to hear words you did not even perceive the first time around, and you will for sure understand one sentence or more that you didn't before. Part of that is that you've listened to 10min already. Chances are that those 10 minutes spanned two or even three chapters so you will not be stuck on the first page of a book, but you will already have heard content 5 or 10 pages in. This is your key: context through time. If in chapter 1 a kid goes to the store and you hear that a BUNCH happens and a lot of words are being said but you have no clue what was going on, you'll be quite lost if you try to just listen to it again and again. But if in chapter two you then hear that the child is now at the police station, you can listen to chapter one again and you'll recognize the signs of chapter 1 leading to chapter 2 (police officers, arguing, phone call, stealing,...)

3. Keep notes of the chapters. Wasn't this supposed to be listening input? You can keep the notes in your mothertongue or your TL, whichever you feel comfortable with (You can also mix them, using TL words in MT sentences or the other way around) I've realized that if I jot down what happens in my notebook and leave some space below, I can concentrate on the listening better because I don't have to always remember the whole story - it's written down. I also leave space for my 2nd, 3rd, 4th listen through so I can add/correct notes when I've understood more.

4. Tackle the next sequence Just like Step 1, except I advise you to also listen to the last part of the first sequence again just to get back into it. Making them overlap helps not lose track of what happened, get back into the language and helps with context!

After that it is just a matter of rinse-and-repeat. After the 3rd of 4th listen when I notice that I get most of it but that one word throws me off/is missing, I look it up! And that's a-okay. I listen to the chapters over and over again even though I'm at only 1/3rd through the whole book and I start listening from the start every once in a while - every single time I hear something I didn't hear before, I understand something I didn't understand before or I get the chance to appreciate the writing itself - all of it feels magical!

I admit, this way it takes a long-ass time to get through a book, but you WILL notice improvement and the more you listen (and listen to the same stuff over and over) the faster you will improve your listening! I promise!

I'm curretly 3h into my 8,5h book and I have listened to it 12h in total (if not more) and at this point, I go in 20-min sequences and don't listen back as much as I did at the start and - most importantly and beautifully - I'm loving the story and I am understanding it!!!!

It takes courage to start a listening-focused exercise and if you find that you are not ready yet that's okay! You can also use an audiobook as just sound-input, not to understand but to just get used to the sound of the language. Use audiobooks the way that they help you in your goals and if you need to read along - perfect, you'll hear the words AND read them, that has other great benefits!

________ For German learners: I know for a fact that Spotify has a lot of Sebastian Fitzeks books; they’re mostly thrillers/crime novels and they’re quite good! For fellow Dutch learners: One of Fitzek’s books is also available in dutch - “Geschenk (onverkort)” ;)

[realcube]

YOU GOT: YŪ NISHINOYA 

matchup for @scftfairyking

‘I use glasses (LMAO BC IM BLIND). I'm an Aries , im bi and a ENFP.’

♡ it would be bold to assume that nishinoya has a ‘thing’ for glasses just bc he liked kiyoko and kiyoko wore glasses but it also wouldn’t be insanely far-fetched as his type isn’t really elaborated on. either way, he’d definitely find your glasses charming - like sometimes he’d steal them from you if you ever set them down and he’d hold them above his head like ‘if you want them back, you have to go out with me ( •̀ .̫ •́ )✧’  except his plan goes to shit bc you’re like 6 inches taller than him so you just snatch them from his hands lol

♡ HE’S AN ARIES TOO! i’m no horoscope expert but that seems compatible to me

♡ a google search claims that nishinoya is an ESFP but that is only a headcanon bc he does seem very similar to an ENFP 

♡ either way though, there is only one letter between you two; N (Intuition) and S (sensing preference) - which means you prefer to look at the greater picture when trying to solve a problem while noya tends to take a step-by-step, factual approach (which is arguable)

♡ that doesn’t really seem to hold too much value in a relationship though; especially considering how similar you both are despite that. you are both extroverted, energetic, chaotic, somewhat unpredictable but you both possess the capacity to be serious when you need to 

♡ that is power couple vibes tbh- like you are probably the fuel to noya’s flame- while others are telling him not to get a buzz cut bc he’ll regret it, you’re cheering him on 

︵‿︵‿୨♡୧‿︵‿︵

‘I usually am pretty shy when I first meet someone, but when I start to get comfortable enough, I tend to be really chaotic and fun to be around with. I'm pretty loud and very open but only with my closest friends, and I tend to be a really sarcastic sometimes. My love languages are physical touch and words of affirmation.’

♡ noya would not mind if you were shy at first, as long as you weren’t uncomfortable. bc he’s persistent and lil gremlin stalker man so considering that he’s gonna sit next to you in class, try sit next to you at lunch and offer to walk you home, you’ll probably get used to him pretty quickly

♡ going off the assumption that you and noya are gonna get close very fast, he thrives off your chaotic energy and matches it. he likes to turn everything into a competition and before y’all actually start dating, he flirts with you in the most cursed ways possible- like he send you (tw/ choking) this image at 3AM with the caption ‘this could be us 😩’

♡ he deals with your sarcasm pretty well- he just pretends like you are being serious and rolls with it >:) 

♡ ex. he tries to throw a piece of popcorn in the air and catch it in his mouth but he misses and he lands on the couch. ‘wow, noya, that was so cool.’ you murmured monotonously and he just whipped his head around to show you his smug smirk, ‘i know!’  

♡ he shows his love through gift-giving and physical touch but he prefers to receive affection through your love languages; physical touch and words of affirmation.

♡ like he was asking for your hand and marriage after you called his rolling thunder ‘badass’

♡ also i’ve said this before and i’ll say it again; noya likes to find rocks on the ground that remind him of you so whenever he takes you on dates, the first thing he does is show you all the rocks he collected while explaining why each one is similar to you

♡ ‘ok so look at this one, it has little brown specs on it and it’s the exact same color as your eyes! look!’ then he’ll hold the rock up next to your face and take a picture so he can show you the comparison while you just stand there like 🤠

︵‿︵‿୨♡୧‿︵‿︵

'Some of my hobbies are: skating, swimming, reading, writing, listening to music, learning new languages, gaming and watching movies.’

♡ omg 🥺 skating dates with noya- if you mean ice-skating/roller blading, i can imagine him being somewhat of a natural so when he first steps into the rink, you’ll probably have to hold his hands to guide him for a bit until he finds his balance but then - in the blink of an eye - he’s suddenly doing advanced tricks, skating elegantly and rapidly

♡ but if you mean skateboarding, then he demands that you teach him how to do random tricks he’s heard of in his video games and half of them you’ve never even heard of; ‘(y/n)! please teach me how to do a 360-ollie-back-flapjack-bananasplit-kick!!’ ‘noya, i don’t think that’s a real thing.’

♡  he loves swimming with you! he’s no professional but he can frontstroke really fast. so he likes to race with you and have competitions to see who can hold the breath the longest underwater

♡ pfft i firmly believe that the only book noya has ever read for pleasure was the diary of a wimpy kid series when he was like 8 - but if you read to him, he’d really like that 👉👈

♡ he likes to listen to music too- like while he is cleaning, studying, exercising etc and if you make him a playlist, he will literally forever be in your debt 🙏 he makes you playlists too but he mostly listens to latin music, rap, r&b and random songs he found on tiktok so that’ll be what his playlists consists of 

♡ FKDAGHR post-timeskip he travels so ofc he likes to learn new languages too so you both do lil duolingo sessions together where you just sit on the app and test each other on your vocabs- and sometimes he’ll just ask you random house questions in a foreign language for a challenge 

♡ you just hear his voice echo through the house like ‘OU EST LE LAIT?!’

♡ obviously he games too- and whenever you play first-person shooters with him and some random guy in the lobby tries to hit on you, he goes feral. like you’ll never see more protective than when he is in a COD lobby with you 

♡ movie nights with noya? movie nights with noya. y’all watch everything from sharknado to star wars like he’ll literally watch anything as an excuse to spend time with you :3 when it’s his turn to choose, he picks either a comedy (bc he loves hearing your laugh 🥺) or a horror (because if you get scared, he wraps you in his arms like ‘don’t worry babe, i’ll protect you ( •̀ ω •́ )✧’)

︵‿︵‿୨♡୧‿︵‿︵

‘My favorite food is carrot cake and i dislike snowstorms or anything that has to do with storms ^^’

♡ his favourite food is gari gari kun which i think is a sort of icelolly so i hc that he has a sweet tooth- also he has the third largest appetite in haikyuu!! so i’ll bet my teppanyaki grill on the fact that nishinoya likes carrot cake too!

♡ speaking of which, i bet he takes you out for dates at dessert places rather than restaurants bc sharing a plate of chocolate waffles is way more romantic than eating separate dishes with a lame ass candle in the middle 🙄 

♡ ok i imagine that nishinoya is fine with storms considering his signature move is literally called ‘rolling thunder’ but he’d be such a sweetheart if there was a storm while you were round at his house; like he’d hold you in his arms and refuse to let go until the storm was over and he’d blare your favourite songs on his speaker to drown out the sounds outside 

︵‿︵‿୨♡୧‿︵‿︵

for @scftfairyking​: ok so when i read your request literally the first person i thought of was nishinoya- especially bc y’all have matching zodiac signs :o like that’s soulmate energy

[nordic-language-love]

Language Learning Log 2021 - Week 9 (22.02 - 28.02)

Norwegian

Read 4x articles

Wrote 1x journal entry

Watched 2x Mummidalen episodes

Watched 2x Distriktsnyheter broadcast (Nordnytt & Nordland)

Listened to 1x Treningspodden podcast

italki lesson (45 mins) + homework

Made various vocab lists + wrote things for langblrwotdchallenge

Japanese

Duolingo: Position skill + copied down sentences

JFZ ch 9 exercises

Listened to Nihongo con Teppei

Played FFXII with Japanese audio

Kanji drills

Norwegian

My italki tutor is leaving italki :( BUT he's still going to be teaching and has his own website, so I’m probably gonna continue taking classes with him. Although I do have a class booked with a different tutor this week too, so we’ll see how that goes.

I’ve been watching TV without subtitles this week and found it all relatively easy. I understand pretty much every word of Mummidalen and although I don’t always understand everything being said on the news (especially with thicker dialects) I understood the gist of everything at least. I think it’s safe to say I’m getting used to nord-norsk and its dialect quirks!

I also caught up on the WOTD challenge, which means I actually completed a langblr challenge for once :o Guess it helps when it’s my own challenge and only lasts a month lol. I feel like it really helped me by giving me a direction for my studying, so I think I’ll bring it back at some point.

Last week’s goals

Watch 4x TV shows/news broadcasts [4/4] ✅

Revise/edit vocab lists from last month ❌

Listen to 1x podcast [1/1] ✅

Catch up on langblrwotdchallenge + write something for each day [12/12] ✅

Write a book review for Blood of Elves [308/300 words] ✅

This week’s goals

Mysteriet om Nils ch 37 reading

Watch 4x TV shows/news broadcasts

Practice speaking on 3 days

Write 2x journal entries

Read 2x articles

Japanese

I’ve been continuing to play Final Fantasy XII with Japanese audio this week. As before, I’m only picking out a handful of words here and there, but this isn’t something I expect to make much progress with for a long time.

I’ve also been going back through the Position skill on Duolingo and writing down all the new sentences. It really does help me get to grips a bit more with the grammar and sentence structure.

Last week’s goals

JFZ chapter 9 exercises ✅

Learn 6 new kanji (3x food-related, 3x verbs) ❌

Continue playing Final Fantasy ✅

This week’s goals

Review JFZ ch 8 (practice saying numbers/dates aloud and writing the hiragana as well as the kanji)

Duolingo: bring Position skill up to level 2 + finish making notes

Learn 5 kanji from the Position skill

Continue playing Final Fantasy

Other

In general I didn’t quite hit my goals this week because of unexpected mental health shit. I have to go see my dad today to pick up my new car and the thought of having to do that has been stressing me out like you would not believe. I’ve also been getting a lot of headaches, which could be stress but could also be because I need new glasses. Either way, I’ve had a couple of days where I wanted to train or stretch or study but ended up having to take some paracetamol and a nap instead. Hopefully it’s just a stress thing and I’ll be back in fighting form soon.

Last week’s goals

Stretch on at least 4 days [2/4] ❌

Train pole/hoop on at least 2 days [2/2] ✅

Do something creative on at least 1 day [1/1] ✅

Finish Time of Contempt [125/330] ❌

This week’s goals

Stretch on at least 3 days

Train pole/hoop on at least 2 days

Do something creative on at least 2 days

Finish Time of Contempt

[aaltjelng]

so the lovely @languagessi sent me an ask with the numbers for the ask game but i managed to accidentally delete the ask:)) well, i decided to try to answer anyway, hopefully i remembered the numbers right haha... so here are the answers!

12. Vocab or grammar?

It’s a tough question! I guess it kind of depends on the language... I am utterly in love with Korean grammar! It might sound strange but I just find studying it so fascinating and rewarding. It also feels really nice to finally be learning a language that shares some traits with Finnish (no articles, a lot of suffixes...) I find studying Korean grammar a lot nicer than for example French grammar (although I do like that too!), mostly because I struggle a lot with remembering the genders of nouns and that makes me frustrated, and articles and genders feel kind of unnecessary to me as a Finnish speaker whereas the nuances that can be expressed through Korean grammar are really interesting.

I don’t have such strong opinions on vocab. In the beginning I did find it hard to remember Korean vocab and I still struggle with that a bit, but it’s getting better and better all the time. I think I like learning vocab the most when studying Swedish! I don’t know why, but I guess it just feels like it sticks more easily. I do love some Korean, especially native Korean words with all my heart... And learning vocab can feel super rewarding: that feeling when you spot a word you just learned in a random text and realize you can actually understand what it is saying is really the best feeling.

23. How did you get into languages?

Honestly I have loved languages for as long as I can remember. When my brother started learning English at school at the age of 9 (I was 7), I secretly listened to him and our mom studying. I also stole his English books and secretly read them by myself and tried to study.

After that I did have some time that I was just studying at school, I was always good at it but not as enthusiastic as I am now. It clicked in 2017 when I was 13 years old and I just started studying Swedish on my own. We had it in school too, but I was frustrated with how slow we were going. Somehow I just thought about the idea of studying and speaking this language and languages in general and it just made me really excited and happy. It is really difficult to explain but languages really bring out this certain feeling in me and that feeling has stayed with me since that year.

24. Why are you studying your target language?

So I actually have four target languages right now: French, Swedish, Italian and Korean. English is also a foreign language for me but I am not really interested in improving my English level as of now. 

Out of these four languages, I am now actively trying to improve my Korean, while the other three are more or less on “maintenance mode”. I study those three at school as well so I am still using and studying them, just not with the same intensity as Korean.

Anyway, here’s a little bit about each of these languages and why I am studying them!

French: I started it at school at the age of 9. It was quite a clear decision for me back then, I was really interested in the language, I had been to France many times and the Dutch side of my family actually originates from France (like hundreds of years ago my ancestors fled persecution from France to the Netherlands). I really loved studying French and my interest has only grown over the years. I love speaking French, I love reading French, I love listening to French and writing in French, and I really want to get my French to an advanced level. I will probably work on my French more actively next year and really try to bring it to C1 level before my matriculation exam. Now my French is somewhere between B1 and B2.

Swedish: I started it at school when I was 12 years old. In Finland Swedish is an obligatory subject so I didn’t actually choose starting it haha but I have always loved Swedish so I was motivated from the start. My aunt lives in Stockholm and I have been there for about 20 times. My mom also loves Swedish and I think she has also been a factor in my love for Swedish. As I said earlier, Swedish is actually the language that inspired me to start actively self studying languages. I just felt so frustrated with the pace we were moving at at school and I just thought to myself: “I learned English more or less fluently mostly with my own effort. Why couldn’t I do that with Swedish too?”. English I had learned because of other factors, not really my enthusiasm about the language or language learning but more because I needed to understand English in order to understand fandom things and books and bands I loved. So I thoguht that, well, books were really the thing that brought my English to a new level, so I should probably do that with Swedish. And so I did that and studied hard and got my Swedish to an intermediate level. I studied actively for about 5 months, after that I’ve just been mostly relying on school. This spring & summer I am planning on taking the next step and bringing my Swedish to an advanced level before my matriculation exam.

Italian: I started studying Italian at school last year with my best friend. She is part Italian and I thought that because I love learning languages and I love her and there is a possibility take Italian, why not take Italian? I also love Italian history and art and Italian is a very significant language in classical music (I am studying to become a classical violinist/violist). So I have been taking Italian for a bit more than a year now and I am around an A2 level. Next year, before the matriculation exam, I’d love to get my Italian to a B2 level or at least a B1 level.

Korean: In the summer 2019 I stumbled across some videos and heard my first songs by BTS. One of them: Paldogangsan or so-called “Satoori rap”. I heard it and just instantly fell in love. It’s a song about Korean dialects, and the way the rap showcased the different sounds of the Korean language... It really inspired me. Well, other things happened in my life, I got depressed, my other psychiatric and neurological issues got worse and so on. Through that time I discovered some truly amazing and touching songs that had lyrics that really moved me to my core, some by BTS but most by Agust D, and I knew I had to learn that language, at least a little bit. At first I just learned hangul to make sure that the lyrics I was scribbling to my diary weren’t complete nonsense. During the following six months I didn’t actively study Korean, I just played with Duolingo here and there, listened to a few beginner TTMIK lessons, acquired some vocabulary I was hearing in songs... 

But in May 2020 something just struck me and I just got this sudden burst of inspiration. I realized that if I really wanted to learn this language, what better time to start than now? I guess I had been feeling kind of intimidated, because I knew that learning a language, any language and especially one like Korean would take a long time. But I still remember this one post that I saw on tumblr. It said something about how usually when we think about how long learning a language will take, we feel weirded out about thinking ourselves being that much older. But the thing is, we will get older anyway. Might as well be older and know this language that you deeply love. That idea has stayed with me since. Let’s take one estimate: getting fluent in Korean will take about 4 years. In 4 years I’ll be 21. So? In 4 years I’ll be 21 anyway, why not be a 21 year old who knows Korean. And I also realized that I am still so young. I have so much time to learn so many languages. Might as well use it.

So I have been actively studying by myself for about 6 months and would place myself somewhere around the A2 level. This October I made this challenge for myself: for 100 days, study as hard as you can. Learn as much as you can and do not give up. I really want to see how far I can come if I give this my all! I’m wishing on getting to a B1 level at the end of this challenge but we’ll see. WIth Korean, and I guess with any language, it’s quite easy to get discouraged by thinking how much you still don’t know, so it’s important to also realize how much you already know. I have come so far already during these past 6 months, and I am really proud of myself. That motivates me to keep going: I learned all that, so I can learn these other things too!

Okay hahaha sorry for my very very long post and making you listen to my ramblings in my incoherent English.  I just love languages so much and I could talk about them for forever!

Thank you if you read this far, I hope you have a wonderful day. <3

Aleijd

[aberrationatthevampiremansion]

Resources I use to learn Korean

Two posts in 24 hours, shocking, I know. We all have to fill the void somehow. This is a longgggg post so I’ll put the “keep reading” page break here to avoid clogging your dash.

Duolingo - This is where I started. Wouldn’t really recommend it, except for if you’re struggling with memorising and reading 한글 (hangeul - the Korean writing system). In that case, the first few lessons can be helpful because they basically just chuck letter blocks at you and make you learn how they sound.

How To Study Korean (HTSK) - a website that breaks up learning the language into 7 units (plus a Unit 0 to learn 한글, and an additional unit for 한자 - hanja - the equivalent Chinese characters that are commonly used in Korea). Within each unit there are about 25 lessons, which each introduce both vocabulary, verbs, grammar points, the works. I found it really great, especially since it’s entirely free, with the exception of supplementary resources like printable/PDF booklets to accompany each lesson. There are also audio recordings for the vocab and example sentences, and YouTube videos that you can use to test your knowledge and familiarity with the content of each lesson (sentence practice, reading practice, dictation, and an “apply yourself” that uses new vocabulary with the learned concepts). As far as I know, these go up to the end of Unit 1. The explanations are pretty clear as well. I know that they also offer at least some of the lessons in varying languages, but I can’t tell you much about the quality or extent of these, since I’m a native English speaker and have only used the English resources. The way I roughly structured my learning with HTSK was, I would dedicate one to two weeks per lesson, and each day would be a combination of two of the following - reading and digesting the content, making or reviewing the vocab list (I’ll get to programs I use for this in a bit), one of the videos (sentence/reading/dictation), and at the end of the week or two weeks, I would test myself on the vocabulary, do the apply video, and make an overview of the content and any notes I felt were important in my notebook. I also wrote down all the example sentences, because chunking is a very effective way of learning for me, although I’m starting to add example sentences to my vocabulary reviews to help me with useful, everyday sentences, and learning through context (for example, in the list I would include both the word 뭐 - what, and the phrase 뭐예아? - what is it?)

(https://www.howtostudykorean.com/)

Talk To Me In Korean (TTMIK) - a company(?) based in South Korea who run a website, YouTube channel, and Spotify podcast (and probably more; these guys are everywhere). There are varying memberships at varying price points for the online lessons - yes, there is a free one - and an extensive bookstore on their website for all fluency levels,  한글 practice, grammar, theory, et cetera. Pretty much everyone I’ve come across who is learning Korean is doing it primarily through TTMIK’s resources. I like learning from textbooks, and I really, really appreciate that the units are parallel between the theory book, grammar book, and podcast episodes, so TTMIK is what I’m currently using. If anyone’s curious, I have the TTMIK Level 1 textbook and workbook, as well as Real-Life Korean Conversations For Beginners (for a bit extension work to keep me going when I’m feeling particularly masochistic, and for after I finish the L1 books). With the textbook and workbook, you can download/access the audio files for dictation exercises and such, through Google Drive and Dropbox. I tend to listen to the podcast episodes on the bus to school, as a passive review of the units I’ve already done. I love the podcasts because I’m a very aural learner.

(https://talktomeinkorean.com/)

Quizlet - I know, I know, it’s not specifically a Korean language resource. I’ve been using Quizlet for quite a few years now, mainly because my French teachers set a lot of review work through Education Perfect, which is also great, but can be a very frustrating and meticulous way of learning vocabulary in particular. You have to get the answer exactly right, and can’t personalise your learning because of how rigid the program is. I get it; it has to be a reputable global resource so changes or suggestions need to go through a team, but it wasn’t my schtick. Enter Quizlet. Much more flexibility. How meticulous your responses have to be is up to you; basically it puts you in charge of your own learning. It’s not perfect but it is good for self-study especially considering the lack of languages available on Education Perfect. 

(https://quizlet.com/latest)

Youtube people!

Lindie Botes - she. speaks. so. many. languages. and gives a lot of advice on her YouTube channel. I also really love her openness on topics like language guilt, demotivation, and normalising the changing of goals. Keeps it real. She’s not a native speaker, for reference.

Abby P - I saw some video that “exposed her” or something, but I haven’t been bothered to watch it; her pronunciation videos were helpful to me when I started learning  한글. Her boyfriend is a native speaker.

JOLLY and 영국남자 Korean Englishman - Josh and Ollie are pretty fun to binge for some passive input learning and culture-based content. They will always put you in the mood for KBBQ, promise. Josh speaks, from what I can tell, very good conversational Korean, and The JOLLY channel has a playlist for Ollie’s Korean Learning Challenge. Neither of them are native speakers, but many of their friends are.

Conversational Korean - I don’t know who you are, but you’re very likeable regardless. They have a bunch of videos for reading and pronunciation practice, vocab lists, phrases, honestly I should have invested more time exploring their resources but this post is long enough and I’m very lazy.

There are certainly more than these guys, so hunt around and cross-reference your sources, always. Dude my back hurts from slouching over this damn laptop.

[rylie-studies]

I love how motivated you are to learn Italian and be constant! I wish I were like that :( I’m learning a language and feel absolutely no motivation most of the time. Do you have some tips or advice on how to get motivated? Thanks and good luck with your awesome journey❤️

Thank you so much! Motivation is honestly such a complicated thing bcs, one day, you can have so much energy, but then the next day, it could be the total opposite. I have many days like that where it’s like on and off and I’m really trying to develop a strong self-discipline so I can be consistent daily! That being said, some quick tips that I could give would be to sit down and write down your reasons on why you’re learning the language (afterwards, you can stick it to your wall so you’ll constantly be reminded of them), investing on some new stationery (tbh this really gets me motivated), organizing the resources you’re using to learn the language so they’re easily accessible, take frequent breaks during the day (you can even take the weekend off or smth and just chill and do some relaxing things like reading, writing, drawing, etc), find creative ways to study it (this can be listening to music, watching shows/movies, reading short stories, etc), and the last thing is to plan out what you want to study the night before so you’ll know what to do the next day! 

I hope these tips were helpful, lovely! In the end, it really just comes down to passion and interest and your reason of why you’re learning the language. The journey will be challenging and there will be days when you won’t feel like doing anything and, when that happens, I just welcome the feeling and do what I can for that day! If that means only being able to listen to Italian songs and not do any lessons or notes for that day, then that’s enough for me. If that means only being able to do Duolingo or learn some vocab, then that’s enough too! Good luck on your language journey, my dear, and I hope you know that we’re in this together and the end results will be very rewarding! 🤍✨

[majesticpolyglot]

STUDY PLAN!

In which I make another poor awesome attempt at being organized...

¡Hola a todos! Qué tal tu día? Bueno? Muy bien! A parte de hoy, he estado aprendiendo español durante un mes! And I’m also kind of shocked at just how much progress I’ve made! 

I’ve definitely learned a lot about myself and my learning style this past month and although I think I still have room to grow, I think I’ve found a schedule that I don’t feel too overwhelmed by, which is...

Daily: DuoLingo (don’t judge me, I’m addicted to keeping the streak going), Anki Flashcards (10-20 new terms a day), Pimsleur/Language Transfer lesson (which I usually do while exercising so I don’t feel too pressed about these), Hiragana study (30mins before work - see below for more info!)

Bi-Weekly: Speaking/Reading practice with iTalki (I’ve found it’s a lot less stressful to space out my tutoring sessions - for now! Just to give myself the time to learn and integrate new vocabulary before trying to put it to use) I’ve been missing a couple beepboop sessions (I’ve just been too tired...), but I’m thinking about re-adding them for the weeks that I don’t attend iTalki tutoring sessions.

Monday: Movie day! On Mondays the plan has been to watch a YouTube video, Netflix series, or movie! I’m thinking about using the site Lingopie since I’ve heard it’s the best for picking up vocab and studying actively while watching!

Tuesday: Reading day! I’ve bought a box-set ebook of these very simple A1 level reading passages that I just go through on my kindle while noting the vocabulary. I usually take any new words I pick up and add them to a quizlet set. I think this was a much easier way to start than say... reading a whole novel (R.I.P. Eleanor Y Park...I just wasn’t ready)

Wednesday: Writing day! I’ve been using the prompts I posted a while back, but also planning to pick a weekly theme and try to struggle through at least one page in Spanish journal!

Thursday: Rest day! (Sort of!) I don’t have plans to do any intensive/supplemental studying on these days. I usually catch up with things for my classes work, so I think it’s important to have a day where I prioritize those things and don’t stress myself out if I miss something. (except DuoLingo because that owl will hunt you down...)

Friday: Review day! Going over vocabulary, notes, etc. I’m also considering using this day to record a video of myself speaking so that I can track progress with that as well.

In addition, I’ve joined a study group that’s focused on Japanese! Although I was a bit apprehensive (no, very apprehensive) to start another language before my Spanish challenge is over... I’ve been slowly learning Japanese for the past week and I feel comfortable adding it to my daily schedule! The goal is to master hiragana (and maybe some katakana/kanji) and once I finish my Spanish challenge, to devote my complete energy to learning Japanese (second six month language challenge anyone???). 

I’m starting off very slow, though. So far I’ve just been focusing on thirty minutes of hiragana study in the mornings before work and I’ve found it kind of...nice? In a way I look at it as a method to prevent me from getting burnt out on Spanish by putting my mind on something else, but still keeping me in language learning mode! 

So, that’s all for this month’s check in! If you made it to the end of this long post make sure you drink water, take a deep breath, and treat yourself to a good snack! #selfcare=betterstudies (Below the cut is just some reflection notes for myself, so I can kind of check in and track my progress, so please feel free to ignore!)

-- And as a side note (if you were curious enough to actually click this after reading all of that), I know I’ve got a lot of stuff packed into my week, but this is just the study plan that works for me and it’s going to look different for everyone. What I don’t list is the amount of time I put in per day which ranges from 30 minutes to an hour and a half one day, then could drastically drop to 10 minutes the next day depending on my schedule. The biggest thing is to stay consistent if you want to see rapid improvement!!!

[ Month One Reflection ]

Listening: I’ve noticed that my Spanish comprehension skills have improved tenfold over the course of the month. I’ve been using a lot of YouTube series (which I will probably post about soon!) to study, and every day I noticed that I’m able to follow along more and more based off the dialogue and not just context clues! It’ll be interesting to go back to these shows at the end of the six months and see how much I’ve improved!

Speaking: Eh... Está bien... más o menos. I’ve got a long way to go, but I’m always excited when a native speaker understands what I’m saying LOL. However, I think compiling a list of phrases that come up in natural conversation would serve me well going forward.

Reading: I just honestly need to do this more. I’ve started using some chat/language partner apps (which are def hit or miss for me since a lot of people feel more comfortable practicing English...), but I think just putting into the time to do this...even if it’s just reading subtitles in Spanish I might have a better time.

Writing: See the above! The only time I wrote in the past two weeks was actually for one of my iTalki sessions and even with that I wrote something up the day of... I think forcing myself to actually sit down and do it... even if it's just on Wednesdays, will kick start my motivation for writing in Spanish.

[soulbutterlanguages]

                   ~*December Language Challenge*~

~Increase your vocabulary and writing ability in another language for free~

This is a writing and vocab heavy challenge for those who might be traveling for the holidays or perhaps simply cannot dedicate too much time to language learning, but might try anyway. If you’ve always wanted to get started, but you don’t know how, utilize your time off to start a hobby that will help you for the rest of your life!

Week One- Travel Vocab

             ~by the end of the week; complete one chapter in workbook, write a page about anything combining grammar and vocab

Day One; Pick five vocab words, write two sentences for each word

Day Two; Pick five vocab words, write two sentences for each word

Day Three; Pick five vocab words, write two sentences for each word, write a short diary entry containing some or all of these words

Day Four; Read a chapter in target language, write down the new words

Day Five; Pick five vocab words, write two sentences for each word, spend a half hour on Conjuguemos.

Day Six; Record your self reading a poem, watch an episode or movie in target language

Day Seven; half hour on Conjuguemos, first week reflection

Week Two- Furniture and Home Items

           ~by the end of the week; complete one chapter in workbook, write a page about anything combining grammar and vocab

Day Eight; spend a half hour on LingQ, write a short letter to your past self, read a chapter in your target language

Day Nine; Pick five vocab words, write two sentences for each word, randomly pick three vocab words and write a poem in your target language

Day Ten; read a news article in target language, write a short paragraph about it

Day Eleven; Pick five vocab words, write two sentences for each word,  Conjuguemos, read a chapter

Day Twelve; spend a half hour on LingQ, draw a map of house/apartment/living space, label furniture and house hold items in target language

Day Thirteen; review numbers and days of the week, Pick five vocab words, write two sentences for each word,

Day Fourteen; test yourself over all vocabulary until you reach 100%, read a chapter, two week reflection

Week Three- expressing views, art

       ~by the end of the week;  complete one chapter in workbook, write a page about anything combining grammar and vocab

Day Fifteen;  Pick five vocab words, write two sentences for each word, 

Day Sixteen; write a short diary entry in target language, Conjuguemos, 

Day Seventeen; Pick five vocab words, write two sentences for each word, write a one page paper describing a piece of art or literature

Day Eighteen; watch a movie in target language, spend a half hour on LingQ,

Day Nineteen; drill a learned grammar rule.

Day Twenty; learn a poem and it’s translation, write a one page paper explaining a grammar rule that was confusing to you 

Day Twenty One;  Pick five vocab words, write two sentences for each word, write a week three reflection

Week Four- Sickness and Body Parts

       ~By the end of the week; complete one chapter in workbook, write a page about anything combining grammar and vocab

Day Twenty Two; spend a half hour on Conjuguemos, read a chapter, spend a half hour on  LingQ,

Day Twenty Three; Pick five vocab words, write two sentences for each word, watch a movie or TV show in your target language

Day Twenty Four; write a short diary entry using newer vocabulary

Day Twenty Five; Pick five vocab words, write two sentences for each word, spend a half hour on  LingQ, 

Day Twenty Six; spend a half hour on Conjuguemos, read a chapter

Day Twenty Seven; Pick five vocab words, write two sentences for each word, read a news article in target language and write a short summary.

Day Twenty Eight; write a short reflection, LingQ, test yourself over all vocabulary

Week Five- Descriptive Language

Day Twenty Nine; complete chapter in workbook, Pick three vocab words, write two sentences for each word

Day Thirty; complete chapter in workbook, Pick three vocab words, write two sentences for each word

Day Thirty One; complete chapter in workbook, Pick three vocab words, write two sentences for each word, write a overall reflection

Let me know if you want me to create another Language learning challenge!

Tips;

~When writing, if you aren’t sure about a word or grammar rule you want to use, do not look it up until after you’ve finished writing. First, write what you think it is, and then correct yourself with another color. It’s important to differentiate what is a wrong first guess with what is actually correct. Plus, later on. you can see how far you’ve come. If you can, get a native speaker or a teacher to look over your writing. A lot of commonly used language is colloquial, and not obvious to a learner. Ask for better ways to say common phrases.

      i.e. In German “there is” doesn’t really exist. They say “Es Gibt” which literally translates to “It gives”.

~ For the weekly reflection you can answer questions like; do you feel yourself improving, how has this challenge impacted the way you think about this language or language learning, how inclined are you to finish this challenge or perhaps participate in another one? It doesn’t matter how long it is, it’s mostly a tool to track your progress.

~When drilling a grammar rule, there are millions of free resources. Youtube can be your best friend if you don’t understand a grammar rule, but I also suggest finding supplemental exercises. Most libraries have grammar books available for major languages, otherwise the internet is a great resource.

~When watching television, find a show or movie which is (preferably originally) dubbed and subbed in your target language. If you don’t know a word or phrase, write it down, and it can become a vocab word for the next list. Also, believe it or not, it is easier to replicate pronunciation, when you can actually watch someone talk so I suggest saving animated television for later if possible. Try your best to not watch with Enlgish/native language dub or sub, because then you will just focus on what you know and not what you want to know.

~Conjuguemos is an excellent tool for language learning. If you decide to use this, I suggest keeping track of your “grades” which you can request despite not being in an actual class that might require it. It also offers some grammar practice as well as printable worksheets. The only downside is that the options of languages is very limited. If you cannot find your target language on this website, I hope that there is a similar one out there for you. 

General Notes

~For me, it isn’t enough to just see a vocabulary word a few times, I have to put it to use. I usually do this by putting it in a sentence, or labeling it in a picture. Obviously, if this isn’t your favorite method you can switch it up to benefit you better.

~Duolingo is another tool that is absolutely excellent. It is vocabulary heavy, however I feel as though it could be better with the grammar. I personally, get very burnt out on Duolingo, but there are SO many effective activities you can access for free through this site.

~No one can one-hundred percent remember every vocabulary word learned, without practice. Do not be discouraged if you cannot get even a word you learned last week. It takes time, and brain power. If this is the case, it just tells you what you need to work on.

Happy Holidays !

[kimminstudying]

☁ Note: I know it’s kind of late to post what my summer goals were since some of them on the list are pretty much completed already, but I think it’s the perfect time to discuss any goal I have for this upcoming school year! I didn’t want to make two separate posts because they are relatively similar and this way I don’t have to link the posts as a reference. 

Here are my goals from last year and how they turned out. 

☁ Money Goal #1: Save $1,000 Total

This is my first goal because I am so close to it already! To be more specific, I wish to have achieved this by the end of July, since I started my new job in May and I am getting many more hours here than at my old one. Also, I have received some scholarships already, so this is a goal I am sure to achieve. 

Goal #2: Save $2,500 for New Car

This isn’t a highly prioritized goal of mine since I can try to make my car I have now last me another two years. In two years I plan to attend a new college in New York, so I would not need a car there due to public transport and walking. When I come back home or do need a car, it would be better for me to either borrow one from friends or family or to simply rent one. 

Goal #3: Change Banks

Since I am 18 now, I can open up my own account and finally change banks. I’m obviously not gonna go into much detail about this but let’s just say that when I lived with my mom I used the bank that was the most convenient for me and her but now that I live with my dad I’m going to switch to the bank most convenient for me and him now. 

☁ Life Style Goal #1: 1 Book / Week or 3 Books / Month This school year was really time-consuming so I have not read at all since last summer! Obviously, I am not counting my assigned reading, if I were then I would have read a lot. English this year was no joke! I did really well with reading one book a week when I wasn’t in school but if I find that to be too much of a commitment, I’d be happy with three books in a month. I’m getting tired of seeing so many unread books on my shelves, time to cut that list down! Goal #2: Get Back to Healthy Eating Habits! Where I work, we get an employee discount for food in general, but we get more of a discount on healthy food options to encourage better eating habits. This will help me eat right while I am not home, but the challenge is when I’m off of work or going out to eat with my friends. 

Last summer I bought most of my groceries online since they have a lot of gluten-free options there and simply because I don’t feel like leaving my house to go grocery shopping. For those who don’t know or are wondering, I eat gluten-free because I have Celiac Disease, so I kind of have to or else I’ll get really really sick. When school started again, I wasn’t working enough hours to be able to buy my special food so I had to stop and eat what my family bought from the store, which wasn’t many fruits and vegetables and more like microwave dinners and eggs. 

☁ Blogs Goal #1: Post one grammar lesson per week to @kimminstudying 

I’m going to start out small for now with vocab lists or some grammar posts but I hope when the school year rolls around I’ll have more structure to my day and be able to be more productive. 

Goal #2: Post to @chanzicoup and @clemsbaseballcap once a week

I haven’t been ignoring my main blogs, but I have focused more on studying and less on my love for writing over the last few months. I want writing to be a part of my life now and in the future, so I want to try and incorporate it more into my daily routine.

Not to mention, I lowkey wanted to promote my other blogs here, so please check them out and feel free to request anything ;) Or send me some advice! I love learning new things that’ll help me with running other blogs. 

☁ Languages

Goal #1: DuoLingo and LingoDeer once a day

I’ve never had more than a 7-day streak on any of these language apps so I really want to change that for when the school year comes around. It takes at the most ten minutes to complete one session and I know I can make time for that, I just don’t. 

What I should do is instead of scrolling through social media first thing in the morning, I should open up one of these apps and complete a session to help me wake up and to review my skills. 

☁ Money

Goal #1: Continue Saving for Car

All in all, if I don’t save up the money for my car in the summer I hope to continue trying to do so during the school year. Even though I don’t plan on buying a new car, I would like to be prepared for if I get into an accident or if it breaks down to the point where it would be cheaper for me to just get a new car. 

☁ Life Style

Goal #1: Work out at least three days a week

My college, like many others, have a gym that the students can use free of charge. With how I scheduled my classes, I have about an hour and a half break in between them, which gives me plenty of time to study, eat, or to hang out before my day is even over. My last class ends at about 3pm so I can work out for an hour before I go home, with at least most of my coursework for that evening completed.  

Goal #2: Have one day to yourself.

I go to school Monday - Thursday so that leaves me to have Friday - Sunday to myself or to work. When the school year starts my manager told me I would be switching to overnight shifts, so what I hope to do is work overnights Thursday - Saturday and have Sunday to myself. This way I can take extra shifts on days I have classes if anyone calls out or if my boss needs an extra hand or to have a day to relax, reset, or get last-minute work done. 

My boss is also really considerate of her employees who are in college. During finals season, she gives us gift cards that she buys herself and tells us to buy energy drinks or snacks! She even finds other workers from other stores to cover out shifts if we really need to study.  

☁ Blogs

Goal #1: Keep up with posting schedules

I might slip up on this from time to time but with my breaks in between classes, I hope to get at least 15 minutes dedicated to writing, even if that’s all I get to do in one day I think that’s way better than not writing at all. 

☁ Languages

Goal #1: Change Minor to French Language

Currently, my college does offer French classes but there are no teachers for said classes. My advisor and I hope that while my college is merging with another school new teachers will be hired and I can take French classes in my second semester of freshman year.

Goal #2: Listen to Talk to me in Korean and other podcasts when possible

Whether its’s walking to class or on the treadmill, I would like to listen to something other than music. I’m looking at some podcasts right now about case studies or interviews with forensic psychologists that seem interesting.

☁ School

Goal #1: Find clubs to join in

I did quite a few clubs in high school and stuck with some of them all four years. I want to join any organizations that focus on community service and volunteer work but since that’s also what I focused on in high school, I would love to find clubs more centered around my interests.

If my school has a writing club, I would definitely join it along with an ASL club or any form of LGBTQA+ organization. 

I didn’t do sports in high school since on my second day of basketball practice I messed up my ankle and was out for the rest of the season due to surgeries I had to get. I would like to find something that I love to do that would also kind of force me to work out. I like to play sports but I hate the competition and big time commitment that goes along with joining a team, I feel like a club would be perfect since clubs are less mandatory attendance-wise in some cases. 

Also, I could keep going through clubs until I find one I like. It’s not that easy with sports teams. 

Goal #2: Become a tutor and get a tutor. 

I am strong in some fields, but not others. I want to find my strong suit early on so I can tutor, which I also did in high school and met so many awesome people doing. I also know that I am weak in other fields (math cough cough) so I want to get a tutor for them if my grades begin to slip. 

Goal #3: Make the Dean’s List

I don’t really have much of an explanation for this. I’d just really like to make the list since it’s based on performance, extracurricular activities, and attendance. 

[hannahsox-studies]

LingoDeer app review

First of all, it's only for the Asian languages of Chinese, Japanese, and Korean.

Edit 3.17.18: Thank you @watercolourandwashitape for letting me know that the Chinese supported is Mandarin, Not Cantonese/Traditional. So keep that in mind, Chinese learners!

Normally I use Duolingo, but their support for Japanese is unsatisfactory at best. So I looked for a New app to learn Japanese, as I am self taught. I don't remember how, but I stumbled upon LingoDeer. I am SO glad I did. No other app even comes close!

Just a note though, I have only learned Japanese from it and have not tried the other languages.

By far the best feature is that it includes a mini grammar lesson before each group of lessons! This was something Duolingo lacked immensely. There are also options to review words and grammar you already know. Without further ado, let's get into how you play (because believe me, it feels more like playing a game then just learning)

First you pick you lesson category, the first of which is nationality

Once you click on it you'll want to click on lesson tips, which helps with grammar and overall understanding

After reading the learning tips, you're ready for the lessons. There are numerous question types to help you learn. They start with having you pick a Japanese picture that corresponds to the vocab, then you move to placing words in sentences before finally constructing sentences all by yourself!

When constructing sentences, you can either order the characters they give you or type them in yourself. After you finish you'll be able to review the lesson via pop quiz or redo the lesson in challenge mode. At the end of each category there is a story. (Note: as of 3.3.18 it's still in beta form). First you listen to and read the story, answering questions along the way. Then you can record yourself speaking the story and post it to the community where you can listen to others' recordings as well.

More features:

Themes and font options including night mode

Review mode to review all the words a/o grammar you've learned. Pro tip: you can specify which lessons you want to see words from

Character display options. You can choose from any combination of Japanese (kanji i.e. 私), hiragana (わたし), and romanji (Watashi). I personally use Japanese only for the lessons and Japanese/Hiragana for the stories.

Streak to keep you motivated to learn every day

Leaderboards

Super cute deer

There's only two things I can think of to improve the app

There's no autosave. You MUST go down to the back up progress button. I didn't realize this was necessary so when I rebooted my phone I lost my progress

No differentiation between polite and informal terms. So far they've only used the polite forms. Maybe they introduce it later, but I haven't encountered it yet.

Edit 3.17.18: Another slight hindrance is the absence of verbs (with the exception of です) until a later unit, so if this is your only resource I recommend learning a good list of verbs online.

Overall this is an amazing app and I recommend it to everyone, even if you aren't actively learning an Asian language!

If you want to follow me on LingoDeer my username is hannahsox-studies and my Avatar is the same as here. Happy learning!

Love from Hannah 💕

[fionas-french-challenge-blog]

Blog 1 - Initial Challenge Planning

My challenge:

Vocabulary – Difficulty keeping up language practice  outside class. I have tried to combat this sporadically through use of  Duolingo, although it does not target specific vocabulary from my classes.

‘Thinking too much’ – Rather than trusting my  knowledge of the language and letting myself feel how to correctly use the  language I find myself grasping for particular rules and structures that I  should be using, therefore hindering my fluency and stressing me out further.  The best solution I have found for this is knowing structures very well so  they are second nature, though this becomes an issue when I am placed in  variable situations.

Getting confused about when to use different  conjugations – I get confused about which conjugations to use in certain situations  and find myself stressing and without knowing where to start if I haven’t  been specifically instructed to use a certain one. I have best approached  this in the past through memorisation, though I feel as if this knowledge has  not stayed in my memory very well.

My Learning goal:

Getting a 6 in FREN2010 throughout the regular  assessment pieces in the class and overall for the course.

Being able to differentiate and describe different  verb tenses + conjugations (present; past (passé composé, imparfait); future  (futur proche, futur simple); conditional).

Feeling more confident and relaxed in straying from  specific sentence structures/responses/questions, especially in class.  Decreasing my use of English in French classes.

Increase confidence in conversation (especially with  native speakers).

Retaining knowledge so that I can have a good base  for FREN2020 and speak functionally in France at the end of the year.

My learning styles and strategies:  

Very clear guidelines/rules for grammar – Purposed French  language learning Instagrams, Youtube, and Podcasts should help me with this  by providing definitions and explanations for difficult grammar concepts using  different learning strategies of which some will hopefully suit me.

Creativity – exploring knowledge through reuse which  is then subject to critique; application of critique and revision of problem  areas. – I will achieve this through interaction with French social media  (Instagram). This creativity is given much room for exploration in my formal  university class sessions and is therefore not a huge focus of mine for this  challenge.

Group settings/discussions. –  I can participate in discussions on  Instagram and YouTube posts aimed specifically for French learning.

Natural and practical applications for knowledge – Exposing  myself to French designed for native speakers (podcasts, YouTube videos,  Instagram, Netflix, etc.) should help me to be more comfortable with integrating  French into my everyday life, and therefore increase my familiarity with it  in a casual setting.

The technologies I am  going to test:

Duolingo:

Not very useful to actually teach me intricacies of  grammar

Good way to revise and improve vocabulary

Requires listening to and replication of  pronunciation

No options for experimenting with language knowledge  (e.g. creativity using the language and therefore challenging self to be more  independent with language – ‘thinking too much’ challenge)

Instagram: Following French Instagrams with language  teaching focus, as well as sourcing some French Instagrams with an aesthetic  I would like.

Exposure to native speakers of French and content  intended for native speakers – broad exposure to structures, vocab, and culture  I may otherwise be unaware of.

No output from me (unless I interact with the  Instagrams in French)

iPhone: Changing language on iPhone to French

Only useful up to a certain point (once vocab for  common phone notifications is learnt)

May be frustrating when I am trying to go about  daily activities.

Netflix:

Preserves interest/motivation as language can be  explored without focusing on the task as a targeted learning activity.

Native speaker speed and pronunciation, as well as  slang and culture.

Some English movies/programs can be dubbed with  French – expands content available and possibly means I can watch content  that I’m already watching in French)

Youtube:

Gives a larger variety of content with which to  preserve interest/motivation.

Good way to gain access to various teaching  strategies for particularly challenging aspects of language.

Very self-guided -> can be very basic or very  challenging.

Due to volume of content could be difficult to  successfully locate useful resources.

Podcasts:

Countless options offered from lessons,  news-readings, audiobooks, talks etc.

Many offered at various levels of French  (purpose-made)

Not currently a habit of mine – often use my phone  to listen to things when I specifically want to relax (e.g. after work or  class), meaning that in such an occasion I may have to force myself into  this.

CEFR language level tests:

Will be frustrating on top of usual class assessment.

Potentially not very accurate as the tests I have source  seem to have only 20-30 questions on which to base their results. Therefore,  may be necessary to take tests from multiple sources each time.

Tests may recycle questions so that it would be  unwise for me to take the same test more than once over the course of this  challenge.

My plan:

Trying to add activities into my day that I can  reasonably attempt to incorporate as habits. This involves evaluating  technology that I already use on a daily basis in terms of how my use of each  may be altered slightly to increase French exposure.

Incorporating 4+ 30 minute or longer French  listening activities into each week (May be Netflix show, movie, podcast,  Youtube video).

Duolingo: Reaching 50XP per day.

Instagram: Because I already check Instagram almost  daily, I will make sure to properly read through the content from the French  Instagrams that I follow, making sure that I unpack the meaning completely.

iPhone: Changing language to French so that exposure  every day is unavoidable.

My evaluation approach:

My goal of achieving a final mark of 6.0 or higher  will be evaluated from the grades which I receive in my FREN2010 course at  university. I will additionally record results from class assessment on my  blog.

At the start of the challenge and every following  fortnight I will take an online French placement test based on the Common  European Framework of Reference for Languages (CEFRL) learning levels. I will  change the source of such a test each time, and perhaps do multiple tests at  the same time, in order to increase accuracy of results.

Blog 1 Reflection:

I have intentionally designed my language learning challenge so that over the semester I can develop it in any way that I think is suitable. I have taken such an approach as this challenge must be incorporated into my daily life, and I want to go into the challenge from a practical perspective knowing that some aspects of the initial plan may be less realistic to fit into my lifestyle than others. Furthermore, I may discover that some aspects are less helpful for me in terms of achieving my learning goals than I thought they would be. Over the next week, I think it is important that I further evaluate my chosen technologies in terms of my goals and learning strategies, and do more research to explore other technologies which may be more useful for me in the context of this challenge. I would like to revise my plan for the challenge if necessary.

[germanlang]

Second Hot Language Immersion Tip

Lovies, I've got another one for you! 

This time: Audio Immersion, specifically finding Audiobooks! 

On Spotify, search "unabridged" in your target language (german: ungekürzt; dutch: onverkort; spanish: íntegro, ...)  if you don't find much/anything, try "chapter" in your target language and to help even further, put a number behind (f.ex. "chapter 27" - to filter out some more songs, it should be reasonable though! aka not "Chapter 12492, few books are that long)

Here's my personal experience and some audiobook-tips:

I've got an advantage comprehending my target language (dutch) because it is (to an extent) made out of my two main languages (english and german) and most of it's idioms and weirder words are quite similar to their german counterpart. This being said, I was still quite unsure of listening to an audiobook of all things, that's scary! So despite having one at the ready, it took me a while to start listening.

Here's why audiobooks are great language input:

- The focus on listening - when watching videos or shows you can help yourself by using context clues from everything that is on screen and understandable from just visual input; with audiobooks you are limited to audio input which strengthens that skill!

- You're not limited to the audio - while it might be hard to easily get your hands on it in your country, there's a good chance you can get the book in the target language and read along; this can be a crutch if you feel more comfortable simultaneously reading the words but it can also generally help identify written words with how they're spoken 

- The pace is not too fast - since this isn't a podcast or a conversation between friends or a recording made on a busy street, the narrators talk slowly, emphasizing speech, mimicking some sounds (like sighing) and all this in their quiet studio - perfect for getting used to just hearing the language

-  It is interesting - An important thing about language immersion (in my opinion) is that you care because if you don't, it easily becomes a chore. The audiobooks on Spotify tend to be more interesting than the made-up pharmacy conversation you have to listen to in class.

- It's a whole, well-written story for real people - These were not made for language learners, so they're not easier or more comfortable, but instead try to tell a good story, instead of one with x amount of new vocab-words. And since it is a whole story that doesn't actively shy away from "easy" sentences in order to challenge the learner, you get all types of sentences and there OUGHT to be one that gives you enough context to go on

And here's how I listen to an audiobook:

(Spoiler alert: it's much  more time consuming than just a listen-trough) Like I said, I was wary of staring an audiobook with only half of Duolingo done (PLUS my advantage) so I had to give myself some rules and a push: 

1. Listen to at least 10min at a time, do not stop, do NOT look anything up. This maybe sounds drastic - 10min of constant input even though I might not understand a word? Yes.

If you've even considered maybe listening to an audiobook, chances are you know a couple words in the language - so you WILL understand something! Might that be only the pronouns? Maybe, but then you can already tell whose perspective the book is written in. Might you only understand every 10th sentence? Maybe, then you have a basic story-structure (1. He goes somewhere, 2-4: ???? 5: He fights a pig) which you can then fill later (Where’s the pig from? Why are they fighting?) The first listen of a 10min-sequence has the following goals: 1) Get used to the narrator 2) Hear the words being said (they're new and strange now but you will recognize them in the second listen - they will not be as strange anymore) 3) Recognize the protagonist or names involved (MAYBE gather basic information (where, who, when, what)) 

2. Listen to the 10min again, do not stop, do NOT look anything up. Again? Yes, sorry. You can't argue "it's boring, I know what happens already!" ;) Listen again, you will recognize things you've already understood, you might then be able to hear words you did not even perceive the first time around, and you will for sure understand one sentence or more that you didn't before. Part of that is that you've listened to 10min already. Chances are that those 10 minutes spanned two or even three chapters so you will not be stuck on the first page of a book, but you will already have heard content 5 or 10 pages in. This is your key: context through time. If in chapter 1 a kid goes to the store and you hear that a BUNCH happens and a lot of words are being said but you have no clue what was going on, you'll be quite lost if you try to just listen to it again and again. But if in chapter two you then hear that the child is now at the police station, you can listen to chapter one again and you'll recognize the signs of chapter 1 leading to chapter 2 (police officers, arguing, phone call, stealing,...)

3. Keep notes of the chapters.  Wasn't this supposed to be listening input? You can keep the notes in your mothertongue or your TL, whichever you feel comfortable with (You can also mix them, using TL words in MT sentences or the other way around) I've realized that if I jot down what happens in my notebook and leave some space below, I can concentrate on the listening better because I don't have to always remember the whole story - it's written down. I also leave space for my 2nd, 3rd, 4th listen through so I can add/correct notes when I've understood more. 

4. Tackle the next sequence Just like Step 1, except I advise you to also listen to the last part of the first sequence again just to get back into it. Making them overlap helps not lose track of what happened, get back into the language and helps with context!

After that it is just a matter of rinse-and-repeat. After the 3rd of 4th listen when I notice that I get most of it but that one word throws me off/is missing, I look it up! And that's a-okay. I listen to the chapters over and over again even though I'm at only 1/3rd through the whole book and I start listening from the start every once in a while - every single time I hear something I didn't hear before, I understand something I didn't understand before or I get the chance to appreciate the writing itself - all of it feels magical!

I admit, this way it takes a long-ass time to get through a book, but you WILL notice improvement and the more you listen (and listen to the same stuff over and over) the faster you will improve your listening! I promise! 

 I'm curretly 3h into my 8,5h book and I have listened to it 12h in total (if not more) and at this point, I go in 20-min sequences and don't listen back as much as I did at the start and - most importantly and beautifully - I'm loving the story and I am understanding it!!!! 

It takes courage to start a listening-focused exercise and if you find that you are not ready yet that's okay! You can also use an audiobook as just sound-input, not to understand but to just get used to the sound of the language. Use audiobooks the way that they help you in your goals and if you need to read along - perfect, you'll hear the words AND read them, that has other great benefits!

________ For German learners: I know for a fact that Spotify has a lot of Sebastian Fitzeks books; they’re mostly thrillers/crime novels and they’re quite good! For fellow Dutch learners: One of Fitzek’s books is also available in dutch - “Geschenk (onverkort)” ;)

[language-fox]

Finished the 34 hour challenge

This took me a lot longer than I originally planned, but I’m finally done - 34 hours of Dutch on Duolingo. I’m around halfway done with the tree (between Checkpoint 3 and 4).

Did it bring me as far as a semester? Let’s take a look.

I wrote down every new word I learned and ended up on roughly 840 words - not bad! According to the general estimate (x), you need arond 500 words for A1 and 1000 words for A2, which puts me somewhere between the levels.

So where am I being placed? I took the test on this website.

Not going to lie, the result kinda shocked me. I thought the test was pretty hard and I guessed a lot of the answers. [Note: It’s a multiple choice test on grammar and vocab, so I don’t get a listening level.] I also tried this one, which gave me a rating just over A2.

I was pretty skeptical when I first read it, but now I do think that Duo’s claim is at least not entirely wrong. However, it seems more like an estimated average among languages.

Let’s compare: In my first semester of Finnish we learned around 400 words, only half as many as the lessons I got done in 34 hours gave me. And here’s where the idea of average comes in. Most if not all Germanic language classes taught in Germany estimate one semester to get from A1 to A2 and so on. My university has four semester classes for both Swedish and Dutch and the last is called B1/B2. Finnish however has a schedule of two semesters to get to A1 and two more for A2, based on the simple fact that Finnish is hard. It’s entirely unlike any language your average German would be exposed to, in a different language family, with completely different vocab and grammar.

The 34 hour challenge was designed for languages you have no experience with. I don’t have any experience with Dutch (I knew exactly three words when I started), but I think I got much much further than I would have if I had picked, for example, French, which I have experience with - I learned it in school for four years but can barely form a basic sentence. Dutch is just so very similar to German, even more than I expected previously. It overlaps partially with Swedish, but also (that was the real surprise tbh) with the dialect I speak at home.

Tl;dr: 34 hours on Duolingo brought me to an alleged A2/B1 level. Duolingo’s claim doesn’t seem completely unsustainable, although I assume it’s averaged. I’m taking an A1 Dutch class this semester and while I know most of what we’re learning already, it’s good to build up the grammar systematically and have a Native give context to vocab. I’ll also try to finish the Duolingo tree. I’m still not very happy with the new crown update, but after they changed the colors to match the levels it’s not as overwhelming anymore. I doubt that I will get my skills golden though, considering it takes an ridiculous amount of time and effort to do so and it just repeats the same sentences after a while. Who knows, maybe on the next concert or festival I’ll even be able to have a little chat with people.

[nordic-language-love]

Norwegian

Read 104 pages Odinsbarn

Read 4x articles

Watched 1x Folkopplysning episode

Watched 3x Nytt På Nytt episodes

Watched 1x Side Om Side episode

Listened to 0.5x Ernæringsklubben podcast

Finished written tasks about language skills and vegetarianism (not yet posted)

Wrote 2420 words of fiction

Italki session

Speaking practice: talked about health & nutrition, learning languages, circus arts and bread

Finished difficult words vocab list + started random vocab list

Duolingo: repaired various skills, increased Theatre skill to level 3

Japanese

Watched 1x Pokémon episode

Kanji!: lessons 8-12 + reviewed lessons 1, 4 & 7

Drops: kanji

Character drills

Duolingo: Katakana 3

Norwegian

I’ve decided to turn subtitles back on for watching TV shows for the time being. It’s been good to test my listening by turning them off (and sometimes they can be more distracting than helpful!) but I feel like I need to work on my vocabulary more, so it helps to have subtitles on so can note down new words to look up afterwards. It’s great that I no longer need them to understand the main points of any given TV show, but I want to do more than just get the gist of things; the goal is to understand more or less everything!

My italki session this week went better. I still felt like everything was badly-worded but I actually managed to speak this time. I’m still not sure whether to keep using both tutors and alternate each week (a lil expensive, but they challenge me in different ways and two weeks feels like quite a while to go between sessions) or just drop down to one. Or maybe try some others out. Thing is I had a little look at other tutors but they’re either really expensive (like fuck am I gonna pay £20-£40 for a lesson), don’t have time slots that suit me or just don’t give off the right vibe (seriously the number of intro videos I’ve clicked on and gone “nope” within the first 10 seconds is ridiculous, guess I’m picky about tutors lmao). I’m kinda happy with the ones I have anyway, so I guess there’s no real need to try out any others rn.

Also, I’ve written an absurd amount of Norwegian fiction this past week. I doubt I’ll be able to keep it up, but it was quite nice to get into the flow of writing and smash my “write 5000 words of fiction” goal I made at the start of the year. I’m tempted to see if I can make it to 10K now. Of course, it’s all garbage: I’m sure the grammar’s wrong and the dialogue sounds unnatural (not to mention I have to look up at least one thing every time I sit down to write), but I think it might be a good way for me to do first drafts, because I don’t care so much about making it “good” and more about just getting my ideas down.

Oh, and I finally finished my book! I might try writing a review later this week :)

Favourite moment: Getting really into my writing and managing to write nearly 1000 words of fiction in one day

Japanese

I’ve chilled out a bit with Japanese this week. I’m enjoying learning kanji, but I feel like it’s time I started learning some grammar and actually stringing some sentences together. I’m tempted to ask for a textbook for Christmas. But I’m also kinda missing Spanish atm so idk whether to go back to learning that? And I still miss Finnish. Idk, we’ll see. Anyway, I plan to work a bit more with Duolingo this week so I can try to learn some vocabulary in context and some actual whole sentences.

Favourite moment: Realising I could still write all the hirigana and katakana from memory after not drilling them all week

Productivity Grid

Wow yeah I did a fair bit of Norwegian this week lol. Gotta make sure I don’t start slacking in other areas though!

Some goals for this week:

Write another 500-1000 words of fiction

Write a book review of Odinsbarn

Finish reading the book I abandoned so I could read Odinsbarn instead (oops)

Stretch on at least 4 days (ideally 5 or 6!)

Finish my damned TYL course ughh