Could you memorize 2500 vocabulary words in 100 days with just a few minutes a day? It's easy :-P
It's been years since I've really put a lot of effort into studying languages. I used to spend 3-5 hours a day studying Japanese or Mandarin when I first left the States. The goal back then was to become conversational as quickly as possible.
I became conversational, and I even figured out how to be able to communicate in a new language in just a few months. But going from intermediate to advance seemed like such an impossible taste, despite all the effort I put in. I kind of gave up.
I've tried to get back to studying many times, and I've dabbled in Spanish and Indonesian too, but I haven't really gone back to making language study a main priority, I've had way too much to do. I was writing music and stories, blogging for crypto, working, and recently I've been doing all the extra work of being self-employed too.
Though my listening and grammar is still far weaker than I'd like, I think vocabulary is really where I could use the most improvement. Languages have SO MANY WORDS, and I'm trying to read fluently and understand what's going on in all situations, you really need a massive word bank for that.
I have tried a few ways to make sure my Japanese improves instead of deteriorates, and I'm also thinking of ways to learn Spanish, both without taking too much time out of my day. I think I've finally built a nice routine.
I started doing flashcards a while ago, but I realized that out of context, the words barely stuck. Instead of just using a textbook, or a novel which is a big commitment, I decided to rewatch my favorite anime, Made in Abyss, and to treat it as study material.
I'll re-watch 10-15 minutes from it a few times every day, while I'm stretching, while I'm on the toilet, while I'm working on social media stuff. I'll save each unfamiliar vocabulary word and practice each sentence a few times. Then I'll make flashcards.
Yesterday I taught one of my students, a really cool high school kid whose parents are friends, and he has a big test coming up. I realized vocab is also his weakest point and so we brainstormed how to fix that. 25 words a day can be hard, but if they are from context in life or from study material or fiction, they are a lot easier. So I told him to make 25 flashcards a day from his practice tests, and I promised to do the same thing, though I'll be taking mine from anime.
I've actually learned over 200 words in a day but it took a few hours of review, I think 25 words is doable in less than a half hour and that hour doesn't even have to be consecutive. 10 minutes here, 5 minutes there. If he can do it, I can do it, and if I can do it, he can do it. We will test each other and brainstorm how to memorize the words more effectively next week.
I know this list is useless to most people since not everyone is studying Japanese, but just to get an idea, here are some words I learned from the anime so far:
ぐうの音も出ない - To be at a loss
一攫千金 - To strike it rich
羅針盤 - Compass
深淵 - Abyss
あまた - more (rare formal way)
且つ - moreover
採掘 - mining
あらかた - mostly (rare)
いかなる時 - any whatsoever
備品 - equipment
紛失 - to go missing
ご法度 - contraband
没収 - to forfeit
ちょろまかす - to sneak around
惨状 - sorry scene
孤島 - desolate island
直径 - diameter
原生 - primitive
懐に入れる - to pocket
疑わしい - doubtful
騒がせる - to disturb
誇り高い - proud
全開 - full throttle
指し示す - to indicate
格上げ - promotion
単独 - sole
査定額 - assessed value
27 words there ;-)
Having the context of the anime makes it a WHOLE lot easier to remember, context is the key!
Meanwhile, I keep finding more reasons to learn Spanish, between the Hivesters that speak it and the fact that I'll likely visit a Spanish speaking country and want to speak with locals, and also the fact that it's often intelligible to Portuguese speakers and I plan on visiting Portugal as well. If I can get conversational in Spanish I will move on to Portuguese.
Rather than putting any big effort into learning Spanish, I will just make sentences with a dictionary on twitter and to friends, a few every week. I'll have a grammar goal every month and learn as much vocabulary as I can, starting with verbs.
I remember "to be" pretty well, so...I'm starting with "I am ---ing":
Que eres haciendo? - What are you doing?
Estoy aprendiendo. - I am learning.
El esta estudiando. - He is studying.
Estoy hablando con ella. - I am talking to her.
Estoy viendo una pelicula - I am watching a movie.
Estoy escuchando musica - I am listening to music.
Unlike the last few times I tried to study a language, I have figured this out so that it won't get in the way of my work or my activity at Hive, and easy but challenging enough so that I want to keep at it.
The goal:
I would never focus so much on vocabulary in the beginning of language learning now that I've tried it so many times. I find the best thing to do first is to focus on basic grammar structures and learn vocabulary in the progress, but since it's my weak point, I want to attack it head on.
If I can, I'd love to learn about 2500 words in 100 days in Japanese, and get comfortable using simple grammar in Spanish over the next year. I'll check my progress every week. This should also give me a chance to connect more with #langtwt. If anyone else would like to join me there on twitter to try and make some new friends, let me know. Hope to bring them all back to Hive but maybe you can help ;-)
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I applaud your enthusiasm to learn other languages and you are doing great with the flashcard system.
These Japanese words look niceee...but I have no idea how to pronounce or speak them! 😄
I would love to learn to speak French and there are apps such as Duolingo for this but I have not had time. Maybe it's time to start!
I think learning to speak other languages becomes easy when we spend time with the locals, yes? That's how I learned to speak Hausa in Nigeria. I spent some years in the north and mingled with the locals. They noticed my enthusiasm to want to converse with them in their language and they willingly taught me.
When I spent almost a year in Eastern Nigeria hoping to pick up Igbo language, it was a bit difficult. How about you get the locals to speak with you in Japanese? It may help. 😊
I love that you want to know the languages of other tribes, I imagine most people don't bother, right?
I learned the most in cafes, but I need to have a grammar focus otherwise nothing sticks, I just learn words and can't make sentences. You don't need any material for that, though, just to decide what the focus is.
Speaking with them now doesn't really help much though because most of the words I need to learn are not useful in conversation, but they come in handy for understanding instructions, news, or media.
I think I would follow your footsteps in learning Spanish but I will use Duolingo app
Its really beautiful as to how you set goals.
They are really nice
Duolingo is cool, I recommend making your own sentences using the stuff you learn there!
I am of a totally different opinion.
I believe language is for communication and should be fun.
Grammar and structures bore me, I learn languages by speaking them. Less stress.
My husband speaks one language while I speak another.. so the boys speak English as it was easier for school as well.
My husband speaks 13 languages while I speak 5 my boys speaks at least four languages.
I cannot write any of the other languages other than my mother tongue and English.
For sure language is for communication and should be fun, but not all aspects of language can be learned through conversation. That doesn't mean it isn't fun. I am having fun with this, it's just a little bit of extra effort every day :-)
Have fun, I believe when you enjoy something you learn well too.
Wow, I really deeply respect the fact that you can dedicate yourself learning a language that most of us (unknown to that language) have no idea how to pronounce the words :)
I have learned a lot of Spanish thanks to Duolingo, and this way of learning, makes me super excited because apparently it works like a charm for me. I'm truly only dedicating like 10 mins a day to it, and things stick.
Good luck with Japanese :)
duolingo works, I just find it's more effective to do some extra review, and I am way beyond duolingo level in Japanese...Spanish not so much!
Sometimes I feel like it's easier to learn either Mexican or Spanish to Japanese or Chinese either because of the alphabet difference. So since you're learning new words, how about using them in diverse context? Like past tense, present tense, future tense and maybe you know? Pronunciation and other aspects as well. Generally I believe all these will be easier especially if you have people who are practising with you on a daily basis. The speed with which you're learning them is quite amazing.
I love different alphabets, it makes the whole thing exciting for me, but Spanish will be useful for me, so I'm focusing on Spanish next.
As far as tense, it's pretty easy in Japanese and I've studied Japanese for many years so tense isn't much of a problem. Now I'm learning words which don't show up in daily life and aren't easy to use in conversation, but which you'll encounter in various contexts. I'm learning in context and also in this vocab flashcards.
That's fantastic, at least using language in context can sometimes be very tricky and I guess some of these new words will polish your mastery in the language.
Tenses aren't easy in many other languages especially french.
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Mehn, I love your drive my friend. It's certainly not an easy thing to learn japanese talk more of adding it with mandarin and spanish. I see that you're well driven and you'll achieve your goal eventually.
I've always sucked at learning a new language, I could remember those days they used to teach us french and yoruba in school, try as I may I just couldn't improve on them. But now that I really look at it, I wasn't really passionate about learning them. Though I've been able to learn a little of japanese by watch anime too and some of korean through their movies.
I guess it'll take passion and s certain drive to learn spanish because truth be told, I've always had a thing for the spanish way of life and wouldnt mind to make it there someday.
I've learnt a thing or two about learning languages from you and thanks for the japanese words that I know nothing about, haha.
Keep doing what you're doing my friend, I hope you advance more and more in your quest to acquire more languages
Interest keeps me going. If I don't have it, I have to find it. Otherwise I'm also incapable of learning languages 😛
I was satisfied that I could read some of the stuff out of both your lists, Duolingo is good for something 😆
I’m feeling like I really need to bump vocabulary too, though the finer points of grammar in the languages other than Indonesian are doing my meagre brain in (Indonesian the only thing I’ve had issues with so far is possessives because they seem different than what little I remember from Malay/what my mother remembers from Malay).
(I’m also starting to mix up a lot of things though, Chinese and Japanese characters and sometimes my brain keeps hitting the wrong words when I’m looking at something 😵)
Anime does seem like a good way to do it though your method is much more organised than mine, if I’m watching anything in a language I’m learning I’m just paying attention really hard and trying not to rely on subtitles because that’s super effective 😅
If I have subtitles on I can't pay attention to the Japanese and if I have subtitles off, I don't know what's going on. I gotta have Japanese subtitles. And I can only study it rather than watch cause I've seen it before, twice
I should try that again.
And really try focusing on listening.
Because if I'm watching something again I'll inevitably be studying things other than language >_>
After I stop and study each sentence I listen without watching.
I loveMade in Abyss!! It is a pretty well-made animated film! 🤩 I wonder when they are going to release the final series....I watch anime a lot to learn second and their language as well. It is the best way to learn a new language, indeed!! 😄👏
Awesome! It’s the only franchise I get excited to see other fans of besides The Nier game series. Something about these two stories touches something in my subconscious. Made in Abyss season 2 has been announced for 2022. I don’t think it’s the end of the series though, layer 6 may need a full season. I guess it will end with 3 full seasons. It seems like it is getting more popular these days.
Made in Abyss is so cool to watch and so intense 😀🤭 Cute characters fight fearlessly with great courage 🔋 is just amazing. Can't wait to see the coming series 😀👍
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