#intermediate level

[languagegarden]

04 Slowing down & going back to move forward in my Korean journey

I think I started Korean with a routine that was just too much. I overdid it. Now it’s time to create a healthy enjoyable routine that I can stick to LONGTERM. I also need to slow down and go back to learning material I thought I left behind me for good. Since I was rushing in the beginning, a lot of material was left unfinished and not used in a way to reap the benefits from it: I used it in a passive way, an ”input way”. And because of this plus the rushing, I feel like a lot of useful vocabulary and sentence structures were not registered in my longterm memory. Using everything actively is harder than I thought and my brain seems to be a bloc of Swiss cheese.

So I need to climb down from my high horse, put my ego into the drawer and admit to myself: I need to go back to move forward. Because if there are cracks in the foundation like a lack of output (active use like writing and speaking/monologuing) and having more passive than active vocab, it will create problems later on. The cracks will grow bigger as I move forward and I will live in this illusion of being further than I actually am. You know, even if my reading and listening comprehension is better than my writing and speaking, it’s a wobbly foundation, because the difference is too big. I shouldn’t think of myself as being ”so intermediate baby yeah”. There are too many holes, too much I can’t recall in the second I need it, too much passive vocabulary rather than active one. I need to get all the aspects of the language to an +/- equal level and stuff the holes in the foundation.

Weak foundations will make the castle crumble. I don’t want that to happen.

Slowing down, going back, using (upper)beginner resources again, IS NOTHING TO BE ASHAMED OF and is not ”lowering” myself down to a less worthy level. It’s a good revision, it’s repetition, it’s learning new stuff. The awareness that I need to get stronger at the base to properly move forward is sth positive. And slowing down is not laziness, language learning is not a sprint anyway, so why not take my time, step by step and as a result enjoy it more. Sooner or later I will be where I want to be. I don’t care if it takes a few years longer, I’m not in the coffin yet lol, so let’s sail forward but first backwards.

xoxo,

A.

[video-production-leeds]

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[cjdsignsworld]

Fluffy Wolf Hat & Scarf To Keep You Warm

Hi, Sweet Friends! Come and Crochet with me! Wear this beautiful Wolf hat and scarf on What To Wear Wednesday! My adjusted hat as the recipient asked for it to cover up the ears. Wolf Hat & Scarf by CJD.Sign It is that time of the year once again and I start to get my yarn and Winter hats started for Christmas! Here in Colorado, we have already had some snow. That being said, the hats and…

[arrivemedi]

Tried to color again after a long while

[rockrosethistle]

Miss Holloway album covers because I couldn't help myself

That last one is based on my personal headcanon that Miss Holloway wrote one last album before giving up her original persona, as a way to process. Dedisco not only contains the word 'disco', but it also literally means 'to un-learn,' or 'forget.'

I also had no idea what name she would've been going by in the 80's, so I settled on Missy because frankly I thought it would get me the least amount of backlash

[ghirahimbo]

quick plug for the Spanish Boost YouTube account if you're a beginner/intermediate Spanish learner looking for comprehensible input (slow, easier to follow speech). I've mostly been watching the Minecraft videos so far (eyeing the Stardew Valley series 👀) but they've been just about perfect for my learning level, and it's fun because it's the kind of stuff I'd be watching on YouTube anyway

[rigelmejo]

Something that always annoys me is the idea only 1 language learning method works. Which is not true. While it may be possible that, for a particular individual, only a few out of many study methods may work well enough for That Individual to make progress and stay motivated... that doesn't mean all the other study methods won't work for anyone else out there, or that those few methods will work for every other given person.

Obviously if you've been studying a while, then you already figured out what kinds of things work for you and don't. If you're a beginner, just wading into studying?

I would suggest you simply look for study methods that: 1. Teach you new things regularly, 2. Review and practice things you've learned, 3. Include studying things you need for your particular goals (for example if your goal is to read X book then the study materials at some point should involve reading practice and some words the book contains, if your goal is to talk about Y then the study materials should include some information about pronunciation and words you'll need to be able to say).

As you can imagine, a TON of study materials will meet these requirements. And you can study a given skill in a LOT of ways.

(Reading is my focus lol so just for reading, a beginner might: do vocabulary study with lists or conversations with native speakers or watching shows and looking words up or listening to dialogues with a transcript like in a textbook or graded readers or a picture book with word labels in the target language or a video game with labelled objects in target language, all of those things as long as your vocabulary is improving or reading practice is happening would help you make progress). So to improve reading skill as a beginner: you could study with a textbook, a podcast with transcript, a classroom or tutor with words written down in target language (like TPRS), a video game, a TV show and a translate app on your phone, a friend you talk with (who either writes words down or you look up words you hear with a translate app), a friend you text with, srs flashcards like anki (provided there's text) etc. As long as there's new words, and/or you're practicing reading, the study method may work. If it works will come down to if you can stay motivated doing it regularly, and make sure you regularly learn some new things and review/practice things you've already studied.

So consider those things when you see people selling a study method as a product (especially when it's costing you money). Consider if it teaches you NEW things, and are those new things related to your goals, and how MUCH new stuff will it teach you before you finish it? Consider if it provides review or practice, or if you can use it's materials to review on your own making up your own method, or if you'll need to do separate review/practice.

So examples:

LingQ. Can it teach you many new words? Yes, thousands, since you can import any texts you want when you get done with their provided material (I have no idea how much their beginner material covers though in terms of words... I would hope 1000-3000 words but that can be researched). Is your goal reading? It's suited to reading, so you will practice and review often with it. Cost? I think it was $12 a month when I last had it, and the price may have increased. Is it worth it? Depends on a learner's needs. I found it was wasting my money, so I chose to use free tools like Pleco and Readibu apps - since those apps are suited for Chinese learners and have better translations, Pleco has better paid graded reader material if I was going to spend money, and both Pleco and Readibu let me import texts so I can learn thousands of new words just like LingQ but free. Now that I'm not a beginner, I often use Microsoft Edge to read chinese... since I can still click-translate words easily (all my web browsers have that tool free), and Edge's TTS voice is helpful for pronunciation and sounds quite good. I read webnovels online so Edge works well. But it's translations aren't as good as Pleco or Readibu, so if I still needed translations more I would use them. So... is LingQ a good study method? Its certainly a study method marketed to buy. Well... the method is suited to improving reading skill, at least. It costs money, which is a negative, but it does offer a lot. However: everything it does regarding reading can be done free with other apps or sites or web browsers on their own. So if paying money motivates you to read... sure. LingQ does have a few word tracking features a learner may find worth the money, keeping in mind the actual read-to-learn method can be done free without lingq. (Also... while LingQ is a valid option for improving reading, if the learners goal is speaking then it would be important to think of what study activities the learner will do OUTSIDE of LingQ to improve speaking... because I've seen how LingQ is marketed as "how to learn a language" but it's only focused on some skills. It has vocabulary and grammar in some sense, since you'll read a lot and encounter new words and structures. But it doesnt have speaking or writing practice at least last time I was on it. Those activities would need to be worked on, on your own).

You can do that kind of cost/benefit contemplating with any study method material you see being sold. Amother example: there's a beginner Mandarin course called Mandarin Blueprint. It teaches like 800 words. Thats all. It may be worthwhile for a beginner... who still needs to learn 800 common words. But if you already know a few hundred words, the benefit of the course is less, you'll need to find a new material to teach you more new stuff soon. And the price was like a few hundred for the course... which for me personally was too much to spend, when I had already learned 800 hanzi from a book that cost me 12 dollars and 2000 words from a free user made memrise deck. The course claimed to get a person speaking, competent, but anyone not a beginner would say speaking basically with 800 words is nowhere near the level of working in Chinese or just doing a lot of daily life stuff, or reading/listening to media. (Although for the motivated beginner if you're learning 800 words on your own like I was, its definitely close to the point of jumping to learn more words and start reading kids and teenager books, and watching easier shows if you're willing to look new words up). So to me... Mandarin Blueprint felt like overselling some basic beginner materials. (Again when I know several other things that teach beginner stuff either more in depth so HSK test prep classes, and college courses, or that teach beginner stuff to the same depth as Mandarin Blueprint but free).

Some study materials aren't going to act like they teach everything. I've seen chinese courses just for learning to speak tones better and general pronunciation - probably worthwhile if your goal is to improve speaking and a teacher could help improve the issues your having. But a learner needs to be aware for that course that they'll need to study vocabulary on their own, its JUST a pronunciation improvement course.

[ambitious-zombie]

There's a certain frustration when a book is almost at the right level to learn from... but not really tho. Like I can almost catch a rhythm until details are being focused on and then I get lost in the adjectives. So close and yet so far away

[kaibacorpintern]

what gets lost in discussions about kaiba's education w/ gozaburo is that they only had about four years of it, and then gozaburo unexpectedly died. granted, the text indicates kaiba was a little baby genius, and we do know gozaburo crammed his schedule with social sciences and economics and languages, so he probably DID learn a hell of a lot. but i think sometimes we're like, "oh, gozaburo definitely taught this 12 year old how to hold his liquor," as though this wasn't something that could've waited until he was 18 or so, and as though anyone would expect a 12-year-old to drink with the adults at a business dinner, and as though gozaburo was planning to die sooner rather than later (teaching kaiba to hold his drink is one example of this.) like it doesn't make sense that kaiba's education was "complete" by the time gozaburo died.* some parts of kaiba's education as Capitalism's Best Most Neoliberal Avatar have to have been incomplete due to gozaburo's death. imo.

*all of this to say, in terms of being a ruthless villainous bastard who will eat up anyone in their path, gozaburo probably looked at seto sitting across the table during the takeover and thought, "there is nothing else i can teach him," and left, through the window. THAT part of the education was complete

[absensia]

[ . . . ] obligate ram ventilation is a breathing mechanism in some fish and a small number of sharks that requires the animal to swim continuously in order to push water over the gills; to move too slowly or to stop altogether would risk suffocation and death. in the exact same fashion, char must keep moving in order to stay alive, to stay herself ( ie. the conscious self or the ego ). for her, stagnation spells discomfort, illness, loss of self, madness, and then, either a complete reset or mere final termination — in that order.

just as obligate ram ventilation is a consequence of the intrinsic anatomical design of these fish, so is char's need to keep moving tied to the fundamental design of this vessel she calls her body. this is to say, char doesn't choose to live this way; in fact, this way of living has done more harm than good to her person(hood) by preventing her from becoming "at home" in any one place, creating lasting relationships, and remaining as one "version" of herself long enough so it might develop more wholly. there is also the physical and mental exertion it takes for her to keep up with her work non-stop. however, because this vessel requires a constant feed ( so to speak ) of new ordered energy to catalyze into chaos, it simply must keep moving.

if char was heartless.. mindless as she is soulless, this obligate movement might not be a problem. the only issue would be gradual wear - and - tear to the physical vessel itself, something which its "ability" to reset after death would solve. but because char does want more, does think and feel more than an ideal vessel ( perhaps ) should, this demand on her to keep moving begins to prove unsustainable. sooner or later, the longer she goes on wanting to live, char will be faced with something of an ultimatum: she can stop moving, rest, and break the rules of what she is, thereby causing irreversible damage to herself and maybe going so far as to lose herself, or she continues to go along with the rules of her design, forfeiting any chance at getting what she wants — to be alive, to feel alive, to be real.

[distantlaughter]

what level of french had you reached and why did you leave it?

Six years in total from middle school + high school... I left it because I really didn't have a need or desire to study it any further after I graduated and thought it more useful to study Japanese in college... also after six years of studying and still not being remotely able to speak French in any real way I was like oh well that's that then.

[video-production-leeds]

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[amarenacherriezzz]

The beginning stages of learning a language feel like you're being carried over a field of flowers on a fluffy little cloud, meanwhile the intermediate stages are like the fucking trenches, you're being bombarded with concepts and grammars you never even knew existed and it's too overwhelming to keep track of. And fluency (in quotation marks because What actually is Fluency?) feels like you just climbed a big mountain on which you might take a rest and take in the view or you might go on to climb higher peaks.

[charmed-redemption]

Spells of The Damned

Soldier:

"I call the gifts that Ares blessed, to this vessel, to take their rest. With these words forged of the powers of Three, I grant this vessel blessed/cursed invincibility!"

Category:

Active Power (Projection, Channeling)

Summoning Spell (Blessing)

Level:

Intermediate

Downside:

Nothing happens

Loss of consciousness while casting

Lever of power granted is linked to the power used

[rigelmejo]

In honor of yet again seeing on reddit "how do I learn a language?"

I made a longer post on it. But the absolute shortest advice I have is: pick a study material and study plan and STICK TO IT. Ideally pick a study material/materials that teach you some new stuff regularly, and progress through them. Once in a while, review what you've studied either with that material or practicing what you learned by immersing (reading/watching/listening to something or chatting with someone in the language). Ideally pick a study material/materials which teach you the skills you wish to learn - reading, listening, speaking, writing. You may need to be creative to make up ways to use your study material/materials to study those 4 skills (or whichever ones you want to focus on). If you take a traditional class, generally the teacher will give you exercises to practice and study each of the 4 skills. If you need to, look up how other people use textbooks to study the 4 skills and copy what they do.

A mistake many people make is just... not finishing the study material they pick. Yeah, if you only ever study 100 words... 4 chapters of a beginner book... you'll remain a beginner. You must move forward. Study some new stuff regularly. Expand what you know over time.

Stick to your chosen study materials until you finish them, then pick a new study material that TEACHES YOU NEW STUFF. So if you just finished Assimil, don't start a Teach Yourself book as they teach the same stuff! Move onto an intermediate learning material after you finish a beginner material!

Do not repeatedly study various beginner materials for years. This is a mistake many people make, myself included. You need to keep picking study materials which teach you NEW stuff.

Good options for someone who struggles to pick study materials or get past the beginner stage: formal classes!!!! Take beginner 1 and 2, intermediate 1 and 2! There's free and cheap courses on Coursera and other online class sites, if you don't want to go to college and pay for courses. Or pick a series of textbooks learners use in classes - f9r beginner 1 and 2, intermediate 1 and 2. This could look like Chinese textbooks that teach HSK 1-6, or Japanese Textbooks that Teach N5-N1. Yes lots of people don't like "traditional study." But if you struggle to figure out how to improve, doing up to intermediate 2 classes then just practicing reading, listening, and chatting with people will teach you enough to do many things in the language. Intermediate 2 will prepare you enough to understand SOME shows, some reading materials, talk about conversational topics.

Alternative good options for beginners who struggle to pick a study material: pick a study method or approach and copy it. Do exactly what it says, progress through it regularly studying new stuff. Refold is a study approach with directions "do anki cards - usually premade sentence decks for a language (study new stuff regularly), and immerse regularly - practice understanding". So if you like Refold, look up Refold for the language you're learning and use the resources it recommends. (I suggest NOT making your own study materials such as your own anki sentence cards if you are bad at self motivating and making your own study materials as this could cause you to give up). Dreaming Spanish is a Great comprehensible input approach to language learning with a guide on the website to follow and lessons to follow for 1000 hours and directions on what to do after. It also has a community that mentions what resources they used like podcasts, and you can copy what others did. You like ALG and are learning Thai? There's youtube channels with ALG lessons and ALG tutor/teaching websites you can book lessons on. Just pick a study approach and STICK TO IT.

As long as you study new stuff regularly, and practice understanding the things you have studied before, you will learn a language. It mostly comes down to that, and how many hours you study.

Some people just keep repeatedly studying stuff they already studied so they don't make progress, or they studied 50 hours when... its probably going to take hundreds or thousands of hours.

If you like a very specific study method for a very specific goal? Find someone who already achieved your goal with your study method, and copy what they did. Use the materials they used (or improve on what they did and find equivalent materials that work better for you). Do the study activities they did. You have a good chance of getting similar results. That's how I came up with all my reading study plans... I found someone who'd already learned to read chinese, or french, and copied what they did. It worked. I'm using Dreaming Spanish as a guide now to figure out how to improve my listening skills, copying the suggestions dreaming spanish has for studying, its working well so far. I found the Listening Reading Method really cool, and copied that for a while, and did see significant improvements in my reading and listening skill after doing it.

[oweltheft]

the chinese spam texts i get -> free reading practice

transcipt + translation:

Hi! Anna, 你近期要来 San Francisco Hi! Anna, you're coming to San Francisco soon

出差一段时间， on a business trip for a while

什么时候出发呢？ When are you setting off?

vocabulary + notes below:

近期 (jìn qí) can mean soon OR recently--the word itself doesn't specify past or future. tread carefully and consider the context!

出差 (chū chāi) just means business trip

San Francisco in chinese is 旧金山 (jiù jīng shān) or 三番 (sān fān) 三番 is casual (slang?), while 旧金山 is the official (and i think ～cooler～) name