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Posted in General chat
For me a routine and a structure is one of the best things in every aspect of life. Without it I feel like nothing makes sense. When it comes to school I love to study and I think one reason behind that, is because I usually have a routine and a structure for what I am supposed to be doing.
So because of it, I’ve always needed somewhat of a structure when studying anything, without it I have no idea what to do. I think that I just found a website that’s gonna help me a lot with that. I’ve just started to use Coursera ( https://www.coursera.org/ ) for my Korean and I think that I’m going to love it, like a lot!
I’ve started a 5 week course that have lessons, worksheets and quizzes after every unit and a deadline when things are due. The units are structured so that you need at least 70/80% on your quizzes to continue (At least on the one I’m using on the free version) and I think this is exactly what I need to get a good routine going right now.
Posted in General chat
First
Linka Ramos M
, now
Cortland Kirkeby ("CK")
...y'all make me so proud! Check out his comment on a blog post (it's long but relatable):
I found this blog just recently (July/Aug 2021). For me, it dovetailed perfectly with the all-Spanish "How I Learned Spanish" video you sent out last week (earlier this week?). Why? You guessed it: I was at a crossroads.
First, a rude surprise arrived in the last week of July. Somehow, after 400-and-something consecutive days, Duolingo (apparently) kicked me out of the program. It wouldn't let me log in with my normal password; it wouldn't let me change my password, I got no response to email or voice-telephone messages. It wouldn't even let me start completely over. poof gone. Was I happy about it? No. Withdrawal from anything is a b****.
Next, I read your "stop using Duolingo" post, it made sense, particularly the feeling that I had carried nothing forward into "real life" Spanish fluency.
After that, I clicked on your "How I Learned Spanish" and had a revelation -- "Hey, I'm really following this!" I started covering up the English subtitles - no problem. Ditto mis-pronunciations and hunting for the "right" word. Unbelievable!. Piece of cake - "Hey, I must be better than I realized."
Then it hit me -- "frame of reference." All of us already struggle understanding one another in our "own" language. A lot of it comes down to "why is this topic/concept/objective/assumption so important to you"? Clearly, you (Jamie) and I are operating from a common "frame of reference" established by your earlier blogs so, even in Spanish, little "aha" moments just kept popping like little fire crackers. "How come I didn't think of this earlier?"
Related concept: "tropes" (metaphors etc.), particularly redundant ones that strangers keep wearing out while I'm stuck wondering "how did this become so important?"
Takeaways: (1) Get more of Jamie in Spanish - either persuading you to put up more spoken Spanish offerings like "How I learned Spanish" or having you direct me/us to earlier Spanish-speaking blogs you have already posted elsewhere (perhaps originally targeted toward Spanish speakers learning English?); and (2) Next time I hit a wall understanding third party spoken Spanish, watch out for "tropes" and "frames of reference" that may be getting in my way.
Anyway, I continue as one of your biggest fans and will try to keep "checking in" as I explore some of these other learning sites.
I LOVE to see this message clicking with so many of you!
Posted in Motivation station
I have a Spanish book club more or less every week where we basically just hang out and talk in Spanish. It's just a few friends who like to speak Spanish in a low-key, pretty intimate setting.
Anyways, I was telling them about the video I posted totally in Spanish, and was expressing how hard it was to edit and post because I made SO many mistakes.
Instead, they told me my Spanish has gotten better! When we first starting meeting up I would get easily frustrated and pretty much just give up. Now I might take a second to come up with my words but I'm more confident and, because of that, more fluent!
Anyways, I was telling them about the video I posted totally in Spanish, and was expressing how hard it was to edit and post because I made SO many mistakes.
Instead, they told me my Spanish has gotten better! When we first starting meeting up I would get easily frustrated and pretty much just give up. Now I might take a second to come up with my words but I'm more confident and, because of that, more fluent!
Posted in Our members
I started with Spanish in high school, but did not accomplish much. I tried again several time and later and even worked all the way through Rosetta Stone once. Still could not speak at all, and have since forgotten what I did know. I started German my first year in college and while stationed in Germany, I did manage to learn to speak a bit. I lived on the ecomy and was forced to interact with the citizens. I can't speak much at all any more, but I can understand ...some, at least.
The Army sent me to language school, where I learned Czech. We all learned to speak that one pretty well. However, I did not continue to practice after I went back home and I can barely introduce myself now. Almost everything forgotten!
I like to study languages and am retired now, so I recently started to study all three languages.
I had thought I would get confused between them, but that has not really been much of a problem. I just need a short break between, to get myself switched over.
Duo Lingo was my venue of choice, but I have found it to be lacking, especially in Czech. The content there is almost worthless.
I am trying to explore other options now.
The Army sent me to language school, where I learned Czech. We all learned to speak that one pretty well. However, I did not continue to practice after I went back home and I can barely introduce myself now. Almost everything forgotten!
I like to study languages and am retired now, so I recently started to study all three languages.
I had thought I would get confused between them, but that has not really been much of a problem. I just need a short break between, to get myself switched over.
Duo Lingo was my venue of choice, but I have found it to be lacking, especially in Czech. The content there is almost worthless.
I am trying to explore other options now.
Posted in Our members
Hi! My name is Linka, I recently turned 25 and I'm from Colombia. I have been passionate about reading and learning about new cultures since I was a kid and that led to being interested in learning new languages. I have tried a bunch of languages but I'm still a little bit far from confident. My target language in this moment is Russian and I really look forward to achieving a lot in this learning path.
Posted in General chat
I was just watching Jamie's video in Spanish which is my native language and I have a really nice feeling in my chest, like, she sees herself as technically fluent but I see her as absolutely fluent. I really think that if you are able to understand and make others understand you, that's it, you're fluent. This led me to another thought: why do I have such kindness with other people's path in language learning but don't show that same kindness to myself?
Boom. That's a game changer for me. Conclusion: I will learn to respect myself and my process and to be kind to myself through this journey towards my goal.
Boom. That's a game changer for me. Conclusion: I will learn to respect myself and my process and to be kind to myself through this journey towards my goal.
Posted in Apps & resources
Which online dictionaries do you like to use?
Personally I tend to stick to wordreference.com. It doesn't just give one or two translations and it shows the words in context too, which I think is really important. What I like most about it, mainly for my students, is that they can also hear how the word is pronounced in different accents too, which helps with both their listening and speaking as well as their knowledge of vocabulary.
In all honesty, I haven't tried out many other online dictionaries so I'd be interested to see what other ones you all use. Or do you prefer just to stick to google translate? Why?
Which online dictionaries do you like to use?
Personally I tend to stick to wordreference.com. It doesn't just give one or two translations and it shows the words in context too, which I think is really important. What I like most about it, mainly for my students, is that they can also hear how the word is pronounced in different accents too, which helps with both their listening and speaking as well as their knowledge of vocabulary.
In all honesty, I haven't tried out many other online dictionaries so I'd be interested to see what other ones you all use. Or do you prefer just to stick to google translate? Why?
Posted in Motivation station
I was watching this video and realized that overthinking is a huge factor when it comes to developing confidence in our language learning. There is a quote in the video: "My life is full of terrible things... that never happened" and I feel like this happens a lot: "What if I'm not fluent enough?" "What if I'm not learning fast enough?" "What if..." We keep worrying and going through the same thoughts again and again. Sometimes we just need to step back, take a deep breath and start over.
Also, in this video there is a recommendation that I think it may seem obvious but it is indeed pretty logical: if you have a big goal and you feel overwhelmed, dividing the goal into bite-sized tasks would make you feel more confident and help you accomplish more without that stress being a burden.
Do you have any hacks of your own to overthink less? Let me know!
Posted in Mindset
I have been thinking a lot about intrusive thoughts and how they try to condition the way we live and we execute things. Thoughts like never being or doing enough was something really recurrent for me and I tried several techniques to avoid them without success. As I'm ending phase 1, I'm really looking back and discovering those thoughts are less recurrent and I have been trying to no judge myself for lots of things that I cannot change nor control: such as the way I learn, the way I express myself and the way that external experiences affect me. This is being quite an exciting journey and I'm so excited to keep going!
Posted in Our members
Hi, my name is Tuva and I am a 20-year-old university student from Sweden. I am mainly studying Korean as a beginner right now. I guess I am studying English too but I don’t do that actively.
Reading and writing is what I love to do and live for. I am studying to become a screenwriter so hopefully I can fulfill my dreams of becoming an author at some point in my life.
I grew up having a hard time learning languages but that have never stopped me. If I can become an author with dyslexia nothing can stop me. I can do everything I want.