7 Bullet Points About Languages - Week 21
Hi everybody,
I hope your week was amazing!
I've recently been eying going to spend a year in Taiwan but, as my luck tends to go, Taiwan has seen a surge of Covid cases this week so they've closed their doors. Between coming back from the countryside and thinking of backup plans, my language study ended up being quite unstable. Still, I'm glad to have consistently studied a bit and even enjoyed a relaxing weekend fixing things at home while listening to podcasts.
Alright, let's dive right in!
Each week, I share 7 things that could be useful to your learning odyssey. I hope they can help you improve your journey, tickle your curiosity, and inspire you to keep exploring.
One video: Does immersion have to hurt? Interview of Matt vs Japan — By Olly Richards
I'm never much of a fan of Olly's video titles but he's been interviewing great polyglots nowadays so I give him a pass. In this one, Matt explained his heavy-immersion method and broke down some myths about it, like how people think he skips grammar entirely. You can always feel Matt's love for his first foreign language, Japanese, transpire through his words so if you already know his method, you can at least pick up his passion!
One article I read: How to Effectively Learn a Language Through Language Exchanges — By Anu Kumar
Language exchanges can be scary but they are still an incredible tool on your way to fluency. In this great and extensive article, Anu shares her tips to make the best of them. I love that she separated tasks between Before, During, and After the exchange itself. It makes it a lot easier to follow along.
One article I wrote: How to Be Preoccupied With Mistakes in Another Language the Right Way
Like most of us, I have a love-hate relationship with mistakes. I hate doing them. But I'm also extremely thankful they are a part of my life. In this piece, I talked about how to choose the ones to focus on and the ones to ignore.
One podcast episode: #62 Make your language learning learner-centric — By You Can Learn Chinese
The first half is about learning Chinese and graded readers. It's very interesting but can be tough to relate to for those not interested in Chinese. The second half (from exactly 30min onwards) is an interview with the polyglot YouTuber Robin McPherson. I've already advised to watch him countless times but this interview was great to show his whole journey of learning Mandarin and how it's okay to go slow. Listening to it made me want to go watch his videos again!
One tool to try: CognitoBaby (for iOS and Android)
This app was made to help toddlers learn foreign languages. While it may be boring to you, it can be a great tool if you wish to help your child become multilingual at a young age. I don't have children yet, but when I will, I'll be sure to use this app (or any other new/better one that will exist then)!
One quote to ponder: “As a hawk flieth not high with one wing, even so a man reacheth not to excellence with one tongue.” ― Roger Ascham
One challenge for the week ahead: Create Your Own Text About a Topic You Studied
This week, let's put to use the words we've recently seen. Take a podcast, text, or even conversation you had recently and write about it on Journaly to get corrections. The goal is to reuse the vocabulary you've seen but use it in your own sentences. This way, you'll remember it better and increase your confidence in the language. Bonus points if you study the feedback you get and write a second text on the topic! I'll do it on the topic of minimalism, in Mandarin. What about you?
Last week's challenge was to set a "write quota" and reach it every day. I missed it three days but caught up by writing twice as long the following days. I spent half the week copying part of the script from this podcast about minimalism and the second half writing texts I had made on my own and gotten feedback on. I hadn't written Chinese characters by hand for a long time so the beginning of the week was tough but it got better as the days passed. I'll keep doing it this week, hopefully learning more characters along the way!
Let me know how it went for you by sending me a mail at barra.mathias@gmail.com!
As always, thanks for reading!
Mathias Barra
For more of my articles, you can find them here.