7 Bullet Points About Languages - Week 37
Hi everybody,
I hope your week was marvelous!
This past week was full of highs and lows. I had some amazing days and some very low ones. I managed to keep up with the biweekly challenge but struggled to keep my routine in check as I met up with friends I hadn't seen in months and also started training for a side project with a client. I also binge-read the end of a Japanese novel I had been reading in bed for almost two months.
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: How to Build STRONG Language Learning Habits — By Kevin Abroad
Kevin has loads of useful videos but I particularly liked this video about building habits. As he explains, it's not about motivation, but about trying. He explains how to do it in detail so try it out if you're struggling with that!
One article I read: How to Avoid Burnout When Learning a Language — By OptiLingo
In this long article, the writer goes over pretty much everything related to burnout. They go over how to notice it, how to get back on track after burnout, and how to prevent it before it's too late. Whether you feel you're burning out or not, I'm sure this article will be useful to you!
One article I wrote: 7 Clear Signs You're Ready to Learn a Language
If you've already started learning a language, don't waste time on this one and go see that beautiful language you've chosen. If you've been hesitating, I'm sure this piece can help you notice the signs that you're ready. If all goes well, that could be the final push you needed!
One podcast episode: 50 Question Challenge ― By The HypoPolyglot
In this tiny episode, Thad talks about a method to learn what you need. This challenge is to answer a list of 50 questions (either taken from the internet, like his own, or self-made). The goal is to work on answering questions that you'd like to be able to answer. I'm not a fan of what he does afterward (although I recognize why he does the next steps), so let's change it up and make it our biweekly challenge!
One tool to try: HeyLingo
I've been playing around with this one for close to a month (with Greek and German) and I'm loving it. This app is like Duolingo without the pointless examples and with a much better interface. It's free for 5 min per day so it's good as an extra. If you want, you can even cheat the system and do 5 minutes on the app followed by 5 minutes on your computer!
One quote to ponder: “The joy of knowing a foreign language is inexpressible. I find it really difficult to express such joy in my mother tongue.” ― Munia Khan
One new biweekly challenge: Answer 15 Questions in your target language
As mentioned above, let's answer a few questions this time. Write down 15 questions you'd like to be able to answer and then try to come up with answers. Depending on your level, this could be one simple sentence or a whole paragraph. Answer one a day (or 2-3 every other day) using a dictionary if need be, and then post them on Journaly or HiNative to get corrections.
2nd week sum-up of last challenge: Find 35 sentences per week in videos
This week, I focused watched and gathered a lot of Korean sentences. I also picked up a few Japanese and Chinese sentences while I was enjoying nice dramas (Erased, on Netflix, was quite the ride!) I wish I had saved up more Chinese sentences but what I was watching was mostly about demons and angels so that wasn't the kind of words I really want to use.
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
PS: The majority of you chose to keep the same format for this newsletter so we'll stick to it for now but don't hesitate to keep answering the survey or to send me a message if you have any questions!
For more of my articles, you can find them here.