7 Bullet Points About Languages - Week 40
Hi everybody,
I hope your week was marvelous!
Mine started off strong until I got sick. Still, I accomplished a lot and started working on a new project I'm keeping secret for the moment. If all goes well I should have some announcements to make later this month! On the language side, I've been created more language-learning YouTube accounts so I can get a full immersion experience for each language. It's taking time but, my god, it's exciting!
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: The Language Learner's Paradox of Choice — Robin MacPherson
I freaking love Robin's style and seeing his videos getting better and better every week. This one was pure gold. In today's language-learning world, we are constantly trying to use new methods or new books, which often turns out to be a waste of our time. Robin explains why and how to deal with it.
One article I read: How to Learn a Language Without Opening a Book — By Mark Farnsworth
I love learning with books. I feel they are a magnificent source of knowledge and can allow us to really dig deep in a language at the rhythm we want. Mark went a different way, closer to the Fluent in 3 Months method, by speaking early and often. If you're like him, his story is full of great tips.
One article I wrote: Five Lessons I Took From Learning a Secret Language for A Month
As you probably know now, I studied Greek in secret in August, as part of a Twitter challenge. It was a great experience that taught ―and reminded― me some great lessons about what it's like to learn a language. Don't hesitate to join in again as some people seem to be doing it again every month since then!
One podcast episode: A language that survived the boarding schools ― By Subtitle
This podcast about the endangered language Gwich’in was amazing. I listened to it 3 times in a row to really sink that story in. It won't teach you how to learn a language but if you're interested in languages ― and I hope you are since you subscribed!― you're going to find this inspiring.
One tool to try: Genshin Impact (PC, iOs, Android, PS4)
I've already mentioned these past few weeks that I got back into playing Genshin Impact. It's a free-to-play RPG game but it's also magnificent to practice your understanding of a language (especially if you learn Chinese, Korean, Japanese, or English since you can also get the audio for these languages). Getting absorbed into a story makes learning a lot easier and Genshin has tons of it. I'm planning of writing a full article on how to use it as a tool but the sooner you get started, the faster you'll get hooked!
One quote to ponder: “Being a student is easy. Learning requires actual work.” — William Crawford
One biweekly challenge (since last week): Study daily 15 more minutes than usual
We like to think we're way too busy when we're really not that much. For the next two weeks, try to add 15 minutes of study daily, no matter what your usual amount is. If you study 30 minutes every day, try 45. If you do only 5, try 20. Since I took a sort of a break, I'll start off with 15 minutes and try to work my way back up to my usual 45min-1h during the next two weeks!
Sum-up of the 1st week of the challenge:
I started the week strong by studying well over my planned 15 minutes but fell a bit sick the second half and relied heavily on passive study instead. I'm feeling better today so it's time to go back to enjoying new Chinese grammar patterns and trying to transcribe part of a podcast!
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.