7 Bullet Points About Languages - Week 5
Hi everybody,
I hope your study of your language(s?) is still going strong!
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.
Let's dive right in!
One video: How I Focus in a World of Algorithms - HealthyGamerGG (Dr. Alok Kanojia)
This channel is very interesting. It basically is about a psychologist helping the "internet generation" with their mental health. This video is about learning to accept boredom in order to get back to studying. While this isn't exactly about language-learning, Dr. Kanojia's method can be applied to get back to learning languages.
One article I read: 4 Reasons To Use Video Games As A Language Learning Tool - Maria Valevsky
This article appeared right on time for me. I just started playing Genshin Impact in Korean last week. I am already loving being in an immersive environment and making Korean even less "foreign" to me. This article proved once again that video games are the future of learning, just like Ring Fit Adventure revolutionized games to work out.
One article I wrote: How I Prepared to Pass the Most Difficult Japanese Proficiency Test
In this article, I detailed the different steps I took to overcome the highest level of the JLPT (Japanese Language Proficiency Test) a few years ago: by giving up improving my overall skills. I also did a quick overview of what to do when studying for a test at a lower level.
One podcast episode: Fearing forgetting: Should you try to maintain or relearn knowledge? - Scott H. Young Podcast
Scott is very well-known for his "Ultralearning" experiments and his book of the same title. In this short episode, he discusses how he's fought against forgetting the languages he learned for one of his experiments years ago. His stance on relearning instead of maintaining was particularly interesting.
One tool to try: OpenCulture Website
This website has links to free resources in 48 languages. Some are for beginners, some aren't. Some are of great quality, some aren't. Either way, this can be the perfect place to find your next resource (or, who knows, what you'll need for your next language)!
One quote: "When you presume knowledge, you put up a barrier that nothing can cross, and miss out on a potential learning opportunity." - Jay Shetty
One challenge for the week ahead: Learn the basics of the International Phonetic Alphabet (IPA)
Pronunciation can be very tricky for certain languages. While it can be easy to find the pronunciation for often-learned languages, it can be harder for some others. Yet, when you learn a new language, you're bound to find words you struggle to pronounce. Knowing the IPA can help you be sure of how a word should be pronounced. It's the only alphabet in the world that has every pronunciation known.
This week, learn the basics of the IPA and then type the name of your language followed by "IPA". The Wikipedia page will give you all you need. From there on, you can have a look at it whenever you're unsure of the pronunciation of a word. Do this for long enough and pronunciation will never be hard again.
For last week's challenge, I reviewed some Korean grammar. The pattern I was most glad to review was -더니 because I didn't remember it referred to something directly seen or experienced in the past. I thought it could also be reported by someone else.
Let me know how it went for you by sending me a mail at barra.mathias(at)gmail.com
As always, thanks for reading!
Mathias Barra
For more of my articles, you can find them here.