#language learning tip

[vempress]

weird language study tip; look up qna questions and answer them in your target language. extra points for pretending to be a youtuber.

[cornusbooks]

Language Learning Tips from a Fellow Language Learner

1. Focus on comprehensible input

2. Use media with layered subtitles

3. Create "Language Islands"

[ros3ybabe]

Current Japanese Study Routine + Resources 🎀

As you all may know, I am currently self studying Japanese and Spanish, though I am putting Spanish on the back burner for now so I can focus more on Japanese as that is where my passion lies at the moment. Lucky for me, there is a Japanese language and culture club on my university campus that I am (hopefully) going to join next week or the week after, given how busy my schedule ends up being. I thought I’d make a little post about my current routine that I use to study and what resources I am currently using and am planning on purchasing to use in order to build my proficiency in this beautiful language!

Current Resources 🩷

Apps - I am currently playing around with several apps to see which ones work for me, so here is all the apps I currently have downloaded to my iPad/phone

Duolingo - this has been a go to for all language I’ve ever tried to learn, it’s useful for me as a basic introduction to vocabulary, sentence structure, some grammar, and I just like how it involves typing, speaking, listening, and reading.

Drops - this one is just a fun little 5 minutes gamified way to learn vocabulary for me, it’s definitely a go to on my lazier language learning days

Bunpo - I like this for learning the kana but I didn’t realize it costs money to use fully so I am debating purchasing a subscription to the paid version

Write Japanese - this one I’m using to learn the correct stroke order for the kana and I like it for the most part

Renshuu - I just signed in to use this one last night and it looks interesting. I’ve seen it recommended by several blogs and even when google searching language learning and watching YouTube videos so I’m excited to try it out!

NHK for School - I saw someone recommend this on their blog and I remember using the website version in the past so I know this will be helpful when it comes to reading

Jisho - this is a dictionary app that I’ve seen recommended on so many platforms and I’m always open to a good dictionary!

Japanese - this one was recommended on a blog post and it allows you to add vocabulary and interesting phrases so I thought it’d be useful once I start on learning sentence structure and grammar

Italki - this one is the one I’m most excited to use. It connects you to people who speak and teach your target language for a set timed lesson, and it does cost money but you pay by lesson, not on a subscription basis. So if you do one lesson the first week and then another lesson in three weeks or something, you only pay for those two lessons. I’m really looking forward to trying this one out in the future once I get more comfortable with speaking.

Anki - a flash card app I am using to currently learn hiragana and will soon use for katakana and eventually kanji and phrases. I was gonna use Quizlet but I ended up liking this one better for my current needs.

LingoDeer, Memrise, Babbel, HiNative, HelloTalk, Hey Japan, Busuu, Kanji, Kana, Sensei - apps that I have and have not tried yet. I really like the ones I’ve already tried so I’m not sure if I’m going to use these ones soon but if I get bored of current apps than I at least have alternatives to turn to to continue learning

Textbooks/Workbooks/Materials - I currently own two workbooks but will include the resource I am planning on buying, as well as any stationery material I am also using!

Japanese for Busy People I - This was the workbook we had for the Japanese class I took at my university while in high school. My dad ended up buying it for me if I promised not to take Japanese classes once I went to college. (My parents don’t believe it is useful to know and they are helping pay for my education so I didn’t have a choice.) I haven’t started reusing it yet but once I am comfortable with the kana then I will resume using it.

Let’s Learn Katakana - this is a katakana writing book my older brother bought for me (he is supportive of everything I have an interest in even if he doesn’t understand it himself) and it is really useful for learning and practicing writing katakana. However I am still focusing on relearning hiragana so I will return to this workbook after I solidify my hiragana knowledge.

Genki I and Genki II textbook/workbook + answer key bundle - I am planning to buy this off of Amazon as I have heard from most people who are learning Japanese on their own that this set is really useful for self studying so of course I am going to invest in it once I get paid next week.

I am also looking for a hiragana, katakana, and kanji writing workbook to practice those skills.

Free Online Resources -

YouTube!

Anime!

Music

Manga

Anything free I can find online when google searching resources

Stationary Supplies -

Kokuyo Campus Smart Ring Binder in pink

Tombow Fudenosuke Brush Pens in black

Index cards

Pilot g-2 fashion pens

Zebra mild liner highlighter/markers

Papermate Mechanical Pencils

Mini notebook to carry around for vocabulary

My iPad + Apple Pencil + Goodnotes 5

My Chromebook

A lot of resources but I am trying to stick with this for the long term. A few years ago, I self studied Japanese everyday for about 2 years and gained a good understanding but fell off from studying Japanese when I went to university.

My Current Study Routine* 🎀

*when I have more than 30 minutes to study, if I only have 30 minutes or less I just mess around on my language apps

I currently do not use any workbooks or textbooks as I am trying to re familiarize myself with the language. Here’s my current study routine!

Practice Anki flashcards 3 times or until I get 85-90% correct

Practice hiragana writing in Write Japanese app (~10min)

Duolingo lessons for 10 minutes

1 Japanese language Drops lesson

Use Renshuu until I get bored (~10-15min)

Watch an episode of anime as a reward (Japanese audio with English subtitles)

I will switch this up to a more structured way of studying once I start using my textbooks and workbooks, but for now this relaxed style of learning is working for me time wise and attention wise (ADHD brain right here).

I also listen to Japanese music throughout the day and try to recall hiragana characters correctly in my head when I have the time. I also sneak in some practice when at work on my apps and whatnot. I mentioned in my last daily check in some of my favorite Japanese artists, and I also love Japanese versions of K-pop songs too! I’m currently watching Bungou Stray Dogs on crunchyroll right now, and I’m open to any recommendations for what to watch next!

If anyone has any language learning tips or resources they’d want to share, feel free to comment! It would be greatly appreciated!

Til next time my lovelies 🩷🤍

[haruharuz]

Stop over complicating your life and start watching educational kids shows on subjects you like while you clean and eat.

Like sure it might not go into complicated detail but you’re still going to learn basics. Learning another language? Go on YouTube and watch kids shows in that language.

[haru-dipthong]

When learning a language, I think it’s really inefficient to think about grammar or vocab as “X can be used in A, B, C, and D situations, and it means slightly different things in each situation”. Your brain simply can’t recall all the possibilities quickly enough for this way of thinking to be practical. In reality, out of A, B, C, and D, it probably only gets used commonly in, say, situation A and B. And even then, it’s probably more practical to consider the A and B uses of the grammar/vocab separately, rather than as multiple uses of a single thing. The most egregious example I remembering encountering when I was just starting learning Japanese, was an article about the grammar のだ.

This screenshot is from the Wasabi Online Grammar Reference, which I used when I was starting to learn Japanese seriously, and I think it’s a great resource. However, I think they went a bit overboard on this article with linguistic detail. It’s simply not practical to try to memorise all the possible uses of のだ. The article lists 5 possible functions of のだ:

Expressing Reason

Interpretation

Discovery (Non-Physical Objects)

Summary (Rewording)

Preliminary Remarks

It’s probably linguistically accurate to break it into 5 different categories, and I can see how this categorisation would be valuable to a linguist studing the mechanics of Japanese (an engineer). But to someone whose goal is to communicate in Japanese (a driver), it’s not very useful. I’d break it up into two total functions, like this:

Publicising your internal monologue (i.e. explaining something to yourself out loud)

Explaining a situation you’re both witnessing (one of you may be the cause ofthe situation)

I think putting the use of のだ into these two categories makes it much easier to understand how it’s used. The five categories of the original article were completely overwhelming to me as a language learner, and I honestly think it hindered my understanding of the grammar, because it caused me to make incorrect assumptions about its common use. The article emphasised each category equally when the “explaining something to yourself” use case is overwhelmingly more common, plus it caused me to overthink every time I encountered it in the wild (”which one of those 5 cases is this?… and what were the 5 again?…”).

[maeve-studies]

Tips for Language Learning

Hi friends! It's hard to believe it's been 3 years since I started learning Spanish. I can comfortably speak, read, and listen at a basic to intermediate level at this point. Earlier this year, after Duolingo changed the format of its website, I broke my streak and took some time off using it. Instead, I started reading in Spanish every night, and I read out loud either to myself or to my boyfriend. I also have started watching some TV in Spanish with subtitles in Spanish as well. Sometimes, these activities definitely feel like a stretch and some days I am convinced that reading and watching TV is doing nothing for my Spanish learning.

Today, after a few months away, I finally reopened Duolingo and jumped back in where I left off. I cannot even STRESS to you how much easier the lessons were. I have developed an ear for how sentences are supposed to be structured through reading, and I feel more comfortable speaking because I read out loud often as well. Pick a book you're familiar with and start reading in your target language! I am reading an e-book, which is great if you are just starting out because you can always highlight a word and translate it directly from your e-book. It's a real game changer for language learning in my opinion!

[manasseh]

Hoi hoi! So i thought I could ask you some advice about learning a language. I'm currently learning French (I've learnt very little) but at the same time, i also want to learn Korean/Japanese. Do you think that would be fine or should someone focus only on one particular language at one time..?

hoihoi there ree ~♡ this became a really long answer!! ^^' so i'll put the summary at the start lol I explain below the cut!

it really depends on what you want out of learning these languages !

tldr; you're smart and young so I think you can do anything you want!!!! but my tips are : 1. know what you want (casual hobby or big goals) and how much time you have 2. from personal experience it's easier to study multiple languages at different fluency levels** :) (AKA if you have trouble now, pick up that second language later!! ^^)

when you're learning languages as a hobby, all is fair,- you can play around and you'll learn a bit (or a lot) of all of them along the way. Some people learn like 5 languages at the same time!!! However, many of us are busy people 😬 so we likely have to divide our time when learning a lot of languages. It may take a lot more time in the long run to get better at each of them. If you don't mind that / have enough time / only want to have fun, learn as many as you want and whenever you want !

But if you want to for example be fluent in French, I would focus on that one and either spend less time on KR/JP, or set them aside for now :) (fe. when you're intermediate in French, I know there's many good lessons online for Korean, taught in French! Its like learning both at the same time 🤗)**

Personally, I have very ~serious~ goals for myself ᆞ TOPIK lvl.6 in Korean by October, for career and academic goals  /  ᆞ Conversational in Hebrew within 4 years, for (maybe) immigration

Because of this it's important I actually focus on them ༼;´༎ຶ۝༎ຶ༽ I limit myself to only these - at least until I feel a little more confident in Hebrew! ** I think it's easier for me to study two because they're both at different levels (advanced vs beginner) ; being a beginner at both seems more difficult, because the type of learning and immersion is more personal effort(?).