Category Archives: Language Learning Techniques
The Office Learning Environment
I was busy working on a presentation I’m doing for a bunch of students at work tomorrow (looks like I may have an audience of about 100! Nice.), and I took this picture and made it into one of my slides for the presentation (On technology and self-study).
There’s a couple of items here that are [...]
Also posted in Extensive Reading, Motivation 5 Comments
Don’t Hang Up!
So this is probably one of the more counterintuitive ideas in learning a language that I’ve read about recently. Jennifer writes about teaching her students to not hang up on telemarketers. I had an experience like that where I received a phone call at my office from a marketing person about the OS used on my [...]
Posted in Language Learning Techniques 7 Comments
One Man`s Learning Environment
So here`s your chance. You get to take a peek at the inside of my (rather messy) book shelf, where you can get an idea of just one of the many ways I create an environment ideal for learning a language.
As you can see, I have a mix of both manga and actual books. By [...]
Also posted in Extensive Reading, Motivation 12 Comments
Building Uncontained Motivation
How do you do it? Especially with long-term projects.
This is oneof my tricks. Start with an action that can be measured in small, daily, chunks (if you can’t do that yet, break it down until you can measure it). We’ll talk about new sentences in your SRS for this purpose.
Then make your daily amount even smaller. [...]
Also posted in Language, SRS 18 Comments
Using Wikis to Learn Languages
A quick video to show you how I use a combination of Wikipedia and notepad to create quick and easy SRS sentences. See if there’s anything you would like to use.
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Also posted in SRS, Technology & Language, Video 31 Comments
Quoting the Greats – In Japanese
Are you like me? Do you want to own a language, not just know it? One of the tools I used was Wikiquote. Obviously, the Japanese version. And in combination with an SRS, you`ll get your best results. Here`s how I do it.
Search by topic or by thinker, whichever suits your fancy.
Read quotes. Select ones you [...]
Also posted in SRS 15 Comments
Get a Side of Net Culture with Your Language!
Internet forums. You will never find a more wretched hive of scum and villainy.
. . . Am I right?
But you want to find out anyways, don`t you? Well, here you go. I`ll hand it over to you.
The Japanese version of Yahoo! Answers ： 知恵袋。
If you want to watch people argue and disagree and how they do [...]
Also posted in Fun Stuff 16 Comments
Beware the Children`s Books
No, seriously. This article may just be my personal deal, but I highly recommend not reading them.
With any language that uses the same writing system as yours, it may not be a problem. If you`re learning a different language though, like Japanese, I would watch out.
Why? No kanji. The writing system is deliberately adjusted and [...]
Also posted in Extensive Reading 18 Comments
5 Things You Can Study Right Now for Free
Of course you can learn for free! For example, you can study:
The News – It may not be the most entertaining thing in the world (although lately I`ve been . . . hankering for it?) but the news is a great way to get acquainted with your target culture and understand how their mass communication [...]
Also posted in Language, Learning 6 Comments
Linguistics You Can Actually Use – Morphemes