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"Organising and planning"
Spaced repetition software (SRS) is widely discussed online, and generally speaking, there is a spectrum between people who think SRS is the holy grail of learning anything and those that think SRS is artificial, passive and just a waste of time. This article argues that this polarisation is a serious mistake, SRS is a tool and like any other tool, how we use it determines what we get from it.
Rigorous scientific research typically requires large sample sizes, otherwise it isn’t possible to draw any conclusions about the population at large, which is the goal of most studies. However, experimenting with yourself as the only participant might not be relevant for other learners, but it’s highly relevant for you. This article is about how to use self-experimentation to learn Chinese.
If you use spaced repetition software like Anki for learning Chinese and do so for a few years, you will end up with a very large flashcard deck. Some people advocate deleting the deck if it becomes too big. This article looks closer at the pros and cons of keeping large decks and why you might want to consider starting over from scratch.
Keeping a notebook with you at all times is essential, not only because it makes sure you don’t forget important things you want to learn, look up, follow up or remember for other reasons, but also because it help you keep your mind clear and enables you to focus on what’s important and thus learn more Chinese.
Spaced repetition software offers a great way of measuring progress, every step forward is recorded and clearly visible. However, this is also a trap, because even though SRS is useful, it’s just a tool, not a comprehensive strategy. Measurable progress is a great help, but only if you use it correctly.
If we want to combine studying with a normal life or if we want to get the most out of pure language studying, we really need to examine the time we have available and see if it’s possible to learn more without removing other important things. This article uses the metaphor of a barrel with rocks, pebbles, sand and water to show that most people have more time available than they think.
Studying isn’t always easy and some tasks require you to be much more productive than others. The solution isn’t to stop studying when you don’t feel like it, but rather to find something else to study that matches your current state of mind. In this article, I discuss the importance of adjusting your studying to how you currently feel and I also offer some actual examples.
Studying languages, questions crop up all the time. What’s the difference between X and y? Why is sentence Z written in this way? In this article, I argue that how we handle these kinds of problems is dependent on what resources we have available (teachers, friends, etc.), but regardless of that, what matters most is how we choose to use the resources we have at our disposal. If we aren’t careful, we might end up wasting them or even losing them entirely.
This is just a short notice to let you know that “Defining Language Hacking: Lessons Learned From Hacking Chinese“, an article written by me, has been published over at The Mezzofanti Guild. As the title implies, it deals mainly with language hacking, but I also talk a little bit about my own background and my [...]
The way in which we count proficiency or progress have a huge impact on how we study. This is relevant for teachers and students alike. Teachers should strive towards counting (grading) what counts (is important); students should do likewise when assessing themselves and also be aware of the general problem.
