Quick Tips For Learning Languages On Your Own

I thought there might be a lot of other people who would benefit from reading this, too.

(Original tweet.)

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Mom brought the printer to the repair shop last Wednesday, and because of that I am enjoying printing stuff again! I decided to pick up a book again, since it's been so long since I read for leisure. I have already read the Time Keeper before, but now I plan to read it again with a deeper understanding of the world than I did 2 or 3 years ago.

I went out to see my friends this Friday afternoon. We met up at a popular café, and as usual, I'm late. It was my first time eating at the said café and I'm looking forward to going there again. The food is okay, the ambiance is good even though it doesn't have booths that would give a semblance of privacy. I thought it would be hard for the people to get intimate and personal with each other since you can clearly see everyone around but I saw that the people we're eating with actually enjoyed their companies.

It was fun seeing two of my friends again, since I last saw the two of them at our graduation. I hope we still meet in the future since we won't be studying at the same school anymore. Best of luck to Mama and Bulailai.

from pinterest

Hello! I'm sorry if this has been asked before, but how do you become proficient at handling conversations in Japanese/handling grammar very well? I read your post on the JLPT, and it addressed issues I have been tip toe-ing around--indeed, passive actions such as listening or reading are easier than the active ones. How did you go about that? Did you write a bunch of sentences daily? Did you have a conversation partner? What would you rec. to someone who lives outside Japan? Thank you!

This is an excellent question, and one that I get asked a lot irl by Japanese people in particular. Let’s talk about gaining fluency and the ways we can go about it!

How to Gain Fluency in Japanese (and Other Languages)

Speaking Fluency versus Accuracy

Language proficiency is divided into two separate categories:

Fluency: Although there are no widely agreed-upon definitions or measures of language fluency, someone is typically said to be fluent if their use of the language appears fluid, or natural, coherent, and easy as opposed to slow, halting use. In other words, fluency is often described as the ability to produce language on demand and be understood.

Accuracy: Correctness of language use, especially grammatical correctness and word choice.

By the above definitions, a “fluent” speaker may make grammatical mistakes, but they can speak without having to stop and think too much about conjugations, word choice, etc.

An “accurate” speaker can speak with nearly zero grammatical/word choice mistakes. However, the speed of their utterances isn’t generally taken into account, so it could take an “accurate” person twice as long to articulate the same idea as a “fluent” person. 

Ideally, you need to strike a good balance between these two qualities when speaking. I have a boss, God bless him, who is 100% fluency and 0% accuracy and…man is it hard to understand what he’s saying sometimes, but he can generally get his point across just barely. I have another coworker who is 100% accuracy and takes about 3 minutes to form a sentence because he wants it to be perfect. 

How to Increase Speaking/Writing Accuracy

First, let’s talk about the easiest thing to improve, which is accuracy. It’s also (in my opinion) the least fun thing to improve, because it means grammar books and vocabulary memorization. 

You can only use a language accurately if you know what is correct and what is incorrect, and you can only learn that by studying grammar and vocabulary (or if you’re a native speaker and picked it up innately, you lucky bastard).

So here’s some things you can do to increase your accuracy:

For example, if you’re having a hard time using the passive, you need to review that part of your textbook and find some exercises to drill it into your head. 

Say the correct thing aloud. Lots. Sometimes I just walk around my apartment and narrate everything I see/do like a crazy person, but that’s good practice. 

Write example sentences using the grammar you’re struggling with and say them aloud too. 

There’s a bunch of cool apps that connect you with native speakers that can help correct you too! I used to use HelloTalk, I think. 

If you’re a creative soul, when I was studying for the JLPT, I took 1 grammar point and 5 vocabulary words from my JLPT study books and used them to write a 2-page short story about the adventures of ネギ, a stray black cat that smelled like green onions because she napped in an onion field. Then I had a Japanese friend check it over for me and mark mistakes. I hand-wrote them to improve my abysmal handwriting at the same time. It was really fun! I sometimes think about doing it again just for funsies.

When someone corrects you, don’t feel like your entire life is over and you’re a failure and you’ll never get it right haha. I’ve seen people fall into that hopeless mindset, and that’s just nonsense. It’s a good opportunity for learning and nothing more! Say the correct thing you’ve just been taught out loud, then write it down if you can. And, if possible, find a chance to use it in conversation asap.

How to Increase Speaking/Writing Fluency

Now this is the hard one. Especially for those learners who do not have native speakers nearby. 

I’m going to be dead honest with you. I started formally studying Japanese at uni, and I had a Japanese roommate/best friend since year one. I had a 4.0 GPA in my Japanese classes (and only my Japanese classes lol) because I was and still am a MEGA NERD about it. 

…But it wasn’t until I studied abroad in Japan my 4th year of uni that I gained fluency. 

There are a lot of things that can hold us back from fluency. An interesting thing I’ve noted is that Foreign Language is perhaps the only subject in which a student’s personality can directly affect their progress. To gain fluency, you have to go forth and speak, but if you are naturally a shy person, that is going to hinder you. If you are the kind of person who takes mistakes/failures poorly, you will be less likely to take risks and try to say harder sentences. In contrast, you can get full marks in math regardless of the above personality traits. 

I’m not saying that you have to be an outgoing explosion of a human being in order to gain fluency. But what I am saying is that you have to be willing to seek out conversations, and you have to be willing to take chances. Get out of your comfort zone. Use that new word you picked up the other day. Try to explain something that is difficult for you. 

My problem was that, while I lived with a native speaker who would have happily taught me anything I asked, her English proficiency was much higher than my Japanese proficiency. And when I struggled to say something in Japanese, I’d fall back onto English. And when she told me something I didn’t understand in Japanese, she’d repeat it in English instead of Japanese, because that was easier for us both. The same thing happened when I was in Japanese class as well. I always had the assurance that I could fall back on English.

But when I elected to study abroad in Japan for 3 months, I knew that this was my big chance. So on the host family form in the “other requests” area, I wrote that I specifically wanted a host family that could not speak English. I was setting fire to my crutches, and I was scared but excited to see them burn. 

By the end of my three months in Japan, I had gone from “Chotto matte kudasai” and needing a minute to form my reply, to “Okay, yeah I see that movie too and I liked the action scenes, but I didn’t care for the story little.” (I’ve underlined mistakes that I would have made in Japanese, to show you that I sacrificed some accuracy to obtain higher fluency.)

So, in short, the easiest and quickest way to increase your spoken fluency is to throw away all the crutches you can and use the language as much as possible. Every single day. Even if you’re just having an imaginary conversation with yourself! And like I said, there are a bunch of cool apps that connect you with Japanese people who want to learn English and you can do language exchanges with them. I had a lot of fun with those in the past. 

As for increasing writing fluency…well. That’s a tough question with Japanese, because I can type Japanese at like 100 wpm, but my Japanese handwriting fluency is at a 10/100. I can read and type at the level of a native Japanese high school student, but I can only write the kanji that 7 year old can write. That’s no exaggeration.

The big reason for that dichotomy is that my work is paper-free. 100% of my work is done on screen, so about the only time I have to write out something is when I’m filling out a form, which includes my name (katakana), address, and maybe occupation. 

If you want to increase your Japanese handwriting speed, just keep on writing. Write those little short stories about ネギ like I did, or find some writing prompts (I just started a side-blog with writing prompts yesterday btw) or keep a little diary. Make opportunities to write. 

How to Have Nice Handwriting in Japanese

Okay, full disclaimer: I am the absolute LAST person qualified to talk about this, because I have awful handwriting in Japanese. 

Unless you have prior experience with a different language that uses kanji, or you lack the keen eye of an artist, you will likely struggle to develop neat handwriting. 

Personally, I really like using this app called Japanese Kanji Sensei. It’s on Android (not sure about iOS), and if you pay just a few bucks you can make your own kanji sets and stuff. Anyways, it will show you how to write the characters prettily. It gives you a good frame of reference for what nice, pencil/pen-written characters (versus calligraphy characters). It has hiragana and katakana on it too!

I get a stylus and write out the characters on this app for the muscle memory, so my hands remember the sensation of writing a certain character. (The muscle memory is different if you only use your fingertip.) This muscle memory and repetition is how Japanese people learn how to internalize kanji as well. I really enjoy and recommend this app. I’m sure that there are others out there like it too.

Summary

TL;DR: Review your textbooks, take risks, use every resource available or make your own, and just have fun with it! 💗

This is the rare money moomin . Reblog and money will come your way !

“Lack of direction, not lack of time, is the problem. We all have twenty-four hour days.”

— Zig Ziglar

How to deal with procrastination

One of the biggest problems for students is procrastination! It takes different forms for everyone but ultimately it stops us all at some point. Since there are several reasons for procrastinating, I’ve put together the five main types and a few ideas on how to deal with it. 

You’ve got poor work/productivity habits. You leave things until the last minute since you “work better under pressure”. You probably think you’ll do something after you’ve finished something else, and then never do. You get distracted whenever you’re trying to study and will sit waiting to feel motivated but it never comes. For this I’d suggest:

create a productivity inspiring workspace - find somewhere that you can set up a study space, whether it is an actual office or just a desk. Organise everything that you will need. I have a selection of pens and my few notebooks on the top so I can easily access them. Remove anything that might cause you to be distracted and doesn’t need to be in your immediate reach. If you’re got space, put up some motivational pictures. This could be my motivational printables, some quotes or your own pictures. Plants are also proven to boost productivity, so might be worth putting a small one nearby!

create an action list rather than to-dos - write down a few manageable tasks that you need to do and be specific on the steps you should take. Writing the actions they require will help you see what you should be doing to complete something, instead of just the overall task. If you’re able to break it down, you can take actionable steps rather than mentally having to think of each point.

focus on 20-30 minute periods - generally, we lose focus after a while so taking regular breaks can help give you chance to relax and refocus. Apps like Forest allow you to set a timer and will give you off your phone at the same time. Obviously, if you’re being productive, don’t suddenly cut that off because it is “time for a break”. Here are some other free alternatives.

remove distractions as best you can - I’m always distracted by social media so I will use Forest on my phone or time-lapse myself so I can’t use my phone. With my MacBook, I have two accounts. One for university and one for everything else. I am not logged into any social media on my uni account so I can’t just check it for a minute then end up wasting 20 minutes :’-)

find an accountability partner - pick someone who you can rely on to check on you regularly and see how your tasks are coming along. You can send them your to-do list and then every few hours you can update them with your progress. You won’t want to let them down. Alternatively, you can study with a friend! Tumblr/Instagram is basically my partner!

use the two-minute rule - if something takes less than two minutes, do it. Don’t make an excuse, just do it. Tasks that are longer you can either delegate or defer. Here is a simple visualisation of what I mean.

record your progress - doing a simple “don’t break the chain” in your planner is a great way to see how productive you’re being and therefore get you more motivated to keep it up! The ‘100 days of productivity’ challenge might be worth doing!

You’re feeling stressed and overwhelmed. Everything seems to be mounting up and nothing seems doable. You don’t know where or how to start. For this I’d suggest:

ask for help - if you’re feeling like this, it is likely you need some help in some form or another. See if a family member, friend, classmate or teacher (or Google) can help or give you a starting point. Emailing your teacher is a great option if you’re a little nervous about speaking to them in person. Plus you won’t forget what they told you because you’ll have a response.

remind yourself that getting started is the first step - you don’t need to finish a task in a matter of minutes. Start doing something small. Maybe organise what you need, highlight the important bits of your assessment, or draft an essay plan. The secret to getting ahead is getting started!

divide and conquer - figure out what is the overall task that you need to do and split it into manageable parts. For instance, with an essay, the aim is to write it! Divide it into planning out what you want to write, any references you need, summarising a final draft and then writing each paragraph. By dividing bigger tasks into actionable parts you can reduce the obstacles and get through each part in a more timely manner.

reward yourself - create a system to celebrate completing a selection of tasks. By rewarding your progress you’ll build an incentive to work and reinforce productivity (great for your self-discipline!).

learn to forgive yourself - if you have an off day, that is okay! When the stress of your education is getting too much, it is necessary to have time out.  Remember to come back to it later and try again.

don’t over schedule - if you’re feeling pressure from the amount of work and then the added pressure of trying to stick to a time limit, you’re just going to go crazy. Set yourself flexible times to get something done instead of being heavily structured. Give yourself time for a break and the ability to change tasks.

stick with one task - it can be so tempting to multitask but try not to. Try to keep the focus on the what you’re doing until it is done. If you struggle with that, you could write down anything useful that you randomly think about for another task, use a break-time to think about that other task or alternate between subjects/tasks every few hours.

You’re a perfectionist. You either don’t want to start something out of fear you won’t get it right or you can get stuck on the small details. There is a pressure to achieve the unachievable. For this I’d suggest:

focus on getting started, instead of finishing - it is easy to get overwhelmed thinking about what something is supposed to be like finished if you’re a perfectionist. Take things one step at a time. It’s also useful to remember the sooner you start, the more time you’ll have to perfect it at the end!

make drafts - if you’re overwhelmed, take half an hour to map out your plan of attack. Drafts can take many forms: summaries, scaffolds/outlines, essay plans, post-it notes, etc. I find it much easier to get on with work if I have a bit of a plan.

remember that your perfectionist tendencies aren’t actually improving your work or productivity but hindering you - you’re continually setting yourself unrealistic objects and (like me) probably feel let down by yourself if you don’t reach them. Be realistic and focus on getting it done!

accept mistakes - you’ve written something wrong, don’t panic! Cross it out with a single line and move on. Things happen and you have to accept it. You can’t rip up the page every time you do something wrong, even if it is so tempting.

put things in perspective - is what you’re beating yourself up about right now going to mean anything in a week, a month, a year? Be honest if it isn’t, is it really worth putting unnecessary pressure on yourself.

praise yourself through the process - try not to criticise yourself but recognise your progress.

don’t compare yourself - this is very hard not to do but remember we are all different. Just because “you’re not as good” or don’t understand something as easily as others, it doesn’t mean you’re any less! Everyone was a beginner once and we all learn at different paces. Work to your strengths!

You want to do something else. You find whatever you’re doing boring. You want it to be over with but don’t want to get started. The ultimate catch 22, right? For this I’d suggest:

remember that putting it off isn’t going to make it go away - if you leave it too long you’ll end up getting more stressed about it. Best to get it over with.

make a plan from the get-go - once you know something is coming up (e.g. a test, an assessment, etc) make notes on it! That could be questions, annotations, potential topics, citations, etc. By making the effort to spend time reading through, you’ll save your future self some stress. Especially if it’s a topic you have forgotten. That way your notes act as a reminder so you can get started.

set a finish time with a reward - tell yourself that if you finish something by a certain time and then you can do something else. Use your self-discipline to not go back on this. Set a realistic time and try to get it complete before. If you can think that you’re doing something fun once it is completed, you’ll be more motivated to get it done.

make a structure - for note-taking, it can be overwhelming looking at a textbook and thinking what you’re going to write out. Make a note-taking layout/colour code that works for you and that subject. Mine is here - it just gives me an idea of how I’d lay everything instead of going in with no action plan.

try to make it fun - this could be using YouTube to learn or starting a study group. Use different methods for memorising information such as flashcards, mindmaps or study guides (like question/answer).

make the effort to refocus - if you’re finding something boring and you’re unfocused, walk away for 5 minutes, get a drink and come back. If you’re really struggling, change topics for a while. Find a point where you can finish and start doing something else that is productive.

listen to some music - generally, music without lyrics are best for focusing. Spotify has a great playlist for studying called ‘focus’. However, I find my regular music good for getting me a little more motivated and awake. I also like writing essays to music because I weirdly sort of type in the same rhythm. Funny study hack I’ve found that works for me haha!

write your thoughts down - Another thing I’ve been trying is externalising my thoughts. If I get distracted by something or have a “gosh, I need to remember that” moment, I will write it down. By getting it out my brain and onto a bit of paper, I no longer have to think about it and can continue. 

You have no motivation. Often we feel that motivation is the only thing you need to get on with something, but this isn’t totally true. You need a mix of motivation and discipline. As the saying goes: “motivation may get you started, but discipline keeps you going”. To build your motivation, I’d suggest:

have a mass organise - usually when I’m feeling unmotivated, I’ll clear out my desk and sort out my computer. This involves throwing out stationery that doesn’t work or scrap paper. I usually make piles of spare stationery and will re-organise my desk drawers. For my computer, I will pull out all my files to my desktop then start working through them. I’ll delete duplicates, rename files properly, and put them in the right place.

find some new stationery - weirdly buying stationery is one of those things that instantly makes you want to be productive. Head to the shops and spend a little something on a new pen, highlighter or notebook!

film yourself - studying generally doesn’t give us any instant gratification which can make it feel like a drag. By filming yourself working you can get a little video at the end which shows your progress. I love watching time-lapses of myself because you see all the work you did super quickly. It also means I’m not touching my phone!

set yourself some goals - write down a few things you want to achieve, in the short or long term. Put it somewhere that you’ll be reminded about it! By externalising your goals, you’re more likely to make the effort to achieve it.

check/make a studygram and studyblr - this is one of most motivating this I’ve done. Having social media dedicated to studying has helped not only improve my work ethic but my whole attitude towards education. Getting involved in the community is a great motivator. Here is a post on how to set up a studyblr.

I hope this post gives you just a few ideas on how to tackle procrastination! If you’ve got any tips you’d like to share, please message me! x

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do you have any non-fiction book recommendations?

i know why the caged bird sings - maya angelou

maya angelou puts the same amount of care into her words in this book as she does with her poems

i do remember the first couple of chapters being hard to get thru bc i was easily bored, but also, i was in the height of my laziness during the summer + this was for an assignment lol

when breath becomes air - paul kalanithi

beautiful prose, will make you cry

guns, germs, and steel - jared diamond

a rly spicy take on history that was rly enjoyable

also watched the documentary version of this in whap

outliers: the story of success - malcolm gladwell

even spicier than mr diamond’s book lol

discusses success from a different perspective

definitely interesting to read through, although i’m not sure if i agree with all of his conclusions

malcolm gladwell also has a podcast called “revisionist history” that’s rly interesting and does a similar thing with this book where he examines things from a different angle

five days at memorial - sheri fink

an account of what happened at a hospital struck by hurricane katrina

i feel like some perspectives should have been afforded a bit more leeway and more description compared to others, but it was still a decent read

hope and other luxuries: a mother’s life with a daughter’s anorexia - clare dunkle

i find that all the books i’ve read on anorexia so far have been personal accounts, so it was interesting to read about it from the mother’s perspective

i used this book as a basis for my junior research paper actually

the immortal life of henrietta lacks - rebecca skloot

i just think the case of henrietta lacks is fascinating

on writing - stephen king

a hybrid between an autobiography and a manual on how to write

an interesting read, although i’m fairly sure that stephen king would kill me for how many adverbs i use on a day to day basis

there were a couple others, but i don’t rly remember them very well :( hope this helps!!

HEY! STUDENTS LOOKING AT THE AP EXAMS RIGHT NOW!

Crash Course LITERATURE.

Crash Course CHEMISTRY.

Crash Course PSYCHOLOGY.

Crash Course BIOLOGY.

Crash Course ANATOMY/PHYSIOLOGY.

Crash Course WORLD HISTORY. AND WORLD HISTORY II.

Crash Course US HISTORY.

Crash Course BIG HISTORY.

Crash Course US POLITICS/GOV.

Crash Course ECONOMICS.

Crash Course PHYSICS.

AND HERE ARE SOME BLOOPERS FOR YOU TO RELAX TO.

YOU’RE WELCOME.