Last week, as I took a break from a main topic and just recorded the numbers for the week and recapped, I did end up having a bit of a topic to discuss, because I ended up giving up the ghost on my ‘platonic ideal’ schedule for working days and switched from 90 minutes reading … Continue reading Efficiency Vs. Accessibility
So this is the second week after my mini Add1 Challenge working on Toki Pona and switching back to focusing on Spanish. Two weeks is a pretty solid amount of time to stretch my legs and get back in the swing of things, and it was what I figured would be an appropriate amount of … Continue reading Taking A Break From Spanish: The Results
There are a number of knowledgeable, interesting voices on the internet that offer advice on language learning. I follow several of them and enjoy hearing their takes on different things. Often times they present interesting ideas and techniques, and I have taken a large amount of inspiration from a number of those voices—most notably Stephen … Continue reading Understanding Language Levels Comparatively
So here we are in 2020. After spending the last month or so reflecting on stuff that’s happened up to this point, it’s now a new year, which comes with new things to look forward to. Last year had its ups and downs, but trended toward positive for me, and I hope that continues onward. … Continue reading Yearly Themes for 2020
Something I’m constantly surprised by and reevaluating over time is my perceived current level in Spanish. I’ve talked a number of times on this blog about how difficult it is to judge yourself in an objective way and how easy it is to both overestimate and underestimate your own abilities, and I can comfortably say … Continue reading The Folly of Self-Assessments
A common topic to cover in language learning circles is finding and making time for studying, because doing that is often the key factor in determining whether someone learns a foreign language or not, all other things being equal. If someone devotes either an hour a week or an hour a day toward language learning, … Continue reading Recognizing When to Scale Back Learning
So it’s been a good chunk of time now that I’ve been using audio material heavily in my day to day routine, and I thought it would be a good idea to evaluate this routine again. A big part of being successful with self-directed projects is the ability to be introspective and approach your own … Continue reading Reflecting on Learning Methods
At the start of the year, I wrote a blog establishing my “Yearly Themes” for 2019, the overarching ideas I’ve been keeping in mind for making decisions in my life. I’d originally planned to touch base on those themes at the beginning of July, as a mid-year point of reflection, and as you can see, … Continue reading Reflections on Yearly Themes
So at the start of the month, I decided to experiment with my studying methods. Months before, I had switched up my focus to almost exclusively reading, because after the first month I had very noticeable results on not only my ability to follow books, but also my listening comprehension. However, after three additional months … Continue reading Watching/Listening Experiment Post-Mortem
So after spending four weeks limiting my language study time to reading only, the big question I had left was how my listening comprehension fared from the experience. This experiment was prompted by some case histories that I read, covering a variety of people at different levels of fluency in a second language who improved … Continue reading Reading-Only Experiment Postmortem
Fumbling Toward Fluent 