Moi: I’m going to Montreal and I want to speak French. The Intern: What does that even mean, the second part? Do you want to order food in French and generally discuss the weather? Or do you want to conduct an international human rights campaign complete with spontanous rousing speeches at public rallies and arguing in heated […]
Introverts believe learning a foreign language will give them access to friends and social interactions that aren’t possible in their home culture. That’s actually true, in my experience. Without getting into tedious definitions and evaluations of what Introversion is, I’m just going to stipulate that, while I’m not shy (shyness isn’t equal to introversion), I […]
Today I hit 75%, as scored by the software I use, of a 2,000-word Japanese language vocabulary deck, and I’m very happy about it. It’s more progress and faster than I’ve ever been able to make. Japanese vocabulary used to slip through neurons like sand through a colander, but the method and software I describe […]
Fell way behind after day 59, when I was at 1% per day. It’s now Day 100 and I’m at “only” 74% of a 2,000 word vocab pack at JapanesePod101.com. No fault of theirs or this method for learning Japanese vocabulary fast. The spaced repetition software and technique works well. I just haven’t been […]
I don’t have a long post today, or a screenshot yet (that’s coming later today), but I was just now struck with an emotion I believe it’s important to relate. It’s important relate because emotion is a huge motivation for discretionary spending of time. Foreign language learning represents an enormous outlay of discretionary time. […]
How fast can you learn Japanese vocabulary? I’m averaging exactly 1% per day of the JapanesePod101.com spaced repetition vocabulary cards. I couldn’t be happier with that. (It’s around 20 items a day of this 2,000-item vocabulary flash card pack.) Retention is high, remediated, and finally ensured by the spaced repetition algorithm. It’s an amazing turn-key […]
When studying vocabulary with a flash card set, you sometimes run into a translation which is ambiguous. For example, the Japanese kogitte, or, in hiragana, こぎって。The English translation is “check.” Does that mean “check” as in a quick examination? As in sound check? Or does it mean “check” as in a written instrument of payment? As […]
The spaced interval flash cards at Japanesepod101.com, Spanishpod101.com, and all the rest of the Languagepod101.com sites, are incredibly valuable and efficient for learning the first 2,000 words of a new language rapidly, efficiently, and permanently. They’re even easier to use if you know keyboard shortcuts. The keyboard shortcuts aren’t easy to […]
