Hi guys! A new week has already begun – and although I had a busy Monday yesterday, I think it got off to a pretty good start. How’s your week going already?
Anyway, time to talk about my 6WC progress again. Yay! 🙂
Time logged to date: 1255 minutes (20 hours, 55 minutes)
Time spent learning Slovak: 419 minutes (6 hours, 59 minutes – I am so mad I didn’t notice this until I started typing up the post… so close to seven hours!)
So if you compare those numbers to three days ago… I have made a giant leap! I’ve added fourteen hours of study overall and almost four hours to Slovak alone – but then it was the first weekend, so I’m less surprised than I could be.
Let’s talk about Slovak for a moment. I still haven’t really found a way to review effectively but I’m going through my lessons at a slightly more relaxed pace and I feel like it is starting to pay off. I’m also trying to use memrise a little more diligently (she says, having not used it in a couple of days…) so that I get some more exposure to the vocabulary. Don’t get me wrong, I’m still making a lot of mistakes and I still remember far less than I should, but I feel like I’m coming out of the other side, where I might make some real progress. Yessss!
I also spent some time today making some new flashcards for Slovak vocabulary, using the method outlined in Gabriel Wyner’s book Fluent Forever. It took me like an hour and a half to make about fifteen flashcards, but I’m going to try and stick with this method and see how it goes. I definitely need the help with Slovak, the words are just trickling away.
And what about the other languages?
Well, I’ve studied all of them on the days I should since Friday – so that’s four days in a row with all my studying done!
But let’s take a look at what I’ve been doing…
Mmm, charts.
Okay, so first things first: what’s that misc column all about?
It’s basically born out of my need to categorise things, but also my other need to not have hundreds of tags messing this page up. So misc contains things like a progress check I did for Slovak, using the Flashsticks app (…that’s why there’s so much Spanish in there – and French), using Duolingo, etc. It also contains a little bit of reading because I was reading/writing in German for the post on Saturday, but I didn’t bother to separate out the time.
Pretty much a giant contribution to my additional time this weekend in Mandarin was TV – I discovered another Chinese drama to watch and I am loving it. It’s called 花千骨 (The Journey of Flower) and you can watch the first episode here. I’ve also slowly been making my way through the final lesson of NPCR 4; I’ve just got some more exercises and the last reading to do and I’ll be done! Finally!
For German, I did some reading and wrote out a blog post and I watched Anastasia, dubbed, on Austrian Netflix. I love that film so much and hadn’t seen it in ages – and it was fun. I feel a lot like I need to knuckle down with German and work on grammar and textbook stuff, but watching TV and reading and doing whatever else are actually just as important. I might switch one of my games into German this weekend and try that out – but that’s if I have time to play at all.
Spanish achieved a lot this week because I’m taking part in the Flashsticks challenge – so I’m using their app to try and learn as many words as possible. I estimated about thirty minutes a session I was using it, but honestly it was probably longer than that. It’s so addictive! (And I’m going to talk about it more on Wednesday…) I’ve also just started lesson ten in my Teach Yourself book and I’m thinking of doing something with an Assimil course, but that might come after the challenge.
And, uh, French? Well, I learnt all the Spanish words in the Flashsticks app, so I’m trying the French ones too. I don’t think I’m going to go on any kind of French binge any time soon, but I may as well count the time. And I’m remembering much more than I thought I would!
So, my goals before the next report (which should be on Friday, if you were wondering):
- still try to study both languages every day
- DON’T give in to the week two slump. It’s a thing. I’m sure it’s a thing.
Aaaaaand, that’s it! I hope all of your Novembers are going well! 🙂