My year was fairly typical. I still mostly focused on Vietnamese. I tried out a bunch of new tools, especially later in the year. Like every year I majorly burned myself out in the summer. I did dabble a bit in a few new languages that I have neighbors who speak (Korean, Nepali, and Thai) without too much success. I probably spent less time on Cantonese than I have in a while in the second half of the year. I rage quit Duolingo and mostly quit Spanish after that and went back to mostly exclusively focusing on Vietnamese. I also quit Drops after using it for 2 years working on Vietnamese because I concluded it wasn’t very effective for remembering words and realizing the course had some mistakes in it. SRS itself has its own issues, but Drops really needs to improve the types of exercises they offer or you probably won’t remember anything, at least for a relatively difficult language. I also got fed up with Clozemaster’s Vietnamese course after a few months. I had a bunch of italki credits left over from when they offered discounts a few years ago for some anniversary so I used those up working with Vietnamese minimal pairs, but had relatively little success. I also worked a few times with Amazing Talker teachers and two other teachers, one I found on Instagram and one elsewhere. I spent late spring and early summer doing a lot of extensive listening focused on Cantonese and Mandarin. This year I did a lot of learning on Instagram. I’m using Glossika now for Vietnamese and I also used it a few months at the beginning of this year. I tried a monthlong subscription to Ling for Thai and Nepali, but I don’t have enough time to use it regularly. I tried Jumpspeak for Vietnamese AI chat, but I’ve set it aside. I’m using Langi for Vietnamese listening now.
I think it's fantastic that you've been exploring different apps and studying various languages. I can relate to your experience of trying out different resources, as I do the same for Japanese. iTalki, Drops, and Clozemaster didn't work well for me either. I also tend to quickly delete apps I show to native speakers and negatively comment on. Also, I've never heard of Amazing Talker, Glossika, or Langi. Thanks for sharing all these resources and your experiences with them! I'm really inspired at how people can learn multiple languages simultaneously!
Hello Clayton! I make it a point to track my meditation sessions before studying and engage in some form of exercise afterwards. I've found that adding them as part of my "study routine" has proven helpful in preventing burnout. 😅
I haven't yet looked at my total study time for the year but I already know it's not as much as you did. And all most of your hours were for Japanese instead of spread across multiple languages like me.
Congrats on improving the anxiety you feel when speaking Japanese with strangers. I feel some anxiety at work when I recieve a phone call from a parent in French. For the most part I understand but it's when I go to speak that I have some hesitency. It usally goes well so I count it as a win instead of dwelling on how it wasn't perfect. The more I do it, the more I'll improve.
I'll be reflecting on 2023 very soon. Both yours and Lou's reflection posts will be helpful!
My year was fairly typical. I still mostly focused on Vietnamese. I tried out a bunch of new tools, especially later in the year. Like every year I majorly burned myself out in the summer. I did dabble a bit in a few new languages that I have neighbors who speak (Korean, Nepali, and Thai) without too much success. I probably spent less time on Cantonese than I have in a while in the second half of the year. I rage quit Duolingo and mostly quit Spanish after that and went back to mostly exclusively focusing on Vietnamese. I also quit Drops after using it for 2 years working on Vietnamese because I concluded it wasn’t very effective for remembering words and realizing the course had some mistakes in it. SRS itself has its own issues, but Drops really needs to improve the types of exercises they offer or you probably won’t remember anything, at least for a relatively difficult language. I also got fed up with Clozemaster’s Vietnamese course after a few months. I had a bunch of italki credits left over from when they offered discounts a few years ago for some anniversary so I used those up working with Vietnamese minimal pairs, but had relatively little success. I also worked a few times with Amazing Talker teachers and two other teachers, one I found on Instagram and one elsewhere. I spent late spring and early summer doing a lot of extensive listening focused on Cantonese and Mandarin. This year I did a lot of learning on Instagram. I’m using Glossika now for Vietnamese and I also used it a few months at the beginning of this year. I tried a monthlong subscription to Ling for Thai and Nepali, but I don’t have enough time to use it regularly. I tried Jumpspeak for Vietnamese AI chat, but I’ve set it aside. I’m using Langi for Vietnamese listening now.
I think it's fantastic that you've been exploring different apps and studying various languages. I can relate to your experience of trying out different resources, as I do the same for Japanese. iTalki, Drops, and Clozemaster didn't work well for me either. I also tend to quickly delete apps I show to native speakers and negatively comment on. Also, I've never heard of Amazing Talker, Glossika, or Langi. Thanks for sharing all these resources and your experiences with them! I'm really inspired at how people can learn multiple languages simultaneously!
Langi is really new and at present they seem to only have Vietnamese although it looks like they will expand to French and Italian
Looks amazing! What was the category you called “self-management” (自己管理) supposed to be?
Hello Clayton! I make it a point to track my meditation sessions before studying and engage in some form of exercise afterwards. I've found that adding them as part of my "study routine" has proven helpful in preventing burnout. 😅
I see.
I love how many wins you've recorded! From chatting to old ladies to reading a couple of dozen books.
I haven't yet looked at my total study time for the year but I already know it's not as much as you did. And all most of your hours were for Japanese instead of spread across multiple languages like me.
Congrats on improving the anxiety you feel when speaking Japanese with strangers. I feel some anxiety at work when I recieve a phone call from a parent in French. For the most part I understand but it's when I go to speak that I have some hesitency. It usally goes well so I count it as a win instead of dwelling on how it wasn't perfect. The more I do it, the more I'll improve.
I'll be reflecting on 2023 very soon. Both yours and Lou's reflection posts will be helpful!
Have a great rest of your year ✨
Looking forward to your post! Happy holidays and have a fantastic solo trip! :)
Thank you! Hope your holidays were good 😊