rigelmejo

[rigelmejo]

Found a possible challenge!

Read a game script! I am planning to read in Microsoft Edge (phone app since I'm often on my phone), since the Read Aloud text to speech function in Edge sounds the best out of other free TTS and I have Google Translate set up to translate anything I hold down to highlight so I can quickly translate words, phrases, or sentences roughly. (Note that many alternative ways to read would work, all internet browsers allow for some kind of click or highlight translation with various translators and various TTS tools).

Game gengo links some game scripts: https://game-gengo.com/pages/scripts

In addition, if you're studying Japanese there are a lot of scripts posted online for various games if you search the game plus "script" in japanese on a search engine.

This challenge above would work on reading skills, learning new vocabulary by intensively reading (if you look words up), and some listening skill if you use TTS.

I found the Mother script linked on that page, and that script has english and japanese on the same page so I can compare my attempt to understand and parse word meanings with the official english translation. I know there's also Final Fantasy X and Nier Automata scripts online that show both japanese and english.

Alternative challenge: watch a full lets play of a game in your target language!

(To find a lets play on youtube search the game title and lets play words IN the target language. For japanese 実況 jikkyo is the word used for lets plays).

This challenge may work better if you want something you can potentially multitask while doing, would prefer to watch/listen more than read (but you can still get reading practice with subtitles), something that will force you to progress since the video will keep going if you don't pause it. Also if you would like to extensively immerse, where you look up few words or no words. You could intensively immerse with a lets play video, and look up every unknown word, but its not going to be as easy as clicking for translations when reading a script or ebook would be.

Options:

Watch a lets play of a game you've played before, so your prior knowledge of the plot gives you context clues to guess the meanings of more words. (For me, this would be watching say a lets play of Final Fantasy X or a Kingdom Hearts game). A game you really like, in particular, may help with keeping you interested in watching the lets play. (Until Dawn has a japanese dub, i've seen some lets plays of it on youtube, story games like that may be a good option since a lot of the story will be familiar to you but enough new stuff will happen that you'll need to pay extra attention to and put in effort to figure out).

Watch a lets play of a game completely new to you. While it will be more difficult to guess new words, because the game is new to you it may drive you to pay more attention and push you to WANT to understand what's going on. Since you won't know what's going on in the story unless you make an effort to understand the lets play. A completely new game may help with interest and motivation?

A note on lets plays on youtube: some languages have auto captions on videos. Japanese lets plays often have auto captions, which while they arent perfect, they can still provide you with text to follow along with if you're struggling to follow what the lets player is saying. Some lets plays, generally, have the lets player reading aloud all text boxes. These can be good videos to pick for languages where you don't know how the text should be pronounced or would like listening AND reading practice.

Right now for me attempting to do the challenge... I've got Mother script in english and japanese open to read, and Xenogears and Until Dawn lets plays saved to watch. I am still debating if I'd like to watch a different lets play (like persona 2 etc).

#rant #studyblr #language challenge #study plan

[rigelmejo]

Related to last post: anyone have and study challenge ideas? Suggestions??

Like: read as many chapters of X as you can this month, play as many hours of X game as you can this month, try reading with this app X times, listen to X audio drama daily?

So we can see how much progress was made, and pick out a new study activity to try that maybe gets us having enough interest to focus again.

(If I had time I'd suggest reading as many chapters as possible in Satori Reader in a month as a good reading challenge, to review some stories and Stuff Learned from it as the Interesting payoff at the end of the challenge. But Satori Reader is a monthly subscription and I'm not planning to pay for it until I know for sure I can read a ton for a month. Another challenge might be: listen/watch as many episodes of X as possible in a month but... I don't know what would capture one's interest right now. I tried listening to some lets plays on youtube recently, and some anime, and I'm just not clicking with anything. But your luck may vary! And you may have something interesting to suggest!)

#rant #studyblr #langblr #i mean it. u heard of any challenges or activities lately???

[rigelmejo]

(I say this all somewhat jokingly)

1 my adhd is not cooperating lately, i need to write 20,000 words and i COULD do it in 2 to 4 good days of focus. However, i cannot focus. Fantastic :c

2 my japanese study plan for a year has been "listen to ALL of glossika japanese" so i can first, review it, and second, because my weak spot is listening and knowing words by pronunciation (rather than by kanji) so a huge amount of listening exposure should help me. While these are good goals, they don't factor in the unfortunately obvious reality: i have NOT been able to focus on glossika audio. Its been a year and STILL ive only listened to 36 audio files. Ive listened to them repeatedly, so ive listened a lot and am very comfortable with the words on those 36 audio files. But theres 312 audio files total, covering around 3000 words. So I have probably only learned a few hundred words. Very slow progress. When I can manage to focus on flashcards (which is not often but ive done it a few times before), i can study 1000 words a month. So i should be able to listen to 3000 words, especially because listening should be easier than flashcards. No dedicated time needed for audio, less boring to me than flashcards. But i did not realize that in practice... i just do not like to focus on audio apparently. And then on top of that my perfectionism kicks in, so i start re listening to audio to try and not miss a single word and over drill words. Which results in me stalling at around 30 audio files instead of listening to NEW audio files regularly. I do not know how to fix this study issue. Its a matter of: i dont seem to be able to focus regularly on audio files, and i keep getting perfectionist and re listening instead of progressing regularly onto NEW audio file lessons.

3 i probably need a new japanese study plan for a while. Something i can GET MYSELF TO DO for 100 hours (aka 1 hour on a regular basis). Something that can catch my interest so i can focus. The ultimate enemy: being unable to focus ToT. Ideally it would also be an activity convienient to do. But audio is extremely convienient compared to reading (which requires doing no other activity at the same time), and yet i cant get myself to listen to audio. So i dont think the activity being convienient is as important as being something that can grab attention.

If anyone has trouble focusing... any study activities/activities in your target language that have grabbed your attention? With the exception of flashcards/srs because im not doing them.

#rant

[rigelmejo]

So I haven't posted in a while. Little updates:

I finished arc 1 of Guardian in chinese again. So now I wont feel bad reading the book 1 english translation.

I took a break from chinese for a while then came back to read. And its interesting to me how much is stored like "2nd level down" in my memory. I don't recall words when trying to talk, after a long enough break. But I start reading, and my brain subvocalizes the hanzi and I can recall this Gist General Meaning of the words. Some words I recall their meaning and all, some just an overall general idea. But I havent forgotten much, nothing totally forgotten, and then most of the details of words come back within an hour or reading. Its surprising to me that reading chinese, memory wise, seems a LOT like reading french. I didnt expect it to be quite as similar a process. But it seems that remembering hanzi Words is as permanent as remembering french word stems/endings (or english ones). Reading skills have long staying power, and don't degrade much even with long breaks between usage. This is Excellent news. Since I don't have time to study much for the next several months, so I'm glad reading skills will stay as good as they are Or Improve if I read, without needing maintenance study. I'd like to improve my listening skill too, because being able to understand audiobooks would increase the chinese novels I could get through that I want to read (audiobooks would be faster than reading). But I dont have time yet for listening reading combo study, and time will tell if i do that activity WHEN and IF listening skills also gradually solidify then become reliable so one can study more sporadically and still see improvement.

My french skills are. Fascinating. I havent purposely studied in like over 5 years. I dont get that much French exposure (my google is in french but tbh google email and notifications do not use a big variety of words). But I've noticed a dramatic improvement in listening skills. My french reading skills have been fine for years. Theyre at a level where I can read like a high schooler: so i can read fiction for adults, but some words or literary devices go over my head and I have to just guess, the more in depth text analysis of themes might be a challenge, but just getting the story/information/most details is fine. I havent had to limit what i read in french in ages. Its just a matter of in french i feel like i did in high school where some fiction makes me "think hard" to grasp some points, versus english where i dont run into needing to Think Hard like that unless I'm reading something written pre-1800s. Anyway my point is: reading skills have been stable a while in french. Listening skills have markedly improved despite very little purposeful practice. I think I should probably start listening to podcasts or audiobooks some point soon. Through scattered listening to B1 and B2 comprehensible audio on youtube, and french shows, im to a point where if the audio has visual context i can follow everything going on and learn new words pretty easy. So now its just listening to french when i have no visuals to rely on, that's a struggle. I remember a few years back, i could not listen to french shows id just get confused, i needed the subtitles to follow anything. My ears mustve gotten used to french or just gotten used to Listening Better to things. Anyway, if i start trying and French Listening Only materials ill mention some progress.

Anyone have any french audiobooks or podcasts/fiction story podcasts they enjoy???

Japanese. also in a weird place. ToT. My biggest hurdle isnt even japanese: its being too chicken to challenge myself. I can play Yakuza Ishin in japanese and follow the main idea and objectives and main points in scenes. Yet i have NOT played more cause it feels Draining to grasp all that info from context and im lazy. I know if i watch a show in only japanese, with japanese subtitles, i know enough to grasp the main plot. But im lazy and its a LOT of effort to see the japanese subtitles and match new sounding words with kanji and try to remember the new pronunciation AND pay attention to the brand new plot. So i fall back onto english subs. I KNOW i can read japanese novels with a click dictionary, its just such SLOW reading, and if i just read while listening and Guess all unknown words its mentally exhausting even though its faster. I even have the easy peasy Glossika Japanese audio to listen to, but im still on lesson 36 because i have to Pay Full Attention when i listen to new lessons and im too lazy to listen with full attention ToT. I can watch lets plays in japanese, i understand them, but the effort of focusing is so much MORE than it would take if i just went to watch an english lets play where i can just hear in the background and follow it fine not even looking at it.

I am at a POINT in japanese where I CAN just learn by doing now! Which is huge! Its an incredibly useful milestone to be at! And makes future study, in the long run, much less daunting to plan as it can become just Do Stuff In Japanese to study. But since im at the beginning of this Comprehend Enough to Learn More from Context phase... learning new stuff from context still takes SO MUCH EFFORT. ITS SO DRAINING. Paying enough attention to comprehend things ive studied is exhausting, paying extra attention to new stuff and guessing what it means is draining and requires a Lot of focus. I know this is just how this stage goes but. Im so lazy.

What i need is something in japanese im SO interested in, that it drives me to engage with it even though I'm drained because im so Curious and Interested in understanding, so i push through until comprehending gets easier. Ideally, a game or show, something that plays so i am Forced to frequently proceed to the next sentence. Because with books and manga i will just stop and dwell on a paragraph for 2 hours and not learn much new stuff.

This stage is especially grating because im not in the stage with french or chinese anymore. I can listen to chinese shows in the background, check my phone while listening, not use the chinese subtitles, pay half attention while drawing. Chinese audiobooks require More attention, but i can listen to them walking or driving without subtitles/transcript and still follow the plot. With french Im to that same comfortable point with shows and youtube videos, not audio only stuff yet but i dont Engage with french audio only stuff. My point is Japanese is the only one where Im really feeling that INTENSE FOCUS drain whenever i try to engage with challenging new stuff in japanese. I dont feel an intense drain with chinese unless I read one of my harder reading level Print Novels or a higher vocab audio only material. I dont feel it with french unless Im doing it with audio only material. I feel the drain constantly with japanese.

#rant

[rigelmejo]

I was browsing novelupdates.com's novel translation request area. Debating if I could pick one up. (But frankly I don't think I could reliably finish any over 25 chapters right now so I'm not sure if there's a way to search by length of the requested novel).

But its also like. See some people would like Any translator to pick up something they'd really like to read or are already reading with machine translate but desperately want a better option as mtl is riddled with mistakes and sometimes bad errors changing full on story meaning. But some would really like a Better translation than existing, or a very high quality one. (Examples of the difference: Rainbowse7en did an initial most-of translation of Guardian... an extreme example because they cut several scenes/paragraphs, summarized many lines so not word-for-word inclusive translation of all parts, but they did translate Fast and provide a more readable detail correct translation than mtl. Versus the multiple fans later that collaborated to word by word translate Guardian, who could check each others work and took a bit longer. Or yukas initial translation that I could tell was doing full detail for each word translation. Or DMBJs original published english book translations - certain choices made, full paragraphs and pages cut from the english. Versus merebeartranslates version and much more work kept to keep details as accurate as possible/all kept in). Now Id keep all words/details cause i HATE the idea of cutting anything i think its awful - unless ur goal is truly just a summary to explain what happened (hence i kind of get rainbowse7ens reason to release a book Main Parts plot asap, but i hate an official paid company doing it cause they had no reason to cut content). So id keep all details. But im not confident on word choice translation being close to perfect. I can do better than mtl, by far, but i think a much better translator (any frankly whos had practice, chichi, edanglars, rynnsuika etc) would do a much better job. So like. When people do ask for a translation im like what level quality would they find acceptable? Would they want an amateur?

I remember Poyun needed translation a long while back (i think someones picked it up hopefully though), and i never wanted to try even tho i was reading it in chinese cause i didnt think id do any better than the "im only translating this hoping a better group will get intetest and pick it up" person who started the translation. I dunno. Maybe they wanted anyone to pick it up. Maybr i overthought who knows. Then like. I ran into dage by priest recently. Has 2 translations, 1 i emailed about, 1 linked on novelupdates as existing but i cant find it at all. And so i have no idea how much is translated. But im reading it slowly in chinese so im like? If i translate any for myself, is it something someones translated well in english already? Does it not exist in english at all? Would my translated bits be worth sharing or would another translation come out better and idk idk whays wanted. Idk im just musing to myself...

#rant

[rigelmejo]

If you have bilibili.com app, or have the site open, you can watch videos on there. (I made my account without a weibo account so its relatively doable to make one if you'd like to favorite videos)

If you want to say read manhua, but would like to hear how the words are pronounced, or you read faster with audio, or you'd like a kind of quick-animated clip kind of experience? You can search any manhua name then 漫剧 manju. So 破云漫剧 for poyun manhua clip, of just search 漫剧 and browse (with the suggestions bilibili gives me i see like 100 danmei manhua suggested videos when i search that, and a lot of detective ones)

The videos are either usually short 1-4 minute clips of a manhua chapter (i used to watch the 盗墓笔记重启 ones cause theyre all funny self contained stories), and long 1-4 hour videos of entire collections of many chapters of a manhua. They're voice acted or narrated, with captions and/or text bubbles on screen, and some even have sound effects and music and slight animations done on the art panels. It can be a nice middle ground if you'd like to read, but still want kind of the audio that comes with an audio drama or donghua. And if you know some words based on aound and some from only reading its one way to get both listening and text when light reading (aka when you don't want to concentrate on all text no pictures with an audiobook of a novel).

#rant #bilibili #manhua #manju #i also fijd these videos just SUPER easy to proctrastinate with in a good way? #as in i could browse youtube for hours #or just as easily watch several manju and actually get some practice reading and listening to chinese #i really like one with a ghost from qing dynasty and boy who moves yo a haunted apartment #but i didnt save rhe name of it!

[rigelmejo]

Really basic study tips. As in, you have no idea where to start, or you've been floundering for X period of time not making progress.

Total beginner?

Go to a search engine site. Whatever one you want Google.com, duckduckgo.com, or a searx.space site will work (I like search.hbubli.cc a lot). I think a non-google search engine will give you less ads and more specific results though so keep that in mind.

As a total beginner, search for some articles and advice to help you start planning HOW you are going to study a language. Search things like "how to learn X" where X is the language, "how i learned X," "guide to learn X." Ignore the product endorsement pages as best you can, you're looking for personal blogs and posts on learner forums like chinese-forums.com and forum.language-learners.org. After reading a few of these, come up with a list of general things you need to learn. This list will generally be: to read, to listen, to write, to speak. The articles/advice you find will likely mention Specific Study Activities people did to learn each of those skills - write them down! You might not do all those study activities yourself. But its good to know what possible study activities will help build each of the 4 skills.

Now get more specific. Think about your long term goals for this language. Be as SPECIFIC as possible. Things like "I want to pass the B2 exam in French" (and knowing what CEFR levels are), or "I want to watch History 3 Trapped in chinese with chinese subtitles" or "I want to read Mo Dao Zu Shi in chinese" or "I want to play Final Fantasy 16 in japanese" or "I want to make friends with spanish speakers and be able to talk about my hobbies in depth, and understand their comments on that subject and be able to ask what they mean if I get confused." Truly be as specific as possible. Ideally make more than one long term goal like this. And then specify EVEN MORE. So you want to "pass the B2 exam in French" - why? What real world application will you use those skills for. A possible answer: to work in a French office job in engineering. Great! Now you know very specifically what to look up for what you Need to actually study: you need to look up business appropriate writing examples, grammar for emails, engineering technical vocabulary, IN addition to everything required on the B2 exam. Your goal is to read mdzs in chinese? Lets get more specific: how many unique words are in mdzs (maybe you want to study ALL of them), how much do you wish to understand? 100% or is just understanding the main idea, or main idea and some details, good enough? Do you want to learn by Doing (reading and looking up things you don't know) or by studying ahead of time first (like studying vocabulary lists). Im getting into the weeds.

My point is: once you have a Very Specific Long Term Goal you can look up how to study to accomplish that very specific goal. If you want to get a B2 certificate there's courses and textbooks and classes and free materials that match 100% the material on the B2 test, so you can prioritize studying those materials. If your goal is to READ novels, you'll likely be looking for "how to read X" advice articles and then studying based on that advice (which is often "learn a few thousand frequent words, study a grammar resource, use graded reader material at your reading level, extensively and intensively read, look up unknown words either constantly or occasionally as desired when reading new material, and continue picking more difficult material with new unknown words"). Whatever your specific goal, you will go to a search engine and look up how people have accomplished THAT specific goal. Those study activities they did will be things you can do that you know worked for someone. If you get lucky, someone might suggest ALL the resources and study activities you need to accomplish your specific goal. Or they will know of a textbook/course/site that provides everything you need so you can just go do it. I'll use a reading goal example because its a specific goal i've had. I'd have the goal "read X book in chinese" so I'd look up "how to read chinese" "how to learn to read chinese novels" "how i read chinese webnovels" and similar search terms. I found suggestions like these on articles I found written by people who managed to learn to read chinese webnovels: Ben Whatley's strategy had been learn 2000 common words on memrise (he made a deck and shared it), read a characters guide (he linked the article he read), use graded readers (he linked Mandarin Companion), use Pleco app and read inside it (he linked Pleco) and in 6 months he was reading novels using Pleco for unknown words. I copied most of what he did, and did some of my own other study activities for theother 3 listening speaking writing skills. And in 6 months I was also reading webnovels in Pleco. Another article was by Readibu app creator, who read webnovels in chinese just looking up TONS of words till they learned (real brute force method). But it worked! They learned. So copying them by using Readibu app ans brute force reading MANY novels would work. Another good article is on HeavenlyPath.notion.site, they have articles on specifically what materials to study to learn to read - their article suggestions are similar to the process I went through in studying and Im confident if you follow their advice you'll be reading chinese in 1 year or less. (I saw one person who was reading webnovels within 3 months of following the Heavenly Path's guide plan). LOOK UP your specific long term goal, and write down specific activities people did to learn how to do that long term goal. Ideally: you will have some

SHORT TERM GOALS: you will not accomplish your long term language goal for 1 year or more. Probably not for many years. So make some short and medium term goals to guide you through studying and keep you on track. These can be any goals you want, that are stepping stones to the specific long term goals you set. So for the "read mdzs in chinese" long term goal, short and medium term goals might be the following: short term: learn 10 common words a week (through SRS like anki or a vocabulary list), study 100 common hanzi this month (using a book reference or SRS or a site), read 1 chapter of a grammar guide a week (a site or textbook or reference book), medium term: read a graded reader with 100 unique words once I have studied 300 words (like Mandarin Companion books or Pleco graded readers for sale), read a 500 unique word graded reader once I have studied 600 words, read 秃秃大王 and look up words I don't know once I have studied 1500 words (read in Pleco or Readibu or using any click-translator tool or translator/dictionary app), read another chinese novel with 1500 unique words, read a 30,000 word chinese 2 hours a day until I finish it, read another 30,000 word novel and see if I can finish it in less time, read a 60,000 word novel, read a 120,000 word novel, read a novel extensively without looking any words up and practice reading skills of relying on context clues (pick a novel with lower unique word count), read a novel a little above your reading level (a 2000 unique word count if say you only know 1700 words), go to a reading difficulty list and pick some novels easier than mdzs to read but harder than novels you've already read (Readibu ranks novels by HSK level, Heavenly Path ranks novel difficulty, if you search online you'll find other reading difficulty lists and sites). Those shorter term goals will give you things to work for this week, this month, this year. An example of study goals and activities might be: study all vocabulary, hanzi, grammar in 1 textbook chapter a week (lets say 20 new words/10-20 new hanzi,1-5 new grammar points - or alternatively you have 3 SRS anki decks for vocab, hanzi, grammar) along with read and look up unknown key words for 30 minutes a day (at first you may read graded readers then move onto novels). Those are short term goals you can ensure you meet weekly, and they also contribute to being able to read better gradually each month until you hit long term goals.

If you are very bad at making your own schedule and study plans: look for a good premade study material and just follow it. A good study material will: teach reading, writing, speaking, and listening skills, all the way to intermediate level. You may need to find multiple premade resources, such as 1 resource for writing/reading (many textbooks that teach 2000+ words and basic grammar will suffice) and 1 for speaking/listening (perhaps a good podcast, glossika, a tutor). Ideally formal classes will teach all 4 skills to intermediate level if you take 4 semesters of classes as an adult (beginner 1, beginner 2, intermediate 1, intermediate 2). Especially if the classes teach in accordance with trying to match you to expected defined language level skills (so formal classes that have syllabus goals that align with HSK, CEFR, or national standards of X level of fluency). So formal classes are an option. The same tips as above apply: make short term goals do do X a week, like study 30 minutes to 2 hours a day, to learn 10 new words a week, to get through X chapters a month, to practice speaking/reading/writing/reading oriented activities to some degree.

My short advice for picking a premade resource if totally lost: pick a starting material that covers 2000 words, basic grammar, and has dialogues if you don't know where to start. That will be enough to cover roughly beginner level language skills. I suggest you study by: studying the vocabulary and grammar of each chapter, listen to the dialogue with and without translation repeatedly until you understand it (listening skills), read the dialogue with and without translation (reading skills), write out example sentences using the new vocabulary and grammar (writing skills, the textbook exercises usually ask you to do this), speak your example sentences out loud (speaking practice), record yourself saying the dialogue and compare it to the dialogue audio - repeat this exercise until you sound similar in pronunciation to dialogue (speaking exercise - shadowing). Most decent textbooks will allow you to come up with similar activities to those listed above, to study some writing reading speaking listening. I like the Teach Yourself books as an example of the most basic version of what you need. Many languages have much better specific textbooks of that language. But if you're totally lost, get a Teach Yourself book and audio free from a library or for 10 dollars (or ANY equivalent book that teaches at least 2000 words and grammar) and go through it. If you buy a language specific textbook: keep working through the series until you've learned 2000 words and covered all basic grammar. For example Genk 1 and 2 cover 1700 words so you would want to work all the way through Genki 2 and ger near 2000 words before branching off to a textbook for intermediate students, or into native speaker materials. (Another example is I found a chinese textbook once that only taught 200 words... as a beginner you would not find that book as useful as one with more vocabulary)

Another adequate premade resource option: if you lile SRS tools like anki, look up premade decks that teach what you need to learn as a beginner. For Japanese you might look up "common words japanese anki deck" (Japanese core deck with 2k or more words is likely an option you'll see), "japanese grammar anki deck" (Tae Kin grammar deck is an option that covers common grammar), "JLPT kanji deck" or "kanji anki deck" or "kanji with mnemonics anki deck" (to study kanji). Ideally you study vocabulary, vocabulary, kanji, and ideally some of these anki decks will have audio and sentence examples for reading practice. Like with a textbook, you would attempt to do exercises which cover reading writing speaking listening. For reading and writing you may read sentences on anki cards, and write or type example sentences in a journal with new words you study and new grammar points. For listening you will play the sentence audio of a card with eyes closed until you hear the words clearly and recognize them, and for speaking you'll speak out the sentences and compare what you say to the audio on the card.

Keep in mind your specific long term goals! If your goal is speak to friend about hobby, you may follow a textbook and still need to ALSO make yourself practice talking weekly (on a language exchange app, with a tutor, with yourself, shadowing dialogues, looking up specific words you wish to discuss). If your goal is to read novels, you will likely need to seek out graded readers OUTSIDE your textbook and practice reading gradually harder material weekly. If your goal is listening to audio dramas, you will want an outside podcast resource likely starting with a Learner Podcast (chinese101, slow chinese, comprehensible chinese youtube channel) then move into graded reader audiobooks, then listen to audio dramas with transcripts, then just listen and look words up.

Once you hit lower intermediate: I'm defining that here as roughly you have studied 2000+ words, are familiar with basic grammar and comfortable looking up more specialized grammar information, and if you used a premade material then you have finished the beginner level material. If you desire to stay on a premade route then pick new resources made for intermediate learners. Do not dwell in the beginner material forever once you've studied it, continue to challenge yourself and learn new things regularly. (No matter what, continue to learn new things regularly, if you do that then every few hundred hours of study you WILL make significant progress toward your goals). Once you have hit intermediate it is also time to start adding activities that work toward your Very Specific Long Term goals now if you didn't already start. If you want to watch shows one day, this is when you start TRYING and get an idea of how much you understand versus how much you need to learn and WHAT you need to learn to do your goal well. If you want to read novels then start graded readers NOW if you havent already and progress to more difficult reading eventually into reading novels for native speakers. If you want to talk to people, start chatting regularly. If you want to take a B2 test, start studying language test specific study materials, practice doing the tasks you must be able to do to pass the test (so you can see what you need to learn and gauge progress over time), take practice tests. Intermediate level is when SOME stuff for native speakers will be at least understandable enough you can follow the main idea. Or at least, if you look up some key words you'll be able to grasp the main idea. Start engaging with stuff in the language now. For several reasons. 1. You need to practice Understanding all the basics you studied. Just because you studied it doesnt mean you can understand it immediately yet, you have to practice being in situations that require you to understand what you studied. 2. You also need to gauge where you are versus where you want to be, in order to set new short term goals. Once you do things in the language, you will see what specifically you need to study more. 3. By doing the activity you wish to do, you will get better at doing it. This is also a good time to mention that: if you wish to get better at speaking or writing now is the time to practice more. Just like listening and reading, you'll have to Do it more to improve.

The leap from using materials for beginners to materials for intermediate learners is harsh. It just is. The first 3 to 6 months you may feel drained, like you didn't learn much after all, annoyed its so much harder than the beginner material catered usually specifically to a learner's language level. Push through. I suggest goals like "listen to french 30 minutes a day" or "read 1 japanese news article a day" or "chat with someone for 1 hour total a week" or "watch 20 minutes of a show a day" or "write 1 page a day" and look up words you dont know but need to understand something or communicate to someone. Do X for X time period or X length of a chapter/episode type goals may be easiest to stick to during this period. Gradually, the time spent doing activities will add up and it will suddenly feel EASIER. Usually around the time you start understanding quicker and recalling quicker what you studied as a beginner. Then it keeps improving, as you gradually learn more and more. At first, picking the easiest content for your study activity will make the transition to intermediate stuff slightly less drastic. Easier content includes: conversations on daily life that only gradually add more specific topics (so you can lean on the beginner daily life function vocabulary), podcasts for learners entirely in target language and podcasts with transcripts, novels with low unique word counts (ideally 2000 unique words or less until your vocabulary gets bigger), shows you've watched before in a language you know (so you can guess more unknown words and follow the plot even when you don't understand the target language words), video game lets plays (ideally with captions) of video games you've played before, playing video games you already have played before and know the story for, reading summaries before starting new shows or books so you know what the general story is, reading books that have translations to a language you know (so you can read the translation then original or vice versa for additional context). Using any tools available (dictionary apps, translation apps like Pleco and Google Translate and click-translate web browser tools, Edge Read Aloud tool, reader apps like Kindle and Readibu, apps like Netflix dual subitles stuff).

Last mention: check in with your goals every so often. You might check in every 3 months, and say you notice you never manage to study daily (if that was your short term goal). That could be a sign it might be better to change your study schedule to study a couple hours on the days your life schedule is less busy, and skip study on busy days. Or it may be a sign the study activity you're trying to do daily is Very Hard for you to stick to, and maybe you should switch to a different study activity. (Example would be: I can't do SRS flashcards consistently, so when I got tired of SRS anki after a few months as a beginner, I switched to reading graded readers daily to learn new vocabulary then reading novels and looking up words. Another example: I love Listening Reading Method but could never do it as it was designed, so after a month of only doing 15 hours of it instead of the 100 hours the method intended at minimum in that time, I decided to modify that study activity into something I could get myself to do daily and enjoy more).

And, of course, its okay if what works for one person doesn't work for you. Everyone's different. As long as you are regularly studying some new things, and practicing understanding things you've studied before, you will make progress as the study hours add up. It may take hundreds of hours to see significant progress, but you Will see some progress every few hundreds of hours of study. I made the quick start suggestions for beginners above, because I have seen some people (including me) get lost at the start with no idea what a good resource looks like and no idea what to study, or how to determine goals and progress on those goals.

#rant #reference #resources #study plan #langblr #i could also make a side post lol on just HOW many language learning apps/tools are distractions for beginners #because they barely teach like 300 words! but readers spend YEARS on them! #u can cover 2000 words in 1 year. even high school classes cover that in 2 years. but many an app have u spending 4 years on 2000 words #then u get beginners mad they never Learned to do stuff in the language despite All Tgat Study #not realizing the apps problem was it simply ONLY covered beginner material. so it was only gonna be useful for 6 months to 2 years tops.

[rigelmejo]

Impulse driving right now. Tempted to buy clozemaster lifetime just cause. I really do like their premade X thousand frequent words in sentences, for lots of languages. And i love radio mode cause its basically my preferred study (audio in target language then translation audio) so i can just fucking study by turning it on and doing it while i do other stuff.

Like. Ive been listening to old glossika chinese (which i WILL review when i eventually finish) but i know it only foes up to 3000 words, possibly less. And clozemaster includes different conjugations and filler words like soshite dakara mochiron which are actually super fucking common but glossika takes forever to get to.

Tempted to lifetime cause. I hate monthly suvscriptions. I have bad memory. Id kind of like to buy lifetime so i own it forever and can use it whenever i want then forget for months without an unexpected bill. Ugh

Mildly related: i wonder if satori reader has lifelong membership purchase option. Cause that has so much good reading practice...

#rant #-.- i have love hate with clozemaster #what i love #the radio mode. truly. i wish i coukd find that feature ON ANYTHING ELSE ANYWHERE #that and its like anki but it motivates me slightly better visually #what i hate: i had it on an old apple phonr and it was a fucking mess to cancel wjen i got a samsung #and had no access to my old apple account #cause i had mknthly membership at the time #im also PISSED they limited free users to 30 sentences a day #i think that was a douche move

[rigelmejo]

I found this tool for practicing tone pairs, both saying them and identifying them. Its free and works on phone or computer, I like it for a quick way to test yourself and practice to improve.

#resources #reference #chinese resources #practice tones #tones

[rigelmejo]

Does anyone know of any articles, forum posts, videos, blogs that have mentioned a person's results studying chinese through automatic language growth (AGL) like a full 1000+ hour course, or comprehensible input lessons? Or even people sharing results after doing the "study 10,000 sentences" method. But I'm most curious how much progress people made studying chinese through chinese input.

There's well known Thai AGL courses (and video lessons on youtube), and there's enough learners i can find some discussion of student results after X years. It sounds like in the thai lessons, students ultimately did pick up correct tones (although some agl teachers prioritized tone specific lessons before doing agl lessons).

I'm curious if in a model of "use only chinese language resources" without explicit pronunciation instruction would actually result in good or even fairly understandable chinese pronunciation, since agl courses (and some comprehensible input courses) insist good pronounciation will simply Result when the student finally feels ready to talk after a lot of input.

A lot of japanese study methods that prioritize input learning, include not needing to try to output (speak) the language until 1000-2000 hours in. And ive seen many of those studiers (Refold Method, AJATT) mention they spent purposeful time on learning pitch accent when they did start outputting. So it seems good natural accent was NOT guaranteed just by learning from lots of japanese input. Now, the AGL method of learning would argue that learning the Refold/AJATT way includes LOTS of translation into ones native language and all of those times would've worsened a learners accent and impacted their automatic language growth in japanese. Basically the agl idea is: when you use your native language, attempt to translate and explain the target language, you come up with imperfect not-quite equivalents so you ingrain many tiny errors into your understanding of the new language. Which makes some sense. You can tell a learner for example "say 2nd tone chinese as if raising voice at the end of a question in english" or "say j like jeep for pinyin ji etc" and the learner will do it like in english... which may be somewhat similar to the chinese but is not the actual chinese sound. AGLs idea is that you learn entirely in the target language, NO translations or approximations, so you learn what things mean and how theyre said by experiencing it. So i would imagine the AGLs method would assume Refold/AJATT learners of COURSE need to study pronunciation eventually, since they heavily relied on translation for at least their initial learning, so they'll have ingrained "similar to target language but not actually correct" habits.

I cant use myself to test results either lol. With french I had initial pronunciation instruction, then did more purposeful pronunciation study 2 years in, and while I know my accent is NOT perfect I am also aware my accent is much better because of the pronunciation study. Because before the 2nd pronunciation study at two years in, my french sounded so bad i could barely identify it AS french myself. And my listening skills were likewise attrocious, i could barely understand spoken french. After that purposeful pronunciation study, i found it much easier to watch french shows and listen to french. I dont think i wouldve even been understandable-to-french speakers except with great struggle, before the pronunciation study. But i learned at first primarily through reading french so to be fair i had very little listening-foundation in french.

With japanese I studied pronunciation specifically to some degree. I have also paid purposeful attention to listening resources. While i assume my pronunciation is NOT perfect, i do feel reasonably confident its understandable. And it generally has been. I took time at the beginning learning specific sounds, and my first teacher way back when in japanese 1 made us SHADOW and graded us on matching the dialogue audio example we shadowed as perfectly as possible. So purposeful pronunciation study was very much a part of it. I havent studied pitch accent, but ive looked it up and try to listen for it. Im not confident on ability to do that correctly and i think its likely im often making mistakes there.

With chinese, i studied pronunciation for 2 months early on, then again for about a month every several months. I even used an app to grade me on pronunciation. And using the app definitely helped me improve in some areas. I still am quite bad in some areas. I am still studying pronunciation. Ive done a ton of listening study, and while i can hear elements of pronunciation, my ability to replicate what i can Hear is not as good as hearing it. So im not sure how that gets improved. Maybe i need to do MANY drills, maybe i just have to talk a Lot more. Still working on it.

Point is, i did use english and translation and pronunciation study materials in ALL study of languages ive done. So i have no idea if AGL, like it says by using only the target language, actually produces a great correct accent. And im curious if tones actually get learned properly, if theres never any formal explanation of them existing or what to listen for. Because even some ALG programs i found mentioned tone drills for thai Before agl classes (at least for some earlier AGL courses that existed). Id also be interested if anyone did AGL/comprehensible input (like Dreaming Spanish videos with no translations) for stuff like spanish or french and described their accent and output after 1000 hours. But id rather see results for languages with tones.

Tldr: AGL lessons theory is your accent will be great, as will your grammar, if you learn only in your target language for 1000-2000 hours before trying to output once you feel naturally you wish to. I am wondering if anyone knows of anything shared they've seen from chinese learners who used only study material in chinese (no native language translation) about the results they had?

#langblr #agl #automatic language growth #comprehensible input #languages #rant

[rigelmejo]

It's official: bilibili shut down includes the app.

😮‍💨

To quote Miss Elinor Dashwood, I guess piracy really is our only option.

#.... :c #again an fyi a lot of bilibili comics are online on other sites. #if u have weibo or official chinese accounts i would imagine some are even on places u can support the artist #theres also a LOT of these on pirate sites. i know ive seen Breaking Through The Clouds Saye Global Examination etc on manga manhua pirate #sites. in english translation and in raws #what im wondering now is... will these in progress manhua get new publisher/hosting monetized sites? #or are they cancelled effectively when bilibili comics ends?

[rigelmejo]

I heard from reddit that Bilibili Comics app is shutting down soon. I just screenshotted the names of everything I put in my library so I can find alternate links.

If anyone wants to find alternative places to read, searching "title 在线阅读" for original or "title read online" for english translation may find them.

#bilibili comics #thanks for the screenshot addition

[rigelmejo]

I heard from reddit that Bilibili Comics app is shutting down soon. I just screenshotted the names of everything I put in my library so I can find alternate links.

If anyone wants to find alternative places to read, searching "title 在线阅读" for original or "title read online" for english translation may find them.

#bilibili comics #good to know #i was passing along update from reddit

[rigelmejo]

I heard from reddit that Bilibili Comics app is shutting down soon. I just screenshotted the names of everything I put in my library so I can find alternate links.

If anyone wants to find alternative places to read, searching "title 在线阅读" for original or "title read online" for english translation may find them.

#rant #reference #bilibili comics #manhua

[rigelmejo]

Duolingo Sucks, Now What?: A Guide

Now that the quality of Duolingo has fallen (even more) due to AI and people are more willing to make the jump here are just some alternative apps and what languages they have:

"I just want an identical experience to DL"

Busuu (Languages: Spanish, Japanese, French, English, German, Dutch, Italian, Portuguese, Chinese, Polish, Turkish, Russian, Arabic, Korean)

"I want a good audio-based app"

Language Transfer (Languages: French, Swahili, Italian, Greek, German, Turkish, Arabic, Spanish, English for Spanish Speakers)

"I want a good audio-based app and money's no object"

Pimsleur (Literally so many languages)

Glossika (Also a lot of languages, but minority languages are free)

*anecdote: I borrowed my brother's Japanese Pimsleur CD as a kid and I still remember how to say the weather is nice over a decade later. You can find the CDs at libraries and "other" places I'm sure.

"I have a pretty neat library card"

Mango (Languages: So many and all endangered/Indigenous courses are free even if you don't have a library that has a partnership with Mango)

"I want SRS flashcards and have an android"

AnkiDroid: (Theoretically all languages, pre-made decks can be found easily)

"I want SRS flashcards and I have an iphone"

AnkiApp: It's almost as good as AnkiDroid and free compared to the official Anki app for iphone

"I don't mind ads and just want to learn Korean"

lingory

"I want an app made for Mandarin that's BETTER than DL and has multiple languages to learn Mandarin in"

ChineseSkill (You can use their older version of the course for free)

"I don't like any of these apps you mentioned already, give me one more"

Bunpo: (Languages: Japanese, Spanish, French, German, Korean, and Mandarin)

#my two cents: if you want actual language lessons i suggest you go to your local library #nearly all have deals with Mango or similar online language sites/apps that provide good A1 A2 lessons. maybe B1 if lucky #busuu is also okay. im not sure how high it teaches. im picky so i prefer 2000-3000 common word coverage and all a1-b2 grammar coverage #because MANY apps only teach beginner stuff (a1 a2) and then ppl spend years instead of half of a year to 1 year on it. and think they cant #ever learn cause they spent yrs and are still a beginner. any app that STATES what they xover is also preferred. #apps that dont mention their coverage often only cover 500-1000 words and beginner stuff #i second Glossika if u can get it in library free OR know you will use their subscriotion version regularly #it covers 3000-6000 words depending on language and a decent amount of grammar. much more than pimsleur. #pimsleur is good but depending on language only covers beginner material so id personally not spend more than a year on pimsleur #(or whatever study time u wanted covering beginner stuff) and to plan on a next app/study resource once u finish pimsleur #Language Transfer is AMAZING as a beginner resource. for some languages it teaches more. its free so do #it if u like it! #anki and similar srs apps: i DO recommend. but if ur a beginner or unsure what to study next? i am begging you to look for premade decks #searching things like: 8000 common chinese words in sentences anki deck. 3000 common chinese hanzi with mnemonics anki deck. chinese grammar #anki deck. etc. people have made AMAZING free decks you can use already with audio pinyin hanzi sentence examples that go up to like 2000 #or 8000 cards! have made sentences from shows or textbooks! if u include anki deck in ur search terms you will find some. #i used Chinese Spoonfed deck (8000 ish common words in sentences) a 3000 hanzi with mnemonics deck #some 1000 and 2000 common words decks by ben whatley. i used a TON of Nukemarines Lets Learn Japanese decks #which covered grammar guides. common words. kanji. all in sentences with audio romaji and japanese kana kanji. it went up to intermediate #and was well enough to transition to regular japanese reading watching shows playing video games when i got about halfway through #premade decks exist that will walk u through from beginner a1 to intermediate b2 study material. if u search for them #if u dont know what ur doing study plan wise i highly recommend premade decks. because while u can make ur own decks too (awesome!) #it may help you stay focused to stick to some kind of Regimented Plan until u learn enough to start making ur own study materials #if that makes sense? (basically i see many beginners give up cause the task of Making the study material is daunting #or they make study material that doesnt cover things they need to reach the next level of language competence. so they give up after X month #or years of not the progress they meant to achieve).

[rigelmejo]

random observation/tips I use for myself when studying, so maybe they're useful to someone

To improve listening comprehension skills, listen and re-listen to audio a lot! I'm not kidding, put on an audio and listen to it 5-10 times or more some day. While you're working, or driving, or playing video games, or cleaning, or cooking, or walking. You don't have to pay attention the whole time, it's okay to just catch phrases or sentences here or there. The main thing is you get repeated audio exposure to words you need to know, so the words you 'in theory' studied before you get better at recognizing through listening FASTER, and so you start listening for new unknown words and somewhere in your mind you've got the vague idea of how they sound for when you learn them more during study or reading or repetition in shows/conversations. The more listening you can do, the more you'll get a sense of how the grammar should flow, how words usually show up in particular phrases, how some phrases sound slurred/shortened certain ways, how words sound in different voices and accents. And again, most importantly, you get better at recognizing the words you 'know' from study INSTANTLY when hearing them. That takes practice! At first, it might take you 20 minutes and 4 re-listens to recognize a basic word you learned today (like say 'mochiron' of course in Japanese) because you aren't used to immediately recognizing it when listening yet. Maybe it depends on your learning style, but for me I found increasing listening study time drastically improved my: vocabulary recognition, reading speed, active vocabulary, listening comprehension (of course), ease of watching shows/playing games/following conversations (because listening and reading comprehension Speed were improved). Also, at a certain point you know enough words to learn brand New words from listening, and at that point listening/re-listening can be valuable for learning new words by immersing with audio. Since audio like audiobooks, audiodramas, are going to expose you to more words per minute than shows or movies or games, and more words per minute than reading until the day you get your reading speed significantly high. (On a related note, lets plays on youtube you can sometimes turn automatic 'closed captions' on for, and they can be a useful beginner-intermediate immersion option. Some youtubers will talk constantly, giving you more words-per-minute exposure than playing the game yourself, and sometimes they'll explain what they're doing which helps give you context for words and helps you learn to play the game and understand the command names if you want to try to later, and lets players often say things like 'i think' and 'i feel' and 'i like' opinion statements which can be helpful for recognizing casual conversation kinds of topics and words. And because it is a visual medium, you can listen and also get visual context of the gameplay to figure out what's going on, and automatic closed captions to see how words are spelled and get some reading practice in).

If the goal is primarily learning to understand words through listening that you already understand when reading, then pick listening material of something where you could easily understand the written transcript. (So for example you'd understand around 95% of the written transcript).

If the goal is primarily to learn new words, pick something you can understand the main idea of if you read the written transcript but that would still have unknown words. (So for example you'd understand maybe 75-95% of the written transcript). The first 1-5 listens you may be figuring out the main idea and trying to recognize through listening the words you know the written form of, and then after that any future listens you'll start learning those new unknown words.

To improve reading comprehension: read a lot! (Well yeah, but-) Okay, more specific: read 1. things you enjoy 2. things you will ACTUALLY read (so if you love comics but hate novels, go read comics) 3. if you find yourself exhausted reading, burned out, drained, then go look for easier reading material. Read the easier stuff for a while, and then you can try that challenging reading material again and hopefully it will make you feel less exhausted. Depending on your target language, there are some sites with recommendations on what reading materials will be easier or harder. I suggest that if you are a beginner, you read at least some graded reading materials (unless you are SO bored you avoid reading them, in which case just dive into materials written for native speakers so you'll Read Something). The transition from reading Graded Readers to materials for native speakers is ALWAYS going to feel hard, you are ALWAYS going to feel drained/exhausted the first 3-6 months reading materials for native speakers. Just because the jump in difficulty, the drastic word increase, is usually a bit steep and you just need to keep trying until you learn enough of those extra words you needed to get used to materials for native speakers. It's usually 1000-4000 more words you need to get used to, once you make the jump to materials for natives. Ways to speed this transition along include: using flashcards (I can't but maybe you can get yourself to do them), word lists, picking gradually more difficult reading materials (that way you only need to learn 200-500 new words per new novel/comic etc, and that's much easier to just gradually do as you read a long story).

Beginner suggestions: pick up graded readers in order of unique word count. Start with graded readers with 100-500 unique words, then 500-1000 unique words, and then if graded readers exist with 1000-2000 words try out reading one of them. If you're extra lucky, read 2000-3000 unique word graded readers if they exist for your target language. The first graded reader you read may feel like a challenge or even exhausting, that's likely to happen each time you move up into a higher unique word count. You're likely ready to move onto a higher unique word count, if you re-read the beginning of a graded reader you're on and find it's easier to read than the first time you read it's beginning. If you're a perfectionist like me, just move forward to a more difficult (more unique words) graded reader each time and do not dwell in one difficulty level for more than 1-3 months. You don't need to be a perfectionist, I promise the words in that 500 unique word graded reader will keep popping up in NEARLY ALL the reading you ever do in your target language, and if you don't learn 'basket' or 'newspaper' now you will learn those words by 2 years in when you've seen the words countless times in shows and novels. If you tend perfectionist like me, I suggest aiming to vaguely recognize words then be okay moving on, and not stop if you haven't 'perfectly remembered' every word.

If you choose to skip or speed through graded reading material, I suggest studying the most common 1000-3000 words in a language ASAP. You can read a word list, do flashcards like anki, do a textbook/class that covers those words, whatever. You can study 1000 common words if you're okay with a STEEP difficulty spike, and study 3000 words if you'd like a less steep difficulty spike. Bascially, when you read materials for native speakers, most of those materials are at minimum going to have 2000 unique words. All of those materials are likely to have the most common words in them, which you will have just studied so you have some kind of skeleton foundation of knowledge to rely on when figuring out what you're reading's main idea is and try to narrow down which new words are most important to look up the meaning of and learn next. Many 'easier' materials for native speakers (like for middle schooler reading level) are going to have 3000-4000 unique words, half of which are not the common ~2000 words you studied.

During the initial difficulty spike, you'll start looking up these new words - either every single new word, or key words you feel are important to understanding the main idea. You may end up looking up many of the initial common words you already studied, because you forgot them or they're only vaguely recognized, that's fine. Once you've read a novel or two, ran into those common words 2-12 times or more, you'll KNOW them. Making the next novel that much easier.

It takes on average 12 word lookups to remember a new word. So just look up words (or guess them or some combination). Personally some words took me 1-2 word lookups and others took me 20. Any important/common words to understanding the main idea, I picked up fairly fast. If you utilize flashcards, it will also be likely a handful of reviews or less and you'll learn new words.

If you're reading and the goal is to improve speed of comprehension of words you know (how fast you recognize them) and improve reading speed, pick a novel/reading material that is EASIER for you. So pick a reading material where you do not need to look up words at ALL to understand the main idea, and ideally if you can find one then pick reading material where you understand most details too without any word lookup. This will probably be 95% words comprehended or more (so you know 95 out of every 100 words you see, or more). If you want extra challenge, read along while an audiobook plays, or while Text To Speech plays (like Edge's Read Aloud TTS). If you can control the audio speed, you can also increase it, to increase your reading speed. If you have some words you've learned in reading but not listening, this can be a good way to improve your listening word recognition so that it's closer to your reading word recognition. Reading material you mostly understand will also help you STRENGTHEN understanding of what you've learned: you'll get better at understanding grammar, at getting key information from a text faster, and be able to develop reading comprehension skills by practicing them on something you know you CAN read.

If you're reading and the goal is to improve vocabulary? This is the rare case where I purposely pick a reading material at least a little above my reading level. So if you know say 3000 words and just read a novel with 3500 unique words, you might look for a novel with 4000 unique words or even 4500 unique words. If comfort matters to you, pick a reading material where you can follow the main overall idea WITHOUT word lookup, but you cannot understand many details - so you'll learn a lot of new words when looking up words in the details and nuance, but when you get tired/burned out you'll be able to scrape by without looking up words and by guessing when a key unknown word comes up. If you are OKAY with feeling DRAINED for the first 1-10 chapters, you don't even need to understand the main idea without word lookup... although I suggest you pick a reading material where you can at least vaguely identify the setting, main characters, part of the main idea (like if its a murder mystery you can tell its a murder mystery at LEAST, even if you have no idea who the investigator is or who died or what they're talking about). If you don't understand even a little bit of the main idea, you are likely to be extremely drained when reading and will need to look up nearly every word... and if that happens you're likely to give up. What you're aiming for is a story you cannot follow, but COULD follow if you looked up around 5-20 words a page (or maybe 100 words a chapter). You'll look up a LOT of words in the first few chapters, and it will be draining. But then in the following chapters, the novel will KEEP using the words you looked up, meaning you will get practice identifying them and learn them quickly because recognizing them will make your life easier. Once that happens, it will be a few more chapters of looking up LESS words per page, and re-looking up words you just learned to double check you remembered them. And by about 1/3 to halfway through the novel you'll notice it's become much easier to read. Congrats, you just increased your reading level! Your vocabulary has improved by 100-500 words in a month! (or however long it took you to get through the first several chapters of the book). Picking a book just 1-2 reading levels above where you currently feel comfortable (so 500-1000 new words in the book) is a good way to boost your vocabulary level. It will be a bit of a slog initially because there's a LOT more new unknown words, but once you've gone through that slog you get practice reading the new words.

I tend to go back and forth between books I understand 95% or more of (for extensive reading where I only look up a word occasionally if it seems important and I can't guess it), and books where I understand maybe 85-95% of the words (I'll look up EVERY unknown word in the first few chapters, then every key word for understanding the main idea as the reading gets easier, then it'll become a book I do understand 95% of). As I go back and forth, the reading material I understand increases in unique word count. So for example: at the beginning of 2023 I could extensively read novels with a unique word count of around 2000 and could intensively read (look up many words) novels with a word count of around 3000. Now in the beginning of 2024, I can comfortably extensively read novels with a unique word count of 3000, and can intensively read novels with a word count of around 4000. This will depend on genre, and what genres you read and therefore words you ended up learning. But overall you'll notice the range of how many unique words in a reading material you can handle, goes up.

Usually the first thing I do when starting to study a new language, so for the first 6 months or so, is: 1. Look up a list of common words (either from a book, textbook, website, flashcards, anki, videos etc) and review it about once every week or two for ~2-3 months 2. Look up a free pronunciation guide online with audio examples (and go through it for 1 week to 1 month) 3. Look up how the language works roughly like structure, if it has conjugations, certain word order, the writing system (read a few free articles, usually takes 3-6 hours). 4. If the writing system is different, spend time learning it (a new alphabet would probably take 2-4 weeks, either reading articles with audio examples or flashcards or in japanese's case I did an app for katakana/hiragana with mnemonics and quizzes). That is the first 3 months or so. 5. If the writing system is vastly different (japanese kanji, chinese hanzi) look up a few introductory articles on how it works, like chinese hanzi being made of radicals often with a sound and meaning component, like words often being 2 hanzi together, or japanese kanji being the stem of verbs with hiragana conjugation, kanji having multiple pronunciations and meanings depending on the word they make. Then find a book (or anki deck or site) that goes through all common-use writing pieces with word examples. In Chinese's case this was a reference book covering all HSK hanzi, an introductory book with 800 common hanzi and word examples and mnemonics (my favorite reference book ever), and my common word list* (see point 1) which was Ben Whatley's 1000 and 2000 most common chinese words memrise decks. In Japanese's case, this was a 300 word common kanji reference book with mnemonics, a full JLPT kanji reference book with word examples, and then I learned a majority of kanji through my common word list*(see point 1) which was Nukemarine's LLJ memrise decks. I prefer learning hanzi and kanji in words, so my basic study of them was initial mnemonics to learn super common characters and practice learning HOW to remember them, then moving on to character study as a part of vocabulary overall study. For chinese, this initial hanzi study took around 3 months. For japanese, this process of initial 500 kanji study took 2 years because I was a mess who didn't know what I was doing. Basically, the goal is just a general understanding of HOW writing system works and recognizing basic things. For french, this might be some basic recognition of how conjugations change spelling. 5. Read a basic grammar guide summary online for free, to get an overview of how the language works roughly. This takes 1-2 weeks, maybe roughly 12-20 reading hours. I will go back and reread bits of this grammar guide summary later when I see grammar in real language, and may look up more specific grammar points in more in-depth grammar guides later on if I get confused or want to know more. 6. Around months 3-5, start reading Graded Readers. I will start reading graded readers once I have studied at least 500 words, maybe up to 1000-2000 words, which has usually happened by month 5. Reading is how I practice actually remembering the common words and writing system I've been studying, so the months of Graded Reading materials is where I really start remembering and learning what I've reviewed and been introduced to. All of the points 1-5 I do in whatever order works best, usually multiple at the same time.

7. As I increase the difficulty of Graded Readers, usually around months 6-12, I start trying to watch and read some materials for native speakers. It's usually very hard, makes me feel drained, and at first I can only handle 10 minutes and work my way up to being able to do it an hour. I watch/read some stuff without looking words up (to force myself to practice relying on what I've studied), and watch/read some stuff while looking words up that seem important to understanding the main idea. And if I feel up for it, sometimes I'll look up all unknown words. This 6-12 month period feels the most difficult, broken up by easier moments when I go back to graded readers and when I notice my grammar comprehension and comprehension of words I've studied is getting easier. By about the end of 1 year, I've learned around 2000 common words enough to transition to primarily reading stuff for native speakers to learn more vocabulary. (This 1-7 process is what I did to initially learn to read French, and Chinese, and I switched to this plan in Japanese which worked well... after dawdling for 2 years not really being goal oriented).

#rant #study plan

[rigelmejo]

Things Read 2023

I thought it'd be kind of fun to do a little collage of some of the things read in 2023. Because pictures entice and maybe one of these will look interesting to you, and maybe I'll just feel slightly more motivated the next time I try to read something.

First row: Easiest novels to read, I highly recommend if you're a beginner. 秃秃大王, 大林和小林, and 笑猫日记 (any book in this series).

Second row: also fairly easy, though maybe not for total beginners? (Unless you want). 小王子 (which was the first non-graded reader novel I read in chinese, and in retrospect I wish I'd started with the books above instead... but this was still readable as a beginner, I read it in paper form to stop myself from looking words up and it was still a doable read), 盗墓笔记重启 （幽默漫画）a very cute domestic side stories for dmbj set during chongqi, extremely easy to read if you know the character names. 他们的故事/Their Story by Tan Jiu, a cute slice of life girls falling in love story, it's setting makes it quite easy to read.

Third row: manhua that are a bit harder, but still probably very readable if you're not looking to work hard and sink into a novel. 19天, bl and funny af, set in school so common vocab but the jokes land better as u understand more, I also love the art. 破云  1 and 2, they're kind of hard to read in that this manhua has a page just for niche word definitions in the front, but it's easier to read than the novel it's based on. I thought it was a fun way to enjoy the story while I waded much more slowly through the novel version. Similarly, I've been reading the 烈火浇愁 manhua (not pictured) on and off since I can get further in the manhua than the novel before running out of steam. There's a lot of manhua on the Bilibili Comics app, and that's definitely an option if you're into manhua too if you like a novel premise but aren't quite ready to tackle the novel (or want to check out the manhua too). Also, sometimes on bilibili.com you can find videos of manhua with voice acting and music, which can be nice.

Fourth row: some novels I'm still in progress with lol. I read 盗墓笔记 books 1, 2, and half of 3 in 2023. I'm continuing along, and maybe eventually I'll get to sha hai. If you plan to read/watch more in the tomb raiding or supernatural genre anyway, I highly recommend reading. dmbj is not that hard to read, new words usually pop up early and then are repeated enough that you learn them within a few chapters, which makes the following chapters easier and easier. By the time I was through book 1, I switched from looking up unknown words to looking up no words and just guessing from context and it went fine. npss also writes in an easy style to read once you get used to a few wordings/slang. A lot of the words I learned from dmbj were helpful with other supernatural genre stuff I read, since I like to read that kind of stuff. 撒野, both harder than I thought it'd be and easier. It is very doable of a read as far as following the main idea of the plot, after you've read a few other novels (like row 1) or gotten comfortable with daily life words. It does some beautiful stuff though with the writing style, and detail, that's more noticeable upon re-reads. I've restarted this novel like 4 times because each time I picked it up again my reading skill had improved, and the writing felt different upon reading. If you can watch chinese shows with chinese subtitles you can read this without looking words up, but if you do encounter unknown words this was a novel I found the unknown words were frequently useful and worth learning. I'd say it's very approachable, it's just the chapters are quite long so it's always a painful reminder of how slow my reading speed is. It's about two teenage guys who meet and fall for each other, and it's also about their families and personal struggles and very character focused which I love. After this novel, I plan to check out the other novels by this author. And of course, still, 镇魂. Look, I keep reading the whole first arc, then taking a break, then re-reading the whole first arc. I need to stop being a perfectionist about understanding and catching every detail, and just move forward. I've read my print version about 2 times to the end of the sundial arc, and the web version about 2 times. I've yet again reached the end of the sundial arc as of December 2023, and hopefully I just move forward at this point. I wont say it's an 'easy' read, but I will say I picked up so much of my initial reading vocabulary from this and Tian Ya Ke, that priest's preferred writing vocabulary and particular way of phrasing sentences is more familiar to me than any other author's. So now I have a much easier time reading priest's other novels. And in the case of Zhen Hun, I know 98% of the words more or less on any given page. So yes, it's a bit silly I keep combing over to try and understand more details. (In my defense, I've been combing over the AUDIO my last read through, to try and get my listening vocabulary comprehension closer to my reading vocabulary level - I figured it was a good novel to do this with since I know nearly every word reading-wise in the sundial arc at this point). Anyway... when will I finish reading Zhen hun? Ask me when the last official english translation book is published. Because I'm waiting to read the english until I finish it in chinese first. So no doubt when the english is totally out I'll probably rush through anything I didn't finish so it's easier for me to compare. (You'd think I'd do that for Sha Po Lang and... lol you're not wrong... that's why I haven't started reading SPLs official english translation yet... I want to dig out my chinese print book and compare). Tldr: Zhen hun is one of the easier priest books to start with, all things considered. Or Tian Ya Ke. I started with both, and they're still easier reads to me than Dage and Sha Po Lang and Can Ci Pin.

Special mention:

I also read 2 pingxie fanfictions, 半夜衣寒 and 寒舍 by 夏灬安兰. The first story is shorter by far, both are around as easy to read as dmbj or a bit easier, and they're supernatural au in everyday life so a lot of the words are applicable to either the real world, or to books in genres like dmbj.

I also read/watched many a voice-acted manhua video on bilibili over the last year. Bilibili algorithm recommends me tons of bl, and supernatural mystery stuff, so I'd click on manhua compilation videos when bored and use the voice acting speed to get myself to read faster than I would if I were just reading the manhua in silence. I found a pretty cool horror manhua, but upon making this post I checked bilibili and the compilation I saved was deleted. If I find it again I'll post a link. It was a college student who just moved to the city, and he meets this ancient guy who may be a demon/guardian sort of thing, and the city is just full of haunting and awful deaths and misfortune going on. It was both scary and full of comedy, which was fun.

#reading list #my reading list #my reading list 2023 #chinese reading list #2023 #rant