mamaのikioi

6?/100 days of productivity 11.8.17

~hey folks! long time, no speak. i literally haven’t posted original content in ages, but anyways. i got this cute idea from my fellow fave, @studyflash ,so i hope you enjoy! this was my study day ~

8:30- i woke up to a gusty and damp campus. its been raining all day, and although it’s beautiful, i can’t stand it :( 

8:57- i started reading some poetry to just get my brain going and ready to study

11:10- i finished studying for my biology class (i used anki).

13:47- i went to my biology lab class. i was literally so scared to go today because we had an oral presentation, but i nailed it 

14:55-i finished my oral presentation and started doing research for my lab paper. learn a lot of information about reef corals lmao.

널 위해서라면,  난  = for you, I…

슬퍼도 기쁜 척 할 수가 있었어 = even when sad, I could pretend to be happy

아파도 강한 척 할 수가 있었어 = even when hurt, I could pretend to be strong 사랑 = love 

완벽한 = perfect 

약점 = weakness

다 = all 

숨겨지 = hidden

이뤄지다 = to be attained, fulfilled 

않는 = not… 

꿈속에서 = in a dream

피울 수 없는 꽃을 = a flower that can’t bloom

키웠어 = I grew

for all the time you spent

learning a language someday.

my darling,

a foreign language

doesn’t feel so foreign

Hello, everyone! I had a long weekend full of friends and food, and of course a bit of studying! I was in a group voice chat practicing Korean when the topic of learning multiple languages came up. Someone in the chat asked me a question I field a lot but that I have not addressed on here. That question is,

“How do you study languages?”

Keeping in mind that this is just what works for me and that every learns in different ways, today I want to tell you guys what has worked for me in my language-learning journey(s).

When I first started this blog, I was studying Korean, Mandarin, and Japanese all at the same time. It gradually turned into more of a Korean-only blog, but I have been sort of maintaining my basic-level Mandarin, and I have recently started getting back into studying Japanese (let’s see how long it lasts!). So, how do I do it? How does one successfully study multiple languages at once? Learning more than one language at the same time poses some unique issues outside of those that one would face learning just one. Today, I’ll touch on what I think, based on my own experience, are some of the most important things to remember and do to learn more than one language at a time. Remember, this is all just based on my own experience; others might have different takes, but this is mine~

Starting out with differing levels

One reason why I feel that my first attempt to learn Japanese failed was because I was still in the very basic stages of learning Mandarin. In my opinion, the beginning level is where progress should be the fastest as you start building up your foundation, and building that foundation requires undivided concentration and a lot of practice and repetition. My Korean was advanced enough that it didn’t really impact things in this aspect, but with trying to study basic level Mandarin and Japanese at the same time, I found myself sometimes getting confused, and I felt like I was slogging through the basics way too slowly because I had to divide my limited time between the two. I was able to give neither my Mandarin nor my Japanese foundation the attention it needed to really start strong, and both suffered as a result. I decided to prioritize Mandarin, and now that I’ve gotten to a point with that where I feel I am a bit beyond that critical minimum, I am able to devote more time to Japanese without feeling like my Mandarin is taking a hit because of it. My advice would be to avoid starting two languages at the same time. Make sure you build a solid base in one language and feel confident that it won’t interfere with (or be disrupted by) introducing another language into your study schedule.

Time management

Finding the time to study even just one language can be hard enough if you’re leading a busy life, but you have to be especially on your time management game if you want to go for more than one. Consistency is key—languages are very much a use-it-or-lose-it deal, so try to schedule set study times for each language in each week. On the off days for a language, you should still try to fit in even a few minutes of vocab or grammar review just to keep your brain in focus! Making a schedule can, provided you commit to actually following the schedule, help you ensure that you get that vital study time in, and that you don’t accidentally pour a ton of time into one language and as a result leave the other to wither away.

Exposure, exposure, and more exposure

Of course exposure to a lot of input of the target language is crucial even when learning only one language. However, making sure you get a good amount of exposure to each of your languages when you have multiple languages you are working on at once can be a bit tricky. You can set time aside for consuming media like TV programs, music, and other things for each language, but that usually only gives you exposure to one at a time. There are ways to get exposure to multiple languages at once! For example, I study Japanese using only Korean-language resources, and I constantly work to draw parallels between vocabulary that I know in Korean, Mandarin, and Japanese. My Chinese language exchange partner and I communicate primarily in Korean when we are just chatting and not actually studying together, and I have found multiple penpals and language exchange partners on various platforms that speak two or sometimes even all three of the languages I am currently focusing on! I especially recommend trying to study using languages other than your native language because it might help you see certain grammatical constructs and concepts in ways that are hard to express in your native language. Find language exchange partners that you can speak with in multiple languages so you can make the most of your practice time as well :)

Ultimately, learning more than one language at a time is a challenge. However, it is certainly doable if you make sure that you give each language the time and attention it needs and do your best to keep interference between languages to a minimum, especially at the starting stages. Finally, make sure you get a lot of exposure and practice, and you’ll be good to go!