#learning reference

I feel like this video is a PERFECT outline of what you should be actively doing to learn another language.

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Here’s the main takeaways with some of my own ideas thrown in:

1. Don’t learn a language with the intent to enjoy fun things in your target language LATER after you gotten to whatever your target level of fluency is: Just go ahead and start now! Watch the TV show you want to watch even if you don’t understand any of it yet, you’ll get there eventually.

2. You do not need to be speaking all the time with others to get good at speaking. It helps, but it should not be solely relied on. OP gives a good example of what he did wrong in the video.

3. Speaking a language isn’t due to knowledge like learning math is, it’s more like a muscle that is always working for the sake of function.

4. You can’t just do 30 minutes days and expect to be fluent eventually. You need to be using your target language as much as possible (aka immerse yourself). Immersion takes much more than 30 specific minutes out of your day. I actually do this all the time, talk to yourself in your target language, read your target language (I follow a lot of social media accounts in my target language so I constantly see it), text others in your target language, watch videos/movies, voice shadowing etc etc. You may even be able to feel when your brain is in (insert language here) mode. Me personally I can tell, and I notice that if I’m in Japanese mode it’s hard to absorb things in Mandarin or other language

5. Mindset is everything. If you think constantly about how hard something is, you will always feel like the task is hard. If you are learning a notoriously hard language, and ruminate about this, it will only hurt you in the long run. When I started learning Mandarin as a kid no one ever told me it was hard before, and I picked it up fast, and I only slowed down when I got frustrated about how hard the language is but sped back up when I reminded myself that input and immersion will get me the results I’m looking for eventually no matter which language.

Lol so obviously I am Not Great™️ at doing things regularly.(*cough*thisblog*cough*)

But a couple tips for learning languages- download all of the free apps you can find for your target language, and then play around with them a while. You'll pick some stuff up that way, and you'll find some apps that you like/work for you.

If you've got Android, see if there is a WordBit app for ur language. It gives you a new word/phrase everytime you turn on your phone screen. (It's a little annoying after a while, but very effective)

Change the language on your phone games to your target language. It's sort of a immersion effect, you get used to seeing the language and you pick up common words. A lot of match-3 games have to do with houses/life, so you'll see a lot of common words without missing much of the actual game.

And of course if your game has a chat room or guild for trading, try to join one for your target language. It might take longer to do things if you have to go back and forth between the game and Google translate, but it will help solidify the meaning of things in your head.

Those are some ideas for practicing without it feeling like studying/a chore.

I find this method is particularly useful when I’m learning a new programming language or framework or something, and this article also has a neat breakdown on how memory works. If you spend a lot of time learning or studying, this is definitely worth a read (or preferably several reads at different intervals 😉) to help you make studying more effective.

If you don’t want to read a bunch of backstory about memory and the research behind it, you can skip to the end of the article for the section “Taking Advantage of the Spacing Effect” on how to implement the Spacing Effect in your studies. 

I bought book on hieroglyphs recently but would love to know what you're using to teach!

Probably going to use my Dutch copy of Collier and Manley’s How to Read Egyptian Hieroglyphs, which I’ve had since before I started studying Egyptology, at first. Once I’m sure the kid’s English is good enough I’ll move on to Ockinga’s A Concise Grammar of Middle Egyptian and/or Allen’s Middle Egyptian: An Introduction to the Language and Culture of Hieroglyphs. For exercises I’m going to use De Buck’s Egyptian Reading Book, and trusty Faulkner’s A Concise Dictionary of Middle Egyptian.

I was taught Middle Egyptian with these myself, so I know them inside out. Another reason for using these is that they can almost all be found in .PDF format online.