#new langblr

I did it! Yesterday I convinced my boyfriend to learn a new language (thanks to endless talks about why learning a language is the best thing on earth haha). Actually I gave up on this but out of nowhere he was like “I’m thinking about learning French”. Hell yeah!!! So he took French. Well not my favourite language but probably useful when visiting France and I’m not going to complain about it because I’m happy af that he’s going to learn a new language. We’re living in Germany so France is not that far away, even though we’re usually in Italy for vacation (I guess things will change lol). 

Learning languages as a couple, sounds like much fun but we’re not learning the same language, so it’s going to be a little bit different and also harder to help each other and study together. That’s why I’m writing this, how can we support each other the best way even if we’re not learning the same language and what are the advantages of learning two different langauges? Let’s do this!

• Challenge each other. We both use Memrise as a tool to challenge each other. There’s a high score list and I’m very competitive and he has 2 hours of boredom every day because he’s traveling by train. Today I couldn’t believe how high his high score was after getting up. It was already a little bit hard to keep up with him.
• Test each other. The thing with testing our vocabulary knowledge is… that he can’t read my vocab because of a different alphabet. The solution is easy: In my case he’s just asking the German words, I translate them and then he shows me the word. I can ask French and German words.
• Play games. There are many multiplayer games where you can play together and just switch the language of the interface to the language you learn.
• Be creative. You have so many options how to learn a language (just like my Tumblr post about “different ways to learn a language”), if you’re creative. For example: acting like you two do only speak your target languages but it’s important for the survival of humankind that you two talk to each other (about whatever). Just use Google Translate and type in what you want to say and show it your partner. You may think this is pointless but it’s not about learning what the other person says, it’s about learning how to make sentences on your own. No matter if they are correct, you should just try and think about what you want to say and how you could do that. Many language learners have the problem that they can understand a lot but are not able to make their own sentences because they rarely do that compared to studying their passiv vocab.
• Rewards. You probably know about rewarding yourself when reaching a goal, but now you can make a deal with your partner. For example the person who has a higher high score on Memrise can make a wish. Maybe there’s just a difference for very competitive people to “normal” rewards you give yourself but for me, this is so much more fun because I WANT TO WIN THIS SHIT! Also, there are way more option for your price because you’re not alone anymore (hello massage, I’m coming for you).
• More support. I know you can get support from friends (if you can get them to learning a language lol, I gave up there) or your language exchange partner but it’ll never be like getting through this with your partner. Also, if you’re living together your partner is always there for you, if you feel like giving up or want to celebrate (even very small) goals you reached your partner is just around the corner.
• It’s hot. Let’s be honest, speaking another language makes people more attractive (proven fact) and seeing the person you already love speaking another language (which you don’t understand, so it’s a skill you don’t have) makes him/her even more attractive.
• More opportunities. Because both partner learn a different language, there are double as much opportunities for vacation and where to travel, away from these tourism places.
• More cultural diversity. If you learn a new language you (mostly) also learn about their culture. So with a partner who’s learning another language you don’t just have one new culture around you but also another one.

Before I begin: sorry for my long break. I’m back and changed my profile picture (in case you have no idea who on earth you are following here) and my template… and also my header for my posts so… you know… everything.
But now let’s start. :)

This time I want to make it short, so here are 26 study tips for learning a foreign language.

1. Study every day. Even if you just study 5 minutes, that’s important for your progress. 17 minutes every day is FAR BETTER than two hours on one day of the week.
2. Learn the most important 100-300 words.
3. Use good apps/websites for your target language. Take the time to find out which apps and websites work best for you.
4. Watch movies, series and videos in your target language. If needed turn on subtitles.
5. Write a little text every day. For example a diary entry.
6. IMPORTANT: Practice speaking right from the BEGINNING!
7. Try to live your language as much as you can. You should do everything you can in your target language. Think about what you do in your native language and then try to do it in the language you want to learn.
8. Change the language on your social media websites.
9. Change the language on your smartphone.
10. Read books for children if normal books are too difficult for you.
11. Study vocabs you just can’t keep in mind with apps extra for this problem.
12. Find a chat group in your target language. More people, more fun.
13. Try to think in your target language, even if you’re quite new to it. For example learn the numbers and use your target language for counting.
14. Make a plan for learning. (Yeah that came a little bit late lol)
15. Find out which learning type you are. Seriously don’t skip this. You really, really, really should know that! It will make things so much easier!
16. Use new words as soon as you can. For example when chatting with your language exchange partner: replace every word you can with your new vocab.
17. Write a list with big and (IMPORTANT) small goals (!!!)
18. Listen to music while reading the lyrics, even if you don’t understand it.
19. Read a book and listen to the audio version of it.
20. Write a diary in your target language.
21. Talk to yourself. Who could be more interesting? :p
22. Write a list with rewards for reaching your goals.
23. TRACK YOUR PROGRESS! You will need this when hitting a plateau.
24. Search for apps/websites that are only available in your target language and use them.
25. Use a calendar with your goals and progress on it.
26. Use image search for hard vocabs. Try to get a connection to this word.
    
    Done. I hope some of these tips help you. :)
    PS: Sorry for mistakes but my new notebook marks every English word as wrong.

Hi, today I decided to get back on Tumblr with a brand now blog. The main focus is gonna be studying in Japan as an international student. I don’t really feel comfortable giving out too much information about who and where I am so bear with me. I’ll be doing the entirety of my degree over here in Japan so hopefully, I’ll get a bit better at writing in Japanese from doing this blog. I’ll also write about lifestyle things like food, travel and personal reflections every now and then when anything interesting happens.

ようこそ！何年ぶりにに、やっとTumblrに戻ってきました。このブログは「外国からの留学生にとって、日本で大学の経験」というテーマで始めさせていただきたいと思います！基本的に個人情報などをあまり述べたくないですので、ちょっと許してくださいね。入学から卒業までずっと日本にいます。このブログを通してもちろん日本語をスキルアップしたいけど、自分の生活をちゃんと整理していきたいと思います。勉強以外に食べ物、旅行、自分の反省などの投稿もたまに書かせていただきたいと思います！

それでは、よろしくお願いします

[ADHD AND LANGUAGE LEARNING/STUDYING]

Hello! For those who are ADHD, what does your developed study process look like? I find that I rely on my current mood a lot when it comes to studying so it’s a bit difficult to build a routine. I honestly don’t think I want to have a schedule, maybe just a skeleton I can work with that’s flexible. I’d love your insights and tips!

[QUESTION FOR LANGBLR/STUDYBLR COMMUNITY]

For those who took a break/hiatus from studying their target language (or studying/working on a project), how did you regroup and get back into it? Did you plan specifically or just go back to your old routine? I’d love to know how you got back in the groove/anything about your adjustment process. Tips are welcome <3

Thank you <3

Language Tag

I was tagged by @bulletproof-korean to answer these questions about languages. Thanks for the tag. ^^

1. what languages are you/have studied?

My native language is Filipino. I can speak English and I’m currently learning Korean. I’ve studied Hokkien back in high school but that was years ago and I don’t remember anything at all now.

2. how long have you been studying?

I’ve known how to speak English before I entered kindergarten. I’ve only studied Hokkien for one year. I’ve been learning Korean on and off since after I graduated from college in 2011. 

3. did you learn through class or self-study (or both)?

I don’t remember how I learned English. I just remember watching a lot of English cartoons. Also, English is like a second language here in the Philippines. We have English classes so it helped a lot in improving my skills. I’m learning Korean through self-study because there are no Korean language classes here.

4. why did you decide to learn this language?

English is part of our curriculum so I’ve been taking English classes since kindergarten. Then I took a Hokkien class in high school out of curiosity plus I was so into F4 that time. I wanted to learn Mandarin but I wasn’t allowed to join the Mandarin class because their lessons were way too advanced and it was impossible to catch up because they’ve been learning it since kindergarten. 

I like k-pop and Korean drama so much that I decided to learn Korean language. I didn’t really have any goals when I started learning Korean, I just thought it would be fun to be able to understand what they were saying. But I fell in love with the language and now I appreciate it and study it not only because of k-pop or k-drama but also because it’s kinda fascinating how it sounds more romantic or more meaningful in Korean than when it’s translated to English. 

5. what was a major highlight/milestone in studying this language?

I don’t think I have a major highlight or milestone when it comes to English unless you count the times I won in spelling bees and story writing contests in school. Lol!

But for Korean, one of the major highlight was being able to work in a Korean military base camp in 2014. A group of Korean soldiers were deployed here to help with the rehabilitation. They were looking for interpreters and I was the only native in the city who knows Korean language. 

There are other highlights/milestones like getting TOPIK Level 4 and winning a Korean speech contest. You can read more about it here.

6. what was the hardest thing about studying this language?

It was difficult to construct sentences at first since the sentence order in Korean is different from English. Well, it wasn’t that big of a deal when I’m just writing down sentences for my diary or replying to someone in chat since I can just erase and rephrase. But when I had my first conversation in Korean, it was a scary experience since I needed some time to organize my thoughts before I can come up with a response that makes sense. 

7. what resources did you find most useful for studying this language?

I studied Korean using a lot of textbooks. Some grammar patterns were very similar to each other and yet one cannot be used in certain situations so I had to refer to a lot of different books to know more about the similarities and the differences between two very similar grammar patterns. 

For reading, I’m very fond of reading Korean webtoons. That’s where I learned phrases that Koreans usually use on a daily basis. Textbooks are good when you’re learning grammar but some sample sentences are too weird to be used in daily life so I suggest reading materials that natives read like webtoons.

For listening, I’m focusing on improving this skill nowadays as it is one of my weakest. I’ve recently started watching Korean Youtube channels to train my ears to listen to how Koreans normally converse. I listen to male youtubers, female youtubers, youtubers who have a 사투리 accent to train my ears in listening to different kinds of voices and speaking styles. I understand well enough to know what they’re talking about except for when they use slangs and words I’ve never encountered before.  

8. any top tips for studying this language?

You have to constantly challenge yourself to study materials that are a little higher than your current level. Try to step out of your comfort zone every once in a while. But don’t be discouraged when you don’t understand everything.

When you’ve reached the intermediate level, try to read or listen to stuff that natives read or listen to like webtoons and radio shows. When I took the TEFL course, I learned that people who are learning a language should listen to or read authentic materials meaning stuff that natives would normally listen to or read because this is where you will learn natural expressions or expressions used in daily life.  

9. whats your next major language goal?

My goal for now is to improve my listening skills because the last time I took TOPIK, I had a hard time in the listening exam. 

10. anything we can do in the tumblr community to get you there?

If you guys know any interesting Korean Youtube channel, please let me know. 

I tag @nocturnalinseoul,@pihaenggi,@jiae-study,@sootudying,@studiousbees, @hangulstudy,@hangulheart,@ttmikstudy,@soheestudies,@mykoreanstudy,@jeongsnotes Only if you want to do it, and sorry if you’ve already done this!