Language Journal: September 24th 2018
Context is very powerful for memory. While this isn't exactly news to me, nor is it surprising, I'm nonetheless astounded at just how powerful it is.
I started re-reading オレンジ. I chose this to be my first re-read for a number of reasons. But, if I had to choose 1 reason above the others, it would be because it was the easiest the first time around and I don't know when the next box will arrive. And, while it may have been the easiest, it is worth noting that, especially during the first half of the book as I was getting acquainted with all new vocab and grammar that I was still hitting words I didn't know very well on a regular basis.
And so, needless to say, it isn't a terrible way to try and gauge my methods. In fact, it is the only book I really stuck with making flash cards for on most things I got stuck.
So, how is the re-read going? Well, it is hard to motivate myself because it was one of my least favorite reads. So, I am only maybe 20% through after a few days. But, I haven't looked up a single word. I'm completely confident that, had I tried to guess at the meaning of all of the words out of context, then my success might be hurting a lot more. But, within the context of the story, the meanings come back instantly most times. Sometimes I even remember readings without looking at the Furigana.
What is exciting to me is that this means I'm basically through the part of the book I struggled with on the first pass and now I'm moving onto the part of the book I breezed through.
And, this contextual learning doesn't appear to be a crutch. I think, in part, because a lot of these words and grammar are either in multiple places in the book, or in multiple books. And so, I don't find I need any one specific context to help me remember. And the more contexts within which I encounter a new bit of grammar or vocab, the stronger and faster it comes back to me.
Also, my flashcard accuracy is going up again. I'm regularly getting 95%+ on my mature cards and fairly close to that on the others. But, I think a bit of the same thing is at play here. I have multiple decks and there is overlap in the vocab. The Nihongoshark NDL based deck is really the only thing dragging my down and that is largely because those cards are using things not covered in my over Core 2K and 6K decks. So, there is a lot more stuff that exists in only one place.
But I had noticed that my accuracy was going up and as a result my daily reviews were going down. So, I tried to make it harder for myself today. Normally to get through the cards faster I would focus a lot more on just the particular vocab or grammar point and not bother testing my knowledge of the full sentences. I had noticed that when I was ripping through them, I'd often make mistakes in my tense or skip over certain words which weren't part of what I was being tested on and feel fine with that.
Today, I decided to factor in my ability to translate/read/understand the whole cards a lot more. Unfortunately, it didn't hurt my accuracy. If anything it was higher than usual. Though, I think that is largely luck. But, I didn't make any of the sloppy mistakes I was accustomed to making today. And I even got a number of the more nuanced translations right.
But the context "revelation" isn't super helpful. The problem remains the same. Finding the right level of immersive materials. Box of Manga is only one part of the equation and it isn't perfect. 日常 was too difficult. I would regularly spend a huge chunk of time translating a few small sentences one after another. Unlike 僕だけがいない街 and ちぇみ三兄弟 it didn't really abate either as time went on. What 日常 had going for it though was that it was amusing and drew me in. But, I'm still scared of reading through that one again.
Anyway, this is all really just to say, I feel like I'm making slow progress again. And that feels pretty good.
I started re-reading オレンジ. I chose this to be my first re-read for a number of reasons. But, if I had to choose 1 reason above the others, it would be because it was the easiest the first time around and I don't know when the next box will arrive. And, while it may have been the easiest, it is worth noting that, especially during the first half of the book as I was getting acquainted with all new vocab and grammar that I was still hitting words I didn't know very well on a regular basis.
And so, needless to say, it isn't a terrible way to try and gauge my methods. In fact, it is the only book I really stuck with making flash cards for on most things I got stuck.
So, how is the re-read going? Well, it is hard to motivate myself because it was one of my least favorite reads. So, I am only maybe 20% through after a few days. But, I haven't looked up a single word. I'm completely confident that, had I tried to guess at the meaning of all of the words out of context, then my success might be hurting a lot more. But, within the context of the story, the meanings come back instantly most times. Sometimes I even remember readings without looking at the Furigana.
What is exciting to me is that this means I'm basically through the part of the book I struggled with on the first pass and now I'm moving onto the part of the book I breezed through.
And, this contextual learning doesn't appear to be a crutch. I think, in part, because a lot of these words and grammar are either in multiple places in the book, or in multiple books. And so, I don't find I need any one specific context to help me remember. And the more contexts within which I encounter a new bit of grammar or vocab, the stronger and faster it comes back to me.
Also, my flashcard accuracy is going up again. I'm regularly getting 95%+ on my mature cards and fairly close to that on the others. But, I think a bit of the same thing is at play here. I have multiple decks and there is overlap in the vocab. The Nihongoshark NDL based deck is really the only thing dragging my down and that is largely because those cards are using things not covered in my over Core 2K and 6K decks. So, there is a lot more stuff that exists in only one place.
But I had noticed that my accuracy was going up and as a result my daily reviews were going down. So, I tried to make it harder for myself today. Normally to get through the cards faster I would focus a lot more on just the particular vocab or grammar point and not bother testing my knowledge of the full sentences. I had noticed that when I was ripping through them, I'd often make mistakes in my tense or skip over certain words which weren't part of what I was being tested on and feel fine with that.
Today, I decided to factor in my ability to translate/read/understand the whole cards a lot more. Unfortunately, it didn't hurt my accuracy. If anything it was higher than usual. Though, I think that is largely luck. But, I didn't make any of the sloppy mistakes I was accustomed to making today. And I even got a number of the more nuanced translations right.
But the context "revelation" isn't super helpful. The problem remains the same. Finding the right level of immersive materials. Box of Manga is only one part of the equation and it isn't perfect. 日常 was too difficult. I would regularly spend a huge chunk of time translating a few small sentences one after another. Unlike 僕だけがいない街 and ちぇみ三兄弟 it didn't really abate either as time went on. What 日常 had going for it though was that it was amusing and drew me in. But, I'm still scared of reading through that one again.
Anyway, this is all really just to say, I feel like I'm making slow progress again. And that feels pretty good.
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