Language Journal: October 15th 2018
Well, I am pleased to say that the frequency of these posts is dying down again. Not that I don't like writing them. More that, the more I'm writing, the less I'm reading/learning and the more I am just babbling about the those things.
The reason for this post is a reinforcement of other things I've learned.
As I mentioned in an earlier post, I've finally managed to finish all of my manga WELL ahead of the next shipment. In the meantime I have been meandering through Orange volume 1 again. Since I'm not feeling a rush to finish the book, I'm spending a lot more time making sure I totally get what is being said, even translating a lot of stuff which wasn't in the "main" text. And making a lot more flashcards in Anki. In fact, I may have made more in this second reading of the first half of volume 1 than I did during my first read through of volumes 1-3 combined.
And that is where things got interesting. Grammar points which were never sticking before are suddenly starting to snap into place. And the secret isn't really anything new or special. Words I've learned in the context of a manga or anime, or a sentence that is meaningful to me stick quicker.
This is really the same principle behind the mnemonic stories behind the Kanji. But, it is REALLY hard to come up with 2000 somewhat equally relevant things. So, for the Kanji, I mostly just ploughed through it as quickly as possible relying on vocab and grammar training to reinforce them.
So, to that end, since finishing the Kanji, I moved onto flashcards with a mix of full sentences and individual words. I found the words stuck better than the Kanji with the help of the sentences, but still weren't all that great. Grammar in particular is my enemy.
I hadn't really been giving it much notice because I didn't have many cards and there were a few that were particularly hard that kept popping up. But, as my custom deck grows I'm starting to notice that, in general, I'm doing better at that deck than any other. And what is really weird is that, where my standard decks have a lot of overlap and the default timings for reviews, the manga deck has virtually no overlap, it is much more common for a single card to contain more than one piece of new/challenging info and my delays are longer meaning I see them less often.
In short, I should be failing my custom manga deck in spectacular fashion. But, as stated, I'm not. And, not only am I not failing that deck. As I grow it, I'm getting noticeably better at my other decks. In fact, lately I'm been BRUTAL with myself because things are going so well and my accuracy still doesn't regularly go below 90% overall and 95% for mature cards.
I really wish I wasn't so difficult to self motivate on this. But, I am. Making my own manga based decks is a step in the right direction. But, as with everything else; once I finally suck it up and get started, it is hard not to look back and wish I had done something similar from the beginning. For instance, there are cards which regularly stump me, and I've though "hey, I should rewrite this card to something more relevant/crazy/fun" and I never do.
The reason for this post is a reinforcement of other things I've learned.
As I mentioned in an earlier post, I've finally managed to finish all of my manga WELL ahead of the next shipment. In the meantime I have been meandering through Orange volume 1 again. Since I'm not feeling a rush to finish the book, I'm spending a lot more time making sure I totally get what is being said, even translating a lot of stuff which wasn't in the "main" text. And making a lot more flashcards in Anki. In fact, I may have made more in this second reading of the first half of volume 1 than I did during my first read through of volumes 1-3 combined.
And that is where things got interesting. Grammar points which were never sticking before are suddenly starting to snap into place. And the secret isn't really anything new or special. Words I've learned in the context of a manga or anime, or a sentence that is meaningful to me stick quicker.
This is really the same principle behind the mnemonic stories behind the Kanji. But, it is REALLY hard to come up with 2000 somewhat equally relevant things. So, for the Kanji, I mostly just ploughed through it as quickly as possible relying on vocab and grammar training to reinforce them.
So, to that end, since finishing the Kanji, I moved onto flashcards with a mix of full sentences and individual words. I found the words stuck better than the Kanji with the help of the sentences, but still weren't all that great. Grammar in particular is my enemy.
I hadn't really been giving it much notice because I didn't have many cards and there were a few that were particularly hard that kept popping up. But, as my custom deck grows I'm starting to notice that, in general, I'm doing better at that deck than any other. And what is really weird is that, where my standard decks have a lot of overlap and the default timings for reviews, the manga deck has virtually no overlap, it is much more common for a single card to contain more than one piece of new/challenging info and my delays are longer meaning I see them less often.
In short, I should be failing my custom manga deck in spectacular fashion. But, as stated, I'm not. And, not only am I not failing that deck. As I grow it, I'm getting noticeably better at my other decks. In fact, lately I'm been BRUTAL with myself because things are going so well and my accuracy still doesn't regularly go below 90% overall and 95% for mature cards.
I really wish I wasn't so difficult to self motivate on this. But, I am. Making my own manga based decks is a step in the right direction. But, as with everything else; once I finally suck it up and get started, it is hard not to look back and wish I had done something similar from the beginning. For instance, there are cards which regularly stump me, and I've though "hey, I should rewrite this card to something more relevant/crazy/fun" and I never do.
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