Comments on: Why You Should Never Ever Schedule “Study Time” For a Language

By: Unmissable Language Links - May 2014 - More Vietnamese

Unmissable Language Links - May 2014 - More Vietnamese — Sat, 31 May 2014 09:40:23 +0000

[…] if you’re not a natural planner, don’t feel like you have to plan everything. In fact, you can change your life 13 minutes at a […]

By: Ashley N.

Ashley N. — Fri, 23 May 2014 23:22:39 +0000

You just seriously turned my world upside-down. I don’t have to have a schedule to learn a language! What! I am so excited to get started. Sounds silly but this is crazy. Like I just got the permission I didn’t realize I was looking for. Any recommendations for Chinese language resources/apps online? Or at least how to find it? There’s got to be better ways than to just Google it and hope nothing R-rated comes up with the kids looking over my shoulder…

By: アマンダ

アマンダ — Mon, 19 May 2014 20:38:45 +0000

If you stay at home all day and have access to the internet, then you have the perfect opportunity for 24-7 Japanese immersion. Watch Japanese tv shows on Dailymotion. Torrent dramas and movies and watch them. There are plenty of legal options like Crunchyroll, Hulu, and Netflix that have lots of Japanese media. Browse and read Japanese websites. Do Anki reviews. Use TuneIn radio to listen to Japanese radio stations. Get free Japanese podcasts from iTunes. There are a plethora of free apps and games in Japanese for iPhone and Android. You don’t have to spend a single sent other than for the internet connection, which I assume you aren’t even paying for since you have no job.

By: Willzah

Willzah — Mon, 19 May 2014 03:29:25 +0000

Hi, Khatz..

I really like the “I didn’t control time, I controlled space instead. ” part from this post. This one make a lot of sense in my case. I found scheduling myself with time tables usually ended up in failures (in my part). I give up on making schedule, instead i just make list of what should i do without time constraint.

By: Jorge

Jorge — Sun, 18 May 2014 05:44:39 +0000

Where do you read Japanese manga? Any links you could share?

By: Jeremy

Jeremy — Sat, 17 May 2014 15:41:55 +0000

What do you mean when you say “Japanese stuff?” The internet is full of free (legal and less-than) stuff. Some of the best Japanese media I’ve found were stuff I found while wasting time on the internet. Even if you don’t want to pirate copyrighted media, the internet has news, blogs, websites, YouTube and NicoVideo original content creators, dictionaries, manga strips, memes, message boards, podcasts, classic books and probably tons of stuff I’m forgetting all in Japanese. I spend so much time reading stuff like Lifehacker.jp that I end up feeling kinda guilty about not reading all these Japanese books I bought.

If you’re less anti-pirate (hey, you can always buy those books for real later!), there’s a ton of stuff. I read manga voraciously and I honestly couldn’t do that if I had to buy volumes of manga from Amazon.co.jp or YesAsia, pay crazy shipping costs, and wait for them to get here.

I’ve been poor for a big chunk of my Japanese language journey, too. Trust me, you’ve got this. 🙂

By: ere

ere — Sat, 17 May 2014 13:34:11 +0000

there is only one time that will come, and that is the time japanese will make you angry, bored, and you want to escape it but you can’t.
because Confucius was not your father, only some emotional overreactions on Plato or some other hyperbolic tension.

use MED>Minimum Effective Dose and after that go free style like an addict.

ONLY stick japanese around daily s##t. it will never fail. for example when eating in the morning i learn only 5 kanji plus meaning. I also make quick flash cards on empty cards. I’m not allowed to do more. and that sucks because i can do more. but I’m forced to quit and forget about it all. the next morning i review and move on. very slow. but I’m lazy and i like things that are so easy that i feel it is a joke. and yet I’m quicker then anyone who really tried. I don’t have to worry. I finish the game someday but I never tried. not doing is the best.

when s##tting at the toilet I read an practice chapter. from quick pocket text books. it’s like an old Donald Duck magazine that is always on the toilet I read it many times. because it is just there. I know the stories I know the kanji, but: s##tting + reading = heaven.

hunger + food + new kanji = heaven.

I dislike computer displays. i like touch and smell and people and s##t. computers are a waste of time.

YOU DONT ATTACK JAPANESE WIH YOUR ARSENAL OF HABITS THEY ATTACK YOU LIKE WILD POCKET MONSTERS FROM THE GRASS.

I don’t have any outgoing visual rape from my eyes, the symbols rape and hypnotise me. and it becomes way too quickly fluid.

you should be a defence castle against japanese invading you instead of you conquering Japanese. I hate japanese!!!!

you don’t want japanese, japanese wants you. don’t make schedules. keep it out. don’t try. just eat, s##t, sleep. there is NO in-between.

there is no blade an no cuts to be made. that is all for fools.

forget about it. it is not important. it is just a stupid language. it is out there.

hide some s##t in the desert. then next day look if it is still there. it will come up every time. it wants to be found, like the one ring.

it fits you, don’t be afraid.

By: kyub

kyub — Fri, 16 May 2014 19:26:16 +0000

I thought a lot of this was obvious but guess not lol. Language not not be this rigid and analytical. Like Khatz said, dont control the “time”, control the “space”. Just throw in Japanese whenever throughout the day in a way that works with your schedule. If you have the materials, you essentially control whenever you bring Japanese (or any L2) into your life. Thats why its recommended using and doing things you like. Its not difficult to randomly pop in some headphones and just listen 🙂

By: The Real CZ

The Real CZ — Fri, 16 May 2014 15:30:19 +0000

Honestly, the best scheduling for me has always been timeboxing. I can schedule the next 15-20 minutes and actually follow through on that. I can’t schedule the next day in advance and detail what I am going to do every hour. If you timebox enough and change your environment to accommodate, then it will become a habit. That habit will eventually be your “schedule”. I do it for school and for learning languages and it has helped me. I have an idea of what I want to do on a certain day and then timebox segments out of the day, every day to do what I need to do.

By: Suisei

Suisei — Fri, 16 May 2014 11:07:07 +0000

I actually have been trying to make a schedule throughout the day to do japanese. I wanted to put in 5 hours of japanese study time throughout the day but…that’s quite difficult for me to do since to do that I have to get up super early. Sadly I don’t really have the money to get things for my japanese environment since I don’t have a job at the moment and basically have to stay home. :/

It’s kinda getting boring for me to just watch anime mostly and trying to keep coasting. I wish there was a cheap alternative to get japanese stuff x.x; I also can’t get rid of my english stuff do to reasons so yeah.. I’m trapped. :/