{"id":5052,"date":"2020-03-05T16:09:26","date_gmt":"2020-03-05T15:09:26","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.main-vision.com\/richard\/blog\/?p=5052"},"modified":"2020-03-05T16:09:26","modified_gmt":"2020-03-05T15:09:26","slug":"approaching-day-180-in-a-row-of-learning-german","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.main-vision.com\/richard\/blog\/approaching-day-180-in-a-row-of-learning-german\/","title":{"rendered":"Approaching Day 180 In a Row of Learning German"},"content":{"rendered":"Reading Time: <\/span> 3<\/span> minutes<\/span><\/span>\n

I am approaching Day 180 in a row of learning German and I finally progressed to the emerald league on Monday. In my previous post, I wrote of the futility of striving to achieve the Apple Activity challenges<\/a>. I see the Duolingo challenges in a different light. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

When learning a language it’s easy to hit walls and it’s easy to lose enthusiasm and drive. Starting a new module entails making a lot of mistakes and this discourages you from spending time on it. Life also gets in the way, with its distractions.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

For a while I studied at the end of the day, just to keep my streak and to stay within the league I reached. The decision to revert to revising modules I had completed has helped. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Revision and consolidation<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

I went back through and revised the modules that it told me to revise, and when my confidence grew enough I went back to trying new modules and learning new words. Eventually, I revised some modules so much that I don’t need to look up the words. I don’t need to listen to a phrase three or four times to get every word. I am at the point where I hear the phrase once, and I can write it down. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Last week I earned around 658 XP, with 58 lessons completed, 33 words learned, and three hours and fourty two minutes spent studying. This excludes the one or two podcasts I listened to while doing other things. Yesterday when I listened to a podcast I noticed myself understanding more words. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The League Tables<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
\"\"
Position 12 in the Emerald league with 236 XP so far today. <\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

League tables encourage you to study harder. On the first day you study to place yourself in the top ten, and that means up to ten lessons at a time. Now amplify this by seven and you’ve got the motivation to complete 70 lessons or more per week. That’s an investment of three hours per week to learn a new language. Contrast that to the 50 XP per day daily goal. That’s 35 lessons. The encouragement has doubled. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Checkpoints<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

I am now working through Checkpoints Four and Five. I am consolidating my knowledge of the words within that checkpoint. I am also working my way through learning new words in level five. It’s a slow process but I want to ensure that I learn the words properly. By going too fast a few weeks ago I overwhelmed myself and had to go back and revise, to continue. I am moving forward again. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Note-taking<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

I have started to keep notes by day. When I struggle with certain words or phrases I copy them to the Day One app. I can refer to them any time. I can revise these phrases more frequently. With repetition, these words or phrases will sink in. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Web App<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

I liked to use the web app for a while. With the German dictionary, it made learning easier. I would start typing the word I wanted and it would auto-complete. With an update, the link between the app and dictionary was broken. This resulted in predictive text inserting mistakes. It went from being a comfortable mobile phone app to being a nuisance. Learning a new language is hard enough, without the predictive app adding an extra layer of difficulty. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

With the web app I don’t have any such issues. It’s simple, effective, and when I struggle with a phrase I can copy and paste it into Day One for easy access. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Summary<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

It’s easy to install an app or start using a website and within days or weeks forget about it. In 2015 I installed the app but forgot about it. I started using it properly in February 2019. Since then I use it almost daily. My streak is at 178 days. I’m tempted to experiment with Babbel, in parallel because you get certificates for modules completed. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Reading Time: <\/span> 3<\/span> minutes<\/span><\/span>I am approaching Day 180 in a row of learning German and I finally progressed to the emerald league on Monday. In my previous post, I wrote of the futility of striving to achieve the Apple Activity challenges. I see the Duolingo challenges in a different light. When learning a language it’s easy to hit […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"activitypub_content_warning":"","activitypub_content_visibility":"","activitypub_max_image_attachments":3,"activitypub_interaction_policy_quote":"anyone","activitypub_status":"","footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[1091],"tags":[1092,1207,1093,1208],"class_list":["post-5052","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-language-learning","tag-duolingo","tag-german","tag-language","tag-persistance"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.main-vision.com\/richard\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5052","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.main-vision.com\/richard\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.main-vision.com\/richard\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.main-vision.com\/richard\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.main-vision.com\/richard\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=5052"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.main-vision.com\/richard\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5052\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.main-vision.com\/richard\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5052"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.main-vision.com\/richard\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5052"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.main-vision.com\/richard\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5052"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}