So I have been thinking a bit about directions for this blog and how to improve my learning. This is a wonderful age to live in, there is, at the click of a button, a plethora of information about a language with products and services that span the gamut from free to quite expensive. However the reality is that the book, the audio tape, the computer program, the website, the tutor, the class, etc. are not important. They all serve to deliver information about the sounds to make the and the order to put them in. At the end of the day, that is it, around sixty sounds (technically I am talking about phonemes and this is a judgement call) exist in English. There are more that human vocal chords can make but not many more.
So the point is that the "best" tool is not the tool but the time you spend using and seeking out gaps in your knowledge of the language (commonly called "mistakes") and then addressing them.
For me the realization is that the time I spent has not been consistent, that I have not created a ritual around learning. Or let me say in these words, I have the application Anki on my phone. I am to the point now that I have a relatively board vocabulary, just today I had a didactic moment was listing synonyms in Portuguese, but this not the challenge anymore. Once upon a time I needed vocabulary now I need to improve my syntax and grammar (and pronunciation at times).
The meat of it is that I want the first thing I do in the morning is to work on Portuguese. The time I feel best able to do this before my children wake for the day, which means I need a bed time. I have the habit of putting off sleep and working late if pressed which means I am sleeping until a small child wakes me and then I am playing catch up the whole day.
I am curious to hear about other rituals that folks have used.
I will let you know how my experiment to go to bed by 11pm does.
Cheers,
Rob
So the point is that the "best" tool is not the tool but the time you spend using and seeking out gaps in your knowledge of the language (commonly called "mistakes") and then addressing them.
For me the realization is that the time I spent has not been consistent, that I have not created a ritual around learning. Or let me say in these words, I have the application Anki on my phone. I am to the point now that I have a relatively board vocabulary, just today I had a didactic moment was listing synonyms in Portuguese, but this not the challenge anymore. Once upon a time I needed vocabulary now I need to improve my syntax and grammar (and pronunciation at times).
The meat of it is that I want the first thing I do in the morning is to work on Portuguese. The time I feel best able to do this before my children wake for the day, which means I need a bed time. I have the habit of putting off sleep and working late if pressed which means I am sleeping until a small child wakes me and then I am playing catch up the whole day.
I am curious to hear about other rituals that folks have used.
I will let you know how my experiment to go to bed by 11pm does.
Cheers,
Rob
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