Week 5 & 6 Update: What worked

Ciao a tutti!

I know I haven't written an update lately, but I haven't stopped learning Italian!

Today I just finished the last of my mid-terms =] so I can start stressing about Italian again, ahah.

Over the past two weeks I've learned new ways of studying and more ways to keep me motivated.

What worked:

New Goals: Before I mentioned setting goals such as remembering 40 words per day, but to be honest, this goal really sucks. I never know how long 40 words will take to learn, and it is hard to motivate myself to sit down and study them, every single day…

So I've started to use time as a goal. I would like to study 1.5 to 3 hours a day, but to make it easy, I aim to study for at least 3 sessions of 10 minutes a day. This way I will always be thinking of Italian, I will be forced to recall words more often, and I will be more likely to study longer!

Skits: Most people, like me, find it hard to learn a new language when they are learning random and unimportant words. So to help make learning more effective and fun I've started to write 'skits' everyday or so and study them. (Thanks to my sisters idea :)

Each skit covers one topic, such as a simple conversation about "movies" or "music" or asking the "time and date". Each skit has about 10 sentences taken from a phrasebook or the Internet.

Journal: I can't stress enough how important it has been for me to write notes and study conclusions daily and weekly. It pushes me to strive harder, fix what isn't working, and improve on what is working.

So that's it!

I can hardly give an estimate of how much I've learned in the past two weeks, but to give you an idea: over these two weeks I've studied for an absolute minimum of 8 hours.

40 beginner lessons of LearnItalianPod, the review section online (in about 4 hours :)

Created/Studied/Practiced 3 skits (several hours)

Read Harry Potter (It took me an hour to get through a page and a half, ahaha.)

Livemocha's Unit 3 Lesson 1 and half of Lesson 2 (probably an hour)

and what ever else I didn't write in my notes (journal)

I've also started listening to the Italian radio when I browse the web.

Until next time,

Ciao!!!

Week 4 Update: What worked, what didn't, and what I would have done differently

Ciao a tutti!

So sadly I've made my least improvement this week, but I've also made my biggest mental decision.

This week I only studied with the Harry Potter audio books and Livemocha, and I'm am actually quite embarrassed to admit I haven't achieved very much.

What worked:

Livemocha, Unit 2, Lessons 3-5: With Livemocha, I reviewed several lessons, finished lesson 3, and completed the first parts of 4 and 5. I've began to speed through the lessons which makes them more enjoyable. (for example, I listen and learn to pronounce the words from the review section, then just listen to the review section. After, I blast through the last 3 parts, and sometimes skipping the speaking or writing section to come back to it. What ever helps motivate me is whats best)

Do it or Don't: My new mind set, which I'll mention in my new post, is extremely helpful. I now completely block out the 'maybe' or 'kind of' when learning or studying. Now, I will either do my studying now, or I won't. I will do my exercising, or I won't. The 'maybe' just creates stress and procrastination. So, you'll see how I'll do in week 5. =]

Task List: To remind me to study, I now have a simple task list. Because I check my Gmail all the time, I've used the integrated "tasks" menu that is always showing on the right. Here I just check of whether I've studied or not today. Plus, I like the little check marks: Motivation!

Audio Books: I want to emphasize the importance of listening to audio. This week I listened to the first chapter of Harry Potter several times. Most of the time I followed along in an Italian version of the book. This has helped my pronounce Italian more fluently, I'm picking up words I don't even know the meaning of, and I'm getting into the "flow" of this new language. It's important, so find a book and listen!

What didn't work:

Well, because I didn't study or try anything new this week, there wasn't anything that 'didn't work'. On the other hand, I do need to improve my goals and plans and ways to achieve them.

I mentioned last week the secret to learning a language is Goals and Plans (more so than the actually study material, teachers, and methods). I'm working on it!

What I would have done differently:

With the 4 weeks that I've been through, there's a lot I would have done differently to be more effective:

Week 1: Preparation (I would spend a week becoming used to the new language. This week would be laid-back. I would spend a lot of time listening to audio and practicing the most common sounds)

Week 2: Pronunciation (I would focus more time on studying. I would begin using Livemocha with 1 lesson a day, continue listening to audio books while reading, and continue practicing pronunciation. I constantly listen to exactly how something is pronounced, trying to best match it. I don't ever expect to sound like a native, but matching pronunciation is important.)

Week 3: Study (I would now focus more time on studying the language with Livemocha, audio books, and other material such as LearnItalianPod)

Week 4: Communication (I would now begin trying to communicate with the language, not only with friends or family, but also with only text chats or maybe even voice or video chats. I would continue to use Livemocha and the other material.)

So that's it!

Week 4 = more learning/motivation methods + tiny bit of grammar + ~50 words <- Yes, I need to get moving!

Week 3 Update: What worked and what didn't

It's now been three weeks since I've started. Two of which have been pure studying while the first was research. Last week I was happy to say I memorized over 200 words within several days, and so I planned on memorizing much more this week.

Because I'm still learning how to plan and set goals, I didn't add many words to my Italian vocabulary, but I have learned many valuable lessons (I didn't fail!! haha. If you're confused, read my Baby Steps post)

What worked:

Livemocha, Unit 2, Lessons 1-3: This unit is much more interesting than the last because I'm learning verbs which I can use regularly. If you use Livemocha (or any learning software) I highly recommend listening to the audio first! With audio and a picture you can gain a 'fuzzy' meaning of the word. It's extremely important not to associate the word with the spelling or another English word because you will not memorize it very well.

Writing: It sounds unimportant to write a summary of what you've learned or studied each day and each week (such as these weekly updates), but I've found it's extremely helpful with keeping me motivated. It also helps me plan and see what I can improve. On top of that, all the great and successful people do it, so why not?

Audio Books: This week I tried out listening to the Harry Potter audio book while reading the text, and I've found it extremely helpful in several ways.

1. I'm learning how to follow an Italian conversation at a normal speed, (they don't speak in s-l-o-w m-o-t-i-o-n , haha)

2. Because I love the Harry Potter books and movies and I know the story, I can make out what's happening even though I can understand only about 1 word or less per sentence.

3. It's fun! The beginning steps of learning a language isn't about memorizing grammar and verb conjugations. We learned our native language all by listening, therefore listening is extremely important. And when I can understand the meaning of what is being saying it's a huge accomplishment, and I'm proud of it! (<- Motivation)

Goal/Plan: I learned that studying a new language is more about how to create goals, plans, and managing time that it is about the grammar and vocabulary words. Having goals and plans is harder than it sounds, but it's extremely effective!

If I remember more, I'll add it here, alright?

What didn't work:

LingQ: because this website was recommended, I tried it out. I found the audio/text reading section slightly helpful, but you had to pay for the native audio/writing reviews. I will try it again because it's worth checking out.

Smart.fm: This is an excellent website for memorizing any names or symbols such as the Japanese writing system and country names. Otherwise, it was very hard to memorize verbs with this site.

If I remember more, I'll add it here, alright?

So that's it!

Week 3 = new learning methods + some grammar + ~50 words