Thank you, I'm already looking for that book 👏 I agree about the importance of the regular practise no matter do I have mood for that or no. I also have noticed that it's more difficult to keep myself motivated without a teacher. I think maybe if I can organize for myself proper routine it will be easier to study independently, don't know yet. Do you learn languages on your own or you have a teacher?

"Do you learn languages on your own or you have a teacher?" (rumblebumble)

I've worked as a language teacher for more than 10 years, but nowadays I work as a business process analyst in IT.

So foreign languages are just a hobby for me, but I don't have a teacher. And I don't need one because I've learned enough about second language acquisition (SLA) that I can learn any natural language without external help.

I only need native speakers to get some oral or written feedback at higher language levels (B2 and higher)...

"if I can organize for myself proper routine it will be easier to study independently"

Definitely. As soon as you've established a proper SLA routine that works for you everything becomes easy... it's like a positive addiction!

Don' t know why I can't reply on your last message, maybe Lingq has a bug. I'll read a book which you recommended me and I will be glad to get more useful advice from you in the future :) It also would be great to know more about your learning experience and routine. Do you have a blog or sth like that?

"Don' t know why I can't reply on your last message, maybe Lingq has a bug." (rumblebumble)

Well, some might say it's a bug of LingQ's forum software, others might say it's a "feature" :-)

Anyway, the forum software allows a little nesting - and after that it becomes cluttered.

Unfortunately, it's really difficult to follow longer (but sometimes highly interesting) discussions on the LingQ forum(s).

"It also would be great to know more about your learning experience and routine. Do you have a blog or sth like that?"

I'm in the middle of finishing an e-book about "ultra-reading while listening (based on audio reader software such as LingQ" (for some ideas, see:

).

But, unfortunately, I'm not able to work on it right now because I've got to get various certifications for business process management, process mining, and software robots (robotic process automation = RPA) first.

In addition, we had a death in our family before Christmas so that my sister and I have to wind down a business... and that's really complicated because there is staff involved.

I'm also going to write on Medium, our company and my own private blog about organization theory (social complexity research, network analysis, etc.), new work (team / business agility, holocracy, etc.), and business process automation (process mining / RPA) where I have specialized in.

And in this context, I wanted to write a little bit about individual / organizational learning (which includes second language acquisition for professionals) and artificial intelligence as well.

However, the certifications (from Coursera and Udacity) I mentioned are of primary importance at the moment because I need them for my next business-related projects.

It would be nice to be able to focus more or exclusively on language learning, esp. related to Machine Learning / Natural Language Processing. Alas, it's not possible :-(

From what I’ve understood, you ‘re busy with various projects, which sounds really inspiring! Thank you for the link you’ve shared. Btw the second link on your list is private, maybe you have to consider to delete it. I’m interested in ultrareading-while-listening approach but from what I’ve understood, this strategy only increases reading speed. So, in case I already read quickly, it won’t make for me a lot of good, am I right?

It would be great to read your book, write me in for the first copy. I’m also sorry for your loss.

"Btw the second link on your list is private, maybe you have to consider to delete it."

Nothing I have on my personal LingQ home page is "really private". Sometimes, the private posts are just reminders to myself and lists of things I want to read in various languages - and that's probably not interesting for other people with other language interests.

"I’m interested in ultrareading-while-listening approach but from what I’ve understood, this strategy only increases reading speed."

I'd say it has four advantages:

1) increase of our reading speed

2) increase of our number of words to be acquired (the size of the vocabulary)

3) align what you're hearing with what you're reading (which is important in languages such as French or Portuguese where the written form is quite different from the spoken one)

4) improvement of our focused attention

"So, in case I already have read quickly it won’t make for me a lot of good, am I right?"

If your reading and listening comprehension is already excellent then it's not the right approach for you. In this case, applying what you already know in speaking and writing activities, for example, is probably the better strategy.

"It would be great to read your book, write me in for the first copy. I’m also sorry for your loss."

I'd like to write about a comprehensive language learning framework (beyond the ultrareading-while-listening approach) in this e-book, but I'm really not sure if I'm able to finish it in 2023.

My life has become so "unpredictable" in recent months (this is also because my company seems to think that I should travel a lot more in Germany, Austria and Switzerland - maybe it was a mistake to say that I' like to travel more in Europe and the US -> bye, bye home office :-) ) that it's increasingly hard to plan.

But ok, I won't die from being bored to death :-)

"’m also sorry for your loss."

Thank you!

I was mentally prepared and expected it.

However, it was still a "shock"...

The simple lesson for all of us is:

Enjoy your loved ones while they are still here.

There will come a time when they become memories,,,

Have a nice weekend,

Peter

Thank you for elaborating on ultrareading-while-listening approach. I have good reading and listening comprehension but have a lot of problems with writing and speaking. At this point, I’m actually struggling with dilemma.

A couple of native speakers who read my English texts have told me I’ve achieved an intermediate level and from that point, it will be more logical and useful to devote more time to writing and speaking than immersion. On the one hand, it might be true but I still can’t decide on that. Maybe I have to hear more opinions regarding that moment, don’t know. Maybe I can show you a couple of my texts and you can give some useful advice? That question is also connected with your recommendation about writing/speaking practise.

About your job, I see. Well, job is always stressful, I recall my last demanding job as a chief editor and man, that was exhausting. At the same time, it seems that you have a great opportunity to visit new countries! I think that’s great.

Steve's already in the system, btw:

Well, I played around with OpenGPT reg. Qs 3-5 for 1-2 h, and there was no knowledge or problem awareness in these areas. OpenGPT is basically clueless and restricted to a literal processing of sentences like "Earth is the third planet bla bla bla".

On the other hand, OpenGPT is a "powerful text generator" - there's no doubt about it. But it's more like a convenient access to a Wikipedia article and has nothing to do with how humans process language (i.e., being able to switch between literal and non-literal interpretations in an instant, processing associations and connotations, using irony, etc.).

"to prove it wrong...

Even fewer would be able to understand at least something."

Well, the game, for example, would be to drive traditional, models of communication ("sender - receiver", "intersubjectivity", "social mind", etc.) into nonsensical spheres (which is not that hard if you know how to do it).

And after that, there's not much more to defend :-)

I did something similar with variations of "Earth is a blue orange", where the basic topic isn't producing nonsense, but processing figurative speech.

The GPT reactions were so helpless that I lost all interest after a few minutes...

Furthermore, it seems that many GPT users resort to magical thinking and tend to project human qualities (emotions, etc.) onto the chatbot;

• We*ve known that for more than 50 years, e.g.:

"ELIZA's creator, Weizenbaum, regarded the program as a method to show the superficiality of communication between man and machine, but was surprised by the number of individuals who attributed human-like feelings to the computer program, including Weizenbaum's secretary. Many academics believed that the program would be able to positively influence the lives of many people, particularly those with psychological issues, and that it could aid doctors working on such patients' treatment.[12] While ELIZA was capable of engaging in discourse, ELIZA could not converse with true understanding." (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ELIZA)

• I'm also occasionally confronted with users who say: "My computer or my computer program (Word, Excel, Google Chrome, etc.) crashes or does something weird because it hates me."

Have a nice WE,

Pjotr [I have to escape the "Good luck, Peter" GPT copy mechanism :-)]

LOL. I've lost the chance to register in GPT and now it's too late, too much people here and I can't sign up. Still, that's a nice joke with a learning strategy, looks promising 😂

it was a pleasure talking to you!

Likewise.

And please keep us posted on your progress!