What's your routine?

Just curious what people here do for their routines.

Do you focus on one lesson at a time, or stroll through a few lessons? How much active learning and how many lessons are you going through a day?

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I was going to answer this, but I figured ā€œwhatā€™s the point?ā€ If you are just curious, you donā€™t need my help. On the other hand, if you are looking for more efficient ways to do things, then you should probably aim your question at people in a similar situation. For example, first time language learners learning a single, rather difficult language, exclusively on lingQ.

I was going to answer this, but I figured ā€œwhatā€™s the point?ā€

Then why even respond?

I guess I shouldā€™ve been more specific. Iā€™m curious what people found to be more useful, listening to lessons in bulk, or focus on one or a handful of lessons at a time.

Do people have days where they want to focus on specific skills? Perhaps my reading isnā€™t the best, so I do some remedial exercises to help my reading.

When people prepare for a new lesson, do people read through it first, then listen, or listen to check what they can understand first?

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Everyone does it in the way that is more comfortable for him.
The people who have ā€˜good earsā€™ can listen more.
But I learn first of all with my eyes. I have to read firstly(if I have such an opportunity) and listen after that.
And some of my students need writing in order to remember words better.
Itā€™s very specific.
You have to find such a way of learning that is more suitable for you.
It does also for a quantity of the lessons.
I never do in a go more than one difficult lesson or two easy lessons. I just lose my atttention if I try doing more.
But I can do one lesson a day in 5 languages.
But some people prefer several lessons a day only in one language.
Itā€™s all very specific and depends only on your habits and your time.

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Hi there.
I usually go for 5 new lessons a day. My routine looks like this:

  1. I listen and read at the same time to the previous lessons in a given course. I donā€™t pause or re-listen even if I miss something.
  2. I open new lesson and listen to it once while reading the text. Thereā€™s plenty of blue words at this time. It just gives me some idea how to pronounce those new words I will be lingqing in a sec.
  3. I make all the blue words disappear - I create lingqs and add those words I know to ā€˜knownā€™.
  4. I read the entire lesson reading every hint I need to fully understand what the lesson si about.
  5. I listen to the lesson while reading the text.
  6. I change the status of every new lingq from 1 to 2.
  7. I repeat the steps 2-6 for 5 lessons.

e/ Thatā€™s for my Italian. Since Iā€™m so new to the language the process takes quite some time.
For English I just import a bunch of articles and read them creating lingqs whenever I encounter new words I donā€™t know or I am not sure about their meaning. After reading the complete article, I move all new words to ā€˜knownā€™. I read a few articles a day. In addition, I watch a few episodes of tv series like Game of Thrones, Breaking Bad, etc. a day, whenever I got some time. I use English subtitles.

Have a great day!
Greg

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This is what I do:

I aim for 1hour a day, which usually is about 200-250 new LingQs and 125 LingQs learned for me. I am studying Chinese, but I believe I have quite a solid basis on which I can set the LingQs learned rather quick.

I do this in the following order.

  1. go through blue words, make LingQs for the ones I donā€™t know and set the ones I know to learned.
  2. Listen and read at the same time, sometimes I pause to check the meaning of a yellow word or I rewind 5 seconds to hear the pronounciation
  3. move on to new content

When I am doing chores I sometimes just replay some of the lessons I have viewed before. There is so much content, that for me I donā€™t find it very useful to repeat lessons until I know words that I will probably never need to know and the words that I need to know will come back in other context and will eventually stick.

I also do 100 flashcards a day and watch Chinese tv series with English subtitles sometimes.

Everyone has his own way, it depends on your learning preferences and probably also on the target language/content

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Then why even respond?
To let you know that itā€™s unlikely youā€™ll get useful information from such a general inquiry.

I donā€™t think you needed to be more specifc (though that always helps)-- youā€™re question was legitimate. I am curious to read the responses!

Michael

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I tend to listen to a lesson first and then check my understanding by reading it. Doing this allows me to focus more on the listening, which Iā€™m weaker at. I generally stroll through several lessons on the same day, as if I focus on one lesson, I get bored easily.
Otherwise, I donā€™t really have a routine, most of the time I practise several aspects of the langage on the same day (reading, listening, learning vocabularyā€¦) but I can sometimes concentrate on a single aspect if I feel the need to do it . A few years ago, I spent about two hours a day for three months practising only grammar.

I keep improving my English and now Iā€™m starting to learn Chinese.

This is what Iā€™m doing now:

*at morning
- Reviewing Chinese characters and vocabulary after I wake up
- 1.30 to 2 hours of listening Chinese in the way to work (yeah, I work far away from my home :P)

  • at noon
    - 1 hour of listening news in English and sometimes listening a little more of Chinese (in the way back home)
    - 1 hour getting new Chinese lessons from LingQ (the amount depends of how many new words I get, usually 2 to 4 lessons at a time).
    - Learn new Chinese characters (usually 10 each time) and save them to review on Anki next morning

  • at evening
    - I save and import the audio from the lessons Iā€™ve learned to my iPod to hear them next day.
    - I write on a personal diary what Iā€™ve done for language learning that day (I like the idea to record and track my daily studies).
    - To relax a little before sleep I usually read a English book.

Looks like a massive action. Undoubtfully you will succeed in a blink of an eye!

It looks like a lot but actually except for when Iā€™m learning new characters or reading Chinese lessons on LingQ, the rest is done mostly using my dead time. Reviewing takes me only 15 minutes or so.

This is a good question. Thanks for asking it.

I aim for an hour a day. I do flash cards on my commute to and from work. I listen to favorite content from the library at least once a day. I chat with friends in countries that speak my target language during the course of the day and try to have verbal conversations on the weekends. I also casually scout around the net for new content that interests me and I make new lessons out of that. I have had good success here finding people to transcribe some of that content. And occasionally I get friends to record audio files of written content that I like.

Iā€™ve actually been really bad the past few weeks about interacting with my target language. But alas, I use twitter like crazy to improve my read skills. I follow many Spanish news stations. So I generally, when Iā€™m on track, read about 3-6 articles a day from various sources. I will also incorporate some content from LingQ to help with my listen skills. I would recommend Twitter to anyone who canā€™t find interesting material to read. I havenā€™t found much listening material. When ride my bike I will listen to Spanish sermons and audio books. All together I spend about 2-3 hours with Spanish a day if I am on track.

My daily routine:

  • reading and lingq:ing | 2 x 25 min

  • watching a video (usually while eating) | 25 min

  • reading out loud | 10 min

  • writing | 15 min

Wulfgar: how do you do the Chinese flaschards on Lingq? Iā€™m having a problem because I donā€™t know when to count a flashcard as having gotten it right. Do I count a flashcard right only if I am able to recognize the meaning and pinyin from the character? or should I only be trying to recognize the meaning? should I do only dictation flashcards? let me know what your method is, if you donā€™t mind!

Thanks!

how do you do the LingQ flaschards? Personally Iā€™m having trouble knowing when to count a flashcard as having gotten it right. Do I count a flashcard right only if I am able to recognize the meaning and pinyin from the character? or should I only be trying to recognize the meaning? should I do only dictation flashcards?

Any help much appreciated! Thanks!

You are very success with your question, congratulations. Also, I have interested in the answer. I am focused in English for the moment. I read a listen one o two new lessons for the day. I change all word blue in yellow. But is no matter if I do not understand properly. I read and listening many times. Also, I see again old lessons from the day before. I do not use any flash card, it is very boring and artificial. I read a lot and in some time I see the same word in many places and in different contexts. Then I can understand and remember the word. Naturally, I can remember when I read, it is most difficult when I write or speak.
Also, I read aloud some lesson of lingq and I record me. After I hear me. I write some bit about every day about the lesson I have heard. I hope this could be helpful for you.
Good luck.

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wow , this is nice . Iā€™m also focused in english at the moment. Most of my day I spend listening the lessons and reading ,I donā€™t write or speak (for now) but I think i should write more often because my writting is really bad , and as you write everyday ,do you think writting a little everyday is useful ?

I donā€™t use lingq flashcards; Iā€™m not saying thereā€™s anything wrong with them, Iā€™m just used to anki. To answer your question about pass/fail, I personally fail cards if I miss anything. Iā€™ve learned that being stringent with them is the way to get the most use out of them. Here is what I do on anki:

Card 1
Front = character
Back = pinyin, meaning
(if I donā€™t know either the pinyin or the meaning I fail)

example
Front = ä½ 
Back = ni3, you

Card 2
Front = compound (target character in pinyin, other characters in hanzi), meaning
Back = character
(if I canā€™t write the character I fail)

example
Front = ni3儽, you
Back = ä½