Anyone else using their quarantine for more time on language learning?
Spent most of my day reading Rousseau in French on LingQ listening to relaxing beats…Not a bad Saturday at all…
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Yes, since this Corona virus pandemic has spread so fast and is so serious I have started to treat this as if we were in a war situation. I don’t want to minimize the effect that actual war has but I have started to take huge preventive measures so that I can utilise my time as efficiently as possible while also securing my health and future after the pandemic.
I have mostly focused on creating ways of organizing grammar (which I love) and listen to podcasts and other things in the languages that I study. Movies and TV series are also great for this.
When I am confronted with overwhelming situations I can slide into a bad head space and that’s why I am now very detailed focused in terms of everything. I try to work so hard that I almost reach the point of burnout. Then I watch movies to relax after which I’ll work again. I have made food and put it in the fridge and also try to minimize my grocery store visits.
Essentially I am trying to make the time fly by while still getting as much as possible done so that when this pandemic is over I’m in a place where I can start to prepare better for the next unexpected event.
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I’ve definitely increased my Spanish reading number during the period of isolation, reading Ana Karenina.
And i’ve been trying to make considerable progress in French, through reading LingQ lessons and listening repetitive times to these lessons. Us language learners can be make considerable progress during these horrible times.
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Yes, it is one of the things I’m working on. Before this situation I was listening to some Russian most days (and occasionally talking) and studying Malay/Indonesian. Now I’ve added Japanese. A long time ago I learned a bit, including kanas and the basics of kanji and a great deal of grammar but I never learned enough vocabulary., mostly because of how hard it was without a tool such as Lingq and by lack of time, of course. Now those two issues are solved.
I am really enjoying spending so much time with German! I’m able to sit and listen to the news in German for a few hours in the morning (Deutschland Funk) as I prefer a talk radio. I like to read the news on LingQ before switching the radio on (I make sure I make at least my 100 lingq daily target). Then in the afternoon I can watch some German TV on www.daserste.de or www.3sat.de . I’m dipping in and out of French a bit as well and even Turkish! I like watching Peppa Pig in French it is very funny. The priority is German though and honestly I’m starting to feel a difference already, I can understand what I am hearing more clearly and that is exciting!
I’m also really enjoying having the time to read. I love reading history and I’m reading a book about the political situation in the run up to World War 1 which I didn’t know very much about. I really like learning about the history of Europe and Russia.
When I see people sitting around saying they are so bored in quarantine and don’t know what to do - Learn! Fill it with things you can learn from, grow, develop, don’t sit around wasting time. Take the time and improve! It is a wonderful opportunity albeit very dark circumstances but amazing to have the time to do what I love all the same.
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Yes. To squander this period of isolation on Netflix is a crime.
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I’ve already been working from home for a few months, and the company is in an ‘essential industry’ which is not slowing down. So I’m not spending any more time on language learning than before, but I have made changes. I’m so tired of constantly hearing about the current microbial situation that I have mostly abandoned the news sites that had been my primary input for Russian. Instead I have decided to finally start German after having thought about it for quite some time. The mini stories are thankfully free of viral news. At the same time I’ve imported what looks like an interesting Russian book to read for maintenance of that language.
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Maybe it’s time for Tolstoy…
And good luck with German.That’s the language I would do once I’m ‘fluent’ in French. So many great German writers and thinkers.
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