Knowing that too much choice consume my willpower, I tried to apply this principle to find a new listening strategy.
How to add an audiobook (mp3) to your iBooks library
I said some days ago, that I wanted to buy an audiobook in Japanese and have it available on my phone to listen to it often. Well, I bought an audiobook on the site febe.jp, which is a site that sells Japanese audiobooks. I bought 世界から猫が消えたなら and I am very satisfied with it. The narrator..
Listen, listen, listen
Even if I know that I should listen to at least some minutes of Japanese every day, I am not doing it. Here are some thoughts about the reason why I am so lazy and ideas to listen to more Japanese on a daily basis.
Review: 日本語パワードリル N2 文字・語彙
This is a review for the workbook 日本語パワードリル N2 文字・語彙, a collection of drills to prepare for the vocabulary part of the JLPT. It is a very good book to do target exercises, prepare for the JLPT or just testing yourself on your vocabulary knowledge!
Daily study: listening to my audiobook
I recently purchased an audiobook on the site Febe. It is called 「自分を操る超集中力」by Mentalist DaiGo and published by かんき出版. I didn't buy it for its contents but because it seemed relatively simple to understand when I listened to the free extract on the site. But then, I had to admit that it was not that..
Anki: mistakes to avoid and tips to regain control over your deck
I have spent the last few days trying to regain control over my Anki deck. The problem is that I added much to many new words in a fit of overconfidence in my mental capacities and I ended up with a huge study plan every day that took me hours to put down to zero...
Tips for studying with a book and its audiobook
Having both the book and the audio book of the same work, allows to work in different ways. Here are some ideas: Listening practice First listen to the audiobook several times (I think that 3 times is a good choice) and really try to understand all that you can understand (meaning, unknown words are hopeless..
Immerse yourself: Set your computer to Japanese
When I learn a new language, I generally change the language of my phone and computer to the language I am learning. Why does it help? Obviously, to immerse oneself in Japanese, you have to surround yourself with as much Japanese as possible. But if you buy a Japanese magazine and do not read it,..
Writing, writing, writing…
The writing skill is certainly one of the most (if not the most) difficult competence to improve. Especially in Japanese, where kanjis are to be taken into account. Let's try to find some methods to practice writing. No one to correct you? No matter! The first discouraging argument is: "if what I write is full..
How to define one’s goals
I already posted about the importance of having several goals and write them down. But what is a goal? and how should we define them? This is my personal advice based on my experience, I hope it will work for you, too! Goals vs to-dos I hate to-do lists. I mean, I love creating to-do..
Stay motivated: Define your goalS
Let your big goal make babies "When I am able to read literature in Japanese, I will start by Nobel Prizes". Thinking that I will read Kawabata and Oe in Japanese helps me stay motivated BUT if this were my only goal, I would feel discouraged and would eventually give up. Because it will be..
Those old-fashioned skills 1: learning by heart
I am not a language learning specialist but learning languages is one of my favorite hobbies and I invest a lot of time in it. What follows is just advice based on my own experience. Learning by heart, a lost skill? I went to a private school and I remember that learning by heart was..