I have decided to start learning by heart the first chapter of 星の王子さま which is the Japanese translation of The Little Prince. I explained the benefit of learning by heart in this post and so far, it totally works for me. What helps me is that The Little Prince is a story I know very..
Those things that are more than objects
One way of staying motivated when learning a new language is to have physical objects related to the country. It is certainly not the biggest motivation booster than one can find, but it is a little something that does add some fuel to your motivation on a daily basis. At least, it works for me...
YouTubed away
I am sure I am not the only one to get lost in YouTube, going to check something relevant and ending up watching cows opening doors with their horns. YouTube really is a world in itself, where you can learn many things and loose a lot of your precious time, too. Well, I have decided..
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..
Stay motivated: look back!
Take your measuring tape To stay motivated, measuring one's progress is essential. Even small progress is worth celebrate. No matter where you are now, one thing is certain, you are further than when you started, you have a knowledge you didn't have before you started Japanese. Measuring those progress and celebrate should punctuate your learning..
Roots and stamina
Prompted to reflect on Roots and writing a blog about Japanese learning, I naturally had a look at how to say "root" in Japanese. The interesting thing is that the character to say «root» (根・こん) also means "perseverance", "stamina", "mental energy". So, reflecting on roots being the source of our stamina and energy, I looked..
About those “boring hobbies”
At school, I remember we sometimes had to fill forms about where we lived, what our parents were doing and so on. I had difficulties in filling two fields: what I want to do when I grow up and what are my hobbies. Because at school, my hobby was: reading books. And later, my hobbies..
To stay motivated, don’t forget that language is only a tool.
The Learning process usually looks like: reading books (I don't care about) in order to improve my reading skills Watch TV shows (even if I hate watching TV) in order to improve my listening skills write a diary (What happened today? Ah yes, I am writing my diary in order to improve my writing skills)..
Becoming a Genius overnight…
...is difficult but don't give up and keep trying! Somedays, I wake up and I have become a Genius overnight. I know I can read anything in japanese, I just need to trust myself! So, I get prepared and head to a bookshop, eager to test my new ability. I pick a book which looks..
Stay motivated
Sometimes, I wake up in the morning ready to make a great day of that day. I know exactly what I want to do, how I will do it and why I do it. I don't ask myself what's the meaning of life, it seems my goals are worth it, I am following a path,..