Making Learning Fun (Arabic Week 26)

Last week I started one of my goals to read 20 books for the entire year. I felt it was appropriate for me to read a book about language learning so I tried out, "Fluent Forever" by Gabriel Wyner. I won't go into much detail about my opinion of the book but instead will focus on one part that I've really embraced.

A common trend that all learners are adapting to is the SRS (spaced repetition system). This idea is that as you review things more often it will allow you to go longer without having to study it again. This is a common way to transfer short term memory into long term memory. Basically the goal is to bring something back up to review right as you are about to forget it. This allows you to only study things that are absolutely necessary to be more efficient. There are multiple programs that utilize this system which I have used before but this previous week I began making my own flash cards. Instead of using a pre-made deck of cards, I have to go and find the words that I want to learn. This also is allowing me to better understand what each word means to me. This has allowed me to completely remove English from the flash cards and have them entirely in another language. 

What does this card mean? Unless you made it
(or can read Arabic) it likely won't have the intended meaning.

Not only has this helped me with the spelling, but it has made the experience more fun. Now, I get to choose which picture best represents "sleep" for me instead of just trying to associate the spelling alone. The last few days I have been much more excited to do my flashcards than previously before. I think having fun is important for this. You can't go after a goal if you don't enjoy what you're doing. After a while, that initial excitement will wear off and then you are left with whether you "want" to do something.

A good example for this is my weekly Skype chats I have with my friend, Jing. Being able to discuss things in Mandarin has always been exciting for me. When I first started I was terrified and sat with a long list of vocab words that I needed to use. Now, I'm much more comfortable and just talk about anything that comes to mind. This week I'm including a short 2 minute recording of our chat we had this morning where I talked about what I did over the holiday break. I apologize for the quality of the audio/video combo. Testing out new ways of doing things. Enjoy!

Until next time.