The Role of Anki in Language Learning

I've been wanting to write about this for a while. I see a lot of people over complicate their experience with Anki and even shy away from using it all together because they perceive it to be more complicated than it is. The first thing I will state is that all the content within this article is based off of my own opinion of the software from how I've used it and how I've seen others use it.

The first thing to note is that Anki is merely a supplement to your learning. The reason and method of using Anki will vary throughout your language learning journey. However one should not feel obligated to use it at any point. Once it becomes boring or you forget the reason you're even using it, then simply just stop.

You can download for free Anki here:

• for PC and Mac
• for Android devices 
  

Using Audio Description for Language Learning

You may have noticed while changing the language or subtitles on netflix, an option called 'audio description' or even on television programmes, a symbol that says AD which represents that audio description is available. Generally audio description will only be available in the language the TV show was produced in although there may be some exceptions.

The intended use of audio description is to allow blind or visually impaired individuals to understand more of what is happening during the silent and action oriented parts of a show or movie. When this setting is active, a narrator will describe the actions that are taking place, such as 'man with scruffy hair walks down a long corridor.'

Audio description logo on UK television

How to Spend as Much of Your Day as Possible Learning Korean

With the rise of immersion learning and 40 hour week challenges and such, I feel this might help those who want to push their time to it's limits. As someone who has been doing at a minimum 5 hours a day of Korean for the past 2 years, I started to value my time to the point where it will frustrate me if I feel someone is wasting my time.

I used to spend days not really achieving anything and wondering where the days have gone, I had zero plans for my days and just did things whenever I felt like it except for certain things like exercise that I would do at around the same time every day, which is pretty much what I applied to my language learning.

Watching Media and Using Subtitles to Learn a Language

Related video for extra viewing:

 

A lot of learners often ask questions around the use of subtitles and whether they should be using native subs, target language subs or just foregoing subs altogether. The answer can vary depending on your reasons for watching and also your level. Subtitles are a great resource for learning new words while being able to relax more than pure reading but also have the added visual queue in which to understand the words on screen. Let's go over a few different ways you might consider watching content in your target language

Realistically How Long Does it Take to Learn a Language?

A classic but very loaded question with almost infinite answers. At best we can only make an estimate based on specific parameters. We can take a look at the Foreign Service Institute (FSI) study which is based around class hours but still that is not very accurate to the individuals circumstances and doesn't state what their level was at by the end of the programme.

So what are the major factors in the time it takes to become proficient in a language:

• Time spent with the language
• Language distance
• Learner's motivation
• Resources available.
  

Let's take a deeper look at these factors and how you can use them to benefit you.

FSI estimates for English native speakers

The Monolingual Transition and How to Approach it

What is the monolingual transition?

For those who do not know, the monolingual transition, popularised by the Mass Immersion Approach, is the process of transitioning from learning via a known language to using the target language itself to learn the language. Many learners do not seem to grasp the reasons or the process behind the 'transition' even though it is in the name.

Often learners take to 'trying it' or simply brute forcing it and spend hours deep diving into the dictionary searching up every new word until they can finally understand one. Many also like to think, as with everything, that it is either or, you're either 100% monolingual or 100% using your native language.

Due to similarities of close languages you may never have to use a monolingual dictionary as the words have roughly the same meanings and usages although some words obviously stray from this the majority of words can be exchange 1:1 due to them stemming from the same origin and similar culture.

Monolingual dictionary showing multiple meanings and synonyms.

The Role of Grammar Study in Language Learning

If you have ever taken a look at my fluency path you may notice that the focus on grammar quickly dwindles after the beginning stages. Many education institutions tend to put a focus on grammar instruction and focus on using that information for output. This partly contributes to a lot of students feeling like they make no progress due to not being able to spit out constructed sentences on the fly or people telling them they say things weirdly. This is even more evident in languages that are distant because ideas are expressed in completely different ways and words rarely overlap in exact us

In institutions and self teaching the focus has to be shifted from learning grammar to, output to using grammar for understanding content. Using this mindset we can take the stress off of trying to remember 100 grammar points by brute force and instead acquire them from content we consume making it much easier to output by way of copying native speakers instead of making up language by ourselves. There are many times where the meaning of grammar makes more sense when you pay attention to the intonation and tone in which it is said.

Useless grammar tests

The Role of Listening in Language Learning

Being one our main methods of receiving information being able to correctly hear and understand what other speakers are saying is invaluable to human survival. As a language learner, the majority of your time with your target language will likely be through the audio component and if your aim is to have meaningful conversations with natives and other speakers, then you will want to be as good as you can be.

Our listening ability is affected by many factors that we can improve to make listening easier, yet in the end we still need to expose ourselves to thousands of hours. Throughout or time learning a new language the experience of listening will change drastically from sentences sounding like incoherent noise to having instant understanding and even predicted the next noise that is about to come out of someones mouth. 

The time taken to go through these stages is highly dependent on the languages you know and the sounds it uses. I am also highly convinced some languages due to phonology take longer to be able to distinguish sounds, languages ending in mostly vowel sounds such as Italian and Japanese make it a bit easier to tell where word boundaries are. 

There are other variables such as information speed, information density and total number of sounds. Although I could not find any studies based on whether certain languages are objectively harder to hear over others so if you come across such please let me know.

It is highly recommended that you spend a lot of time listening to your target language, just to increase your hours spent with the language. It's very easy to spend a lot of your day listening even if you consider yourself a 'very busy' person, unless you constantly have to talk to someone or be spoke to then you can fit some time in to listen. 

How to Start Reading in a Foreign Language

Why we should read, especially in a foreign language

Reading, even in one's native language is a fantastic way to learn new words, expressions and even information. In modern times reading for pleasure has been long discarded and been replaced with reading to gain knowledge or to prove someone wrong. While this is great for have a broad knowledge of many subjects and being able to read deeply into a subject, this form of reading has it's disadvantages.

Many people have a diminishing passive vocabulary in their native language because let's face it, who wants to read something that's overly flowery or descriptive when we want the facts that we came to learn. On the opposite end of the spectrum, this can be a disadvantage of reading in a a foreign language because it is not so clear as to what is common language and what is overly flowery language that even natives may have trouble deciphering. This likely won't be too much of a problem as all the common words will be used far more often.

Reading in itself is simply the fastest way to pick up words for foreign language learners but also comes at the price of being quite tiring to do for long periods of time, which is why a lot of listening to and watching of content is highly recommended as they are a lot less intense and contain other advantages such as the sounds and inflection of the language.