I'm wondering if it is beneficial to devote a whole day to a single language? Such as I would even switch my Mac's system language when possible. On Thai days I would switch it to Thai. On Lao days I'd struggle with Lao. On Vietnamese days it'd be Vietnamese. I'd only look at web sites in the chosen language, try to think only in the language, maybe find a chat partner who speaks that language.
Well, I've got a lot more to learn before I can do that with any of those languages! I just wonder if anybody finds it to be helpful. I actually don't like to do that with Japanese. I find the unnecessary struggle to be quite frustrating. I guess I'm a guy who can't relax well and I need to relax. The only time when I unnecessarily think in Japanese is when I am imagining a conversation with a Japanese person. Such as how I would explain something or answer some question. After I realize that I'm doing this I try to stop it right away!
Hey! I personally don't think doing that is very useful. I've tried that in the past learning different languages at the same time (I am a native English speaker from Canada who grew up with English and French, and who has lived in Sendai, and Tokyo, Japan, and speak Japanese, and also speak Mandarin) and playing around with computer settings like that just wastes time. What i've found is that i click on everything reflexively (ie: I don't actually read what i'm clicking, i just know where things are) and switching languages just makes everything look different and i don't like it. Especially with Japanese because many things are in Katakana, so there's no point in reading that if English is your first language and you've already mastered katakana...
ReplyDeleteColin, thanks for your comment. You are right. We begin to learn where everything is in the computer menu and just click on it without reading it anymore. I even do that sometimes with English.
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