tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-14259858502800516052024-02-21T15:25:11.899+09:00Keith's Voice on Extreme Language LearningKeithhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02533265523359409077noreply@blogger.comBlogger246125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1425985850280051605.post-30398947963248677402013-03-31T17:37:00.000+09:002013-03-31T17:39:11.898+09:00we've moved!Guess what? I am quitting blogger. Blogger is terrible, horrible, breakable, no fixes, nothing.
My new blog opens tomorrow, April 1st. Please visit the new blog! I'll even give you a link to it.
Go to: http://blog.keith-lucas.com/Keithhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02533265523359409077noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1425985850280051605.post-5830077081032455752013-02-27T21:00:00.000+09:002013-03-01T23:22:34.666+09:00what now?How about a post for February 2013? OK, I'll tell you what happened. After I wrote my last post, which was about all the handwriting practice that I was doing for Chinese and Japanese characters, I went to the bowling alley and bowled 10 games. That turned out to be not such a good idea. I had to give my wrist a rest so I got behind in my writing and studying of Chinese and decided not to Keithhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02533265523359409077noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1425985850280051605.post-91847090704498359112013-01-26T23:15:00.002+09:002013-01-26T23:16:52.486+09:00progress reportI finished the first book which is for the new HSK 1 exam. I did the mock test in the back and got 100% of the problems correct. I have started on the second book which is for the level 2 test of HSK. This book is much thicker than the first, but it seems to have just used more pages on testing.
The HSK books are in Japanese, but I'm not bothering to read much of the explanations in Keithhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02533265523359409077noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1425985850280051605.post-33176459567803124382013-01-18T23:00:00.000+09:002013-01-18T23:00:00.862+09:00strengthen your neural connectionsLately, I have been strengthening my neural connections, and it feels good. I'd like to tell you what I've been up to lately.
To start with, I'll tell you what I haven't been doing lately, just to get it out of the way. I haven't been studying for my Oracle test. You know, that book in Japanese that I was reading which is specifically for preparing for a certain test. Keithhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02533265523359409077noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1425985850280051605.post-32008275413145324272013-01-11T23:23:00.000+09:002013-01-12T14:23:30.520+09:00an order of magnitude (HSK)I ordered the following 3 books from amazon.co.jp yesterday. They will be arriving tomorrow.
These are for the HSK test levels 1 & 2. Those are the lowest two levels. I bought one text for level 1 and one text for level 2. The third book is a collection of 5 previous tests of level 2. Both of the the textbooks have a mock test at the end of the book.
In case you are unable Keithhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02533265523359409077noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1425985850280051605.post-2400659393223847792012-12-29T15:45:00.002+09:002012-12-29T15:45:29.696+09:00new year revolutionsThis year (2012), I didn't accomplish much in the way of achievements. I have no achievements to brag about. I didn't watch much Chinese TV. I didn't take any language tests. I did, however, start a new job where I am working in an English bubble. I used to work in a Japanese office. Yes, I am still in Japan, but now I work where there are very few Japanese Keithhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02533265523359409077noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1425985850280051605.post-61815739694528310752012-12-21T22:44:00.000+09:002012-12-21T22:46:44.517+09:00language learning methods do not matterThe theme of the year in the polyglot community seems to be that the method doesn't matter when it comes to learning a language. And from what I gather, the reasoning behind that statement goes something like this: Polyglot A likes to translate, while Polyglot B likes to talk to people, and Polyglot C does lots of reading but no translation exercises. Since Polyglots A, B and C have all learned Keithhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02533265523359409077noreply@blogger.com12tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1425985850280051605.post-81223369265862189382012-12-08T13:10:00.000+09:002012-12-08T13:10:13.671+09:00you are thinking too muchThis is a blog where I post my views about learning languages. My views are not main-stream, and there are plenty who would disagree with me. Plenty of those people are also better language learners than I am, however, I do not automatically assume that those people know more than I do. In fact, I think that very very few people know how languages are actually learned. Even if they are ableKeithhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02533265523359409077noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1425985850280051605.post-54951029465721697632012-06-28T00:00:00.000+09:002012-06-28T00:00:01.403+09:00making mistakes is bad or good?A comment on Steve's blog says:
The essence of learning is making mistakes, that's HOW you learn to do it right!
I have to say, I don't agree with this. We learn to do it right by doing it right, not by doing it wrong. When you do something wrong, it means you haven't learned how to do it right yet.
Is it impossible for someone to do something right without doing it wrong first? No, I don't Keithhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02533265523359409077noreply@blogger.com6tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1425985850280051605.post-34582335339210957232012-06-23T12:40:00.000+09:002012-06-23T12:40:31.226+09:00no English, none of the time, never!Have you heard of "No English, None of the Time, Never!" before? Maybe we can shorten it to NENTN! I think I don't even have to explain what this means. 99% of readers probably understand what it's all about. For that one percent who are totally clueless, here's an explanation:
You're trying to learn a foreign language, right? Presumably, it's not English. All of my readers have already learned Keithhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02533265523359409077noreply@blogger.com5tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1425985850280051605.post-80314731018702642892012-06-03T20:45:00.000+09:002012-06-07T08:05:43.390+09:00reading like a nativeI know many people have the notion that you'll never be as good as a native speaker in a foreign language. A few of us have the audacity to aspire to native-equivalent performance in our second languages and even fewer strive for native-sounding pronunciation. Even if we are delusional, I think for those that really want to be extremely good in another language, there is no reason that we can't Keithhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02533265523359409077noreply@blogger.com14tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1425985850280051605.post-68219890640237063202012-04-25T20:55:00.000+09:002012-04-25T20:55:05.370+09:00example sentencesOne feature of modern dictionaries is the "example sentence." If you go to dictionary.com, you can find example sentences with the definition of a word. For example, here's an example sentence from the entry for "hamburger."
That's a sad fact for hamburger lovers, but it's true.
Unfortunately, all of the example sentences for hamburger, and most other entries, are useless. My guess is, Keithhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02533265523359409077noreply@blogger.com5tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1425985850280051605.post-705869729620975212012-03-16T19:47:00.000+09:002012-03-16T19:47:13.094+09:00what is fluency?I'd like to take another look at what fluency is and is not. Fluency is easy to define, easy to confuse, but difficult to achieve.
Fluency is, essentially, the ability to speak like a native speaker. But that does not mean exactly the same as a native speaker. Speaking exactly the same as a native speaker is language mastery. So, a fluent speaker need not be perfect, nor have Keithhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02533265523359409077noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1425985850280051605.post-68198336858727906992012-01-21T11:04:00.000+09:002012-01-22T18:49:24.929+09:00this is fluency in JapaneseI found a new hero for Japanese language learners. Watch this video! This guy is fluent in Japanese. His speed of speaking matches the speed of native Japanese. It is really impressive. In this, his first video on YouTube, he is speaking without a script. He pauses to think about what he wants to say, not how to say it, nor does he pause to recall any words. The second video he posted is much Keithhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02533265523359409077noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1425985850280051605.post-41183964464745681902012-01-14T08:00:00.000+09:002012-01-14T08:00:02.181+09:00does time-boxing work for language learners?Do you use time-boxing for language learning? Does it work for you? I wonder how many language learners are time-boxing.
Time-boxing means to set certain lengths of time for working on tasks. You might have 30 minutes for your French and 20 minutes to work on another language and so on. You manage your time so you are able to work on all of the things you want to do instead of getting carried Keithhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02533265523359409077noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1425985850280051605.post-24546835044946533562012-01-12T19:00:00.000+09:002012-01-12T19:00:01.352+09:00number of known wordsIn English, it seems the average native speaker knows about 17,000 word families. A study of vocabulary comparing Dutch students entering university to non-native Dutch students found that the average vocabulary size of the Dutch was approximately 18,800 words.
The Common European Framework for Reference of languages (CEFR), appears to cover the most frequent 5,000 words at the C2 level, which Keithhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02533265523359409077noreply@blogger.com5tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1425985850280051605.post-35213969720613054852012-01-10T20:10:00.000+09:002012-01-10T20:10:00.080+09:00dedication to language learningI think one of the most important requirements to learning any language successfully is dedication. Without dedication, there can be no success. The best method doesn't work without dedication. That's really where the off-the-shelf language courses fail. Courses like Pimsleur probably do a great job until the course ends. After that, you can't really apply the Pimsleur method any more. And you Keithhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02533265523359409077noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1425985850280051605.post-80721084717517632952012-01-09T20:00:00.000+09:002012-01-09T20:00:01.726+09:00speaking fluently vs. being fluentGuess what?! They are different. That's right! In case you have never thought about it before, "being able to speak fluently" and "being fluent" are 2 different things. You have probably never seen this argued before, so I hope to clearly explain this as well as to cover what fluency really is.
Speaking fluently is something that every fluent speaker should be able to do, but every person Keithhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02533265523359409077noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1425985850280051605.post-25387266400920555412012-01-08T21:05:00.000+09:002012-01-08T21:05:01.342+09:00words vs. sentencesIf you review your newly learned items in a foreign language by use of flashcards, what is the best way? Should you put a target word on the one side and a translation word on the other? Should you use whole sentences instead of individual words? If so, then what do you put on the back side of the card? A translation of the whole sentence?
Here's an idea. Put a target word on the front and a Keithhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02533265523359409077noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1425985850280051605.post-75994864011541248712012-01-05T22:30:00.000+09:002012-01-05T22:30:02.417+09:00how many hours are in 3 months?
If you were going to try to achieve some kind of significant level in a new language in 3 months, how many hours would you put in? What could you accomplish in 3 months? What kind of fluency would you have, if any, after 3 months?
I'm asking the questions here, so feel free to give me your ideas. I won't be answering my own questions today, but I'd like to think about it for a moment.
Let's Keithhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02533265523359409077noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1425985850280051605.post-37685297380257608612012-01-04T22:30:00.002+09:002012-01-04T22:39:05.475+09:00your language level assessmentHave you ever noticed how quickly people are able to judge your level in a foreign language? Even people who can't speak a foreign language have this incredible ability to classify your linguistic skills. I once had a cat with a Japanese name and when my landlord heard me call the cat she remarked with surprise how good my Japanese was becoming. All I had said was the cat's nameKeithhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02533265523359409077noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1425985850280051605.post-27586726126824136412011-12-27T08:01:00.001+09:002011-12-27T08:01:20.406+09:00why you don't need to study grammarEverybody should read this article on why you don't need to study grammar. It describes how we can learn to do things without knowing how we are doing it. It also tells us that thinking about, or analyzing, is too slow. No one would be able to hit a fast-ball if it had to be consciously processed.Keithhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02533265523359409077noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1425985850280051605.post-12495477438345528772011-11-03T19:40:00.000+09:002012-01-09T17:28:46.993+09:00who's LingQing?Hello readers of my blog! Long time, no post!
The purpose of today's post is to give away some LingQ points. Are any of you who are reading this post, active members of the aforementioned language learning community? If so, you are probably aware that we can give points to other members now. Since I am receiving points for my submitted content that is used by other members and I am not so Keithhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02533265523359409077noreply@blogger.com8tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1425985850280051605.post-28257818465111881092011-09-07T01:30:00.000+09:002012-06-22T08:15:50.951+09:00Mixed Messages
Natalie Hunter is not Keith, but rather a guest blogger. She grew up wanting to be a teacher, and is addicted to learning and research. As a result she is grateful for the invention of the Internet because it allows her to spend some time outside, rather than just poring through books in a library. She is fascinated by the different methodologies for education at large today, and particularly byUnknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1425985850280051605.post-79970356920870725332011-06-14T20:32:00.000+09:002011-06-14T20:32:55.361+09:00can't recall where you left your brain?I can't vouch for the results reported about yet another brain research experiment. I'm sure this one has some faults too, but it does seem to have made some good observations about our success in trying to recall words. The report was here at Science Daily.
Basically, I think it says that you have better recall ability when the theta waves in the brain are high.
To me, this relates to SRS, Keithhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02533265523359409077noreply@blogger.com2