In this episode, the host discusses tracking their language learning progress for Japanese, Thai, and Chinese Mandarin. They explore the benefits of tracking language learning, cover updates on their YouTube channel and website, and discuss the importance of perception versus reality in tracking habits. The speaker also shares their personal experience with tracking language learning progress and analyzes their habits over a two-month period.
Tracking language learning progress through data and statistics can provide valuable insights and help maintain motivation and progress.
The host emphasizes the importance of setting language study priorities and achieving a balance, particularly in allocating more time to speaking and listening skills.
Deep dives
Importance of Tracking Language Learning Progress
Tracking language learning progress through data and statistics can provide valuable insights and help maintain motivation and progress. The podcast host shares his experience of creating a Google sheet to input study time and visualizing the data with line charts and bar charts. While time spent studying does not directly correlate with improvement, it does offer a rough idea of progress. The host emphasizes the importance of staying on track and identifying trends in study habits. One anecdote shared highlights the discrepancy between perceived and actual behavior, underlining the value of tracking to reveal gaps and areas for improvement.
Motivation and Study Habits
The podcast episode discusses the host's fluctuating motivation in language learning, which seems to come and go. The data analysis reveals the effects of breaks and low points, as returning to studying after a break often leads to increased motivation and effort. The host shares the importance of keeping the language learning habit even during low motivation periods, emphasizing the value of consistency. Weekends appear as low productivity periods, and the host reflects on the need to balance enjoyment and language study during weekends.
Language Study Priorities and Balance
The host highlights the importance of setting language study priorities and achieving a balance. Chinese Mandarin becomes the primary focus compared to Japanese, following the 80:20 rule. The data visualization demonstrates the differences in language study time allocation and clearly shows the need to increase speaking and listening practice. The host plans to invest more time in these skills, as they prove to be weaker in the data analysis.
Lessons Learned and Future Plans
The podcast episode concludes with key takeaways and insights. The host realizes the importance of incorporating more speaking and listening practice and identifies the need for a balanced language study routine. He acknowledges the excessive reliance on flashcards and plans to reorganize study resources to allocate more time to skills that require improvement. The host encourages listeners to track their own language learning progress and suggests creating a template to visualize the data. The episode ends with a quote from Aristotle emphasizing the significance of habits in achieving excellence.
Over the past few months, I've been meticulously tracking my language learning process for Japanese, Thai, and Chinese Mandarin on a Google Sheets doc.
In this episode, I discuss the results of this data and we look together at the graphs that represent my study time. There are some really interesting patterns and trends that I can learn from, and I have several conclusions that shocked me.
I had no idea what mistakes I was making before tracking my time!
I am also sharing the template for you to use too! Click the link below to get this Google Sheet for yourself.