How I study

When I tell people that I study 7 languages at once, they always say that they could never do it and ask how I keep myself motivated.
I already told you that I study every language once a week, but what do I actually do? Maybe this could help you with your language studies as well?


First of all, I have a notebook where I fill one page per day. This includes new vocabulary (20 words a day, in Japanese I learn 10 new kanji every week) and, of course, some grammar as well. I have to admit, I usually have troubles finding some grammar to study for English or Swedish for example, because I already know how to use the language. I don't really need much more but the practice, but this is part of my everyday life, in every language. So, what exactly do I do?

1) Reading
Reading is, in most cases, the easiest part of learning a new language. You can take your time, work your way through every word, until you understand the meaning of a sentence. I have to admit, it's a bit more difficult with Japanese, because you don't only know the words, but also the Kanji belonging to them. Since I always set my first goal for reading, I'm mainly studying Kanji at the moment, without knowing how to pronounce them in most cases. My excuse: Depending of what way they're used in, they're always pronounced differently. Ways to practise your reading comprehension are:
- reading a book
- reading blog entries
- setting your phone/computer/facebook to the language you're learning
- reading song lyrics
- reading example sentences including the words you've just learned
- scanning shampoo bootles/food packages/etc for the language you're learning: they might have the ingredients printed onto it
- finding a chat partner online (before you start writing in that language, you could continue in your own language and ask that person to reply in his)

2) Writing
Writing is usually the next step I take. You don't need a conversational partner for these two kinds of practice, which is useful if you need to find a way into the new language. If I would actually try to speak with a Finnish person, or maybe just listen, I probably wouldn't understand a word. It's hard to analyse what is being said, since the person doesn't know what speed you work in. Some people might argue this, but working with the written word is the easiest way to approach a language for me. Of course, it's always important not to stay in one area, but work with all four of them. You can practise your writing skills by:
- copying texts you've read
- writing with your chat partner
- giving yourself tasks for writing (in an essay for example, or a review)
- having a blog in that language
- doing grammar exercises (and writing the solutions down in a whole sentence!)

3) Listening
Listening is the third step I approach. Before speaking yourself, you need to know how a word sounds, and it's easier to try and understand unknown words from the context, instead of getting stuck while speaking because you have a lack of vocabulary. This counts for reading as well, of course! I often study unknown words from books I'm reading as new vocabulary. Since you already know what words look like, you can keep your eyes open for words and sentence structures that seem familiar to you. You can do this while:
- watching a film (maybe a film you already know to start with)
- watching interviews or TV shows (choose a topic you're actually interested in)
- listening to native speakers (e.g. via skype or when you recognise them in public transport)
- listening to songs 
- listening to audiobooks
- listening to the radio 

4) Speaking
Speaking is what we're actually aiming at, isn't it? Being able to participate in conversations. You don't say "speaking a language" for nothing! Now, ways to practise this are:
- speaking with a native speaker
- repeating sentences you've heard
- reading texts out lout (that's what I do with books)


Now, have fun with learning your language, you all know that I do! It's midnight, so Finnish time for me!

Nahla

So, two weeks went over quite fast! We actually didn't do much at all and stayed at home most of the time, since I was kind of tense the whole time. But, although she is probably taller than our dog Barry, you can still tell that Nahla is still a puppy from the way she acts. So today, since it's our next to last day, I decided to take the camera outside with us one more time. It's probably going to rain tomorrow and I hadn't managed to take any interesting shots of her yet. I'm quite happy with the results though. It was a good decision to shoot in RAW, too.

Although I really like Nahla and I think she likes me too, I'm certain that we're both happy to get back home soon. And I'll definitely meet up with my friend Nele and her Aussie Fly to take more shots of her, too! The past week has been really exhausting, rather nerve-wracking, for me, so I'll treat this as a holiday. I'll keep studying, of course! And book some driving lessons to get through with that as well. Everything is ok! Isn't it?