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Category Archives: burnout

The Irrelevancy of Right and Wrong - Part 1

A reader, phauna, recently added some interesting thoughts to several posts here.  I originally wanted to respond to the points he introduced but HiddenSincerity and toadhjo came along with some great food for thought.
But really, at the heart of these discussions is right and wrong.  Recalling the right answer for a given kanji. Grouping words in [...]

Posted 24 November 2008 † Khalid § explore § fluency ‡ Comments °

Learning From Drudgery

I was going to respond to Charley Garret’s comment on the Collecting Sentence or Learning Japanese post directly but I decided to break it out into another post.
He makes a great point that there is some value in bringing in sentences through a collection.  That reducing the drudgery of entering sentences is, in the long run, [...]

Posted 22 August 2008 † Khalid § studying ‡ Comments °

Collecting Sentences or Learning Japanese?

It’s become popular of late to “collect sentences”.  As though this is a goal unto itself.
There have even been a few discussions on the interwebs. Some have even blossomed into organized efforts with semi-elaborate controls on copyrighted works.
 I did my own experiment with these a while back because I thought this was a good idea [...]

Posted 08 July 2008 † Khalid § review § sentences ‡ Comments ° Tagged: , , , ,

Seeds of Language Learning Burnout

There are three words that can form a formidable opposition to learning:

supposed, should, and discipline

 
Maybe not the words you were expecting, but allow me to explain:
When you’re “supposed” to maintain the “discipline” to do something everyday, what happens when you miss a day?  It means you lack discipline.  You didn’t do what you’re supposed to [...]

Posted 27 May 2008 † Khalid § ‡ Comments ° Tagged: , ,

If Something is Good, Is More Always Better?

We all have a tendency to think like this.  We find something and call it “good” and with that, we imply that it’s always good.
But we know that isn’t true.  Exercise is good, too much exercise causes injury.  Food is good, too much food will damage your health.  Water is good, but too much Dihydrogen [...]

Posted 12 May 2008 † Khalid § studying ‡ Comments °

The Problem With SRS

For those who don’t know, an SRS is a Spaced Repetition System. It creates longer and longer intervals between reviews when you get the answer correct. The idea is to review just before you forget, to encourage long-term memory retention.
And in this technical statement from supermemo’s Theoretical aspects of spaced repetition in learning, [...]

Posted 24 March 2008 † Khalid § studying ‡ Comments ° Tagged: , ,

Burnout and Language Learning

Burnout is the greatest enemy of learning any language. It takes a goal like fluency that motivates you, that drives you, and turns it into something you hate.
I think most of us have had that moment when we’ve worn ourselves down trying to memorize as much as we can in as little time as [...]

Posted 16 March 2008 † Khalid § review § studying ‡ Comments ° Tagged: , , ,