Why flexibility is important in your language studies
Being flexible so you adapt to your circumstances, unexpected changes or new goals can decrease your stress by a lot.
Making a schedule that you hope you’ll follow can sometimes create useless pressure. Taking into consideration how you feel or what you should focus on, will work better in the long run.
Being flexible also allows you to improve faster in a language. If you notice that your listening skills are the worst, you won’t be able to improve too much with the rest. There will be limitations.
Prioritizing your enjoyment instead of your immediate progress, can make you study for longer too.
Changing your plans or goals to suit you better is 100 times better than pressuring yourself to stick to a rigid schedule.
I used to get so overwhelmed by the sheer amount of information i had to remember for exams in school!!! Endless dates and names in history, formulas in maths, essay points for psychology, the list goes on! Here are the tips i use myself to help you retain all those facts and figures you need to remember - that have all been scientifically proven to help! ❤️
Immersion is surrounding yourself with the language you learn. However, that doesn’t mean travelling to your target language’s country or talking only in your target language for X days/weeks/months only.
There are also some easy ways.
listen to music daily
watch a movie or a series, maybe cartoons, with dubs or subs
write your grocery list in your TL
change the settings of your phone or a particular site you use a lot
have some books in your TL (also read them)
read motivational quotes in the language you learn
play a game
write in your agenda
keep a diary
learn new recipes written in your target language
talk to yourself in that language
watch videos on youtube
keep a blog/make posts in that language
read the news
fanfiction
comics, webtoons
any activity you enjoy and can be found on the internet in your TL, just be consistent ^^
put your phone on silent and put it across the room
listen to classical/soundtrack music without lyrics
make index cards for important vocab
wear pajamas
make diagrams and pictures. they don’t have to look pretty, as long as you understand it
make timelines for historical events
have a light snack
drink coffee or tea to keep you going
take a break every hour or so
have one pencil/black pen and one colored pen or highlighter. anything more will just distract you. the aesthetics aren’t important, your knowledge is
don’t be afraid to email/message your teacher or a classmate if you don’t understand something. the last thing you want to do is learn the incorrect information
know that sleep and health is more important than your grade. you cannot perform as well on a test if you are tired or sick. take care of yourself
it’s not a race. it’s not about who can learn something in the quickest time, it’s about learning
take a deep breath
prioritize your homework by how long it will take you and when it’s due
plan some you time in between studying and school
if you’re mentally exhausted, set a timer for 30 minutes and take a nap. any longer and you’ll wake up even more tired
don’t understand something? that’s perfectly fine, don’t stress over it. ask for help rather than complaining
have a goal in mind and write them down. say things like “i am getting an education so i can get the job of my dreams. the life that i want. the happiness that i deserve”
be thankful. it is a privilege that you get to go to school and get an education.
Even though usually I am a very disciplined student, I fucked up big this semester with my learning. And while I usually preach to stop studying the day before, I didn’t have the luxury this time to do so because I HADN’T EVEN OPEN MY BOOK. But somehow I managed to get more than 76% on all of the exams. So here is how I did it.
1. Ask someone for help. In one of my previous posts, I said you have to be generous with your classmates and be willing to help. And this is why. One day, you’ll also need help and if you’re in good terms with everyone, you’ll increase your chances of getting that help. Ask them for tips the teacher might have given if you didn’t go to class, or if they can share their notes with you. Anything that can help you really. This is the fastest way to inform yourself about what might come in an exam. However, DO NOT MAKE THIS A HABIT. Everyone dislikes that one person who leeches off other’s hard work. But once every rare time is okay.
2. Make a summary. Making a summary gives you the highlights of the material in a nutshell, which is exactly what you need in such a moment. You don’t need to read the entire book, cuz you’ll never finish that way. Most books nowadays already have a summary after each chapter. So you can use that as a guideline. However, I would recommend adding examples to these book summaries because they often lack one and having an example can totally make a difference in whether you understand and will remember. Also, if you have exam tips at hand and your teacher is to trust (because there’s always that one teacher who gives you false tips and fucks the entire class over) make a summary out of those tips, not only is this faster, it is likely to also be more precise.
3. Learn what’s likely going to give you the most points first. Most of my exams are a combination of multiple choice questions and cases. Most of the times, the case is about 50-70% of the total points. So if your professor gives you tips for cases, learn those first! Understand every aspect of it and nail it! After all, multiple choice questions are more about understanding what you read and are easier to answer than the open-ended questions in which you have to give an argumentation. So starting off by the subjects who will give you the most points increases the chances of saving your ass.
4. Test it out. THIS will truly give you an accurate view of whether or not you’re actually understanding and remembering what you’re learning. When I finish learning a chapter, I rest for some minutes, then look for a test online and take it. This gives me an overview of the aspects I do remember and which ones not and see if I can give a clear explanation. Always take this test written. Don’t say it out loud, because often when I do it, I have the tendency to half-ass my answers. And when I write it, I also have a documentation of my answer and can always go back and see if I can make some tweaks to it.
5. For the love of god, take a nap. I don’t care if you’re planning to pull an all-nighter and survive on caffeine and Red Bull. Take a proper nap. Of course, you’re likely not to have the luxury of sleeping 8 hours, but a nap is the closest you can get and can totally help your brain strengthen those connections and feel more relaxed and at ease to take the test.
So that is what I did to survive this last fucking stressful but that’s my own fault semester. I really hope it helps you too and I want to know what you guys do when you have to learn for an exam the same day. Let’s all help each other!
I have talked in a previous post about listening to an audio several times to improve listening skills. Another important aspect is slowing down the speed if it is difficult material. You can also speed audios up once you have learnt the new vocab and listened several times (i find this especially good for podcasts aimed at language learners [for example Slow Chinese/慢速中文] as they tend to be slower)
YouTube has a great function for if you want to watch some youtube video creators/TV shows + films but can’t quite listen at full speed.
There are several apps out there that can reduce/increase the speed of audio on your mobile. I currently use Audiopo
