I watched a polyglot try to learn a brand new language in 7 days. It was very entertaining. I’ve always wanted to try something like that. I love languages. Unfortunately, I’m not a genius and I’m a very slow learner.
Here is my chance! I have a total of 10 days off work and I just want to binge study as much as possible. Something fun to do with my time. I’ll also be exercising and cleaning too.
I’ve been stuck in my current level forever and just want to change things up a bit.
When: April 25th to May 5th.
Listening: TV and anime
Reading: Harry Potter
Kanji: Wanikani and Kanken practice
Speaking: Husband and make youtube videos
Grammar: Watch as many grammar videos as I can
Other: Record process on Wanikani
Maybe start hellotalk again.
Let me know your thoughts. If you want to join, please do!
Was it Ikenna? Good luck on consuming a butt ton of content. I guess you could just set a goal or focus on just one aspect of the language maybe so you can measure it instead of doing all of them.
When you say “brand new” is that like someone who knows French and Spanish learning Italian, or someone who knows French and Spanish learning Japanese?
Sounds very ambitious and fun if your motivation is high, at least in the beginning.
Biggest caveat though: doing way too much in a very short time frame is a recipe for both frustration and burnout.
I think the average language learner might be able to get through the ten day challenge, but keeping up the same regimen afterwards is unlikely. Whatever you gain in the cramming period is therefore likely to be lost/forgotten soon afterward, resulting in a feeling of disappointment and demotivation.
Pessimistic view, yes, but also with some reality bites thrown in.
As someone else already suggested, I would if at all just focus on one aspect as well, probably something along the lines of passive input, i.e. reading or listening. But honestly, I would already need around a week to read all of Harry Potter, even if I don’t work.
However, let us know how it goes, independently of your choice. Good luck!
I heard Harry Potter wasn’t recommended due to the excessive amounts of katakana and some other issues (I forgot what… ) I know this since I planned on reading Harry Potter in Japanese and was cautioned against it.
IMHO I think it’s better to read books written in Japanese originally. But I’ll follow this up to see how it works out for you. Very interested to hear the outcome and your thoughts about Harry Potter in Japanese.
I don’t think you’re trying to become fluent in 10 days, which I think a lot of these replies are cautioning against. I think if you find a routine that works for you, even if it’s just for 10 days, getting a lot of exposure and putting in the time is sure to bring you some results! No genius level anything required. Hard work always reaps rewards, but it of course takes some time.
I’m curious how far 10 days of max effort will take you!
I’ve been listening to the Harry Potter audiobooks from time to time, and the English names and places make for very interesting listening Those are of course plentiful. Another possible ‘disadvantage’ of the book for learners might be the fantasy setting. But I think these can be offset by already knowing the cast and plot, and more katakana practice is also beneficial. I’ve found a lot of learners are much better at hiragana than katakana. In the end, having a book you enjoy reading is worth a lot and will make it much easier to stick with it and put in the effort!
You’re probably talking about Xiaoman, right. He is amazing, he could communicate in Spanish already after 3 days. Not to mention his chinese. Of course, being an Englsh native learning Spanish is comparably easy, but he really is a genius, just look at him learning chinese dialects and stuff.
I was also really inspired by him, but I just have to accept the fact that it’t nt gonna happen for me…
Though I wonder how many of those geniuses are really just slick at video editing and acting. Not saying all the people are exaggerating but I’m doubtful of such claims.
That was what I was thinking of! The katakana and fantasy aspects which lead to a lot of nonsense words that are just harry Potter vocab. But I haven’t attempted so I can’t say if it really affects the outcome too much.
After watching a few polyglot videos where they would speak languages that I already knew, it became much less impressive and seemed much more shallow. But that’s probably more a pet peeve of mine.
I think it’s a good challenge for you if it’s motivating and makes learning fun again. 頑張れ
I don’t think there’s any downsides to binge studying if you have free time, just don’t expect to see a lot of improvement in such a short time.
However, I would personally try making some clear goals for this period.
Instead of just saying you will read as much Harry Potter as possible in 10 days, set a goal of finishing the first book through those days. Plan ahead how many pages you have to read every day to complete the goal.
Plan how many TV shows episodes or grammar videos you can realistically watch every day and stick to it.
This will make things way more rewarding when you finish the 10 days time period. Instead of having a vague goal of being “as fluent as possible” which you can’t measure, it becomes “finishing a book, a tv show, a certain number of grammar videos” which will be motivating when you notice you have completed them.
Sure, you won’t retain everything but you will still learn a lot.
I have done “binge studying” on every break from work I can get, and I think it has helped me considerably in the long run.
Just make sure to keep reading/listening after the 10 days period end! Even if it’s just small daily goals such as keep reading 30 minutes of the next Harry Potter books or watch an episode of a TV show everyday. Even if studying a lot for a few days might be helpful, consistency is still the most important part of language learning.
I’d just add that I’ve read the first two and a half HP books in Japanese and I think they’ve pretty alright.
The thing people usually take issue with is some translation choices like Snape saying 我輩 and stuff like that.
I don’t see what the issue with katakana would be (if anything that’d be a plus if you’re just starting from zero).
An interesting thing related to this is that they actually often say a Japanified version of the spells along with them, like “リディクラス！バカバカしい！” and they call the dementors both ディメンター and 吸魂鬼 the latter likely to clarify to the Japanese audience
While original Japanese content is probably better, there’s something to be said for using stuff you’re familiar with as well. So I wouldn’t worry about it being bad for you if you feel like reading it in Japanese. You’ll learn a bunch of stuff either way
I’ll add though that when I was just starting out I had a look at the first page of the Japanese HP translation and I couldn’t even tell if it was Harry Potter or not… so it may be more of an intermediate book (or I’m just dumb :P)
EDIT: I say “read” but I’ve actually listened to the audio book versions. Morio Kazama’s voice i super sweet Could be an option if you don’t want to learn a bunch of kanji before starting I guess!
I’ve found a lot of learners are much better at hiragana than katakana. In the end, having a book you enjoy reading is worth a lot and will make it much easier to stick with it and put in the effort!
頑張れ