A couple of weeks ago I was feeling overwhelmed. I seemed to have tracked down all sorts of good sources for German learning and material, I was listening to it as I drove, I was keeping up with my Anki reviews, and meeting up with my German-speaking friends.
But one day I realised that I felt like I was just spinning my wheels.
So, I decided to stop studying, stop worrying about Anki, and for the first week I didn't even listen to German as I drove around. I still met up with my German-speaking friends, but I didn't study. In the second week, I started listening again to German radio and podcasts as I drove, but still no other study, and I allowed myself to feel happy with not listening to German in every available moment.
Now, I must say that I really enjoy my German study time, but the break felt great. I managed to get through three books that have been calling to me on my shelf for quite some time now, waiting to be read. And I still had fun speaking German with my friends.
It allowed me to realise that I was unfocused precisely because I had so much available to me. This is a part-time project. I'm not throwing every minute I have into, nor will I ever. There's a lot of other stuff I also want to keep doing, including reading English books, training for some more upcoming events, spending time with my family, and even relaxing on occasion. And besides, I was making little headway through my study options due to my lack of progress.
My new rules/goals for study are:
* keep up with Anki (I have to catch up first, of course!). This isn't too much of a commitment once I'm caught up
* one source of study per week
* keep up my German conversations
* listen to German radio, podcasts and watch German TV whenever I feel like it and have a chance
I feel better about it already - like perhaps soon I'll be able to see my way through to the original goal of sitting the B2 exam! :-)
In the spirit of these new rules, I did some book study this morning. I did exercise 2 of Aufgabe 4 in Lesetraining B2. It was one of the types of exercise I seem to struggle with a lot - filling in the blank words in an article. I got 6 out of 10, and it didn't take long, so I was reasonably happy, actually. Most of the vocabulary felt very familiar, which is a big improvement over when I started!
Heading off now to meet my Austrian friends for our Thursday evening catchup.
bis nächsten Mal!
No comments:
Post a Comment