Started Practicing Active Recall

A few days ago, I read a book titled “科学的根拠に基づく最高の勉強法” (Maximizing Learning: The Best Evidence-Based Techniques), authored by the Japanese doctor Kosuke Yasukawa, who currently practices medicine in the United States.

I decided to read this book after learning about it on a book-review channel on YouTube. The reviewer introduced the book as a very insightful read that challenges conventional wisdom about efficient learning methods, greatly piquing my interest. The next day, I purchased the e-book version on Kindle, and read it in just one sitting.

As expected, it was an eye-opener of a book to say the least, upending my long-held views about how to efficiently retain the knowledge you acquire from textbooks and dictionaries, with a direct bearing on foreign language acquisition, my primary area of interest.

Yasukawa, who was born and raised in Japan, graduated from the prestigious Medical Department of Keio University in Tokyo. What’s remarkable about him is that he not only passed the Japanese National Medical Practitioner Examination, but also passed the equivalent exam in the U.S. within the top one-percent scoreband of all candidates. Soon after, he was accredited to practice medicine in America, a remarkable feat for someone who studied medicine entirely in a non-English speaking environment.

Based on voluminous scientific literature, Yasukawa puts forward in this book a few salient points regarding how one can acquire and retain new knowledge in the most efficient manner.

 

The point that stood out to me the most is that, while repetition is necessary for successful assimilation of knowledge, merely reading the same passage in a textbook multiple times is actually a very inefficient way to master the learning points.

When you read the same passage the second or third time, you might feel that the reading has gotten smoother and easier compared to the first time—a phenomenon known as the fluency illusion, where you mistake familiarity with the text for actual acquisition of knowledge. You might think that you’ve gotten smarter, but the learning points won’t stick in your head in the long term.

According to Yasukawa, the key to successful acquisition of knowledge lies in the practice of active recall, a process in which you proactively try to recall the learning points covered in the segment you have just read, instead of passively waiting for them to sink into your head by sheer repetition.

The method is remarkably simple. After you have studied a certain passage, close the book, take out a blank piece of paper, and try to write down as much as possible what you have just learned in that segment. By racking your brain in this way, your mind will try to capture and consolidate the fresh information in your head, leading to long-term retention of newly acquired knowledge.

Since reading this book, I’ve started to practice active recall in my daily study of French vocabulary. Although it’s too soon for me to definitively conclude that this method works, I can already feel that the words I learn are more securely retained in my memory compared to before. I’m curious to see how much impact it can have on my future learning trajectory towards conversational fluency.

Finally, the Weekend is Here!

Over the past two weeks, my team at work has been severely understaffed, and consequently I had to work extra hard to keep up with my increased workload. I expect things to get a bit better next week, but we’re not out of the woods yet, as one of our colleagues has been unwell lately and might need to go on leave from time to time to see the doctor.

After reaching home around 10:30 p.m. last night, I felt utterly exhausted and went straight to bed after dinner. This morning, I first awoke around 8 a.m., which was 30 minutes later than my usual wake-up time, but after using the bathroom I went right back to sleep for another two hours. When I woke up again, I finally felt sufficiently rested. Instead of writing a journal entry or studying French as I customarily do on Saturday mornings, I did some housework around my apartment.

At around 12:30, I took a bus to Tanjong Pagar to go to the hairdresser to have my hair cut and dyed. It was raining hard, which was somewhat uncommon for May weather in Singapore, forcing me to open an umbrella while walking to the hair salon. Due to the heavy rain, there were relatively few pedestrians in the street.

The haircut and coloring took me around one hour and a half in total. My hairdresser is a Japanese man of around 38 years of age. He is a friendly guy, and we always chat quite a bit while he cuts my hair. Today was no exception, where he told me about his recent dentist visit, his upcoming trip to Danang, Vietnam for vacation, as well as the latest ramen restaurant that opened in the Bugis area, a stone’s throw from where I live.

Fortunately, by the time I left the hair salon, the rain had let up. I walked over to the nearby shopping complex to pick up some groceries. For some reason, my favorite brand of yogurt from Australia has been out of stock for the past several months to my great dismay.

I take yogurt with grapes for dessert every night, so not being able to eat the brand I’m accustomed to is annoying, to say the least. Out of no other options, I bought a packet of Greek yogurt with a creamy texture today. It’s possible that the dairy producer of my favorite brand has simply discontinued producing it due to poor sales. I guess I’ll need to find another yogurt brand to my liking soon.

After grocery shopping, I stopped by the Starbucks upstairs to do some reading before heading home. This time, I read a Japanese book that dealt with the topic of how to dispose of the house you inherit from your parents when they pass away. It’s a rather depressing subject, but one I’ll need to address sooner or later.

The house where my father currently resides in Japan will eventually be bequeathed to me. However, since I live in Singapore, it will be close to impossible for me to maintain the house in good condition, necessitating me to sell it at some point. From the book I read today, I’ve learned that I’ll need to empty the house of all personal possessions and cleanse it thoroughly for it to be in salable condition. I’ve no idea how easily I’ll be able to sell it, but I’ll cross that bridge when I come to it.

I Hit One-Third Mark of My French Dictionary!

A few days ago, I finally hit the one-third mark in my studying of French vocabulary from the Larousse French-Chinese dictionary. It took me 127 days to reach this point—if I extrapolate from this learning speed, it will take me roughly a year to finish the entire dictionary.

Studying a dictionary in its entirety is not a completely new undertaking for me. As far as French goes, I’ve done it twice already, each time resulting in a significant boost in my knowledge of vocabulary. However, as I have quickly forgotten most of the words I had learned, my vocabulary is still not sizable enough for me to read through French novels with ease, hence my decision to study numerous French words again from yet another dictionary.

By the way, during my first attempt, I created physical flashcards to study thousands of words, leaving piles and piles of cards stacking up in my living room. It was effective to some extent, but it was very time-consuming and labor-intensive, leaving me with relatively little time and energy to actually study what was written on those cards. Essentially, I was exhausted and close to burning out.

So, for my second attempt, I completely did away with flashcards, and focused instead on loosely glancing at the dictionary entries multiple times each day. It was a significant improvement on my previous attempt, and my knowledge of vocabulary expanded substantially. However, what’s truly regrettable is that I got complacent after this, and didn’t follow up with more studying, leaving my vocabulary to level off and stagnate over the next few years.

This time, I am determined to see my vocab learning through to the very end—when I finish studying my current dictionary, I won’t stop learning French words right then and there; instead, I’ll most probably switch to another dictionary and go over its contents from beginning to end. I’ll repeat the same process indefinitely until I get truly comfortable reading French novels, in the same way I feel reading Japanese and English books.

Incidentally, I am not focusing on growing my ability to express myself in French yet, whether it’s speaking or writing. As my ultimate goal is to become fluent in spoken French, I’ll need to tackle these aspects of language learning sooner or later.

Having said that, I’m not in a hurry at all—I believe that there will come a time when I feel compelled to start practicing speaking and writing, as well as improving my French accent. I won’t forcibly initiate some action before it’s suitable to do so; instead, I’ll let nature run its course through my language learning journey and develop my knowledge in a way that I feel most comfortable with.

My Thoughts on Hiring Domestic Helpers

It’s Sunday afternoon again. I am having my cleaning lady help me do some housework now while I try to write this journal entry as quickly as possible. For the past 10 years, I have hired a part-time domestic helper to tidy up my apartment for three hours on a biweekly basis. She helps me iron my clothes and clean my bathroom, kitchen and living room.

For three hours’ worth of housework, I pay the domestic help agency SGD 83 (approximately USD 61), which I find quite reasonable. The lady who currently services my house is from Myanmar. Although her knowledge of English is somewhat limited, it’s sufficient for her to understand the tasks that need to get done, so overall I’m quite happy with her level of service.

Here in Singapore, hiring a domestic helper is a very common practice, due to the prevalence of double-income households and an aging population. Most domestic helpers are from the Philippines, Indonesia, and Myanmar. They are attracted to Singapore for the higher wages compared to their home countries, and the relatively low language barrier to overcome as people here speak English.

When I was in Japan more than 20 years ago, it was very rare for Japanese households to hire domestic helpers, as it was taken for granted that each person should take care of their own housework and paying someone else to do their domestic chores was generally frowned upon as a sign of laziness.

However, these days, things are slowly changing in Japan. A few weeks ago, I read a report on a Japanese news site that in big cities like Tokyo and Osaka, there has been a significant increase in demand for domestic help in normal middle-income households as people experience more pressure at work.

I think it’s a good change, because paying others to do your housework is not something that you should be ashamed of. I believe that lack of open-mindedness is holding back Japan’s economic development, and it’s high time that Japanese people started changing their mindsets.

Given its shrinking population, Japan should also consider allowing more immigrants to settle in the country. The language barrier is a major impediment, as Japanese people generally aren’t fluent in English.

For immigrants to adapt successfully to their new environment, the government should provide more support for immigrants, including helping them learn the Japanese language and local customs. Granted, it’s an expensive and time-consuming undertaking, but it needs to be done as Japan’s very survival as a nation is at stake.

Watched "18x2 Beyond Youthful Days"

I have a busy day planned for today. First, I need to write this journal entry and have it proofread by ChatGPT in preparation for my online English lesson on Tuesday; then, I need to go to Farrer Park for grocery shopping for the upcoming week. In the afternoon, I am going to the nearby cinema to catch “Article 20,” the latest film directed by Zhang Yimou, one of my favorite directors; after that, I am going to the gym across the street for a one-hour workout. When it’s done, I’ll finally come home to cook dinner.

Speaking of films, last night I went to the movie theater in my neighborhood and watched “18x2 Beyond Youthful Days,” a Japanese-Taiwanese co-production directed by Michihito Fujii. This is a love story between Ami, a young Japanese female backpacker in Taiwan, and Jimmy, a Taiwanese boy whom she meets locally. It depicts their encounter, their interactions during Ami’s short stay in Taiwan, and Jimmy’s railway journey in Japan 18 years later where he reminisces about their fleeting but happy days together.

As this film opened only a few days ago, I can’t give any spoilers in this journal entry, but I can say that it was enjoyable and worth watching. The dialogues were in Japanese and Mandarin, both of which I speak and understand, affording me a deeper level of appreciation for this touching story.

Due to historical reasons, I feel that Japan and Taiwan share many commonalities in terms of culture and the general ways in which people think and behave, in a way that feels much closer than the relationship between Japan and Mainland China.

Many Taiwanese grow up reading Japanese comic books and watching Japanese cartoons and television series; Japan is also their favorite travel destination, where they enjoy exquisite local food, well-maintained cultural sites, and spectacular nature. Both peoples savor each other’s cuisines, which tend to be more lightly yet subtly flavored compared to food from other Asian countries, like Mainland China or Korea.

I traveled to Taipei on a company trip last October and enjoyed myself to the utmost. Given my very short stay in the city, I focused on visiting local bookstores, one of my favorite things to do wherever I travel. I ended up buying a few Japanese comic books translated into Chinese. As I’m focusing on learning French now, I still haven’t gotten around to opening them. However, whenever I get tired of French and feel like a change of pace, I’ll definitely binge-read those beautifully drawn comic books and get my fill of the Chinese language.

Switching My Gym in June

Today is the last day of the long weekend of the Good Friday holiday. Aside from writing this journal entry, I only have some mundane tasks planned for the rest of the day, like shopping for groceries and hitting the gym.

Speaking of which, I have a membership at the gym located in the shopping mall near my apartment. I’ve been going there since July of last year on a one-year contract. Although I’m happy with its facilities and services overall, I’ve decided not to extend my membership when it expires at the end of June.

The reason is that my new office has its own gym, which is open to the employees at about half the price of what I’m paying at my current gym. Given that I only ride the treadmill and never lift weights, I only require the most basic facilities for my workouts, so I’ve decided to switch to the company gym.

Like many gay guys, I admit that I find muscular guys more attractive than guys who are lanky or chubby, and I have previously harbored a desire to become muscular myself. However, it didn’t take me long to figure out that building up muscles is no easy task–it requires total dedication, where I should be prepared to work out daily for about 90 minutes, as well as tailor my diet to maximize my protein intake.

As I’m currently focusing on my French studies, which take up a substantial amount of my free time, dedicating an hour and a half to muscle-building on top of that is an impossibility for me, so I have no choice but to give up on the idea of acquiring a beach-body physique–at least not anytime soon.

However, that doesn’t negate the importance of exercising twice a week or so, especially walking vigorously to the point of breaking a sweat. I’ve read that moderate exercise like walking is hugely beneficial in terms of maintaining the health of your brain and slowing down the overall aging of your body.

Accordingly, I am determined to keep up my current exercise routine of a 60-minute uphill treadmill ride every time I visit the gym. As the saying goes, health is priceless, so while I’m pretty busy with my language learning, I’m going to do whatever is necessary to stay healthy, regardless of whether or not I look attractive to the other gay guys.

Should Have Perfected My English Vocabulary

Yesterday was a public holiday here in Singapore for Good Friday. I spent a good part of the day studying French words.

As of today, I am 28 percent of the way through my dictionary. Typically, I spend about three hours a day learning French vocabulary, allocating two hours to learning new words and another hour to reviewing the words I’ve learned during the preceding two days.

Not many people try to study vocabulary by going through their dictionary from beginning to end, but I have done it for French at least twice before, so I’m quite used to the idea and also know very well what to expect.

While it’s an efficient method to acquire an extensive vocabulary in a relatively short period, you also forget many of the words you’ve learned. It sounds like a largely wasted effort, but I’m not dismayed by this phenomenon anymore as I’ve experienced it so many times before.

The important thing is that you shouldn’t feel disappointed by the number of words you forget; instead, adopt a zen attitude about it and continue learning a new set of words every day without worrying too much about retaining them in your memory.

Since I’m not too concerned about forgetting words, I don’t use flash cards in my attempt to secure them in my long-term memory either. All I ever do is peruse the dictionary entries meticulously without explicitly trying to commit them to memory. As a result, while certain words will stick in my head, other words will inevitably be forgotten, but I'm perfectly fine with it. 

When I am done learning my current dictionary, I intend to either study the same dictionary again, or switch to another dictionary and learn the contents from cover to cover. Either way, I should be prepared to spend a few years repeating this cycle of studying an entire dictionary to acquire a vocabulary extensive enough for reading French novels without feeling frustrated.

By the way, when I was learning English earnestly during my first two years of college, I also studied tens of thousands of words and expressions, including idioms, slang, and phrasal verbs. Sometimes I spent more than five hours a day studying, which certainly helped to boost my ability to understand English. By the end of the second year, I was already able to read English novels comfortably.

Little did I know back then that my English learning journey would be far from over. Although I read dozens of books, somehow it didn’t contribute too much to my spoken fluency in English. Since then, I have tried various methods, such as shadowing movie dialogues and English broadcasts, as well as memorizing novel passages verbatim, in which I’ve achieved varying degrees of success. I’m quite fond of my current learning method, which is writing a journal entry and having it proofread by ChatGPT, as I find it quite effective in identifying problem areas in my English.

If I could start all over, I would have persisted a bit more in perfecting my knowledge of English vocabulary before starting to read novels. Up until now, I still encounter a few unknown words or phrases when I watch an American movie or series on Netflix, especially slang and colloquial expressions. Although I can still follow the general flow of the story, I feel slightly uncomfortable when I come across unknown words, and get a bit jealous of native speakers for understanding the content perfectly.

Now that I’m learning French intensively, I don’t have the time to relearn English vocabulary for the foreseeable future. However, if and when I get tired of my French studies and need to take a break, I’ll be more than happy to plunge back into learning English and deepen my understanding of its colorful colloquialism.