Since last December, I’ve been using a French-Chinese dictionary to study French vocabulary. I go through each headword and example phrase in the dictionary by not only reading the explanation in Chinese but also verifying the meaning using ChatGPT in English, Japanese, and Chinese. After I’ve looked up the entries in a certain segment, I review the items multiple times for memorization. It might sound like a rather old-fashioned method of learning vocabulary, but it’s quite fun and pleasurable when you actually do it.
I try to study three pages in one sitting, but since I can’t study every day due to my other commitments, this learning endeavor has been progressing rather slowly. Nonetheless, a few days ago, I surpassed the 50 percent mark of my way through this dictionary, after nearly nine months of studying. This is worth celebrating, as it’s not a feat many people can achieve. Although my vocabulary is still inadequate for me to fully understand and enjoy French novels and movies, I feel confident that I’m on the right track toward my goal of mastering the language of Rousseau.
While I’m a self-professed polyglot, for most of the past four decades that I spent on language learning, I’ve been anything but an efficient learner. In my quest for achieving fluency in English, Chinese, and French, among many others, I’ve tried various approaches, but with the exception of a few methods which have proven successful, most of my attempts have been inefficient or downright futile.
Take the shadowing method, for example. It’s a well-known practice in which you try to imitate a model speaker by immediately repeating whatever they say, supposedly good for improving your accent and fluency. I’ve tried this method countless times, but each time ended up fizzling out due to fatigue and boredom. I also tried reading the same novel multiple times after hearing someone say that repetition is key to acquiring new knowledge. Again, I gave it up after a few trials, seeing no noticeable results in terms of enhanced fluency.
However, I do acknowledge that some of the learning methods I employed have indeed been effective. For instance, using flashcards to study vocabulary was a very powerful method for me. From high school through the first half of my university years, I crammed tens of thousands of English words and phrases into my head using flashcards, and as a result, by the age of 21 I was able to read English novels without feeling the need to reach out for the dictionary.
Looking back, it was an extremely intense period of putting upwards of five hours each day into acquisition of vocabulary, and it made a world of difference in improving my comprehension of the language, so I’m really glad I stuck it out.
Another method that I personally found effective was to memorize verbatim passages of written text in English. When I was in my early thirties, I challenged myself to memorize one page worth of text from an English novel each day, word by word. Although I was much younger back in the day with better memory, it still wasn’t easy. I used an IC recorder to check my recitation, and didn’t stop until I was word-perfect for each segment. In the end, I memorized 300 pages’ worth in total, significantly solidifying the foundation of my grammar skills in the process.
Fast-forward to the present, I practice expressing myself in English by writing a journal entry at regular intervals and having it proofread by ChatGPT. This AI tool is a game changer in terms of providing instant feedback on my written English, enabling me to identify my problem areas with pinpoint accuracy. I have persisted in this practice for almost a year and a half, believing that this is the most holistic and surefire method to improve my fluency in both written and spoken English.
Like I’ve previously mentioned, during my language-learning journey I’ve had my share of setbacks or even cringe-worthy experiences in my attempts at achieving fluency in as short a time frame as possible. If I’ve learned anything from my past, it’s that while it’s unavoidable to have failures every now and then, if you keep exploring you are bound to find a few methods that really suit you. Afterward, you simply need to persist in those approaches to achieve success in the end.
No comments:
Post a Comment