You all know these amazing, beautiful language journals that are so satisfying to see... yours probably aren't like that. Mine isn't.
Now, I have a serious journal envy here. Mostly because I KNOW I COULD DO IT if I tried. Or something. I know calligraphy, I can draw, I have all kinds of pens and I know how to use them :-D
So... why am I not doing it?
One of my problems is that most language journals are bound. Which means that I can remove a page that went wrong, or add information in "proper", "logical" place, but I have to start a new page for every piece of information, or have them mixed up in a mess one can't find anything from... :-(
And it will be like that anyway. :-(
(moping)
So... I think I'll just ignore that bit, and just toss them in a journal, and make pretty the parts that I can control. Like... you know... things.
1) make your journal a nice first page.
2) I like having the trackers and counters and calendars and plans and bucket lists in the beginning
like in most language course books, the next page should be the alphabet and phonology, how to pronounce the language
3) the main body - some people know what they are going to write, which notes they'll make, like Chiazo, and has things like sentence structure, questions and so on. I like to learn those thing "in action". I think I would like to have a page for
- the numbers
- how to say the date; "It's Saturday, 29th of June two thousand nineteen"
- personal pronouns, conjugated
- how to say verbs in present and simple past tense.
- question words
- prepositions or case endings for common use - like, how to say in language "in the box", "outside the box", "over the box", "on top of the box" and so on. (Laatikossa, laatikon ulkopuolella, laatikon yläpuolella, laatikolla, in Finnish. Sometimes a postposition, sometimes a case ending... sorry. :-D)
- "I love you" is actually a very good sentence to learn, because it teaches you the object, accusative :-D I love thee, thou lovest him, he loves us, we love you, you love them, they love me...
Ich liebe dich, du liebst ihn, er liebt uns, wir lieben euch, ihr liebt sie, Sie lieben mich
I give my heart to thee, thou givest your heart to him, he gives his heart to us, we give our heart to you, you give your heart to them, they give their heart to me.
Ich gebe dir mein Herz, du gibst ihm dein Herz, er gibt uns sein Herz, wir geben euch unser Herz, ihr gebt ihnen euer Herz, Sie geben mir ihr Herz.
It is also an easy way to learn possessive pronouns and pronouns in dative - and to understand what accusative and dative are :-D
(And I usually use a book or letter instead of a heart. Heart just fitted "I love you" :-D)
- also some basic sentences, like "thank you", "you're welcome", "hello", "yes" and "no". Makes it a lot easier to watch tv-series and learn more. :-D
- colors - makes it really pretty :-)
3) the vocabulary
No, that page with colors is not part of vocabulary. It probably could be, if you wanted to do it that way, but the best way is to do it like a dictionary,
This is an old German word book. The kids wrote the list of foreign words on one half of the page, and then a translation, and then the book was used so that the kid covered one side of the page and quizzed the words. You know the drill :-D
So, yes. A translation. Totally inspite of the fact, that most words don't have a direct, one word, literal translation, or one meaning. This word is just a clue, one word reminder of what the word could mean. It was never meant to be one word definite, literal translation, never meant to say "this word means exactly this, and cannot, should not, may not be translated any other way!"
I just read a well-meaning but idiotic article about keeping a vocabulary notebook, and I find it hard to think that there are still grown-up people out there, people who are old enough to try to learn a language on their own, WHO DON'T KNOW THAT LANGUAGES ARE ENTITIES THAT CANNOT BE LITERALLY TRANSLATED. What we are translating is the idea conveyed with the language. When you are studying vocabulary, you are studying ideas conveyed by the words, not direct, perfect, literal translations. We are not Google Translate or Babelfish. We are not an Universal Translator. We are not a computer, that doesn't understand that you can't put in a string of words, translate them, and out comes a perfect sentence in foreign language! What comes out is a "Google translation".
"One turtle walked over it street that eat one strawberry"
Well... the thing of course is that you can use your journal, notebook, any which way you want to, and if you want to write down every possible translation and understanding of the word, "What kind of word is it?", "How common is it?", "How do I use it?", "What does it mean?", "How is it pronounced?", "A useful and meaningful example", of course, you can.
Just remember one thing. You are supposed to learn several thousands of words. Are you seriously willing to do that with every one of them?
Nah... only do this with the most important words, and only note the interesting parts. You do not have to gather ALL information into your notebook! It is for NOTES. It is for JOURNALING. It is NOT a dictionary! USE A DICTIONARY!
Anyway, back to writing vocabulary in your language journal :-D
What ever I say, do it the way you like to do it. I'm not you, what might be stupid for me, might be exactly the right thing for you and vice versa. You might think some of the things I do are really stupid, and for you they would be.
Now, I have a serious journal envy here. Mostly because I KNOW I COULD DO IT if I tried. Or something. I know calligraphy, I can draw, I have all kinds of pens and I know how to use them :-D
So... why am I not doing it?
One of my problems is that most language journals are bound. Which means that I can remove a page that went wrong, or add information in "proper", "logical" place, but I have to start a new page for every piece of information, or have them mixed up in a mess one can't find anything from... :-(
And it will be like that anyway. :-(
(moping)
So... I think I'll just ignore that bit, and just toss them in a journal, and make pretty the parts that I can control. Like... you know... things.
1) make your journal a nice first page.
2) I like having the trackers and counters and calendars and plans and bucket lists in the beginning
6 months' challenge tracking- Charlotte's language journal
Duolingo tracker - I don't know by whom. :-(
but I like it.
but I like it.
like in most language course books, the next page should be the alphabet and phonology, how to pronounce the language
from ...estar vivo es lo mejor...
3) the main body - some people know what they are going to write, which notes they'll make, like Chiazo, and has things like sentence structure, questions and so on. I like to learn those thing "in action". I think I would like to have a page for
- the numbers
- how to say the date; "It's Saturday, 29th of June two thousand nineteen"
- personal pronouns, conjugated
- how to say verbs in present and simple past tense.
- question words
- prepositions or case endings for common use - like, how to say in language "in the box", "outside the box", "over the box", "on top of the box" and so on. (Laatikossa, laatikon ulkopuolella, laatikon yläpuolella, laatikolla, in Finnish. Sometimes a postposition, sometimes a case ending... sorry. :-D)
- "I love you" is actually a very good sentence to learn, because it teaches you the object, accusative :-D I love thee, thou lovest him, he loves us, we love you, you love them, they love me...
Ich liebe dich, du liebst ihn, er liebt uns, wir lieben euch, ihr liebt sie, Sie lieben mich
I give my heart to thee, thou givest your heart to him, he gives his heart to us, we give our heart to you, you give your heart to them, they give their heart to me.
Ich gebe dir mein Herz, du gibst ihm dein Herz, er gibt uns sein Herz, wir geben euch unser Herz, ihr gebt ihnen euer Herz, Sie geben mir ihr Herz.
It is also an easy way to learn possessive pronouns and pronouns in dative - and to understand what accusative and dative are :-D
(And I usually use a book or letter instead of a heart. Heart just fitted "I love you" :-D)
- also some basic sentences, like "thank you", "you're welcome", "hello", "yes" and "no". Makes it a lot easier to watch tv-series and learn more. :-D
- colors - makes it really pretty :-)
3) the vocabulary
No, that page with colors is not part of vocabulary. It probably could be, if you wanted to do it that way, but the best way is to do it like a dictionary,
So, yes. A translation. Totally inspite of the fact, that most words don't have a direct, one word, literal translation, or one meaning. This word is just a clue, one word reminder of what the word could mean. It was never meant to be one word definite, literal translation, never meant to say "this word means exactly this, and cannot, should not, may not be translated any other way!"
I just read a well-meaning but idiotic article about keeping a vocabulary notebook, and I find it hard to think that there are still grown-up people out there, people who are old enough to try to learn a language on their own, WHO DON'T KNOW THAT LANGUAGES ARE ENTITIES THAT CANNOT BE LITERALLY TRANSLATED. What we are translating is the idea conveyed with the language. When you are studying vocabulary, you are studying ideas conveyed by the words, not direct, perfect, literal translations. We are not Google Translate or Babelfish. We are not an Universal Translator. We are not a computer, that doesn't understand that you can't put in a string of words, translate them, and out comes a perfect sentence in foreign language! What comes out is a "Google translation".
"One turtle walked over it street that eat one strawberry"
Well... the thing of course is that you can use your journal, notebook, any which way you want to, and if you want to write down every possible translation and understanding of the word, "What kind of word is it?", "How common is it?", "How do I use it?", "What does it mean?", "How is it pronounced?", "A useful and meaningful example", of course, you can.
Just remember one thing. You are supposed to learn several thousands of words. Are you seriously willing to do that with every one of them?
Nah... only do this with the most important words, and only note the interesting parts. You do not have to gather ALL information into your notebook! It is for NOTES. It is for JOURNALING. It is NOT a dictionary! USE A DICTIONARY!
BTW, I just realized that this might be what makes mathematically thinking people good language learners. We see patterns, correlations, associations, beyond the simple meaning, we are good at trying to convey ideas that are just ideas, not words nor pictures, and one language is just like another...
Anyway, back to writing vocabulary in your language journal :-D
What ever I say, do it the way you like to do it. I'm not you, what might be stupid for me, might be exactly the right thing for you and vice versa. You might think some of the things I do are really stupid, and for you they would be.
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