I had some new furniture delivered to the house today (my house! I still can’t believe it!), and after hours of little necessary chores and a quick bite to eat, I sat down to do a little studying here at ChinesePod.
You know what I discovered? Focus is everything.
I remember when I was going through the Octagon with Aggie and I was spending an hour or two every day prepping for those calls. I was completely and totally focused on the task at hand. My mind honed like a razor! But now? Frazzled as I am, I’ve honestly got not retention. Even stuff I know I know isn’t registering. I’m convinced it’s because I’m now trying to cram in my studying between the paint swatches, minor repairs, trips to the store, freelance work, and the thousand natural shocks that flesh is heir to*
Still, as little success as I’m having, the thing I don’t want to do is step away from these studies and try to return to them in a few weeks when the furor dies down. Learning a foreign language successfully, like most things, requires you to make it into a habit. Not just a scheduled thing. Not a chore. A habit.
So I’m trying to stay in the habit of studying every day, even when some days, like today, I’m just not getting it at all. Tomorrow, I’ll review today’s lesson again. And again the day after. And I’ll keep plugging away at it until some of it seeps in through sheer osmosis.
I am nothing if not determined. 
How are YOU folks doing? I’ve heard some people say that their studying habits were disrupted by the switch to V3. Everyone back on track now?
Hello?
*A special bonus prize goes to the first person who can tell me where I’m yanking the last part of that sentence from.
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Frank,
Now that the CPOD blog has moved from CPOD to Praxis the blog comments appear to be way down. What do you thing are the reasons for this? I have seven possibilities.
1. The topics are less focused on Chinese and are more focused on general learning and posters are less interested in general topics.
2. The fallout from V3 put some people off on blogging.
3. Ken’s discussion prompts are less riveting than before.
4. The newness is gone.CPOD has grow out of her diapers. The excitement at CPOD has shifted to bigger and broader concerns less aligned with the average student.
5. As a blog for both CPOD and Spanishsense students the Praxis blog can’t really attend to either of these groups well with one common blog. As a result the blog will tend to address broad topics that can’t address the heartfelt needs of either of these groups.
6. The opportunities for communication with the CPOD people are so varied and numerous that “Ken’s blog” is no longer the focal point for communications with the outside world.
7. It is a phase and things will change.
Oh, I’m curious why you think that learners don’t sometimes ease up and scale back in preparation for the next push? Next, I’ve always believed that learning isn’t about making habits it is all about making time to break habits. When was the last time you told yourself that today I’m going to brush my teeth better than the day before (and repeat this process the following day). Habits are about creating routines not about making effort.
Also, IMHO, you have done well in reflecting on your own learning but you haven’t considered other options (in your blog) for changing the way you learn. My big question is: are you most committed to CPOD or are you most committed to learning Chinese?
In Act 2, Scene 1, Othello says, “I am nothing if not critical.”
Are ya quoting Shakespeare, Frank?
-Joyce.
Oops - sorry - I actually cited the wrong Shakespearean quote from your blog. The “flesh is heir” quote is from Hamlet.
I wonder if there are any more Shakespearean references in there…
-Joyce
I’d assume that everything is always in #7. I’d like to see tighter integration between the various parts of the site.
Michael - Hey there! Sorry for the lengthy delay in my reply. I’ve been giving a lot of thought to your 7-point theory and I think that I may have an 8th point to consider (which may or may not speak to one of your points). If I remember correctly, in times past you could see the most recent blog comments on the front page of the site. It made the blog relevent and immediate. It was part of your overall experience. You came, you studied, you discussed. Now, to me at least, everything seems more fractured and segmented. I believe they were trying to make things more focused, but every click away from the front page diminishes the chances that the user will interact. I think we’ve seen the effects of that. Dui bu dui?
Joyce - Give that girl a prize! Yes, the quote is from Hamlet. I’m a literate nerd and I tend to inject things like this into my normal daily speech. It confuses the heck out of people.