Language Learning

Given the article about Anki and how that author was happily on 70%... I've decided to lower my Anki-FSRS from 90% (default) down to 80%. This should cut my workload significantly. It will take a week or so before the workload feels different, but the simulations suggest maybe 30% or 40% fewer cards-per-day and only losing maybe 5% of my memory. (Fewer reviews == more mistakes, which means more words "forgotten". But at only 5%-ish, its a good tradeoff)

The simulator also says that 70% is my optimal workload for fewest-minutes spent per card. So maybe I should keep dropping it down all the way to 70%?

As of today, I've completed 5 months of study. 3 of which were self-study, and 2-months under a tutor (twice a week meetings, 3 hours total). I have 3 weeks left in my tutoring session, meaning I need to figure out where my next steps are. Tutoring is expensive, both in time and in dollars. I 100% needed it, my speaking skills have gone from non-existent (with huge numbers of "unknown" mistakes in my pronunciation), to passable. I feel confident with the skills I've gained from our in-person practice. But I'm no where near my overall goals even with all the tutoring.

I feel the need to do more tutoring, but maybe later? My current bottleneck is clearly vocabulary and grammar. Subjects I can handle on my own. I also have significant amounts of self-study that I've built up (ie: Pokemon, "Das Maus", transcribing and/or translating songs, Grammatik aktiv. Vocabulary lists to memorize... etc. etc.). With all the tutoring sessions + homework, I barely have gotten any of my self-study done.

I'll at least work through my self-study goals (finish reading my A2 book. Maybe complete a full playthrough of Pokemon, etc. etc.), before I consider additional tutoring. I know this will stunt my speaking skills, but I'm also confident that additional tutoring in the future can "fix" my speaking skills later.

I did have one moment of "achievement" this past week. I've begun to remove the children songs from my playlist. While I haven't gained mastery of all the children songs of my previous playlist... I realize I am "strong" enough to be learning from real pop songs / normal German songs now.

I'll probably go back to some of the harder children songs (or at least, the ones with more complex rhythms / less boring songs). They really are great for learning vocabulary. But my skill level has evolved that I can be sampling harder songs / harder books / harder material successfully. So I should move forward and leave the easier stuff behind...