A4 Meta

Harry Potter is too hard. I'm postponing it until later.

And to continue the stupid inside joke with myself, I'm calling the next bit of my Czech learning "A4". I don't think I am at a B-anything level yet.

I came up with a feedback cycle that looks like this:

1. Decide what to read/watch/consume
2. Exposure (so...read it. Watch it.) - this includes reading it out loud and recording it myself. Čtení.
3. Find unknown words
4. Gather the unknown words. Organize them in order of frequency. Gather the original context of the top 10 most frequent words. Check the definitions of the rest of the words, make sure I know the basic form. Nová slova : a spreadsheet of my new words 
5. Guess (and find out) what the unknown words mean. Definice : a document with some explanations, visuals, mnemonic devices, definitions (duh), etc.
6. Gather several new contexts. Příklady : a document with several new contexts for my words.
7. Translate 10 examples of the new contexts. Překlady : a spreadsheet with examples and translations
8. Correct my translation. Překlady document gets loaded as a blog post.
9. Load the sentences with their translations to quizlet
10. Get a native speaker to record themselves saying the sentences
11. Listen to them (over and over and over and over)
12. Create a new copy set, record myself, listen to myself
13. Test myself on quizlet. Testy : a blog post with screenshots of my test results.
14. Use the new words in a sentence (written). Příklady document.
15. Correct my sentences. Příklady document gets loaded as a blog post.
16. Use the new words in a conversation. Mluvení : take notes about real interpersonal communication that I had (texting, skyping, emailing, etc.) 
17. Get a native speaker to make me a test. I haven't gotten this far yet. I guess it will end up as a screenshot of the Testy blog post.
18. Take the test
19. Correct the mistakes on the test. Again, this will probably end up as a screen shot for the Testy blog post.
20. Meta. Write a Meta blog post about my feelings/observations about my learning.

The items in bold are ones which will require the help of a native speaker.
The red items are "artifacts" for me to produce.

Organizing things this way instead of by chapters means that it is possible for me to read ahead in this book. Or to read less. Or to watch other movies. Or whatever. It also gives me permission to move forward while I wait for my collaborators to help me. Waiting for them does not need to hinder my progress in moving forward with my learning goals.

It looks ridiculous and complicated. It isn't. It's a feedback loop. It also looks linear. It isn't - at least, totally. I mean, I am waiting on #10 and I can move on to #14.

If they are frequently used words, that should not be a huge problem. There is ample room for words like "sice" and "aniž" to creep into a texting or spoken conversation. By the way, it is a thousand times easier to engage with Czechs this way than to get them to correct my stuff in google drive. I guess on a good day, I might communicate with like, five or more people in various ways. I guess it is a really low-stakes, low-effort way for them to "practice their English" (though we often end up speaking only in Czech). I will continue to look for good, competent collaborators who will be able to occasionally help me with specific tasks.

An advantage to organizing my study this way is that it also gives me *very specific* small requests. It isn't, "teach me x." It's, "write me an example of a sentence using these 10 words." Or, "record your voice saying these sentences." Or, "correct the mistakes I made." Always doused in a very heavy amount of polite begging. Won't you be, please won't you be, please won't you be...my teacher? :-)

My learning will still vaguely be organized by weeks. So I will be labeling my docs something like this:

A4.1.4
A4: the "class"
1: the week number
4: the item number on this list

It is just a stupid way to stay organized. But I discovered that I can't really currently handle the stress of letting anybody else into my maze of Czech awesomeness, aside from the little folder called "oprav mě, prosím!" It is just...it is anxiety inducing because it is so nerdy. I know it is.

But I do not care enough about feeling ashamed of my focused intensity on something that nobody else cares about (isn't that the definition of nerdiness?) to try to go about it another way. Anyway, what other way!? Nobody is going to teach me Czech; it is something I will have to put in all of my own personal effort to try to do. And I really am confident that sticking to this plan will be an effective way to try to maximize my Czech learning while filling in the holes of the things I don't know that I don't know yet. It has already worked very well in the last 9 weeks. I definitely feel like I'm progressing.

I won't be satisfied with my progress until I can read this specific book in my library without a dictionary. Right now that's beyond me. But it will come.