How to write in a foreign language (even as a beginner)
Summary
TLDRThe speaker discusses their language learning journey, highlighting their preference for reading and listening over speaking and writing. They admit to neglecting output in languages they've self-studied, such as Italian. To avoid this with Greek, they've developed a writing routine using a planner for daily practice, focusing on vocabulary and grammar consolidation. They emphasize the importance of input through reading and watching content in the target language and use a dictionary and translator for support. The routine involves choosing a weekly topic, compiling relevant vocabulary and grammar, and writing without the pressure of perfection. The speaker shares their progress, including improved spelling, reading speed, and speaking ability, and expresses interest in receiving feedback on others' writing practices.
Takeaways
- 📚 The speaker admits to being more adept at reading and listening than speaking or writing in languages they've learned in a classroom setting.
- 🇮🇹 With Italian, the speaker has focused more on reading and has neglected speaking and writing, resulting in a comfortable ability to read novels but difficulty in speaking or writing.
- 🔍 For Greek, the speaker is determined to balance input and output by incorporating writing into their learning routine, even as a beginner.
- 🗓️ The speaker uses a 2019 planner for writing practice, taking advantage of its daily sections and a special section for important notes.
- ✏️ Simple writing tools like a black pen and highlighters are used, with the latter to mark new phrases for easy reference.
- 📚 Resources for language input are considered essential for language output; the speaker uses books, YouTube videos, and online materials for inspiration and vocabulary.
- 📝 The writing process involves compiling a glossary of important vocabulary and grammar to minimize distractions during writing sessions.
- 📖 Writing topics vary weekly, allowing the speaker to avoid boredom and write about different subjects, improving their language skills incrementally.
- 🔤 The speaker chooses a weekly topic and records relevant vocabulary and grammar in the planner to practice throughout the week.
- 📈 Writing daily for a short time helps maintain consistency and sustainability of the practice, with the speaker noting improvements in spelling, reading speed, and language consolidation.
- 🔄 The speaker is open to repetition in their writing topics, using the week to master a specific subject by varying their approach and building on previous knowledge.
- 👩🏫 Future goals include typing up texts for feedback from native speakers and re-evaluating old entries with new linguistic knowledge.
Q & A
What is the main challenge the speaker faces when learning new languages?
-The speaker's main challenge is that they are more comfortable with reading and listening than speaking or writing, especially in languages they have studied on their own without the necessity to speak or write.
Why does the speaker feel more comfortable reading Italian novels but struggle with speaking or writing in Italian?
-The speaker has neglected output in their language learning process, focusing more on input, which has led to their ability to read but not to speak or write effectively in Italian.
What is the speaker's current language focus and why did they decide to start writing in it?
-The speaker is currently focusing on Greek. They decided to start writing in Greek to avoid falling into the same pattern of being able to read but not speak or write, which was the case with Italian.
What tools does the speaker use for their writing practice and why?
-The speaker uses a 2019 planner for writing practice, a black pen, highlighters to mark new phrases, and resources like books, YouTube videos, and online materials for language input. They also use DeepL as a translator and Glossb as a dictionary.
How does the speaker compile a glossary for their writing practice?
-The speaker compiles a glossary by dedicating a couple of pages in their planner or using sticky notes to note down important vocabulary and grammar that they anticipate using frequently in their writing.
What is the speaker's approach to deciding what to write about in their practice sessions?
-The speaker chooses one topic for the entire week, which could be related to a textbook chapter, content they've listened to, watched, or read. They write down important vocabulary and grammar related to that topic in a specific section of their planner.
Why does the speaker avoid committing to a specific writing format?
-The speaker avoids committing to a specific writing format to prevent boredom and the repetitiveness that comes from writing about the same thing every day, which they experienced while journaling in Italian.
How does the speaker ensure that their writing practice is sustainable and not overwhelming?
-The speaker keeps their writing practice sustainable by not spending more than 10 to 15 minutes per day on writing, focusing on writing rather than learning new grammar structures, and not expecting uniform quality across all writing sessions.
What are some of the benefits the speaker has noticed from their writing practice?
-The speaker has noticed improvements in spelling, reading speed, writing fluency, and speaking ability. Writing has also helped them consolidate information and identify areas of difficulty in their language learning.
What are the speaker's future plans to improve their writing practice?
-The speaker plans to type up their texts and potentially upload them to websites for corrections from native speakers. They also want to reread their older entries to spot mistakes with their current knowledge.
Outlines
📚 Language Learning Through Writing
The speaker admits to being more adept at reading and listening than speaking and writing in languages they've learned, particularly in Italian. They have taken classes for languages like English, Spanish, and Korean, which required them to practice speaking and writing. However, for self-studied languages like Italian, they have neglected output, resulting in strong reading skills but limited speaking and writing abilities. To avoid this with Greek, they've started a writing routine. They use a 2019 planner for writing practice, highlighting new phrases and relying on resources like books and YouTube for input. They emphasize the importance of consuming language to produce it effectively. The speaker also uses DeepL as a translator and Gloss B as a dictionary.
📝 Developing a Writing Routine
The speaker describes their writing routine, starting with compiling a glossary of essential vocabulary and grammar in their notebook. They write without a specific goal or format, varying the content weekly to avoid boredom. They choose one topic for the entire week, related to their current study material or recent language exposure. They write down important vocabulary and grammar for the week in a designated section of their planner. The speaker stresses the importance of input before output, as writing without prior exposure to the language is challenging. They use dictionaries and translators for new vocabulary but avoid complex grammar structures until they understand them better. The speaker aims to keep the writing process simple and sustainable, spending no more than 10-15 minutes per day on writing.
🔄 Embracing Repetition for Mastery
The speaker discusses their approach to writing, which includes repetition over a week to master a topic. They write about the same subject each day, making slight changes to improve coherence and vocabulary. They find satisfaction in the progress made by the end of the week, as they have had multiple opportunities to practice. The speaker acknowledges that writing quality varies based on topic familiarity, energy levels, and the complexity of the subject. On days with low energy, they may copy texts from other sources as a form of practice. They are proud of maintaining their writing habit for over a month and are considering future improvements such as typing texts for feedback and reviewing older entries for mistakes.
🌟 Reflecting on Writing Practice Benefits
The speaker reflects on the benefits of their writing practice, noting improvements in spelling, reading speed, and handwriting. They also observe a positive impact on their speaking skills due to the interconnectedness of language skills. Writing has helped consolidate learning, making it an active process rather than passive reading. The speaker is curious about others' writing practices and invites feedback in the comments. They thank the viewers for watching and express their eagerness to share more in upcoming videos.
Mindmap
Keywords
💡Language cloning
💡Output
💡Planner
💡Highlighters
💡Input
💡Dictionary
💡Glossary
💡Journaling
💡Topic
💡Repetition
💡Sustainability
Highlights
The speaker admits to being more proficient in reading and listening than speaking or writing in languages they've learned.
They have taken classes in English, Spanish, and Korean, which required speaking and writing.
Italian is an example of a language learned without formal classes, leading to strong reading skills but weak speaking and writing abilities.
To avoid the same issue with Greek, the speaker decided to start writing despite being a beginner.
A 2019 planner was repurposed for writing practice, with sections for each day of the week.
Highlighters are used to mark new phrases, aiding in future recall during writing.
The importance of consuming language through books, videos, and online materials for inspiration and vocabulary is emphasized.
DeepL is used as a translator, and Glossb as a dictionary for Greek.
A glossary of essential vocabulary and grammar is compiled in the planner for quick reference during writing.
The speaker does not journal but writes on varying topics, avoiding boredom and repetitive content.
A weekly topic is chosen for writing practice, inspired by books, videos, or other content in Greek.
The speaker writes without the pressure of using all new vocabulary in one entry, spreading it across the week.
Exposure to content in Greek is necessary before writing to ensure smooth writing sessions.
Dictionaries and translators are used for new vocabulary but not for grammar to avoid complicating the writing process.
The speaker does not expect uniform quality in writing and sometimes copies texts for practice.
Repetition in writing is embraced to master a topic within a week.
The speaker plans to type up texts for feedback from native speakers and to reread older entries for self-improvement.
Writing practice has improved spelling, reading speed, and speaking abilities in Greek.
The speaker finds writing helps consolidate learning and identify areas of difficulty.
The video concludes with a call for comments on the viewer's writing practices and a thank you for watching.
Transcripts
I'm going to be honest with you and I
think a lot of you can relate when it
comes to language cloning I'm much more
of a reading and listening than speaking
or writing type of person so with
languages like English Spanish Korean at
least at some point in my life I did
take classes so I had no choice but to
speak or write if I were asked to do so
but the situation is very different when
it comes to languages I have studied
completely on my own and my Italian is a
prime example of that I have to admit I
have really neglected output and when it
comes to learning Italian and as a
result at this point I can comfortably
read contemporary novels but if you ask
me to speak or write I can barely string
a couple of sentences together with
Greek the language that I'm focusing on
right now I did not want to find myself
in the same situation so I decided to
start writing despite being a beginner
who hasn't even reached A1 yet so
today's video is going to be all about
the writing routine that I've developed
so far and that I think works really
well for me let's first look at the
tools that I use this is kind of random
but I thrifted this 2019 planner a
couple of months ago and I decided to
use it for my Writing Practice somehow
it works perfectly for me because it has
sections for every day of the week and I
can use one every single time I sit down
to write and then it also has this
section right here which is really
important for my process and later
you're going to see why I also usually
just use a black pen and a couple of
highlighters to highlight new phrases
that I use in my writing so that the
next time that I'm writing something and
I want to use that word or phrase that I
had to look up specifically to write
something a couple of days ago it is
much easier to find that phrase
highlight it and another thing that is
really important even though it's not
really a writing material or anything
like that is any type of resources that
you use to get input at this point I'm
basically convinced that you cannot
produce language unless you also consume
it so I use my books I use YouTube
videos and any other online materials
just basically to get a inspiration for
topics and be an idea of what vocabulary
and grammar I can use and the last thing
is a dictionary or a translator in my
case most of the time I use deep El as a
translator and then gloss b as a
dictionary and now that we've covered
the tools let's look at my process so
the first thing I did after getting the
notebook is compiling a glossary of most
important vocabulary and grammar that I
know I will be using a lot the way you
can set it up is by dedicating a couple
of pages specifically to that glossary
or by putting information that you need
from week to week on a sticky note that
we'll be traveling with you from page to
page and the reason why I do this is so
that I don't have to look up those words
when I sit down to write I don't mind
looking things up and that's why I keep
the glossary in my notebook but I just
don't really want to get distracted by
picking up my phone or by flipping
through a physical dictionary to find
that one word that I'm looking for some
examples of the kind of vocabulary I
write down days of the week as I've
already said sentences describing
whether names of the months time related
phrases for example from this time to
this time or today tomorrow now then and
things like that of course the type of
vocabulary you'll be using totally
depends on you what kind of things you
choose to write about what level you are
as you have noticed I am still a
beginner in Greek so there's a lot of
really basic vocabulary that I'm not
comfortable with yet and so I have to
write those things down hoping that at
some point I will memorize them and I
will not have to use the help of my
little glossary
so because I use a literal planner as my
notebook you might think that what I do
in it is journaling but in reality it's
not really the case the truth is I don't
really have a specific goal or format
when it comes to what exactly I'm going
to write and it basically differs from
week to week it might be journal in one
week talking about human emotions the
next week then describing my daily
routines or daily routines of the people
that I know and so on and I feel like
this approach allows me not to get bored
by writing basically the same thing
every single day which is something that
would happen to me when I try journaling
in Italian my vocabulary and my
knowledge of grammar was not really good
enough to describe a lot of different
things in detail so my journal entries
looked like oh today I did this I ate
this I went there and now honestly it
wasn't really fulfilling in any case of
way so now I basically try to avoid that
by not committing to any type of format
unless I'm really sure that that's what
I want to do
so how do I choose what to write about
them glad you asked instead of deciding
on a topic every single day what I do is
I just choose one topic for the whole
week this might be connected to a
chapter in my book that I'm currently
working on such as jobs or daily
routines or things like that it might
also be based on just content in Greek
that I listen to or watched or maybe
even read for example I recently watched
a video about how to describe emotions
in Greek and then I basically dedicated
a whole week to writing about this topic
and no matter which topic I decide to go
for I always use this little section
that I talked about in the very
beginning of the video to write down
important vocabulary and grammar that
I'm going to be using throughout the
week if the topic is based on a textbook
chapter I will just go through the
vocabulary and grammar sections in the
book and then I will copy what I
consider relevant and if the the topic
is based on an article or a video I will
just write down phrases and usage
examples the nice thing about it is that
throughout the week I will have seven
different opportunities to use all of
that vocabulary and grammar that I just
wrote down so in that sense I don't
really feel the pressure to Clump them
all together in one entry I've mentioned
this already but I just want to double
down on this I have noticed that writing
for me is the hardest if I try to do it
without exposing myself to content in
the language first so if for example I
neglect my textbooks or I don't really
watch any videos in Greek for a couple
of days even and then I sit down and I
try to write something chances are it's
not going to work as smoothly as it does
when I first receive some input and then
I sit down to write
do I use dictionaries and translators so
most of the time I'm okay with looking
up new vocabulary here and there and
using it in my writing but I cannot
really say the same about grammar also
because there's really not a lot of good
dictionaries for Greek I often use
translators so let's say I need the verb
to drive as in to drive a car I look it
up and if I see that it doesn't did look
like a verb because I've been exposed to
the language already and I have an idea
of what verbs look like in Greek I'll
use it but if I were to look up a phrase
and then I saw that it had grammar that
I don't know I would not use the phrase
and I would just try to simplify the
idea that I have and the reason for that
is that looking up new words is quick
and easy but if I want to use a certain
grammar structure I actually want to
understand what it is that I'm using and
my writing time is reserved just for
that for writing not for understanding
learning new grammar structures I have
my textbook time for that so in that
sense it's just me trying to not over
complicate things and keep this habit
sustainable because most of the time I
don't really spend more than 10 to 15
minutes per day on writing and I feel
like it's partially why I have been able
to maintain this habit for over a month
now despite not really being consistent
with writing ever in my life
when it comes to what I'm writing about
I am not at all afraid of repetition the
way I see it is I have a week to perfect
or Master a topic obviously according to
my level because I'm still a beginner so
I won't be able to write something very
complicated but because of that I think
it's totally fine to write about the
same thing every single day for a week
for just a week so for example last week
I was learning to talk about myself and
so every day I would just do that but
each time I would change some things
here and there I sometimes would add new
vocabulary or grammar sometimes I would
just make the structure more coherent or
simply add things that I didn't think of
the day before and needless to say I was
the most satisfied with my writing on
Sunday because I had the whole week to
polish my writing on that topic the
writing process was also much smoother
because by that time I have already
memorized a lot of the vocabulary and
grammar that I had to use in my writing
and so I didn't really feel the need to
look up as many things or to double
check if I spelled them correctly
something that I don't do however is
expect that my writing will be of the
same quality every single time for me
obviously the quality of my writing
depends on the topic how familiar I am
with it how many times I have practiced
writing about it but also more often
than not it just depends on my energy
levels and if there's a particular day
when I feel like my energy is really low
what I will do sometimes is I will just
copy somebody else's text sometimes I
will find something in my textbook
sometimes I will go online and see what
simple text I can find on the topic that
I'm writing about so for example
recently I wanted to write about human
emotions and it was a little bit hard
because the topic is kind of abstract
and then I accidentally stumbled upon
this children's book that explains two
kids in very simple terms what sadness
is and so the first day of my writing
practice that week I just copied that
text amid in some things that were too
complicated for me because I didn't know
the grammar and then what I did the next
day and the day after that was I
basically wrote about other emotions
that were not Sadness by using that text
about sadness as a template and I think
that worked really well for me
even though I'm really proud of myself
for being able to stick with my right
and practice for as long as a month or a
little bit more than that I also
recognize that in the grand scheme of
things I haven't really been doing it
for that long and there's still a lot of
things that I could improve about my
process for example one thing that I
would like to do in the future is to
start typing up my texts and then
potentially uploading them onto websites
like high native or journally or learn
correct to get Corrections from native
speakers I also want to try to reread my
older entries and see if I can spot any
mistakes with the knowledge that I have
right now compared to let's say the
knowledge and the skills that I had a
month ago but for now even thinking
about those things is a little bit
overwhelming for me so I choose to focus
only on my writing and then once the
writing process itself gets easier I
will consider improving my routine so
basically what I'm doing right now is
just keeping it as sustainable as I can
so that I can keep doing it consistently
and not get overwhelmed and just stop
doing it all together because I couldn't
make this routine perfect
okay so now I've told you about the
tools that I use I've told you about my
process and I wanted to discuss some of
the benefits that I have noticed already
I definitely am better at spelling right
now compared to when I started writing
Greek specifically is not really that
hard when it comes to spelling it's
nothing like English for example but
there are some tricky aspects for
example there are six different ways to
spell the sound e and so write in words
and actively thinking about how to spell
them really helps me with memorization I
also Now read faster especially when it
comes to my own handwriting in Greek
because I'm not gonna lie in the
beginning it was kind of a struggle and
I think this is part because I'm getting
a lot more exposure to the language but
also part because my handwriting in the
process has become a little better so
obviously since I've been practicing
writing hopefully I am a little better
rating but I've also noticed some
improvement when it comes to speaking
because I think those skills are pretty
much related and then the main reason
why I wanted to practice writing was to
consolidate the information that I was
learning instead of just passively going
through chapters in my books which is
something I used to do with pretty much
all of my languages I feel like the
practice helps me both with memorizing
new vocabulary and grammar and with
being better at noticing blind spots or
things that I find difficult because a
lot of the times I'll just go through a
textbook chapter and I'll be like okay I
understand this I understand that but
when you actually sit down to write
you're like wait a minute no I I guess I
didn't really understand that because I
will have to look that up again so yeah
writing definitely helps a lot in this
area but this is pretty much everything
I wanted to talk about in this video I
am super curious to know if you guys
practice writing and if so how do you do
it how do you come up with what to write
about how regularly do you write do you
Journal do you write about something
else please let me know in the comments
below and as always thank you so much
for watching this video and I will see
you in my next one bye bye
foreign
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