I have been sick for the past 6 days.
I’m mostly better today and am catching up on work. Last week, however, I was in bed doing one of the following:
Sleeping
Reading Mandarin articles on an app called LingQ
Listening to Mandarin podcasts on LingQ.
I use LingQ for reading and listening practice because it tracks the number of words/phrases I know. I’m also able to quickly look up unfamiliar words and review them, all in-app.
I spent so much time on the app that I apparently learned 959 words and phrases in the time that I was sick.
That’s the power of an intensive burst and is one of my secrets to reaching fluency. Because of my illness, I didn’t have the energy to do anything except scroll my phone…which I did in large part on the LingQ app consuming Mandarin content.
I generally learn languages in waves.
I spend 4-8 weeks a year studying intensively. The remainder of the year I coast and improve incrementally. This system works well for me.
In tomorrow’s blog post I’ll outline a few ways you can structure an intensive burst so that you can try it out yourself.