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I have been learning Urdu since about the middle of November.
I have more-or-less learned the 40-ish letters of the alphabet and the letter name, written shape, and sound of each letter (so each of those cards has 3 "sides"). According to my flashcard-ish thing (Anki) I also have about 150 other "things" which are mostly words but some are sentence structure flashcards too, and each of those cards has a back and a front. So say 100-150 words. You can say a surprising amount with 150 words!
Interesting framing-related thing I noticed this week:
When I think about Urdu learning in terms of "I must memorise these words/grammar structures/spellings" and focus on the outcomes, it's quite stressful. On days when my brain is uncooperative and I have forgotten everything it's even more stressful.
When I think about it as "I must expose my brain to these words/grammar structures/spellings so I can learn" and focus only on the effort, it's not at all stressful and becomes highly enjoyable. Even on days when I have forgotten everything it's not too bad, the thing that's "my job" is only the effort (and I can control that) - trusting that the outcome will follow if I put the effort in consistently[*].
It makes me wonder how much the inevitable outcome focus in schools screws up learners in those environments, especially when their outcomes are not what they wanted. I was lucky when I was in academic settings that my brain worked so well I almost never felt that sort of stress.
Also, of course, I have the HUGE advantage of living with a fluent speaker and having a second fluent speaker with my every day, so I can ask them things as they pop up. Given the number of things I've asked, I'm wondering how anybody manages without!
[*] I am separately learning about adult language learning, to make sure I am doing the most efficient exposing-type-thingies that we know of at the moment, but that doesn't even count as "effort" for my brain because I adore popular science and there are a ton of good evidence-based books about adult language learning.
I have more-or-less learned the 40-ish letters of the alphabet and the letter name, written shape, and sound of each letter (so each of those cards has 3 "sides"). According to my flashcard-ish thing (Anki) I also have about 150 other "things" which are mostly words but some are sentence structure flashcards too, and each of those cards has a back and a front. So say 100-150 words. You can say a surprising amount with 150 words!
Interesting framing-related thing I noticed this week:
When I think about Urdu learning in terms of "I must memorise these words/grammar structures/spellings" and focus on the outcomes, it's quite stressful. On days when my brain is uncooperative and I have forgotten everything it's even more stressful.
When I think about it as "I must expose my brain to these words/grammar structures/spellings so I can learn" and focus only on the effort, it's not at all stressful and becomes highly enjoyable. Even on days when I have forgotten everything it's not too bad, the thing that's "my job" is only the effort (and I can control that) - trusting that the outcome will follow if I put the effort in consistently[*].
It makes me wonder how much the inevitable outcome focus in schools screws up learners in those environments, especially when their outcomes are not what they wanted. I was lucky when I was in academic settings that my brain worked so well I almost never felt that sort of stress.
Also, of course, I have the HUGE advantage of living with a fluent speaker and having a second fluent speaker with my every day, so I can ask them things as they pop up. Given the number of things I've asked, I'm wondering how anybody manages without!
[*] I am separately learning about adult language learning, to make sure I am doing the most efficient exposing-type-thingies that we know of at the moment, but that doesn't even count as "effort" for my brain because I adore popular science and there are a ton of good evidence-based books about adult language learning.
