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LEARNING A LANGUAGE BY EAR LENA MORITA

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@mirka Raised bilingually in Japan
 (Japanese/English) Co-Director at
 Women Who Code Tokyo Software Engineer at Automattic LENA MORITA

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@mirka Uruguay United States Spain (living in UK) Slovakia Romania Japan Philippines MY TEAMMATES BY COUNTRY

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@mirka NAMING THINGS WEB+DB PRESS VOL. 110

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BAD AT LANGUAGES?

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SCHOOL DIDN’T WORK

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TEXTBOOKS DIDN’T WORK

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2017 READY TO TRY AGAIN

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@mirka THINGS I WAS “BAD” AT Piano Mastering Piano Technique
 by Seymour Fink

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@mirka THINGS I WAS “BAD” AT Programming AppleScript 1-2-3
 by Sal Soghoian JavaScript:
 The Definitive Guide
 by David Flanagan

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@mirka I’M PROBABLY JUST DOING IT WRONG BAD AT ____?

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@mirka LANGUAGE SKILLS Produce Understand Written Writing ✏ Reading Spoken Speaking Listening $

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@mirka LANGUAGE SKILLS Produce Understand Written Writing ✏ Reading Spoken Speaking Listening $

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BUILDING VOCABULARY WITH TEXT-FREE FLASHCARDS LARGELY INSPIRED BY GABRIEL WYNER’S “FLUENT FOREVER” METHOD

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@mirka “SRS” SPACED REPETITION SYSTEM We forget new information very fast The “forgetting curve” flattens out
 with each successive review Each review can be spaced out
 in longer intervals OSMOSIS.ORG

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@mirka APPS.ANKIWEB.NET ANKI Open source Cross-platform Has more features than you will ever use

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@mirka WORD 㲗 TRANSLATION TYPICAL FLASHCARD consecutive Front ʢதஅͳ͠Ͱʣ࿈ଓͨ͠,
 Ҿ͖ଓ͍ͯى͜Δ Back

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@mirka WORD 㲗 TRANSLATION TYPICAL FLASHCARD Hard to memorize Associates imperfect translations
 rather than concepts Ignores pronunciation consecutive ʢதஅͳ͠Ͱʣ࿈ଓͨ͠,
 Ҿ͖ଓ͍ͯى͜Δ

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@mirka — GABRIEL WYNER PRONUNCIATION IS IMPORTANT

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@mirka PRONUNCIATION IS IMPORTANT Necessary to understand spoken words
 → Minimal pairs: rock/lock, cut/cat, den/then, etc. Repetition on a bad foundation
 reinforces bad habits Learn it first!

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@mirka AUDIO 㲗 IMAGES TEXT-FREE FLASHCARDS Front Back

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COMPREHENSION

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PRODUCTION

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LET’S
 MAKE OUR
 FLASHCARD

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@mirka ENCOUNTER STEP 1 Keep track of new words you encounter
 in a note app like Evernote

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@mirka LEARN STEP 2 When back at your computer,
 pick a word from the list Learn what it means

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@mirka ILLUSTRATE STEP 3 Google Image Search is your friend Find an image that resonates
 with you Images for abate

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@mirka PRONOUNCE STEP 4 Download an audio clip,
 either from a real speaker or
 a text-to-speech (TTS) system forvo.com — Real speakers soundoftext.com — TTS % %

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LaunchBar

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Return spoken string as audio file

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Return spoken string as audio file

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@mirka HOW MUCH DID I LEARN? 1800+ words/phrases 93% are mature
 (in long-term memory) Average review interval is 1.6 years
 (will likely remember for at least that long)

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@mirka

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@mirka MORE WAYS TO LEARN BY EAR Pimsleur — Basic grammar, building reflexes italki — Conversation practice

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THANKS
 FOR LISTENING