Does anyone else feel like they learn more on some days when they barely study than on days when they spend hours doing it? I've had sessions where I reviewed a ton of material and felt productive, only to forget half of it a few days later, while things I picked up casually sometimes stick without much effort. I don't know if it's a question of the method or just how memory works, but how do you guys tell when you're actually making progress?
Yes, this sort of thing happens to me a lot too. I don’t worry about it though, because experience tells me that there will be a lot of ups and downs on the way to reaching my goals, and I have a method that works for me eventually regardless. Part of my method involves reviewing regularly, which I find limits the forgetting. Other things that limit the forgetting – not biting off more than I can chew in a day, keeping my new Anki items down to a reasonable number, and not allowing them to be too hard.
Telling if I’ve progressed is hard with languages, because it’s such a slow process. I’m quite experienced, so I just have a feeling of how well a current technique or program is working. I realize that’s not very helpful to you. The only time I really self-monitor is when I start doing regular conversation classes. I mark down what I think my level was for the conversation, A0 to C2, and I look for patterns. I’m mainly looking for good teachers and trying to reduce long slumps and plateaus. But I probably do it more for my curiosity than anything else.
Creating Cebuano free resources.
That is the point of spaced repetition systems (SRS) in language learning. The assumption is that you WILL forget everything you've learned pretty quickly unless someone or something reminds you of it regularly. There are tons out there, find one that works for you and stick with it. I find they are great for remembering vocabulary and short phrases, not so great for everything else.
As for how I can tell I'm making progress, it's when I try media/content made for native speakers. I know I'm intermediate when I can follow what they're saying and pick out words and phrases with the help of English subtitles. I consider myself advanced when I can do the same, but with subtitles in the language. And I'd say I'm fluent once I don't need any subtitles to follow native content. I focus more on watching and understanding things rather than speaking, so these are 100% my own personal standards.
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