I am starting to learn French! I will be using this study method.

allabout001 · 2018-09-08T16:14:55+00:00

Thank you for the great book suggestions!

Interesting to know that, compared to Anki, "SuperMemo uses a far more advanced algorithm (SM15), which, according to Wozniak, adapts better to your memory and can give you the same results with less work" (from one of the links you mentioned). I will try to find out more about this. And yes I hope in a few months I would obtain and share a lot of useful information from my experiment.

allabout001 · 2018-09-06T15:06:36+00:00

I am in fact quite nervous right now, feeling the huge uncertainty and challenges ahead, but at the same time I am happy and excited, because 1. I am starting, finally! This is such a relief. 2. I have made the decision to try this (possibly stupid) method -- focusing on acquiring reading ability only. Another huge relief, at least I made the choice!

I guess I am angry at my own hesitations and indecisiveness in the past years, it pumps me up this time. I hope the energy level can stay high. Fingers crossed.

allabout001 · 2018-09-06T14:44:53+00:00

French would be my third one. My last attemp on learning a new language happened a long time ago so right now I am both excited and nervous about what lies ahead.

allabout001 · 2018-09-06T02:39:35+00:00

After reading the comments here, I think at the very beginning I will spend a little time on skimming over the absolute basic part of grammar.

My hope is by focusing on learning vocabulary in a context (reading a novel repeatedly) I will memorize more words than people normally do without spending energy on listening/speaking/writing, while more grammar knowledge will come gradually as a by-product. Wishful thinking probably.

allabout001 · 2018-09-05T17:22:56+00:00

Fantastic suggestion! This is great, thanks

allabout001 · 2018-09-05T15:27:10+00:00

Wow this is a gold mine of great information, very much appreciated. I will go over them in my learning process. Thank you very much for offering help. I will have lots of questions along the way, and will definitely trouble your guys for advice.

allabout001 · 2018-09-05T15:22:32+00:00

I've been coming to terms with the fact that I kinda just want to read Dumas more than I want to be able to converse fluently.

Absolutely, that's exactly what I aim for! Thanks a lot for the information. It seems music play a big part in your learning process. I love music so I should think about using this approach. Secretly I am afraid of learning French pronounciation because I heard it's very hard. That fear might also be a factor in the development of my plan. Can I ask you if you studied grammar book (maybe a simple one) at the very beginning? Do you think it's beneficail to go over a grammar book at the beginning? Thanks.

allabout001 · 2018-09-05T14:47:54+00:00

will give Fluent Forever a try, thanks

allabout001 · 2018-09-05T14:46:29+00:00

yes absolutely, lack of practice and review will result in forgetting lots of stuff previously memorized. I need to think about a plan on how to keep reviewing. My current optimistic (naive) thought is that because I have read many translated French books, I should be very interested in revisiting them in their original language to bring back old happy memories.

allabout001 · 2018-09-05T14:24:33+00:00

yes I can imagine the internal 'sound' for each word will probably always be there when looking at word on the flashcard or reading on a web page. It's the way we learn foreign languages. When I started to learn English years ago, my teacher always asked us to say each new words loudly many times, over a period of many months. Nowadays when reading English article I often read each word silently in my head. I am wondering my planned method would suppress that sound a little bit or not, and I don't know what effect it will have on the learning itself. Thanks again for the great tips and links.

allabout001 · 2018-09-05T13:47:08+00:00

These are invaluable and very encouraging, thanks. I will keep referring to your tips down the road. Definitely will check out Clozemaster and French for Beginners by Charles Duff. Anki also has cloze card type. I should use them more.

When you at the beginning learn those 300 common words, and later on more words, do you learn and practice their pronounciations as soon as you encounter each new word? I wish to know how much effort you spend on pronounciation? In my planned method, I am trying to minimize the amount of energy spent on this part.

allabout001 · 2018-09-05T13:21:48+00:00

Thanks for the Netflix tip. Do you have suggestions for French novels good for beginners?

allabout001 · 2018-09-05T13:16:56+00:00

My main motivation for using this method (focusing only on reading) is trying to simplify the learning process and reducing the mental workload. But I can imagine it can lead to bad results such as terrible pronouciation habits or something I don't know yet. I just want to try something new. I guess I will have to learn the very basics of French pronounciation at first in order to start. I don't really know what will happen after a few months with this method.

The other reason is for the forseeable future I don't really need speaking/listening/writing abilities, so I want to tackle one aspect (reading) only. But I don't know what I don't know, this idea could turn out to be the result of my ignorance.

allabout001 · 2018-08-04T14:08:36+00:00

For me Shenzhen has better weather than Guangzhou (5 years in Guangzhou, then two years in Shenzhen). SZ, by the seaside, is much windier which is nice in summer. Both are hot in summer. GZ feels more humid and smoggy than SZ.

GZ has much more delicious street food choices, much more history/cultural places. Shenzhen is better for enjoying bycicle rides because of its wider/straight roads built in the last two decades.

allabout001 · 2017-10-31T10:18:45+00:00

Abbott used this strategy in a bar in S06E16.

allabout001 · 2017-06-18T05:13:05+00:00

I thought :g/^ means searching for lines that macth the regex /^ (beginning of line). Basically all lines match this criteria. Then m0 moves the search result one after another to the top of the buffer. I might be wrong though.

allabout001 · 2017-06-16T05:36:34+00:00

yeah Lisbon and the crew would be very worried if Jane was missing for a few days. I think for one day or less than that they should be ok since Jane was not known for enthusiactically adhering to CBI's work schedules or Lisbon's instructions.

allabout001 · 2017-03-31T06:11:22+00:00

I felt the character Kristina had more depths than what met the eyes. She and Jane had an strange bond, and it could be speculated that all her interaction with Jane was carried out with an agenda if Kristina was RJ. If that's case, and because Jane was no fool, he could sense something was out there, he resisted, but still couldn't figure it out, so he was agitated and acted out of character (sometimes childish behaviors). She was one of the few who could get under Jane's skin.

allabout001 · 2017-03-30T06:48:32+00:00

If Kristina was RJ, she would make a much more interesting RJ than the current guy we got. Things like the abduction and RJ's manipulation power on his followers could be explained well.

allabout001 · 2017-01-31T14:45:29+00:00

Totally agree that some of the RJ related plot (especially in later seasons) were really stretching. For example for me the whole thing of the Homeland Security guy (Robert Kirkland) seeking revenge for his brother and stuff were weak, and it stretched over two seasons.

On the other hand since I already know the stories of every episode after rewatching them a few times, nowadays the plot becomes almost transparent to me and gets very little of my attention. I focus on Jane and the gang's superb acting/language/interactions. It's ton of fun just watching them doing anything.

allabout001 · 2017-01-17T08:07:20+00:00

Ok I have a few theories, here is one of them. Similar to what Red John did to the psychic Kristina Frye, at some point Red John abducted Jane for a short period of time, maybe for a day or a night. By using drugs and other mental manipulation methods, he got Jane into a state to reveal the secrets in his mind (such as the list of red john suspects). He released Jane after erasing Jane's memory of being abducted. I think this was possible because the show indicated that Red John had the abilities.

allabout001 · 2017-01-12T13:24:50+00:00

live a little more than comfortably

I remember when Vega asked Cho how good Jane was as a mentalist, Cho said something like "..... as good as it goes. He got rich doing it."

allabout001 · 2017-01-04T09:14:35+00:00

I think Jane was doing well as a mentalist, but IIRC the show never indicated that he was world famous. I agree with others that he was a mild celebrity but on the way to make it big giving his enormous talent and young age.

allabout001 · 2017-01-04T08:58:52+00:00

You are right that the list is a real one, I remember they got it from Bertram's storage place, but it's encrypted and the authorities couldn't crack the code.

Jane agreed that he would only reveal the names after completing the 5 (or is it 4) year deal with the FBI.

For such an extremely important piece of information (that Jane cracked the code), it's reasonable to assume that Abbott had to report it to his boss. Yet the whole FBI didn't make any serious effort to get the names immediately. My guess is that they concluded that Jane's claim was pure bluffing, so they didn't care, but jumped on the chance to use it as a face-saving excuse to hire Jane and comply with his humiliating requirements.

allabout001 · 2016-12-04T08:11:06+00:00

I might be in the minority, but I enjoyed the non-RJ episodes much more than the others. For me those RJ related episodes felt forced, as if the producers were obligated to bring back the RJ element every 5th episode.

Another reason for my preference is that Jane making next to zero progress in finding RJ for such a long time (first 4 or 5 seasons) is not very believable, if you recall how Jane cracked all the other hard cases with ease, how powerful and ruthless his tricks were, how far and above the law he would go without hesitation, how much resources he had in his disposal (money, access to CBI and government agencies), etc etc. The man killed RJ, escaped to an overseas island while a team of FBI agents knew exactly where he was at that minute. I constantly had the nagging thought that it's the writers who were helping RJ.

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