Tried & Tested - Tandem language app review

Today I will talk to you about a new language app I found. Unfortunately this app is only available in the Apple store, if you're an Adroid user I would suggest you to have a look at one of my older posts which will give you some good recommendations for Japanese learning Apps for Android. With that being said, let's get straight into business!
Alright, so Tandem describes itself as a ''community of language learners'' with over 3 million users. It allows you one on one conversations with people who share your interests. I tested Tandem for one week to see if it is any different than the other language exchange apps out there.


Signing up
So this was a bit fussy.. First of all, you can only sign up if you have a Facebook account. No, I'm not kidding. You can't sign up with just your email address or without making an account at all. So if you don't have Facebook, no Tandem for you my friend. The explanation for this according to them is ''to make sure everyone on Tandem is a real and friendly person''. If you are like me and you're a real and friendly person and have a Facebook account you can continue to sign up. The process for this is rather simple and they will ask you a couple quick questions about your interests, which languages you speak, which language you want to learn and they will ask you to write about a topic you're interested in. After you signed up, you will get a screen like pictured right and then you just have to wait...


Using Tandem
After 30 minutes or so I got an email that I got accepted and I was ready to use my account. The profile will look something like my profile here, but with your own interests an your own topic of course. When people are looking for someone new to chat with, they will see your topic at first so make sure it something interesting or catchy. You can search for new people by the language your interested in, by topic or by place. Only after a few minutes I signed up, I received a request from a nice lady from Vietnam to help me with my Vietnamese. If you studied a foreign language before you know how important it is to connect with natives and how easy it is to ask all your questions. If the little awkwardness is out of the way, you can chat like friends and study at the same time. Tandem also has a call / video call function which allows you to call your new friends for free.

Verdict
I will score the Tandem app in the same way as a did with my previous app reviews. Overall I would give Tandem a 3/5. The layout is very simple, although this can come over as boring, it does makes it easy to use. I would suggest this app to people who want to meet natives to chat with. If you are going to use Tandem, write down what you want to learn and also write down what you've learned from your buddy. This will keep you from only having fun while chatting and helps you remember that you have a goal.


Overall rating; Tandem Language Exchange
Visual / layout; 3/5
Information; 3/5

Pro's
- Easy to use
- Free calling option
- Great way for connecting with new people

Con's
- Only accessible with Facebook account
- No group chats


Did you already use Tandem before? Or are you going to use it now? Let me know what you think!

Thank you for reading.

~ mei mei

Learning Vietnamese; Northern or Southern accent

After awakening my interest for Vietnamese I found out that it is quite difficult to get some information online. There is not so much decent information for studying Vietnamese, even on this world wide web. This is can be kind of discouraging for those who want to learn Vietnamese because everyone needs resources and everyone needs study materials. Luckily I have my partner who speaks the language and several colleagues as well. Therefore every single thing that I learn from them I will share with you, as I do with Korean and Japanese. So today is my first Vietnamese language related post.

We will start by asking ourselves; do I want to learn the Northern or Southern accent?
Do I really have to choose? That's what I thought myself too, but the answer is yes. It is definitely better to make a decision right at the start to prevent confusion for yourself. I will help you to choose today.

So let's start with the Northern accent. Northern accent or also known as Hanoi accent, is from my point of view the best to start with because it's 'standard' Vietnamese. When I say standard, I mean it is clean Vietnamese compared to the Southern accent. The Hanoi dialect represents the phonetic system more fully then others which makes it more understandable. However Southern accent sounds amazingly different as of the people are singing to each other when talking. When you have set your mind on learning Southern accent you must be prepared to have some difficulties finding materials since most of the books are written in Northern accent. Many people have to learn the Northern accent first to cover the basics and then adjust their pronunciation to Southern accent.
For those who it is considerable learning the Southern accent is those who come to Vietnam for business purposes. You most likely have to do all your business in Saigon. Saigon (Ho Chi Minh City) is the biggest and the most important political, economic center in the whole county of Vietnam. therefore learning the Southern accent would be a good choice.

In the end you can just choose whichever accent you like more or would be more convenient for you. In this case there is no right or wrong. People all over the country still understand each other despite the differences in their accent.



Please look forward to more Vietnamese language related posts!

~ mei mei

Book Review: Chineasy the new way to read Chinese

My apologies for not writing in a long long time, but I was really busy with many things. One of them was getting a copy of Shaolan Hsueh's Chineasy. Because I was convinced that after the release they wouldn't sell out that fast I didn't pre-order a copy. Big mistake because the book was sold out online! I tried to find a copy everywhere but I could only order one from Amazon. I was really lucky I stumbled on a copy yesterday when I was in our capital city. Long story made short, I am going to introduce Chineasy today.

Chineasy is a book which states to read Chinese in a whole other way. An very easy and fun way. I was very interested because it covers basic Chinese characters which can also be quite convenient for Japanese learners to know, since most of the basic characters are the same.

The author, a Taiwanese woman residing in the UK, had difficulties with teaching her own children Chinese with current existing books and methods so she created her own. As a result came Chineasy. The books is based on building blocks to quickly learn several hundreds of characters. If you have studied Chinese characters or Japanese Kanji it is likely that you are already familiar with this technique. But born as the daughter of a calligrapher and a ceramic artist, Shaolan Hsueh grew up immersed with art which has a great influence in the making of Chineasy. She worked together with an graphic artist Noma Bar who made the characters come to live visually. Honestly, I have to say that the bright illustrations and the interesting descriptions really caught my attention and made me smile while reading.

Although the technique is good, the illustrations are great, and the descriptions are interesting some of the links between the illustrations and words were pretty far-fetched.

As I continued reading, the end of the book contains some sentences which are build upon the words we have learned so far. Although some of the sentences are useful for daily life, others are really odd for such a book; 'The rich girls stinks', 'The mermaid Princess burst into tears'. I think I wouldn't use both ever.

At the very end there even is a short story which is kind of hard to grasp, even with the great visuals.

Overall I think it's a great book. If I got children I would enjoy to teach them Chinese words from this book. And even if your a businessman or student, this book will give you an insight into Chinese language. As I explained, there are some negative points about the book, but overall it is fascinating to read. I would recommend beginners who have not studied Asian characters before to give it a try.

I hope you enjoyed reading, have you bought Chineasy already?

~ Mei mei

6 reasons why you should learn Korean / why Korean might be easier than you think!

When you think about the Korean it might seem just another difficult Asian language. But don't get scared about what they  tell you, Korean is actually one of the easiest East Asian languages to learn! I will give you six reasons why Korean might be easier then you might think and why you should start learning Korean right now.

1. Korean has one of the most intelligent writing systems on earth. Compare it to Chinese and Japanese and it is looks suprisingly easy as well! The Korean alphabet is called Hangul and consists of 14 consonants and 10 vowels. That makes only 24 characters to learn!

2. Hangul is written the same way you probably have learnt. From left to right, top to bottom. And unlike Japanese, it has spaces inbetween.

3. Korean is not a tonal language. The language does have some accents but these don't change anything grammar wise.

4. The grammar in Korean language is very simple and straightforward. For example; you do not have to worry about gender and many verbs are just made out of nouns + the verb 'to do'.

5. There is a huge amount of information (most of the time for free) on the internet. You have lots of dramas with Korean and English subtitles and the amazing podcasts of Talk To Me In Korean are also free!

6. Korean has a lot of English loanwords (Konglish )and many Koreans are eager to learn English.

I hope this post has triggered your interest in Korean language. Read some more information about Korea and you will probably fall in love with it's beautifull language, interesting culture and kind people. If you are a fan of everything Japanese, have a look at my other post which compares the Japanese language to Korean.

Thank you for reading!

~Mei mei

Keeping up learning languages while doing nothing special

Everyone who is studying a foreign language will reach that point where you think you have lost your motivation. Although everyone will say you have to continue studying even though you don't feel like it, there is actually nothing wrong with taking a little break. Allowing yourself to have a break will make your mind free of stress so you can regain new inspiration.
Even if you do not want to open your books there are still many ways to learn new words, grammar, etcetera effortless. I have explained some of these simple methods below.

Podcasts;
I have an iPod only for my podcasts. Listening to podcasts can be done while you're on your way to work, have to wait for the train or while you're preparing the dinner. This is a great method for those who are have surpassed the beginners level and feel at ease listening to conversations. They will easily pick up new sentences because they already understand the grammar behind it. If you think conversations are a little hard, just stick to listening music. This is also a great way to relax while you're still studying.

Dramas, TV-shows and movies;
For those who are learning Japanese or Korean you have the access to many great dramas, TV-shows, and movies for free online. If you are an beginner this is an easy way to get comfortable with the foreign language.If you are more advanced this is a fun way to check how much you already understand. There will always be a good show or movie in the genre you like.

Eventually you will pick up the dictionary again to find out what the word is they use so frequently in your drama. You will regain your interest and continue your studies with the new information you have learned from simply watching a movie or listening to the news in the language of your studies!

Keep the good work up!

Thank you for reading.
~Mei mei

The two best apps for learning Japanese on Iphone and Android (so far)

Since it's in my reach to use both Android and Apple devices I'm going to review a few apps which claim to help you with your Japanese. In daily life I use a Samsung Galaxy S4 Mini and I also own a tablet from Samsung. My boyfriend is a huge fan of Apple so he has an Iphone 5S and an Ipad Mini. With so many devices lying around it wasn't really that difficult to test a couple of apps on these popular devices. Today I will give an introduction to the two best apps I have found so far.

Human Japanese;web page
Supported on; PC, Mac, Iphone, Android, Windows Phone

Highly praised by the Los Angeles Times and The Wall Street Journal this is indeed quite an amazing app.
You can download two versions; Human Japanese and Human Japanese Intermediate. I have downloaded the first version which is free. It takes some time to download though. When I opened the app it gives an easy introduction on how to navigate trough the app. When you have finished the introduction you can start with the first chapter. The first chapter is another introduction, this time they will introduce the Japanese language to you. The explanation is easy to read and very detailed. If you don't like a lot of reading this might not be the right app for you though, after six pages of reading we arrive at the next chapter. The next chapter covers pronunciation. After ten pages of detailed information there is a quiz to put your fresh skills to the test. After that there is a short summary on chapter two and then we arrive at the next chapter. This is basically how the whole app works. There are seven chapters which you can study for free. For the other 33 chapters you need to upgrade to the full version. The main menu allows you to fast forward to the quizzes and have a look at the dictionary. Although it is a lot of reading, the subjects are very interesting and easy explained.
The full version is available for +/- $9,99.
If you think you've got the basics down you can download Human Japanese Intermediate. In this version they will explain more advanced topics and you can practice your Kanji. I suggest you to go trough the free seven lessons first and have a look. It is really worth it!

Overall rating; Human Japanese
Visual / layout; 4/5
Information; 5/5

Pro's;
- Clean layout
- Detailed information

Con's;
- The amount of reading can get a little boring for some people.
- The layout looks really large and a little ugly on my tablet.
- Only seven lessons in the free version.


Mirai iStart Japanese;web page
Supported on; Apple devices only

I don't want to be mean but the app I thought of most useful was this one, which is only available for Apple devices. (Don't be sad though, I'm still on my journey finding even more useful apps which are compatible with other devices too!) Mirai is a Japanese study app which let's you listen to a series of Japanese pod casts all under the supervision of a penguin with glasses. In every lesson you will follow a basic conversation visualized with speech bubbles that have English grammar explanations.  For the Japanese bubbles you can toggle between romanized words and Japanese script. For every lesson there is a vocab section an a quiz at the end. You will even learn how to write some Kanji in the writing section where they show you the correct stroke order. The free version has 20 lessons for the full version you have to purchase a subscription which costs +/- $3,60 a month. Although you get some good things for your money, I still don't like the idea of a monthly subscription. I really hope you give this a try because the free lessons can teach you a lot of new information. If you have conquered all the 20 lessons you can just delete the app and search for a new one right? If you're really interested in this app but don't have an Apple device you can check out their blog here, where you can learn the Kanji of the day (with stroke order!) and listen to 10 Japanese pod cast lessons!

Overall rating; Mirai iStart Japanese
Visual / layout; 5/5
Information; 4/5

Pro's;
- Beautiful layout
- Informative lessons which don't take a lot of time
- Writing section
- 20 (!) free lessons

Con's;
-  Not completely free either
-  Only compatible with Apple devices


Conclusion;
Actually these aren't the best apps out there I think, I will have to continue searching for even better ones. If you want me to test out a particular app please let me know. You can comment below or send me a message and I will be happy to try out some new apps for you.

Thank you for reading.

~ Mei mei

Japanese onomatopoeia オノマトペ and mimesis

Onomatopoeia, in Japanese called 'giongo 擬音語' is a word or a group of words that have their meaning indicated by the sounds they mimic. For example sound effects like 'bang'. Mimesis, in Japanese called 'gitaigo 擬態語' are state words like 'sparkle'. In Japanese onomatopoeia and mimesis is used a lot more than they are in western languages. It is so important and prevalant that they are separated in three categories; Giseigo擬声語, Giongo擬音語 and Gitaigo擬態語.

Giseigo擬声語;

 Are simply sounds that people and animals can make like ニャンニャン (nyan-nyan) the Japanese version of a cat's meow.

Giongo 擬音語; 

Sounds that can't be put under Giseigo. Like sounds of the nature. For example ポツポツ (potsu-potsu) the sound for rain drops.  Another example is どきどき the sound of a pounding heart. Most Giongo are written in katakana but as you can see with どきどき there are a lot of exceptions.

Gitaigo 擬態語;

 Are used to describe an action or an emotion and they don't necessarily have to make noises. Technically these are not called onomatopoeia but fall under mimesis, because they don't try to imitate the sound but mimic the actions. For example ぺちゃくちゃ (pechakucha) means chit-chat and おどおど(odo-odo) is to feel uneasy / insecure. Most gitaigo is written in hiragana but like with giongo there are a lot of exceptions.

~ Mei mei

Incorporating a foreign language into your daily life

The topic of this post is incorporating a new language into your daily life. When you don't have a friend, a colleague or someone else who speaks the language of your interest, maintaining a foreign language can be quite difficult. Below I have explained some simple and advanced techniques to take a your skills to another level.

The 'sticky notes' technique;
This is a perfect technique for those who live by themselves. You write words on a sticky notes in the language you are learning and paste them all around the house. For example you can make notes for doors like; bathroom, toilet and bedroom. But the possibilities do not stop there, they are endless. You can basically stick the notes onto everything, the more sticky notes you have in your house, obviously the more you learn. I do admit this can look a little weird to your friends and family but it's for good cause right?

Shopping;
There's a lot to learn with this simple daily task. You can make shopping lists in the language of your interest and you will learn not only many nouns but also counters!Try to name the items you see when you are outside. If you don't know the word, write it down in English and look it up later. This method is not too challenging but adds some fun in the study process (which can be quite boring sometimes ). When you get home you can apply the 'sticky notes technique' and label all your bought items. While labelling the items you can even write down expiry dates or  the country of origin (for fruits).

For the die-hards;
This is for the people who really want to take a language to the next level. Adjust your phone settings to your chosen foreign language. This will be really challenging because you will experience a lot of head scratching situations, but you can learn so many new words! Just put a shortcut somewhere on your device which links to Google Translate and don't forget to write down how to put the settings back to normal.

Find native people to talk with;
If you have access to the internet you have access to people. Finding study buddies or native speakers is easier than it might seem. If you don't know how to take the first step I recommend you to read my blogpost here. I explained two easy ways to find native speakers and study buddies in that post.


Good luck!

~Mei mei

I wish we had more Japanese snacks in Europe

Korean VS. Japanese' Hangul VS. Kana & Kanji' which is easier?

The US government classifies both of them as languages which are very difficult to learn, based on how many hours it takes a native English speaker to gain fluency. How does Hangul stand up against Hiragana and Kanji? I'm going to cover some of that in this post.

Since I have been studying them both for a time I can say this out of experience. If you start with Japanese later on Korean will be more easy and I think it's the same vice versa.  I will introduce both of the writing systems to you.

Korean;

Hangul consists of 14 consonants and 10 vowels which are all combined in syllable blocks. As an example 한글 (hangul) is divided into two syllable blocks. The first one is divided into three letters; ㅎ 'h' + ㅏ 'a' + ㄴ 'n'  which spell 한 'han'. The second block 글 'gul' also consists of three letters; ㄱ 'g' +  ㅡ 'u' + ㄹ 'l'.

I can say for sure Korean is more difficult in terms of pronunciation. For example the use of 'ㅂandㄱ.

'ㄱ' or 'ㅋ' is pronounced as 'ㅇ'(ng), when the latter word is started by 'ㄴ,ㄹ,ㅁ'

'ㄱ' is pronounced as 'ㅋ'(K) when the latter started by 'ㅎ',

'ㅂ' is pronounced as 'ㅁ'(m), when the latter started by 'ㅇ', and the latter is a compound word.

'ㅂ' or 'ㅍ' is pronounced as 'ㅁ'(m), when the latter word is started by 'ㄴ,ㄹ,ㅁ'

'ㅂ' is pronounced as 'ㅍ'(p), when the latter started by 'ㅎ

But, you only have to memorize 24 characters. How great does that sound compared to the Japanese writing system which has three alphabets!

Japanese;

The Japanese writing system can be divided into three 'alphabets'

-Hiragana ひらがな

-Katakana　カタカナ

-Kanji 漢字

When I studied Japanese I always explained the Japanese writing system simply like this.

Kanji is based on the Chinese Hanzi characters and is used for nouns. This means every Kanji character has a own meaning and even multiple meanings sometimes. Katakana is used for foreign words adapted in Japanese like ラジオ which is the Japanese word for radio and is pronounced as 'rajio'. Hiragana is used for everything else, for example particles like の.

These three alphabets can be combined  in one sentence. I will give you an example again;

私のラジオ = (watashi no rajio) = My radio

Kanji = 私 (watashi) = I

Hiragana = の (no) = states possesion

Katakana = ラジオ(rajio) = radio

As you can see I used all three alphabets in one sentence. Also 私 means ' I ' but together with の it becomes ' my ' . I think this is what makes the Japanese writing system beautiful but also shows how difficult it can be. 

There are a lot of particles like の and if you don't understand the particles, making sentences can be really difficult.

In comparison to Korean particles I think Japanese has the advantage in easiness. While in Japanese the particle ' は ' is only written as this, in Korean you have to choose between ' 은 ' or ' 는' . For the character ' を ' it can be either ' 을 ' or ' 를' 

Conclusion;

I think they are both equal in terms of difficulty. The downside on Korean is mostly pronunciation and the difficulty of the particles. The upside is you do not have to learn any Chinese characters. Many people say you can master Hangul in a week, I only agree to this concerning the writing part for the pronunciation you need a lot more time.

Then the downside to Japanese is of course learning all the Kanji. Again I hear a lot of people who say the Japanese pronunciation is really easy. I also read this everywhere and I really have to disagree. One of the things I thought was really important while learning Japanese was perfecting my pronunciation. I have seen so many people who studied Japanese for many years and even if you blindfolded me I could hear their pronunciation was not good.

You should not take both of them lightly but it's very rewarding speaking either one of these languages.

I wish you a lot of luck.

~Mei mei

Studying different languages at the same time

Learning two languages at the same time can be amazing but also confusing. At college I study English, German and Spanish while in my spare time I study Japanese and Mandarin. People often ask me if I get confused between these languages. While the answer is yes, I still can differentiate between all of them and I will give some pointers on how to learn different languages at the same time.

While you're studying at college you often study different languages at the same time. Why aren't we getting confused in college then? It is because they separate the classes. You spend one hour completely focused on one language, do something else and then they give you one hour again to focus on something different again. You can apply this method out of the classroom too. You can listen to Chinese music while driving to work, make your grocery lists in German and read a book in French.
The key to this is to keep everything separated and make a routine out of it. But, if you are listening to Chinese music while driving to work you must only listen to Chinese music. That way your brain is able to get used to different languages and you have less chance to mix words up.
In my daily life I speak Dutch with my classmates, English at work, German with my father, Japanese with friends and Spanish in the classroom.
As for the amount of languages, I think you should stick with a maximum of two languages at the time. Also choose two languages that are not similar to each other so they don't overlap in the process of studying.
Remember that time is a luxury and haste is the worst enemy of quality.

I hope this will help you.

~Mei mei

How to find native speakers to help you improve your skills

If you want to take your new language to a whole new level you should surround  yourself with your new language as much as possible. The best way to do this is to have a native speaker by your side. A native speaker can correct you, help you with pronunciation etc. The possibilities are endless. But if you live a 100 miles apart how do you find one? Since we live in the 21st century there are a lot of options. On the internet you have a lot of nice websites where you can start connecting with people from the other side of the world. I will introduce two of them in this post.

Interpals
Link; http://www.interpals.net/index.php
My profile; http://www.interpals.net/Meimeisensei

Interpals was actually one of the first language exchanging sites that I found when I started studying Japanese. (So I also had to remove the dust from my profile before writing about it). Interpals is a website that lets you make your own profile. You can fill in which languages you speak (and what kind of level you are) and you can fill in which languages you want to learn. You can also update your profile with all kinds of personal information like your favorite books, movies, quotes etc.

Then you have the option to search for friends. You can select the boxes for your preferences. You can search by continent, country and language. After that you can also select what kind of contact you want; language exchange, email penpals and several other options. You can send people messages to get in contact with them. Then you can choose yourself how you would like to exchange information.

Personally I really like Interpals because of the many options. You can just look for a casual friendship with a person from a foreign country or find someone which you spend your time with studying together. I think that is something that makes Interpals very versatile.

Lang-8
Link; http://lang-8.com/
My profile; http://lang-8.com/713828

Lang-8 is a new site which I recently discovered. I was searching a topic in Japanese on Google and accidentally stumbled upon Lang-8. I'm very excited to share this site because I have very high expectations of it. I just started with Lang-8 but so far I'm very pleased with what I see. Lang-8 is a website where you can make a profile just like Interpals. The major the difference is, you can post a journal in the language you are learning and it will appear directly to native speakers. The native speakers can correct it and give you tips so you can improve your skills. Also you can correct the journals of others to help them and earn points. The more points you earn more people will view your journals. I really like Lang-8. You can perfect your own language, improve the language you are learning and make new friends worldwide. Also the layout of Lang-8 is really convenient en clear.

It would be very nice if you would add me on one of these pages so we can study together. I would love to hear your thoughts one either of them.

~Mei Mei

Read 300x faster; Speed reading

How amazing would it be if you can read 300 times faster then usual. It would save you a lot of time, and you would be able to go over a lot more information in less time then you would normally need.

1. How to focus better
You can easily increase your focus with trackers and pacers. Use a pen or your finger tip to guide your eyes along the lines. This will prevent you from re-reading which makes it faster to go to the next line. Hold your pen flat against your book and underline each line keeping your vision right above the tip of the pen. The pen will serve as a tracker as well as a pacer, maintaining your concentration and speed so you don't get distracted and prevent you from staring.
Don't be concerned about actually understanding what you are reading and make sure you don't take longer than a second for one line.
Repeat this technique while increasing the speed. Maintaining this high speed will help you to get used to it and train your perceptual reflexes. Keep focusing on the exercise and try not to be distracted.

2. Perceptual expansion
This actually means reading 3 words while looking at one word. If you look at the center of the computer screen you will still perceive the sides. Training peripheral vision to register more effectively can increase reading speed by 300%. To give you an idea I use this line; ' I enjoy studying Japanese as much as I enjoy studying Korean.' If you were able to start at 'Japanese' and finish at 'studying' you eliminated 6 of the 11 words, which is more than double the normal speed. This concept is easy to combine with the trackers and pacers from point 1.

I hope this will help you!

~Mei Mei

How to start learning a foreign language top #3 tips

This will be a short introduction into the basics of learning a language.

1. Set a goal

Setting a goal is very important while learning a new language. What do you actually want to learn? Do you just want to say 'hi' and order a meal in a Japanese restaurant or do you want to understand your favorite Japanese movie? If you go for the first one, you only have to learn some grammar and the vocabulary of words you are using in the restaurant. For the second one, you have to dig deeper into grammar and learn more vocabulary.

2. Consistency

Learning a language can be simply compared to losing weight. If you don't eat healthy and ignore your workout schedule nothing will change. This is somehow the same as learning a language; if you don't study and don't practice you will learn nothing. Start with infusing your new language into your daily life. Spend 30 minutes per day for studying and have a rest day on Sunday. Listen to music in your new language and look at the lyrics. Watch movies and listen concentrated while reading the subtitles. Make grocery lists and count numbers all in your new language. Think about when you want to reach your goal and make a schedule. Be pro-active and stay consistent.

3. Maintaining

This is one of the hardest things to do. Maintaining the new language. If you don't know someone who speaks the language you learn, find a language buddy online so you can practice. The best thing to do is write everything you learn down. You will buy a lot of books, find a lot of online information and hear a lot of new things. It is obvious that you can't remember everything straight away so write everything down in your own ' language book'. Go trough the book every week and try to remember everything little by little. And if you are ready for it, combine tip #1 and #2 to set a new goal so you can challenge yourself.

I hope this will help you!

~Mei mei