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

Introduction to my blog

An introduction / explanation to my blog;

Welcome and thank you for visiting my blog!
On this blog I will share the experience I gain from studying different languages and cultures.
As for my self, I grew up with my father who is partly Chinese and partly Malay. As he truly loves the Chinese culture and food, he taught me a lot about his culture as I lived together with him for over six years. In times when my father was very busy I had a lot of hobbies to keep myself entertained. One of them was learning languages. I started learning Japanese a couple years a go when I wanted to use my spare time to learn something useful. Since my father rather wanted me to learn Chinese I studied Japanese in silence. A few years ago I got an amazing opportunity to work in a 5-Star Japanese hotel for half a year. Of course I had an amazing time there and my Japanese skills were put to the test. I perfected things in my pronunciation and got to practice a lot.
In the same area there is a Korean school, which was of course too interesting to stay away from. I studied Korean on the side for half a year as well and got a fairly good introduction into the language.
Now my head is full of Asian languages (and some Western I learned on the way as well) I'm really interested in learning the similarities but also the contradictions between several languages.

On this blog I can give you some tips and share some of my experiences while I'm on my Journey. I hope you enjoy reading it.