The Language Learning Notebook

A big factor in language learning is motivation. In the past, I have often studied a language for a few weeks, then fell off when I became too busy, only to pick it up again in a few months.

One low-tech way I have used to motivate myself and become more consistent was the creation of a language learning notebook at the start of January 2018. I initially was inspired by a number of articles I read on language learning notebooks, such as “The Miraculous Benefits of Keeping a Language Notebook” and “How To Organize a Foreign Language Notebook in 8 Simple Steps.”

I wanted to create a multi-faceted way to study a language; I also wanted to avoid the disorganized, scattered notebooks that I often kept for college or high school classes in the past. I created six sections of the notebook:

Section I: Vocabulary

I created mind maps of groups of new words as I learned them from watching TV shows on Netflix or from listening to podcasts. Here are the groups of vocabulary I created:

• -ar verbs
• -er verbs
• -ir verbs
• abstract nouns