I’d try Spirit City: Lofi Sessions, Ithya: Magic Studies and Chill With You Lo-Fi Story in waves and not altogether. There’s probably a whole other bunch of software out there on Steam that’s similar but different, but these are the only ones I’ve managed to try fully.

The software on Linux is a bit buggy, the sounds on my machine go f-ways when I run Chill With You Lo-Fi Story, but only switched today so it’s possible it’s a me-issue.

Also the free route is still an option if you’re okay with using just youtube videos, the Lofi Girl channel has a pomodoro lofi video that I used to use before getting into the software side. I bought a bunch of these knowing I could just get free pomodoro tools elsewhere because I wanted the extra comfort/coziness that the games/apps provide.

Like for instance, this Lo-Fi Story game has the worst set of tools for studying compared to the other 2, but I’m still using it more because of the plot built into the game. And I guess the gated unlocks also keeps me going.

There was a Black Friday sale on not too long ago which is why I picked up the latest one, but the Winter Sale should be on soon if you’d rather wait to buy them then. They’re quite cheap at around 7 euro each (roughly) when on sale.

Doing an hour of Japanese (30 min study/vocab, 30 min listening practise), hour of Spanish (30 min study/vocab, 30 min listening practise), hour of Irish (full study), 30+ mins of maths and reading at least a chapter of a random book a day.

Sometimes I get really pooped though and can only manage 30 mins of JP then 30 mins of SP.

I woke up not too long ago but my spoons are already depleted from switching operating systems due to Windows constantly fucking with me, so there’s that.

Also have new study software from Steam, called “Chill With You Lo-Fi Story”, it’s not better for studying than Spirit City Lofi Sessions, but it has a story that progresses with more study, so I’m sticking with it for now until I can see the end of this girls journey.

Was feeling awful, but pushed myself to study! Glad I did.

I studied Japanese for around 2 to 2 and a half hours. Spanish for an hour. Maths for 20ish minutes. About 15 minutes of Irish. 23 Minutes of exercising (pushed much more than I usually do too), and am going to crash and burn in about 5 mins.

Recovered the day! I need to learn to deal with stress like this more.

Well done! You’re making me want to retry Spanish with the GF, I might try it once she wakes up later.

Been pushing hour long study sessions in to my Japanese as well as my Spanish and also doing 10-25 mins of maths a day, as well as exercising (cycling) for 20 mins a day all week. Been having a very hard day just today though and not sure I can make it today, but I’ll certainly try to.

… Also feel guilty about my Irish lately, it feels like out of all languages I should be learning, Irish should be one of them. I felt so guilty that I managed to make a few flashcards in Irish using one of those Irish dictionaries. But lord knows if it’ll actually go anywhere. It’s hard enough to muster the strength to do an hour in Japanese, let alone an hour in Spanish, let alone the other stuff too. But not learning Irish still kills me at times. In part because people keep saying how terrible Duolingo ends up being but the Duolingo Irish learners are still leagues ahead of me too. I’m Irish, born and lived here my whole life, yet can’t speak a word of it. I feel like I’m sort of a disgrace.

I often find that when days are good, the best I can feel is when I’m studying. But days where it’s hard, I can’t study to relax, and I can’t find other ways to relax besides studying, my mind is constantly racing, and I can’t watch or play anything and I enter this phase where I’m constantly trying to do something but ruminate on the bad instead, then have to disengage with the distractions since it’s not distracting enough.

So that’s been at me today again. Really wishing I had a different brain, I get so panicky like today for the dumbest of reasons and I was doing really good up until now too. I’ll try study after this post, and then if today is successful, I’ll post a small update of how the day went. I think today is just a day where I need to rough it out and learn how to rough it out.

Sorry for the wall of text.

Hopefully a good update soon.

The first genuine time I tried to speak Spanish with my GF she outright refused to speak back to me in Spanish, no hangups with her, she just didn’t engage me with it and instead spoke English. That was also a downer for me, but at the same time I realized I could say a basic few words despite never doing it before, so at least that was a positive.

Progress recently, scraped by quite a few days, doing bare minimum, due to various factors like stress and illness and more stress. Only today was I able to study the full 30 mins in Japanese and Spanish. Still not over the hurdles life threw at me save the sickness, but at least I’m on the horse again for now. Or at least today. No idea what tomorrow might throw at me, so hoping for something less serious.

Today managed to be with the GF a fair amount too, managed to do a full 180 flashcards on MaruMori and still have another 20 to go. Then I spent a while on Duolingo and Migaku for Spanish. I’ve completed both languages at 30 mins a piece, but still don’t feel satisfied. Also to add, I still have yet to finish the last of the N5 off, so should probably aim to do a few more of those before pushing for other stuff on the Japanese front. Down to about 15 cards now, but I tend to do 10 cards a day based on N5 then 10 cards on a random assortment of N4,N3,N2,N1 levels jointly together.

Might end up going back to Dreaming in Spanish later, as well as that Japanese site for videos… cijapanese, that’s the site.
Otherwise I guess I could dive into Irish again, but I’d feel easier just focusing on these 2 languages for now, as I’m still trying to get into the swing of things again. I was doing so well for months then life happens, I guess that’s just life. Still. Such a bummer.

Anyway, back to the grind.

Completely cratered one day, then the next I got sick, so there’s been a trickle of study ongoing instead of a flow. The last 2 days I’ve really come back on track though, more so than I usually recover. Already doing hours worth of study as soon as I wake up, but I think in part it’s due to the study sessions I have with my GF, we both don’t talk and just study on our prospective projects, and it’s working out quite well.

Spanish I’m using Migaku these days, but I feel it’s also not the best, since the courses you can take from it is like… Learn creatures or colours, and a lot of these words just seem like words I’d hardly use in English let alone Spanish. But I do them so I have something to do. I might end up using the Migaku addon and switch to Vivaldi to use it, and just pick up words from YouTube or Netflix and the like and add it to my manual Spanish lessons that way.

Japanese haven’t really done anything too strange. Doing a bit more Busuu courses these days compared to what I usually do, that goes for Spanish Busuu courses too. Again Busuu helps clear up some concepts that Duolingo left for dead in obscure tips sections. Edit: also, just remembered. I’m about 30 words off of finishing the complete N5 word list, so that’s about either 6-14 days of study, depending. So that’ll be a milestone.

Still however not happy with what course selections I have for Spanish, despite mixing a weave of Duolingo, Busuu and Migaku. Might end up just getting a physical textbook and reading through it to make it feel like I have a more complete understanding.

Still keeping up with the maths, but only managing 15 mins a day, which is more than enough for just starting I think. Plan on ramping up maths at some point in the future to a whole hour a day but probably not for a good few months still.

Will probably touch the Irish again in a short while today. Managed to clear a lot of todays logs so have more time now. Also plan on exercising later too, I’ve also picked that up recently as well.

The cold weather is very nice, it’s actually a motivator for study. I get to keep warm from the cold and study and drink tea and it’s a very relaxing experience.

Doing my 30 mins a day on Spanish and Japanese. Doing more on Migaku these days for my Spanish, not sure if it’s helping as much as something like MM flashcards, but I guess it’s decent enough. Yesterday was actually pretty hectic for me, didn’t get to do the full workload yesterday, but I am noticing I am doing more maths again. So there’s that. Watching some Japanese videos too, an odd day I get an hour of Japanese instead of 30 mins, with 30 mins just being listening practice. Hard to say the same for my Spanish. And haven’t touched my Irish for over a month at this point, (I assume).

My GF is planning for a no-gaming day that we both do at the same time, so we can focus on things we need to do more. She’s decided on it being a Tuesday. So from now on we’re going to try stop gaming on the Tuesday, however the caveat there is I still will run Spirit City: Lofi Sessions, since it counts as a game on Steam, but it’s a tool I use everyday to help me study. Even having it in the background playing lofi music ends up encouraging me to study more, since I equate lofi with study these days. So just having it on gently in the background is a motivator for me through the day. So things like that where apps act as games but are really study/productive tools we can get to use. I normally use Minecraft for my journaling, since in the game I want to build a functioning library and want to have actual books for it, so I can log on Minecraft at the end of the day to journal then close out of it, so that’s another thing.

Sleep has been massively negatively affected, and I still feel far from on the horse, but at least I’m not entrenched in the mud completely.

Grammar is always a pain point. Been doing Japanese for a few years now, but I always mix up things like no, ni and he (not all with each other), nvm ha and ga.

Late to this weeks entry, but my study is going okay. Few days full hour each, few days just doing 5 mins. Been more on the 30 minute mark though. Maths suffered greatly, and this week has just been hectic and had really bad news a while back, so not in the greatest of spirits. Still, managing to do a bit in each day. I actually put off new lessons for my Japanese and just did reviews the whole time, some days the pile still surpasses 100 despite giving it my all each day. I guess it’s just like that at times.

Doing new lessons for Spanish using Migaku, new app to me, but most of those words I already knew, or could tell due to similar sounds to English. Elephant and Giraffe and others are all very similar. My GF’s native language is Spanish, so sometimes she ends up saying words like these but in Spanish, so I know what she’s saying, and I now totally understand the confusion. There’s a lot of words out there that need more attention than just knowing what it looks like but being able to pronounce them. It’ll be many years before I can manage my Spanish as well as she manages her English. Also, she’s keen on picking up Japanese too, so we might both go a combined Duolingo/MaruMori/Busuu route, along with other resources.

Now if I could also just convince her to join me in my future Lojban and Irish studies…

Sorry to hear, energy levels are still hard to get right despite maturing/aging, it’s one of those things you can’t really ever get right 100% of the time, even up till your 70s. Hope you feel well enough to start again soon.

A good teacher can make a huge difference in your life. I had okay teachers but none of them made me go mad for learning like I am now for languages and such. I think some random person on IRC did that and I don’t even know their name anymore.

You get that study high after a good day, it’s very worthwhile just for that, lol.

Honestly, I think one thing nailing me down lately is sleep. As soon as I get on track of that, and end up being less tired in the day, I’ll be able for more. Body needs adjusting.

Did a 50 minute lesson of math yesterday, I’m enjoying maths more than I have done when I was in school. The test I did the other day, I’d use to crack down and melt from anxiety in attempting tests years ago. But that’s becoming less and less of an issue the more I expose myself to questions and tests, the less the punch they have. Still not over the fear fully yet, but doing a lot better. Also mind, I’m pushing myself into this direction too, with no other assistance from anyone else so the climb is going to be harder. But more worth it in the end I hope.

There’s books with audio, but I lost my credentials to download them again, so all I have is the book. Also it doesn’t come with any workbook, and the online resources for the book cost a lot per month. I’d probably pay for that in the next coming while, once I settle into more of a deeper and more structured routine. Again Irish is the hardest for me to get into, so again, waiting until I’m more prepared to chew into it.

The grammar is a bit more hand-holdy and ordered in a way that’s a lot easier to digest. They have SRS for grammar, as well as specific grammar drills, games, base vocab SRS and achievements and yearly wrap ups. Basically you are getting multiple language features for the price of a single app. Things like WaniKani are good, but you pay for a certain amount that MaruMori covers and that and then some. So value wise it already beats out WK, and tons of people love WK for it’s SRS. It’s basically best value where you get most other app features in a centralized app. It’s not perfect, but it just has a lot of value baked in that’s hard to find elsewhere. I think Renshu is the nearest thing, and even then the grammar lessons on that are somewhat lacking by comparison.

I use paid services more often than not, I’d love to learn without having to pay, but if a service is good I’ll use it. The only language I can even think of to learn for free would be Lojban, and that’s because it’s so niche there’s literally no demand for it, so there’s no products for it. Maybe after a next language cycle when I feel I’m just going to maintain my already learnt languages, I’ll cruise on into Lojbanistan.

I’m not sure how I am these days. I mean I’m studying, but I don’t feel like I’m doing enough still. Mind, I’ve been only doing 30 minutes a day of Japanese and 30 mins of Spanish, so it’s not my usual hour each, which is probably why it doesn’t feel as fleshed out as I want. I’m sort of not exactly in the right spirits where I can feel like I’m on top of things yet, despite the efforts.

Also, really happy I’m managing the 30 minutes of maths. I had a test today and 70% passed it, with 3 of the questions I had no idea what they were talking about, so I’ll take what I get.

Next to this, still haven’t touched my Irish. Again it’s sort of hard to start it when what you are given are very meager learning tools for the language. Books only work so well without the spoken word, and apps that do spoken word, have terrible learning practices, so it’s bad on both ends. I keep ranting about this because it’s constantly a source of contention for me. I learn Japanese on MaruMori, the SRS they have on that app makes all the other apps I’ve used be put to shame, including Anki. I seriously wish there was more out there like MM but for other languages. Literally feel so spoilt using this for Japanese. It’s not perfect still, definitely way not enough practice lessons for grammar and such. And their streak system is very unforgiving. But somehow I’ve only missed a single day in the past 340+ days, so I have that going for me.

I’m hyped to learn more, it’s just, when push comes to shove, it’s hard to have the energy in me to do more, I guess? It’s hard knowing what my problem is exactly. Just off I guess.

I thought I heard something about this too not too long ago. I might keep my head up and look for something feasible. I’d love if they released a Pokemon Blue in Irish. Doubt that exists though. Maybe though.

Never knew about this, but I’ll probably only stick with the singular account for now. I follow a few zines, and most of them for languages are sorta dead, so no idea how much traction those smaller communities would take up and how dispersed I’d be with multiple accounts.

Cheers for the advice though.

I never thought to make a post about Irish or the like, but I might at some point. It’s just I feel inadequate to start talking about it just yet, so early in my Irish learning journey. Also on the other both ends, there’s Japanese and Spanish too, but I also haven’t seen much threads on those here yet either. I like Lemmy, but I guess it could use more activity. I’ll see if I can post anything sometime soon then, to see if I can get the ball rolling.

I appreciate you posting these threads however, they’re nice.

Good luck on rejigging the sleep, it takes a fair amount of effort to just go to bed on time, especially so if you just want to stay up and do more since you’re on a roll or something.

More on the ball but still not on the horse. Studying my Japanese and Spanish a lot more. Still have my Irish untouched, but also doing a bit more math again, so there’s that. What happens is I do studies at random times throughout the day, and if I’m waiting on someone for something I just study until they’re ready. So when I’m on Warcraft waiting for my friend to tuck in his kids, I’m studying Spanish for about 15-45 mins. Or if my girlfriend is just out to the shops, I might do a few mins of Japanese, or the like.

Maths is still by far the hardest to get back into. There’s a lot of instilled perfectionism from schooling that I have yet to get over. I do honestly like maths, but it’s also the most taxing. So the Irish would be a lot easier to get into than my maths.

Also sort of put off my Irish due to me hating Rosetta Stone, and the Duolingo Irish is sorta ass. There’s a new app called Sionnach that I found, but it’s in very early Alpha, so it sort of lacks a lot of content. Feel sort of clueless as how I’m supposed to learn on it either. Just has me spell out sentences without going into grammar or phonetics, but it could just be a me issue.

I still don’t feel on the horse yet, but I feel at least forcing myself to study, on the down periods of the day, is helping. Also helps that I’ve been having better sleep hygiene recently, as well as taking vitamin D pills, so mood is also somewhat up too.

Still struggling to get on the horse again. Been somewhat mired in a depressive episode, so it’s hard getting the motivation to do anything, even play video games. Still managing to do the 5 mins or so a day on each language to keep the streak alive, but my hearts not really in anything at the moment.

Genuinely have no idea why I’m so down these days either. Nothings really changed.

In other news the new Duocon was on, and it was going on about removing the AI tools and such and that’s sorta cool they did the uptake on removing the AI toolset they were going to implement. Still not exactly keen on Duolingo as a platform, but at least it’s slightly less worse. They’re really pushing for those points being the main metric, and honestly, hearing that 130 is the go to for employability at least helps give me a target to aim for on Duolingo other than just keep a streak. Not that I’m actually trying to find a job in Spanish or Japanese. But setting goals to target is nice, otherwise you get a bit aimless at times. 130 is just a number, and completely arbitrary, but language is already arbitrary enough so more arbitration isn’t going to cause me much of an upset, so I say, why the fuck not just have an arbitrary goal.

It’s roughly 11pm now. So I’ll try and kick into gear a bit more once midnight passes. Just so I’ve done more in my waking period. And it should keep me good for the Friday streak too. The software I use has sort of lost it’s pull, so I think I’m just going to use the older method of just setting up journaling/timers separately to Steam apps. Going to use Obsidian, some random Linux pomodoro timer, and lofi girl music on YouTube. Should be enough to set me going when the next hour starts. I’ll probably look more into timers after this post to get ready, and also mentally prepare myself.

Was doing super well until I wasn’t anymore. Also trying to claw back the workload. Today’s been really difficult too. I think it’s okay to sometimes just survive a while before you can start to bloom. We’ve all been there.

Missed 2 days of Irish, not back to back, but it’s just one day I was having an episode (still did JP/SP), and then the other day I was knocked out for about 22 hours.

Out of all the languages I study, Japanese is the easiest to study, because I can do parts of it every so often, and also do more dedicated longer routines added and the workload is doable. Irish or Spanish has to have studies done all at once, and it’s harder to manage to slot the time around them then. I’m really all for this hourly SRS based learning, really helps motivate me when I think about languages.

Wall of text about study software, be warned:
Next to this, I ended up getting new study software to try out, since I find new wave of software at times boosts the mood for focusing more. “gogh: Focus with Your Avatar” [sic], but it was very obtuse. It has less in the way of managing tasks and timers, and also ended up having a lot more requirements for completing their achievement system. I’m okay with using a study app for 100 hours, but so long as I can study using the timers I prefer, but this app has study with a timer counting down 100 hours, then counting up 100 hours, and there’s tons of nitpicks like that where it felt it was unnecessary fluff. Next to that, it seems to be very poorly optimised. Even when tabbed out to other apps, it would still constantly be at 5% of a Ryzen 9 processor, meanwhile my other study apps are roughly <1% and only sometimes will boost to 2%, which isn’t a problem. gogh, I constantly hear my PC whirr, and the noise is distracting. Also the music lineup tends to be sort of on the otherside of relaxing, which doesn’t help. But yeah, that software didn’t end up helping me lock in like the other 2 things I tried. I’m back to Spirit City again, despite it not having the best time management, just because it has a better atmosphere, and that helps me focus in more.

I plan on making my own software too at some point, but atm I’m swamped.
Also ended up getting a part time job as a volunteer, so will have my focus drift a bit, but still should be able to manage that and the 3 hours of languages. Maths on the otherhand, I need to dive back into the most, and it’s hard jumping into that when it’s hard completing these baseline tasks first.

Wall of text sorry. But yeah, studying is going good so far. Always pumped to do more.

After the hiccup I ended up getting back on the horse somewhat. Pumping a whole hour into Japanese, Spanish and Irish, which was more than what I was doing before. 30 mins of that is immersion/listening practise though so it’s less intense than the more direct study is like. I can’t understand anything in Irish besides a few words, but I’m hoping the early immersion is helping train my ear more for the different sounding words/dialects.

Using TG4 for my Irish immersion, and sadly it’s not available outside Ireland like I thought it’d be. Good resource though, for sure.