My daily study

Humans are not machines. A machine can "remember" the definition of a word with or without a context, but only in a context can we humans learn a language or even just the vocabulary. Except for some words, we can't fully learn a word unless we encounter it in a meaningful passage or article. Etymology or mnemonics for the learners who like to analyze words, and flashcards for those that don't, help us remember the words. But only the rich context in which the words occur helps us grasp the nuances and solidify our memory of the words.

Every day, I spend some time reading a few news feeds in various languages, and readers' comments if the news sounds interesting. For some years, I'm a subscriber to these feeds on Facebook:

le Figaro (in French)
el País (in Spanish)
der Spiegel (in German)
Corriere della sera (in Italian)
[footnote]

The Facebook website or cell phone app has a problem that you can't copy part of the message text on screen. (The problem was worse before; you could not copy the text at all.) So you can't use a translator such as Google Translate to translate just the text you want. To solve this problem, I found and installed one specific version of a web browser, Opera Mini Version 14 for Android. The version has to be 14, not 12, not 16 (there's no odd-number version). And I have to set "Don't auto-update apps" in Google Play Store. Then I can copy the text I'd like to check and click the popup bubble of Google Translate. [Update 2024-11]

New words or the words I'm rusty on are looked up on Wiktionary, and the browser tabs for these web pages are left in there for one or a few days, depending on whether the words are committed to my memory. When I read a Wiktionary page, I always read its Etymology section, sometimes that on its alternative language pages.

Reading the news feeds, or readers' comments, or occasionally full articles, is one way to learn new words or expressions and review what I already learned. When I see a new word, or a word I barely remember, I always check its etymology to help me remember it. I do this study multiple times a day, a few to 10, at most 20 minutes, at a time. This strategy fits my need very well as it doesn't put pressure on my study. After all, I have a full time job. Learning languages is just my hobby.

Occasionally, I read articles on other web sites, such as Nonfiction.fr (Le quotidien des liveres et des idées), Pijamasurf.com (Noticias e Información alternativa), or language learning online forums such as forum.wordreference.com (mostly discussions about vocabulary), Language-Learners.org (language in general), and Facebook Linguistics group, Polyglots group.

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[footnote] After I visited Peru in late 2019, I also subscribed to Diario El Peruano (in Spanish)

[Update 2023-01] My Android phone was forced to upgrade. After that, Opera Mini 14 often stops responding. After some research, I decide to give up and uninstall it. Fortunately, Chrome for Android works just as well, as long as I disable Javascript in Settings->Site Settings. Safari for iPhones may work as well if you disable Javascript in Settings.

[Update 2024-11] Some time in the latter half of October 2024, Facebook or Meta completely blocked access from this version of opera on cell phone. Now if I still want to copy partial text of a message on Facebook, I have to change the browser to Desktop mode (Via browser has this option). What a technological reaction!