The importance of having options

I think it's important to have a lot of different studying options to hand when you are learning a language, especially in the early stages anyway. It's very easy to get bored with what you're doing quickly, so having a number of different styles of study you can turn to when you get bored with one thing is important.

Today, I've been struggling a bit, I've mentioned this before: if the motivation dwindles it's difficult to get yourself going. But I've been flicking between things tonight, trying to get something done, and I must have accumulated at least one hours worth of useful study I think.

Back when I started studying Japanese three or four years ago, one hour in an evening was a really good achievement, because it meant sat slogging my way through a textbook. Now I have flashcards, podcasts, blogs, music, reading websites, youtube... basically any sort of contact with the language is good in my book now, and I can keep myself interested and occupied. Now one hour is a bad night, which bodes well for my language development over the next few years.