springtime blues

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This week I found it strangely a little difficult to motivate myself. It was one of those weeks where having Omuzannyo was actually exactly what I needed - if I hadn't had my goal of 80, I have a feeling I would've done a lot less work. But thankfully that little number pushed me on and I put in the time.

(Incidentally, I have no idea why my motivation slumped this week - I think it's something about being tired after Day in Africa and the realization of a whole bunch of other things I need to do before the end of the semester. That, plus a little bit of wanting to be outside when possible, equates to the kind of springtime blues I feel is pretty typical within a university setting!)

Here's the outline of the week:
Monday: Lesson with Simon, 100 Quizlet words
Tuesday: 15 minutes watching news videos, 30 minutes lesson work
Wednesday: 100 Quizlet words, 30 minutes lesson work
Thursday: 15 minutes deep listening, 1 newspaper translation, 100 Quizlet words
Friday: Lesson with Simon
Saturday: Extensive texting with a friend, read 1 newspaper article
Sunday: 15 minutes watching news videos, 30 minutes lesson work, created one new web page, 1 newspaper translation, 1 hour radio, 100 Quizlet words

I wouldn't say I should win any awards with my efforts this week (clearly I had to put in a lot of time on Sunday to make up for the rest of the week!), but I did get through a decent number of activities. Again, I'll say that I'm noticing that my reading skills are advancing the most. Newspaper articles that I would've struggled with over the summer or even last semester are feeling increasingly easy for me to read. I am getting a little bit more out of my listening and video-watching as well - though of course not nearly as much as I'd like!

Finally, I wanted to share one little thing I've been doing that I've been enjoying. On Quizlet, you can choose whether to study your cards English--Luganda or Luganda--English. I have a tough time reminding myself to switch direction so that I get practice in both ways. But recently, I set my phone to the reverse setting of what I do on my computer, and so when I am doing my vocabulary work on my phone, I do things in the opposite direction. Since I use both devices pretty regularly for Quizlet, I'm getting a good amount of practice each way, and I am finding that this is really helping me learn new words. So, this is just a little pro-tip to remember to switch up the direction of your vocab work, if you don't already!


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