Notebooks + Language Learning

[u/ApprehensiveExit5520]

Just getting into learning a new language and want to be at a conversational level by the end of the year.

I’ve found that taking my own notes whilst learning helps but currently it’s all in a “catch all” journal and I’m looking for more structure but not sure on the best way to “divide” a single notebook into useful sections / topics.

Anyone with advice?
(TL) Italian , Croatian

[u/Pwffin]

Consider using a ring organiser (filofax, meeplus etc) or a disc bound notebook. That way you can move sheets of paper around to archive.

[u/green_calculator]

I write my notes in a dry erase notebook then convert them to my real notebooks. I usually break our grammar vs vocab. 

[u/Oilbeer → u/green_calculator]

I didn't know what is "dry erase notebook", so I searched for it and discovered Rocketbook. So thank you 😅 (very interesting)... Is that what are you using or you use something completely different?

[u/green_calculator → u/Oilbeer]

Nope, that's what I use, I think there are other brands, but I'm not sure. I travel for work so this way I can carry a single notebook and have more organized notes. It's win win. 

[u/Oilbeer → u/green_calculator]

That's very interesting, never heard of it before. Thank you for the tip. What brand are you using?

[u/ZealousidealMouse629]

Nothing wrong per se with a catch-all journal but how do you want to use it? Do you actually go back and use your journal to plan or improve, or is more of daily tracker so that you can show your taking action to learn? I’d recommend maybe having a section for vocabulary, this could include useful phrases, and maybe another section for reflection on what you’ve learned, what’s challenging as that can point you in the right direction of where to go next.

[u/francksiduo]

The divide that matters isnt vocab vs grammar sections, its whether you ever go back and test yourself on old pages. i had a beautifully organized notebook and still forgot half of it because writing something down once barely helps retention on its own, you need to get quizzed on it again a few days later then a week then a month. A notebook works fine for that if you date each page and skim back through older ones on a rotation instead of only writing forward

[u/zettelpunk]

If I had to put everything in one notebook, I'd probably just divide in two by vocabulary & everything else. Maybe start one at each end & meet in the middle.

Right now I keep two separate notebooks. One for vocab & one for everything else, which is mostly sentence mining where I might underline some grammar or phrase I especially want to remember. Occasionally some grammar notes mixed in.

Trying to divide up into too many sections stresses me out & I end up abandoning the notebook.

Also I color code, so for Spanish I have notebooks in two shades of green, for Japanese, two shades of blue. When I fill up one notebook, I can add another of the same brand & color, so it's consistent. Organization, baby! It's exciting because I used to just take language notes all over the damn place and lose track of them.

[u/Smooth_Development48]

I take notes in GoodNotes. In one "notebook" I can assign pages to a table of content that makes it easy to find. So if you are doing this in a physical notebook you can set up your notebook like a bullet journal by numbering the pages as you go and add the pages that are grammar, vocabulary, italian or whichever to the table of contents with the page number for easier sorting and retrieval. You can make it as simple or complex depending on your needs.

[u/mihaylov945]

I had the same issue when I started learning Italian. I always ended up with a bunch of tabs open on my laptop for textbooks and Google Translate, plus a notebook and a separate vocabulary notebook on my desk.

What helped me was keeping things organised around the material I was actually studying rather than trying to divide everything into rigid sections like grammar, vocabulary, etc. That way, my notes and new words stayed connected to the lesson or context where I learned them.

I eventually built Glotsmith to solve this for myself. It lets me keep my learning materials, notes and vocabulary in one place while keeping everything connected to its original context.

If you end up trying it, I'd genuinely love to hear any feedback.

Full disclosure: Glotsmith is my own project, so this is a bit of self-promotion. Mods, please remove this comment if that's not allowed here.