This week is yet again going by very fast – it is time to review the work I have done this far. I will also review the plan and possibly make some changes in it as it is now more clear to me how I shall proceed and what I need to work on.
10 h administrative work – Only missing the third counselling session, so I’m about at 9 hours or more in this section.
15 hours of academic reading – Done! I did approximately 7 hours by the first review and after that I’ve been reading another academic book in English about topography and environment. I’ve spent about 15 hours on this book, of which I will use 8 into this course.
10 hours academic writing -> 12 – Done 10 hours, but I will add two more into this as I feel it is something that I want to practice more. I had used up 5 hours of writing before the first review and after that I have surely done these 5 more. Partly it was in the IELTS test (1 hour) and partly in the works of writing an essay about whalesharks.
15 hours support groups + blog -> 10 hours – Previously I wrote I had used about 5 hours of this, I will now deduct the hours even further as I don’t think I will do much of these any more due to issues with timetables. I have also continued on the first support groups and kept on writing blog posts so I would say I’m currently at 7 or 8 hours.
5 hours social learning with friends -> 7 hours – Done 5 hours. I’ve met up with people from various backgrounds and hung out with them playing and chatting. I also had a nice coffee shop visit with a Finnish speaking friend, who agreed to use the time to do some social learning in English. I will also add two more hours to this to chat with my sister and her husband in English, as they are very proficient English users. They study in Oxford and Cambridge so I trust this will be useful for me.
10 hours of reading – I am going a little slow with my book, Shantaram, but I’ve read it for about 4 hours by now. The academic reading during the day takes a little bit of enthusiasm away from other reading hours, I will get better at this.
10 hours of watching related documentaries -> 6 hours – Previously I’ve done four hours of this and after that I’ve spent 2 more with documents – actually a documentary series about the rivers in the world. I think 6 hours is enough as I don’t think my listening skills need exercising any more than this at the moment.
10 hours of learning vocabulary -science and geography especially – I still feel this one is difficult to put into hours, but I keep on focusing on the vocabulary learning when reading, listening or writing. I have kept up with my vocab excel-sheet and will keep on reviewing it. I’ve also used a couple of hours doing vocab tasks online which I include into this section. I think now I’m at about 5 hours.
10 hours of movies and TV (no subtitles) – This one I had already done by the first review and by now I’ve surely double done it.
10 hours of grammar learning tasks – I’ve spent about 3 hours doing grammar learning tasks online. So far my favourite types of tasks are crossword puzzles, but basically I’ve done all types that are flagged as advanced level English tasks.
8 hours of reading news in English – “I have taken a habit of reading main news in English every morning, but it is about 10-20 minutes only daily. I think the 8 hours will be full by the time the next period is over as this is a continuous task.” – This is the bit I wrote in the first review and I will still keep up with this. It is useful too, as now I’m much more aware of different events globally. The most interesting news this far have been about the approval of the Willow project, which I don’t believe is a good way to go. Also Trumps court date is something probably a lot of people are waiting for – next week we shall see.
Right now I am at approximately 80 hours, which is just as I have planned. I am using the hours left in the areas where I feel I most need them; writing, reading, grammar and social learning.