Color-coding and Meticulous Note-taking

Methods and Learning
#1

Hi, everyone!

Just wanted to ask who here still take notes by hand when learning languages? I’ve tried typing them on my laptop and/or iPad, but unfortunately, I don’t seem to retain as much information.

In my case, as a more visual-spatial learner, I still meticulously take notes by hand and color-code them. It especially helps with agglutinative languages and languages with cases. I tried using just one color before when taking down notes, and I found it extremely difficult to concentrate on my studies and retain information. With colors, I can group the words into their respective lexical categories or emphasize a few points and understand everything in a few seconds.

Attached here are some of my notes. Anyone here employs a similar method? I’d love to hear your tips and suggestions.

PS: I also meticulously analyze song lyrics and excerpts from books (especially “The Little Prince”).

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11 Likes
#2

Glad I’m not the only one! I tried typing my notes out as well but didn’t really worked. I remember better when writing by hand. I color my notes using my own color code system like different conjugations of a word, vocabulary, grammar and particles. But once I pass the intermediate stage, I tend to not color code and just use colors for the sake of making my notes look good.

4 Likes
#3

I don’t actually take notes by hand, but I do written tests by hand on a regular basis – like, I look at sentences in my native language on the screen and write them on a sheet of paper in the target language, and then check the correct answers and rewrite with red the ones I got wrong. Or I would conjugate a verb on a sheet of paper and then compare it with the conjugation table in the computer. And I write language cards by hand, of course.

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#4

:heart_eyes: :heart_eyes: :heart_eyes:

1 Like
#5

I still color code my notes way up until the advanced stages, but I implement a different system. For example, I color code the 한자 in my Korean notes. I memorize Sino-Korean vocabulary better with the corresponding 한자 in different colors.

2 Likes
#6

Hello MarkOng,

I agree that typed notes do not work as well as hand-written ones, even if I type them in different colours!

I used colour-coding effectively when I studied German that has male, female and neutral nouns eg I used red for male nouns, green for female nouns, black for neutral nouns. Blue was used for the verbs. This system worked well, because in exams I could visualize the different words in colour and know their gender.

Greetings from South Africa.

3 Likes
#7

I actually also use a similar method. I still write my answers to a practice/mock test or reviewer by hand on a separate piece of paper or another notebook. I also take note of my common mistakes and some newly-learned information and add more bullet points for clarification, color-coded of course.

5 Likes
#8

I get what you mean! I am doing the same for Vietnamese and Japanese

2 Likes
#9

Hi Susan!

I also use the same method for my German, which I just recently started. Honestly, without colors, Das, Die, Der, Den, and Dem would just be jumping all over the place evading capture. I color code my cases because that’s where I need to focus on more.

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#10

I have used color-coding to help remember the gender of words. In school, we had to use pink ink for feminine nouns and green ink for masculine nouns (since blue and black ink are so common, the green stands out more in the memory) in the beginners’ foreign language classes. Granted, these colors are outdated stereotypes for female and male, but whatever, because it worked well so I don’t care. This color association is so strongly ingrained in my head that I still use it. I can occasionally still envision a word in my head as being written in either pink or green, even if I learned the word about twenty years ago. I would not have anticipated that strong of a retention.

5 Likes
#11

Yo voy a todas partes con mi boli de cuatro colores y lapiz (tengo unos cuantos). Cuando leo algo subrayo en azul las palabras que quiero buscar más tarde; si después no las encuentro o sigo teniendo dudas las rodeo en rojo para buscar quién me pueda ayudar o investigar más cuanto tenga más tiempo. Al hacer ejercicios uso el azul y para corregir el verde. El negro lo dejo para cuando hay algo mal en el texto que tenga que corregir. Apunto pocas traducciones, pero si lo hago uso el lapiz y si lo estoy haciendo con el ordenador, pues el gris.

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#12

マークさんの日本語、字がめっちゃきれいですね！（関係ないコメントですいませんが…）

2 Likes
#13

I am the same way! I have to have colors involved and I find this way of organizing very effective in categorizing my thoughts on paper.

Your notes are meticulous!

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#14

Hey Mark!

I just wanted to copy here a link on the topic of how to make homemade labneh. If you have questions, let me know :slight_smile:

This guides you through the steps of how to make yogurt out of milk, and then how to strain the yogurt to get to the labneh.

Always use whole-fat milk and whole-fat yogurt, and the straining process ideally should be done over night. Normally, I put 1 cup of yogurt for every gallon of milk, which feeds four people, for at least a week btw.

The final consistency should be a bit looser than that of creamcheese. And don’t forget to put a cup or two of yogurt aside for the next time you are making labneh :smiley:

Hope that helps!
Zeina

BTW I like this link better than the one I shared earlier in the chat. The end product looks better and more successful.

2 Likes
#16

This sounds delicious, but I just imagined doing this in my kitchen with two cats… And leaving the labneh out to drain for 2-3 days :rofl::rofl: I think there won’t be much left after that time, left alone some hours during the day with two cats :see_no_evil::see_no_evil:

1 Like
#17

Rina, you can strain it in the fridge if you have room. :blush: You can put the cloth full of yogurt in a big strainer and fit the strainer in a bigger bowl.

Just be sure to check it out often - every hour or so - and manually squeeze out the liquid or what is known by Whey. :hugs::hugs:

Zeina

1 Like
#18

Ahhh thank you, I will try that :slight_smile:

1 Like