Studying with Eye Strain: Exploring Dictation

As mentioned in previous posts, I have been dealing with eye strain problems for the last few months. Having been recently able to study again, I have had to adapt and find study exercises that will allow my eyes to heal.

One of these adaptations is increased usage of dictation software. This was initially suggested by a friend to help with my carpal tunnel problems. (Yes, it would seem that I’m collecting repetitive strain injuries.) However, I have found that it helps me to be able to write while also not having to look at a screen. I do still need to look at a screen to edit the dictations, but it would appear I can speak faster than I can type. So, I have been able to write a lot more in the past few days than I have in months!

New Exercises – Input

There are two learning exercises that I have tried to use dictation with that I believe I will continue with…

1. Translating via dictation. This isn’t too different from how I would usually translate something. However, since dictation is monolingual as far as I can tell, there are some minor challenges. I have been able to figure out that dictation can parse basic names such as Takashi, but foreign words beyond that won’t register. I might need to develop some “code words” that signal to myself that I will need to edit certain words manually before posting.
2. Dictating summaries as I listen to podcasts. Generating a complete translation of a podcast as I listen to it is already a pain using regular typing methods. Additionally, I have been told that it is more important to understand the broad strokes of what is being said as opposed to understanding 100% of it. Given those ideas, I think that focusing on dictating summaries as I’m listening should make it so I still am translating in some form (but in this way, I’ll take less time).

I have already tried both of these new learning methods, and was able to do something with each earlier today (and the results are already on my daily study blog). I’m pretty confident that this will help me learn more and still stick to what I need to do to to heal my eyes!

New Exercises – Output

I also have considered study methods with dictation that will allow me to output Japanese instead of just input. Specifically, I would like to try and dictate in Japanese as well. I tried it out earlier today, and it seems my pronunciation is good enough to be able to generate the text I intended to.

One challenge I discovered is that instead of being able to take the same amount of time I can with just typing or writing, dictating is closer to speaking in that I need to know the sentence I want to say before I say it. Getting used to this will probably improve my Japanese overall, but it doesn’t give me the chance to really work on a sentence for an amount of time. I have made good strides in my grammar and sentence complexity in the past by being able to have the time to think about it in depth. In time, I think I’ll be able to figure out something that manages to fulfill all these needs.

As for content that I can dictate, I can certainly pick up the daily post that I was doing previously. The main problem I see with this though, is that I was always looking up new words when I was writing them. At the moment, this amount of referencing and I usage may not be sustainable. Instead, I think I will look into writing summaries of a podcast in Japanese, or answering questions posed in a podcast about the subject matter in Japanese. I think this should reduce the amount of times I have to look new things up. Plus, then I don’t need to think of new questions I can ask myself.

Conclusion

Overall, while I wish I didn’t have to make so many affordances, this is definitely giving me a chance to learn some new skills. And honestly, I’m looking forward to improving things I never thought to improve before. I’m looking forward to posting more updates and hopefully being able to say I can return to a few old study methods while still using and refining these. 

Side note: I think my step count is increasing massively due to how much I pace around while dictating. Yay for positive side effects!