Index Card Hell

Ah, flash/index cards. Every studious person's best friend, right?

Wrong.

Not when you are learning four languages at once. Then, it can become a nightmare really quickly, especially when you have A.D.D. Then it's all out war-fare.

For days now, I've been pondering how to best manage my index cards, because like everyone else, I want the most out of my cards, the best possible study experience. However, being a broke college student puts a strain on as to how many of those little beloved pieces of paper I can get. Meaning, I recycle my cards (Way to be green, me!) Having attempted the language self-study process at least a quarter of a million times, I'm drowning in a sea of multi-lingual, stained, ripped, and partially missing flash cards. At this point, you're average person (note: sane person) would get some more. But me?

Never.

I'm determined to use these cards until they are paper dust. And I won't switch to electronic - I hate computers (despite having this blog, I can type, just not much else).

So, with four languages - all published by Living Languages* - that have completely different materials in each course, just what the hell am I supposed to do? So..I sit there, in my natural confused state, surrounded by an eternity of handed-myself-down index cards, staring into the abyss. When it hits me....

"Once you kill a cow, you gotta make a burger." (- Lady Gaga).

In other words, I decided to go all out, and learn ALL the words, from ALL the courses, in ALL four languages - AT THE SAME TIME.... And really, there's a much more logical process to it all than just simply that - but I'm too lazy to explain everything.

The biggest problem with that, however, isn't my hell-bent ambition. It's the fact that phrases that exist in one language, don't exist as phrases for the other: aka, cross-referencing two Latin languages with two Asian languages is a bitch. 'Nuff said.

So generally, I end up sitting there at my desk - still surrounded in a sea of index cards - wondering what to do.

And that's when the ADD kicks,

And the index cards sit there, while I am on facebook....

Eventually I go back to productive mode for like 20 minutes or so, but the inevitable cycle repeats itself...

Thus leaving me in the bottomless seventh level of index card hell....

*Living Languages is awesome, and better than Rosetta Stone (in my non-professional expert opinion) you should get it, you will love it. And it will love you. And you'll learn a new language.