Day by Day Diligence

I think I'm building a good foundation!

I’ve successfully completed my second week of Theory II.

Theory II has been both easier and more difficult than Theory I. It’s easier in terms of quantity; the number of new concepts presented over the course of each week has lessened, but the amount of material within those concepts has increased. I’m learning the difference between when to memorize and practice single strokes for more commonly written words and phrases and when to use concepts to write less common words and phrases phonetically with specific prefixes and/or suffixes.

I’ve changed my warmup routine. I used to write a few finger exercises just to loosen up a bit, and then I’d dive in. Now, I find that I’m much more likely to write new material more accurately if I spend a bit more time in my warmup. So, in addition to my finger exercises, I write the alphabet, the numbers 1-99 in digits and one through ten in words, and the previous week’s new briefs/phrases. If I flub writing anything, I rewrite it a dozen times correctly.

To do each week’s lessons, I start by reading the lecture notes and seeing when and how my teacher wants me to deviate from the textbook. I learn the new briefs and phrases and write each them a few times. I say the word out loud as I write it. Then I read sentences coming up in the next exercise in the text book and write the new words in each of those sentences about a dozen times. Then, I write the new words with a word or phrase that comes before or after that word until it feels comfortable.

Next, I start realtime translation, open My Realtime Coach, and write an exercise. I’m usually between 88-93% accurate on the first couple of exercises on my first try.

I’m still having difficulty understanding the audio for most of the exercises. A human did not record the audio; it’s an artificial (computer) voice. I often need to slow it down because I’m a baby writer, and even 60 wpm is sometimes too fast! Some of the words are slurred or mispronounced. It’s not like my experience of listening to a non-native English speaker or someone with a regional accent, where my ear can attune to it and come to expect a particular style of mispronunciation and understand what’s being said. It’s odd and unpredictable, and the consonants at the ends of words are frequently unclear. Because they’re exercises, I can look at the textbook and understand what the voice intended to dictate. Still, I’m simultaneously conscious that although this is not a real-world simulation, I won’t have the crutch of clarifying text when I do need to write what someone says! When I feel that panic, I have to remind myself that learning theory is not a real-world situation, that I’m building a foundation right now so that I will know what to write when I hear certain words and phrases, and trust that when I do hear and understand them, this will not be problematic!

Some exercises will take longer to achieve the minimum of 95% accuracy. I had one exercise last week that I had to rewrite more than a dozen times. I had practically memorized all of the text before reaching that elusive goal. However, there have also been some exercises where I immediately achieved 95% or better accuracy even when I hadn’t written the text before. That happens when I’ve already been practicing for an hour or so. I tend to get sloppier again after three hours — I guess that’s my tiring point right now!

I’m able to do a solid 3-4 hours of practice each day, and that daily diligence brings confidence.

My biggest stumbling block this week has been pet-based interruptions. My husband has been out of town this week. I hadn’t realized how helpful it is to have a partner in the house when I’m practicing that can keep the dogs busy or distracted. One dog has the habit of demanding my attention by putting her head underneath my hand and popping it up so that I know it’s time to pet her: very inconvenient when you’re trying to write! The other dog frequently jumps up and puts her paws on my steno keyboard. I guess she’s trying to “help.” I’m looking forward to getting my husband back tomorrow. Learning steno is so much easier when you can focus on the task at hand and not have your attention divided. It’s tough enough juggling work and study when you’ve got help with all the other bits of life; running a house and managing everything for its inhabitants all alone is more of a challenge than I need right now!