This may seem like a strange activity, but it's rewarding. "Copywork" means copying a passage by hand after fully understanding it. Read the text, look up unknown words, then copy it word for word on paper. Try copying a few words at a time, holding the language in your mind is the core of the exercise.
Parent Skills:
This may seem like a strange activity, but it's rewarding. "Copywork" means copying a passage by hand after fully understanding it. Read the text, look up unknown words, then copy it word for word on paper. Try copying a few words at a time, holding the language in your mind is the core of the exercise.
Very low-tech way to do interactive immersion
Train your brain to remember the language more abstractly
Practice handwriting and reading
To do copywork, there are a few steps and some simple materials. Start by getting paper and something to write with, text in your target language (a book works well) and a way to look up new words or phrases.
Copywork is a very solid interactive immersion activity, but isn't required for a successful routine. It is a useful technique to know, though, for times when you don't have access to all your normal tools. Or you might find that you really like doing it! It's a decent for sentence mining and can even replace Anki if you review your notes well!
If you're learning a language with a very different script, you should start with some Handwriting Practice first. But then copywork can be excellent additional practice with real text!
Now, copy the text onto your paper or notebook. The goal is to copy entire sentences at a time, so you don't have to constantly look back at the page. This is hard, so start smaller (just a few words at a time). When you make mistakes, just cross them out and write it again.
You'll need to find your own groove for this, since everyone is a little different. Continue to copy until you have the entire section written in your own hand. Reread the section you wrote, checking for mistakes.
Start by reading a smallish passage or page all the way through. Understand as much as you can. Then, work your way through it again, looking up things you don't know. The section you read should make sense.
And optionally, you can write down all the words you didn't know from the passage and their meanings. This can help reinforce their meaning in your mind.
Once you've done that passage, continue on! Copying just a single passage can take a long time, so don't worry about going slow, this mental exercise is the whole point.