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Kanewai 2015: Team Caesar | ||
Tags: Super Challenge | Catalan | Ancient Greek | Turkish | Polyglot | Arabic | Total Annihilation Challenge (TAC) | Italian | Japanese | French | Spanish | ||
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 Language Learning Forum : Language Learning Log |  | |
| kanewai Triglot Senior Member United States justpaste.it/kanewai Joined 4882 days ago 1386 posts - 3054 votes  Speaks: English*, French, Marshallese Studies: Italian, Spanish | Message 161 of 331 02 August 2013 at 10:56pm | IP Logged | ||
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So I'm going with four languages. I know this is not sustainable, I know it won't work
and everything will fall apart, and yet ... I'm gonna try it. French - I'm on a nice plateau now where I can read without a lot of difficulty. I only use a dictionary for a word or two every couple pages; the rest I can usually understand through the context. This is how we were told to read in college, but I never could do it. It was a nice ideal, but it wasn't really possible at the level we were at. Now - after reading 75 100-page 'books' - I'm finally at that point. Spanish - Still working my way through Harry Potter. Greek - I've been copying out lessons that I've already done from Pharr, and have downloaded all the sentences from the whole book into Anki. I signed up for the Super Challenge with Greek, mostly so that I will maintain focus and keep at it. I don't even know what a realistic short-term goal is. Japanese - I did half of the first level of both Michel Thomas and Pimsleur a year ago, and then nothing since. I thought I'd forgotten all of it, but I've been doing Michel Thomas on my commute and I'm surprised how quickly its coming back. The only reason I can add Japanese is that I have a lot of programs I can do while commuting. And I kind of miss doing language tapes while I drive and bike! It'll be a lot rougher when I reach the point where I need to start writing and reading more. And the only reason I'm even doing Japanese is that I might go to Tokyo in November. I won't even know until October, but by then it will be too late to get a realistic basic grasp of the language. 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| mike245 Triglot Senior Member Hong Kong Joined 6965 days ago 303 posts - 408 votes Speaks: English*, Spanish, Cantonese Studies: French, German, Mandarin, Khmer | Message 162 of 331 03 August 2013 at 6:34am | IP Logged | ||
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Good luck juggling these different languages! I also just started studying Japanese in preparation for a two
week trip to Tokyo in November. It's been difficult (as expected) but surprisingly fun. Edited by mike245 on 03 August 2013 at 6:34am 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
 songlines Pro Member Canada flickr.com/photos/cp Joined 5202 days ago 729 posts - 1056 votes Speaks: English* Studies: French Personal Language Map | Message 163 of 331 06 August 2013 at 12:30am | IP Logged | ||
As mentioned elsewhere, I'm somewhat in awe of your reading progress in French. You tackle formidable (in both Eng and Fr senses of the word) titles which I wouldn't even have the courage to consider. Re. Japanese, would your being based in Hawaii be any help in perhaps getting a language exchange partner? - I assume (? - Or might I be wrong?) any Japanese speakers there would already speak English, but perhaps you could do a French - Japanese exchange or somesuch? 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| kanewai Triglot Senior Member United States justpaste.it/kanewai Joined 4882 days ago 1386 posts - 3054 votes Speaks: English*, French, Marshallese Studies: Italian, Spanish | Message 164 of 331 07 August 2013 at 10:23pm | IP Logged | ||
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I hear Japanese all the time here, so I think it'd be easy to find a language partner.
I almost wonder if having so much passive exposure makes it easier to learn. So fat Japanese doesn't seem too hard - nothing like Greek or Arabic. Although perhaps it's also because their are some conceptual similarities to Micronesian, which I know well. Or perhaps it's that Michel Thomas makes everything seem easy in the beginning! But sadly, I won't be going to Tokyo this fall (our union didn't sign the contract we all wanted them to sign, we're going into arbitration, and there will be no overseas adventures for me in the meantime. Boo.). So, now I'm not sure what to do with Japanese. It's not one of my target languages, but I have enough audio materials to keep me going for a couple months. I'll finish MT and then see how I feel. It's fantastic how quickly Japanese has come back - it makes me feel better about the other languages I've just flirted with. I thought maybe they were just gone. This past year I cut back on my flirting in order to focus on my target languages, 'cause I thought the flirting was just a distraction ... now I'm thinking I might start playing around again. There are only a few languages I want to learn to a high level, but there are a lot that I'd love to learn to an A1/A2 level (or in my mind, the "advanced tourist" level). Edited by kanewai on 07 August 2013 at 10:24pm 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| kanewai Triglot Senior Member United States justpaste.it/kanewai Joined 4882 days ago 1386 posts - 3054 votes Speaks: English*, French, Marshallese Studies: Italian, Spanish | Message 165 of 331 09 August 2013 at 10:42pm | IP Logged | ||
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Flirting with Japanese has re-energized my French.
I wish I knew how that worked, 'cause I could start marketing it as the all new revolutionary language learning technique. Japanese I finished seven out of eight Michel Thomas lessons in the past ten days. It was very enjoyable, albeit a bit exhausting at times. I was tempted to continue with Pimsleur, as I do enjoy the language & I have access to a lot of resources. But I also can't make a long term commitment, and so I think: what's the point? I also feel like I'm at a break-through point with French, and want to focus my energy there. French I followed erenko's post on Livraphone, and was inspired to experiment a bit, doing the R-L method with a lot of short clips. And this feels right, like it's the method that will help me the most with my French at this point. My reading comprehension is good, but my listening comprehension is still mediocre, and my accent is appalling. I tried R-L with a few chapters of Candide and was surprised at how different the French I heard in my mind was from proper French. Maybe it's time to focus on achieving what the R-L guy calls natural listening. I'm going to give it a try. Candide is only about 100 pages, each chapter only takes six or seven minutes to listen to, and there's a decent free recording on LibraVox. If that works, then I'll buy one of the professional recordings from Libraphone. Their best-seller is Les rois maudits, a seven-volume historical epic that helped inspire Game of Thrones. I hadn't even heard of it until yesterday, but it looks great. The only catch is that the Libraphone recordings are around 20€ each. Otherwise, I'm halfway through Mémoires d'Hadrien, which is fantastic, and I used the last of my audible credits to get the new Pimsleur French IV. ελληνικά I still can't get over just how many possible forms Greek nouns and verbs can take. How can anyone learn this??? My main book is still Pharr's Homeric Greek, and I use Draper's Iliad Book 1 to get a deeper understanding of the text. I'm keeping my goals modest: I want to be able to read heavily annotated parallel texts of the Iliad and Odyssey by the end of the 6WC. I can't picture ever being able to read Ancient Greek casually, but I'm ok with that. Spanish I'm still working my way through Harry Potter y el Orden del Fénix. It's slow going; I try and finish one chapter per week, and then go back to my French novels. If I can finish this and Assimil by the end of 2013 than I should be posed to do a full Spanish Super Challenge in 2014. I've been watching Mujeres Asesinas on Drama Fever. It's very well done, but it also deals with some serious low-lifes - one episode a week is enough for me. Edited by kanewai on 09 August 2013 at 10:55pm 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| Kerrie Senior Member United States justpaste.it/Kerrie2 Joined 5388 days ago 1232 posts - 1740 votes Speaks: English* Studies: Spanish | Message 166 of 331 09 August 2013 at 11:22pm | IP Logged | ||
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Have you looked at Aguila Roja? It's kind of a Spanish Zorro. I've only watched a few episodes of the first season. (DF has four seasons available.)
"Action, adventure, and intrigue collide in this impressive drama of a masked hero who fights against injustice in 17th century Spain, and is determined to find out who killed his wife. By day, Gonzalo de Montalvo is a teacher and a father. By night, he is Aguila Roja, or 'The Red Eagle', who fights against the corrupt local sheriff, Hernán Mejías, and Lucrecia, the Marchioness de Santillana. No one knows of his true identity, except for his faithful servant Satur and a mysterious monk. With his ninja-like skills, Gonzalo will stop at nothing to avenge his wife's death, and stop the conspiracies against the Spanish crown." As the story unfolds, it's becoming more interesting. I peeked on Wikipedia (oops!), and it looks like it will get better yet. I have the same problem with this as I did with Isabela - even more so, I think. European Spanish is a lot harder for me to understand. But it's good practice. :) 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| kanewai Triglot Senior Member United States justpaste.it/kanewai Joined 4882 days ago 1386 posts - 3054 votes Speaks: English*, French, Marshallese Studies: Italian, Spanish | Message 167 of 331 23 August 2013 at 10:47pm | IP Logged | ||
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Six Week Challenges are Mental
I peaked in the 6WC at #36 in my target language (Ancient Greek) and #14 overall. This might be the highest I reach - I won't have as much free time in the coming weeks. Keeping track of all the time I spend motivates me to spend a lot more time studying, and I wouldn't be able to balance so many languages otherwise, but it's also kind of mental. I don't think I could do more than one 6WC a year. French As usual, it's been a month of great books and crappy movies. Or at least, movies I didn't like. Starting with the good: I loved Mémoires d'Hadrien. It starts off as a historical epic, segues into a meditation on mortality, and then becomes a heart-breaking romance (the emperor's lover, Antonious, drowns during a cruise on the Nile, and Hadrien scandalizes Rome when he attempts to make him a god). I've uploaded the parallel text if anyone wants it. I've been doing a modified listen-read of Voltaire's Candide. Each chapter is only five to ten minutes, and the whole book is only 100 pages, so I don't mind reading each chapter twice. It's surprisingly raunchy, sacrilegous, and funny. At the half-way point: Candide murdered the Grand Inquisitor, disguised himself as a priest, and fled to the Amazon - only to be caught by cannibals who are planning to have jesuit en broche for dinner. And I am finally starting on the last section of Les misérables. Jean Valjean has gone to the barricades to find Marius, the army has them surrounded, and all the young men are preparing to die. The other sections started with long - really long - tangents. This time Hugo is jumping right into the action. The first flic I enjoyed was Les demoiselles de Rochefort (Jacques Demy, 1967). A very silly romantic musical about two twins in Rochefort. I stumbled on it on Hulu. It's all bubblegum colors, big hair, jazz dancing, and go-go boots (men and women!), and I can't tell if it's awful or brilliant - but it's a lot of fun to watch. It stars real-life sisters Catherine Deneuve and Françoise Dorléac (who died in a car accident the same year), and has a great cameo by Gene Kelly. Le beau serge (Claude Chabrol,1958) was also good - a young man returns to his home town, and finds that his best friend, the beautiful Serge, is now the mean town drunk. Flics I didn't enjoy? I couldn't finish Season 2 of Engrenage, I was irritated by Le fabuleux destin d'Amélie Poulain (I think I'm the only one; everyone else seems to love Amélie), and was bored senseless by L'armée des ombre. I did finish Trois couleurs: Bleu, but didn't think that was good either. All of these, I should note, get excellent reviews. I think I might just be damaged when it comes to French movies. I've really disliked most of the 'classics' I've seen, and have really enjoyed some of the obscure ones I've found by chance. 日本語 I didn't do a good job of quitting Japanese like I said I would. Instead, I've been doing a Pimsleur lesson each day, and am now on Lesson 15. I've also practiced the kana a few times, and it doesn't seem that hard. The kanji (Chinese-derived characters), though, still seem like a nightmare. So. I don't know what to do. I overheard some Japanese tourists speaking, and it was cool that I could pick out the parts of speech, even if I didn't know what they were saying. But I also know that pretty soon I will have to start studying outside of Pimselur and Michel Thomas, and I do not have time for that at all. Pimsleur Japanese has the same pros and cons as the other Pimsleur courses. Right now I am in the middle of the awful section on numbers and time (Do you want to have lunch at 2:00? 2:00 is not good. Do you want to have lunch at 3:00? 3:00 is not good. Do you want to shoot the narrator? Hai) This is like medicine: I hate it, but I know it's good for me. What's worse is Pimsleur's standard, endless section on tennis and golf ... I know it's coming, and I know I am going to suffer when it does. Pimsleur also sucks for it's lack of explanations. I still cannot figure out when to use the suffixes -ka, -wa, or -o. I think I've figured it out, but then I get it wrong. But Pimsleur is also great because I can just put the recording on and start, and it is challenging to recall phrases in the time allowed. ελληνικά I'm online 42 of the Iliad (Chapter 21 of Pharr). Greek is also mental - I try and read 100 pages of French a week, but am happy with only ten lines of Greek a week. This week's struggle has been with particples - verbs that act as adjectives to nouns, and which are declined like nouns; have gender; exist in the past, present, and future; can be active, passive, or medio-passive; & can be indicative, subjunctive, or optative. Homer loves participles, so I can't pretend they don't exist. I totally lost the plot when Assimil and Teach Yourself started with participles. There is a zero percent chance that I will master them this round, but I figure if I can at least recognize them I'll be able to progress. I need to remind myself that learning Ancient Greek is going to be a long-range, possibly life-long journey. And a slow journey at that. Otherwise I would've stressed out and quit already. Spanish I'll check out Aguila Roja this weekend - thanks for the rec, Kerrie! Otherwise, I've been neglecting poor Spanish once again. I don't know why I keep doing this - Spanish is one of my priority languages. Edited by kanewai on 23 August 2013 at 10:56pm 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| kanewai Triglot Senior Member United States justpaste.it/kanewai Joined 4882 days ago 1386 posts - 3054 votes Speaks: English*, French, Marshallese Studies: Italian, Spanish | Message 168 of 331 26 August 2013 at 12:30pm | IP Logged | ||
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Random late night thoughts ...
- When I show up at work tomorrow tired and red eyed, I am totally blaming Kerrie. I started watching Águila Rojo tonight, and only intended to watch about twenty minutes - but once I started I had to finish the first episode. Gonzalo de Montalvo is a poor teacher with an alter-ego: the ninja-esque Red Eagle, who fights for justice in 16th Century Spain. I'm hooked. - I like pulpy Spanish tv shows far far better than most 'great' French movies. One day maybe I'll understand why. - It's been interesting reading Les Misérables while watching the news on Syria and Egypt. The news is so depressing (and so is Les Mis), but the book reminds me that Europe had to go through many revolutions in the 19th Century, and that the struggles for freedom in the Middle East aren't going to be won in a single decade. - I've seen the musical, I have the soundtrack, and I read the book in English in high school. I know how it all ends, and I was wondering if I'd even enjoy Les Misérables given all that. I'm finally approaching the end - only 300 pages to go! - and the answer is an unequivocal yes! The book is frustrating at times, but overall the novel is phenomenal - the stage production is only a shadow of the book. And I loved the musical. - I almost threw in the towel for Japanese this weekend. Once again, I thought: what's the point? Then I read that Teango is going to try something like eight languages, at fifteen minutes a day each. Given that, who am I to complain about two 'extra' languages? I'll be watching his log for hints on how to manage this! Edited by kanewai on 27 August 2013 at 12:01am 1 person has voted this message useful |
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