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Kuji’s Krazy Log II

 Language Learning Forum : Language Learning Log Post Reply
706 messages over 89 pages: << Previous 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 ... 24 ... 88 89 Next >>
kujichagulia
Senior Member
Japan
Joined 4839 days ago

1031 posts - 1571 votes 
Speaks: English*
Studies: Japanese, Portuguese

 
 Message 185 of 706
02 May 2013 at 2:12pm | IP Logged 
Ugh.... I'm facing some serious wanderlust here.

My wife and I are planning to go to Spain for a few days, and it's taking all the power I
have not to start learning Spanish. Spanish is a language I definitely want to learn in
the future, but I certainly cannot take on more than two languages at one time. Just
studying Japanese and Portuguese is enough!
1 person has voted this message useful



Serpent
Octoglot
Senior Member
Russian Federation
serpent-849.livejour
Joined 6589 days ago

9753 posts - 15779 votes 
4 sounds
Speaks: Russian*, English, FinnishC1, Latin, German, Italian, Spanish, Portuguese
Studies: Danish, Romanian, Polish, Belarusian, Ukrainian, Croatian, Slovenian, Catalan, Czech, Galician, Dutch, Swedish

 
 Message 186 of 706
02 May 2013 at 7:30pm | IP Logged 
many Spaniards understand Portuguese just fine ;) so many people use Spanish in Portugal and Brazil that it would be awesome if you contributed to restoring the balance :P
1 person has voted this message useful



Expugnator
Hexaglot
Senior Member
Brazil
Joined 5158 days ago

3335 posts - 4349 votes 
Speaks: Portuguese*, Norwegian, French, English, Italian, Papiamento
Studies: Mandarin, Georgian, Russian

 
 Message 187 of 706
02 May 2013 at 8:05pm | IP Logged 
Kuji, do you know the Facebook/Android/iOs game app SongPop? It's perfect for you to get to know samples of Brazilian music divided by genre. There albums for Forró, Pagode & Samba, Décadas de 80 e 90, 2000, MPB, Sertanejo and tenths of others. And you get to know 5 songs and albums each time you play.
1 person has voted this message useful



kujichagulia
Senior Member
Japan
Joined 4839 days ago

1031 posts - 1571 votes 
Speaks: English*
Studies: Japanese, Portuguese

 
 Message 188 of 706
03 May 2013 at 12:36am | IP Logged 
Serpent wrote:
many Spaniards understand Portuguese just fine ;) so many people use Spanish in Portugal and Brazil that it would be awesome if you contributed to restoring the balance :P

I'm all for restoring the balance! :)

We are going to Spain in December, so I'm thinking that, at some point near the beginning of the summer, I'll start popping some handy travel Spanish into my Anki, just in case. But otherwise, I'll just rely on my English and Portuguese skills.
1 person has voted this message useful



kujichagulia
Senior Member
Japan
Joined 4839 days ago

1031 posts - 1571 votes 
Speaks: English*
Studies: Japanese, Portuguese

 
 Message 189 of 706
03 May 2013 at 12:37am | IP Logged 
Expugnator wrote:
Kuji, do you know the Facebook/Android/iOs game app SongPop? It's perfect for you to get to know samples of Brazilian music divided by genre. There albums for Forró, Pagode & Samba, Décadas de 80 e 90, 2000, MPB, Sertanejo and tenths of others. And you get to know 5 songs and albums each time you play.


Expugnator, I did not know about SongPop, but I'm going to download it right away. It looks interesting! Thank you.
1 person has voted this message useful



kujichagulia
Senior Member
Japan
Joined 4839 days ago

1031 posts - 1571 votes 
Speaks: English*
Studies: Japanese, Portuguese

 
 Message 190 of 706
13 May 2013 at 3:51am | IP Logged 
I haven't posted here for a short while, for two reasons:

(1) Work has been hectic; the beginning of the school year in Japan is gruelling. Any free time I had, apart from studying my languages, of course, was used to just be lazy and recover from stress.
(b) I've been trying out a new study routine, which I will talk about below.

Ever since I started studying Portuguese in August last year, I've used an "alternate-day" system to manage studying two languages. Basically, study time on Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays were reserved for Japanese study only, while study time on Tuesdays and Thursdays were reserved for Portuguese study. Weekends are more fluid, so on Saturdays and Sundays I would study Japanese first, and if I had any study time left over, I would study Portuguese.

(NOTE: What I mean by "study time" is the roughly 2 hours I have per day, usually on the train, that I can study with a textbook/text/language podcast, study grammar/vocabulary, etc, with minimal distractions. This does not count the times that I am doing listening reviews, Anki reviews, surfing the Internet in my target language, listening to online radio, etc. I don't see those as "study time" because it's not systematic, dedicated study like with a textbook.)

However, lately I've started to dislike this system. Why? I can't really explain. I have learned a lot with this system. My Japanese has done nothing but improve since August, and I've gone from A0 to somewhere close to A1 in Portuguese in almost nine months, so something was right with the system. However... how can I say... I feel like it's become a bit strange to me. Like, "Oh, it's Wednesday, so NO PORTUGUESE. JAPANESE ONLY, FOOL!" It's almost like I'm traveling from Japan to Brazil and back every day, but my brain wants to be in both Japan and Brazil at the same time, or in a country called Jazil or Brapan.

That makes no sense whatsoever, does it?

Anyway... (let me get back to the story...) I've made a new routine in which I study both languages every day. I've found my morning train commute to be perfect for Portuguese study. I use a large Japanese textbook and an accompanying workbook for studying that language, but the trains in the morning are so crowded. I don't have room to pull out a textbook, unless I lean it on the back of the person standing 15 centimeters in front of me. On the other hand, my DLI Portuguese text is in PDF format, and I can read those on my Android Sony Walkman and listen to the mp3s as well. I don't need much space to hold my Walkman.

On the other hand, during the train ride on the way home, I almost always have enough space in front of me, as well as a wall, door or seat to lean on, to open my Japanese textbook and do work while standing. Sometimes I can even find an empty seat and sit down and have the textbook sitting on my lap, which is great for my tired arms! So now I do my Japanese study every afternoon.

There have been some unexpected good results with this system. Coincidentally, Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays are my most stressful days at school, so on the way home I'm often not in the right state of mind to study, and I think I had trouble internalizing a lot of grammar that should have made sense at first. Of course, that is still the case, but now that I also study Japanese on Tuesdays and Thursdays, I have some "good" study days to help me.

As for Portuguese, when I did DLI on the train going home, I often fell asleep, especially if I was sitting down. Maybe because DLI is more audio-based. When I do it in the morning, I'm usually more alert and can get more out of the lessons.

Anyway, I've done this for only eight or nine days, but I'll keep you updated on how things are going.

And sorry that I haven't been around to check your logs lately.
2 persons have voted this message useful



g-bod
Diglot
Senior Member
United KingdomRegistered users can see my Skype Name
Joined 5974 days ago

1485 posts - 2002 votes 
Speaks: English*, Japanese
Studies: French, German

 
 Message 191 of 706
13 May 2013 at 9:44am | IP Logged 
I remember your posts last year, when it seemed you had 101 reasons why it was impossible to learn Japanese. To read how you have since managed to organise yourself to find time through clever use of your commute to study not only Japanese but also Portuguese is a true inspiration.
3 persons have voted this message useful



Expugnator
Hexaglot
Senior Member
Brazil
Joined 5158 days ago

3335 posts - 4349 votes 
Speaks: Portuguese*, Norwegian, French, English, Italian, Papiamento
Studies: Mandarin, Georgian, Russian

 
 Message 192 of 706
13 May 2013 at 8:59pm | IP Logged 
kuji, I don't know if you saw fabriciocarraro's last post, at which he gives lots of advices on Brazilian podcasts:

Nerdcast - they talk about a lot of subjects - tech, films, history, culture etc.
Rapaduracast - cinema
MRG - films, books, comics
Café Brasil - philosphy, history


3 persons have voted this message useful



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