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The Real CZ
Senior Member
United States
Joined 5642 days ago

1069 posts - 1495 votes 
Speaks: English*
Studies: Japanese, Korean

 
 Message 145 of 203
02 July 2014 at 5:46pm | IP Logged 
yuhakko wrote:
Riding on that motivation wave I have nowadays, I started trying to
translate stuff.
Basically, I believe I should start doing some "professional" translation in order to
get
a bit of experience in the field as well as improving my Japanese (I'll try Korean in a
year or two at least I guess). I have gone around and found a few "freelance
translating
websites". One needs us to pass a test to start so I've translated the extract given.
In
order to have a proper feedback, I'm going to double check with a used-to-be J-E
translator I know.


What kind of things do you translate? For example, I actually run a blog where I
translate interviews that actresses have with magazines/news sites and I honestly feel
that translating is one of the most useful exercises in the intermediate stages. It
really forces you to look up what you don't know and I found it extremely helpful for
learning grammar and some vocabulary.
2 persons have voted this message useful



yuhakko
Tetraglot
Senior Member
FranceRegistered users can see my Skype Name
Joined 4625 days ago

414 posts - 582 votes 
Speaks: French*, EnglishB2, EnglishC2, Spanish, Japanese
Studies: Korean, Norwegian, Mandarin

 
 Message 146 of 203
15 September 2014 at 3:16pm | IP Logged 
@The Real CZ: Well for now, I am doing some standard translation regarding client
relationship and service. But I am also trying to get my hands on some wine news
articles to translate as this interests me. However, I'm not spending so much time on
it as I first need to take care of some stuff.
But true, you can learn so much from each translation!

And now for a long long overdue Update first related to what happened:
I haven't been active for the past 2 months already.. I did stop by here and there but
never got around with posting as my time was limited or I didn't want to write from my
phone.

Anyway, I'm back in France. I spent 2 weeks in Korea at the beginning of August and as
soon as I came back, I had a korean friend with me for 2 days and then moved back to
Rouen to start my last semester with a seminar and a (really difficult) simulation.

My last month in China was really busy as a friend came for 2 weeks so I had to couple
showing around my friend and packing up things at work.. and I actually ended up
having to finish writing a white paper after leaving (not finished yet..).

In Korea, I didn't really visit that much and ended up mostly just going around
visiting friends and practicing my korean a bit. I even met Druckfehler there one day
and we went together to the language cast meetup! (btw she's incredibly good at
Korean). 만나서 반가웠어~ 그리고 책을 줘서 다시 고마워~ 아직도 시작 못했는데 곧 읽어볼껭 ㅎ

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yuhakko
Tetraglot
Senior Member
FranceRegistered users can see my Skype Name
Joined 4625 days ago

414 posts - 582 votes 
Speaks: French*, EnglishB2, EnglishC2, Spanish, Japanese
Studies: Korean, Norwegian, Mandarin

 
 Message 147 of 203
15 September 2014 at 3:45pm | IP Logged 
Now onto languages:

Japanese: I should have been reading a lot but did not in the end. I've got
about 100 pages left for my book but if I was reading regularly I should have finished
it about 1month and a half ago. As for the listening part of the SC. I'm doing quite
ok and I think I could easily finish that off before december.
There's also the registration for the JLPT happening right now. Turns out it's
now 80€ which is making me hesitate considering the fact that I think I'll fail. I
still have a few weeks left to think it over so we'll see. I did start studying a bit
for it a week ago through the 日本語総まとめN1読解. It's much easier than last time but
I still feel like I'm reading too slowly. I guess I know the solution though...
The translations are a good way also to keep me going forward as well.

Korean: Well obviously I did practice a lot while in Korea but in general, I'd
say my level went down during my period in China as I was not speaking nor studying
it. My understanding's gotten a bit better though. I bought a few books in Korea (and
received one as well as said above :p) and read a bit of one but stopped for the time
being as my schedule was a bit f**ked up. It'll still be like this for a while so
this'll have to wait. I did start studying again (this exact morning) the Intermediate
grammar in Use going through 1 grammar point I had trouble translating in my head (~더
라) when talking with friends (one new friend uses it ALL the time).

Mandarin: Obviously I've gotten a lot better since I left and now can enjoy
understanding parts of conversations between chinese people in the street or my
school. My accent's still pretty horrible but I don't hesitate writing it anymore
although I'm still a bit embarassed when speaking.
I am currently re-reading a graded reader I read before going and I don't even need
the dictionnary at all. I'm also trying to read one page of tintin per day minimum.
I'm watching chinese movies and English ones with chinese subs as well. When my
schedule gets better I'll try to study some grammar as well surely.

The rest: Haven't been studying Ainu, Norwegian nor my English accent at all.
If I do decide to go for the JLPT in december, there's no way I'll get back to those
before then. (Although I sometimes read out loud a magazine about Korea I get in
English every month (freely :p)

I'll put pictures of the mountains of books I bought in China and Korea when the
package I sent from china will arrive here.
Also, someone spilled some beer on my pc 2 weeks ago so the keyboard doesn't work
anymore and it is dying slowly but surely. I'll get a new one pretty soon and as soon
as I do, I'll be able to update more often (for now I just have a shitty computer
available)

Edited by yuhakko on 15 September 2014 at 3:48pm

1 person has voted this message useful



yuhakko
Tetraglot
Senior Member
FranceRegistered users can see my Skype Name
Joined 4625 days ago

414 posts - 582 votes 
Speaks: French*, EnglishB2, EnglishC2, Spanish, Japanese
Studies: Korean, Norwegian, Mandarin

 
 Message 148 of 203
19 September 2014 at 10:37am | IP Logged 
I've been slowly getting a kind of routine. I am now listening to one TTMIK lesson per
day (from level 9) and when I'll have reached the end, I'll go back down towards level 6.
I've also been watching loads of Japanese.

I also caught up with Anki yesterday finally. I guess I can start allowing myself to
learn new words in it now.

Good news! My packages from China arrived yesterday! It's still at my place in my
hometown but I'm going back there today so I'll finally have access to everything I
bought in Shanghai! It's gonna be tough figuring out which one to use first.
1 person has voted this message useful



yuhakko
Tetraglot
Senior Member
FranceRegistered users can see my Skype Name
Joined 4625 days ago

414 posts - 582 votes 
Speaks: French*, EnglishB2, EnglishC2, Spanish, Japanese
Studies: Korean, Norwegian, Mandarin

 
 Message 149 of 203
23 September 2014 at 10:25am | IP Logged 
So I did get the package. I had forgotten how much I bought really. More than 30 books
regarding Mandarin, about 7-8 for Korean and the same for Japanese (for this one, just
books for the JLPT N1 and novels).

I brought back to Rouen quite a few and I've decided to work mostly on my Japanese
until december and try for the first time the JLPT N1. I've got a total of 7 books
concerning it: two 総まとめ (kanji and reading), 3 containing mock tests (2 full and 1
only for the listening part), 1 tiny with all the grammar points explained (... in
chinese, but it's mostly to use to check where i'm at), and 1 with grammar points from
N2 and N1 to be "finished" in 42 days (seriously impossible: more than 15 per day).

As a result, I'll be focusing on that. I've decided to work hard on it. From minimum
1h focused per day and hopefully 2 on average. This morning I woke up 1h30 before I
needed to, read my book and did one 総まとめ読解 lesson.
Tonight, I'll try to do one listening practice if I find a way to copy the CD on a USB
key before then (none on my current PC).

As for the rest, I've met a half korean-half french who's Korean level is intermediate
but wants to improve so I guess I'll have someone to practice with daily as that
person wants to enter the association I'm in in my school (the association is to help
foreign students fit in).

For Chinese, as I now have 11 bilingual books of different levels and quite a few
graded readers. Those bilingual books are supposed to be read in 1 week each.
Obviously I won't do it as I will not be focusing on that, but I'll try in 1.5 week
each, starting next week. I'll first finish re-reading a graded reader I started 3
days ago.

I'm feeling greatly motivated with all those books and decisions I've made and
hopefully the polyglot conference in Novi Sad will only make that feeling stronger.
Anyone reading this going there btw?

Oh! Concerning that, I just started yesterday learning the Serbian cyrilic alphabet.
Does anybody know if there's a different with the russian one?
For that, I wrote a few words I found and tried reading them with the help of the
alphabet. This is how I learnt the Hangeul alphabet many years ago and I find it to be
the fastest way of all.
2 persons have voted this message useful



vonPeterhof
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Senior Member
Russian FederationRegistered users can see my Skype Name
Joined 4765 days ago

715 posts - 1527 votes 
Speaks: Russian*, EnglishC2, Japanese, German
Studies: Kazakh, Korean, Norwegian, Turkish

 
 Message 150 of 203
23 September 2014 at 6:25pm | IP Logged 
yuhakko wrote:
Oh! Concerning that, I just started yesterday learning the Serbian cyrilic alphabet.
Does anybody know if there's a different with the russian one?
Yeah, there are some differences: Russian Cyrillic has nine letters that Serbian doesn't, while Serbian Cyrillic has six that are missing from Russian. The 24 letters that are shared are pronounced either identically or similarly between the languages, accounting for the differences in phonologies. The only potentially confusing letters I can think of are ч and ћ: Russian only has the former, but that letter's Russian pronunciation is actually closer to the Serbian pronunciation of the latter.
1 person has voted this message useful



yuhakko
Tetraglot
Senior Member
FranceRegistered users can see my Skype Name
Joined 4625 days ago

414 posts - 582 votes 
Speaks: French*, EnglishB2, EnglishC2, Spanish, Japanese
Studies: Korean, Norwegian, Mandarin

 
 Message 151 of 203
29 September 2014 at 12:17pm | IP Logged 
@VonPeterhof: Thanks for the info! It's good to know, like this, when I'll find the
motivation to learn Russian (not any time soon but still), that'll make me take less
time to learn the alphabet!

As for an update :

This week has been pretty productive... well, at least for Japanese!

Korean: Nothing out of the ordinary. Just studied about 4-5 grammar points from
the Grammar in Use intermediate. I think I did something else a bit but can't seem to
remember..

Mandarin: Read about 15-20 pages of a graded reader and listened to a few
podcasts in Mandarin.

Japanese:
- Read about 120 pages of my book (only 30 left, planning on finishing it tomorrow
maximum)
- Did one JLPT N1 listening comprehension test in which when I was hesitating I wrote
down with what it was. I ended up with 27/37 and in my 10 mistakes, 5 of them I was
hesitating with the right answer. I'm gonna do another one tonight.
- Studied 8 lessons on 日本語総まとめ読解N1 (about 1,5 lesson per day with some days
when I didn't do any)
- Watched 60 episodes of はじめの一歩, One of the rare mangas that I really love.
- Watched 3 episodes of ごちそうさん, one 朝ドラ.
- Translated a few texts on Conyac.

Serbian: I tried to learn the alphabets but I'm not quite there yet.

Apart from that, I've succeeded in copying many audio CDs on my PC but not everything
yet. Most of the Japanese is done but I'm just starting to copy the Chinese CDs (I
can't do it on my computer so I have to do it at school).

This week's schedule:
Japanese:
- "1 week and a half" worth of 日本語総まとめ読解 = 8-10 lessons
- 2 Listening comprehension tests for the JLPT N1
- 1 grammar and vocabulary test for the JLPT N1
- Finish ツナグ, the book I'm reading
- Read at least 50-60 pages of ノルウェイの森 (村上春樹) seems tough but interesting as
well so.. :p
- Watch 20 episodes of はじめの一歩
- Watch 10-15 episodes of ごちそうさん

Korean:
- Read 1 double page of 좋은 생각 per day starting October 1st.
- Study 5 grammar points at least
- Listen to min 3 lessons of ttmik
- Watch one Running Man at least (I think I have 2 on my computer)

Mandarin:
- Finish the Graded Reader (about 25-30 pages left)
- Read 30 pages at least of the next one (画皮)
- Study one lesson of the Chinese Practical Reader (lesson + workbook)

Serbian:
- Finish learning the alphabets
- Learn basic greetings (at least 10 sentences)
1 person has voted this message useful



yuhakko
Tetraglot
Senior Member
FranceRegistered users can see my Skype Name
Joined 4625 days ago

414 posts - 582 votes 
Speaks: French*, EnglishB2, EnglishC2, Spanish, Japanese
Studies: Korean, Norwegian, Mandarin

 
 Message 152 of 203
29 September 2014 at 4:16pm | IP Logged 
so... bad news of the year... I thought I could register for the JLPT until mid
October but I just found out that it was until September 25th.. so I won't be able to
try it this year.
On the bright side, I'm pretty sure I would have failed and as a result it gives me
more time to get ready but still.. now I've gotta wait for another year. Unless I'm in
a country where I can have a go at it in July next year. Does anybody know if you can
go to a neighbouring country to take the JLPT?

I'll still study for it but will certainly reduce the amount of proper study to give
more time for reading. For instance, this week, I'll do only 7 lessons of 日本語総まとめ
(instead of 8 to 10) and only 1 listening section of the JLPT instead of 2. On the
other hand, I'll put the objective of reading ノルウェイの森 up to 70-80 instead of 50-
60.

I guess I'll also allow myself to study more Korean and Chinese but we'll see about
that

Edited by yuhakko on 29 September 2014 at 4:16pm



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