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Gary’s TAC 2013 - PAX | ||
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 Language Learning Forum : Language Learning Log |  | |
| garyb Triglot Senior Member ScotlandRegistered users can see my Skype Name Joined 5200 days ago 1468 posts - 2413 votes  Speaks: English*, Italian, French Studies: Spanish | Message 1 of 160 27 December 2012 at 7:51pm | IP Logged | ||
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This is my third TAC in a row; here is my 2012 log and there's a summary on the last page. My 2013 TAC is going to be the same idea as for 2012: French, Italian, and maybe Spanish.
French Last year my goal was basically to go from low-advanced to fluent, roughly B2 to C1, in spoken ability. I underestimated how much effort that would be, so this year’s goal is to keep aiming for that C1, and in particular, keep improving and polishing up my spoken fluency and pronunciation. My plan is to mostly just keep up what I’m already doing:
I’m probably going to travel to France at least once this year, possibly to the Hellfest music festival that I’ve been to for the last few years and possibly to the South as it’s the one part of the country I’ve never seen. Italian Last year my goal was to go from near-beginner to a solid conversational level (B2). In reality I think I reached a high B1: I can understand most conversations quite well and I can discuss familiar topics quite easily, but I still have some way to go before I reach the B2 standard of being able to express myself relatively well on most subjects. So this year I’m aiming for that level. Last year I started a challenge based on the HTLAL Super Challenge to watch 100 films (or equivalent in TV/video) and have 100 hours of conversation. So far: Films: 39 done, 61 to go. Conversation hours: 71 done, 29 to go. I think that by the end of that I should be closer to B2 level. So my plan is to keep that up, plus do studying with native materials and Anki similar to what I’m doing for French. Fortunately, and unlike for French, I have opportunities to speak Italian quite regularly these days. I’m also quite seriously considering spending a couple of weeks travelling around Italy this year. Spanish Spanish will be my next language, but based my past two years of experience and my lack of free time, I’ve decided it would be not to start it until I reach my goals in my other languages. Maybe that’ll be in a few months, maybe it’ll be in over a year. The temptation is getting harder to resist though, and there's quite a possibility that my travels will also take me to Spain... My city is full of Spanish speakers, there are Spanish meetups and exchanges at least three times per week as far as I know, and from my experience so far, Spanish people are very keen and helpful towards those who’re learning their language. Between the ease of finding people to practice with and the fact that Spanish should be quite easy for me by the time I’m fluent in French and semi-fluent in Italian, I should be able to pick it up and get to intermediate level quite quickly. I’ve pretty much decided on a “lots of speaking from an early stage” approach, just because I can. I’ll come up with a proper plan when/if the time comes, but basically I’m going to study the pronunciation, work through Michel Thomas, then start going out and speaking and working through Assimil. Lastly, I'm going to try and keep my log posts a bit more concise and informative than last year. I mostly write my log for myself rather than for others, but at the same time, I think that I do have some good insights regarding intermediate-to-advanced learning but my tendency to go on a bit, write things that are too specific to my own situation, and repeat the same ideas over and over makes these a bit harder to find. So this time round I'll try and be a bit more to the point, without losing the personal touch and "diary" aspect too much. Edited by garyb on 27 December 2012 at 7:57pm 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| garyb Triglot Senior Member ScotlandRegistered users can see my Skype Name Joined 5200 days ago 1468 posts - 2413 votes Speaks: English*, Italian, French Studies: Spanish | Message 2 of 160 27 December 2012 at 8:41pm | IP Logged | ||
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Current activities
I'm off work at the moment, which means I have slightly more time for language study than usual, although still not loads by any stretch of the imagination. Some things I'm doing these days, aside from the obvious stuff like watching films and trying in vain to find conversation partners: French
And for Italian...
I'm also reading a phonetics textbook called Understanding Phonetics that I found at the library. Since pronunciation is such a weak point for me, I'm trying to learn more about it so I can do it better. I've learnt some interesting things so far, particularly about just how many different ways there are to pronounce certain sounds. 3 persons have voted this message useful | |||
| tastyonions Triglot Senior Member United States goo.gl/UIdChYRegistered users can see my Skype Name Joined 4658 days ago 1044 posts - 1823 votes Speaks: English*, French, Spanish Studies: Italian | Message 3 of 160 27 December 2012 at 10:44pm | IP Logged | ||
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Welcome to Team PAX! And good luck with your studies. :-)
I would really love to get to a point one day where I could use French to learn other languages, like you are doing with Italian. 2 persons have voted this message useful | |||
| garyb Triglot Senior Member ScotlandRegistered users can see my Skype Name Joined 5200 days ago 1468 posts - 2413 votes Speaks: English*, Italian, French Studies: Spanish | Message 4 of 160 28 December 2012 at 7:46pm | IP Logged | ||
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Thanks!
For me, learning Italian through French made a lot of sense just because Italian's far more similar to French than to English, so understanding it from a French-speaker's point of view means avoiding re-learning stuff that they have in common and getting a better idea of the differences between the two. I'd say that if your French is at a B2 level then a basic Assimil course is quite doable. An Advanced one is much harder though, as some of the material really is advanced, so as I say it's been an exercise for my French as well as my Italian. It reflects one of my main complaints about the Assimil advanced series - IMO they get too advanced too quickly without covering enough intermediate language. 2 persons have voted this message useful | |||
| garyb Triglot Senior Member ScotlandRegistered users can see my Skype Name Joined 5200 days ago 1468 posts - 2413 votes Speaks: English*, Italian, French Studies: Spanish | Message 5 of 160 28 December 2012 at 8:03pm | IP Logged | ||
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I've had a few Skype chats in the last few days.
I'm really starting to notice that, although my French is far better than my Italian by any standard as I've been studying it for much longer and I have a much wider knowledge, recently Italian has been feeling much easier and more fluid, at least until the conversation leaves my comfort zone. My French, on the other hand, feels like it's in a permanent state of rustiness and out-of-practice and it takes longer to "warm up". This is because for the last month or so I've been speaking Italian with Italians almost every day, but I only get to use my French about once per week, and even that is sometimes only with other learners rather than native speakers. Also I think the fact that I'm actively focusing on my pronunciation means that I have a bit less brainpower to devote to what I'm saying as opposed to how I'm saying it. It looks like I might be going to Spain for a weekend in February. I know that knowing even some basic Spanish would make the trip a whole lot more enjoyable, but I also know that I really don't have time to devote to another language right now. I'll probably just work through Michel Thomas or something before I go, as I think that knowing some basic vocabulary and structure would help unlock a lot of my passive knowledge, and then pick it up again at a later point. MT Spanish plus my Italian should be enough to get by in Spain, albeit rather inelegantly. 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| garyb Triglot Senior Member ScotlandRegistered users can see my Skype Name Joined 5200 days ago 1468 posts - 2413 votes Speaks: English*, Italian, French Studies: Spanish | Message 6 of 160 30 December 2012 at 7:10pm | IP Logged | ||
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I've been taking it easy for the last few days, trying to catch up on sleep and stay healthy, although I seem to be failing on the latter point as I feel a cold coming on... Anyway, it means I've had some free time!
Going through the Assimil books to put sentences into Anki is turning out to be extremely time-consuming, especially since I'm using an "if in doubt, put it in" approach and making cards for things that seem relatively easy but I've slightly forgotten about from not seeing or using them in a while. People say that SRS reps should be more "gentle reminder" than "challenge" so I think putting these sorts of things in to keep them fresh in my mind is a good idea. Anyway my decks have been growing quite considerably and I'm sure I'll be grateful for that pile of ready-to-go cards once my work and social life start up again. On a similar note, I recently upgraded to Anki 2 and I'm enjoying the multiple-closes-per-fact feature! A few more films: Les Kaïra (FR) - comedy about a group of French "chavs" (the title is Verlan for "racaille"). It was a great laugh, and easier to understand than I thought it might be. I'd be lying if I said I picked up every word, but I got most of it, especially once I got used to their accents. There's a lot of slang in it, but it's relatively common slang - if you understand stuff like "serrer une meuf" and "ça déchire!" then it's fine. Made in Italy (IT) - classic Italian comedy. I found it a bit difficult because it's made up of disjoint episodes. I've seen a couple of these classic comedies now and I didn't enjoy them all that much: either my Italian language and culture knowledge isn't up to scratch for them, or it's too mature for me and the "chatte" puns of Les Kaïra are more on my level ;). Notte prima degli esami - Oggi (IT) - re-watched. Not quite as funny as the original but still entertaining, packed with useful informal expressions, and with Italian subtitles available. Delicatessen (FR) - People rave about this film, but I watched half of it and just wasn't getting into it and gave up. I soliti idioti (IT) - I think this is a film based on a TV sketch show. It's slightly ridiculous and over-the-top comedy. I think you again need a good knowledge of Italian culture to fully understand and appreciate the humour, but there's still plenty cheap laughs to be had as well. Edit: can't forget this part Italian Super Challenge Films: 42 done, 58 to go. Conversation hours: 72.5 done, 27.5 to go. Edited by garyb on 30 December 2012 at 8:50pm 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| sctroyenne Diglot Senior Member United StatesRegistered users can see my Skype Name Joined 5384 days ago 739 posts - 1312 votes Speaks: English*, French Studies: Spanish, Irish | Message 7 of 160 31 December 2012 at 8:20pm | IP Logged | ||
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emk just replied on my log after I mentioned Alter Ego 5. I've had it for a while
but haven't really delved into it. I was hoping to find other people who have it or who were interested in getting it to maybe start a study group. Since it's a textbook meant for classroom use there are a lot of exercises that are based in writing and discussion and so it would be helpful to have some interaction. Plus I think it would be helpful to have some kind of study group among advanced learners (using French only) going - maybe making use of the woefully under-used French-only board here. If you're interested let me know and I'll figure out how to set something up. 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| garyb Triglot Senior Member ScotlandRegistered users can see my Skype Name Joined 5200 days ago 1468 posts - 2413 votes Speaks: English*, Italian, French Studies: Spanish | Message 8 of 160 03 January 2013 at 12:07pm | IP Logged | ||
Hi! I'm going to get started on Alter Ego at some point, but it probably won't be particularly soon - it's not my priority at the moment and I'm planning to get through my current Assimil work, at least some of Grammaire Progressive, more films and TV, and hopefully more conversations before I really dive into it. Seeing as I'm back at work now and so have the usual limits on free time, I've no idea when this is going to be. Hopefully sometime during the first half of this year. The idea of an advanced French study group is nice but I'm not really sure what it would achieve, except perhaps consolidating links and discussions for resources. I suppose group discussions on Skype for example could be good if we could manage to coordinate them. If we could get a native speaker to help us out then that would be great, but based on my last few years' experiences of trying to find native speakers to practice French with, all I can say is... good luck with that one! 1 person has voted this message useful |
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