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suzukaze TAC ’15 > EN/SPA/GER/FR/SWE/JP | ||
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 Language Learning Forum : Language Learning Log |  | |
| suzukaze Triglot Senior Member Italy bit.ly/1bGm459 Joined 4595 days ago 186 posts - 254 votes  Speaks: Italian*, English, Spanish Studies: German, French, Swedish, Japanese | Message 1 of 43 05 March 2013 at 5:03pm | IP Logged | ||
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! Message to all my 2015 team mates !
Most of the intro/language info in my log are outdated, I'm going to update them soon. Unfortunately both my laptop and desktop computer died and I'm using an old one until I get either one of them back, hopefully by the end of next week. (4th January 2015) === Hello to all my fellow 2013 TAC teammates! After lurking around for many months and studying by myself, I've finally decided to be more active and participate to this year's TAC in the following teams: Romulan, Schnitzel and Viking. Short introduction My name is Sofia and I come from Italy :) My dream job would be to become a translator so my interest for languages is both personal and professional. I was lucky enough to start studying English when I was five years old and I've loved languages ever since. Despite my interest, English was the only foreign language I studied throughout elementary, middle and high school. When it came the time to pick a university the choice fell on the Faculty of Foreign Languages and Literature, where I studied English (compulsory choice since my specialisation was Informatics), Spanish and German. I graduated two years ago and not so happily joined the mass of unemployed graduates *sigh* Anyway...enough sad stuff and back to languages! At the moment I'm taking a part-time internship so I have a good amount of spare time to dedicate to my hobbies. After this internship is over...who knows what I will do. Given my "limbo situation", I prefer not to set unrealistic goals which I won't be able to meet if, say, I find myself working much more hours than I do now. What is certain is that I will try to do a bit of work everyday. Current Level This is an overview of my current level for all the languages I study, I will make two others posts with my learning plan and my stats very soon. English (C2) > the first foreign language I studied, I began in kindergarten and kept studying it from then on. I still use it heavily every day to communicate with my native English friends, read books/articles, watch TV shows/movies, etc.... Spanish (B2/C1) > my second foreign language, which I studied during my BA. Although it's neither my favourite language nor highly requested job-wise, I would still like to take it to a C2 level. I think I'm already close to C1/C2 for comprehension, so I need to work more on speaking and writing. After I began to study German I didn't have enough time to keep studying Spanish, but by reading some articles here and there or listening to the news a few times I noticed that I still remember most of what I studied, which should make reaching my goal of complete fluency easier. German (B1) > the second language I studied during my MA alongside English. I have always been fascinated by German and this is the language I'm currently focusing on. I need to do lots of things with German, pretty much in every area (comprehension, writing, speaking). So far I've been working a lot to expand my vocabulary, but I need to exercise in the other areas as well...especially since I'm terrified to talk in German. In this regard I must admit that my classroom experience played a huge role in making me even shyer at speaking that what I already am. Even though I was a beginner, I had to take lesson with people who studied German for 5/8 years and who, very maturely, laughed at me, or other beginners, when we made mistakes. Not funny :/ French (A1/A2?) > foreign language #4, I tried to study it while I was still at university by attending an intensive French course, but most of the lessons overlapped with my Informatics lessons. Needless to say, my Informatics professor didn't like that so I had to drop out of the course, but someday I will learn French *shakes fist*. Also, my sister studied French in high school so I have a good amount of learning material, from grammar books to reading and audio books. Swedish (A1) > my fifth (and last for now ;)) language. I fell in love with Swedish by chance, even though I always had a huge crush on Nordic mythology (and mythology in general. And history. And archaeology. And a bunch of other stuff as well, but that’s another story XD). I happened to meet many Swedes while I was in Germany two years ago, they talked to me a bit about their language and I got curious enough to attend a Swedish language course. Unfortunately I could only attend it for two weeks because I had to go back to Italy. I was still in university at that time so with German exams and a thesis around the corner I put Swedish on hold until I had enough time to study it properly. Fast forward a year later: I got this silly idea of learning it on my own. I found a place with like-minded learners (this forum ;)) and we'll see how this little "experiment" of mine will go. Edited by suzukaze on 04 January 2015 at 11:18pm 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| suzukaze Triglot Senior Member Italy bit.ly/1bGm459 Joined 4595 days ago 186 posts - 254 votes Speaks: Italian*, English, Spanish Studies: German, French, Swedish, Japanese | Message 2 of 43 05 March 2013 at 5:13pm | IP Logged | ||
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This is an overview of my learning plan to show what I did/am doing/will do. Please note that the "past" section refers to what I did during the last year, when I started to study languages on my own. A stats post will be added shortly.
English Past/Present/Future > No specific resource here, I watch TV shows in English and/or read in English daily; I usually watch movies in English (with subtitles in one of the other foreign languages I'm learning) twice or three times a week. Also, I recently signed-up to some online courses about topics I'm interested in (history, animal behaviour, informatics, videogames to name a few) as a mean to acquire specialised English jargon. Spanish Past/Present > Meh...I still haven't figured out exactly what I could do to practise and improve my Spanish. I think I need to find some nice novels (the ones I read at university were terribly sad and depressing) and work a bit on grammar. I'm probably going to take a look at other logs to find some inspiration :) Future > nothing planned, I'd like to study Spanish for a few months and take one of those DELE sample tests to see if I can place myself in a C1/C2 level. I use DELE since I might sit for that examination once I have reached my goal to have an official document that certifies my language level (this is exclusively done for job-related purposes). I might take a couple of those online courses I mentioned in the English section in Spanish. German Past > I completed a few podcasts made by Deutsche Welle (full list in the "Stats" post which will soon be up). Present > I listen to the "Langsam gesprochene Nachrichten" daily and expand my vocabulary using the "Top-Thema", "Wort der Woche", and "Video Thema" podcasts. Frequently used words are added to Anki and reviewed daily (usually 20-40 minutes). I'm also using my old university textbooks to work on grammar and vocabulary; we skipped some chapters and even if the textbooks' levels is below or equal my current level it will be a good way to exercise and acquire some basic vocabulary I'm missing. Future > begin to read "Anna", a children book I bought a while ago. Add words to Anki, rinse and repeat for the other children books I have :) French Past > I completed all the three Pimsleur levels and I began Assimil a few months ago using the one lesson per week method. I also completed one podcast: Mission Europe - Paris episode. Present > I realised that if I keep doing only one Assimil lesson per week it's going to take me a few months to reach the active stage. I'm now opting to spend two or three days on each lesson and see what happens when I reach the active stage. For the listening comphrension I listen to the news in simple French every day. I have done nothing for either writing or speaking so, to begin with, I will use the challenges posted over the Romulan Team thread to do some much needed practice. Future > nothing planned at the moment, although after completing Assimil (or maybe even during the active stage) I will begin to use my sister's grammar book and read some simple books like "Le petit prince" or the simplified version of some classics like "Le tulip noir". Swedish Past > As with French, I did the Pimsleur course (level one, the only one available for Swedish) one and I'm currently doing Assimil. Present > pretty much the same things I do for French: Assimil lessons, news in simple Swedish, Team Viking's challenges for written and oral practice (although I'm not able to talk much at the moment since my current oral level is, well, quite low). Future > nothing planned at the moment. 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| suzukaze Triglot Senior Member Italy bit.ly/1bGm459 Joined 4595 days ago 186 posts - 254 votes Speaks: Italian*, English, Spanish Studies: German, French, Swedish, Japanese | Message 3 of 43 05 March 2013 at 5:13pm | IP Logged | ||
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A quick and dry overview of the milestones I have reached. Dates in the "Extras" category refers to the day I watched a certain movie or finished to read a certain book.
Structured Study (December 2012 - current) Delfin » Unit 9 (current) (May 2012 - July 2012) French Pimsleur, levels 1-3 (May 2012) Swedish Pimsleur, level 1 (August 2012 - current) French with Ease (August 2012 - current) Le suèdois sans peine Listening and Reading Comprehension (June 2012) DW Mission Europe (Paris and Berlin episodes) (June 2012 - July 2012) DW Deutsch, Warum Nicht (July 2012 - August 2012) DW Radio D (November 2012 - current) DW Langsam gesprochene Nachrichten (June 2012 - current) RFI Journal en français facil (June 2012 - current) PF4 Nyheter på lätt svenska (January 2013 - current) DW Top-Thema (February 2013 - current) DW Video Thema (February 2013 - current) DW Wort der Woche Speaking Practice Language exchanges on Skype (PM me if interested!) Writing Practice Lang-8 (my nickname is seisai, feel free to add me!) Extras Not listed: TV shows in English I watch without subtitles or with English/Italian subtitles. I keep track of those in my personal LJ. (?? January 2013) book > Philip Pullman, The Golden Compass (28 February 2013) book > Philip Pullman, The Subtle Knife (?? March 2013) book > Philip Pullman, The Amber Spyglass (current) (4 March 2013) movie > The Avengers, German subtitles (11 March 2013) movie > Corpse Bride, Spanish subtitles Edited by suzukaze on 13 March 2013 at 1:47pm 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| Emily96 Diglot Senior Member Canada Joined 4421 days ago 270 posts - 342 votes Speaks: English*, French Studies: Spanish, Finnish, Latin | Message 4 of 43 06 March 2013 at 3:02am | IP Logged | ||
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You seem to be off to a good start! Good luck with your language learning goals this year.
1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| suzukaze Triglot Senior Member Italy bit.ly/1bGm459 Joined 4595 days ago 186 posts - 254 votes Speaks: Italian*, English, Spanish Studies: German, French, Swedish, Japanese | Message 5 of 43 06 March 2013 at 10:41am | IP Logged | ||
Thanks Emily and good luck to you too! I still have to go through my team mates' logs, but I will try to do that ASAP. And since you are learning Italian feel free to contact me if you need help with it :) 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| Emily96 Diglot Senior Member Canada Joined 4421 days ago 270 posts - 342 votes Speaks: English*, French Studies: Spanish, Finnish, Latin | Message 6 of 43 08 March 2013 at 5:18am | IP Logged | ||
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Thanks, I probably will =)
1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| suzukaze Triglot Senior Member Italy bit.ly/1bGm459 Joined 4595 days ago 186 posts - 254 votes Speaks: Italian*, English, Spanish Studies: German, French, Swedish, Japanese | Message 7 of 43 08 March 2013 at 8:32am | IP Logged | ||
You're welcome :) Especially since you are also learning Spanish it's better to understand the differences between Spanish and Italian early on, although it can happen to mix up these two languages…it certainly did to me and to my fellow classmates XD 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| suzukaze Triglot Senior Member Italy bit.ly/1bGm459 Joined 4595 days ago 186 posts - 254 votes Speaks: Italian*, English, Spanish Studies: German, French, Swedish, Japanese | Message 8 of 43 14 March 2013 at 11:52pm | IP Logged | ||
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I had to deal with a nasty flu for a few days so I wasn't able to do much. Anyway…I'm feeling better now so I finally got around posting a short text on lang-8 :)
Romulan Team Challenge #1: Write Five sentences introducing yourself Bonjour à tout le monde, je m’appelle Sofia, j'ai vingt-sept ans et je suis italienne. J’habite dans un appartement avec ma mère, ma sœur et nos trois chiens. Je crois/pense que la langue française est très belle et je voudrai l'apprendre même si je l’ai déjà étudiée un peu à l’université. Maintenant je suis stagiaire chez une compagnie de traductions, mais je n’aime pas mon travail/boulot parce que je ne traduis rien…la seule chose que je dois faire tout l’après-midi est écrire des articles publicitaires. Depuis un an j'étudie le français et trois autres langues (espagnol, allemand, et suédois) parce que j’aime apprendre les langues étrangères. 1 person has voted this message useful |
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