198 messages over 25 pages: << Previous 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 ... 24 25
stifa Triglot Senior Member Norway lang-8.com/448715 Joined 4865 days ago 629 posts - 813 votes Speaks: Norwegian*, EnglishC2, German Studies: Japanese, Spanish
| Message 193 of 198 12 July 2014 at 4:38pm | IP Logged |
12th July
I can't wrap my head around this summer: it's been warm outside every day since I got
home, but last night the temeperature outside changed abruptly and a thunderstorm
occured. It wasn't as bad as those I experienced in Berlin last year, but they feel a
lot worse when you're on the countryside, and there's no such thing as lighting
diverters.
Today I signed up for one week of German courses at GLS in Berlin (I wanted to see
whether I had to reset any of my exams before signing up). I was originally planning to
sign up for a German test as well, but since I need some special arrangement, I'd be
better off taking one of those in London or Oslo at a later point in time.
I'm also feeling a lot less motivated to work on my Japanese. For some reason, I get
really sleepy when I'm reading Japanese, and most interesting shows seems to be far
above my listening comprehension level...
Edited by stifa on 13 July 2014 at 11:24am
1 person has voted this message useful
| stifa Triglot Senior Member Norway lang-8.com/448715 Joined 4865 days ago 629 posts - 813 votes Speaks: Norwegian*, EnglishC2, German Studies: Japanese, Spanish
| Message 194 of 198 17 July 2014 at 8:54am | IP Logged |
17th July
German
Recently, I finished the 7th Harry Potter book, and I really enjoyed the ending; it
felt very conclusive because it cleared up a lot of matters that confused me.
Japanese
I haven't done much in Japanese recently - for some reason, I get really sleepy when
reading in Japanese, which makes it very difficult to get into the story and enjoy the
book. I do, occationally, watch some videos on Nicovideo though.
Spanish
It hasn't been a month, yet I feel I've made some decent progress in this language.
I've currently gone through 360 cards in Anki, and I've still got a "backlog" of
another 100 or so (I plan on having such a backlog when going to Berlin, so I won't
have to worry about adding new cards while I'm there.) My Anki retention rates aren't
that great, but I'm getting there:
Learning: 78.63 %
New: 94.86 %
Old: N/A
The materials I'm currently using are StudySpanish.com's grammar guide, Assimil Spanish
and a Kindle-friendly reader. Also, since you can copy text from Kindle books now,
making Anki cards out of some of the sentences doesn't require much effort anymore.
Edited by stifa on 17 July 2014 at 10:38am
1 person has voted this message useful
| stifa Triglot Senior Member Norway lang-8.com/448715 Joined 4865 days ago 629 posts - 813 votes Speaks: Norwegian*, EnglishC2, German Studies: Japanese, Spanish
| Message 195 of 198 29 July 2014 at 9:29am | IP Logged |
29th July
German
I haven't been doing much interesting stuff lately: watched some (=quite a lot of)
youtube videos in German, as well as reading "Tiefe Wunden" [Nele Neuhaus] (finished it
four days ago) and "Kalter Grund" [Eva Almstädt] (will finish it tomorrow, I think).
Spanish
I'm still working my way through the reader I mentioned in the previous post. My Anki
deck has about 705 cards, of which 555 are studied. I must admit it feels good when I
can read an entire sentence or two without having to look up any of the words.
Hopefully I'll get started with native materials as quickly as with German.
Japanese
I'm currently not studying Japanese actively. I simply don't feel motivated to do so
anyway: reading it makes me feel sleepy for some reason, and listening to it is still
quite a challange after two years of learning it. It's hard to find something "at my
level" that is enjoyable as well...
1 person has voted this message useful
| stifa Triglot Senior Member Norway lang-8.com/448715 Joined 4865 days ago 629 posts - 813 votes Speaks: Norwegian*, EnglishC2, German Studies: Japanese, Spanish
| Message 196 of 198 29 August 2014 at 4:17pm | IP Logged |
29th August
I'm still here, but haven't really got much to write about.
Spanish
I'm mostly reading and adding flashcards, as well as occasionally listening to some
Assimil lessons. My Anki deck now consist of 1055 Cards, of which 1035 are studied.
What I notice is that my reading comprehension is comparable to that of German about
two years ago, when I "restarted" learning it.
German
Mostly listening and reading, really. Since last update, I've read:
- George Martin: "Die Königin der Drachen" (=2nd half of Storm of Swords)
- Eva Almstädt: "Engelsgrube"
I've also joined a German group skype chat with a mix of native speakers and learning.
Apparently, the group originated on Unilang, but I found out about it on r/German.
(There are several Reddit forums for specific languages with more than 10k
subscribers.)
Japanese
I've done nothing... I've got no motivation to go on really. I'm not abandoning the
language though.
1 person has voted this message useful
| stifa Triglot Senior Member Norway lang-8.com/448715 Joined 4865 days ago 629 posts - 813 votes Speaks: Norwegian*, EnglishC2, German Studies: Japanese, Spanish
| Message 197 of 198 21 September 2014 at 10:42pm | IP Logged |
21st September
Spanish
Recently, I've been reading the first Harry Potter book. In the beginning it was
downright awful reading it, because I nearly had to look up one sentence, but now
there seem to be only 5-10 unknown words per page, and hence I read about 10 pages a
day.
I'm not focusing much on listening comprehension yet, although I do try to watch some
stuff on youtube every now and then, although I still struggle to understand it.
Unlike German, which I found easy to understand, even in the early phases of my
learning, Spanish seems to be spoken more rapidly.
German
I have only read "Blaues Gift" from Eva Almstädt, but I've watched a lot of Youtube
vids (vlogs, LPs and some Dokus), which I can't really call listening practice
anymore, since I don't really have any trouble understanding any of it.
And the beginning of September marked the two-year anniversary of my German learning.
Have someone told me that I would become decent at it within two years by myself back
when I had German in school, I'd never believe it, since I didn't really learn much
during those five years of classes, and the two-year hiatus made me forget what I
actually learned.
Japanese
I'm occasionally watching a jikkyo of FF6... that's it...
Edited by stifa on 21 September 2014 at 10:49pm
1 person has voted this message useful
| stifa Triglot Senior Member Norway lang-8.com/448715 Joined 4865 days ago 629 posts - 813 votes Speaks: Norwegian*, EnglishC2, German Studies: Japanese, Spanish
| Message 198 of 198 30 November 2014 at 10:59am | IP Logged |
30th November
I've completely forgotten to update this.
Well, to keep it short: I've completed that HP book above, as well as Sal de mis
sueños by Fernando Trujillo Sanz, which appears to be a slice of life novel, but in
reality, it's turns more and more bizarre towards the end. In fact, I spent about a
month getting through the first 140 pages, and then blasted through the last 80-ish in
5 days!
I don't really know what to say about German anymore. Reading or immersion doesn't
feel like learning at all. I encounter a new word approx. every 10 pages or so, which
would imply a comprehension of about 2999/3000 (assuming a page consists of about 300
words) or 99.97%. With listening comprehension it's about the same. My speaking is
also slowly getting better too.
Also, I'm part of a German learning Skype group, which is, in reality, a general
topicless Skype group where the most active members are a native and someone who's
gone to school in Germany for years. In addition to that, I do occasionally write
longer comments on Youtube, and no one seems to mind my German...
I'm not sure if I should join TAC next year, but if I do, it'll be with Spanish...
1 person has voted this message useful
|
If you wish to post a reply to this topic you must first login. If you are not already registered you must first register
You cannot post new topics in this forum - You cannot reply to topics in this forum - You cannot delete your posts in this forum You cannot edit your posts in this forum - You cannot create polls in this forum - You cannot vote in polls in this forum
This page was generated in 0.5547 seconds.
DHTML Menu By Milonic JavaScript
|