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Josquin’s Language Symphony (RU, IR, 東亜) | ||
Tags: Gaelic (Scottish) | Gaelic (Irish) | Icelandic | Portuguese | Multilingual | Total Annihilation Challenge (TAC) | Italian | Japanese | Russian | ||
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 Language Learning Forum : Language Learning Log |  | |
| Solfrid Cristin Heptaglot Winner TAC 2011 & 2012 Senior Member Norway Joined 5327 days ago 4143 posts - 8864 votes  Speaks: Norwegian*, Spanish, Swedish, French, English, German, Italian Studies: Russian | Message 297 of 646 14 January 2013 at 8:50pm | IP Logged | ||
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I am glad I only did about 15 seconds of German, or you would not have been quite as impressed:-) But I
think you are wise to lower your ambitions, it they were at a 100% so far. After all we are doing this for fun. The first Skype session is always a shock, but next time already you are mentally prepared, and it will be easier. And I thought you did really well in French for not using it regularly. I get to use it at least a little bit 4-5 times a year, and listen to tons of French TV-series, I have lived in France for a year and I was a French teacher in my previous life. You did just fine:-) 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| tarvos Super Polyglot Winner TAC 2012 Senior Member China likeapolyglot.wordpr Joined 4700 days ago 5310 posts - 9399 votes Speaks: Dutch*, English, Swedish, French, Russian, German, Italian, Norwegian, Mandarin, Romanian, Afrikaans Studies: Greek, Modern Hebrew, Spanish, Portuguese, Czech, Korean, Esperanto, Finnish | Message 298 of 646 14 January 2013 at 11:12pm | IP Logged | ||
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I was going to say the same thing; comparing yourself to Cristina is not a fair thing
to do really. And my French is only fluent on the basis of the fact I don't stumble in it; I still make pretty trivial errors in speech :) You do just fine for what you want to do! And I have also extensively traveled and spent a lot of time in Francophone Belgium, especially Brussels, lived there during a summer with French people. The inhibition you have when speaking a foreign language drops when you force yourself into a "need" situation, and since that situation isn't so stringent for you as it was for me back then, it makes perfect sense. I had to understand French to understand there was a leak in the bathroom and respond to people about it. I had to explain a breakup I had to my roommates in French. It makes sense that I can speak French "on the fly" because that is simply how I use that language. It's not how you use it. Our goals are totally different, there's no need to be intimidated :) 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| Emme Triglot Senior Member Italy Joined 5340 days ago 980 posts - 1594 votes Speaks: Italian*, English, German Studies: Russian, Swedish, French | Message 299 of 646 15 January 2013 at 1:34am | IP Logged | ||
I could have written those same words myself! I’m in a very similar situation: I learn languages for languages’ sake and have very little opportunity to use them in the real world. Sometime it’s hard to justify even to myself the amount of time spent in this apparently meaningless pursuit. But then I realize how much I enjoy studying languages and anyway I can’t usually stay away from textbooks and dictionaries for more than a few months. I think the secret is not to worry too much about reaching perfection or about finding a socially-acceptable reason (career opportunities, family connections, travel etc.) for learning languages. After all we are only human and we have a right to our idiosyncrasies. If spending hours on end studying languages makes us happy, who’s to tell us that we shouldn’t do it or that we’re doing it wrong? And if it’s any consolation, I’ve read this log in its entirety now and, as someone who’s just started out with Russian, I find it really inspiring. Even though you may think otherwise, you’ve accomplished so much over the past eight months. I wish I could do just a fraction of that in TAC 2013: I would consider that an achievement! So keep up the great work and remember to keep having fun! Edited by Emme on 15 January 2013 at 1:37am 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| Kerrie Senior Member United States justpaste.it/Kerrie2 Joined 5388 days ago 1232 posts - 1740 votes Speaks: English* Studies: Spanish | Message 300 of 646 15 January 2013 at 4:36am | IP Logged | ||
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Ditto with the above.
I learn languages because it's fun. I enjoy it. Kind of like I enjoy Sudoku. and logic puzzles. Call me a nerd. :) I like learning how things go together, figuring things out. I like reading in my target languages, and I like to understand them. I'm not that interested in producing them, though. I suppose if I ever had the opportunity to use them, that might change. But I live in a monolingual environment, too, and that's unlikely to change in the next 10 years. I say go with whatever floats your boat. :) 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| Josquin Heptaglot Senior Member Germany Joined 4837 days ago 2266 posts - 3992 votes Speaks: German*, English, French, Latin, Italian, Russian, Swedish Studies: Japanese, Irish, Portuguese, Persian | Message 301 of 646 15 January 2013 at 9:41am | IP Logged | ||
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Cristina, tarvos, Emme, and Kerrie, thank you so much for your kind responses! I really appreciate all you said very much. I just tend to have such high standards for myself and set myself under pressure. Call me a perfectionist. Normally, that's not a problem, because I keep my language passion to myself, but meeting such amazing polyglots as my mates from Team MIR just makes me think I have to perform perfectly. I sometimes simply have to remember myself we're all human and that everybody makes mistakes.
Good to know I can relax more from now on! See you soon. @Emme: Thanks a lot! I'm glad you like my log. I hope it will continue to be inspiring in the future as well. 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| tarvos Super Polyglot Winner TAC 2012 Senior Member China likeapolyglot.wordpr Joined 4700 days ago 5310 posts - 9399 votes Speaks: Dutch*, English, Swedish, French, Russian, German, Italian, Norwegian, Mandarin, Romanian, Afrikaans Studies: Greek, Modern Hebrew, Spanish, Portuguese, Czech, Korean, Esperanto, Finnish | Message 302 of 646 15 January 2013 at 10:28am | IP Logged | ||
If I was such a perfectionist, I would never have spoken German to you at all, rest assured; my grammar is something out of a teacher's worst nightmare :) I don't set my standards so high, I simply want to communicate with people. I only go for absolute perfection in a language if it's useful (English, French), my native tongue (Dutch) or I have some personal connection to that language (French). I don't mind not being perfect; the level you saw me speak at in f.e. Russian reflects more of the fact I am trying to "communicate" than "did I get that case and preposition right". I entirely drop that idea in speech and just try to make it come out more or less naturally. This leads to my speech being riddled with small errors, but it makes it perfectly possible to communicate very well :) I can weed errors out later, I like having a working machine. I can fix the small bugs later. :) 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| Josquin Heptaglot Senior Member Germany Joined 4837 days ago 2266 posts - 3992 votes Speaks: German*, English, French, Latin, Italian, Russian, Swedish Studies: Japanese, Irish, Portuguese, Persian | Message 303 of 646 15 January 2013 at 7:21pm | IP Logged | ||
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Yeah, unfortunately my shaky self-confidence is a little bit in my way, but I hope I will get more confident by speaking more often. If I was in an immersion situation, I'd definitely take the same approach as you, but as I mainly "converse" with books, CDs, and movies (if at all), being able to speak a language is more or less a nice side-effect of being able to understand. Well, that's a bit exaggerated, but I hope you get what I mean.
So, I'm a bit inhibited when I try to speak a language I seldom use, and afterwards I think I should have done much better. I simply would have to practise in order to really get better, I know that, but I don't know where I should take the time to brush-up my French, Italian, or Swedish. I hardly get to study Russian, so when should I take care of the others? Yes, languages are great, but I still have a life besides of them: working, researching my dissertation, rehearsing for concerts, and -- last but not least -- my private life. I therefore have to arrange myself with the fact that some of my languages aren't in such a good shape as they used to be, which is a pity. I guess that's what really bothers me: I used to be good at French and Swedish, and now I constantly have to think while speaking and I make mistakes I wouldn't have made some years ago. Yeah, I guess that's the real point. I'm disappointed that some of my languages have become rusty without me noticing it. 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| Josquin Heptaglot Senior Member Germany Joined 4837 days ago 2266 posts - 3992 votes Speaks: German*, English, French, Latin, Italian, Russian, Swedish Studies: Japanese, Irish, Portuguese, Persian | Message 304 of 646 28 January 2013 at 7:00pm | IP Logged | ||
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MONDAY, 28 JANUARY 2013
Okay, this hasn't been a good month for studying. Although I did some Russian and Gaelic, it was so little that I won't even report about it in detail. I have started unit 17 in Colloquial Russian and unit 6 in Lehrbuch der schottisch-gälischen Sprache. My Icelandic studies consisted of two paragraphs I read in E. V. Gordons Introduction to Old Norse. I won't go into detail as to why I haven't managed to study more, but let's say I had to deal with some recurring health problems of which I had thought they were already history. Well, additionally to my obligations as a musician and my daily work that was just the straw which broke the camel's back. So, instead of studying I had to ease my mind, take some long walks, read some good books, listen to gentle music. So, partially a bad start into the new year, but I hope things will get better now. As soon as I feel like my old self again, I'll get back to Russian, Gaelic, and Icelandic. I'm really missing my grammar points and vocab lists, so I can't wait. I wanted to work on unit 17 of Colloquial Russian yesterday, but as it's all about healthcare and being ill that wasn't such a good idea. I hope I can report better news soon! 1 person has voted this message useful |
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