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Kerrie TAC 2015 Team Caesar SP BrPT ASL | ||
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 Language Learning Forum : Language Learning Log |  | |
| Cavesa Triglot Senior Member Czech Republic Joined 5001 days ago 3277 posts - 6779 votes  Speaks: Czech*, FrenchC2, EnglishC1 Studies: Spanish, German, Italian | Message 137 of 246 20 August 2013 at 3:39pm | IP Logged | ||
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Eight SCs were a real madness, so were my four :-D
French listening comprehension is actually not that bad. In a few seasons of a tv series, you will be more than fine. YOu are right that French does have some disadvantages. The beginning and low intermediate stages are more difficult (quite a lot of people struggle with the pronunciation and some basic grammar issues) but the further you are, the more you are just putting together pieces you already know. Natives are less helpful but you might be more lucky in Canada which is closer to you than Europe. However, there is a lot more material to use and you are more likely to find a practice groups or things like that. Everyone wants to be efficient! And your Spanish will surely help the other romance language. I am sure you'll do more than fine whichever youchoose. Italian is an awesome choice too, I am not surprised you want to go for both :-) 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| Kerrie Senior Member United States justpaste.it/Kerrie2 Joined 5387 days ago 1232 posts - 1740 votes Speaks: English* Studies: Spanish | Message 138 of 246 21 September 2013 at 10:39pm | IP Logged | ||
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So I cannot resist a good challenge. Brian Kwong has created a +1Challenge, and I have decided to give it a go for Japanese. My goals are relatively modest. I want to work my way through the Michel Thomas courses. The Foundation course has 8 CDs and the Advanced course has 4 CDs. If I do 2-3 tracks a day, get one CD done per week, then I will finish in three months. Of course, it will not get me past beginner stage, but it will give me a taste of the language and how it works, and help me decide if I want to continue with it or not. As far as the French vs Italian dilemma, I have decided to focus on French for 2014. I'm already more comfortable with it, and I really look forward to reading French literature. Italian will just have to wait a little longer. :D 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| Cavesa Triglot Senior Member Czech Republic Joined 5001 days ago 3277 posts - 6779 votes Speaks: Czech*, FrenchC2, EnglishC1 Studies: Spanish, German, Italian | Message 139 of 246 22 September 2013 at 12:15am | IP Logged | ||
Looks like a htlal epidemia :-D 4 persons have voted this message useful | |||
| Kerrie Senior Member United States justpaste.it/Kerrie2 Joined 5387 days ago 1232 posts - 1740 votes Speaks: English* Studies: Spanish | Message 140 of 246 07 December 2013 at 5:37pm | IP Logged | ||
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I had an interesting little adventure with Japanese. I went through the Michel Thomas Foundation course in about a month. I was impressed with how comfortable I was with the structure of the language, right off. I have always had a "fear" of the Asian languages (well, maybe most non-European languages) because they are so different from English. I learned enough Japanese that I'm not afraid of it anymore. In fact, I'm not afraid of any of the Asian languages anymore. :D It was kind of fun, and I will probably come back to Japanese at some point. Right now is not the time, but I am glad I took the time to learn a little. I got a decent idea of how the language works, learned a little of the basics, and am surprised with the progress I made in just a month. I was not very thrilled with the "Advanced" course. I'm not sure if it's because I started a new (long hours!) job at the same time as I started the Advanced course, or if it's the different instructor, but I can't remember anything she teaches. However, I *have* decided that, having gotten over my "I can't learn exotic languages" mindset, that I am going to work on Korean for 2014. I will be mostly focusing on listening comprehension, so I can better understand my kdramas. 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| Kerrie Senior Member United States justpaste.it/Kerrie2 Joined 5387 days ago 1232 posts - 1740 votes Speaks: English* Studies: Spanish | Message 141 of 246 07 December 2013 at 5:45pm | IP Logged | ||
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I can't believe it is already a week into December. This year has flown by. I am still working on my Spanish Super Challenge, and expect to finish it. I'm in the middle of three books (one of them is 1500 pages). I am very pleasantly surprised how reading so much has improved my ability, especially my listening comprehension. I'm watching TV in Spanish and understanding most of it, I can eavesdrop on the Hispanic girls at work, and listen to the radio or music without even thinking about the fact that it's a "foreign" language. Next year, I am going to focus on conversation and writing. The rest of my languages kind of took a back seat to life this year. I am happy with the progress I have made, though. My Spanish is much improved, my French is better than it was a year ago, I'm not afraid of Japanese anymore, and I have decided to tackle Korean. All in all, progress. If you cannot fly, then run. If you can't run, then walk. If you can't walk, then crawl. But by all means, keep moving forward. :D 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| Kerrie Senior Member United States justpaste.it/Kerrie2 Joined 5387 days ago 1232 posts - 1740 votes Speaks: English* Studies: Spanish | Message 142 of 246 07 December 2013 at 5:59pm | IP Logged | ||
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Looking forward:
Looking towards 2014, I will continue my focus on Spanish. It is my goal to overcome my fear of talking to people and of making mistakes. Next year is the year to come out of my shell. :D I will be starting my French Super Challenge (for 2014-15). With French, I am not concerned about speaking. I will be focusing on reading comprehension, primarily so I can use Assimil for other languages. Does anyone know of a good online French-English dictionary that has genders? I normally just use Google Translate, but that's not useful for figuring out genders! I will also be working on Korean in 2014. My goal with Korean is just to better understand my kdramas, so I will be focusing on vocab, and a little on sentence structure. I am curious to see how much my passive exposure helps me. I will probably be using the old Livemocha, Assimil, and Manash University's My Korean book (if I can find a way to print it inexpensively). Any other suggestions are welcome. :D If I can sell my house early next year, I will have more time and less stress, and I may consider bringing Italian (or something else) back into the mix, but for now, I am limiting myself to just three. I am hoping that we can make a 2014 TAC team for intermediate/advanced learners for Spanish and French. It seemed like the Romance teams fell apart last year before they got started. I think groups focused more on same language/similar level would be more supportive and more interesting and would be more cohesive over the year. :D 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| Kerrie Senior Member United States justpaste.it/Kerrie2 Joined 5387 days ago 1232 posts - 1740 votes Speaks: English* Studies: Spanish | Message 143 of 246 27 December 2013 at 8:37pm | IP Logged | ||
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TAC 2014 Spanish 50 books (5,000 pages) 100 movies (100 x 90m) 100 conversations (100 x 30m) I will continue to work on my Spanish. I want to continue massive reading input for Spanish, continue increasing my vocabulary, and work on listening comprehension. French 50 books (5,000 pages) 100 movies (100 x 90m) 50 conversations (50 x 30m) My only real purpose for learning French is to be able to use French-based Assimil courses. I want to be able to read relatively fluently, but I'm not interested in speaking. Still, I will spend some time doing LR, and it's quite possible I'll be going to France in early 2015 for a week or two, so it won't hurt to focus a little on speaking and understanding. Korean I am a kdrama addict. Unfortunately there are no groups in my local area for that. My goal for Korean is to learn 5 new words a day. I know, it is not a lot. But, over the course of a year, if I stay dedicated, that will be over 1800 words. Which really is not too shabby. :) I am using a frequency list on Memrise right now. I might switch to Evita's deck on Anki once I am more comfortable with the writing system. Korean is NOT a priority for me - not anywhere close, really. But the interest is there, and I'm no longer afraid of Asian languages, so ... the sky is the limit. :) Norwegian No, I am not going to start studying Norwegian. :) If I end up in France in early 2015 like I'm planning, I might be able to make a short trip to visit Cristina, so I might pick up the Assimil Norvegien book sometime next year. I should stop now. I don't need to study 10 languages. :) I will be part of Team Lobo for Spanish, the French Team, and Team Gumiho for Korean. I will also be an observer for the Italian team, the Russian Team, the Scandinavian Team, and probably the Japanese Team. Edited by Kerrie on 27 December 2013 at 8:44pm 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| kraemder Senior Member United StatesRegistered users can see my Skype Name Joined 5176 days ago 1497 posts - 1648 votes Speaks: English* Studies: German, Spanish, Japanese | Message 144 of 246 28 December 2013 at 12:19am | IP Logged | ||
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I think 5 words a day is pretty reasonable and you will see results with it. You'll probably pick up a few more words as you go too without them being in your SRS too. People that add tons of words every day I think get burned out which can be worse.
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