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Amerykanka’s TAC 2013, Teams Żubr & Nebun | ||
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 Language Learning Forum : Language Learning Log |  | |
| Mooby Senior Member Scotland Joined 6097 days ago 707 posts - 1220 votes  Speaks: English* Studies: Polish | Message 113 of 176 21 May 2013 at 9:28am | IP Logged | |||||
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Exciting times ahead! It sounds like you're getting your Polish materials organised. I've just ordered 3 more books of fiction and I must restrain myself from dipping into them all simultaneously, but not finishing any of them. I might even buy a copy of Stara Baśń myself!
I have too many weaknesses in grammar to list. I can't take in grammar, however simple, in one bite. I need to repeatedly nibble at it over time. Otherwise I get grammar indigestion and need to lie down! Rather than saying "Right, this time I'm going to sort it out once and for all", I just study an aspect of grammar as it comes along in a coursebook, then examine it until my comprehension reaches the point where to keep looking at it becomes fruitless. When I move on to another coursebook, I'll meet the grammar again but in a different context and with more familiarisation. When I actually see or hear the grammar in use, my comprehension is nearly complete, but not quite...the test comes when I try to produce it in speech or writing. Slowly the penny is dropping. 2 persons have voted this message useful | ||||||
| Serpent Octoglot Senior Member Russian Federation serpent-849.livejour Joined 6589 days ago 9753 posts - 15779 votes 4 sounds Speaks: Russian*, English, FinnishC1, Latin, German, Italian, Spanish, Portuguese Studies: Danish, Romanian, Polish, Belarusian, Ukrainian, Croatian, Slovenian, Catalan, Czech, Galician, Dutch, Swedish | Message 114 of 176 21 May 2013 at 7:16pm | IP Logged | |||||
1 person has voted this message useful | ||||||
| Amerykanka Hexaglot Senior Member United States Joined 5163 days ago 657 posts - 890 votes Speaks: English*, Spanish, Polish, Latin, Ancient Greek, Russian | Message 115 of 176 23 May 2013 at 3:16am | IP Logged | |||||
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@Mooby, right now I am mostly trying to review grammar that I have already learned and forgotten, or that I
never learned properly. Nothing very big - just little details. They will take a little while to sink in, of course, but hopefully I can make some progress. ANNOUNCEMENTS 1. This is my 500th post on this forum - wow! 2. I think my plan is working. I studied Polish today and yesterday, and today I finally did the fifth lesson in Assimil Italian. 3. I have been infected by the Italian Bug. Today I was looking up the vocabulary from Assimil, and thinking to myself that I would rather be doing something else, when suddenly I caught sight of an interesting-looking Italian sentence in my dictionary. I couldn't figure out the grammar behind it . . . so instantly I thought, "Wow, it would be really cool to know that much Italian!" And the rest, as they say, is history. 4. I finished Agnes Grey. Now I am reading The Book Thief by Marcus Zusak. This isn't a classic, of course, and it has a little too much swearing for my taste, but I decided to read it because it makes for a good topic of conversation. Read the sample conversation below to see why. Setting: I am talking with an average stranger who was educated in the American public school system. Me: Do you like to read? Stranger: Yes. Me: Great, I do too. So what books do you like? Stranger: Well, I like The Book Thief/To Kill A Mockingbird/The Great Gatsby. I read it for school. Me: Oh. I had different books on my reading list. But I like classics. Have you read anything by Tolkien/Dickens/Tolstoy/Austen/Brontë/Shakespeare? Stranger: No./Yes, but I didn't like it. The Book Thief/To Kill A Mockingbird/The Great Gatsby is really good. You should definitely read it! Me (wondering why I haven't read it yet): Thanks for the recommendation. I have this conversation a lot. All students seem to emerge from public schools with these three books behind them. So I've decided to read these three books as soon as possible, so that I will be able to talk about them with people. (And maybe I will enjoy the books in the process!) Edited by Amerykanka on 23 May 2013 at 3:19am 2 persons have voted this message useful | ||||||
| Amerykanka Hexaglot Senior Member United States Joined 5163 days ago 657 posts - 890 votes Speaks: English*, Spanish, Polish, Latin, Ancient Greek, Russian | Message 116 of 176 26 May 2013 at 5:18am | IP Logged | |||||
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Update time! :)
ENGLISH I finished The Book Thief the day before yesterday, so now I'm tackling The Great Gatsby. So far I've only read one chapter - I got distracted by rereading some easier material (old favorites). It's wonderful when I have extra free time - I get so much more reading done! LATIN: 55 minutes I spent 55 minutes on flashcard review. Next Monday I need to continue with my word list. SPANISH: 3 hours 50 minutes FLASHCARD REVIEW (1 hour 40 minutes) Nothing much to report. READING (1 hour) I read "Chac Mool" by Carlos Fuentes, as well as a brief biography of that author. It was an interesting - and creepy - story. LISTENING COMPREHENSION (1 hour 10 minutes) I listened to a really long chapter of Harry Potter 1, a few BBC news videos, and part of a documentary on the history of Jews in Poland. POLISH: 3 hours 33 minutes FLASHCARD REVIEW & VOCABULARY ACQUISITION (1 hour 41 minutes) This time was evenly divided. LISTENING COMPREHENSION (27 minutes) More LOTR. READING (1 hour 25 minutes) I read a chapter and a half of Harry Potter 1. I'm on page 110 now. ITALIAN: 1 hour 35 minutes FLASHCARD REVIEW (14 minutes) Italian flashcards are more fun now, since I finally have some variety. ASSIMIL (1 hour 21 minutes) I completed Lessons 5 - 8, so I feel a little more competent. Edited by Amerykanka on 26 May 2013 at 5:19am 1 person has voted this message useful | ||||||
| Amerykanka Hexaglot Senior Member United States Joined 5163 days ago 657 posts - 890 votes Speaks: English*, Spanish, Polish, Latin, Ancient Greek, Russian | Message 117 of 176 26 May 2013 at 5:42am | IP Logged | |||||
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If any of you fell asleep while reading my previous post, I don't blame you. It was pretty boring. That's why I
am devoting another and hopefully more interesting post to my Italian studies. MY Italian ADVENTURES First of all, I haven't been extremely adventuresome, mostly because my conversational Italian consists of the following: "Mi chiamo Rebecca. Come si chiama Lei?", "Benvenuto a casa mia! Accomodati!", and "Il treno è in orario?" But I have been having fun. My Assimil lessons have gotten more interesting and more relevant (one of the first words I learned was "accendino" (cigarette lighter) and I DON'T SMOKE). I must say that so far Italian has been a breeze, thanks to my knowledge of Spanish. I suspect that later on I will have most of the typical difficulties with the subtleties of the language, but right now learning Italian really is effortless (as Assimil advertises). Of course, it's all passive learning - the most active thing I do is review my flashcards. But I think Spanish will help with speaking and writing, too. And when I'm in Italy, if my Italian (which should be at least upper intermediate by then) fails me, I can throw in some Spanish words and hopefully be understood. I know that I'm being kind of repetitive here, but I just think it's so neat that I get this discount on Italian. There really aren't any languages that are as close to English as Spanish is to Italian, so the degree of similarity between the two Romance languages never ceases to amaze me. Sure, Spanish isn't exactly a nightmare for me - it's a great deal easier than Polish - but Italian is going to me my easiest acquisition yet. Just to be clear, I'm only aiming at basic fluency in Italian - I am well aware that reaching an advanced/near- native level in Italian would be hard even with my knowledge of Spanish and Latin. I'm not trying to diss Italian or anything like that! I think it's a pretty awesome language, even though I chose it for practical reasons. Edited by Amerykanka on 26 May 2013 at 5:45am 1 person has voted this message useful | ||||||
| Fuenf_Katzen Diglot Senior Member United States notjustajd.wordpress Joined 4361 days ago 337 posts - 476 votes Speaks: English*, German Studies: Polish, Ukrainian, Afrikaans | Message 118 of 176 26 May 2013 at 2:07pm | IP Logged | |||||
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That's really funny about those three books! Out of the three, I never heard of "The Book Thief," but I did have to read "The Great Gatsby" and "To Kill a Mockingbird." "Fahrenheit 451" is another one that shows up quite a bit.
My English teacher loved Russian literature though, so my memories from reading lists are "The Brother's Karamazov" and "Crime and Punishment." 1 person has voted this message useful | ||||||
| Amerykanka Hexaglot Senior Member United States Joined 5163 days ago 657 posts - 890 votes Speaks: English*, Spanish, Polish, Latin, Ancient Greek, Russian | Message 119 of 176 27 May 2013 at 3:01am | IP Logged | |||||
I'll have to add Fahrenheit 451 to my list. As for The Book Thief, it was just published in 2006, so it's a somewhat recent addition.
That's neat! I've never read anything by Dostoyevsky, which is kind of embarrassing for me to admit - but at least I've read War & Peace and Anna Karenina. Edited by Amerykanka on 27 May 2013 at 3:03am 1 person has voted this message useful | ||||||
| Amerykanka Hexaglot Senior Member United States Joined 5163 days ago 657 posts - 890 votes Speaks: English*, Spanish, Polish, Latin, Ancient Greek, Russian | Message 120 of 176 27 May 2013 at 6:42pm | IP Logged | |||||
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Ciao! Come state oggi? Io non sto bene - ho il raffreddore e c'è molto male.
My first composition in Italian! If I've managed to bungle even these simple statements, please let me know. :) 1 person has voted this message useful |
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