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Kanewai 2015: Team Caesar | ||
Tags: Super Challenge | Catalan | Ancient Greek | Turkish | Polyglot | Arabic | Total Annihilation Challenge (TAC) | Italian | Japanese | French | Spanish | ||
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 Language Learning Forum : Language Learning Log |  | |
| kanewai Triglot Senior Member United States justpaste.it/kanewai Joined 4881 days ago 1386 posts - 3054 votes  Speaks: English*, French, Marshallese Studies: Italian, Spanish | Message 225 of 331 17 January 2014 at 7:46am | IP Logged | |||||
Dear Kanewai, Shut up. Whenever you write "this should be easy" you have been wrong. You have zero percent accuracy. So stop it. Love, Kanewai ____________________________________ Seriously, there is no easy way for me to balance three languages. I'll have a couple weeks where I'm on it, and I start to project into the future based upon my best weeks, rather than my average weeks. I know I could do three languages, and work, and go to the gym, and have a partial social life, and still sleep eight hours a night. I even did the math to prove it. The problem is, I didn't leave much room for random events. Like having to work weekends, or having a two-day mental deficit from a long night with friends and a bottle of whisky, or Schoenhof's taking forever to ship Assimil Italian (even though Kerrie warned me), or Assimil Le Turc suddenly getting a lot harder (like it always does), or drinking too much coffee and staying up half the night playing Angry Birds, or having to do laundry. I guess I could have predicted the last one. So I'm scaling back my ambition a bit. Not a lot: I'll work the same courses & same languages, just at a more tenable pace. 3 persons have voted this message useful | ||||||
| BAnna Triglot Senior Member United States Joined 4614 days ago 409 posts - 616 votes Speaks: English*, German, Spanish Studies: Russian, Turkish | Message 226 of 331 17 January 2014 at 5:04pm | IP Logged | |||||
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I'm struggling with the same issues you describe, but I'm not as well organized as you are. As a beginner, it's essential to do something in the language every day, but maybe not for intermediate, maybe a longer session every other day would be enough? I don't know...it takes a certain time to warm up and shift gears (at least for me it does). I'm still trying to figure it out. Last year I maintained one language and actively studied one. That was no problem. This year, I'm trying to actively study three languages...seemed like such a good idea at the time when I was off work during the holidays. ;)
Oh yes, I can also relate to the swings between overconfidence ("this should be easy") and the despair of perfectionism ("this is impossible"). And it's hard to evaluate the usefulness of certain activities that may not have an immediate payoff. I really admire your dedication and enjoy reading your log. 1 person has voted this message useful | ||||||
| garyb Triglot Senior Member ScotlandRegistered users can see my Skype Name Joined 5199 days ago 1468 posts - 2413 votes Speaks: English*, Italian, French Studies: Spanish | Message 227 of 331 17 January 2014 at 5:14pm | IP Logged | |||||
I know exactly how you feel: I'm trying to balance three languages, work, gym, social life, music, and of course sleep. I agree that it's theoretically possible, and in a good week (not too busy, not many unforeseen events, adequate sleep) I actually manage pretty well, but unfortunately like you say it doesn't always work out that way and things come up! I think the best thing to do is just try to relax and not worry about it too much, otherwise you stress out and that makes the whole thing worse or you try to over-compensate and get burnt out. 1 person has voted this message useful | ||||||
| sctroyenne Diglot Senior Member United StatesRegistered users can see my Skype Name Joined 5383 days ago 739 posts - 1312 votes Speaks: English*, French Studies: Spanish, Irish | Message 228 of 331 17 January 2014 at 5:56pm | IP Logged | |||||
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I hate the balancing act too. I've been sort of focusing on one while "maintaining" the
others but "maintaining" often turns into not doing much at all. Which is fine for French since it's pretty burned into my brain, but it pretty much wipes out all my gains in Spanish and especially Irish since I'm still in the early stages of learning them. So it's necessary to find some time to devote to them. 1 person has voted this message useful | ||||||
| Chung Diglot Senior Member Joined 7148 days ago 4228 posts - 8259 votes 20 sounds Speaks: English*, French Studies: Polish, Slovak, Uzbek, Turkish, Korean, Finnish | Message 229 of 331 17 January 2014 at 6:07pm | IP Logged | |||||
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I feel much the same way, only I've had to deal with up to 7 languages. Some days I'm just too worn out from the rest of the day to study a foreign language.
It does help me mentally that I restrict myself to doing small sections in each of my languages (e.g. 3 pages of exercises from "Modern Ukrainian", 1 chapter from Turkish Self-Study Course) every week or two. I'd go nuts if I set anything ambitious, but I still feel a certain sense of accomplishment of sticking to these modest goals even if my progress is at a glacial pace. 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 230 of 331 18 January 2014 at 8:30pm | IP Logged | |||||
I figured that out, too. Ask Serpent, she is an expert at balancing languages. :)
Yea, you should have seen that one coming. Unless you are like my kids, and just throw it all in a basket and pick your clean clothes out as you need them. :D Still, it is amazing how much you manage to accomplish. I like your rotation plan. I think I might try it if my life ever settles down. LOL 1 person has voted this message useful | ||||||
| kanewai Triglot Senior Member United States justpaste.it/kanewai Joined 4881 days ago 1386 posts - 3054 votes Speaks: English*, French, Marshallese Studies: Italian, Spanish | Message 231 of 331 27 January 2014 at 6:42am | IP Logged | |||||
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I'm glad to know I'm not the only one still trying to figure this out!
I'm also still at the stage where I need to do a little each day. The catch is, I don't know that I'm really learning what I need from Italian FAST, and Assimil Turkish has gotten so hard that I need to set it aside. That hurts. I like the course, but there is so much new vocabulary and grammar in each lesson that I spend most of the time flipping back and forth between the lesson and the dictionary - it's not always transparent how Assimil's translation matches up with the original text. I don't really retain much at all this way. I'm only on lesson 30, but it feels like Assimil is already at the A2/B1 range. It's too soon. I hate to do this, but I need to set it aside for now. I wish there were more A-level material! I'd love a Michel Thomas or a Living Language Turkish course. As it is, I'll move back to Teach Yourself, along with FSI when it feels right. I wrote in an earlier post that I didn't understand why Turkish was lumped with the harder languages. I understand now! As for Italian ... I also felt like I was stalling a bit with FSI FAST. I'm past my goals, but the emphasis is too much on room service, ironing shirts, and shining shoes. Nothing relevant to my life! I was hoping that Assimil would arrive by now, but it hasn't even shipped. Damn Showolehrosrhs or whatever they're called. I just ordered LL Assimil online. It's not too expensive, and I really liked the LL Japanese course. I also restarted Michel Thomas's Foundation Course. I thought I was beyond this basic beginner level stuff, but it turns out I still really need it. It was almost a pleasure making dinner while listening to the first half dozen lessons. I was hoping that I'd be able to push beyond what I knew before with both Italian and Turkish. Now I'm hoping that I can at least match it! And the big question I need to ponder is: what comes next? Especially with Italian ... do I delay Spanish (again) and continue on? And if I delay Spanish do I sabotage my chances of completing the Super Challenge with Spanish? Do I try and do both, or do I set Italian aside and let it fade ... I don't actually have to answer any of these questions ... yet. As for French, Pimsleur IV has been great. I wish that level V were out already! As it is, I'm half-way through, and think that I'll save the last 15 for closer to my trip. I'm still struggling with Proust. I have absolutely no idea what any of the novels after Swann's Way are about, and it's fun to go in blind. And I don't want to give anything away, but you get a deeper perspective of many of the main characters in the second volume. It's interesting, but here haven't been any of the amazing passages that illuminated Swann's Way. Hopefully they'll come later - I'm only at 20%. Although La Planète des singes just arrived in the mail ... I might take a break from Proust and read something fun and easy this coming week. I'm amending my strict 3-week cycle, mostly because this set hasn't been working for me. This week will be: Italian: Michel Thomas, some FSI Turkish: Teach Yourself French: Proust, and maybe some Apes, And ... reluctantly, I do know how to balance 3 languages. It's just that it involves more healthy living than I like. I've done it before: gym at 6 am, followed by coffee and a language; work; bike home listening to L2 Pimsleur; at home work on L3. It means going to bed early, cutting back on drinking, eating right (so that I have the physical energy to work out and the mental energy to study), and all the other associated and awful healthy living stuff. It'll be good. I want to lose some weight before France anyway ('cause those mugs are skinny!). 1 person has voted this message useful | ||||||
| renaissancemedi Bilingual Triglot Senior Member Greece Joined 4350 days ago 941 posts - 1309 votes Speaks: Greek*, Ancient Greek*, EnglishC2 Studies: French, Russian, Turkish, Modern Hebrew | Message 232 of 331 27 January 2014 at 7:49am | IP Logged | |||||
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I can recommend MT Italian with all my heart. It helped me pull together and use my vocabulary, break down in my head everything I ever wanted to communicate into manageable chunks, and have real conversations with people. I mean, it works. If MT french is anything like that, it's worth it as well.
As for Turkish, here is another one who couldn't stay with TY or FSI only. You were right all along about using both. I haven't tried assimil, because I am not an assimil person. I have also wished for a MT turkish lesson (I am a fan as you have understood). Oh, and not all French are skinny. I think it's a matter of attitute more than anything else, in terms of language as well. I don't know if you've been there before, but my advice is : show no fear! :) 1 person has voted this message useful |
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