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Rout - TAC 2013 - Team Pax | ||
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 Language Learning Forum : Language Learning Log |  | |
| tastyonions Triglot Senior Member United States goo.gl/UIdChYRegistered users can see my Skype Name Joined 4657 days ago 1044 posts - 1823 votes  Speaks: English*, French, Spanish Studies: Italian | Message 9 of 18 04 January 2013 at 1:15pm | IP Logged | ||||||||
Welcome to Team PAX!
I also find that getting up in the morning and doing any actual "study" first thing is best. 1 person has voted this message useful | |||||||||
| Rout Diglot Senior Member United States Joined 5704 days ago 326 posts - 417 votes Speaks: English*, German Studies: Spanish Studies: Hindi | Message 10 of 18 04 January 2013 at 1:37pm | IP Logged | ||||||||
Dicho y hecho.
Thanks! It's not that I feel that it's a chore exactly (I like studying, especially in the A1-B1 stage), but I also find that after having studied grammar, then writing (and seeing my grammar mistakes), I can then move on to reading and listening all day, paying attention to the grammar points and vocabulary I just learned, noticing how they function, cementing them into my long-term memory. Plus I have other stuff to do in the day and you never know what's going to pop up. If I don't do things on a set schedule, my mind invents obstacles. I have a feeling that most of us would be hyperpolyglot millionaires (band name) were it not for procrastination. 1 person has voted this message useful | |||||||||
| Solfrid Cristin Heptaglot Winner TAC 2011 & 2012 Senior Member Norway Joined 5326 days ago 4143 posts - 8864 votes Speaks: Norwegian*, Spanish, Swedish, French, English, German, Italian Studies: Russian | Message 11 of 18 04 January 2013 at 1:45pm | IP Logged | ||||||||
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I agree with you that self-assessment is very hard. And I envy you your ability to get up early and study. I sometimes wish I was back in my care free student days, when getting up when I wanted to, study as long as I wanted to and go to bed when I wanted to, without any obligations, was a matter of routine. Now if I get a whole day on my own I feel like I won the lottery:-)
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| Rout Diglot Senior Member United States Joined 5704 days ago 326 posts - 417 votes Speaks: English*, German Studies: Spanish Studies: Hindi | Message 12 of 18 12 January 2013 at 2:10am | IP Logged | ||||||||
I wish I were the carefree student you were describing. Back when that was the reality, I wasted a lot of time on silly things. If only I could get that back! 01/11/2013 Reading Hours: 008/365 hours Writing Hours: 011/365 hours Listening Hours: 011/365 hours Grammatical Study Hours: 009/365 hours Conversational Hours: 000/100 hours - suspended I fell off a little with my reading and grammar study (due to the beginning of school), but I'm making up ground little by little. I've fallen into a good routine, I just have to be a little bit more strict about not going over time (e.g., "well, I'm only 3 pages from the end of the chapter," or "well, let me finish this page of exercises or I'll lose my train of thought."). Never thought I'd have to pull myself away from studying. The calendars are great - I love that red ink staring back at me. I happened to find myself with a little extra listening time, so I'm going to finish making my way through the DLI Headstart for Puerto Rico course. I've already got some plans for next quarter with respect to methods and materials. I've decided not to schedule any Skype lessons until I know my school studies are safely underway (I hate the first week); I'm going to allow myself to make this time up, perhaps over spring-break. So far I've finished one and a half books (bilingual texts), written 6 essays (I'm nearing the ability to finish a well-written, 250 word essay within an hour and I'm pushing myself to my limits with regards to grammar and vocabulary), and I've listened to several more hours of podcasts than indicated above. My ability to understand authentic speech is clearing up like blankets of fog after the sun comes out; I still have problems with some accents though. I've worked my way through my subjunctive workbook, and now I'm going back and taking detailed notes. After this I'll memorize the items I need to and do the comprehensive exercises at the end. I'll update every Friday. I hope I can find time to update my other log. 1 person has voted this message useful | |||||||||
| Rout Diglot Senior Member United States Joined 5704 days ago 326 posts - 417 votes Speaks: English*, German Studies: Spanish Studies: Hindi | Message 13 of 18 19 January 2013 at 5:45am | IP Logged | ||||||||
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01/18/2013
Reading Hours: 018/365 hours Writing Hours: 013/365 hours Listening Hours: 018/365 hours Grammatical Study Hours: 015/365 hours Conversational Hours: 000/100 hours - suspended Not a bad week except for self-sabotage. I thought I could get away with napping a few times, but I've invariably overslept which cyclically threw off my sleep pattern throughout the week. The only thing that really took a hit was my writing (I'm nearly caught up on everything else). I'm going to work on restoring my sleep pattern this upcoming week. I've also come to the conclusion that doing 4 hours of study (well, 3 hours of study and 1 hour of listening) per day on Saturdays and Sundays is not possible due to work, study, and personal obligations. I think I'll be able to do an hour of study and an hour of listening each of those days then make up the rest on Tuesdays and Thursdays (my free days). If not, then I may have to readjust my goals in April (probably capitulating in my speaking goal and making up anything I haven't finished over spring break). I'm very happy with where I am so far, but my production seems to be getting a little rusty lately. 1 person has voted this message useful | |||||||||
| tastyonions Triglot Senior Member United States goo.gl/UIdChYRegistered users can see my Skype Name Joined 4657 days ago 1044 posts - 1823 votes Speaks: English*, French, Spanish Studies: Italian | Message 14 of 18 19 January 2013 at 2:20pm | IP Logged | ||||||||
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Looks like you're moving along pretty well.
I'm curious: why did you suspend your conversational practice / goal? Edited by tastyonions on 19 January 2013 at 2:20pm 1 person has voted this message useful | |||||||||
| Rout Diglot Senior Member United States Joined 5704 days ago 326 posts - 417 votes Speaks: English*, German Studies: Spanish Studies: Hindi | Message 15 of 18 21 January 2013 at 8:38pm | IP Logged | ||||||||
Well, the reasons are manifold. Firstly, I'm a bit stressed because of school, work, etc. Secondly, I didn't feel/didn't know if doing two conversations a week was spring-boarding my conversational abilities or simply maintaining them. Furthermore, the most frustrating thing for me is not being able to come up with the right words; this is a good way to build your vocabulary, but I felt that I should at least try focusing on expanding my passive vocabulary first. Lastly, it's almost always difficult the first 5 minutes, somewhat easier after 15 minutes, and after the 45 minute mark, I'm on a roll. I've never finished a lesson feeling "wow, I'm tired of talking." I suppose I could wear myself out on sharedtalk after this, but I feel like if I could just do nothing but speak Spanish for about a month for several hours a day, it would unlock some kind of mechanism in my active abilities. I have no hope of going out of the country anytime soon (passport issues) but I might be able to pull off something like this with one of my tutors at the end of the year - effectively unlocking my passive language. I got the idea from Dr. Argüelles. I believe it was mentioned in one of his videos, but I couldn't find it. I did find this from his website: "...I returned from a month's home-stay with a Russian family in Saint Petersburg, where I had one-on-one conversational lessons with a private tutor for six hours a day. I went there at that point because I felt that I had taught myself as much as a I could on my own and that I was ready for this intensive immersion so as to activate my knowledge of the language and bring it to life. By the end of the stay, I had attained a high level of conversational ability, both about everyday life and spanning the intellectual humanities." He goes on to say how it didn't improve his passive abilities the way it had with his other languages, but that wasn't what I keyed in on. If I were to strike a piece of metal at gapped intervals, letting the metal cool between blows, it might never bend. If I were to hit the same piece of metal successively, it would begin to heat up more and more with each blow, bending to my will, becoming more pliable with each successive strike. I need to "heat up" the cold, hard rigidity that is my Spanish. 1 person has voted this message useful | |||||||||
| Rout Diglot Senior Member United States Joined 5704 days ago 326 posts - 417 votes Speaks: English*, German Studies: Spanish Studies: Hindi | Message 16 of 18 27 January 2013 at 1:22am | IP Logged | ||||||||
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Didn't get a chance to post yesterday, so I'll post yesterday's numbers for tracking purposes.
Reading Hours: 025/365 hours Writing Hours: 021/365 hours Listening Hours: 025/365 hours Grammatical Study Hours: 019/365 hours Conversational Hours: 000/100 hours - suspended I'm still kept up with reading and listening. Made up some ground on writing, lost some on grammar study. Never thought I'd guilt-trip myself over a day I 'only' studied two hours. XD My plan is working! I finished all of the Historias de ... books, and will update my other log if I ever get a chance. This upcoming week is 'exam week' (my classes conveniently aligned themselves this way), so I didn't get as much of a chance to study (Spanish) this week and expect it to fall off quite a bit till the middle of next week. Then I can begin to make-up some ground. Sometimes I surprise myself (and others) by how well I speak, sometimes I surprise myself by how badly I speak. I am only less than a month into my plan and am seeing leaps and bounds in comprehension, retention, and writing. I hope I can keep up the momentum. I've been experimenting with a book I had collecting dust on my shelf. If it continues to go well into next week, I'll post the results and finish the book in this fashion. Until then! 1 person has voted this message useful |
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