evilado Diglot Groupie United StatesRegistered users can see my Skype Name Joined 3998 days ago 64 posts - 82 votes Speaks: English*, Spanish Studies: French, Mandarin
| Message 1 of 60 30 December 2013 at 9:28pm | IP Logged |
Spanish: B2-C1
French: False Beginner-B2
Mandarin: A0/A1-A2
Spanish: I'd rate myself a solid B2 here, been studying 1 year. Just spent 9 days in
Guatemala and it wasn't always graceful and fluid, but I had few problems communicating
and understanding conversations of varying topics. I want to be a solid C1 and stay
there this year. I like stelle's goals, so I'll do something similar.
- 100 hours skype
- 10 books
- 100 episodes of TV
- 100
italki notebook entries
French: Did three years of this in high school ten years ago, never spoke all that much
with any natives, but I was able to read and write fairly well. Going to visit Paris
with my mother in late May or early June, and I'd like to be a B1 when I get there, B2
by 2015. I've forgotten lots of grammar and vocabulary, but I've still got a handle on
pronunciation. I'm not sure if my goals are realistic, but I think I've learned quite a
bit about how to study this past year. My first month I'd like to complete Duolingo's
skill tree, listen to Pimsleur I-II and Michel Thomas Foundation and Advanced. After
that, italki, verbling, Assimil and FSI. Re-evaluate after visiting France.
Mandarin: Started playing with memrise HSK lists when I was bored with Spanish, but I'd
like to just keep making progress here. This year I'd like to focus on listening and
speaking, but I plan on thinking more about this after May. Finish Pimsleur III and
keep reading Chinese Breeze graded readers until then. Reach a solid A2/lower B1 by
2015.
Edited by evilado on 27 January 2014 at 11:19pm
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Stelle Bilingual Triglot Senior Member Canada tobefluent.com Joined 4136 days ago 949 posts - 1686 votes Speaks: French*, English*, Spanish Studies: Tagalog
| Message 2 of 60 30 December 2013 at 9:59pm | IP Logged |
Great…we can keep each other on course this year. Happy learning!
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evilado Diglot Groupie United StatesRegistered users can see my Skype Name Joined 3998 days ago 64 posts - 82 votes Speaks: English*, Spanish Studies: French, Mandarin
| Message 3 of 60 06 January 2014 at 4:17pm | IP Logged |
Spanish: Not much this week, read about 80 pages and listened to 7 hours of podcasts.
School starts back up this Wednesday, so it'll be a bit easier to schedule exchanges
then.
Chinese: Had an hour-long lesson, mostly worked on pronunciation and set phrases. I had
a couple good exchanges and tried to answer English questions in Mandarin. It's still
mostly a wall of sound at conversational speed, though. Watched 5 hours of a Taiwanese
show called Office Girls. On lesson 7 of Pimsleur III.
French: With the combination of Spanish and what a remember from a decade ago, all the
beginner stuff is quite easy. I finished Michel Thomas Foundation, I'm on lesson 16 of
Assimil, just past the second keyhole on Duolingo, and have about 20% of the memrise
introductory French course complete. French in Action is way better than Destinos so
far.
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evilado Diglot Groupie United StatesRegistered users can see my Skype Name Joined 3998 days ago 64 posts - 82 votes Speaks: English*, Spanish Studies: French, Mandarin
| Message 4 of 60 13 January 2014 at 4:18pm | IP Logged |
Spanish: Watched 3 episodes of Buffy and 2 of an Argentine series called El
Donante, about a guy who discovers he's got 144 kids as a result of his years of sperm
donation. It's a bit difficult to understand at times, but my GF hates dubbed shows and
most of the Spanish series we've tried so far are over an hour long. These are about 45
minutes, so it's much easier to squeeze it in during a lunch break or before bed.
Skype - (2/100)
TV - (5/100)
Texts - (1/100)
Chinese:
On Pimseleur III lesson 11, wrote a short text on italki and a few comments here and
there. Watched 2 more episodes of Office Girls.
French:
Finished Michel Thomas Advanced, currently on my second listen.
Listened to Assimil lesson 40, this has been really easy so far aside from some vocab
that goes straight to Anki. I think it'll be much more helpful once the active phase
starts.
Watched 3 movies(Populaire, Les émotifs anonymes, L'arnacœur) - none of them are
classics, but I'm quite pleased with the selection of romantic comedies in French. It
was a little harder to find something that both me and my GF wanted to watch in Spanish
on a regular basis.
Duolingo is sort of a drag at this point, I forgot how much I hate typing.
Over 50% on my Memrise 1000 words of French Course.
Also, I've signed up for italki's 6-week language challenge and Lingq's 90 days
challenge, both of which start this week. Both should provide extra motivation to write
and speak more.
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Jeffers Senior Member United Kingdom Joined 4901 days ago 2151 posts - 3960 votes Speaks: English* Studies: Hindi, Ancient Greek, French, Sanskrit, German
| Message 5 of 60 16 January 2014 at 8:50pm | IP Logged |
Hi, I'm checking in and saying "Hi" as a fellow member of the 2nd French TAC team. I like Duolingo, but I think too much in a short time will get frustrating. How much of the skill tree have you done? I've done about a third of it.
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evilado Diglot Groupie United StatesRegistered users can see my Skype Name Joined 3998 days ago 64 posts - 82 votes Speaks: English*, Spanish Studies: French, Mandarin
| Message 6 of 60 17 January 2014 at 3:10pm | IP Logged |
I just finished Objects/Adjectives 3/Places. That block of 3 units seemed like it took
forever because there were 26 lessons. I did quite a lot at the beginning because I could
pass the test in a try or two, but now I usually have to learn each lesson one at a time.
Especially frustrating when duolingo is being particularly strict about de/le des/les in
translation. Whenever I get frustrated, I just do a listening task or something
interesting on LingQ. Your log has a lot of great resources, I really like the feeling of
always having something productive to do in French, even when I am tired.
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enrdbrow Newbie United Kingdom Joined 4564 days ago 19 posts - 30 votes Speaks: English* Studies: French
| Message 7 of 60 19 January 2014 at 12:51pm | IP Logged |
Hi Evilado, I'm looking forward to following your log throughout this year. You really are moving on at quite a swift pace. What method are you using for tackling ASSIMIL, or are you just listening at this point?
Good luck with all your languages.
DB
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evilado Diglot Groupie United StatesRegistered users can see my Skype Name Joined 3998 days ago 64 posts - 82 votes Speaks: English*, Spanish Studies: French, Mandarin
| Message 8 of 60 19 January 2014 at 4:06pm | IP Logged |
@enrdbrow
Mostly just listening up to now. I listen repeatedly until I understand everything or at
least hit a stopping point in my understanding, consulting the book if necessary. Just
did my first active wave lesson which wasn't so bad, but I have noticed from lesson 45 on
forwards the listening is a bit more difficult.
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