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Gary’s TAC 2014: Spanish, Italian, French | ||
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 Language Learning Forum : Language Learning Log |  | |
| 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 137 of 138 12 December 2014 at 7:38pm | IP Logged | ||
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I've done a couple of tutoring sessions now. So far so good. It's been a bit of conversation, a bit of reading articles aloud and then discussing them, and the tutor seems quite open to ideas.
I think it's made me a bit more aware of my weaknesses in both languages and what to work on, both in lessons and on my own. In French, I have a good knowledge and express myself quite well, but my pronunciation and fluidity could be improved a lot. My Italian pronunciation is better, especially when reading from a text, but I don't quite have the same level of knowledge. The pronunciation work a few months ago and the more recent self-talk for Italian have helped a lot so it's time to do similar things for French. So overall I don't think tutoring is some sort of magic bullet, but regularly having the opportunity to speak with someone who can challenge and correct me should help with fluency and confidence. 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 138 of 138 15 December 2014 at 12:13pm | IP Logged | ||
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I go away for a few days, then I come back and another TAC has started! I wasn't sure whether to participate again but I figured why not, it costs nothing. So I suppose it's now time for the...
2014 Summary! Spanish 2014 was supposed to be my year of Spanish but... things didn't quite work out that way. The most important thing I learned was that, with my lifestyle and schedule, making satisfactory progress in two languages is possible; three is not. I feel I made a good effort, working through MT then Assimil at the start of the year and then going out and having some conversations. I reached a low-intermediate level, where I understand quite well and can express myself although my active vocabulary is quite lacking and the verbs aren't very automatic. I was a bit sad to give it up, especially since I live in a city with tens of thousands of Spanish speakers, making it by far the most useful and easiest to practise language that I've studied. But I think it was the best thing to do. I'm still very keen to learn it, but I'll wait until I'm more satisfied with my French and Italian first. Level estimate: maybe B1 on a good day? French I stopped studying French, my logic being something like "I really like this language, but it's not very useful", and I managed to kid myself for a few months that I was content with my level. Then I rediscovered my enthusiasm and picked it up again, my logic being something like "this language isn't very useful, but I really like it". I think I've made a bit of progress in terms of speaking fluency, but I still have a long way to go from my current "fluent on a good day". And the several-month break undid a lot of my good work on pronunciation. Finding opportunities to use it can still be a struggle, but I've started attending meetups regularly again so I can practise with other learners and the occasional native. Level estimate: still in some sort of post-B2-pre-C1 no man's land as I have been for a few years. Italian Good year for Italian. To quote my first post:
I've definitely reached a more solid level and improved my accent. I think my Italian accent is better than my French one now. And recently I feel that I'm finally starting to reach that "fluent on a good day" level. I made friends with quite a few Italians; sadly, most of these friendships didn't last, but they were great while they did. During parts of the spring and summer I was speaking Italian with Italians almost every day, which was very challenging, pushed me a lot, and helped me pick up social language that's hard to learn otherwise. I also spent a week in Italy where I again did a lot of socialising in Italian. More recently, I've not had much opportunity to speak, but I've watched a lot of films, read a lot of books, and done some self-talk exercises which I've found very helpful. Level estimate: Solid B2. Overall 2014 wasn't a great year for me. I had various minor health problems, physical and mental, in particular a lot of insomnia; nothing too serious but it meant I was feeling tired and ill for a lot of the year. I'm very happy to have made so much progress in my interests despite this! I've been feeling much better recently and I hope it continues. Next year Details will follow when I create my new log, but essentially my plan is to just continue with French and Italian, focusing particularly on improving my speaking. Updated: My 2015 log Edited by garyb on 03 January 2015 at 5:07pm 2 persons have voted this message useful |
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