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My Learning Journey
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Language Learning Forum : Language Learning Log

10 messages over 2 pages: 1 2 Next >>

showtime17 Trilingual Hexaglot Senior Member Slovakia gainweightjournal.co Joined 6076 days ago 154 posts - 210 votes Speaks: Russian, English, Czech, Slovak*, French, Spanish Studies: Ukrainian, Polish, Dutch	Message 1 of 10 13 October 2009 at 4:46pm \| IP Logged
	Well I've decided to start keeping a journal. I've started learning German from scratch and recently came back from a 3 month stay in Spain where I learned Spanish. Basically what I am doing now is trying to keep up languages like French, Russian and Spanish by watching native materials like the news or movies and starting to learn German from the beginning. I am also keeping a blog about my language learning, thoughts about and learning languages in general: http://learningforeignlanguagesnow.blogspot.com/ Here's my thoughts on Spanish and learning it: I just came back from Spain where I spent 3 months learning Spanish. One of the best ways to learn a language is to actually go to a country where they speak it and learn it there. In that way you are going to progress really fast. Of course it helps if you have already learned some basics in your own country before, so that you can start progressing fast. Then once you're taking an intensive course, you will start acquiring the language rapidly. My method to really solidify the rules of the language (this applies especially to grammar) is to take the material three times. Once just to become familiar with it. The first time you can just breeze through it. It helps if you're in class and the teacher is explaining it, but you can do this on your own. If you want, you can also do exercises at this point, but for me, since I am lazy, I just prefer to listen and try to understand the logic of the grammar structures. Then after a period of time, you should come back to this same topic. Then of course you should do as many exercises as you can. It will be much easier to understand what is happening if you have already seen the material before and it will be learned much more quickly. Then you should let some time pass and come back to the same things later. Now this should stick in your head. I came to Spain after doing some Spanish learning before, I knew most of the basic conjugations of the present tense of the most common verbs and had seen the past tense before (although didn't know it that well). Then at the intensive course I saw it a second time and made really rapid progress. Hopefully I will come back to Spain or another Spanish speaking country soon and go over it a third time to really solidify it. My Spanish progression went as follows. The first month I was rarely using Spanish to speak with other people. During the month I made a few feeble attempts to speak the language with other foreigners, but usually stuck to English or other languages I speak. During the second month, that's when I started using Spanish much more frequently and became fluent in using it. The problem is that I was always speaking it with other foreigners and rarely did I speak with native speakers. Hopefully I will make some native Spanish speaking friends at some point and practice with them. http://learningforeignlanguagesnow.blogspot.com/ Edited by showtime17 on 14 October 2009 at 3:10pm 1 person has voted this message useful
showtime17 Trilingual Hexaglot Senior Member Slovakia gainweightjournal.co Joined 6076 days ago 154 posts - 210 votes Speaks: Russian, English, Czech, Slovak*, French, Spanish Studies: Ukrainian, Polish, Dutch	Message 2 of 10 13 October 2009 at 4:47pm \| IP Logged
	Well I've started to learn German. I signed up for a class and paid for it. Still have to buy some of the books though. Went to the first hour of class, but was kinda lost, since I joined a course where the people have already started a month ago, so have some catching up to do. Before starting I knew just how to say "Good day", "Good bye" and count to 10. German seems like a pretty hard language to start with... http://learningforeignlanguagesnow.blogspot.com/2009/10/star ting-to-learn-german.html 1 person has voted this message useful
showtime17 Trilingual Hexaglot Senior Member Slovakia gainweightjournal.co Joined 6076 days ago 154 posts - 210 votes Speaks: Russian, English, Czech, Slovak*, French, Spanish Studies: Ukrainian, Polish, Dutch	Message 3 of 10 13 October 2009 at 4:47pm \| IP Logged
	I am starting to learn German and so far it seems like a pretty hard language to learn. I am starting completely from scratch, only knowing a few basic phrases and sometimes getting a few words from its similarity to Dutch and English. My basic strategy is this. I won't spend too much time drilling myself and memorizing words, but want to follow a more easy going route. I've signed up for a beginners German class, but have to catch up since I joined it late. I also have Pimsleur German, so will try to listen to that as well. I will do this, while trying to keep up my other languages in which I am already fluent by listening to native material such as the news or movies on the internet. Some German words I've learnt. wie- how was- what wer- who wo- where wohin-where (as in where is someone going?) woher- from where ich- me du- you er/sie/es- he/she/it wir- we ihr- you(plural) sie- they Sie- you(as in a more formal sense) 1 person has voted this message useful
showtime17 Trilingual Hexaglot Senior Member Slovakia gainweightjournal.co Joined 6076 days ago 154 posts - 210 votes Speaks: Russian, English, Czech, Slovak*, French, Spanish Studies: Ukrainian, Polish, Dutch	Message 4 of 10 25 August 2013 at 6:47pm \| IP Logged
	I decided to start a new blog in order to really force myself to learn languages... Have been really lazy... Unfortunately have been very busy lately, but need to stay focused. http://languagelearningzone.wordpress.com/ Edited by showtime17 on 25 August 2013 at 6:49pm 1 person has voted this message useful
showtime17 Trilingual Hexaglot Senior Member Slovakia gainweightjournal.co Joined 6076 days ago 154 posts - 210 votes Speaks: Russian, English, Czech, Slovak*, French, Spanish Studies: Ukrainian, Polish, Dutch	Message 5 of 10 28 August 2013 at 12:41am \| IP Logged
	Had to drop out of my Spanish class today, due to unforeseen circumstances not of my own doing :( I was also supposed to start Dutch and Polish classes in September, but will have to drop out of those too :) 1 person has voted this message useful
showtime17 Trilingual Hexaglot Senior Member Slovakia gainweightjournal.co Joined 6076 days ago 154 posts - 210 votes Speaks: Russian, English, Czech, Slovak*, French, Spanish Studies: Ukrainian, Polish, Dutch	Message 6 of 10 09 September 2013 at 6:37pm \| IP Logged
	I was going to announce a huge 4 Language Challenge, however decided not to do it and see how it goes. I've decided to focus on 4 languages for 4 weeks. Don't have a schedule, but I try to do stuff as I go along. The goals are simple: just generally improve certain aspects of those 4 languages. Spanish: focus on improving grammar and also just learn more words French: my big sticking point here is grammar (especially the subjunctive) and native comprehension Russian: reading Dutch: just generally improve all aspects of the language My current levels in the languages: Spanish: B2 French: C1 Russian: C1 spoken (reading probably B1 and writing probably A2) Dutch: A2 Program that I want to follow: Spanish: read novel called Dune: La cruzada de las maquinas grammar books (especially a book that I bought on the subjunctive) French: for comprehension I bought DVDs of a series of comedy sketches called Un Gars, Une Fille grammar books Russian: bought a book called Novaya Zemlya (there is also a film of the same name) Dutch: a teach yourself Dutch book using Czech as the base language Progress so far: Spanish: have been reading along in the Dune book...progress pretty good French: have watched about 3 hours of the sketches, but haven't watched anything new in the past 2 days Russian: have been making very slow progress... only got to the middle of chapter 2 of the book... I guess the main problem is that the book is not as interesting to me (it's about prisoners) and also the general difficulty that I have with reading Cyrillic (with Latin letters I don't have to concentrate as much and so reading goes faster) Dutch: did one chapter of the book teach yourself book today, but in a very leisurely way Overall thoughts so far: Need to hit up the grammar for Spanish and especially French, since I have been neglecting that. Overall I should focus more, however the positive thing is that at least I am doing something and still haven't given up. Hopefully I will chug along here for a while and next time will be able to start a real Challenge for myself... 1 person has voted this message useful
showtime17 Trilingual Hexaglot Senior Member Slovakia gainweightjournal.co Joined 6076 days ago 154 posts - 210 votes Speaks: Russian, English, Czech, Slovak*, French, Spanish Studies: Ukrainian, Polish, Dutch	Message 7 of 10 09 September 2013 at 6:40pm \| IP Logged
	Oh yeah not to forget that I also did a few posts on my new blog http://languagelearningzone.wordpress.com/ Although I am neglecting that as well, and instead trolling the HTLAL forum too much :) http://languagelearningzone.wordpress.com/ Edited by showtime17 on 09 September 2013 at 6:40pm 1 person has voted this message useful
showtime17 Trilingual Hexaglot Senior Member Slovakia gainweightjournal.co Joined 6076 days ago 154 posts - 210 votes Speaks: Russian, English, Czech, Slovak*, French, Spanish Studies: Ukrainian, Polish, Dutch	Message 8 of 10 09 September 2013 at 9:51pm \| IP Logged
	Oh yeah forgot to add, that I will be also using some online French learning resources. Imagiers is a good one. This type of site, really helps me memorize the concepts, as I am more of a visual learner. However, I am also a kinesthetic learner, and so will need to apply some of these concepts in practice (by doing drills and stuff), which is the hard part. http://languagelearningzone.wordpress.com/2013/09/09/french- language-learning-resources-website/ 1 person has voted this message useful

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showtime17 Trilingual Hexaglot Senior Member Slovakia gainweightjournal.co Joined 6076 days ago 154 posts - 210 votes Speaks: Russian, English, Czech, Slovak*, French, Spanish Studies: Ukrainian, Polish, Dutch	Message 1 of 10 13 October 2009 at 4:46pm \| IP Logged
	Well I've decided to start keeping a journal. I've started learning German from scratch and recently came back from a 3 month stay in Spain where I learned Spanish. Basically what I am doing now is trying to keep up languages like French, Russian and Spanish by watching native materials like the news or movies and starting to learn German from the beginning. I am also keeping a blog about my language learning, thoughts about and learning languages in general: http://learningforeignlanguagesnow.blogspot.com/ Here's my thoughts on Spanish and learning it: I just came back from Spain where I spent 3 months learning Spanish. One of the best ways to learn a language is to actually go to a country where they speak it and learn it there. In that way you are going to progress really fast. Of course it helps if you have already learned some basics in your own country before, so that you can start progressing fast. Then once you're taking an intensive course, you will start acquiring the language rapidly. My method to really solidify the rules of the language (this applies especially to grammar) is to take the material three times. Once just to become familiar with it. The first time you can just breeze through it. It helps if you're in class and the teacher is explaining it, but you can do this on your own. If you want, you can also do exercises at this point, but for me, since I am lazy, I just prefer to listen and try to understand the logic of the grammar structures. Then after a period of time, you should come back to this same topic. Then of course you should do as many exercises as you can. It will be much easier to understand what is happening if you have already seen the material before and it will be learned much more quickly. Then you should let some time pass and come back to the same things later. Now this should stick in your head. I came to Spain after doing some Spanish learning before, I knew most of the basic conjugations of the present tense of the most common verbs and had seen the past tense before (although didn't know it that well). Then at the intensive course I saw it a second time and made really rapid progress. Hopefully I will come back to Spain or another Spanish speaking country soon and go over it a third time to really solidify it. My Spanish progression went as follows. The first month I was rarely using Spanish to speak with other people. During the month I made a few feeble attempts to speak the language with other foreigners, but usually stuck to English or other languages I speak. During the second month, that's when I started using Spanish much more frequently and became fluent in using it. The problem is that I was always speaking it with other foreigners and rarely did I speak with native speakers. Hopefully I will make some native Spanish speaking friends at some point and practice with them. http://learningforeignlanguagesnow.blogspot.com/ Edited by showtime17 on 14 October 2009 at 3:10pm 1 person has voted this message useful
showtime17 Trilingual Hexaglot Senior Member Slovakia gainweightjournal.co Joined 6076 days ago 154 posts - 210 votes Speaks: Russian, English, Czech, Slovak*, French, Spanish Studies: Ukrainian, Polish, Dutch	Message 2 of 10 13 October 2009 at 4:47pm \| IP Logged
	Well I've started to learn German. I signed up for a class and paid for it. Still have to buy some of the books though. Went to the first hour of class, but was kinda lost, since I joined a course where the people have already started a month ago, so have some catching up to do. Before starting I knew just how to say "Good day", "Good bye" and count to 10. German seems like a pretty hard language to start with... http://learningforeignlanguagesnow.blogspot.com/2009/10/star ting-to-learn-german.html 1 person has voted this message useful
showtime17 Trilingual Hexaglot Senior Member Slovakia gainweightjournal.co Joined 6076 days ago 154 posts - 210 votes Speaks: Russian, English, Czech, Slovak*, French, Spanish Studies: Ukrainian, Polish, Dutch	Message 3 of 10 13 October 2009 at 4:47pm \| IP Logged
	I am starting to learn German and so far it seems like a pretty hard language to learn. I am starting completely from scratch, only knowing a few basic phrases and sometimes getting a few words from its similarity to Dutch and English. My basic strategy is this. I won't spend too much time drilling myself and memorizing words, but want to follow a more easy going route. I've signed up for a beginners German class, but have to catch up since I joined it late. I also have Pimsleur German, so will try to listen to that as well. I will do this, while trying to keep up my other languages in which I am already fluent by listening to native material such as the news or movies on the internet. Some German words I've learnt. wie- how was- what wer- who wo- where wohin-where (as in where is someone going?) woher- from where ich- me du- you er/sie/es- he/she/it wir- we ihr- you(plural) sie- they Sie- you(as in a more formal sense) 1 person has voted this message useful
showtime17 Trilingual Hexaglot Senior Member Slovakia gainweightjournal.co Joined 6076 days ago 154 posts - 210 votes Speaks: Russian, English, Czech, Slovak*, French, Spanish Studies: Ukrainian, Polish, Dutch	Message 4 of 10 25 August 2013 at 6:47pm \| IP Logged
	I decided to start a new blog in order to really force myself to learn languages... Have been really lazy... Unfortunately have been very busy lately, but need to stay focused. http://languagelearningzone.wordpress.com/ Edited by showtime17 on 25 August 2013 at 6:49pm 1 person has voted this message useful
showtime17 Trilingual Hexaglot Senior Member Slovakia gainweightjournal.co Joined 6076 days ago 154 posts - 210 votes Speaks: Russian, English, Czech, Slovak*, French, Spanish Studies: Ukrainian, Polish, Dutch	Message 5 of 10 28 August 2013 at 12:41am \| IP Logged
	Had to drop out of my Spanish class today, due to unforeseen circumstances not of my own doing :( I was also supposed to start Dutch and Polish classes in September, but will have to drop out of those too :) 1 person has voted this message useful
showtime17 Trilingual Hexaglot Senior Member Slovakia gainweightjournal.co Joined 6076 days ago 154 posts - 210 votes Speaks: Russian, English, Czech, Slovak*, French, Spanish Studies: Ukrainian, Polish, Dutch	Message 6 of 10 09 September 2013 at 6:37pm \| IP Logged
	I was going to announce a huge 4 Language Challenge, however decided not to do it and see how it goes. I've decided to focus on 4 languages for 4 weeks. Don't have a schedule, but I try to do stuff as I go along. The goals are simple: just generally improve certain aspects of those 4 languages. Spanish: focus on improving grammar and also just learn more words French: my big sticking point here is grammar (especially the subjunctive) and native comprehension Russian: reading Dutch: just generally improve all aspects of the language My current levels in the languages: Spanish: B2 French: C1 Russian: C1 spoken (reading probably B1 and writing probably A2) Dutch: A2 Program that I want to follow: Spanish: read novel called Dune: La cruzada de las maquinas grammar books (especially a book that I bought on the subjunctive) French: for comprehension I bought DVDs of a series of comedy sketches called Un Gars, Une Fille grammar books Russian: bought a book called Novaya Zemlya (there is also a film of the same name) Dutch: a teach yourself Dutch book using Czech as the base language Progress so far: Spanish: have been reading along in the Dune book...progress pretty good French: have watched about 3 hours of the sketches, but haven't watched anything new in the past 2 days Russian: have been making very slow progress... only got to the middle of chapter 2 of the book... I guess the main problem is that the book is not as interesting to me (it's about prisoners) and also the general difficulty that I have with reading Cyrillic (with Latin letters I don't have to concentrate as much and so reading goes faster) Dutch: did one chapter of the book teach yourself book today, but in a very leisurely way Overall thoughts so far: Need to hit up the grammar for Spanish and especially French, since I have been neglecting that. Overall I should focus more, however the positive thing is that at least I am doing something and still haven't given up. Hopefully I will chug along here for a while and next time will be able to start a real Challenge for myself... 1 person has voted this message useful
showtime17 Trilingual Hexaglot Senior Member Slovakia gainweightjournal.co Joined 6076 days ago 154 posts - 210 votes Speaks: Russian, English, Czech, Slovak*, French, Spanish Studies: Ukrainian, Polish, Dutch	Message 7 of 10 09 September 2013 at 6:40pm \| IP Logged
	Oh yeah not to forget that I also did a few posts on my new blog http://languagelearningzone.wordpress.com/ Although I am neglecting that as well, and instead trolling the HTLAL forum too much :) http://languagelearningzone.wordpress.com/ Edited by showtime17 on 09 September 2013 at 6:40pm 1 person has voted this message useful
showtime17 Trilingual Hexaglot Senior Member Slovakia gainweightjournal.co Joined 6076 days ago 154 posts - 210 votes Speaks: Russian, English, Czech, Slovak*, French, Spanish Studies: Ukrainian, Polish, Dutch	Message 8 of 10 09 September 2013 at 9:51pm \| IP Logged
	Oh yeah forgot to add, that I will be also using some online French learning resources. Imagiers is a good one. This type of site, really helps me memorize the concepts, as I am more of a visual learner. However, I am also a kinesthetic learner, and so will need to apply some of these concepts in practice (by doing drills and stuff), which is the hard part. http://languagelearningzone.wordpress.com/2013/09/09/french- language-learning-resources-website/ 1 person has voted this message useful