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Alex’s Learning To Read Log | ||
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 Language Learning Forum : Language Learning Log |  | |
| AlexTG Diglot Senior Member Australia Joined 4630 days ago 178 posts - 354 votes  Speaks: English*, French Studies: Latin, German, Spanish, Japanese | Message 1 of 21 11 May 2014 at 2:27pm | IP Logged |
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My languages are French, Spanish, Latin, Japanese, German. My focus is on reading.
Watching movies/tv and listening to music are nice to haves. I'll activate my speaking if and when I need to. I doubt I'll ever have any need to write. My focus right now is on Japanese and German (don't mention the war!). German: I'm a bit of a false beginner, having traveled in Germany and tried learning it with Rosetta Stone years ago. I'm working through “Allemand Débutant” from Méthode90. I'm up to lesson 31 of 50. I'm reading the lessons out loud without recordings. Hopefully my prior exposure to the language means my accent isn't too horrific. I'll pick up a German FIA equivalent eventually to get some practice listening. Japanese: I've got the first 1700 kanji in Heisig past the fourth review on the helpful website "Reviewing The Kanji". I'm not working actively on that right now, I'll start again on the last 300 eventually. I'm up to episode 38 of the TV show "Let's Learn Japanese Basic". I've read through a lot of Tae Kim. I've used Japanese in Mangaland a bit. Both Mangaland and Tae kim have a lot of English. I really need more exposure to Japanese itself. I've started reading through “A Dictionary of Basic Japanese Grammar” which seems very good. Quick and dirty explanations with lots of examples. I have a book of 100 haiku by Issa in Japanese with French translations. Seems a bit over priced at 14.50 Euros, but I'm loving it. I might fork out for the Basho and Shiki books by the same company. I have some other dual language haiku books but they use a small font which gives me anxiety. I'm also reading 'A History of the Japanese Language” By Bjarke Frellesvig. Edited by AlexTG on 11 May 2014 at 2:34pm 1 person has voted this message useful | |
| AlexTG Diglot Senior Member Australia Joined 4630 days ago 178 posts - 354 votes Speaks: English*, French Studies: Latin, German, Spanish, Japanese | Message 2 of 21 12 May 2014 at 6:45am | IP Logged |
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Latin:
Reading Cicero's Tusculanes. Quite enjoyable. Sometimes his reasoning can seem absurd to a modern day reader. If the soul survives after death it must be made of either air or fire. Therefore the afterlife can't be underground because air and fire move upwards. I rely on the parallel translation way to much. I need to better internalize Latin grammar. 1 person has voted this message useful | |
| AlexTG Diglot Senior Member Australia Joined 4630 days ago 178 posts - 354 votes Speaks: English*, French Studies: Latin, German, Spanish, Japanese | Message 3 of 21 13 May 2014 at 7:15am | IP Logged |
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Japanese:
A Dictionary of Basic Japanese Grammar has an interesting little section on "Sound Symbolisms". That is to say the Japanese tradition of using sound effects as adverbs. For example: "Voiced consonants tend to represent something big, heavy, dull, or dirty; whereas voiceless consonants represent something small, light, sharp, or pretty." giragira hikaru = "shine dazzlingly" kirakira hikaru = "shine sparklingly" botabota ochiru = "a large amount of liquid drips" potapota ochiru = "a small amount of liquid drips" They list ten such sound-to-meaning categories each with about 7 examples. Edited by AlexTG on 13 May 2014 at 7:29am 1 person has voted this message useful | |
| AlexTG Diglot Senior Member Australia Joined 4630 days ago 178 posts - 354 votes Speaks: English*, French Studies: Latin, German, Spanish, Japanese | Message 4 of 21 15 May 2014 at 8:16am | IP Logged |
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French
I've been reading the autobiography of Luis Buñuel, Mon dernier soupir. He seems to have been friends with every great artist in France and Spain, and a few in America to top it off. A note for learners of French: Buñuel's films have some of the clearest spoken French around. Partly this is because they're mostly rich people chatting with each other, but I wonder if the fact that he himself speaks French as a second language doesn't also play a role. I especially recommend the glorious Le charme discret de la bourgoisie, about rich people not having dinner. And for Spanish learners you can't go past the glorious El angel exterminador, about rich people not leaving a house. Edited by AlexTG on 15 May 2014 at 9:39am 1 person has voted this message useful | |
| AlexTG Diglot Senior Member Australia Joined 4630 days ago 178 posts - 354 votes Speaks: English*, French Studies: Latin, German, Spanish, Japanese | Message 5 of 21 15 May 2014 at 9:35am | IP Logged |
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German
Arg werden werden werden, get a new word you stingy bastards! Edited by AlexTG on 15 May 2014 at 9:37am 1 person has voted this message useful | |
| AlexTG Diglot Senior Member Australia Joined 4630 days ago 178 posts - 354 votes Speaks: English*, French Studies: Latin, German, Spanish, Japanese | Message 6 of 21 17 May 2014 at 9:47am | IP Logged |
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Spanish
Watched Hable con ella. Its IMDB page made it look like a heartwarming comedy. It's not. It. Is. Not. Liars. Still, loved it. Also read a few pages of El mate by Javier Ricca, a book about the national drink of Argentina/Uruguay. Yeah, my Spanish practice these days is pretty thin on the ground. It peaked when I stayed in Argentina for 3 months last year, and has been dropping ever since. I often listen to Spanish music, mostly rock nacional de Argentina. But the lyrics are the same each listen so I'm not sure it helps much... And I read at least some Spanish poetry each week, but it's a tiny proportion of my overall reading. Edited by AlexTG on 17 May 2014 at 9:57am 1 person has voted this message useful | |
| AlexTG Diglot Senior Member Australia Joined 4630 days ago 178 posts - 354 votes Speaks: English*, French Studies: Latin, German, Spanish, Japanese | Message 7 of 21 27 May 2014 at 9:39am | IP Logged |
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German
I do one lesson of Allemand débutant a day. I'm up to lesson 46. So I've been learning German for 46 days. Last week I started watching the language learners sitcom Extr@ German. I find it amusing enough for it to not feel like work. Too bad it's only got 13 episodes. I'll have to move on to Fokus Deutsch. That looks kinda dull though. A middle aged German in an industrial town can't find work? Seriously? The DW series Jojo sucht das Glück looks promising aswell, but with very short episodes. Learners television is my preferred method for getting used to the aural flow of the language. Clicking play on a recording of a course book makes me groan. Just feels like work. Bleck. I've also been watching German rock music videos. I'm quite liking the Toten Hosen. Rammstein is a given. But OMG 'Alles nur geklaut' yesssssssssssssssssss. Edited by AlexTG on 27 May 2014 at 9:42am 1 person has voted this message useful | |
| AlexTG Diglot Senior Member Australia Joined 4630 days ago 178 posts - 354 votes Speaks: English*, French Studies: Latin, German, Spanish, Japanese | Message 8 of 21 31 May 2014 at 12:17pm | IP Logged |
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German
Today's my last day on Allemand débutant. So I'll detail how I've been using it. I do one lesson a day. Each lesson starts with a dialogue, German on the left page, French on the right. They take liberties with the translation to sound more natural, making it harder to work out what the German is doing. On the next page there's a list of newly used vocabulary split into three sections, nouns, verbs and others. I read the dialogue once, out loud, checking the translation when I have trouble. I try to clearly understand how all the German is working, though some haziness for new grammar points is acceptable. The lesson then moves on to explanations of the new grammar. These are nice and short. I read through once, saying the examples out loud. Then comes the 'exercises' stage, though for me it's the 'more examples' stage. I read out loud any full German sentences given in either the questions or the answers. I also read 'fill in the blank' questions, flicking my eyes to the answers to see what to fill in. The only exercises that don't give me something to read are the 'add category x ending to these words' exercises, and most lessons don't contain these. I stagger the lessons, doing the dialogue the day before I do the grammar and exercises. This allows the grammar from the dialogue to sink in over night before I'm given the official explanation. I measured the time it took to do the 49th lesson: 8 and a half minutes for the dialogue, 5 and a half for the grammar, 6 for the exercises. So 20 minutes all up. 20 minutes times 50 lessons is 16 hours 40 minutes. This lesson seemed longer than the average lesson, but not by much. So I think that's a decent estimate. Good course, the first 40 lessons had a lot of cultural stuff, interesting conversations about politics, Wagner, international relations, as well as some touristy crap here and there. On lesson 39 they just went nope, let's blow this thing sky high. Eg. The start of lesson 45: Max: For a year I've been looking for a 60 meters squared apartment. What should I do? Morris: I can give you some advice from experience: in addition to the announcements in the newspaper, you must also look at the death notices. Then you'll know about all the deaths in your area Max: What does that have to do with the apartment? Morris: At the burial of the former occupant, give your condolences to the heirs... I've laughed out loud quite a few times in these final lessons. Edited by AlexTG on 31 May 2014 at 12:36pm 2 persons have voted this message useful |
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