|
 |
My One-Year Resolution: JA-DE-EN-FR | ||
Share with:
| ||
 Language Learning Forum : Language Learning Log |  | |
| hokusai77 Triglot Senior Member Italy Joined 7144 days ago 212 posts - 217 votes  1 sounds Speaks: Italian*, FrenchB1, EnglishC1 Studies: GermanB1, Japanese | Message 1 of 7 02 September 2014 at 12:18am | IP Logged |
|
Hello everybody, maybe some of the older forumists remember me, I was pretty active in the forum at the very beginning (2005, almost ten years ago!), then I stopped writing, and just kept on reading it from time to time. Since then, the HTLAL community has been significantly growing, and I think it's now time for me to get back profiting from this wonderful space to re-ignite my dormant passion for languages and language learning. Over the past 10 years I mainly focused on my job career (as well as on vegan outreach and activism), so I did not devote much time to language learning. Luckily enough my job (I am an export sales manager in the food industry) has helped me a lot maintaining and enhancing my working languages (English, French, and Japanese). At the same time, lack of time and poor planning in scheduling my language learning (as well as some laziness of course!) prevented me from developing a series of languages I studied in the past, mostly during my high school and college years (primarily German, but also Spanish, Russian, and Swedish).
My resolution is now to use any hidden moment during the day for language learning, trying to get the most out of my (still quite limited) spare time, and to use this log to track my language learning path over the next year on. Monday 1st September (first day of the week, first day of the month) just seemed the perfect starting point to start it. I will mainly focus on two languages, Japanese and German, while keeping and further developing my English and French skills. Depending on where I will be this time next year, I might be taking up again another language from "the past" (Spanish or Swedish). So wish me luck and let's see where this road will take me! 1 person has voted this message useful | |
| hokusai77 Triglot Senior Member Italy Joined 7144 days ago 212 posts - 217 votes 1 sounds Speaks: Italian*, FrenchB1, EnglishC1 Studies: GermanB1, Japanese | Message 2 of 7 02 September 2014 at 1:40am | IP Logged |
|
Before starting, I'll just sum up my current level in my focus languages, and my targets for each one (as well as some personal notes).
ENGLISH I think I am an almost C2 level user of English, since I can express myself confidently and can understand almost everything (not Geordie, though!). English is also my main working language, and I use it daily for business, even more than my mother tongue (Italian). I also travel regularly to the UK (mainly London), for business and for leisure. Nevertheless, I would like to hone my active skills (writing and speaking) and eventually take the CPE exam, as well as enriching my active vocabulary. English was my first foreign language and it's English that ignited my passion for language learning. English holds then a special place in my heart, even though other languages have enflamed my soul over the past 25 years. What I like best in English it's the fact that it's very concise, yet so rich in nuances and lexical variety. I'm particularly fond of British English (I simply love the way it's pronounced and I've always tried hard to mimic its particular rhythm and intonation), even though I'm interested in other variants as well (like the different variations of American English). FRENCH The proximity of France from where I live (Turin, just an hour from the border, and a three-hour drive from Lyon or Nice), the similarities between French and Italian, and super good teachers in high school have allowed me to reach a solid C2 level in this language as well. I use it for my job also on a daily basis, mainly with business associates from France and the Maghreb. My parents, both strong Francophiles, enrolled me in a French class for children when I was six at the local Alliance Française. I was maybe too young and not much interested in it, so I dropped out just a few months later. Then my mother obliged me again to take elective French classes during my junior high school years (a second foreign language was then not compulsory as it is now in Italy), while I wanted to enroll in elective Latin classes instead. I ended up taking both, but I'm now so grateful to my mother since I rediscovered French and literally fell in love with it. If English made me eager to communicate in a different language, French made me a convinced language learning enthusiast. When I started junior high school, without any knowledge of English and French, I was pretty sure I would be taking a literature-ancient language based curriculum in my senior high school years (what is called "liceo classico" in Italy, mainly focusing on Italian literature and classical languages - Latin and Ancient Greek). I ended up choosing a foreign language-based curriculum instead, a choice I will never regret ("liceo linguistico", mainly focusing on modern languages and literatures). My current main target for French is to take the DELF C2 exam, and enrich my active vocabulary. GERMAN German was my third foreign language in high school, alongside English and French. It was love at first sight. I liked (and still like) everything about it: its grammar, syntax, pronunciation, vocabulary - I think it's a very good mix of easiness and difficulty for an Italian speaker. Not so easy, yet not so obscure to an Italian ear, it's a very good linguistic "gym" to acquire confidence to tackle more difficult languages. Unfortunately I have never dealt too much in my working career with German-speaking countries so my knowledge of the language has hence deteriorated over the past ten years. My resolution is now to take it back from where I was (somewhere between B1 and B2 levels) to a solid B2 level in all the four main skills. JAPANESE What can I say about this wonderful language (and culture)? Japanese has been for the past fourteen years and will be for the rest of my life my main linguistic endeavour. So alien, yet so fascinating, it's a language I could never grow tired of. It's a language (and a culture) that really touches my most inner feelings, and using and speaking it is one of my greatest joys. I am lucky enough to use it regularly for my job, as well as with friends. I took it up as I took up a lot more languages in my college years (apart from Spanish, Russian, and Swedish, which I studied more consistently, I also dabbled with Arabic, Czech, Danish, Dutch, Irish, Mandarin, and Portuguese), but was immediately hooked with it. So hooked that I added it as a minor (studying it for 4 full years at college) to my main International Economics curriculum. So hooked that I made a lot of penpal friends from Japan, inviting them regularly to Italy, I took many extra Japanese classes and private courses, wrote my M.A. essay about Japanese economy (just to deal with sources written in Japanese!), and ended up studying some months in Tokyo as well. Maybe, had I not met my significant (Italian) half in my very first year of Japanese, I would have probably ended up with getting a Japanese partner, too. I have been to Japan some 12-14 times so far, and the country itself holds a very special place in my heart (I consider it as a second homeland). Due to laziness over the past ten years though my level is still not where it should be (interestingly enough my active skills are more developed than my passive ones: I would place myself as a B2 user in writing and speaking, and a B1-B2 user in reading and listening). My main target is thus to reach a solid B2 level in all four areas, and to take JLPT N3 by the end of 2015. Edited by hokusai77 on 02 September 2014 at 1:41am 1 person has voted this message useful | |
| hokusai77 Triglot Senior Member Italy Joined 7144 days ago 212 posts - 217 votes 1 sounds Speaks: Italian*, FrenchB1, EnglishC1 Studies: GermanB1, Japanese | Message 3 of 7 09 September 2014 at 12:04am | IP Logged |
|
Here are the resources I'm planning to use for my own personal challenge.
JAPANESE General language courses: - Il Giapponese, Assimil - Ultimate Japanese Advanced, Living Language Kanji study: - Kanji in Context (reference book + workbooks), The Japan Times Grammar study and revision: - Makino, Tsutsui: A Dictionary of Basic Japanese Grammar, The Japan Times - www.imabi.net Graded reader: - Lucci: Il mio vicino Miyazaki (となりの宮崎), Hoepli Listening practice: - dramas and anime + www.newsinslowjapanese.com; maybe something on lingq.com as well, and some movies Reading practice: - see graded reader + graded newspaper articles for children Speaking practice: - I think I will buy a package with a Japanese instructor on Italki since my Japanese tutor (whom I meet once a week for a two-hour speaking session) is now in Japan and she 's coming back in January only. Writing practice: - emails to friends or casual writing to be corrected on lang-8 Vocabulary study: - daily revision of my Anki desk, constantly updated with new sentences and expressions - Lonely Planet's Japanese phrasebook - Visual Bilingual Dictionary Japanese English, DK GERMAN General language courses: - Il Tedesco, Assimil - Il tedesco per te, De Agostini (this is a very comprehensive course published in the '80s and '90s, made up of 96 lessons, with tons of sample sentences, vocabulary and thorough grammar explanations) Listening practice: - videos on the internet, films, TV broadcasts, dramas, etc. Reading practice: - graded readers on Deutsch perfekt + graded readers (B2 level) Speaking practice: - nothing at the moment, I'm focusing on Japanese - any chance to speak German though is more than welcome Writing practice: - as for Japanese Vocabulary study: - Anki + Lonely Planet's German phrasebook ENGLISH General language course: - L'inglese per te, De Agostini (see Il tedesco per te) CPE preparation + listening/reading/speaking/writing practice: - New Progress to Proficiency, Cambridge University Press - Objective Proficiency - Workbook, Cambridge University Press - Grammar and Vocabulary for CAE and CPE, Longman - Material for native speakers (books, films, newspaper articles, TV, magazines, etc.) FRENCH General language course: - Il francese per te, De Agostini (see Il tedesco per te) DALF C2 preparation + listening/reading/speaking/writing practice: - https://sites.google.com/site/passetondalf/ - Material for native speakers (books, films, newspaper articles, TV, magazines, etc.) Edited by hokusai77 on 09 September 2014 at 12:06am 1 person has voted this message useful | |
| hokusai77 Triglot Senior Member Italy Joined 7144 days ago 212 posts - 217 votes 1 sounds Speaks: Italian*, FrenchB1, EnglishC1 Studies: GermanB1, Japanese | Message 4 of 7 10 September 2014 at 12:15am | IP Logged |
|
WEEK 1 - 1st September - 7th September 2014
Last week (Mon-Fri) I was in the Czech Republic on a business trip. I mainly spoke English all the time with my business partners (one of them speaks good Italian, though). On the other hand, Czech is always so nice to listen to, it's a pity I don't have time enough to take it up again. Maybe in the future... JAPANESE Apart from my daily Anki reviews, I didn't unfortunately get much done during my trip. I managed to fit in some study over the weekend, going through Assimil's lesson 36 and Living Language's lesson 7 + some kanji exercises from KIC workbook. I also watched episode 6 of Rozen Maiden Träumend anime (ローゼン・メイデン・トロイメント), I was quite happy because I could understand most of it. GERMAN Just watched a couple of dramas (Alles was zählt) on RTL (it's easy to get German TV in Prague), plus some reading on my connecting flight from Frankfurt to Turin (I grabbed a copy of Deutsch Perfekt at Frankfurt airport). During the weekend I went through Assimil's lesson 4 (the language is very easy but I prefer going through the coursebook from scratch). ENGLISH Apart from my business talks and the usual emails (which I'm not counting as study/practice time), I only started reading Alice Munro's Dear Life, a very nice collection of short stories I bought at the airport before taking off to Prague. It's the first time I have been reading something from Munro, her writing style is very good. I have also underlined all the unknown words (just a few) which I will add to my Anki desk as soon as I have time. FRENCH While driving from Southern Bohemia to Prague, I was surprised enough to find Radio France International broadcast on the Czech radio - Could I have avoided listening to an interesting scientific talk with a couple of geologists? Naah... Study/practice time week 1 - it could definitely be improved! Japanese: 3h55' - 10 new kanji (I should be able to recognize and read 1129 kanji at the moment) German: 2h30' English: 3h10' French: 25' Edited by hokusai77 on 10 September 2014 at 12:16am 1 person has voted this message useful | |
| hokusai77 Triglot Senior Member Italy Joined 7144 days ago 212 posts - 217 votes 1 sounds Speaks: Italian*, FrenchB1, EnglishC1 Studies: GermanB1, Japanese | Message 5 of 7 14 September 2014 at 11:43pm | IP Logged |
|
WEEK 2 - 8th September 2014 - 14th September 2014
Unfortunately I didn't get much done over the week, since I was ridicolously busy at work and had a couple of dinners out with friends. I just listened to Japanese CDs and reviewed my Anki desks, and went through some English and Japanese in the weekend. JAPANESE Daily Anki desk reviews plus some hours of listening in my car while commuting (Ultimate Japanese Advanced + The Nihongo Journal + some J-pop), and some kanji practice from the KIC workbook. As for Assimil, I only went through lesson no. 37. ENGLISH I just added some unknown/interesting vocabulary from Munro's book into my Anki desk, and did some reading practice for CPE. FRENCH-GERMAN Apart from going through my daily dose of Anki cards, nothing else unfortunately. Study/practice time - week 2 Japanese: 9h30' - 5 new kanji English: 1h05' Total study/practice time Japanese: 13h25' - 15 new kanji (total kanji: 1134) German: 2h30' English: 4h15' French: 25' Edited by hokusai77 on 14 September 2014 at 11:45pm 1 person has voted this message useful | |
| hokusai77 Triglot Senior Member Italy Joined 7144 days ago 212 posts - 217 votes 1 sounds Speaks: Italian*, FrenchB1, EnglishC1 Studies: GermanB1, Japanese | Message 6 of 7 29 September 2014 at 12:07am | IP Logged |
|
WEEK No. 3 - 15th September 2014 - 22nd September 2014
Quite a busy week at the office - so I actually didn't get much work done, even though I spoke a lot of English because I had customers from Malta visiting. ENGLISH Just some vocabulary study on my Anki desk. GERMAN Lesson no. 5 from Assimil (Ein Telefongespräch) and some vocabulary study. JAPANESE Apart from my daily Anki reviews (and my vocabulary knowledge is dramatically increasing), I also managed to fit it some further vocabulary work, some kanji exercises, and I went through lesson no. 38 from Assimil (書類). Study/practice time - week no. 3 Japanese: 5h - 4 new kanji German: 40' English: 35' Total study/practice time Japanese: 18h25' - 19 new kanji (total kanji: 1138) German: 3h10' English: 4h50' French: 25' 1 person has voted this message useful | |
| hokusai77 Triglot Senior Member Italy Joined 7144 days ago 212 posts - 217 votes 1 sounds Speaks: Italian*, FrenchB1, EnglishC1 Studies: GermanB1, Japanese | Message 7 of 7 29 September 2014 at 12:40am | IP Logged |
|
WEEK No. 4 - 22nd September 2014 - 28th September 2014
This week I had been travelling to Tunisia and Algeria on business, so I mainly concentrated on French - which was good, since I had been neglecting it quite a bit over the past few weeks. From Monday to Friday I spoke all day in French with my Tunisian and Algerian counterparts (and I actually tried to use as many new idioms as I could). It's always interesting to see how English is completely absent from Maghreb, where the second language is still far and foremost French (spoken fluently by almost anybody there). For the first time in my life, it's also happened to me not to listen to English announcements during a flight (Tunis-Algiers on Air Algérie) - Arabic and French being the only languages used by the cabin crew. I thought it was compulsory to use English and the carrier's national language(s) on all flight announcements, but this was not the case. FRENCH This week I've largely focused on reading, getting the most out of my travelling time. I took with me a copy of Le Nouvel Observateur, mainly reading about science and politics, and noting down any interesting vocabulary and idioms. Today I've also worked a little bit on lesson no. 62 from Il francese per te. JAPANESE My usual daily Anki reviews + dialogue from lesson no. 7 from Living Language + some kanji exercises. ENGLISH When I arrived at Turin airport last Monday I realized I had left Munro's book at home. I then bought me a copy of Dan Brown's Inferno in English while connecting at Rome bound to Tunis. That's the first time I've been reading something by Dan Brown... I must admit he's definitely not a great writer. But the plot seems nice, though, so I went through the first seven chapters during my flight back home last Friday. GERMAN Not much done, apart from some vocabulary and grammar reviews. Study/practice time - week no. 4 Japanese: 3h15' - 4 new kanji German: 35' English: 1h50' French: 2h Total study/practice time Japanese: 21h40' - 23 new kanji (total kanji: 1142) German: 3h45' English: 6h40' French: 2h25' Edited by hokusai77 on 29 September 2014 at 12:46am 1 person has voted this message useful |
If you wish to post a reply to this topic you must first login. If you are not already registered you must first register
|  | 
Printable version
|
| Copyright 2024 FX Micheloud - All rights reserved No part of this website may be copied by any means without my written authorization. |
