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Emme’s Small Steps - Team Sleipnir TAC’15 | ||
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 Language Learning Forum : Language Learning Log |  | |
| Emme Triglot Senior Member Italy Joined 5342 days ago 980 posts - 1594 votes  Speaks: Italian*, English, German Studies: Russian, Swedish, French | Message 233 of 360 05 December 2013 at 1:13pm | IP Logged | |||||
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I suppose I’m still only at A2 in my active skills, but probably B1/B1+ in my passive ones (and I think that my vocabulary range too is more in line with B1 than A2).
But I find it very hard to level up in writing and speaking: lack of live interaction is certainly a big problem. And no matter how many times it gets repeated that nowadays finding writing and speaking opportunities online is quite easy, I must confess I’m not actually seeking them out. I’m quite the technophobe and a really shy person and while the social aspect of the forum and the TAC have proven both useful and pleasant, I think Skype and Lang-8 etc. are still out of my comfort zone. Small steps, small steps …. 1 person has voted this message useful | ||||||
| Emme Triglot Senior Member Italy Joined 5342 days ago 980 posts - 1594 votes Speaks: Italian*, English, German Studies: Russian, Swedish, French | Message 234 of 360 09 December 2013 at 11:19pm | IP Logged | |||||
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As the sign-up thread for 2014 is proving, this year’s TAC is soon coming to an end and that’s making me reflect quite a lot about my learning objectives and plans. I haven’t come to any conclusion yet, but I’ll expose some of my thoughts here.
If you’ve read this log which I’ve been writing for the past few years, you may have noticed that I’ve been focusing on Swedish (with a modicum of consistency), I’ve been complaining regularly about not spending enough time with German (something I know that I need to do, but somehow I don’t enjoy doing), I’ve dedicated about half a year to learning French with Assimil, dipped my toes into Russian for the past twelve months and then dabbled time and again with other languages, mainly Japanese, Mandarin, and Rumanian. On my hit list there are still Spanish and Finnish and I’m not sure what other languages may catch my attention in the coming years. Right now, with the signing-up for next year’s TAC going on, I wish I could make sense of my vague ideas for the future. The failure with Russian this year (and let’s candidly admit it here: I failed at Russian in 2013) has reminded me that learning a language takes time and hard work. A couple of weeks ago I had the luck to spend an entire morning studying just like I used to do at university and I could notice what a huge difference that makes. Unfortunately it’s not a realistic option now to spend hours on end studying, because that part of my life is over and I have other commitments that I need to prioritize. At the same time, though, being … well, let’s say “more mature” because I don’t like the word “older” means that I no longer have the impatience of the teenager or of the twenty-something who finds it difficult to make plans a few years down the line. Experience has taught me that having a timeframe of 5 years or even a decade to learn a language is nothing to sniff at. So, on the one hand I can’t commit to any serious intensive studying and on the other hand I’m not really in a hurry to master any of my languages within a year or two. This means that I could give another chance to Russian or that I could launch into a completely new language. A part of me is persuaded (and I might be proven wrong in a few months’ time) that if I started Spanish I could see results fairly easily and quickly and that would make for a nice project for 2014. Another part of me says it’s high time I started with a more exotic language like Chinese or Japanese since either of those will surely take me a looooong time to learn. And the more rational part of me says that I simply shouldn’t bite off more than I can chew and that I should forget about starting new languages and just focus on my half-baked German and French. And then there’s English. While I use English daily and my passive skills are nothing to complain about, I have to be honest with myself and admit that my active skills are getting rustier by the day. And this makes me think: Wouldn’t it be wiser if I curtailed the amount of time I spend with languages that seem to be going nowhere and just go back to studying English seriously? After all, my learning experience with English was by far the best among my language experiences, no matter if in a class setting or self-studying. I loved every minute I spent learning it and I achieved the kind of results that fill you with a sense of accomplishment and pride that I’ve never experienced with any other language. If all was so great, you may wonder, why did I stop? Well, there were a couple of factors: first, after passing the FCE (= CEFR B2) I went on to university, where I was forced to abandon what may be called “English for general purposes” to concentrate on “English for Academic purposes” with its emphasis on composition and essay writing and literary translation. And then, with my university studies over, I was simply in the fairly common position among the non-native speakers of English on this forum where there aren’t enough incentives to keep studying a language given the fact that you are already perfectly capable of doing whatever you want and need to do in English even if without the mastery of a native speaker (or even that of a more motivated learner). So right now I’m considering whether I should pick up English where I left off, i.e. pursuing a CAE or a PCE exam or at least studying in that kind of framework even if I may never sit an actual exam ever again (actually, the idea of another exam is quite a turn-off right now). I know that the question about whether it’s better to achieve a higher proficiency in just one foreign language or basic fluency in several is a common topic on this forum and I must confess that I’ve always refused to express any opinion on the matter because I find the premise of such a question wrong. No single answer can ever be the right one, as it must always be a personal choice based on an individual’s circumstances. Not only that, I’m also quite convinced that for that same person the right answer may be different according to what phase of life s/he’s in. After all, we all grow, we mature, we change and so must our interests and projects. EDIT: silly but funny typo. Thank you Iversen for pointing it out. Edited by Emme on 10 December 2013 at 9:41pm 4 persons have voted this message useful | ||||||
| Solfrid Cristin Heptaglot Winner TAC 2011 & 2012 Senior Member Norway Joined 5329 days ago 4143 posts - 8864 votes Speaks: Norwegian*, Spanish, Swedish, French, English, German, Italian Studies: Russian | Message 235 of 360 10 December 2013 at 6:37am | IP Logged | |||||
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Well - failure with Russian or not, you would be most welcome to continue on the Russian team! It took me 5
years to get to A2, and I have just accepted that for me Russian is a language which needs to simmer. It is not a quick fix. On the other hand there are few other languages which have given me as much satisfaction when I have started to learn some. In any event, regardless of which teams you end up on, I will follow your progress. 1 person has voted this message useful | ||||||
| mrwarper Diglot Winner TAC 2012 Senior Member Spain forum_posts.asp?TID=Registered users can see my Skype Name Joined 5221 days ago 1493 posts - 2500 votes Speaks: Spanish*, EnglishC2 Studies: German, Russian, Japanese | Message 236 of 360 10 December 2013 at 12:32pm | IP Logged | |||||
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I guess all summaries are supposed to contain some food for thought, but this really stands out from what I've caught up with so far (some more tons left to go, though). Realism and calmness, eh? I better sort out my reflections and update my own log before even more gets piled up.
BTW Cristina: I have to munch your question over, so you'll have to wait until I update at the team log --and mine--, sorry... ;) Edited by mrwarper on 10 December 2013 at 12:33pm 1 person has voted this message useful | ||||||
 Iversen Super Polyglot Moderator Denmark berejst.dk Joined 6698 days ago 9078 posts - 16473 votes Speaks: Danish*, French, English, German, Italian, Spanish, Portuguese, Dutch, Swedish, Esperanto, Romanian, Catalan Studies: Afrikaans, Greek, Norwegian, Russian, Serbian, Icelandic, Latin, Irish, Lowland Scots, Indonesian, Polish, Croatian Personal Language Map | Message 237 of 360 10 December 2013 at 1:25pm | IP Logged | |||||
Musical prowess required ? 1 person has voted this message useful | ||||||
| Expugnator Hexaglot Senior Member Brazil Joined 5161 days ago 3335 posts - 4349 votes Speaks: Portuguese*, Norwegian, French, English, Italian, Papiamento Studies: Mandarin, Georgian, Russian | Message 238 of 360 10 December 2013 at 4:05pm | IP Logged | |||||
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Emme, you're welcome to join Team Russian again so we can bash on Russian studies
together while enjoying Norwegian and Swedish series! I'm sure Cristina, you and I will learn from each other's experiences, failures and successes. 1 person has voted this message useful | ||||||
| Emme Triglot Senior Member Italy Joined 5342 days ago 980 posts - 1594 votes Speaks: Italian*, English, German Studies: Russian, Swedish, French | Message 239 of 360 10 December 2013 at 9:38pm | IP Logged | |||||
LOL! You brought a smile to my face! ;-) Thanks for pointing out the silly typo. I had completely missed it! That teaches me not to post when I’m tired. @Cristina @mrwarper @Expugnator Thank you for the kind words! You make me want to remain in the new Russian team just to keep our wonderful and very supportive group together. 1 person has voted this message useful | ||||||
| Josquin Heptaglot Senior Member Germany Joined 4839 days ago 2266 posts - 3992 votes Speaks: German*, English, French, Latin, Italian, Russian, Swedish Studies: Japanese, Irish, Portuguese, Persian | Message 240 of 360 10 December 2013 at 10:11pm | IP Logged | |||||
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I, too, would be glad to see you on Team Russian again, Emme! You have been very supportive and a great team mate.
Don't give up on Russian! As Cristina said, this language can be a beast and take some time before it "clicks". I am at a point where I can read easy texts quite comfortably, but I would never say I already "speak" Russian. Maybe, Russian is like a matryoshka. Just when you think you've understood something, you find a new point you didn't know. In fact, that's part of the fascination for me. Anyway, if you decide you don't have the time or you'd like to try something else, I'll fully understand. Good luck! 1 person has voted this message useful |
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