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Language Log of the Solocricket

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30 messages over 4 pages: 1 2 3
solocricket
Tetraglot
Groupie
United StatesRegistered users can see my Skype Name
Joined 3668 days ago

68 posts - 106 votes 
Speaks: English*, French, Italian, Spanish
Studies: Dutch, Icelandic, Korean, Polish

 
 Message 25 of 30
01 July 2015 at 1:42pm | IP Logged 
Update!

ICELANDIC

I'm going to Iceland in about a month! Aaaaand... I'm not so prepared haha. So the
project this month is to study and cram as many phrases and grammar features into my
head!

Full disclosure: I'm also getting married this month (Iceland will be my honeymoon),
so things are getting pretty stressful and busy around here. But I'll do my best to
keep up Icelandic! I'm going back to Hippocrene and reviewing the chapters in-depth,
and I might try reading a short news article each day on ruv.is. I know if I get to
Iceland (my first overseas trip) without having done my best (even in this month,
since I slacked off for many months prior..) I'll probably regret it a tiny bit. But
even if I don't utter a word of Icelandic, I'm really looking forward to seeing
Iceland.

SPANISH

Spanish, on the other hand, is going into overdrive. As I've mentioned, I'm moving to
California in August, and I'd really like to be able to put "fluent in Spanish" on my
resume. However, my output isn't the best ever, and I think "fluent" is a much
stronger word to people who are not invested in language learning :) So, I've been
reading extensively, both Harry Potter and news articles, and I've been making more of
a point to look up unfamiliar words, rather than to just ignore them :) Ignoring
unfamiliar words is something that I think works well at the beginning and
intermediate stages of learning, but at this point, I want my Spanish to be very
strong. I've also been watching "Aquí no hay quien viva" and getting used to the
Spain-Spanish accents :D
1 person has voted this message useful



solocricket
Tetraglot
Groupie
United StatesRegistered users can see my Skype Name
Joined 3668 days ago

68 posts - 106 votes 
Speaks: English*, French, Italian, Spanish
Studies: Dutch, Icelandic, Korean, Polish

 
 Message 26 of 30
10 July 2015 at 1:19am | IP Logged 
Well, I moved Italian up to basic fluency/speaks. I feel like I've grown a decent,
everyday vocabulary, combined with my previous knowledge/dependency (haha) on Spanish and
French (Duolingo has been a help, but I obviously didn't make my gains largely through
that source). I can read newspapers articles and text my friends, but I haven't had
speaking practice. This is a language I'm interested in knowing more passively, for
literary enjoyment, so I'm comfortable moving it up. I hope I'm not overestimating....
I'm going to finish the Duolingo tree and maybe do a bit more reading and listening, but
this one will go on the back burner I think.

And I'm still cramming Icelandic :)
1 person has voted this message useful



solocricket
Tetraglot
Groupie
United StatesRegistered users can see my Skype Name
Joined 3668 days ago

68 posts - 106 votes 
Speaks: English*, French, Italian, Spanish
Studies: Dutch, Icelandic, Korean, Polish

 
 Message 27 of 30
21 July 2015 at 3:01pm | IP Logged 
SPANISH

Finished "El Mar" and "Harry Potter y el cáliz de fuego." Trying to watch a lot more TV,
and I've been writing on Lang-8 virtually everyday.

ICELANDIC

Trip to Iceland is in less than a week! Ahh!
1 person has voted this message useful



Spanky
Senior Member
Canada
Joined 5948 days ago

1021 posts - 1714 votes 
Studies: French

 
 Message 28 of 30
21 July 2015 at 7:54pm | IP Logged 
Congrats on your wedding and have a great time in Iceland, it is a fascinating and beautiful country.
1 person has voted this message useful



solocricket
Tetraglot
Groupie
United StatesRegistered users can see my Skype Name
Joined 3668 days ago

68 posts - 106 votes 
Speaks: English*, French, Italian, Spanish
Studies: Dutch, Icelandic, Korean, Polish

 
 Message 29 of 30
22 July 2015 at 11:00pm | IP Logged 
@Spanky Thanks! I'm really looking forward to it and I hope my smattering of Icelandic
will enrich the trip at least a little bit.
1 person has voted this message useful



solocricket
Tetraglot
Groupie
United StatesRegistered users can see my Skype Name
Joined 3668 days ago

68 posts - 106 votes 
Speaks: English*, French, Italian, Spanish
Studies: Dutch, Icelandic, Korean, Polish

 
 Message 30 of 30
14 August 2015 at 6:01pm | IP Logged 
It's been awhile! So, I'm back from Iceland! It was absolutely beautiful, and it was
even more amazing to hear and see the Icelandic being used all over the place. Just
being around it made me feel like my pitiful level bumped up a bit.

I certainly learned something about myself as well-- I'm *not* the type of person to
jump into conversation with random people or even to engage cashiers and waiters. In
fact, I must confess, I hardly used spoken Icelandic at all, even though I know I was
capable of saying simple and understandable things with a decent accent. I beat myself
up a bit for that, but I have to say that passively reading and listening to everyday
language for 10 days still can be considered using the Icelandic I learned, and it
certainly was not wasted time in that sense. I was able to read signs that were not
bilingual and that turned out to be somewhat of a help! My husband and I bought *tons*
of Icelandic novels and picture books (yes, some were quite expensive, but we like
books a lot. Some we bought at the Kolaportið flea market for veryyy good prices) so I
feel like I have plenty of materials if I want to take Icelandic further. For now,
however, I'm going to be taking an official break (as opposed to the numerous
unofficial ones....) from Icelandic, but I'm very happy for the experience!

As for the other languages, Spanish and Italian are going strong through reading and
some focused vocabulary learning I've been doing. I've been trying to fix holes in my
everyday Spanish vocabulary by making flashcards of household items and whatnot. I
liked doing that so I did the same with Italian. I'm going to move Italian back down
to "learning," because after some soul-searching, I think I overestimated a bit.


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