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Я не говорю по-английски

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Nieng Zhonghan
Bilingual Tetraglot
Senior Member
Antarctica
Joined 3663 days ago

108 posts - 315 votes 
Speaks: Portuguese*, Japanese*, Spanish, Galician
Studies: Finnish, Icelandic, Armenian, Mongolian
Studies: Old English, Russian, English, German, Korean, Mandarin

 
 Message 33 of 47
19 January 2015 at 12:08am | IP Logged 
@Woodsei,

I am interested in Arab culture. It has many features of my interest. Who knows when I
get older I will have a chance to grasp at least the minimum level required for
reading fluently? I am interested in traditions from Arabic speaking countries.

I myself I prefer much more Kansai area instead of Kantou. :)

@Ramblurr,

I am not sure whether I am really going to use Hugo in 3 months or not. Assimil
contains 100 units and I am far away from finishing the book. In addition, I think
Germanpod has been much better than I thought and the reviews I have read about it. At
least as a beginner level I think Germanpod has been pretty good so far.


So, it is time to update. I am not going to write much as I have just hit my head on
the wall...

TAC languages: Chinese (3), Korean (4) and German (5).

3. Chinese

Achievement list

3.1 Tandem

I asked all questions I have had concerning Chinese. I learned several expressions and
I also had my pronunciation corrected. More specifically my pen pal corrected the
tones I have mistaken, though she understood everything I said through voice recorded
messages. I also asked her to send me voice recorded messages because I would kind of
cheat due to my background (ideograms knowledge). Because I can guess many ideograms’
meaning through writing, I decided to concentrate on pinyin with tones or just audio
messages. We didn’t talk on Skype because I send her messages at random times during a
break at work, in the morning, in the gym, before sleeping etc and vice-verse.

3.2 Glossika Chinese (GMS)

Did one unit of Glossika GMS. I am not in a hurry to finish all GMS. I just wanted
something at my level to improve my listening skills. I think I can make a good usage
of this course. I took a look at random audios and I think I will like it a lot, much
more than I expected. Let's see when I can actually fits it in my schedule.

Biggest hurdles so far

I still have problems when I try to say many words or expressions containing lot of 4
tones in row. I kind of say things with a weird intonation at the point that the
listener cannot sometimes understand me. I will keep on practicing.

Next time:

I would like to start studying with my HSK 3 book. It contains 24 Units. I’d like to
do 12 units by the end of next week.

4. Korean

Achievement list

4.1 TTMIK 2
I actually didn't start Season 2. Not this week, but starting from tomorrow, I'd like
to do one lesson per day. Let's see if I will have time in my schedule.

4.2 Textbook (Korean – Japanese) (6/20)

I did 6 units focusing most of times in listening and shadowing.

4.3 Textbook (Korean – Japanese) (10/51)
I did 10 units.

Next time:

+ Start TTMIK 2 lessons.
+ Finish textbook 1
+ Do 2 units of textbook 2.

5. German

Achievement list

5.1 Assimil 50/100

I did more 25 lessons this week. :D
My passive knowledge has been good enough to understand the short texts. I try to
listen to the audio, then, I listen one more time together with the text. Then, while
I am reading it, I try to translate the text in English in my head without looking at
the translation provided in the book.

I guess I completed almost all grammar patterns of A1 passively. I
need to increase my vocabulary knowledge and keep on reviewing from now. Therefore, I
am planning to take 2 lessons a day: one new lesson and another one to review at the
beginning as the authors recommended. So, I guess I won't do any burst from now on
with Assimil.

5.2 Deutsche Musik

I have been listening to some German pop music at the gym. I am trying to take a look
at the lyrics and take a look in some random words that I have listened to.

Next time:

+ Continue working with Assimil lessons. I have already finished half of my book and
I’d like to finish it as soon as possible, though it is not a realistic plan.
+ Purchase Glossika German GMS course. I am interested in this course.


Non-TAC languages

1. English

Reading and reading.

2. Japanese

無くなった方の ご冥福を お祈りすると共に、
自然に対する 畏怖の念 を忘れては いけないです。

Edited by Nieng Zhonghan on 19 January 2015 at 12:10am

2 persons have voted this message useful



Nieng Zhonghan
Bilingual Tetraglot
Senior Member
Antarctica
Joined 3663 days ago

108 posts - 315 votes 
Speaks: Portuguese*, Japanese*, Spanish, Galician
Studies: Finnish, Icelandic, Armenian, Mongolian
Studies: Old English, Russian, English, German, Korean, Mandarin

 
 Message 34 of 47
26 January 2015 at 2:22am | IP Logged 
TAC languages: Chinese (3), Korean (4) and German (5).

Aloha!

I am not progressing as much as I want because these TAC languages are not my
priority. I wanted to do lot of things from last week until today, but my schedule is
very tight and many unexpected things happen all the time. When I am too busy, I try
to review the few things I have learned so far. Unfortunately I really didn’t have
much time for Chinese and Korean this week but in February I will focus more in either
one or another.

I will have to go on a business trip by next week. Therefore there will be no update
in January 31st, but in February 7th if nothing changes.

In meanwhile, I will try to watch some random videos and listen to music of my target
languages.

3. Chinese

Next time:

HSK 3: As I didn’t do anything this week except reviewing what I have learned so far,
I will try to finish HSK 3’s book by February 7th, starting from February 2nd.

4. Korean

Next time:

+ TTMIK 2: I’d like to finish by February 7th.
+ Textbook 1 (Japanese-Korean): 10/51
I have done 10 units so far and I am willing to do more 10.
+ Textbook 2 (Japanese-Korean): 6/20
I am willing to start and finish 14 short units. It is a good resource for shadowing.
I didn’t do much in January, so I guess I should work more with Korean.

5. German

Achievement list

5.1 Assimil 75/100

I did more 25 lessons this week. :D

It was perhaps the only achievement during this week. I am not reviewing any past
lesson as suggested by the authors. I will do after finishing the whole book.

Next time:

+ Finish Assimil course. It is only 25 chapters.

Speaking of Assimil, in chapter 67 (with ease edition), I found out a sentence which I
found weird. (I think it was on page 285)

“Kannst du mir bitte beim Tischdecken helfen? Du findest die Teiler ganz oben im
Schrank”. It is translated as “Can you help me to lay the table please? You’ll find
the plates at the top of the cupboard”.

I guess it is not “Teiler”, but “Teller”, isn’t it?!

Non-TAC languages

1. English
Learned new idioms through books.

2. Japanese

2.1
Hakuho Sho
Zensho yusho for Hakuho. He gets his 33rd yusho and still is clearly the strongest
rikishi in sumo today. Expect him to win several more before he retires, even though
he said he has no goals anymore. I bet Hakuho will win at least 40th tournaments
before he retires, unless some serious injuries make him retire before setting new
records.

Hakuho became Yokozuna at the age of 22 and 5 months. Former Yokozuna Takanohana
(Takahanada) became Yokozuna at the age of 22 and 3 months; former Yokozuna Taiho set
the record becoming Yokozuna at the age of 21 and 3 months.

In Hakuho’s case, he became yokozuna by beating Asashoryu which is significant. I
mean, Asashoryu became Yokozuna when his opponents were sidelined or injured), which
doesn’t make his achievements less significant, but just as a matter of comparison of
both Mongolians situation. Hakuho clearly dominates everyone: Harumafuji, Kakuryu,
Kisenosato and Kotoshogiku, not to mention former Ozeki Baruto and Ozeki Kotooshu. He
has a score of 12 wins and 11 losses against Asashoryu who lost the last 6 or 7 bouts
in honwari (not including playoffs).

Hakuho has already won 33 tournaments throughout his great career and has 18
additional jun-yusho. As DAIyokozuna, he was only twice left without either yusho or
jun-yusho, according to the statistics I have just seen. That is unbelievable! For
comparison with other all-time great Yokozunas: Akebono 9, Takanohana 11, Mushashimaru
11, Asashoryu 10 times, , Chiyonofuji 13. On top of all that if he retired now, he
would have the highest win percentage in modern era.

There is no doubt in my mind, that Hakuho Sho is the greatest rikishi of all time.


Harumafuji

Harumafuji became yokozuna in his own right. He has scored two consecutives
zenshoyusho in Hakuho era and has won a tournament in Hakuho/Asashoryu era with both
greats competing (not sidelined) and he beat both of them that yusho (Hakuho in the
playoffs). His style is amazing combination of speed, agility, a variety of techniques
and unbelievable strength for someone who is lightweight compared to the others at top
division. However, as a Yokozuna he doesn’t appear as the “star” due to Hakuho’s
dominance.

In any other era, I would believe Harumafuji would have at least 10 Emperor's cups at
this stage of his career and Kisenosato would be perhaps a yokozuna.


Kakuryu

Kakuryu finishes at 10-5, not a good score for a Yokozuna. I thought that he would do
much better, giving his last basho’s sumo. So far he has been a mediocre yokozuna (he
hasn’t won a single tournament yet after being promoted) but good enough to avoid
criticism from the Nihon sumo Kyokai. Hopefully he will be more competitive by next
basho.


Ichinojo x Terunofuji

Ichinojo-Terunofuji bout was epic and one of the best during this tournament. Watched
it live and had to laugh at times, because those guys are both so strong not only in
their upper body, but also in their lower body. Mongolians usually have a stronger
lower body than Japanese wrestlers. Furthermore, Mongolians usually have a good
balance, speed, footwork and technique, especially in belt skills. It is important to
notice that both Ichinojo and Terunofuji are around the same age, same height and
almost the same weight; they are also very powerful when getting the belt. During
their bout it was clear that pushing one another didn't really work much; they were
both like trees grown into the dohyo at times which make me laugh and have lots of
fun. Both of them tried to push the other on multiple times and in most cases, the one
defending from the push did not even need to change his footing. That's stability!
What’s more, I have even seen a mizuiri! If I am not wrong, last time I saw Mizuiri
was between Tokitenkuu (Mongolian) some years ago.

Despite their sumo style and being powerful, they lack in agility, footwork speed and
techniques to overpower or outmaneuver the Mr. All-Time-Greatest Yokozuna. It will
take a while for Hakuho to lose a bout against either Terunofuji or Ichinojo. I would
suggest the latter on to lose at least 20 kgs, though 30 kgs would be desirable to
make him a bit faster and not lose bouts against smaller rikishi.


Kisenosato

He wins against Kakuryu quite easily, but lose against Harumafuji like a maegashira’s
rikishi. He is mentally very weak and too stubborn.

Kotoshogiku

Made his kachikoshi.

Goeido

Mr. 8-7 did it! Ha ha!

How to defeat Mr. All-Time-Greatest?

Even though I like Hakuho and I have been cheering for him since he appeared in Juryo,
I’d like to see more competitive tournaments to make it more exciting.

Unless another Asashoryu comes up, Hakuho is likely to not lose many bouts and the
Empero’s Cup.

It is more like a battle between Hakuho and his motivation to continue fighting as a
professional wrestler. Many stable masters have alleged that he is not training hard
anymore. He just exercises a bit in order to not injury himself. He does lots of
stretching and some strength exercises and that’s all. He hasn’t strong rikishi to
practice with.

If the young rikishi wants to improve, they should go to Hakuho stable and train hard
with him. Terunofuji, Ichinojo, Endou and Takayasu should go to Hakuho’s stable in
order to learn from him. Of course, the Mr. All-Time-Greatest will not teach anything,
but they should learn indirectly how to become stronger.

I wish I could see Hakuho, Asashoryu, and also other great Yokozuna and Ozeki fighting
in the same era. When Hakuho appeared, Asashoryu was already getting older and
injuring a lot.

Well, that's it for a historic basho. Sumo has resurged in popularity, which is a
great thing.

Edited by Nieng Zhonghan on 26 January 2015 at 2:25am

1 person has voted this message useful



Nieng Zhonghan
Bilingual Tetraglot
Senior Member
Antarctica
Joined 3663 days ago

108 posts - 315 votes 
Speaks: Portuguese*, Japanese*, Spanish, Galician
Studies: Finnish, Icelandic, Armenian, Mongolian
Studies: Old English, Russian, English, German, Korean, Mandarin

 
 Message 35 of 47
16 February 2015 at 12:31am | IP Logged 
Aloha!

I am not going to post anything related to TAC languages this month as I have suffered
an accident; therefore, I haven’t had enough time to take a look on what I have
learned so far. I cannot use my right hand and it has been difficult to adapt myself
to use the mouse with the left hand and also type with a single hand.

I am going to the intensive physiotherapy almost every day in order to recover my
right hand movement and my left leg/foot movement. At least I am not in a wheelchair
as I used to be years ago…

I suppose in 40 days I will be using my right hands for any kind of activity, even
though the first prognostic was very negative news. I was told that I would recover
only 30% of my hand movement, but my fingers are working pretty well (in the sense I
can feel them...) and hopefully I will recover 100% at the end of my treatment. The
thing is that I had my vein cut and its healing and full cicatrization takes long. The
color changed from black to dark purple (dark green?), and hopefully it will back to
the normality in a couple of weeks...

Anyway, I am going to choose two songs for my Asian languages challenge, one for
Chinese and one for Korean. I have no idea yet, but I will work on chorus
memorization. As for German challenge, I also have no idea what I can write being
under my poor A level, but I will think about a short story, despite my lack of
writing experience in that language.

In meanwhile, I will read some books in Japanese and English, though it has been
difficult to hold them with a hand…

Hopefully I will post some updates related to my TAC languages on March 29th. Oh,
actually I will probably report about my TAC challenge on February 27th or 28th. :D
1 person has voted this message useful



carlyd
Groupie
United States
Joined 3981 days ago

94 posts - 138 votes 
Speaks: English*
Studies: German, Spanish

 
 Message 36 of 47
16 February 2015 at 8:19am | IP Logged 
I'm so sorry to hear about your accident, and I hope that you can regain the full use of your hand.

Take care.
1 person has voted this message useful



dampingwire
Bilingual Triglot
Senior Member
United Kingdom
Joined 4657 days ago

1185 posts - 1513 votes 
Speaks: English*, Italian*, French
Studies: Japanese

 
 Message 37 of 47
18 February 2015 at 11:39pm | IP Logged 
Nieng Zhonghan wrote:
I cannot use my right hand and it has been difficult to adapt
myself
to use the mouse with the left hand and also type with a single hand.



I'm sorry to hear about your accident. I wish you a full and speedy recovery.

1 person has voted this message useful



SomeGuy
Groupie
Germany
Joined 5092 days ago

56 posts - 75 votes 
Speaks: German*
Studies: Arabic (Written), Turkish, Mandarin

 
 Message 38 of 47
18 February 2015 at 11:48pm | IP Logged 
Auch ich wünsche Dir eine gute Besserung!
1 person has voted this message useful



Nieng Zhonghan
Bilingual Tetraglot
Senior Member
Antarctica
Joined 3663 days ago

108 posts - 315 votes 
Speaks: Portuguese*, Japanese*, Spanish, Galician
Studies: Finnish, Icelandic, Armenian, Mongolian
Studies: Old English, Russian, English, German, Korean, Mandarin

 
 Message 39 of 47
08 March 2015 at 1:54pm | IP Logged 
TAC languages: Chinese (3), Korean (4), German (5) and Russian (6).
Aloha!I am back!

@carlyd, @dampingwire,@SomeGuy

Thank you for your messages. Actually I have been recovering pretty well and much
faster than expected. I am already going to the gym as usual to train my muscles as I
have been doing since 2007. My foot is 100% right now and it is already very good
news. Aside from my right hand, everything is doing well. My lower body is 100%.

So, time to restart doing some few updates. Well, first of all, my February challenge
showed me many gaps I have in German which is good because I can focus later on in all
my weaknesses. I will probably do some grammar drills to get used to the usage of
German cases, even though my passive skills have been satisfactory so far, considering
the amount of time dedicated.

Regarding my Asian languages’ challenge, for both Chinese and Korean I simply could
not memorize the lyrics. I still don’t know the reasons I have never memorized any
song in my life. It is even difficult to start reading about this subject because I
haven’t found any serious and scientific researches related to my “problem”. I could
clearly understand the Chinese lyrics just listening at it, without taking a look at
it. Later on I have listened to the song with the lyrics to make sure I really
understood the whole song. Obviously it was an easy song, perhaps one of the easiest
ones sung by adults.

Concerning the Korean song, I could understand most of the lyric when I have taken a
look at it. Not difficult one as well. I liked the idea of choosing Yiruma’s song as
it is different from the trendy Kpop songs which are really annoying to my ears, not
to say that the lyrics are really shallow most of times in terms of meaning.

3. Chinese

According to the information provided in my book, I learned 150 words and 174
characters from HSK1; 150 new words and 173 characters from HSK2. So, the total amount
learned so far is: 300 words and 347 characters only. I expect to learn 300 new words
and 270 new characters which mean 600 words and 617 characters in the total at the end
of HSK 3 book. It is not as much as I expect.

I am learning both simplified and traditional characters and I haven’t encountered any
problems so far.

3.1 HSK 3 (7/24)

Units 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7

Next time:

Continue doing HSK 3. I am planning to do one unit per day, considering my shadowing
and L-R techniques. I am doing all exercises and it has not been challenging so far.

I am considering start reading something such as children’s books, articles (news)
related to some of the topics I am more interested in and so on because HSK 1, 2 and 3
resources have not been challenging at all until now and mostly because it has been
really boring. Of course, it is my fault since I have made this choice to start
studying with HSK resources as I have already the books at home. I also have the HSK 4
and apparently this seem to be more interesting as it provides about 600 new words and
447 new characters.

I am not sure whether I will create my own Anki deck with sentences only as some of
them seem to be interesting.

4. Korean

4. 1 TTMIK2 (30/30).
Finished all lessons.

4.2. TTMIK 3 (30/30)
Finished all lessons.
Next time:

+ Start TTMIK 4 (0/30)
I am planning to take one lesson every day.

5. German

I stopped Assimil at unit 75 in January 25th, but I haven’t progressed so far due to
my physical conditions. Of course this can never be an excuse, but the time reserved
to German is when I actually had to do some physiotherapy’s exercises. I still have to
do some hardcore training (aside from the gym) in order to recover my hands’ movement.
On the contrary of the doctors’ comments, I have already recovered 90% of my movement
and I am expecting to recover 100% sooner or later.

5.1 Assimil (75/100)

I am going to do one lesson a day. I expect to finish the book at the end of this
month. In meanwhile I am planning to read Top Thema from Deutsch Welle once in a while
as they seem to be designed for A1 or A2 level. I have taken some random Top Thema’s
articles and I could understand almost everything without a dictionary.

6. Russian

I am a new member of Pushkin team.
Why did I choose Russian?

6.1 Assimil (14/100)

14 lessons done during my first week of Russian. Assimil is by far one of the best
beginner methods I have ever seen.

I created some sentences to practice myself as I not willing to reach lesson 50 to do
the second wave. I am practicing everything I study.

A: Cейчас я хочу спать
B: Почему ты хочешь спать?
A:
Потому что я уже закончил мои сегодняшние уроки по русскому языку
Потому что я уже сделал мои сегодняшние уроки по русскому языку

(More casual?)
Потому что я уже закончил с уроками русского языка на сегодня
I checked my dictionaries and few grammars, so I guess it should be at least 87,91%
correct. I will leave here so that some time (one year?) later I can check how much
newbie I was.

Since I am trying to do lots of shadowing exercises which require me more amount of
time than I expected, I think I will reduce the lessons I will do every week. Perhaps
I will do only 3 per week as the texts is going to get longer and longer and with lots
of information to absorb within a short amount of time I have.

Non-TAC languages

1. English
Nothing in special.

2. Japanese

2.1 Usage of ふとx 突然
Explained to my pen pal the difference of them.

2.2 Explained the difference among these words and its usage:「それに」「そして」「それ
から」「それで」.


Supplementary random comments

1
Just as a matter of curiosity, I can clearly feel a correlation between doing regular
workouts (4 to 5 times a week) and improving my concentration during my language
studies. Because I haven’t done much in February, unfortunately I am not sleeping as
much as in January, for example. I also cannot concentrate as much as usual.

2.
So, the plan is to dedicate 2 hours a day (from Monday to Friday) for learning my
target (TAC)languages:

Chinese (30 min)
German (30 min)
Korean (30 min)
Russian (30 min)

I am still unsure whether I will do something on Saturdays as I have to work the whole
day and I really get tired. Perhaps I will take some break and watch something in any
of my target languages.

On Sunday I will perhaps stick with the plan to study my target languages, but I am
not going to increase the amount of time as it is working with me and I'd like to
watch something in either Japanese or English.

Edited by Nieng Zhonghan on 11 March 2015 at 10:03pm

1 person has voted this message useful



Nieng Zhonghan
Bilingual Tetraglot
Senior Member
Antarctica
Joined 3663 days ago

108 posts - 315 votes 
Speaks: Portuguese*, Japanese*, Spanish, Galician
Studies: Finnish, Icelandic, Armenian, Mongolian
Studies: Old English, Russian, English, German, Korean, Mandarin

 
 Message 40 of 47
15 March 2015 at 9:56pm | IP Logged 
TAC languages: Chinese (3), Korean (4), German (5) and Russian (6).

Aloha!

I am not sure whether the monthly tasks are designed to be output-only challenges or
not. Anyway, I agree with the idea with output only (or mostly output) as there’s
already the SC for those interested in totally passive tasks.

3. Chinese

3.1 HSK 3 (12/24)

Units 7, 8, 9, 10, 11

3.2 March Challenge

On active task

I will type 100 character texts. Since the server was out last week (at least here), I
will start the March challenge starting from tomorrow.

On passive task

1.

I have compiled a deck on Anki containing A1 and A2 level (totally biased) grammar
topics with sentences. It contains about 100 flashcards which I’d like to finish at
the end of this month.

2. I created a TOCFL deck containing words from Taiwanese proficiency test level 1. If
I manage to do more than 200 words a week, I will definitely finish it by the end of
this month.

Next time

I'd like to finish my HSK level 3 book.

4. Korean

4.1 TTMIK 4 (0/30)

I am going to start and finish TTMIK level 4 book.

4.2. March Challenge

On active task

I am not sure yet. What one can do being at very low level in terms of passive skills?
Does shadowing 100 sentences is valid output? How about writing 100 random sentences
on my own? Another idea is writing several short dialogues whose amount of characters
would be at least 100. I am not sure how to count a character in Korean though. What
is the criterion? For instance, I will consider “안녕하세요” containing 5 characters.

On passive task

Review 100 flashcards every week from my own TTMIK deck or from the deck Evita has
created and kindly shared with us.

Next time:

I'd like to finish the whole TTMIK 4 book.

5. German

5.1 Assimil (75/100)

I am doing some review when time allows me. Still doing exercises in the physiotherapy
room where I listen to German songs. Not doing much since January, but I will fully
recover soon and be 100% in April.

6. Russian

I am a new member of Pushkin team.

6.1 Assimil (17/100)

I did lessons 15, 16 and 17. The pace is going to get slow since there are more
vocabulary to review. Anyway, better than nothing. I just figured out that there is a
mistake on Assimil with ease:

А салат "Оливье есть?” - Само собой! I do think that "Оливье есть" doesn`t make sense.
It should be as in the following sentence:
А салат "Оливье" есть? - Само собой!

1. English

Nothing in special.

I'd like to watch some TV series in English.

2. Japanese

2.1 Sumo

Watching live sumo. Surprised to not see Kakuryu on this tournament. Who is going to
defeat the all-time greatest Dai-Yokozuna Hakuho? He has broken almost all main
records so far. I’d like to see some rikishi being his rival as both Yokozuna
Harumafuji and Yokozuna Kakuryu clearly aren’t at the same level as Hakuho.

I was cheering for both Terunofuji and Ichinojo, but the latter seem to be too passive
lately. He doesn’t struggle at all to remain on the dohyo losing battles he shouldn’t.
I guess Terunofuji is improving more than Ichinojo and he is likely to be the next
Ozeki in a couple of years, if not this year.

Next time

I will continue reading both fiction and non-fiction books and probably watch some
comedy shows.

Edited by Nieng Zhonghan on 19 March 2015 at 9:30pm



1 person has voted this message useful



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