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Timmy’s Log - TAC 2015 (César & 東亜) | ||
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 Language Learning Forum : Language Learning Log |  | |
| TimmyTurner93 Groupie United KingdomRegistered users can see my Skype Name Joined 3659 days ago 45 posts - 58 votes  Speaks: English* Studies: Portuguese, Japanese | Message 1 of 36 06 December 2014 at 5:30pm | IP Logged | ||
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TAC 2015 + list of resources begin on page 3: post
21 Hey all! (Word of warning, it may be jumbled and not exactly flow because that's the way my brain works. Oh and sorry if it's really long lol I like to waffle - you can skip to the 2nd post.) I guess the best place to start is to give a brief introduction about me. If you take a look at my profile, you would see I've been a member a little while but, I have been roaming the forums for around a year before signing up (I can't help it, I like reading other peoples work) which seems to occur on whatever forum I am a member of x_x. Basically, I'm 21, an addicted gamer trying to break into the pro circuit, & I have been intrigued with the idea of learning a foreign language since before my school days when I used to take my older sisters French dictionary and look up random words. Unfortunately, the methods I have tried to use always left me burnt-out and exhausted after a number of months. It happened in French at school (typical), Spanish during college (high school for those from the USA/Canada) & Portuguese in Uni (which endured for a longer duration than the others). I always found myself overwhelmed by the vast sea of information at my disposal and never really knew what direction to head in, which ultimately led to my demise. But now, after a summer/autumn/early winter of rest, relaxation & loads of inspiring YouTube videos, I am back with renewed motivation and a desire to succeed. My goal involves reaching the B1 level in Portuguese (focusing primarily on speaking and listening) & becoming somewhat conversational in Japanese as well as passing the JLPT N4 exam (being more rounded) by the end of 2015 hopefully (I dunno how realistic that is). I've been reading around the forum for a little while and contemplating a few ideas here and there & have come across a couple that I want to incorporate into my studies. However, I find myself always in the predicament of either procrastinating, getting distracted or passively listening to music more than actual studying but hopefully being a member of the forum helps me push myself. I plan to focus intensively on Portuguese and work gradually on Japanese. This way I renew my core in Portuguese at a faster rate and still learn Japanese without necessarily hindering either. I aim to put in 2 hours daily on both hopefully, but spread throughout the day as I have a real issue with sitting in one place for longer than 30 minutes. Like I wrote earlier I have the issue of having a vast ocean of resources but feeling like I'm stuck in an inflatable raft, not knowing which direction to head in. I read Gabriel Wyner's book and liked the structure in which he advises to learn a language, so I guess I'm going to follow that for a while as well as the multi- track approach by Iguanamon. Edited by TimmyTurner93 on 14 January 2015 at 1:58pm 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| TimmyTurner93 Groupie United KingdomRegistered users can see my Skype Name Joined 3659 days ago 45 posts - 58 votes Speaks: English* Studies: Portuguese, Japanese | Message 2 of 36 06 December 2014 at 5:31pm | IP Logged | ||
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I don't know how to add tags (or is this a upgrade privilege) but anyway going to
quickly list off all my resources that i have access too right now. Portuguese: Duolingo, Pimsleur, Michel Thomas, Teach Yourself Complete (borrowed from library), Teach Yourself grammar book, DLI course. (gonna limit myself and stop before I find myself with to much things at my disposal) Japanese JapaneseClass site, Genki, Pimsleur, Michel Thomas, ErinsChallenge, RTKanji, Tae Kim & Japanese the manga way. I need to find some native stuff in order to do the multi-track approach ASAP Edited by TimmyTurner93 on 06 December 2014 at 5:51pm 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| TimmyTurner93 Groupie United KingdomRegistered users can see my Skype Name Joined 3659 days ago 45 posts - 58 votes Speaks: English* Studies: Portuguese, Japanese | Message 3 of 36 06 December 2014 at 5:57pm | IP Logged | ||
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Got angry at watching Arsenal losing to Stoke so decided to do a quick song on
LyricsTraining and I got this score on expert. Tbh i've heard it so many times in Spanish i could guess some words, but hey I done better than a Brazilian :D. http://gyazo.com/c0a9a19c386d3d58d59ad723f4f1f872 Edited by TimmyTurner93 on 06 December 2014 at 5:59pm 2 persons have voted this message useful | |||
| iguanamon Pentaglot Senior Member Virgin Islands Speaks: Ladino Joined 5254 days ago 2241 posts - 6731 votes Speaks: English*, Spanish, Portuguese, Haitian Creole, Creole (French) | Message 4 of 36 06 December 2014 at 6:56pm | IP Logged | ||
Bem-vindo ao fórum, TimmyTurner93!
I don't see any native material in this list. Of all these resources, personally, I'd cut down to two courses- Pimsleur and DLI. I'd add in some native material, starting off with songs. Brazil is music and so is Brazilian Portuguese. I'd work my way through some song lyrics and at the same time, I'd be doing Pimsleur and DLI. I'd also find a nice, simple text to work through as a project to last a while- in the beginning stages DLI GLOSS (select Portuguese, level 1) and lyricstraining .com are good, easy forays into native material. When I talk about the the multi-track approach I mean to use a course or two, a good grammar book and add in some comprehensible native material, probably best to start off with a song and then work through a short, parallel text. I'd then add in some daily listening (again comprehensible- transcript + English). The point being that one tends to reinforce the other and gives opportunities for synergy. Going too heavy on courses/learning materials tends to skew the dynamic. In other words, you get really good at courses. Beginning courses are at a lower level- so, if you're on unit 1/volume 3 of DLI, Chapter 7 of TY and Unit 30 of Pimsleur 1 and whatever CD of MT- (perhaps MT isn't a bad choice, I just can't deal with the annoying students and MT himself. The material isn't that long and may be useful. It has been so for many.) you end up seeing a lot of the same stuff all the time at the same level. Whereas if you're working with two complimentary courses, a grammar and some native material- caveat: keep it short and comprehensible in the beginning- you get to see a sort of "preview" of coming attractions. You get a chance to make your own connections- which you'll see later in your courses and you will also see course stuff in your native materials. I understand your desire to learn two languages at the same time and that Japanese will be low on the totem pole. Still, in the time I've been here, I can't remember seeing any adult beginners (21 is an adult) reach a high level in one language starting from scratch while studying two languages simultaneously. You just don't have the advantages (yet) that come with having learned one second language to a high level. I didn't do a log for Portuguese. My Haitian Creole log shows how I applied my approach to languages- caveat: I had Spanish under my belt when I started learning Portuguese- huge advantage; I had English, Spanish and Portuguese plus a year of high school French under my belt for Haitian Creole. Also, you'll note that I listed a huge amount of resources to start which I quickly narrowed down to just a few- and native input. DLI Portuguese is dated (not a problem if you're also using modern native material), obviously. I had to ocr and optimize the pdfs. That being said, in my opinion- it is the most thorough course I personally have seen in any language. I'll be following your log. If I can help, please let me know. Novamente, seja bem-vindo ao fórum e boa sorte com seus estudos! Tchauzinho. EDIT: LINKS- You can't post them yet because you're a newbie and the forum's software won't allow it because of fear of spam. When you pass out of that stage, you just click the globe and link icon- 4th from the right in the post toolbar. Edited by iguanamon on 05 January 2015 at 9:49pm 3 persons have voted this message useful | |||
| TimmyTurner93 Groupie United KingdomRegistered users can see my Skype Name Joined 3659 days ago 45 posts - 58 votes Speaks: English* Studies: Portuguese, Japanese | Message 5 of 36 06 December 2014 at 7:57pm | IP Logged | ||
Obrigado pelas suas palavras! I'll certainly be taking on board your advice. In terms of the native material i've got an iPod filled with songs i've been singing along too all week (didn't think people would want to know that) and lyricstraining is very fun. Thanks for the gloss link also 2 persons have voted this message useful | |||
| iguanamon Pentaglot Senior Member Virgin Islands Speaks: Ladino Joined 5254 days ago 2241 posts - 6731 votes Speaks: English*, Spanish, Portuguese, Haitian Creole, Creole (French) | Message 6 of 36 06 December 2014 at 8:23pm | IP Logged | ||
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Beleza! I believe that what you are doing in Portuguese outside of courses is every bit as important as your course progress. In the beginning, it's enough just to notice. Later, you may want to get more intensive. In a sense, by doing this, you help to create your own course.
For lyrics to songs, just do an internet search for song title plus "letra". Some of the more popular artists will have English translations. Others may even have bilingual karaoke youtube versions like País Tropical by Daniela Mercury. País Tropical- Daniela Mercury Letra. Don't worry that you don't understand everything. That's not the point at this stage. You may understand quite a bit. Google images works well with many "non-abstract" nouns. Here are a couple of words from the song: Fusca violão Edited by iguanamon on 06 December 2014 at 11:48pm 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| TimmyTurner93 Groupie United KingdomRegistered users can see my Skype Name Joined 3659 days ago 45 posts - 58 votes Speaks: English* Studies: Portuguese, Japanese | Message 7 of 36 07 December 2014 at 2:38am | IP Logged | ||
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Spent most of Saturday doing some intense training for a mini tournament happening early
today so I primarily just listened to music in PT. Quickly did the Duolingo test to see where if it corresponded in relation to where i was on the tree. I got 2.42/5.0 which seems about right because I think i'm halfway now. The test also showed I need to move on and start learning about the past and future tenses (don't know the exact names) because I can only really discuss whats happening in the present. Edited by TimmyTurner93 on 07 December 2014 at 1:02pm 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| TimmyTurner93 Groupie United KingdomRegistered users can see my Skype Name Joined 3659 days ago 45 posts - 58 votes Speaks: English* Studies: Portuguese, Japanese | Message 8 of 36 11 December 2014 at 1:32am | IP Logged | ||
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Been a lazy few days in terms of doing anything except watching YouTube videos and
studying. As usual I've been listening to tons of music. Haven't necessarily studied lyrics (just quick glances) but I seem to be able to still differentiate between some words unless the words share the same letter at the end & beginning (especially definite articles). I've also been coming across words I'm almost sure I've heard/learnt before but don't know their meaning. (This is all in reference to Portuguese, I know no words in Japanese except for the touristy stuff and small things you pick up in anime). Looked at the IPA for both languages and as you'd expect there are subtle differences that I need to adjust for when it comes to listening and speaking as well as a few new things i.e. the alveolar trill/nasal sounds (which I knew about but still butchered) & the voiceless bilabial fricative (which is like an f without the lips touching). Small epiphany when I realised I had been pronouncing the n in Portuguese words when I shouldn't have been - need to pay more attention. I've been pondering also whether or not to contact my old italki Portuguese tutor who lives in Belgium. I've got some knew friends on skype from sharedtalk after clearing out all my old skype partners. I can talk about general stuff as long as it doesn't contain to much topic specific vocab (e.g. income disparity and it's relation to crime) and if I can work my way around the words I don't know. I feel a tutor will help boost my learning speed and give me some motivation once I've handed over the credits since I hate wasting money. I didn't know how to use DLI as a self-study tool but many thanks to Iguanamon for some much needed guidance. I jumped in at the very beginning instead of skipping ahead cause I felt like uni hadn't taught me enough and there would be holes to fill somewhere. On to what I've specifically done so far:
(going to separate the two languages next time) I also had written convo's with Brazilians on SharedTalk about general stuff like football (soccer), travel, motorbikes and the general get to know you stuff. Interestingly, I also spoke to an Azerbaijan ukhti (Arabic for sister) & we discussed language learning. She could speak 3 but was having a hard time grasping English. Recommended for her to sign up here so hopefully see her around here. Also went on Wikipedia and read up on Hiroshima (I love history so I thought I'd read up on the history of Japan & Brazilian/Portuguese speaking nations).
Really wished the Horrible History franchise of books I read as a child were available in other languages. Oh and 1 last thing before I go, why is it 'a nove e meia' but as onze e quinze'? - am I missing something? 1 person has voted this message useful |
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