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Kanewai 2015: Team Caesar | ||
Tags: Super Challenge | Catalan | Ancient Greek | Turkish | Polyglot | Arabic | Total Annihilation Challenge (TAC) | Italian | Japanese | French | Spanish | ||
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 Language Learning Forum : Language Learning Log |  | |
| kanewai Triglot Senior Member United States justpaste.it/kanewai Joined 4881 days ago 1386 posts - 3054 votes  Speaks: English*, French, Marshallese Studies: Italian, Spanish | Message 25 of 331 25 January 2012 at 10:34pm | IP Logged | ||
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Week Four: Resource Update
It has really helped me to have a variety of materials to work with. I have a main course for each of my target languages, and will do some from other courses if I've met my goals for the week. Or if I'm bored and need a change. The main challenge is keeping track of where I left off on my secondary resources. I used Google calendars for awhile, but now just check `em off on a spreadsheet. These are the materials I've settled on for the next couple months: French Current focus: Assimil French with Ease (last parts of active phase) Assimil Using French Secondary focus: Pimsleur French III FSI Volume II Le Petite Prince and a random collection of podcasts, graphic novels, and movies Later: Michel Thomas Perfect (formerly, MT Advanced) Michel Thomas Master Class I've been collecting French material all year, and think I have a good chance to complete all these (except for the FSI) by April Maghrébi Arabic Current focus: Méthode d'arabe maghrébin moderne Later: Assimil Arabe tunisien de poche Italian Current focus: Michel Thomas Italian Total (formerly, MT Foundation) Secondary focus: Pimsleur I Later: FSI Italian FAST Pimsleur II I can't possibly finish all these by April. Catalan Later: Teach Yourself: Complete Catalan I haven't bought this yet, and I'll only start Catalan if I can get my Italian up to a passable level first. 2 persons have voted this message useful | |||
| kanewai Triglot Senior Member United States justpaste.it/kanewai Joined 4881 days ago 1386 posts - 3054 votes Speaks: English*, French, Marshallese Studies: Italian, Spanish | Message 26 of 331 30 January 2012 at 10:14pm | IP Logged | ||
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French
I'm getting a little impatient with Assimil. There's nothing in particular, I just think it's time for a break. I want to finish the Active Wave of French with Ease, at least to Chapter 100 (so, eight to go). I'll skip the last 12, as it revolved around a dull story about a couple looking for work. I know how the story ends, and I don't feel like reading it again! I think the Passive / Active wave of Assimil is brilliant. I like going back and re- doing earlier chapters. At first I could transcribe most of the chapter without difficulty, but more and more the dialogues involve slang and idioms that aren't repeated. It's hard to retain much when you only encounter a phrase once or twice. Maghrébi I only finished one section of my book this week, but I did it right. When I'm finished with the exercises I go back and listen to the dialogue & transcribe it. I've never attempted this before, and it is helping a lot. side: who are these people that keep posting that they "learned the alphabet in a day?" I'm not buying it. You might be able to recognize the isolated forms in a day, but I do not believe that you can become comfortable using Arabic script that quickly. Italian I'm almost finished with MT's Foundation Course. I've enjoyed it far more than I thought I would. I've been doing some Pimsleur too when I have extra time. It's been a nice combination - I feel like I have more context now when I'm doing Pimsleur. This week it's more of the same, and then next week I'll switch everything up again. Edited by kanewai on 30 January 2012 at 10:18pm 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| kanewai Triglot Senior Member United States justpaste.it/kanewai Joined 4881 days ago 1386 posts - 3054 votes Speaks: English*, French, Marshallese Studies: Italian, Spanish | Message 27 of 331 01 February 2012 at 10:04pm | IP Logged | ||
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Week 5: Midweek Change Up
This is how my week went: Friday: I am so far behind my goals. I suck. I'm not learning anything. Saturday: Actually, I'm doing pretty good! Look at the amazing progress I've made! Sunday: Just ... a little more ... I can get past this hump. Just ... one more hour ... Monday: I love Assimil! Tuesday: I hate Assimil! Wednesday: I can't do three at once. I need to drop one. Or add one! I want to learn Catalan! Yeah! I knew my brain was gonna snap if I tried three languages at once. So I'm moving French into "passive" mode. I've downloaded a bunch of free French literature on my kindle, installed a French-English dictionary, and found their respective audio recordings on Librovox. I'll spend February with recreational reading rather than active studying. I'm looking forward to it. Antoine de Saint-Exupéry - Le Petit Prince Vingt mille lieues soul les mers - Jules Verne Le mystère de la chambre jeune - Gaston Leroux A l'ombre des jeunes filles en fleurs - Marcel Proust We'll see if I can actually manage Proust, even with an English translation on hand. Come March I'll get back to Michel Thomas, and I'd like to finish Assimil and FSI down the road. Edited by kanewai on 01 February 2012 at 10:08pm 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| Mani Diglot Senior Member Germany imsprachendickicht.b Joined 4897 days ago 258 posts - 323 votes Speaks: German*, English Studies: French, Swedish, Portuguese, Latin, Welsh, Luxembourgish | Message 28 of 331 02 February 2012 at 10:07am | IP Logged | ||
Heh, how do you know how my week was like? ;-) No, just kidding, but I really do understand you. I usually think I'm not studying enough and sometimes this is true. But, well, I have a life outside language learning. I've taken a little break from French myself for a few days last week because my head was spinning and I couldn't put one straight sentence together anymore, so I skipped my weekend language plans (can't put French on passive because I'm surrounded by it on weekdays) and now I'm back in the saddle. Oh, and about the want to start another language, I'm struggeling since 2 weeks whether I should start Armenian yet or not. Logic tells me no, there are so many things to achieve beforehand, but still it's oh so tempting ... Bon courage! 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| kanewai Triglot Senior Member United States justpaste.it/kanewai Joined 4881 days ago 1386 posts - 3054 votes Speaks: English*, French, Marshallese Studies: Italian, Spanish | Message 29 of 331 06 February 2012 at 9:11pm | IP Logged | ||
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Week 6: Michel Thomas vs Pimsleur
Italian I finished Michel Thomas's Foundation Course this weekend. I enjoyed it, and will probably work my way through it again. I've also done 15 lessons of Pimsleur I. And I can finally weigh in on the MT v Pimsleur debate! Points for Michel Thomas: Lessons are short. Lessons are pleasant to listen to, so you're likely to repeat them. I like his explanations of the structure of the language. But: After Pimsleur I and II in Spanish I was ready to have very basic conversations. I don't feel like that after MT. I understand more with MT, but can say less. Pimsleur can stand alone as a course. Michel Thomas does not feel like a 'stand-alone' course. However, with Pimsleur I sometimes feel like I'm stumbling my way through the dark. Doing Pimsleur after MT, though, has been great - I have a context in which to understand the Pimsleur dialogues. And while I am a Pimsleur fan, I hate repeating lessons. They're quite dull on a second listen. If I were starting a new language, I would absolutely recommend Michel Thomas >> Pimsleur I >> Pimsleur II >> {FSI, Assimil, a grammar book} If I were going on a trip and just wanted to hold basic touristic conversations, I'd stick with Pimsleur I and II. Also in Italian This Week: I had a copy of the second lesson from Linguaphone AllTalk. I did not like it. It was structured too much like a classroom course, with conjugation charts and vocabulary drills right off the start. I will not be buying this course, and it is no longer on my wish list! I did start FSI Italian FAST, and like it. FAST is more breezy than the Basic course. I did Lesson 1 in less than an hour. I'm not sure if a lesson a day is a realistic pace for all 30 lessons, but it would be fantastic if it were! French I continue to enjoy Le Petite Prince in parallel text. It's such a standard that it's easy to forget how good it is. Maghrébi Still moving along. I'm only on Lesson 18, but already I can see major differences between Derja and Standard Arabic. It seems to have the same basic ground rules as Arabic (8 Forms of Verbs, masdar, same pronouns and endings, etc.), but otherwise it feels like a new language. Edited by kanewai on 06 February 2012 at 9:12pm 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| blackdahlia Pro Member United States Joined 4721 days ago 64 posts - 66 votes Speaks: English* Studies: German, French Personal Language Map | Message 30 of 331 07 February 2012 at 4:09pm | IP Logged | ||
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As I'm going through with Pimsleur and MT, I have to say I agree with you. MT for me is more reinforcement at this point with some additional flavoring, but Pimsleur right now is my audio bread and butter
1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| kanewai Triglot Senior Member United States justpaste.it/kanewai Joined 4881 days ago 1386 posts - 3054 votes Speaks: English*, French, Marshallese Studies: Italian, Spanish | Message 31 of 331 09 February 2012 at 6:16pm | IP Logged | ||
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I think my Italian is already better than my Arabic. This is sobering, since I've been
plugging away at Arabic for months, and on and off for years, and I've only been at Italian for six weeks. I've been watching "Parlez-moi de la pluie," (French, 2008). It's easy enough to watch, but there is no need to add it to your netflix queues. I could barely understand a word of it, even with the subtitles on. I don't know if it was the accents, or if it was all slang, or if my mind just won't think in French this week - though I've been reading French with few problems at all. I've been putting more pressure on myself lately ... it's a bit over two weeks before "decision time" - when I need to decide whether to study Català for a month, and pause on the Italian, or not. I really want to! But I don't want to short-shrift my main languages (I'm in Arabic and French for the long term; I'm only flirting with Català and Italian). 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| Quabazaa Tetraglot Senior Member United States Joined 5601 days ago 414 posts - 543 votes Speaks: English*, Spanish, German, French Studies: Japanese, Korean, Maori, Scottish Gaelic, Arabic (Levantine), Arabic (Egyptian), Arabic (Written) | Message 32 of 331 10 February 2012 at 1:12pm | IP Logged | ||
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Arabic just loves to make you feel humble. My sad moment came when I watched an interview
in Català and realised (without having ever studied it) that I understood more of it than I did Arabic thanks to my Spanish and French abilities. Perhaps it should just be something to make you grateful about how easy Italian is in comparison! I saw two great movies lately that you might like, both in a mix of Algerian Arabic and French: "Hors La Loi" and "Indigènes". I thoroughly enjoyed them both, they both relate to North Africans fighting in the second world war for France. Hors La Loi is set during the war in Algeria, about a resistance movement on French soil. 1 person has voted this message useful |
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