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Sarnek’s Log - TAC ’15 (Rätsel, Sleipnir) | ||
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 Language Learning Forum : Language Learning Log |  | |
| Sarnek Diglot Senior Member Italy Joined 4207 days ago 308 posts - 414 votes  Speaks: Italian*, English Studies: German, Swedish | Message 1 of 176 19 December 2013 at 1:28pm | IP Logged | ||
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So here we go.
This is not only my first TAC but also the first time I try to keep a journal like this. I decided to partecipate in the tournamente as this would give me the opportunity to "force" myself to write in here and therefore keep my motivation high. I'm a 19 years old guy from Italy, currently living in Milan, studying Languages (German and Swedish) and Literature (From German-speaking countries and Scandinavia). I'd decided to take this course just a few months before it started, as I've always imagined myself studying for a Computer Science degree. But eventually (and luckily, I'd say), my passion for languages took over and since I've also found an amazing new world with Literature studies I don't see myself regretting this choice at all. You might now be wondering how can I be sure to have such a fervent passion since I only know English as a L2. Well, I've always been in contact with different languages as far as I can recall: my mother teaches English, French and Spanish and my father speaks German. I can remember that when I was a kid I used to take old dictionaries and grammars from my parent's bookshelves and remain in awe just leafing through them (for a reason still unknown to me), and I also used to scribble on notebooks things that somewhat resemble Chinese idiograms. But I just kept this as a secret passion, as I've always thought I'd work for a Software House one day (my grades were great and I had an offer from Glasgow University). Later, as I've experienced how English broadened my horizons, letting me know people worldwide and get jobs fairly easily, I knew that languages were my path. Besides, I've also got a strong interest in linguistics, historic linguistics, etimology, sociolinguistics, philology and whatnot, so the choice was kind of obvious anyway. Getting to the point of the topic (for those of you still following! :D) these are my plans for 2014: Swedish: I'm starting from scratch and I aim to reach a solid A2 by the end of 2014. For Swedish I'm using two textbooks: the Assimil course and "Lagom Lätt". Then the Pimsleur Swedish Comprehensive course and a small handbook of essential grammar. As I come accross new words I put them on Anki. The reason I'm studying this language is because I find the way it sounds incredibly attractive and appealing, and I'm also attracted to its culture. German: I studied it for about 6 months a year ago but then had to stop for quite a while so I've lost much of what I'd learned. For German I'm using the textbook "Klipp und Klar", and I might later start using Assimil, too. Then the Pimsleur German I course, the book "Lernwortschatz Deutsch" combining it with Anki for learning new words, a small handbook for grammar and various fiction books. The grammar does seem complex but not because of the cases and declensions of names and adjectives, but rather because of the gender of words and their plural. The reason I'm studying this language is because (call me crazy if you want) I am in love it. I wouldn't normally use Anki and I was quite sceptic about it at first, but now I think it's a great tool for German and Swedish to memorise the gender, which is often impossible to know beforehand, and the plural forms of words, which I find particularly hard. I've joined the Scandinavian Tea and the team STARtbecause I've never gone through the process of learning a new language (English is something I've learnt unconsciously). I guess that's all for the moment, so hej då and aufwiedersehen! Edited by Sarnek on 28 January 2015 at 9:04pm 4 persons have voted this message useful | |||
| Via Diva Diglot Senior Member Russian Federation last.fm/user/viadivaRegistered users can see my Skype Name Joined 4226 days ago 1109 posts - 1427 votes Speaks: Russian*, English Studies: German, Italian, French, Swedish, Esperanto, Czech, Greek | Message 2 of 176 19 December 2013 at 1:38pm | IP Logged | ||
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Hi :)
Anki doesn't work for me, and if you get bored, I can recommend Memrise. Also if you have an Android device, I can say that there are apps about German articles and words :) 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| Sarnek Diglot Senior Member Italy Joined 4207 days ago 308 posts - 414 votes Speaks: Italian*, English Studies: German, Swedish | Message 3 of 176 19 December 2013 at 1:50pm | IP Logged | ||
Hey there, I've tried Memrise but I find it slow when it comes to putting new words into it. With Anki I can quickly make new entries and review them instantly. Memrise has a better layout though, that's for sure. 2 persons have voted this message useful | |||
| Via Diva Diglot Senior Member Russian Federation last.fm/user/viadivaRegistered users can see my Skype Name Joined 4226 days ago 1109 posts - 1427 votes Speaks: Russian*, English Studies: German, Italian, French, Swedish, Esperanto, Czech, Greek | Message 4 of 176 19 December 2013 at 2:06pm | IP Logged | ||
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Well, if you prefer to learn words that you choose by yourself it's hard to find something better than Anki. I've tried to do it, but my list was short and stupid, so I've come to Memrise. I think there are one book which I can use for Anki, but I'm not at all sure that I won't get bored even in that case, hehe.
1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| Emme Triglot Senior Member Italy Joined 5339 days ago 980 posts - 1594 votes Speaks: Italian*, English, German Studies: Russian, Swedish, French | Message 5 of 176 19 December 2013 at 10:29pm | IP Logged | ||
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Welcome to the Scandinavian team!
I hope that the coming year will be a great adventure for all of us learning a Nordic language and that we will manage to achieve undreamed of goals. Lycka till med TAC 2014! 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| Kez Diglot Senior Member Netherlands Joined 4349 days ago 181 posts - 212 votes Speaks: Dutch*, English Studies: Swedish | Message 6 of 176 21 December 2013 at 2:55pm | IP Logged | ||
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Hey Sarnek,
Lycka till med din svenska studie i 2014! I will be following your log, nice to follow someone who started from scratch. If you need any tips/sources, tell me! Hej då! 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| Sarnek Diglot Senior Member Italy Joined 4207 days ago 308 posts - 414 votes Speaks: Italian*, English Studies: German, Swedish | Message 7 of 176 22 December 2013 at 4:44pm | IP Logged | ||
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Tack så mycket, Emme och Kez!
I moved to my family for the Holidays, therefore I wasn't be able to study much Swedish, but I still managed to get to Assimil's lesson 33 and it's getting harder and harder to memorise new words. Some words are pretty close to the German ones, like Gurke/gurka, Tomate/tomat and so on, so that helps. But for other words it's quite tough, especially because I have to remember the tone and the lenght of vowels. As far as oral comprehension is concerned, I'm not spending too much time on that for the moment for I want to be able to understand written texts first. But when I do happen to wander around http://www.svtplay.se/ I can understand quite a few words and guess others by context/similarity with German and English. For German I've been focusing on shoveling new words into my brain creating flashcards on Anki with the words from the book "Lernwortschatz Deutsch". The amount of new words I study is currently 30-ish a day (aiming for 50 once I'll have more time). I do retain quite a lot of those words, but unfortunately I need to look some others a few times before I can recognise them into a text. Pimsleur's working greatly and it's revealing itself to be a great tool. My pronunciation, especially for German, has improved A LOT, and I'm figuring out new sounds and tiny details every time (like aspirated consonants and glottal stops and vowels length). Swedish is still quite hard to pronounce as far as connected speech is concerned, but I think I'm getting better. Some sounds are hard (but do-able) to utter for me when speaking, and some others, like the vowel "i", totally impossible. 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| Sarnek Diglot Senior Member Italy Joined 4207 days ago 308 posts - 414 votes Speaks: Italian*, English Studies: German, Swedish | Message 8 of 176 30 December 2013 at 12:12pm | IP Logged | ||
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This week has been great for my studies, despite parties and whatnot.
I'm starting to get my own routine and I'm not feeling tired at all. Swedish: Got to Assimil's lesson 41 and made a good progress. The active wave will start next week, and I'm looking forward to it. I must say that, while my pronunciation (and prosody) is getting slightly better, grammar is getting more and more difficult. I guess it's normal so I'm not worried about it, yet. Wierd things happen to me whilst sleeping. A couple of days ago I dreamt about the word överrasking (don't ask... I don't know what's going on in my brain :P) and after a while (in the same dream) the German word Überraschung popped out. Once awake, I didn't know what Überraschung meant, so I went and looked it up in the dictionary and found out it has the same meaning as överrasking. After a while, I remembered of an Assimil lesson (German) I had done 9 months before in which there was this word, and it had apparently got buried deep down in my head. Still pretty amazing, no? How should I interpret this (for the psychiatrists amongst you. Am I going crazy?!)? Back to the topic, I haven't touched Pimsleur for a while, and I'm not doing any words lists for Swedish, but rather focusing on grammar and pronunciation. For German I'm doing the exact same opposite, that is, just words lists and reviewing no grammar whatsoever. I guess my vocabulary has about 700 words at the moment, but obviously it's hard to say. I'll start using the Assimil course from the beginning again once I reach like 1000 words. If you have any good websites or apps for Smartphones to suggest, which I can use to exercise my grammar skills and vocabulary (for both Swedish and German, but for the latter in particular), please go ahead! Edited by Sarnek on 30 December 2013 at 12:15pm 1 person has voted this message useful |
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