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 Language Learning Forum : Language Learning Log |  | |
| Rniks Newbie United States Joined 3696 days ago 36 posts - 47 votes Speaks: English* Studies: Spanish, Romanian | Message 25 of 44 05 December 2014 at 12:07am | IP Logged | ||
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Something I've noticed in Romanian is that there seems to be more than one way to say
some pretty essential, basic words. For instance: some= niște, unii/unele (male/female) and= iar, și or= ori, sau look (interjection)= itată, uite I'm not sure of the difference between using one or the other yet and have only worked thus far with the nominative and the accusative. The only difference I can gather between niște and unii/unele is that the latter can act as a pronoun, otherwise I don't really know when one would be appropriate over the other. I asked my boyfriend, and he told me they function the same except that niște doesn't "sound as nice" as using unii/unele but that it is more commonly used. Edit: If this is comparable to the Spanish unos/unas and algunos/algunas, then I think it's starting to click... Edited by Rniks on 05 December 2014 at 4:08am 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| Rniks Newbie United States Joined 3696 days ago 36 posts - 47 votes Speaks: English* Studies: Spanish, Romanian | Message 26 of 44 17 December 2014 at 1:25am | IP Logged | ||
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I've done little to no studying the past couple weeks. While this is kind of alright for Spanish, since it's a part of my
life enough that I read and speak it anyway often, Romanian suffers quickly. To remedy this I'm setting a goal that I study/use each language for at least 15 minutes daily. It's not much but here's to hoping I can form a habit. Perhaps once I start I'll be motivated to study for longer stretches. Besides that I'm setting myself a goal to finish one of the multiple novels I've stopped and started in Spanish before the New Year. It's looking like it will either be the Taxi book I've mentioned or a book of parallel short stories. 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| Rniks Newbie United States Joined 3696 days ago 36 posts - 47 votes Speaks: English* Studies: Spanish, Romanian | Message 27 of 44 31 December 2014 at 8:58pm | IP Logged | ||
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So my goals weren't a success, but not a complete waste of time, either. I have not finished my book, but I've been
reading much more often, and it's become much more enjoyable in Spanish. As for studying fifteen minutes a day, that was a semi-bust as well. I managed to keep it up with Spanish mostly through podcasts and reading before bed. But my motivation for languages has been waning lately, and Romanian is bearing the brunt of it. So I feel as though I sort of half accomplished my goals. I'm really pleased with how easy keeping up with Spanish has been, I don't do a ton of work in it compared to others on the forum, but for me developing consistency is a big deal. I think if I were in a situation where I had to speak it extensively and often, like when visiting my boyfriend's family, it would be ripe to move into the speaks category rather quickly. For now I help the occasional person at work, read for pleasure, and do a hell of a lot of self talk in Spanish and that works for me. I feel kind of sad about not having motivation for Romanian, but I haven't lost what I've learned and am hoping my language interest resurges again shortly. 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| Rniks Newbie United States Joined 3696 days ago 36 posts - 47 votes Speaks: English* Studies: Spanish, Romanian | Message 28 of 44 24 January 2015 at 7:42pm | IP Logged | ||
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Still plugging away nicely at Spanish. I'm not recording which specific things I do or adhering to some kind of
schedule, as I'm finding it a lot more enjoyable to read, watch a show, or talk to myself like a crazy person when I feel like it rather than out of obligation. This is working well for me as more often than not, I find myself really wanting to use my Spanish. At the moment, I'm using youtube (making sure to read the comments left below videos) and rtve.es to watch native content, playing with dialogues in lingualia, lazily listening to podcasts for learners and getting vocab from them, reading both from in print sources and informal twitter content, and spending a lot of time on talking to myself and thinking in Spanish. I incorporate FSI audio for formal study and to reinforce what I already know. I also chat on Whats app occasionally, but it doesn't feel like enough. I'm considering giving italki a shot, since I'm aching to speak but still feel very shy about having extended conversations. I'm close to finishing the bilingual reader, and it's likely I'll finish it before the end of the month, making it my first "novel" completed in Spanish! I'm a slow reader, even in English, and have perfectionist tendencies, but I'm gradually becoming more comfortable with Spanish and less nit-picky about the things I don't grasp one hundred percent. In short, reading is becoming enjoyable. After this month I'd like to set the goal of a novel a month for Spanish since I do have a bunch of books laying around from when I interned at a publishing house during high school and pilfered everything I could get my hands on. About Romanian... I love this language, learning about the country and its people, but I'm conflicted. I won't let it go or stop studying it, but the pace of my studies are veeeery, very leisurely right now. If I had to quantify it, I really want my Spanish up at a B2 level before I dive in too deep with Romanian. It's possible to study them simultaneously, but I think I'm making important progress in Spanish, and switching back and forth between the two languages intensively sort of interrupts the flow I'm finally developing in Spanish. This inevitably makes me long for Romanian, so I still pickup my text books and look at things online, but instead of cramming chapters in at a time I skim and dabble. I'm hoping to later in the year reevaluate my Spanish level and feel comfortable making Romanian priority again. Mi-e dor de tine, limbă română. 2 persons have voted this message useful | |||
| Rniks Newbie United States Joined 3696 days ago 36 posts - 47 votes Speaks: English* Studies: Spanish, Romanian | Message 29 of 44 09 February 2015 at 10:52pm | IP Logged | ||
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My first book was officially completed in Spanish! For anyone who might be curious, it was the "Short Stories in
Spanish: New Penguin Parallel Text." For the most part I avoided the English side of the stories, only occasionally checking to be sure I understood something correctly, except for the last story, "Syllabus." It was markedly more difficult than the others, and I needed to refer to the English pretty often. Despite that, I'm happy with my comprehension level and confident that I'll be able to read what interests me in the future without an English parallel. And while "Syllabus" was tricky in Spanish, it was also demanding in English. I do hope to become a better reader, but for the moment advanced literary styles aren't a huge concern. I enjoyed most of the short stories and would like to read more from some of the authors after getting a taste, and I'd definitely recommend it for anyone wanting to transition to native materials. I'll continue for February by finishing reading Taxi since it's already started and appropriate for the shortest month of the year. 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| Rniks Newbie United States Joined 3696 days ago 36 posts - 47 votes Speaks: English* Studies: Spanish, Romanian | Message 30 of 44 16 February 2015 at 3:07am | IP Logged | ||
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So for Valentine's Day, I skipped getting a gift for my boyfriend as I've had issues with fraud in my bank account
and haven't had any cash out. Happily that's all resolved now. On the bright side, instead, I spent some time writing him a short, silly poem in Romanian and was surprised with how much fun it was to do. I'm thinking of continuing to keep track of my progress with Romanian again as I just can't bear to let what I've learned slip away. I've reviewed You CAN speak Romanian! and finally put chapter 4 to rest. Of my two physical text books for Romanian, this one is without a doubt more demanding to work with and dense, but I'm also pretty sure it covers a lot more material. If You Can speak Romanian! included audio and some kind of glossary at the end (a glossary is purposely excluded for the purpose of forcing the student to refer to the dictionary, although I don't think this is that useful of a teaching strategy) it would be wonderful, though. Yet, it's so complete and has so many exercises that I really can't complain. Discover Romanian is easier to work with and the audio available and indexed glossary in the back of the book are a godsend. The material in Discover Romanian is also very digestible, and I can't help but feel I make quick progress in the language using it. I'll need to re-listen and stick with the DLI course steadily this time to give more feedback on it, but it's a solid resource and the speaking drills are just what I need. Overall, if you want a physical textbook I'd wholeheartedly recommend either of the two I'm using. I might not be spoiled for choices in resources like with Spanish, but what is available is really high quality. As for Spanish and speaking- I still haven't gone through with italki. It's not that I mind spending the money or am so terribly nervous, but that my internet connection is exceptionally slow, like internet from 1999 slow. I do use skype, but when I do, video and sound often don't sync and freeze. I'm wondering if maybe I should try anyway, or stow away to my mother's house and take lessons there as her internet speed puts mine to shame. Unfortunately upgrading the service here isn't up to me. 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| tarvos Super Polyglot Winner TAC 2012 Senior Member China likeapolyglot.wordpr Joined 4699 days ago 5310 posts - 9399 votes  Speaks: Dutch*, English, Swedish, French, Russian, German, Italian, Norwegian, Mandarin, Romanian, Afrikaans Studies: Greek, Modern Hebrew, Spanish, Portuguese, Czech, Korean, Esperanto, Finnish | Message 31 of 44 16 February 2015 at 3:32am | IP Logged | ||
Iar is not the same as și. Iar implies a more subtle and, because it can also mean but. I would not always translate it as and. Niște is comparable to the unos/algunos thing, yes. 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| Rniks Newbie United States Joined 3696 days ago 36 posts - 47 votes Speaks: English* Studies: Spanish, Romanian | Message 32 of 44 18 February 2015 at 1:44am | IP Logged | ||
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tarvos: The clarification is much appreciated, thanks!
So, it seems I'll end up making some sort of Romanian-English dictionary for myself with the vocabulary from You CAN speak Romanian! after all. There's a lot of vocabulary that goes undefined, and although it will be a pain in the butt, I'm hoping it will make using the text smoother in the end. 1 person has voted this message useful |
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