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TAC 2013 : Jinx on Team PAX | ||
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 Language Learning Forum : Language Learning Log |  | |
| Jinx Triglot Senior Member Germany reverbnation.co Joined 5696 days ago 1085 posts - 1879 votes  Speaks: English*, German, French Studies: Catalan, Dutch, Esperanto, Croatian, Serbian, Norwegian, Mandarin, Italian, Spanish, Yiddish | Message 1 of 8 18 December 2012 at 2:42am | IP Logged | ||
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This is my log for the 2013 TAC. I am excited to be a part of Team PAX this year, with my Romance languages French and Catalan.
Languages that will likely make an appearance in this log: - German - French - Dutch - Catalan - Mandarin - Norwegian - ASL - Croatian - ...? Here are my current level, goals, and plans for each of these languages. GERMAN Current level: C1+ Goals: more accuracy in speaking, increased active vocab Plans: classes in German, writing thesis in German, lots of reading FRENCH Current level: B1/B2 Goals: solid B2; fluidity in speaking, accuracy in hearing Plans: more listening, conversation if possible, lots of reading DUTCH Current level: B1 Goals: writing journal entries with no difficulty; activate basic speaking skills Plans: finish Assimil active wave, start reading for pleasure CATALAN Current level: A2/B1 Goals: solidify basic conversation skills, write basic journal entries with ease Plans: complete TY, more listening MANDARIN Current level: A1 Goals: A2 would be nice Plans: finish Assimil (two-volume set), move on to a second course (TBD) NORWEGIAN Current level: A1 Goals: ease in reading, confidence in pronunciation Plans: complete Assimil, move on to a second course? (TBD) ASL Current level: absolute beginner Goals: to be able to have simple conversations Plans: continue LifePrint video course, practice signing songs CROATIAN Current level: A1 (regressed due to lack of study) Goals: A2 would be nice Plans: complete a course (TY/Colloquial/TBD) Edited by Jinx on 19 December 2012 at 6:10pm 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| Cavesa Triglot Senior Member Czech Republic Joined 5012 days ago 3277 posts - 6779 votes Speaks: Czech*, FrenchC2, EnglishC1 Studies: Spanish, German, Italian | Message 2 of 8 01 January 2013 at 9:39pm | IP Logged | ||
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Jinx! Happy New Year and good luck with so many languages attacking you in the new
challenge! 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| Jinx Triglot Senior Member Germany reverbnation.co Joined 5696 days ago 1085 posts - 1879 votes Speaks: English*, German, French Studies: Catalan, Dutch, Esperanto, Croatian, Serbian, Norwegian, Mandarin, Italian, Spanish, Yiddish | Message 3 of 8 07 January 2013 at 5:27pm | IP Logged | ||
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Thank you, Cavesa!
Well, I started off my TAC with a bang by experiencing one of the worst weeks of my life, health-wise. I had the worst flu I've ever had, compounded by the 22 hours of traveling I'd just suffered through (Dec. 30-31) while returning from the US to Germany. Needless to say, this meant no studying. I spent about two-thirds of each day sleeping, actually. Now I'm finally starting to pull out of it, though, and yesterday finally got the chance to put my German back into use after three weeks of not speaking it: I attended the private screening of a short film I translated to English ('rubbing elbows with the stars', haha!) and had fun chatting with the cast and crew. Tomorrow I have a meeting with the director to go over my translation and put the final polish on it. I'm trying to really enjoy this, because the life of a translator is definitely not this glamorous as a rule. ;) This isn't exactly language-related, but my father sent me a link this morning to what is, in my opinion, the most beautiful 'flash mob' of all time – and it happens to take place in Catalonia! This is a perfect example of the kind of unexpected places from which I often take my study motivation. Upon seeing something like this, which reminds me of the appreciation of the arts in Catalan culture, I find my excitement to learn the language vastly increased. Edited by Jinx on 07 January 2013 at 5:32pm 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| geoffw Triglot Senior Member United States Joined 4691 days ago 1134 posts - 1865 votes Speaks: English*, German, Yiddish Studies: Modern Hebrew, French, Dutch, Italian, Russian | Message 4 of 8 07 January 2013 at 5:31pm | IP Logged | ||
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If you've got a C1+ German and have already done a whole passive wave of Assimil in Dutch, you ought to be ready
to start working on pleasure reading any time you want, I would think. I started with Harry Potter when I was still a beginner in Dutch and it wasn't too hard, having already read it in English. 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| Jinx Triglot Senior Member Germany reverbnation.co Joined 5696 days ago 1085 posts - 1879 votes Speaks: English*, German, French Studies: Catalan, Dutch, Esperanto, Croatian, Serbian, Norwegian, Mandarin, Italian, Spanish, Yiddish | Message 5 of 8 26 January 2013 at 5:32pm | IP Logged | ||
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Geoffw, you're right, I could really jump into reading Dutch right now, if I only had the time. About two months ago I did read quite a good short story written by Simon Carmiggelt. I don't find it very difficult to read for pleasure in this language, which should really be a good motivation to make myself do it regularly.
I can already see that I'm going to be updating less often this year, but hopefully that will give me time to accomplish a lot more in between updates. As it happens, I haven't studied much for either of my PAX languages (French and Catalan) during the month of January. Most of my study has been on Norwegian (for the Assimil Experiment) and German (just because I can't avoid it, especially preparing to start writing my thesis). However, I did discover that I enjoy watching political arguments in French, which you can do on LCP (http://www.lcp.fr/), the website of the Assemblée Nationale. I've been following their current discussion of the gay marriage issue on-and-off through this website. I like finding local news sources (in the local languages, of course) on topics that interest me. I'm looking forward to reading about the situation in Mali from French sources, and I only wish I could read Arabic too, in order to hear from local voices what's going on in Egypt. 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
 songlines Pro Member Canada flickr.com/photos/cp Joined 5212 days ago 729 posts - 1056 votes Speaks: English* Studies: French Personal Language Map | Message 6 of 8 04 February 2013 at 6:08am | IP Logged | ||
Thanks for the link to La Chaîne parlementaire; From the name, I initially wondered if it might just be primarily Hansard-type broadcasts, but there's certainly a lot more than that. My only quibble with it is the seeming rapidity with which some of those political discussions are conducted. (Do French language speakers in France speak faster than those in Quebec...? Or does it just seem that way to this beginner in French?) By the way, we're doing a music-related group activity on the PAX thread. See post 105, 108, and on . Come and join us! Especially given your musical background, it'd be great if you shared some songs (they don't have to be your own) you enjoy... 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| Jinx Triglot Senior Member Germany reverbnation.co Joined 5696 days ago 1085 posts - 1879 votes Speaks: English*, German, French Studies: Catalan, Dutch, Esperanto, Croatian, Serbian, Norwegian, Mandarin, Italian, Spanish, Yiddish | Message 7 of 8 05 April 2013 at 10:48pm | IP Logged | ||
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After starting this log, I fell incommunicado for quite a while! I'll admit I haven't been able to keep up with my teammates' logs at all, let alone even have time to visit the forum regularly. But my studies are as intense as ever.
I spent almost all of March writing the biggest piece of academic German I've ever produced: a Hausarbeit on subtitling. To be more specific, a line-by-line analysis of the techniques I used in translating a short film from English to German. It was exhausting, because academic German is almost a whole separate language from colloquial German, but I learned a lot while doing it. I also had a job interview in French a few days ago and was pleasantly surprised at how easy it was. (As a positive pessimist, I always expect the worst and then usually end up pleasantly surprised.) My conversation partner was a hiring agent from Toulouse who had found my CV online and was interested in interviewing me for a trilingual translator position based down there. I often have difficulty understanding people on the phone in any language, even German or English, so I was relieved that I didn't have much trouble understanding him, although he spoke fast. Today I listened to a forty-minute podcast in French on the topic of gay marriage (which has been a big issue over there recently). I understood much more of it than I had expected, even though the speakers were constantly getting worked up and talking over each other. After spontaneously signing up for an A2 course in BCSM this semester (which starts in three days), I've been working on Croatian like crazy this past week. I'm doing the Assimil "Le serbo-croate sans peine", a weird and grammar-heavy but rewardingly fast-moving book called "Croatian Through Conversation" (not sure if I would recommend it, though; it's got a lot of mistakes), and I just started the Hawkesworth "Colloquial Croatian" today. I'm missing Catalan and would love to get back to it, but I want to wait and see what the pace of my new BCSM is like before branching back out to my other languages. Heavy-duty studies recently! I will check back in here once the semester is in full swing. 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| Cavesa Triglot Senior Member Czech Republic Joined 5012 days ago 3277 posts - 6779 votes Speaks: Czech*, FrenchC2, EnglishC1 Studies: Spanish, German, Italian | Message 8 of 8 15 April 2013 at 9:37pm | IP Logged | ||
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It's awesome to hear from you again. Congratulations on your huge German paper, that must
have been a challenge. And enjoy your Croatian. 1 person has voted this message useful |
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