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Kulelyn’s TAC 2015 (EN|TR|ES) | ||
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 Language Learning Forum : Language Learning Log |  | |
| Kulelyn Triglot Newbie Germany Joined 3750 days ago 13 posts - 15 votes Speaks: German*, English, Norwegian Studies: Turkish, Spanish | Message 1 of 15 31 December 2014 at 11:36pm | IP Logged |
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English
While I use English every day I've never actively tried to improve my skills after leaving school. Now it looks as if I'll have to talk to strangers in a business environment in the future. I'd feel a lot more confident, if I'd know that my pronunciation and my grammar is in good shape. So I decided to start working on both skills and to join the Advanced English team. Turkish After a long pause I began studying Turkish again at the start of 2014. I tried to reclaim my former level (A2/B1) with several online resources and a grammar book but I'm not there yet. I wanted to have a plan of action before starting my log but because I've been ill that didn't work out. I never tried Gloss and I found some Turkish books that I've already read in German or English. Together with the Turkish Teatime podcast that should be enough to start the year. My goal for 2015 is simply to work with the language regularly and to improve. Spanish Several years ago I started learning Spanish with Pimsleur and Michael Thomas. After finishing both courses I began listening to Notes in Spanish and skimming through Wikipedia and some newspapers. Then I lost interest and ignored the language for at least six years. In spring I started studying again and have dabbled with Spanish nearly every day since then. My rather chaotic approach included Duolingo, Memrise, Destinos, Mi vida loca, Notes in Spanish, L/R with Cuento de navidad (A Christmas Carol) and working with Spanish songs and Veinte Mundos. I had much fun and learned a lot but I did not finish anything and my knowledge of Spanish grammar is very fragmented. I do not have a concrete goal for 2015 but I intend to spend my time more wisely and to use a more systematic approach for learning the language. Until now I haven't used any text books and since I am able to read easy texts I do not think it is necessary to touch any of the beginner books. But I have to do something about my grammar and decided to try my luck with the Practice Makes Perfect series. I did not join the Spanish team but I'll follow the team thread and the members' logs. 1 person has voted this message useful | |
| Kulelyn Triglot Newbie Germany Joined 3750 days ago 13 posts - 15 votes Speaks: German*, English, Norwegian Studies: Turkish, Spanish | Message 2 of 15 02 January 2015 at 9:31pm | IP Logged |
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Spanish
I finished the first section of Mi Vida Loca. I find it easy but I do not understand everything that is being said. When I'm through with that series I'll restart Destinos. With Duolingo I'm on a 27 day strike. If I continue doing one new lesson per day I'll finish the tree in summer. That takes way too long but since I do the lessons while commuting I can't just double the number. I guess three to four lessons on weekends and holidays should be enough to speed things up a bit. I'm still reading/listening to Cuento de navidad and I'm at 20% now. After reading a passage in English, I switch to my Spanish ebook and audio. Since I already know what's going to happen I don't feel the urge to look up unknown words. Turkish After learning some vocabulary I checked some of the resources mentioned in the Yürükler thread and played around with Headstart2 Turkish. I wasn't very impressed and won't visit that page again. Then I followed the link to the team's song now I can't get it out of my head. Help! English Yesterday I started working with the pronunciation course of the BBC. Half an hour was enough to identify two problematic sounds. Because of a sore throat I could not start working on them today so I tried my luck with a grammar test. I'm not done with it yet but it doesn't look too bad. Fortunately they put a comment under each answer so I know what topics to look up. 1 person has voted this message useful | |
| Kulelyn Triglot Newbie Germany Joined 3750 days ago 13 posts - 15 votes Speaks: German*, English, Norwegian Studies: Turkish, Spanish | Message 3 of 15 06 January 2015 at 10:05pm | IP Logged |
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Spanish
Because I couldn't concentrate on my book today, I did several lessons from Mi Vida Loca and finished the second section. My copies of Practice Makes Perfect have finally arrived. I'll start working with them at the weekend. Turkish I was not very satisfied with my resources for Turkish. When I learned it some years ago I had access to audio and transcript of a radio channel's news program. Unfortunately I can't find this site any more. Since Gloss is down today I looked for a similar source and found two websites with interviews that have transcripts and English translations. I don't care for the translations at the moment, but the transcripts will help me training my listening skill. English Besides watching Murder on the Orient Express and several episodes of Doctor Who I did not do much. 2 persons have voted this message useful | |
| Chung Diglot Senior Member Joined 7151 days ago 4228 posts - 8259 votes  20 sounds Speaks: English*, French Studies: Polish, Slovak, Uzbek, Turkish, Korean, Finnish | Message 4 of 15 06 January 2015 at 10:08pm | IP Logged |
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Kolay gelsin, Katya Hanım!
1 person has voted this message useful | |
| Expugnator Hexaglot Senior Member Brazil Joined 5161 days ago 3335 posts - 4349 votes Speaks: Portuguese*, Norwegian, French, English, Italian, Papiamento Studies: Mandarin, Georgian, Russian | Message 5 of 15 07 January 2015 at 11:02pm | IP Logged |
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Good luck with your languages! I've just started Turkish, too, for the Turkic Challenge, and the language is very interesting.
1 person has voted this message useful | |
| Kulelyn Triglot Newbie Germany Joined 3750 days ago 13 posts - 15 votes Speaks: German*, English, Norwegian Studies: Turkish, Spanish | Message 6 of 15 11 January 2015 at 11:03pm | IP Logged |
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English
Aside from looking up my errors from the grammar test, I didn't do much. I should make an Anki deck with the sentences I didn't get right. I'll do this in the comming week. The week wasn't a complete failure because I had a lot of input with films, tv shows, podcasts and videos from three moocs I'm following. Turkish Speaking of complete failure... I listened to some podcasts, made a new Anki deck and worked with it and looked up some grammar. And that was that. Hopefully I'll be more productive next week. Now that I'm well again, I should find it easier to work with the language. Spanish For some reason Spanish gets more attention from me than the other languages. Maybe it's because I have countable goals with Mi vida loca and Duolingo. On the other hand, I did not start working with my new books. So I'm not really content with my progress here either. 1 person has voted this message useful | |
| Kulelyn Triglot Newbie Germany Joined 3750 days ago 13 posts - 15 votes Speaks: German*, English, Norwegian Studies: Turkish, Spanish | Message 7 of 15 18 January 2015 at 10:26pm | IP Logged |
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Isn't it strange how a small mistake can mess up everything? I have a plan B for
nearly everything: a loading cable in case I forgot to load my handy, an audio cable for my headset in case I forgot to load that one, an ebook reader in case it is too noisy in the tram, some Spanish crossword puzzles and 3 pens in case I can't use the ebook reader ... you get the picture. I did not have a plan B for dropping and thus destroying my headset. Monday was perfect, Tuesday was the day of the disaster and the rest of the week was chaos. While I did find an unused in-ear headset at home, I couldn't listen to half of the planned podcasts because my ears don't like these gadgets. Yesterday my new headset arrived. Phew... English Does it count as listening praxis if you really enjoy the films and tv shows you see? If not, I didn't do anything. Turkish I put an episode of Turkish Teatime on my daily to-do list. This would have worked with a headset. Next week will be better. I found some pages with nice example sentences for my Anki deck and added some every day. I also found some nice Turkish films and shows on youtube. Didn't watch any of them yet but I hope I can start with one tomorrow. Spanish I finished Mi vida loca. It was a nice little story and I actually learned a bit. Tomorrow I start with Destinos. Except for listening to some podcasts, looking up some grammar and putting sentences in Anki I didn't do too much. If I keep on with my current tempo I won't annihilate anything... 1 person has voted this message useful | |
| Stelle Bilingual Triglot Senior Member Canada tobefluent.com Joined 4139 days ago 949 posts - 1686 votes Speaks: French*, English*, Spanish Studies: Tagalog | Message 8 of 15 19 January 2015 at 12:34am | IP Logged |
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Your approach to Spanish is very much like mine was at the beginning! I used Mi Vida Loca, Destinos, Duolingo,
Notes in Spanish (I skipped the beginner podcasts and started the intermediate ones about 3/4 of the way through Destinos), Veinte Mundos... It's amazing how many wonderful (and free!) resources exist for Spanish! ¡Buena suerte con tus estudios! 1 person has voted this message useful |
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