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Kerrie’s TAC ’12 Team Žá / Romantics Log | ||
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 Language Learning Forum : Language Learning Log |  | |
| Kerrie Senior Member United States justpaste.it/Kerrie2 Joined 5388 days ago 1232 posts - 1740 votes  Speaks: English* Studies: Spanish | Message 9 of 236 29 December 2011 at 3:06am | IP Logged | ||
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Over the last week, I've started getting into the habit of doing Assimil lessons for most of my languages each day. The Spanish, French and Italian don't really require much work at the moment, and I'm doing more than one of each of them every day. I anticipate that will continue with the Spanish, but the French and Italian will be new material for me soon.
The Croatian, Portuguese, and Turkish Assimil are a little more work. The Portuguese material is easy enough, but all three of these are in base French, so the Croatian and Turkish are a lot more work. My French (reading) is not bad, so I understand almost all of it, but I'm still second-guessing myself on a lot, so I'm moving at a slower pace, at least with the Croatian. The Turkish will be at a slower pace anyways, because I'm already struggling to remember everything in the first few lessons. I finished reading Charlie y la Fábrica de Chocolate a week or so ago, and started reading Harry Potter y la Piedra Filosofal. I normally read on my breaks at work, and we're off work for the week, so I probably won't get back to that until next week. I've been looking at my other resources to work "seriously" on my Spanish, and I am not finding a lot of motivation for structured study here. I have lots of motivation. Somewhere. I just can't find it right now! :-) I read through the FSI Spanish to Portuguese book over the past few days, and got an idea of some of the typical problems Spanish speakers face when learning Portuguese. It was very interesting, and I think it will help me avoid (or at least be more aware of) the typical pitfalls. I also listened to the first CD of the Michel Thomas Foundation course. This is going to take my ears some getting used to, that's for sure! I've worked my way through the first 8 lessons of Assimil Serbo-Croat Sans Peine, and finished the first lesson of Spoken World Croatian (SWC). The first lesson of SWC is primarily introductory easy stuff, so I am looking forward to the next chapter on family. My friend at work is also helpful, as she's always willing to answer whatever crazy questions I come up with. (In exchange, I help her with her English sometimes, so it's a fair trade!) My Assimil book teaches the Serbian end of the spectrum more than the Croatian, and the back half of the book (when they introduce the Cyrillic) just looks scary. Which is unnerving, since I can read Russian Cyrillic, but they are a little different. So why should I be scared of that?! Realistically, if I'm going to learn Bosnian/Croatian, I'll spend the time to learn the Serbian alphabet. It would be a waste not to, really. I got a copy of Teach Yourself Beginner's Turkish, and I think I might work my way through that instead of (or along with) the Assimil book. The French aspect notwithstanding, it spells the basics out a little better, which I think I might need if I intend to go anywhere with Turkish. I've always felt that the Teach Yourself series was kind of aimed . . . a little lower than my own expectations, but I've never seriously sat down to learn a non-Indo-European language. So maybe I need to start at the bottom! (Yes, I know. What a concept, right?!) Please do not mind me when I make fun of myself. I don't consider it a shortcoming, but rather a coping mechanism. Sometimes I forget that I'm not perfect, and I have to laugh it off when something comes crashing into me to remind me! You're welcome to laugh along. (Just please don't laugh at me. Or if you do, don't let me see you do it. Please stay hidden behind your computer screen, and turn the mute button on if need be!) Oh, and Solfrid Cristin is evil. ;-) She is trying to get me to study Russian, too. I'm trying to hold off, but part of me is thinking that another 15-2o minutes of just one more Assimil course is not going to make any difference! I am planning to wait at least a few weeks until I've gotten everything else into a steady routine, and I finish my TESOL Certification course (which should be by the beginning of February). I will at least wait until next year. (I really hope I have the willpower to wait for three more days. If I don't, then I am really in trouble!) 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| Kerrie Senior Member United States justpaste.it/Kerrie2 Joined 5388 days ago 1232 posts - 1740 votes Speaks: English* Studies: Spanish | Message 10 of 236 29 December 2011 at 3:23am | IP Logged | ||
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I didn't want to make that post too long, so I will do this separately.
I want to give a shout out to all my TAC 2012 Teammates. On Team Žá - Romance + Slavic: Serpent: Italian, Portuguese, Spanish, Romanian; Russian (native), Croatian, Ukrainian, Belarusian, Polish + the language of the country that wins Euro 2012 (unless it's France) JoãoCorreia: Portuguese (native), French; Russian zecchino1991: Romanian, Italian; Russian GRagazzo: Italian, Sicilian, Spanish; Russian tennisace: Spanish, French; Croatian Amerykanka: Spanish, Latin; Polish AlephBey: Spanish; Russian mick33: Italian, Spanish; Polish pineappleboom: French; Russian kyknos: Latin, Spanish; Czech (native), Slovak chlwrd3: Portuguese; Russian, Polish becks: Spanish; Russian BenMilim: Russian; French; Modern Hebrew On TAC 2012 - The Romantics: garyb: French, Italian and perhaps Spanish mcsice: Spanish and perhaps French or Italian anamsc: Catalan, French and Spanish Lianne: French, Esperanto and maybe Toki Pona (review) PacoBell: Spanish Ligador: Spanish and German pesahson: French Hendrek: Italian songlines: French, Mandarin and perhaps Italian kanewai: French, Spanish, Arabic, Catalan and Italian microsnout: French PinkCordelia: French, Italian, Spanish kyknos: Spanish and German BlackDahlia: French Mani: French, Luxembourgish, Kurdish and maybe Russian and Portuguese in 2012 tw561: Spanish, Italian Mepisevaerg: Mandarin, German, Spanish Luso: Italian, German and Arabic Mani: French, Luxembourgish, Kurdish and I'll probably start Russian and Portuguese in 2012 If I missed anyone or you join after I post this, please let me know so I can add you. If anyone wants to keep an eye on the competition, here are some of the other teams to watch. Team *jäŋe / *ledús : a3, cathrynm, Chung, hribecek, Kisfröccs, mick33, ChristianVlcek, Volte, Kafea Team 'ne nur' : Volte, Sprachprofi, Arekkusu, ellasevia, doviende, ReneeMona, Torbyrne Team Freutsch : LanguageSponge, Spanky, Bjorn, Cavesa, oziohume, Adrean, Jinx, ReQuest, Crush, acriter, Acut, Nsan Team い : Sunja, g-bod, Brun_Ugle, pineappleboom, fortheo, kraemder, ErwinHiggs, Everplayer, Takato, leisaowns, Team 德: Luna Moonsilver, Magdalene, NickJS, Jae, silverpolyglot, Hidden, B_Hutt, WingSuet, sundance, Team Sputnik : Solfrid Cristin, Teango, aloysius, Tecktight, senorsmile, Woodsei, fabriciocarraro, Isabliss, lynxrunner, Ellsworth Team Catalan : Alexander86, Jinx, anamsc Team Polish : meramarina, Amerykanka, Vos, Chung Team German: Tournesol, Flarioca, ummagumma Team ɬ - hrhenry, Ellsworth Individuals: LittleBoy, Fasulye I have to say that I really like the idea of the (bigger) themed teams this year. It feels more like being part of a group, instead of a competition against other people. In reality, it's not so much a competition as it is a support group. (Not the kind for the mentally ill, although some of us could probably benefit from that, too! I need to join Grammar Geeks Anonymous, personally!) Edited by Kerrie on 17 January 2012 at 2:34am 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| Serpent Octoglot Senior Member Russian Federation serpent-849.livejour Joined 6590 days ago 9753 posts - 15779 votes 4 sounds Speaks: Russian*, English, FinnishC1, Latin, German, Italian, Spanish, Portuguese Studies: Danish, Romanian, Polish, Belarusian, Ukrainian, Croatian, Slovenian, Catalan, Czech, Galician, Dutch, Swedish | Message 11 of 236 29 December 2011 at 4:15am | IP Logged | ||
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are you doing the assimil course for Brazilian Portuguese? I have a Spanish-based one for the European version;) mp3+pdf;)))
i wanna start my log on the 1st of January:) but my languages will be Italian, Portuguese, Spanish, Romanian; Russian (native), Croatian, Ukrainian, Belarusian, Polish + the language of the country that wins Euro 2012 (unless it's France); also German, Finnish, Indonesian, Danish, toki pona:) 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| Kerrie Senior Member United States justpaste.it/Kerrie2 Joined 5388 days ago 1232 posts - 1740 votes Speaks: English* Studies: Spanish | Message 12 of 236 29 December 2011 at 4:22am | IP Logged | ||
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Serpent, you make me feel like an under-acheiver! Maybe I should just add Russian, Greek, Hungarian, Swahili, and Japanese to my list for next year. ;-)
The scary thing is that I will probably play with ALL of them before 2012 is over! Oops I forgot to answer your question, Serpent. Yes, I have the Assimil Sans Peine for Brazilian Portuguese, which is the dialect I want to learn. =) Edited by Kerrie on 29 December 2011 at 4:24am 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| Serpent Octoglot Senior Member Russian Federation serpent-849.livejour Joined 6590 days ago 9753 posts - 15779 votes 4 sounds Speaks: Russian*, English, FinnishC1, Latin, German, Italian, Spanish, Portuguese Studies: Danish, Romanian, Polish, Belarusian, Ukrainian, Croatian, Slovenian, Catalan, Czech, Galician, Dutch, Swedish | Message 13 of 236 29 December 2011 at 4:23am | IP Logged | ||
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also, i've posted the code for the team list in case anyone else wants to share the links. it'll be updated as necessary:)
http://justpaste.it/codigo_fuente edit: aw, don't feel like an underachiever!!! we share so many languages! <333 and you study some that i don't study, too:P and it's mainly the pronunciation that's so different that you can't use a course, if you like assimil i really recommend reading the dialogues and explanations of the course for Spanish speakers:) it's a good comparison of the languages too<3 Edited by Serpent on 29 December 2011 at 5:46am 2 persons have voted this message useful | |||
| kanewai Triglot Senior Member United States justpaste.it/kanewai Joined 4882 days ago 1386 posts - 3054 votes Speaks: English*, French, Marshallese Studies: Italian, Spanish | Message 14 of 236 29 December 2011 at 11:52pm | IP Logged | ||
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I did TY Turkish, and I thought it was very useful for self study until about Lesson 7.
After that I found I needed more oral and audio exercises than the book had, mostly so that I could better catch all the small little syllables that Turkish likes to slip in that completely change the meaning of everything. It's a nice language, and I'll get back to it one day! I'm using French to study my Arabic right now, and it's interesting learning one language through another. Especially since I'm entirely functional in French. I kind of like it; I'll be interested in seeing what your experiences are. 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| Serpent Octoglot Senior Member Russian Federation serpent-849.livejour Joined 6590 days ago 9753 posts - 15779 votes 4 sounds Speaks: Russian*, English, FinnishC1, Latin, German, Italian, Spanish, Portuguese Studies: Danish, Romanian, Polish, Belarusian, Ukrainian, Croatian, Slovenian, Catalan, Czech, Galician, Dutch, Swedish | Message 15 of 236 30 December 2011 at 3:41am | IP Logged | ||
1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| Kerrie Senior Member United States justpaste.it/Kerrie2 Joined 5388 days ago 1232 posts - 1740 votes Speaks: English* Studies: Spanish | Message 16 of 236 30 December 2011 at 6:11am | IP Logged | ||
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@ Kanewai - I've actually started with the Teach Yourself Beginner Turkish, which is probably even more basic than the one you were using. Turkish is kind of "for fun" right now. It's always been on my hit list, but not anywhere near the top. One of my friends from work is learning it, though, and it's kind of fun to try to keep up with her. She speaks a few languages (native Bosnian, decent English and German), but she's never learned a language through "studying" it - both her German and English were learned by immersion, and both times (from what I understand) rather involuntarily. She's "just learning from watching the Turkish dramas with the hot guys in them." I don't know - maybe that is more effective for her, but it seems to me that it leaves a LOT of holes in your grammar, and that's not how I want to learn any language. But to each his/her own, I guess! We all have our own motivations and goals for the things we do, right?
@ Serpent - Thanks for the link. I actually checked them out years ago, but I don't remember them having as much stuff. I was looking at some of the Spanish and Croatian stuff, and it looks like it could be a very useful site! I was working on my Spoken World Croatian book this evening, and in Lesson Two (page 31), they are introducing the possessive adjectives and pronouns. And with just TWO of the seven cases, there are 13 ways to say "my" and so I think I am going to run away and go put my head under the covers and hide! No, really. I AM going to do that. (It's almost bedtime here, so I have a good excuse.) When I look at it more closely, though, it's really not as scary as it looks. Everything seems relatively regular, even though they have different forms for animate (people and animals) vs inanimate masculine nouns. So I am going to look at them once or twice more, then go sleep on it, and look at them again tomorrow. Maybe I will just think about the nominative ones for now, and worry about the accusative next year. :) 1 person has voted this message useful |
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