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Vos Diglot Senior Member Australia Joined 5559 days ago 766 posts - 1020 votes Speaks: English*, Spanish Studies: Dutch, Polish
| Message 1 of 123 04 January 2012 at 6:33am | IP Logged |
Here we are again at the birth of another new year, bringing with it fertile beginnings in which to form and sew
are intentions, and a stilled, clear outlook with which to see them through.. The opportunity to reflect on the year
past, and ponder the one ahead.
El Español
It was roughly 15 months ago, in October 2010, that I started learning this most wonderful language, and I’m
still as enthralled and motivated today as I ever was.
Spanish will again be my main language for the year and where most of my time will be going, yet I’ll be focusing
more on the active side of things this year and on the cultural aspects of Spain and Latin America, rather than
passing the time doing workbooks. As I feel that I have the most important features of the grammar down, and
that all that there remains for me to do on this never ending climb of improvement and increased familiarity is to
continue to refine my Spanish via osmosis of native materials, selectively study particular pieces of grammar
which I wish to strengthen and become more confident with, and to (vastly) increase my vocabulary.
So my materials for this year will mainly be books written by native authors and tv shows and films from Spanish
speaking countries. I’ll also be writing little stories, reviews and thoughts about things as I always do, putting
new words into Anki and reviewing daily, and hopefully finding some Spaniards/Latin Americans with whom to
talk.
Aims & Level: I guess my current level in Spanish is a low B2 for all areas except for speaking, which is probably a
B1. Therefore this year I’ll be striving to reach B2 with my speaking, and C1 for every other area. ¡Vamos!
Polski
Polski!! I’m excited about this one. As with my Dutch, the reasons for studying this language are both varied and
complex.
Firstly, I find it aesthetically interesting and simply fascinating, with all its crazy little diacritic markings, its
wealth of wooshy wind like sounds and the diversity of its intonation and colours.
Secondly, I’m curious to find out in more detail how this language works, being very different from my own. With
its barrage of cases, lack of articles, imperfect and perfect verbs, and just overall being a much different beast in
its workings.
Thirdly, I’m intrigued by the country itself, its culture, history and people, and wish to understand and get to
know it better via the language.
And lastly and most importantly, as my Opa is Polish, it holds a special place for me as it’s part of the family and
our history, and being very much into history, genealogy and piecing things together as I am, I almost feel as
though there is something of me missing, as long as this language remains a mystery to me.
Also I’d like to keep this language in the family, that is, if I’m ever to have children, I’d love to be able to pass it
on to them, like a linguistic heirloom to remind them from whence we came.
Aims & Level: I am most definitely a beginner of beginners in this language, having only spent roughly 3 weeks
looking at it thus far. So by the end of the year if I could reach a B1 in most areas of the language, I’d be
extremely happy.
Het Nederlands
Dutch! My goals and ambitions for this delightful Germanic tongue are rather humble in comparison to my
Spanish and Polish, as I have a rather limited use for it whilst living here in Australia and I’d like to keep it a bit
relaxed and fun. However I’ve started writing to my Oma again somewhat regularly so I’d like to become more
familiar with the way one expresses themselves in Dutch, so as to be able to express myself in a more Dutch
manner, and hopefully also pick up a few more verbs, nouns and phrases along the way.
Aims & Level: Currently I’m probably an A2/B1 in all areas of Dutch. So if by the end of the year I were a solid B1
or slightly higher, I’d be very happy.
To the team! Very excited and glad to be a part of a solid team this year, that being Team Żubr, and am looking
forward to actually having a good group of enthusiastic and interesting people throughout the whole year. Can't
wait to follow your progress and findings! So to Amerykanka, Meramarina, Mooby, Homogenik, WentworthsGal
and Chung: Good luck with all your endeavours and may we all have an amazing year of language learning! Also
to everyone else out there striving forth with there own collection of languages, all the best and I look forward to
reading some interesting logs!
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| WentworthsGal Senior Member United KingdomRegistered users can see my Skype Name Joined 4881 days ago 191 posts - 246 votes Speaks: English* Studies: Swedish, Spanish
| Message 2 of 123 04 January 2012 at 12:46pm | IP Logged |
Good luck with your language adventures 2012!! :o) I will definitely keep an eye on your log as I'm sure I will need motivation with Polish! I've had a little play with it last year and EEK! It's gunna be a toughie! But I will perservere and hopefully we can all inspire and motivate each other through the tough times :o) It'll be worth it I'm sure :o)
Hugs for 2012 x
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| ReneeMona Diglot Senior Member Netherlands Joined 5328 days ago 864 posts - 1274 votes Speaks: Dutch*, EnglishC2 Studies: French
| Message 3 of 123 04 January 2012 at 1:12pm | IP Logged |
Heel veel succes met je talen dit jaar, Vos! Ik zal je log met veel interesse volgen en
mocht je ooit hulp nodig hebben met je Nederlands dan weet je me te vinden.
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| Amerykanka Hexaglot Senior Member United States Joined 5164 days ago 657 posts - 890 votes Speaks: English*, Spanish, Polish, Latin, Ancient Greek, Russian
| Message 4 of 123 05 January 2012 at 1:28am | IP Logged |
Hi Vos! I am excited about reading your log this year, especially since we have two of the same target
languages. I noticed that you are planning on reading quite a bit in Spanish. Have you decided on any
particular books yet? I am hoping to read more in Spanish myself, and I am completely clueless where
Spanish literature is concerned.
Good luck to you with Polish! I remember that everything was completely bewildering for me at first, but
fortunately things got easier as I continued studying.
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| Vos Diglot Senior Member Australia Joined 5559 days ago 766 posts - 1020 votes Speaks: English*, Spanish Studies: Dutch, Polish
| Message 5 of 123 05 January 2012 at 2:35pm | IP Logged |
WentworthsGal - Thank you! I think we both will! Yes, no doubt that it's going to be quite a challenge, but a
highly rewarding, engrossing and enriching one at that. May you have a fantastic year with Polish also, and I look
forward to following your log (is it up yet?).
ReneeMona - Dank je wel Renee! Ja, denk ik dat dit jaar zal ik je veel meer vraagjes over het Nederlands vragen,
dus hartstikke bedankt voor de vriendelijke aanbieding. Bovendien heb ik jou nieuwe log gezien en je heeft veel
niuewe talen op je bord (zegt men dat in Nederland?) dit jaar. Ben benieuwd hoe je ermee zal gaan! Echt goed,
zonder twijfel over mogelijk.
Amerykanka - ¡Gracias! Espero que no te importe si te respondo en español (alguna oportunidad emplear las
lenguas que estudiamos, ¿a que sí?). Sí, me estoy proponiendo leer un poco este año. De momento sigo leyendo
el libro de cuentos de Isabel Allende llamado Cuentos de Eva Luna (casi terminado) y tengo La Casa
Verde de Mario Vargas Llosa que me espera una vez que lo termine. También he juntado una lista de libros y
escritores que quiero leer en algún momento, como Julio Cortázar, Roberto bolaño y Juan Rulfo, algunos de ellos
que tienen conjuntos de relatos también para leer (me gustan los cuentos, son muy útiles en el aprendizaje de
idiomas yo creo). Pero, ¿qué tipos de libros te gustan leer? Hay una enorme cantidad de grandes escritores de
lengua español, así que no te debería costar demasiado en encontrar algo bueno leer. Pero una vez que empece a
leer más y termine unos pocos libros, te dejaré saber los que más me gustaran. Por ahora sin embargo, te
recomiendo el libro de cuentos de Allende, tiene algunas grandes historias.
That's good to hear about the Polish, as at the moment it's quite bewildering and hard to keep track of all the
different rules, declensions and abundance of exceptions that it presents. Definitely going to need a lot of
exposure to this one!
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| WentworthsGal Senior Member United KingdomRegistered users can see my Skype Name Joined 4881 days ago 191 posts - 246 votes Speaks: English* Studies: Swedish, Spanish
| Message 6 of 123 05 January 2012 at 8:32pm | IP Logged |
Thanks Vos! Just wrote my first log entry! :o) Named it Wenty's Log: TAC 2010 Team Żubr - Polish :o) x
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| Amerykanka Hexaglot Senior Member United States Joined 5164 days ago 657 posts - 890 votes Speaks: English*, Spanish, Polish, Latin, Ancient Greek, Russian
| Message 7 of 123 05 January 2012 at 11:52pm | IP Logged |
Por supuesto no me importa si escribas en español. ¡Siempre busco oportunidades de practicar! Nunca he
oído de Cuentos de Eva Luna, pero estoy considerando comprar un otro de los libros de Isabel Allende,
La Ciudad de Las Bestias. Es para los adolescentes y me parece interesante. Me gusta leer casi todo
(menos la ciencia ficción y el romance), pero mis favoritos son libros fantásticos como El Señor de Los
Anillos y Harry Potter.
As for Polish, it is definitely very challenging, but it is worth it. I am still fascinated after five years of study!
Edited by Amerykanka on 05 January 2012 at 11:53pm
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| Mooby Senior Member Scotland Joined 6098 days ago 707 posts - 1220 votes Speaks: English* Studies: Polish
| Message 8 of 123 05 January 2012 at 11:52pm | IP Logged |
Hey Vos, my fellow bison, glad to hear you're in full grazing-mode.
I'm looking forward to following your progress in all your languages.
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