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Kanewai 2015: Team Caesar | ||
Tags: Super Challenge | Catalan | Ancient Greek | Turkish | Polyglot | Arabic | Total Annihilation Challenge (TAC) | Italian | Japanese | French | Spanish | ||
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 Language Learning Forum : Language Learning Log |  | |
| sctroyenne Diglot Senior Member United StatesRegistered users can see my Skype Name Joined 5384 days ago 739 posts - 1312 votes  Speaks: English*, French Studies: Spanish, Irish | Message 201 of 331 10 December 2013 at 12:43am | IP Logged | ||
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Funny reading about L'écume des jours. After I read it I told my French friend about it
and the fact that there was about to be a movie who had never read it. Later he said he was at the movies and saw a trailer for it and he said, "On n'a rien compris." And going back a few posts, it's kind of a shame that language courses feel the need to teach "How are you?" right off the bat. On one hand, it is a really essential phrase to learn. But on the other hand, it is often pretty grammatically over the learner's head for a good long while, there are usually a ton of responses to the question but the ones they teach you aren't necessarily used that often, and in the case of Irish it can intimidate you from learning the language (each dialect has very different ways of asking and it would give you the impression from the get go that the different dialects of Irish are really different languages, which isn't the case once you delve further into it). 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 202 of 331 12 December 2013 at 10:09pm | IP Logged | ||
It's ironic, yeah? Though it differs by language. Japanese was definitely like that, and it was discouraging. But Arabic had the opposite effect: the greetings were so poetic that it inspired me to want to learn more (the standard morning greeting and response is: sabah al-khair / sabah al-noor ... 'morning of goodness' / 'morning of light'). 1 person has 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 203 of 331 24 December 2013 at 3:11am | IP Logged | ||
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First Set
I just finished my first three-week set. My idea is that every three weeks I'll rotate methods between my languages. I'm hoping this will let me move forward on multiple fronts without triggering burn out. It should also provide a nice pattern of hard and easy weeks. I trained with an Olympic coach once*, and he would have us work in similar three week cycles. There'd be an easy week, a medium week, then a hard week. Then you'd start the cycle again, but each level would be elevated (so the 'easy' week would still be the easiest of that set, but harder than the previous 'easy' week). It really worked. We'll see if I can apply it to my mind. * I was just training for a neighborhood team, not the actual games. But I did get to see the Olympic athletes up close. Who were so pretty. So very pretty. But I digress. Français - My main focus was on FSI Chapter XXII. As usual, the first couple lessons were relatively easy, and then it got hard real fast. It took me the whole three weeks to finish. A lot of FSI now is far beyond my speaking level, but it's helping a lot with my comprehension. I finished the Super Challenge, and then some. I watched a few more episodes of Les Revenants and Kaamelott, both of which are getting easier to understand. Like others have noted, French tv is much easier to understand than French movies. And I'm about 3/4 of the way through Voyage au but de la nuit. The main character has evolved from being an innocent victim of evil to an actively misanthropic doctor to the poor in Paris. Türkçe - I finished Pimsleur I. There wasn't much that was new for me, though I needed this course to reactivate it. I was able to do two lessons a day, and only had to repeat two lessons towards the end. Turkish is an enjoyable language; I'm glad to be studying it again. Italiano - not yet Second Set I'll finish Voyage and Les Revenants for French, work on FSI or Teach Yourself for Turkish, and re-start Pimsleur with Italian. I think it's too early for Italian, honestly - I'd rather get a bit more Turkish under my belt - but I have free time during my commute. This will be the test to see if I can balance three languages. If my Assimil ever arrives for Turkish I'll start that too. Others ελληνικά - I can actually still read most of the first 100 lines of the Iliad. I'm keeping Greek my books on the shelf, ready, just in case I have some free moments and feel inspired. Español - I'm watching Águila Roja when I have the time, mostly just to keep the language alive until I can get back to it. I'll be shadowing the TAC 14 group, though I don't want to commit just yet. ____________________________________________ Meanwhile, it looks like most of the Romantics have moved on to TAC 14s already. I might keep the log title the same; I kind of like it. Edited by kanewai on 24 December 2013 at 3:19am 1 person has 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 204 of 331 24 December 2013 at 10:01pm | IP Logged | ||
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TAC 2014
Français Team Les amis du Capitain Tasty Onions I'll be in France for 11 days this Spring, traveling solo. I'm hoping to use this as a chance to bump my speaking abilities up a notch. I won't do a lot of formal study, although I hope to finish FSI (two chapters left), and will probably do a review of Pimsleur IV before I go. Otherwise, my plan is to continue reading a lot, and watching French tv. I think I'm done with French movies for awhile. At the top of my list: Romans La condition humaine. André Malraux, 1933. Vendredi ou les limbes du pacifique. Michel Tournier,1967. Le soulier de satin, Paul Claudel. 1929. L'oeuvre au noir, Marguerite Yourcenar 1968. Aurélien, Louis Aragon, 1944. A l'ombre des jeunes filles en fleurs, Marcel Proust, 1923. Illusions Perdues, Balzac, 1843. Bandes dessinées Pinocchio. Winshluss (2008) L'Amérique ou Le Disparu, Réal Godbout. 2013 Siegfried T3: Le crépuscule des dieux, Alex Alice. 2011 Television Les revenants, Season 2 - One day, the dead start to return to a small mountain town, not aware that they're dead, or that time has passed. Season 2 is supposed to start in 2014; I hope I can stream it. Kaamelott, Season 2 - Sketch comedy set in the days Arthur, roi de Bretagne. Un village français - I hear a lot of good things about this show. Maison close - Life in a 19th Century Parisian brothel. Español Team Lobos Observer Every year I say that it's time to bump my Spanish up to B2. Will I do it this year? Time will tell. A lot depends on whether I get motivated to continue with Italian once I'm on a roll. I've learned to balance multiple languages, but French and Italian seem to occupy the same mental space in my head. I seem to be able to do one or the other, but never both at the same time. Right now my goal is to watch a couple tv shows, at least one episode per week. Come May I'll have to make the decision: Super Challenge in Spanish or not. Until then, there are a lot of shows on Drama Fever that I'll follow: La fuga, Isabel Season 2, Águila Roja, Mujeres Asesinas, Montecristo ... Drama Fever has been great for bringing Argentine and Spanish shows to the US. Türkçe Team Yürükler I finished Pimsleur I already, and will spend the next couple months with Assimil, Teach Yourself, and FSI. This is all in preparation for a trip to İstanbul in March. After that, who knows? I only know two ways that work for me to push past the basic A2 level. One is through immersion. The second is through reading massive amounts of literature and graphic novels. I'm not moving to Turkey (unless anyone out there has a good lead on jobs!), and I'm not that familiar with Turkish literature beyond Orhan Pamuk. Maybe there's a new world out there for me to discover. Italiano - Team Italiano Stalker I studied some Italian a couple years ago for a trip to Rome, and loved the rhythms of the language. I have another trip to Florence for a week this Spring, so I'll be trying to refresh the language & hopefully progress a bit further in it. My initial resources will be FSI FAST and Pimsleur. Sometime in January I'll have to make the choice about how to proceed. Option 1, I'll go with a vocabulary-heavy course like Living Language (I loved their new Japanese course), and just focus on being a good tourist. Option 2, I'll go with Assimil and aim for a deeper understanding of the language, with the intent of continuing on past my travels. ελληνικά - No TAC. I'll work in Ancient Greek when I can. I put so much work into it, but still have so far to go. So very far. ____________________________________________ Edited by kanewai on 24 December 2013 at 10:04pm 3 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 205 of 331 30 December 2013 at 10:36pm | IP Logged | ||
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2.1 I had a pretty intensive language learning week. My main focus this 3-week
set is Turkish. I've recovered most (but not all) of what I had learned before, and am now moving into new territory. Français Team Triomphe I finished Les revenants, which was fantastic, and tried to start Maison close. I had a hard time following the dialogue of Maison. I'll give it a second chance, but I'm not sure that it's even a show I'd like. I'm also having mixed feelings about Voyage au but de la nuit. The first half was a stunning condemnation of war, colonization, and industrialization. It's an angry book, but angry about things that are worth being angry about. In the second half the author extends his rage to everything. It's still a fascinating book, but my empathy for the main character has plummeted. He's gone from being an innocent youth to a nasty and misanthropic adult. Español Team Lobo I'm running out of patience with all the plot holes in Águila Roja! I want to like this show, but the writing is too lazy for me & a lot of the mini-dramas way too predictable. Five minutes in to episode 8 and I knew that 1) the servants were going to lose the Marquessa's emeralds, that 2) there will be some wacky hijinks, and 3) they will recover them at the last minute. Meanwhile, Red Eagle seems to be able to magically appear and disappear at will, and no one knows who he is ... even though his sidekick never wears a mask. Does anyone know if it gets better - or is this pretty much the template for the rest of the show? Türkçe Team Yürükler FSI to Lesson 10, Assimil to Lesson 5. This week I finally feel like I'm diving into the meat of Turkish. FSI has about 25 verbs in rotation at this point, & it's been more rewarding than other programs that use a more limited vocabulary. So far it's been a lot of repetition and simple substitution drills, so it's been easy to move through at a steady pace. Assimil's Le Turc has been a nice surprise, so far. I haven't really liked Assimil for non Indo-European languages, and only bought this one because it's on sale. So far the dialogues have a more relaxed feel than FSI, Pimsleur, or TY, so it provides a nice contrast. It has also already introduced some concepts I haven't seen before. It works for me, but I can't imagine how someone who is new to Turkish would handle so much info right from the beginning. I'll post some sample dialogues as soon as I get the chance. Italiano - Team Italiano Pimsleur I to Lesson 15. I was hoping that I would remember enough that I could jump right into Pimsleur II, but that was hopeless. I've been doubling up instead on Pimsleur I, doing one lesson on the way to work and one on the ride home. It's been irritating. The first ten lessons were endless combinations of 'do you want to eat something' and 'would you like to eat something.' The last five have been the same sentences, but with numbers and time added in. I make a lot of mistakes, mostly because I am so bored with it. I liked Pimsleur Italian two years ago ... hopefully the love will kick back in! I need to remind myself that this is just a warm-up, and that I'll start studying for real in a few weeks. ελληνικά - No action ____________________________________________ Edited by kanewai on 30 December 2013 at 10:40pm 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| renaissancemedi Bilingual Triglot Senior Member Greece Joined 4351 days ago 941 posts - 1309 votes Speaks: Greek*, Ancient Greek*, EnglishC2 Studies: French, Russian, Turkish, Modern Hebrew | Message 206 of 331 30 December 2013 at 11:13pm | IP Logged | ||
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If you need help with greek just ask.
Your notes on the turkish courses are very helpful. Do you suppose that TY works better combined with assimil? On the other hand, you say that beginners may find the combination too much. I'll stick to TY for now, but I'll be following your interesting observations very closely. 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| Stelle Bilingual Triglot Senior Member Canada tobefluent.com Joined 4137 days ago 949 posts - 1686 votes Speaks: French*, English*, Spanish Studies: Tagalog | Message 207 of 331 30 December 2013 at 11:26pm | IP Logged | ||
Hmmm…this is disappointing. I was planning on watching Águila Roja once we're finished with Isabel season 2. Now I'm rethinking that! 1 person has 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 208 of 331 31 December 2013 at 12:08am | IP Logged | ||
me, TY is a complete course, but it could use more audio and exercises. I'd combine it with something, though it's too early to tell if Assimil or FSI, or one of the textbooks people have mentioned, is the better choice. FSI is free, though, so I'd check that out first! I've been downloading the pdf's to an old iPad, and that works great. I tried pdf's on the kindle, but it wasn't a good match. 1 person has voted this message useful |
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