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Bootstrapping Turkish | ||
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 Language Learning Forum : Language Learning Log |  | |
| Bakunin Diglot Senior Member Switzerland outerkhmer.blogspot. Joined 5123 days ago 531 posts - 1126 votes  Speaks: German*, Thai Studies: Khmer | Message 49 of 54 01 June 2014 at 6:07pm | IP Logged |
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I’ve just come back from two weeks in Thailand. Apart from the putsch and the curfew related inconveniences during the second week I had a great time. I was with a Swiss friend of mine who is thinking about shooting a movie in Thailand, so we did some work related to that project. I did a lot of talking and translating for my friend - really interesting stuff. I also met quite a few new people and visited various places in Bangkok I hadn’t been to before. I really did talk a lot, and I can say I’m now quite comfortable speaking Thai: albeit my Thai leaves a lot to be desired, there’s little I can’t get across; furthermore, Thais never switch languages with me.
This trip has shown me again that my passion in language learning is still Thai. It is the language I’m most curious about, the language I really want to explore and master. But it is also very clear that I need to spend a lot more time on Thai if I want to advance further, e.g., write well, understand stand-up comedy, understand important cultural references, speak with ease about complex issues, master code-switching between various registers, understand dialects, slang, poetry and word-play, to give a few examples. Learning a language to an advanced level requires a lot of time. But I also want to have a life besides language learning: friends, traveling, sports etc. Given these other activities, I’m clearly at my limit with the languages I’ve taken on. I would love to improve my French or Polish, and I really would love to learn Turkish, but it is obvious that I won’t have the time to do all of this and lead a balanced, healthy, social life. I need to make cuts somewhere. At this point in time, summer approaching and all, the most reasonable solution to me seems to give up Turkish and scale down Polish. French has already taken a back seat - all I do is listening to podcasts -, so there’s little to adjust. The other cut I’m going to make is HTLAL. We have a great community here, and there are lots of interesting people and views, but somehow I feel that by now I know what techniques I enjoy and how I learn effectively. I really regret having to give up Turkish. The language has grown on me, and I know that there is an incredibly interesting world out there to explore. I have been to Central Asia and Turkey several times and would love to see, hear and taste more, and with some language skills under my belt this would be an immensely more enriching experience. This morning I started reading the Little Prince in Turkish and realized it wouldn’t be too long before I really could pull that off. But, alas, I just can’t see how to make time for Turkish. So here’s my sign-off plan: continue listening to select French podcasts - this should keep the my French on life support; continue to read Polish at a 1 mio words per year rate and listen to podcasts - this should help me to make further progress, albeit at a slower pace, and get me to the books I really want to read later this year, probably in autumn; step up my efforts with Thai - see above for where I would like to be in a few years; reduce Turkish to the time I used to spend on HTLAL, or less, or zero; spend more time outdoors and with friends. Now, as Buddha kept emphasizing, all phenomena are impermanent, and this extends in particular to any single plan I’ve ever come up with in my life. I wish everybody in the Southern hemisphere a pleasant winter and the rest of us a great summer! :) 1 person has voted this message useful | |
| SomeGuy Groupie Germany Joined 5093 days ago 56 posts - 75 votes Speaks: German* Studies: Arabic (Written), Turkish, Mandarin | Message 50 of 54 01 June 2014 at 6:12pm | IP Logged |
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It was a great log, good luck with raising your thai level!
ps:any chance for a last update in the thai log? 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 51 of 54 01 June 2014 at 9:36pm | IP Logged |
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Good luck and thanks for everything!
I hope you'll still share your particularly exciting discoveries. And remember that if/when you need a change, HTLAL will have the answers to your questions :-) 1 person has voted this message useful | |
| tristano Tetraglot Senior Member Netherlands Joined 4040 days ago 905 posts - 1262 votes Speaks: Italian*, Spanish, French, English Studies: Dutch | Message 52 of 54 02 June 2014 at 3:35pm | IP Logged |
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Hi Bakunin,
of course social and outdoor life are really important and don't want to be overlooked. Good luck with your projects. By the way your log changed the way I see language learning so thank you very much for this amazing log. 2 persons have voted this message useful | |
| Penelope Diglot Senior Member Greece Joined 3862 days ago 110 posts - 155 votes Speaks: English, French Studies: Russian, Turkish, Modern Hebrew | Message 53 of 54 02 June 2014 at 3:43pm | IP Logged |
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Good luck with your plans, and stop by now and then. If you ever decide to start a log again I will be very happy to see you back, fellow turkish student :D
It is one of the most interesting logs here! 1 person has voted this message useful | |
| nancydowns Senior Member United States Joined 3915 days ago 184 posts - 288 votes Speaks: English* Studies: Spanish, Arabic (Written) | Message 54 of 54 02 June 2014 at 6:11pm | IP Logged |
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Bye, Bakunin. *sniff* *sniff* I feel like you really inspired me to try to step outside the box a bit. Thank you! :-)
1 person has voted this message useful |
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