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Bookworm’s adventures-TAC15 | ||
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 Language Learning Forum : Language Learning Log |  | |
| Cavesa Triglot Senior Member Czech Republic Joined 5002 days ago 3277 posts - 6779 votes  Speaks: Czech*, FrenchC2, EnglishC1 Studies: Spanish, German, Italian | Message 153 of 217 18 June 2015 at 10:56pm | IP Logged |
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Thanks, guys. I am not sure whether Berlin gets on the list this year. But I'll let you know if it gets there (it is not that improbable).
Via, my exams appear darker and more hopeless with every passing day. But I might still succeed and return to my languages soon. I'll try to be patient and lucky, that sounds like a good piece of advice :-) So, what have I been up to: Languages: -nothing but a few online articles in Spanish (on various topics), some lemonde.fr, one movie in French (dubbed Guardians of the Galaxy, I loved it), some episodes of Kaamelot (I love it. And it is quite hard, which makes it even better, there are even pieces I don't really understand. That's some new motivation). -Half an episode of Gran Reserva, my next series in Spanish, one I shall start after the exams. It is hard, totally new actors, new accent which sounds more southern than that in my previous series. That's a great thing as I really need to work on understanding the southerners. -No reading at all. -No German at all Wanderlust: as always when I am totally stressed. Signed up for Swedishpod101 and was unpleasantly surprised there is no intermediate stuff, but I'll pay for a month or two for the large amount of beginner lessons when the time comes. Italian and Russian versions look much richer, Polish might be good but similar to Swedish in amount and levels. Signed up for Lingq and remembered why I had left. It is quite impossible and annoying to try to put in larger texts, such as books from the Gutenberg project. It would be great for intensive reading but I am not likely to pay 10 dollars a month for short stuff that is easy enough to work with without any lingq. Wanderlust2: I am choosing my next language, despite not having time to start now. I made up some criteria that are important to me and a scale 1-5 (5 is the best). The language with the largest sum is my next language and will be started during the summer, as I'll need MORE fun to take my thoughts from my repeatedly broken heart (yeah, Cavesa is a total idiot, if anyone hasn't noticed. I managed to get another heartbreak in less than 2 months since the previous one.). Yeah, I could get a summer job if I had known I would have holidays. Well, I am still unlikely to have any, so getting a job is a bit complicated. So these are the criteria: 1.How easy the language is, considering my language background? 2.The amount of resources I've already got to start the language? 3.The easiness of acquiring more resources, from the beginner stuff up to native media? online and realworld, shops, libraries, pirate sources, etc. 4.The amount of interesting content do I expect to find in the language? Preferably original. What fun am I gonna have with the language: songs, books, comics, series, movies, pcgames... 5.Usefulness for traveling? 6. And for my studies/work opportunities? Study exchanges, literature, science articles (do they publish interesting things in English or their language too), part time jobs opportunities. 7.Easiness of finding the natives + probable willingness to speak with foreigner in the language? ----the sum of all that can be anything between 7 and 35. So, what am I starting with after the exams? Polish:4+4+3+4+3+3+4 &nbs p; 25 Swedish:3+4+2+4+3+2+2 &nb sp;20 Italian:5+4+5+4+5+4+4 &nb sp;32 Russian:3+4+5+5+3+5+5 &nb sp;30 just out of curiousity(and to further procrastinate),the hypotethical options: Japanese:1+4+3+4+2+3+1 18 Mandarin:1+4+3+4+1+3+1 17 Arabic:1+4+2+2+1+1+1 &nbs p; 12 Hungarian:1+3+1+2+3+2+2 14 Finnish:1+3+1+3+2+1+1 &nb sp;12 So, the summer is very likely to include Italian or Russian on top of everything. Now, back to my studies, no more time for stupidities like wanderlust or love (or lust). 2 persons have voted this message useful | |
| Cavesa Triglot Senior Member Czech Republic Joined 5002 days ago 3277 posts - 6779 votes Speaks: Czech*, FrenchC2, EnglishC1 Studies: Spanish, German, Italian | Message 154 of 217 18 June 2015 at 10:57pm | IP Logged |
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P.S. still no dalf certificate, even though it should already be here. I sent in an email, I'll let you know what I find out.
2 persons have 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 155 of 217 19 June 2015 at 3:28am | IP Logged |
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Finnish is much harder for a Germanic or Romance native speaker than Slavic ;)
also, if you split difficulty into active and passive then out of the main list Swedish is a clear loser :D (although it would be awesome if you chose it! but Polish/Italian/Russian offer native materials from the very beginning) 1 person has voted this message useful | |
| Via Diva Diglot Senior Member Russian Federation last.fm/user/viadivaRegistered users can see my Skype Name Joined 4227 days ago 1109 posts - 1427 votes Speaks: Russian*, English Studies: German, Italian, French, Swedish, Esperanto, Czech, Greek | Message 156 of 217 19 June 2015 at 6:22am | IP Logged |
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And once again you should clear your inbox more often ;)
Also Russian shouldn't be that hard. You do have your native language, which wasn't very helpful with your previous studies, eh? I guess you can take a look here and maybe revise your estimation :) 1 person has voted this message useful | |
| Elenia Diglot Senior Member United Kingdom lilyonlife.blog Joined 3849 days ago 239 posts - 327 votes Speaks: English*, French Studies: German, Swedish, Esperanto | Message 157 of 217 19 June 2015 at 10:36am | IP Logged |
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A note: Every time I've been in Sweden, native speakers have been quite eager to talk
with me in Swedish (and it has always been me who was unwilling to try out of fear of embarrassing myself). However, these people are usually people I meet in a relaxed, friendly setting, so this probably doesn't push Swedish up much higher in the list. Whatever you choose (when you have time to choose it!) I hope you have fun :) Also, do you use ReadLang? I prefer it to Lingq, as Lingq is pretty much useless if you don't want to pay for membership. Although it is always nice to have the recordings available. 1 person has voted this message useful | |
| Cavesa Triglot Senior Member Czech Republic Joined 5002 days ago 3277 posts - 6779 votes Speaks: Czech*, FrenchC2, EnglishC1 Studies: Spanish, German, Italian | Message 158 of 217 19 June 2015 at 12:16pm | IP Logged |
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Yeah, native materials from the beginning would be a great motivation.
And that was one of the reasons why I tried lingq. I'll have a look at readlang, thanks for the idea. I am usually the "Yay, free stuff!" girl, sailing under the skull and crossed bones, but I don't mind to pay for good tools if two conditions are met: 1.the value/price ratio is good (which lingq fails at until you can put in whole books. when that option is there, it's gonna be a different story) 2. the price is not too high (I am still a student, expensive tools like Fluenz or Scritter would be a huge investment that would require a lot of planning and consideration). My native language is quite helpful with French and German (German loanwords, the pronunciation isn't THAT different, some of the grammar is quite paralel to ours; French isn't that far in some way seither, no matter what general public things,as there are paralels in pronunciation, in lots of cultural stuff, some vocab and grammar). But I know Czech is gonna be the best starting point for slavic languages, especially Polish and I am so looking forward to it! But the "problem" is, that Italian is now easier for me with my background in French, despite the fact I am not native, than Polish (or Russian). The "easiness of finding natives to speak with" is not only their willingness to speak. It is also the amount of natives I could meet here in Prague (hehe, Russian is the clear winner), availibility of natives on the internet and amount of language exchanges I could get from them (again, Russian rules) and as well the easiness of travelling to the country for practice (which is a separate question but related to this one). You know, considering the distance and prices of everything, Sweden is a much less practical destination than Italy or Hungary. 1 person has voted this message useful | |
| tarvos Super Polyglot Winner TAC 2012 Senior Member China likeapolyglot.wordpr Joined 4700 days ago 5310 posts - 9399 votes Speaks: Dutch*, English, Swedish, French, Russian, German, Italian, Norwegian, Mandarin, Romanian, Afrikaans Studies: Greek, Modern Hebrew, Spanish, Portuguese, Czech, Korean, Esperanto, Finnish | Message 159 of 217 19 June 2015 at 1:53pm | IP Logged |
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The kicker is usually that the Russians just speak poor or no English at all. So then
Russian is your only option. As for Berlin, I will be there for a few days in August, and I will be in Munich as well for a few days later in August. You can always come down to visit me! I'm visiting a friend of mine but I'm sure she wouldn't mind some company :p As for heartbreaks... that has caused me to miss exams before. That kind of bullshit just happens in life. 1 person has voted this message useful | |
| Clarity Groupie United States Joined 3515 days ago 85 posts - 107 votes Speaks: English* Studies: Spanish | Message 160 of 217 22 June 2015 at 5:15pm | IP Logged |
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Cavesa, I have to tell you that I just loved your scientific approach to choosing another language. I read it twice!
As for heartbreaks, I can so relate! When I was in college, I remember bombing a test or two because of a break-up. I wish these things weren't so painful. I hope you enjoy a much deserved vacation with your family. And how fantastic that you could hang out with some HTLAL-ers too! 1 person has voted this message useful |
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