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 Language Learning Forum : Language Learning Log |  | |
| bouda Senior Member United States Joined 5601 days ago 194 posts - 197 votes  Speaks: English* | Message 1 of 160 29 July 2009 at 2:49am | IP Logged |
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I intend to log my improvement in Arabic and Mandarin in this thread. But, as you may
realize from the title change, I haven't been doing much in Mandarin lately... I have studied MSA since June 2009 and Chinese since fall 2005. My Arabic is obviously rudimentary, while I can read novels in Chinese with relative ease (there are definitely still words I don't know, but I can understand most of what's going on without a dictionary). I hope to increase my vocabulary for both of these languages and improve my grasp of Arabic to a point when I can - insha'allah - read Arabic literature in the original. These are long term goals. PROGRESS AS OF POSTING THIS THREAD: In terms of Arabic, I am on chapter 16 of Al-Kitaab fii Ta3allum al-3Arabiya Part One (Brustad, Al-Batal, Al-Tonsi). In terms of Chinese, I am not using a textbook. Today I learned a new word from the New York Times - dang4an4. I had to ask a native speaker who had an accent, so I am not totally sure about the tones, but the online dictionary nciku seems to back me up. GOALS BY END OF SUMMER: I hope to finish Al-Kitaab P.1, by which I mean know all the vocabulary, including all conjugations, and be able to carry on basic conversations with fluidity. As for Chinese, I want to finish reading my current book at least, although I don't think I'll have much time for anything else. Edited by bouda on 31 July 2009 at 3:26am 1 person has voted this message useful | |
| bouda Senior Member United States Joined 5601 days ago 194 posts - 197 votes Speaks: English* | Message 2 of 160 29 July 2009 at 3:06am | IP Logged |
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Questions I had while writing my daily Arabic blog post:
1. In the phrase "reading this book," would the maSdar be definite or indefinite, as 'book' is definite? I'm guessing indefinite but am not totally sure. My textbook does not really explain this. My phrase was an attempt at: "reading this book." Sorry, this forum isn't letting me post in the only Arabic font I can type. 2. Is a maSdar modified with an adverb or an adjective, or does it depend on context? Attempted: "Speaking a lot" (adjective) / "to speak a lot" (adverb) 3. How do I add personal suffixes to words ending in the letters yaa or alif maksura? I'm trying to say: "my favorite cafe." 7/29/09 - questions answered. Edited by bouda on 30 July 2009 at 1:46am 1 person has voted this message useful | |
| bouda Senior Member United States Joined 5601 days ago 194 posts - 197 votes Speaks: English* | Message 3 of 160 29 July 2009 at 3:40am | IP Logged |
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I just purchased my first Arabic book! Of course I probably can only read one or two
words of it right now, but I'm a big and compulsive believer in hoarding up foreign language books "just in case." Which probably explains why I have a bookshelf full of novels in languages I've never even studied - German, Latin, Korean... Anyway, this is very exciting because I don't have anything in Arabic at all except a battered copy of Little Red Riding Hood and textbooks, of course. I also looked through the meager archives of my Arabic language blog today. I can definitely see the improvement from last week now that I'm able to compare paragraphs. When you're learning a language, it feels like you're taking forever to "get" things, but often you are better than you think you are. Edited by bouda on 29 July 2009 at 5:37am 1 person has voted this message useful | |
| bouda Senior Member United States Joined 5601 days ago 194 posts - 197 votes Speaks: English* | Message 4 of 160 29 July 2009 at 1:26pm | IP Logged |
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So I can't get to sleep but also can't use my brain enough to do anything productive
right now - you know what that means: pointless post! Actually, I do have a point of sorts. I just wanted to set down some possible short- term goals for future use. I probably won't do all of this every day, but it's good sometimes to be reminded. - put up Arabic flashcards or text on wall - label everything in my room with Arabic notes or instruction - read at least a page of Arabic freestyle every day (realia) - translate/understand at least two paragraphs of Arabic every day (realia) - review flashcards before bed and upon waking... "study" - listen actively to at least an hour of radio, TV, or music every day - think as much in Arabic as possible - review old blog posts and be aware of mistakes/progress - do all homework... this is a biggie, I've been slacking lately! - finish the book I am reading in Chinese (I'm taking a break with a short, easy, simplified character translation, so this should be actually achievable) On the topic of homework, I initially woke up at 7 today, despite falling asleep at 3, because I haven't done any homework! But now I kind of really don't want to do it. I guess I'll take the penalty and do it all tomorrow. Ugh. Completely unrelated, but I didn't want to make a new post: I've found a decent amount of resources for Arabic and, it feels, an enormous amount of good things for Japanese, but everything I've seen so far on the Chinese side of things leaves me cold. I haven't delved far into the web yet, but right now I'm looking for simple videos to teach simple words - up, down, left, right... no success! Edited by bouda on 29 July 2009 at 1:32pm 1 person has voted this message useful | |
| bouda Senior Member United States Joined 5601 days ago 194 posts - 197 votes Speaks: English* | Message 5 of 160 29 July 2009 at 1:47pm | IP Logged |
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Trying to go back to sleep would be a waste now that I am already somewhat awake and I
have to officially get up in 10 minutes, so I'll pen another quick post instead. I thought this time that I'd discuss briefly my experiences with Alif-Baa, a common textbook for the writing of Arabic characters. I was forced once to complete Alif-Baa (writing out every letter, memorizing all vocab, and all) in five days. I am never doing that again! I must have spent like five hours a day on that darn thing. But it was really useful for me just to have a quick overview of all the letters. Afterwards, I went back and solidified my knowledge of the alphabet, and it was much easier keeping track of everything the second time once I had had a bit of an introduction to the writing. It actually worked so well that I'm considering doing this - going through the alphabet once at high speed, then fixing the letters in memory by reviewing at a much slower pace - with any non-Romanic language I study in the future, ex Russian. Your mileage may vary, but for me, looking at things I will learn in the future before it's my time to learn them really helps. I tend to do this with grammar, too, for example. The actual book of Alif-Baa was not my favorite. I don't think I have DVDs with my edition, and at any rate I didn't use them - if there were or if I had taken advantage of that, perhaps my experience would be different. As is, I just had the text. Alif-Baa does vowel almost all the words, which is very useful when you're just starting to learn them, but it does not always explain what every word is. This annoyed me on a personal level because although I can understand that the book is just using X words as examples to practice writing 'ayn with and so the meaning doesn't matter in the context, I'm the kind of person who really likes to understand EVERYTHING, or at least try. At the time that I was using Alif-Baa, I did not know how to use my Hans Wehr dictionary, so I could not look anything up - frustrating! The good thing about Alif-Baa is that, compared to the few other alphabet-teachin' books I've seen around, it really gives you a lot of drills and exercises, which are for obvious reasons quite important. 3.5 out of 5 stars including blatant personal bias. Compared with other books I've seen, 4 out of 5 stars. Edited by bouda on 29 July 2009 at 9:48pm 1 person has voted this message useful | |
| bouda Senior Member United States Joined 5601 days ago 194 posts - 197 votes Speaks: English* | Message 6 of 160 29 July 2009 at 9:52pm | IP Logged |
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I've slowed down these last two days because I am not getting enough sleep. Today my
primary goal is to finish my homework and everything overdue but also to get enough sleep. Edited by bouda on 29 July 2009 at 10:41pm 1 person has voted this message useful | |
| bouda Senior Member United States Joined 5601 days ago 194 posts - 197 votes Speaks: English* | Message 7 of 160 30 July 2009 at 2:03am | IP Logged |
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29 July 2009
Chinese: lots of speaking practice. Listened to some news about the Muslim world. Most of my Chinese learning right now is quite passive in that I'm not actively studying with flashcards, textbooks, ktl. I don't improve greatly from day to day, but I review a lot of common words. Arabic: Edited by bouda on 30 July 2009 at 2:10am 1 person has voted this message useful | |
| anamsc Triglot Senior Member Andorra Joined 6207 days ago 296 posts - 382 votes Speaks: English*, Spanish, Catalan Studies: Arabic (Levantine), Arabic (Written), French | Message 8 of 160 30 July 2009 at 2:39am | IP Logged |
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Hello Bouda,
Good luck with your learning! It seems like you picked the hardest languages you could find :p. Anyways, if you find any sort of interesting native materials, let me know--and I'll do the same for you! Anamsc Edited by anamsc on 30 July 2009 at 2:41am 1 person has voted this message useful |
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