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 Language Learning Forum : Language Learning Log |  | |
| numerodix Trilingual Hexaglot Senior Member Netherlands Joined 6785 days ago 856 posts - 1226 votes  Speaks: EnglishC2*, Norwegian*, Polish*, Italian, Dutch, French Studies: Portuguese, Mandarin | Message 89 of 182 27 October 2009 at 9:38pm | IP Logged | |||||
Thanks for asking, I actually meant to mention this. I did, yes. And it was definitely awkward, but I got used to it a little after a while. At the train station the ambient noise is quite high so I was pretty sure noone would hear what I said unless they were specifically listening in. Another thing that helps is Mandarin being quite rare here, so I felt like I could "get away with it" more. Doing the same with Dutch I would feel less comfortable. Later on I got so used to this I spoke (aloud) quietly to myself all the while expecting people to hear it, but not know what I was saying. Edited by numerodix on 27 October 2009 at 9:39pm 1 person has voted this message useful | ||||||
| numerodix Trilingual Hexaglot Senior Member Netherlands Joined 6785 days ago 856 posts - 1226 votes Speaks: EnglishC2*, Norwegian*, Polish*, Italian, Dutch, French Studies: Portuguese, Mandarin | Message 90 of 182 27 October 2009 at 11:58pm | IP Logged | |||||
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Well then, here we are at the halfway point in the textbook, 42 days after I started. The book is subtitled "Corso elementare ed intermedio", so I wonder if that means once you reach the 2nd half you have "graduated" from beginner to intermediate.
I have 90 hours on the clock, and that means it's probably going to take another 100 hours to finish the textbook. Perhaps more if the content gets denser. Here's a summary of what I covered: (00) Unità introduttiva (01) Il presente indicativo (02) Verbi di moto [motion], Verbi modali (dovere, potere, volere), Le preposizioni semplici (a, per, fra/tra, con, di, da) (03) Il presente di alcuni verbi irregolari, Le preposizioni articolate (da + il = dal), Gli interrogativi (che, quale) (04) Participio passato - perfetto (passato prossimo), Verbi transitivi e intransitivi, Verbi ausiliari (avere, essere), Accordo del participio passato con il soggetto (l'ha vista) (05) I possessivi (il mio, la mia, ..) (06) Il futuro semplice e composto (sarà, sarà arrivato), La particella avverbiale "ci" (07) I pronomi diretti (lo prendo) (08) L'imperfetto indicativo (ero) (09) Pronomi indiretti (gli do), (10) I verbi reflessivi (alzarsi), Forma impersonale (uno si esprime) (11) Pronomi combinati (glielo), Imperativo diretto (tu, voi, noi), Forma perifrastica (sto per partire, sto scrivendo) (12) Il condizionale semplice, Il verbo andare con i pronomi diretti (mi va di..), Le particelle "ci" "vi" e "ne" (13) Il condizionale composto (avrei mangiato) (14) I pronomi relativi (che, chi, cui) Along with the lessons there are tests in the back of the book after every pair of lessons. I've been doing those too. The tests are ostensibly for the past two lessons, but they have some cumulative content as well. Here's how I scored on them: (1 - after 00) 86% (2 - after 00) 93% (3 - after 02) 80% (4 - after 04) 95% (5 - after 06) 96% (6 - after 08) 87% (7 - after 10) 73% (8 - after 12) 76% (9 - after 14) 90% The lessons were easy going at first, but in the last couple of weeks I've been more shaky on the material and I'm not confident about having all the grammar down. At this point I could just plow forward, but I'm thinking of doing some reviewing instead to clean up those areas iffy to me. I set out to do a thorough pass over the textbook and for quite a while I was keeping up with it very nicely, so now it feels like a shame to throw in the towel and settle for less. 1 person has voted this message useful | ||||||
| numerodix Trilingual Hexaglot Senior Member Netherlands Joined 6785 days ago 856 posts - 1226 votes Speaks: EnglishC2*, Norwegian*, Polish*, Italian, Dutch, French Studies: Portuguese, Mandarin | Message 92 of 182 01 November 2009 at 2:08pm | IP Logged | |||||
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Nothing much to report. I'm now going over the chapters in the first half of the book at the pace of two a day and making notes of anything that I find surprising or difficult. It's not a very exciting exercise, it's a bit like that guy watching the conveyor belt making sure nothing is out of order.
But I think it's worthwhile all the same, for morale. I still have to pinch myself sometimes and remember that less than two months ago I was seeing all this for the first time, and now it's "mine". In chapter 5 there is a long stream of verbs for which is listed the participio passato and the auxiliary verb. I copied the list to see how many I would get right and it turns out I got all the participle forms right, and I had three avere-essere mistakes. I still remember seeing that list for the first time thinking "meh, I'm not going to remember all this". Of course, they are common verbs like accendere so I have seen them in various places since, but it's nice to confront that original memory with the present condition. I also figure that by now I should know the vocabulary in these lessons, so I also make a pass over each chapter and record all the words I don't know into Anki. I used to practice with Anki everyday for almost two months, but I got sick of it. I'm starting that up a bit again now. Well, that's it for me. Not much to say but I figured I should report in lest my adoring fans worry. Edited by numerodix on 01 November 2009 at 2:28pm 1 person has voted this message useful | ||||||
| numerodix Trilingual Hexaglot Senior Member Netherlands Joined 6785 days ago 856 posts - 1226 votes Speaks: EnglishC2*, Norwegian*, Polish*, Italian, Dutch, French Studies: Portuguese, Mandarin | Message 93 of 182 01 November 2009 at 8:51pm | IP Logged | |||||
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Milestone: First intelligible magazine article
Sweeeeet! Just now I was goofing around and ended up on this article. It seemed interesting so I started reading and soon found out it was going quite well. I was reading it at my normal "English speed" and despite missing lots of words I could make it out quite nicely. I guess this means I'm ready to consume Italian content now. Edited by numerodix on 01 November 2009 at 8:52pm 1 person has voted this message useful | ||||||
| Lizzern Diglot Senior Member Norway Joined 5911 days ago 791 posts - 1053 votes Speaks: Norwegian*, English Studies: Japanese | Message 94 of 182 01 November 2009 at 8:59pm | IP Logged | |||||
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Hoorah! Nice. There goes any excuse you thought you had for not reading Personalità confusa. On you go then :-)
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| numerodix Trilingual Hexaglot Senior Member Netherlands Joined 6785 days ago 856 posts - 1226 votes Speaks: EnglishC2*, Norwegian*, Polish*, Italian, Dutch, French Studies: Portuguese, Mandarin | Message 95 of 182 02 November 2009 at 1:47am | IP Logged | |||||
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Not to put down that blog, knowing how much you love it, but that's something I want to read for fun, not with a dictionary by my side. And I checked it today and I still can't "just" read it. It will have to wait.
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| numerodix Trilingual Hexaglot Senior Member Netherlands Joined 6785 days ago 856 posts - 1226 votes Speaks: EnglishC2*, Norwegian*, Polish*, Italian, Dutch, French Studies: Portuguese, Mandarin | Message 96 of 182 02 November 2009 at 3:55pm | IP Logged | |||||
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I just had an epiphany! All the while I've been focused on books and websites, but hey there's also Italian media out there! In fact isn't there this annoying thing called dvd that when you try to play the disc it spits out a ream of read errors and drives you insane? As opposed to a video file where you just go *click*. Ah, but don't those deevoodee (teehee) thingies also have translations on them? Now we're talking!
So this means I can get Seinfeld in Italian, right? Wrong. It was never translated. Apparently, despite this translation gimmick, noone bothers to really translate dvds. I did a bunch of window shopping today and here's the verdict: most productions have only English audio. Some have Dutch. Only a handful have German or French. Italian? gtfo. So the only way you can hope to get Italian audio is if the show or the movie was produced for an Italian audience, meaning on tv or at the movies, in Italy. That also means only they will have the audio, so it's completely useless to me that dvds have translations because I have to be in Italy to get it. Or an online store. Where they have season 1-2 of Seinfeld, but no more. :( Friends exists, but I'm sick of that show. And it's rather heavily priced (45 bucks for 1 or 2 seasons or something). Let's see, what else is there. I suppose I could rewatch Scrubs. 1 person has voted this message useful |
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