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Emme’s Small Steps - Team Sleipnir TAC’15 | ||
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 Language Learning Forum : Language Learning Log |  | |
| Emme Triglot Senior Member Italy Joined 5348 days ago 980 posts - 1594 votes  Speaks: Italian*, English, German Studies: Russian, Swedish, French | Message 17 of 360 01 May 2010 at 11:36pm | IP Logged | |||||
Grazie! E anche il tuo Italiano non è niente male. Se hai bisogno di una mano sono qua! 1 person has voted this message useful | ||||||
| Emme Triglot Senior Member Italy Joined 5348 days ago 980 posts - 1594 votes Speaks: Italian*, English, German Studies: Russian, Swedish, French | Message 18 of 360 09 May 2010 at 12:20am | IP Logged | |||||
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Another week has passed and I’m happy if somewhat surprised to say that I’m still on track with my language learning. Assimil seems to be working for me too: it has the right format to make you study a little every day, which is something I’ve always had trouble doing.
In fact, even on those days when life’s other commitments drain all my energies, it’s a relatively small effort to listen to the day’s lesson and quickly work through the explanations in the book. On the other days, when I have some more time, I try to review past lessons. By reviewing I mean that I first listen to the lessons on my mp3 player for a couple of times and then I shadow them until I get so bored I must give up. But this week I decided to start a more in-depth revision (especially in view of the quickly approaching start of the second wave) in that I also re-read the first seven lessons and the notes in the book. It’s funny to consider this as a more ‘in-depth revision’ when I think back to all the cramming I did for university, but I don’t want to overdo it this time since I hope to avoid burnout and moreover I keep reading what great results can be obtained just by letting everything naturally sink in. So, to recapitulate: French: I’m now on lesson 36 of Assimil. Swedish: I've kept working daily on my Anki deck. I’m still going through a review of the materials already covered in past attempts at learning Swedish. This week I’ve also done some more listening comprehension exercises. And finally, I’m happy to report that at long last I’m tackling new materials: I’ve reached lesson 8 in my reader and moved on to Kapitel 2 Text 1 in the Lehrbuch. Edited by Emme on 09 May 2010 at 12:21am 1 person has voted this message useful | ||||||
| Emme Triglot Senior Member Italy Joined 5348 days ago 980 posts - 1594 votes Speaks: Italian*, English, German Studies: Russian, Swedish, French | Message 19 of 360 18 May 2010 at 1:10am | IP Logged | |||||
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I’m a bit late for this week’s update as I couldn’t log on last Sunday.
Anyway, here’s what I’ve achieved in the past eight days. French: I’ve reached lesson 45 in Assimil and I’ve continued my pre-second wave revision (I’m now on lesson 11). Moreover, as I noticed that I was getting restless with just doing Assimil, I’ve decided to allow myself a little latitude in my studying by adding a second French textbook to use alongside Assimil. I know that my problem has always been that I tend to grow fickle and distracted when I use too many textbooks and programmes, so that I get nowhere and I never finish anything. Yet I believe it may be beneficial in this case to combine different methods to add a little variety as long as I keep Assimil as my main learning programme at this stage and go on doing my lessons as planned. That’s the reason why I picked up a manual that had been sitting on my shelf for ages: I had bought it years ago at half price when a bookstore in my town was closing down. It’s a textbook for schoolchildren (aged 11-13) so I hope the language is introduced gradually and slowly. So far I’ve done the first chapter, and I must say—weird as that may sound—that I’ve found the numerous exercises both diverting and enjoyable. By the way, the book is called ‘Approche’ by Alberto Lombardoni. Swedish: I’ve reached Kapitel 2 Text 3 in my Lehrbuch. I know this may be confusing, but the way this manual is structured, each Text is the equivalent of a unit. It seems that the authors are using the term ‘Kapitel’ for what in most English textbooks would usually be called a ‘module’ and the term ‘Text’ for what would be called a ‘unit’. I’ve also finished reviewing the first chapters (called ‘Lektionen’—these German authors really like mixing their terms), which I had already studied in the past, in my second textbook. I don’t know why exactly, but out of the varied collection of materials at my disposal, I’ve chosen two textbook in German to study Swedish this time around. Let’s hope the combination works like a charm and in particular that it charms me into sticking to my plans of working through both textbooks in the coming months. Finally I did the usual listening comprehensions exercises plus my daily dose of Anki. 1 person has voted this message useful | ||||||
| Emme Triglot Senior Member Italy Joined 5348 days ago 980 posts - 1594 votes Speaks: Italian*, English, German Studies: Russian, Swedish, French | Message 20 of 360 21 May 2010 at 6:57pm | IP Logged | |||||
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Just a quick update.
Today I’ve reached my first milestone in French! I’ve finished the first (passive) wave of Assimil. I’m happy and surprised to have got so far (self esteem has never been my strong suit) and I’d like to share this small personal success with other forum members. Of course, new doubts are already assailing me: will I be able to keep the same break-neck (for me) pace of one lesson a day also during the second wave? Should I slow down a little and opt for in-depth coverage of the material or should I just forge ahead and hope for the best? I have the feeling that the estimation given in the manual that the active wave requires only 5-10 minutes more per lesson is unrealistic. But I’ll think about all that tomorrow: today I just want to enjoy the feeling of having achieved something! PS. To check my progress and for future reference, I retook the placement test I mentioned in one of the first posts in this log: I’ve moved up a notch, from A2 to A2+ (24 points) Edited by Emme on 21 May 2010 at 6:59pm 1 person has voted this message useful | ||||||
| Emme Triglot Senior Member Italy Joined 5348 days ago 980 posts - 1594 votes Speaks: Italian*, English, German Studies: Russian, Swedish, French | Message 21 of 360 23 May 2010 at 7:45pm | IP Logged | |||||
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What have I done this week? Well, apart from reaching my first milestone (which I reported on in the previous post), I kept working on both French and Swedish at a steady pace.
French: Assimil lesson 51 (+ active lesson 2) Approche Unité 2 Swedish: Schwedisch Lektion 4 Lehrbuch Kapitel 2 Text 3 Folk i Sverige text 9 As I imagine this log must be quite boring for those who happen to stop by, I’ve decided to add something that may be of more interest for other learners: an overview of some of the materials I use. I don’t want to call it a review, because I don’t intend to tackle strengths and weaknesses of these methods in a systematic way. I’ll just give my own personal impressions. Today I’ll start with one of the two German textbooks I’m currently using for Swedish. Hans Ritte, Schwedisch: Ein Sprachkurs für Schule, Beruf und Weiterbildung, Max Hueberg Verlag, 1993, 2. Auflage 1995. The 248-page-long Lehrbuch (textbook) covers 30 lessons and is accompanied by an Arbeitsbuch (workbook: pp. 191; with answer keys) and two CDs. Be advised that many pages (about 70) at the end of the textbook are devoted to wordlists: new words are given for each lesson and then there’s a general alphabetical list for all the words in the book. I like this textbook. Graphically, it’s not boring: it’s full of drawings, photos, and tables. This is important for me because it makes studying lighter and my visual memory is greatly helped. The language is introduced very gradually through short texts or dialogues and grammar tables. There are plenty of exercises (many are meant to be done in a classroom environment) and the overall feeling is that, even if one has very little time, one could dip in and do just one exercise and slowly progress through the book: the exercises are that short! The grammatical and linguistic explanations are relegated to the Arbeitsbuch where one can find at least one exercise for each point of the language explained in that lesson. All the dialogues in the textbook are recorded on the CDs and most lessons also offer a listening comprehension exercise in the workbook. The vocabulary covered consists of about 3000 words and the grammar introduced is what one would expect from such a basic course: from the very basic (pronouns, present verb, affirmative and interrogative sentences in the first lesson) to the conditional sentences type 2 and other complex sentences in the last lessons. The book, which adopts a communicative approach, can be used by self-learners even though the primary market for it is clearly courses for adult learners such as those offered by the Volkshochschule in Germany. A preview of the Lehrbuch can be viewed here: http://www.amazon.de/exec/obidos/ASIN/3190051585/zivinet and a preview of the Arbeitsbuch is here: http://www.amazon.de/exec/obidos/ASIN/319015158X/zivinet 1 person has voted this message useful | ||||||
| Emme Triglot Senior Member Italy Joined 5348 days ago 980 posts - 1594 votes Speaks: Italian*, English, German Studies: Russian, Swedish, French | Message 22 of 360 30 May 2010 at 11:45pm | IP Logged | |||||
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This week I’ve been very busy and this means that my language studies had to take second place to other life commitments. I had to settle for nothing more than not letting the rest of my life derail my studies completely.
As my priority right now is to continue my Assimil experiment, I’ve chosen to devote almost all the little free time I had this week to French whereas I only did some listening comprehension and TV-watching and of course Anki reviews to keep my Swedish going. Let’s hope this coming week will be less hectic and that I will have more time for language learning! French: Assimil lesson 58 (second wave: 9) Accord: Dossier 1 - Unité 1 Approche: Unité 3 (just begun) 1 person has voted this message useful | ||||||
| Emme Triglot Senior Member Italy Joined 5348 days ago 980 posts - 1594 votes Speaks: Italian*, English, German Studies: Russian, Swedish, French | Message 23 of 360 06 June 2010 at 9:07pm | IP Logged | |||||
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This week I’ll just add another quick update as I’ve spent most of the time I was planning to dedicate to this post to offer some corrections to other forum members on the Italian subforum:
French: Assimil lesson 65 (second wave 16) Accord Dossier 1 Unité 2 Approche Unité 4 (just begun) Swedish: Lehrbuch Kapitel 2 Text 4 Schwedisch Lektion 5 1 person has voted this message useful | ||||||
| Emme Triglot Senior Member Italy Joined 5348 days ago 980 posts - 1594 votes Speaks: Italian*, English, German Studies: Russian, Swedish, French | Message 24 of 360 13 June 2010 at 9:56am | IP Logged | |||||
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Je n’aime pas l’été, je préfère le printemps parce que je ne supporte pas le chaud. Malheureusement il faut chaud en ce moment en Italie. C’est pourquoi j’ai étudié cette semaine, mais moins que les semaines d'avant.
Jag tål inte värme, därför trivs jag inte i sommarvärme. Jag älskar de långa dagarna, men jag hatar de höga temperaturerna. Tyvärr är det mycket varmt i Italien just nu. Jag har pluggat språk den här veckan, men inte så mycket! Corrections are always welcome! This week I’ve been suffering the bad effects that a heat wave always has on me. I hate when temperatures start rising beyond a certain point. I’m aware that my tolerance is rather low considering I live in Italy and I’ve experienced hot summers all my life—though they've been probably getting worse in the last few years. Anyway, I find it difficult to concentrate and work hard in these conditions, so, I’ve studied this week, but I’ve not been as productive as in previous weeks. French: Assimil lesson 72 (second wave 23) Approche Unité 4 (begun) Accord Dossier 1 Unité 3 (begun) Swedish: Schwedisch Lektion 6 (begun) Lehrbuch Kapitel 3 Text 1 (begun) 1 person has voted this message useful |
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