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Magdalene’s TAC ’11: Team Ł | ||
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 Language Learning Forum : Language Learning Log |  | |
| Magdalene Diglot Senior Member United States Joined 5037 days ago 119 posts - 220 votes  Speaks: English*, Spanish Studies: Mandarin, German, Modern Hebrew, French | Message 33 of 44 19 September 2011 at 11:42pm | IP Logged | ||
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A heads-up: my posting in this log will be sparse for the rest of the year ("And that's different...how?" you ask, to which I respond: "..."), mostly because I've had a lot of lightbulb moments recently about the way I study. More on those in a bit.
But first! 6WC results are in: I squeezed into 20th place with 59h30 of Mandarin study, and got 15th place overall with 105h11 of combined language study. Huzzah! Congratulations to everyone who participated, and many thanks to Sprachprofi for organizing. I only met one of the goals I set a couple of posts ago, and that was to study at least an hour per day. Which I did on average, not completely consistently. As for the other goals, they've been discarded or their deadlines postponed until the end of the year. I read a lot in German (not five books, but I put a lot of time in) and finished Pimsleur Turkish 1A. I also improved my spoken fluency in German using the self-talk exercise described in Message 157 on page 20 of Arekkusu's log. And I improved my karaoke fluency in Mandarin, which is Serious Business. Most importantly, I found out what consistent and applied study actually feels like and where it can take me. And I discovered a lot about myself as a language learner. What follows are Magdalene's Language Learning Epiphanies. Funny, I can abbreviate that as MLLE, unintentionally evoking one of the twenty or so words I know in French...anyway... 1. Forget the SRS. I can't be trusted to set myself down in front of a computer every day, and creating new cards seems to take ages, so the best way for me to learn vocab turns out to be quizzing myself from wordlists in a notebook. 2. Movies are fun, not work. I'm letting go of the idea that I should be furiously taking notes when I experience any media in my target language(s). I already do that with books and TV series, so I'll use movies for relaxed listening practice, chances to test my knowledge, and cultural exploration. 3. Delete what I won't use in the very near future. I keep Word files of various characters I've culled from native materials and plan to look up "someday," but most of the time I don't get around to it and the thought of those words waiting for me weighs on me like you wouldn't believe. I deleted about ten pages of such words (yep, they'd accumulated that much) and plan on applying this principle to other aspects of my studies, i.e. returning library books I won't have time to read before their due dates. 4. Listen to podcasts while walking. My walking pace is pretty relaxed, and I don't need fast-paced music to keep me going the way I do for running. I've found I can only concentrate on podcasts while walking. If I do chores while listening, I can't hear half the podcast (my chores are noisy :P); if I write out vocab lists while listening, my split attention means I do neither task well; and just sitting while listening to podcasts strikes me as mind-numbingly boring. In contrast, I can do any and all of those things while listening to music. Hence: walk to the podcasts, save the music for later. 5. Finish works, disregard recording the time. The most important revelation! By "works" I mean books, movies, and TV series. Once I finish one of those in a target language, I record it and move on to the next. Because I don't conceptualize numbers well--in fact I've long suspected myself of having dyscalculia (dyslexia with numbers, basically)--listing, say, books finished gives me a sense of accomplishment that numbers of hours never has. Future 6WCs will be the exception: the spirit of competition motivates me to overcome my reluctance of working with numbers. All in all, I'm learning to work better with myself and find techniques that feel natural to me. Letting go of the perfectionism and tackling manageable goals ("Learn twenty words" versus "LEARN AAAAAALL THE WORDS!!1!eleventy!") go hand-in-hand for me. In the long run I hope not to sacrifice accuracy in grammar, but I will settle for not knowing every word and every cultural reference, both by necessity and now with a willing heart. Edited by Magdalene on 20 September 2011 at 9:30pm 3 persons have voted this message useful | |||
| Magdalene Diglot Senior Member United States Joined 5037 days ago 119 posts - 220 votes Speaks: English*, Spanish Studies: Mandarin, German, Modern Hebrew, French | Message 34 of 44 20 September 2011 at 10:02pm | IP Logged | ||
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Found some fabulous resources for Mandarin learners last night. Coming as I am from the point of view of an intermediate language learner, there's lots of useful material on the following sites, particularly as regards idioms. Advanced and beginning learners may not find these sites as fruitful.
Speak Chinese includes sections on idioms, popular words, ancient poems, and how to read menus. The idioms and poems, at least, have Flash animations, and the idioms include text describing the corresponding story in English and Mandarin, as well as new vocab words. Thinking Chinese has resources for reading Chinese news similar to those offered by the Deutsche Welle: a news article in Chinese followed by an English translation and a list of new vocab. No audio, unfortunately. Their Language Center page features modern Mandarin slang and themed lists of idioms. And you can register on the site to find a language partner. Confucius Institute is all that and a bag of chips. Plus they offer material written in German, Spanish, French, Russian, Japanese, Korean, Arabic, and Thai. Their materials are sorted into elementary, intermediate, and advanced categories, and there's plenty. 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| Magdalene Diglot Senior Member United States Joined 5037 days ago 119 posts - 220 votes Speaks: English*, Spanish Studies: Mandarin, German, Modern Hebrew, French | Message 35 of 44 23 September 2011 at 10:22am | IP Logged | ||
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I spotted a link to Radio Tok FM in another thread, and I've been listening to it while browsing the forums.
A couple more cool links (which I may have already posted earlier in this log, but eh, too lazy to check): Slow Chinese and News in Slow Chinese. Pretty much just what they sound like. I've been watching a lot of movies lately. Die Fälscher (2007), Wolke 9 (2008), Mommo: Kız Kardeşim (2009), and Lucía, Lucía (2003) were all incredible. The only film I didn't enjoy was Beş Vakit (2006), known as Times and Winds in English. It was long, about two hours. Perhaps not long by modern movie standards, but considering I checked out the film mostly for listening practice and only about ten percent of the movie was dialogue, it felt a lot longer than two hours. And half the film seemed to be shots of the characters from behind as they walked from one place to the other. I also felt let down by the lack of "sordid carnal realities" the back of the DVD case described. :P The cinematography was beautiful, I have to say that for it. If you're interested in slowly told, dreamy tales about adolescence, I'd recommend checking it out, but don't do it for the Turkish listening practice; you'll finish with a grand total of notawholelot (yep, that's a number). In other news, I've decided to postpone beginning another language. All my attempts have been foiled by my greater interest in my intermediate languages, and now Spanish has muscled back in. I read the novella Aura (1962) by Carlos Fuentes last week, and by Jove, it was delicious. Absolutely excellent. So I've dived back into Spanish with a vengeance, ready to read all the literature I was too scared to tackle the first time (aka all of it). So until I'm advanced in Spanish and German and at least upper intermediate in Mandarin, I won't be starting anything new, I hope. Too many false starts in too many languages too many times. And by the time I've reached the point where I feel comfortable adding something new to my plate, maybe I'll have nailed down what I want to study for sure. Polish, Turkish, and Vietnamese are all vying for my interest, and when I take their individual pros and cons into account, it's a three-way tie at this point. Such a relief to finally make that decision. The guilt I felt when studying a new language should've tipped me off a long time ago, but I got it eventually. The last task remaining before I postpone Turkish (along with the others) indefinitely is to finish taking notes on the Pimsleur Turkish lessons I've listened to. Only six lessons to go...and a good thing, too, 'cause it's like pulling teeth. Edited by Magdalene on 23 September 2011 at 10:25am 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| Vos Diglot Senior Member Australia Joined 5567 days ago 766 posts - 1020 votes Speaks: English*, Spanish Studies: Dutch, Polish | Message 36 of 44 24 September 2011 at 3:55am | IP Logged | ||
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¡Vamos Español! Me alegra oír que vuelves a estar interesada(¿?) en el español. ¿Creciste con el idioma o lo
aprendiste? Creo que voy a echar un vistazo a ese libro, aunque la trama suena un poco complejo, ¿es algo difícil leer? Que vayas bien con tus idiomas Magdalene. ¡Sigue manteniéndonos al tanto! ¡Chao! 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| Magdalene Diglot Senior Member United States Joined 5037 days ago 119 posts - 220 votes Speaks: English*, Spanish Studies: Mandarin, German, Modern Hebrew, French | Message 37 of 44 29 September 2011 at 10:41am | IP Logged | ||
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@Vos ¡Gracias! Te recomiendo leer Aura cuando tengas tiempo; no lo encontré muy difícil leer. Leí una versión bilingüe para que pudiera asegurarme de que había entendido las partes mas complejas de la trama (especialmente el párrafo final, que claro es muy importante; tenía que releerlo múltiples veces para aprovecharme al máximo), entonces me fue un poco más fácil de lo que habría sido normal después de tanto tiempo de no prestar atención a mi español. Aparte de algunas palabras descriptivas, que de todas formas no son necesarias entender para captar los hechos de la trama, lo entendí bien.
De cierta manera crecí con en español: soy del Sur de California, donde se puede oír español por doquier, y también algunos miembros de mi familia son hispanohablantes nativos. Pero mi familia inmediata habla sólo inglés, aparte de unos pocos frases como "mi tío es borracho y la carretera es verde". Qué útil, ¿no? :P Entonces empecé a estudiar el español en el séptimo grado y, muchos años, listas de vocabulario y una profesora de español excelente después, puedo decir que hablo esta lengua bellísima, aunque mi habilidad para hablar y escribirlo está un poco oxidada. Espero que mi español alcance nuevas cotas durante y después del Tadoku Challenge que viene. Por cierto, puedes referirte a mí como mujer, entonces "interesada" es correcto. Gracias por preguntarme (aún indirectamente) y no suponer mi género. :) Siempre me alegro saber de ti. ¡Que te vaya bien con tus idiomas! Edited by Magdalene on 29 September 2011 at 10:43am 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| Magdalene Diglot Senior Member United States Joined 5037 days ago 119 posts - 220 votes Speaks: English*, Spanish Studies: Mandarin, German, Modern Hebrew, French | Message 38 of 44 29 September 2011 at 5:47pm | IP Logged | ||
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On my last trip to the library, I checked out a bilingual edition of Nobel Laureate Wisława Szymborska's poetry collection Monolog psa zaplątanego w dzieje (Monologue of a Dog) and found two poems I really liked. The first of these and its English translation appear below.
_____ MAŁA DZIEWCZYNKA ŚCIĄGA OBRUS Od ponad roku jest się na tym świecie, a na tym świecie nie wszystko zbadane i wzięte pod kontrolę. Teraz w próbach są rzeczy, które same nie mogą się ruszać. Trzeba im w tym pomagać, przesuwać, popychać, brać z miejsca i przenosić. Nie każde tego chcą, na przykład szafa, kredens, nieustępliwe ściany, stół. Ale już obrus na upartym stole – jeżeli dobrze chwycony za brzegi – objawia chęć do jazdy. A na obrusie szklanki, talerzyki, dzbanuszek z mlekiem, łyżeczki, miseczka aż trzęsą się z ochoty. Bardzo ciekawe, jaki ruch wybiorą, kiedy się już zachwieją na krawędzi: wędrówkę po suficie? lot dokoła lampy? skok na parapet okna, a stamtąd na drzewo? Pan Newton nie ma jeszcze nic do tego. Niech sobie patrzy z nieba i wymachuje rękami. Ta próba dokonana być musi. I będzie. _____ A LITTLE GIRL TUGS AT THE TABLECLOTH She’s been in this world for over a year, and in this world not everything’s been examined and taken in hand. The subject of today’s investigation is things that don’t move themselves. They need to be helped along, shoved, shifted, taken from their pace and relocated. They don’t all want to go, e,g., the bookshelf, the cupboard, the unyielding walls, the table. But the tablecloth on the stubborn table - when well-seized by its hems – manifests a willingness to travel. And the glasses, plates, creamer, spoons, bowl, are fairly shaking with desire. It’s fascinating, what form of motion will they take, once they’re trembling on the brink: will they roam across the ceiling? fly around the lamp? hop onto the windowsill and from there to a tree? Mr. Newton still has no say in this. Let him look down from the heavens and wave his hands. This experiment must be completed. And it will. 2 persons have voted this message useful | |||
| Vos Diglot Senior Member Australia Joined 5567 days ago 766 posts - 1020 votes Speaks: English*, Spanish Studies: Dutch, Polish | Message 39 of 44 30 September 2011 at 11:45am | IP Logged | ||
¡Vaya! Tu español es estupendo, creo que todo ese trabajo duro valió la pena. Fluye con tal naturalidad y todo queda muy claro y ligero.. es un placer leerlo. Acabo de comprar un nuevo libro de Isabel Allende (yo lo sé, casi todo el mundo lee sus libros, qué aburrido. Pero lo que he leído de ella (of hers?) me gusta mucho) que es un conjunto de retratos se llama Cuentos de Eva Luna. Hace un rato leí el cuento Walimai que me encantó y desde entonces lo he leído muchas veces, así que el otro día decidí comprar el libro (en el que se encuentra Walimai) ya que luego podría leer una historia entre los huecos de universidad y no tendría que invertir tanto tiempo en ella como si leyera una novela. Sin embargo dentro de unas semanas voy a estar libre de nuevo y luego echaré un vistazo a ese libro. No pasa nada. Es que no quiero ni me gusta suponer nada de nadie si puedo evitarlo. Sin embargo me encanta cómo las palabras y cómo uno las emplea puede expresar cosas como personalidad y hasta sexualidad, aunque lo que uno escriba no tenga nada que ver con esos temas. No podemos evitar ponernos, aun sea sólo un pedacito, en todo lo que hacemos. De todas maneras... Una canción que es verdaderamente bella que he escuchado mucho hoy y la cual pensé que compartiría contigo, ¿has oído mucho de Kapela ze Wsi Warszawa? Kapela ze Wsi Warszawa - Bystra Woda ¡Qué tengas un buen finde Magdalene! Y ¿significa esa poema que sigues estudiando un poco del polaco? Voy a volver a empezar estudiándolo en cuanto este semestre termine, así que en torno de 2 meses. ¡No veo la hora! ¡Hasta luego! 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| Magdalene Diglot Senior Member United States Joined 5037 days ago 119 posts - 220 votes Speaks: English*, Spanish Studies: Mandarin, German, Modern Hebrew, French | Message 40 of 44 18 October 2011 at 5:54pm | IP Logged | ||
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@Vos Ay, ¡lo siento por tardar en responderte!
Tengo casi todos los libros escritos por Allende--incluyendo Cuentos de Eva Luna--y no he terminado ninguno en español. :/ Hasta ahora no he tenido tiempo. Pero durante este Tadoku Challenge he leído la primera mitad de Ciudad de las bestias, el primer libro que escribió para lectores adolescentes, y me gusta mucho. Tengo debilidad por libros de los géneros ciencia-ficción o fantasía escritos para una audiencia joven, entonces es perfecto para mí. Me da también una oportunidad para revisar vocabulario medio olvidado. En cuanto al polaco, sólo echo un vistazo a mis libros de vez en cuando. Si vuelvo a estudiarlo seriamente me enfocaré en adquirir un buen nivel en lectura, entonces no hago más que hojear mis listas de vocabulario. Esa canción sí es verdaderamente hermosa. Gracias por la música sugerida. No conozco bien la música polaca, entonces cada recomendación será bienvenida. :) Gracias por el cumplido hacia mi español. Que te vaya bien, y ¡suerte con las clases y los idiomas! Edited by Magdalene on 18 October 2011 at 6:11pm 1 person has voted this message useful |
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