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 Language Learning Forum : Language Learning Log |  | |
| napoleon Tetraglot Senior Member India Joined 5013 days ago 543 posts - 874 votes  Speaks: Bengali*, English, Hindi, Urdu Studies: French, Arabic (Written) | Message 41 of 78 18 October 2011 at 5:42pm | IP Logged | ||
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Update:Just received the Cortina French book today in the mail. Will defitinely post a review ASAP.
My Arabic studies are presently on temporary hold. As far as French is concerned, I'm on Lesson 24 of Assimil NFWE. Napoleon 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| kanewai Triglot Senior Member United States justpaste.it/kanewai Joined 4886 days ago 1386 posts - 3054 votes Speaks: English*, French, Marshallese Studies: Italian, Spanish | Message 42 of 78 18 October 2011 at 10:54pm | IP Logged | ||
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Meanwhile, I've been learning the hard way why people recommend only studying one
language at a time! When I just had French, is was easy to always find twenty minutes a day. Even if I was with friends, I could excuse myself for a quick break. When I reached hard or difficult parts I could set aside a chunk of time and struggle through it. Two languages is trickier, and it's too easy to say: I don't have time for both, and so end up doing neither. And since I'm only doing each language at 50%, and since I'm skipping days, it is harder to make much forward progress. I am slowly working my way through Lesson 9 of Arabic, which introduces direct objects. The concepts are easy, but I find that I'm still decoding the language rather than reading. e.g.: I'll look at the sentence, and read: AA-DH-AA-3 / اذاع and that looks familiar, oh yeah, 2adhaa3a, to broadcast and the next word is الراديو and I know that one it's the radio so that must be the subject and the next words are KH-6-AA-B K-AA-9 / خطاب خاص shoot I need to look that up. ok, khi6ab khas is important speech and that's the direct object, it's indefinite, so it's "khi6aban khasa" finally: 2adhaa3a al-radyu khi6aban khasa: the radio broadcast an important speech And that is a lot of work to get through one sentence!!! When I can study each day the lessons start to flow, but it's still one letter at a time. I'm not just reading yet. Hopefully, two more days and I can wrap up Lesson 9! I was hoping to do a chapter a week ... I might have to re-evaluate. ************************** I miss my French! I intend to re-focus in December. I have a parallel text with audio of "Le Petit Prince," and downloaded a parallel text with audio of "Les Trois Mousquetaires" that I found on the LR Wiki. Which is an awesome site, you all must check it out! ************************** Edited by kanewai on 18 October 2011 at 10:55pm 2 persons have voted this message useful | |||
| liddytime Pentaglot Senior Member United States mainlymagyar.wordpre Joined 6226 days ago 693 posts - 1328 votes Speaks: English*, Spanish, Italian, Portuguese, Galician Studies: Hungarian, Vietnamese, Modern Hebrew, Norwegian, Persian, Arabic (Written) | Message 43 of 78 19 October 2011 at 6:09am | IP Logged | ||
Aw C'mon!! You can do it! For a bit of bonus Arabic, seriously , search you tube for iftah ya simsim (Arabic Sesame Street) I have picked up a surprising amount of Arabic watching the clips ( with my kids no less ... " Dad, why does Ernie keep saying "Ana A3tshaan?" ) Plus, it is at about a 3 year old level which is exactly where my Arabic is right now ;-) Another bonus is that iftah ya simsim is in MSA as opposed to a3lam simsim and shariyya simsim which are both in dialect. 2 persons have voted this message useful | |||
| kanewai Triglot Senior Member United States justpaste.it/kanewai Joined 4886 days ago 1386 posts - 3054 votes Speaks: English*, French, Marshallese Studies: Italian, Spanish | Message 44 of 78 19 October 2011 at 11:13am | IP Logged | ||
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dude, you're at least at a fourth grade level!
I meant to tell you, I liked the Iftah ya Simsim videos. They're still a bit beyond me; FSI isn't that interesting yet. But I'll get there, and this is on my list for sure. 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| Emiliana Diglot Groupie Germany Joined 5111 days ago 81 posts - 98 votes Speaks: German*, English Studies: French, Arabic (classical) | Message 45 of 78 19 October 2011 at 6:14pm | IP Logged | ||
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I have been a bit lazy, too. But that is not so much of a problem for me because I know myself and I know that it is really deifficult for me to keep studying every and every day especially when there are other things to do like preparing for exams etc. And if I have a guilty consciences it only sucks the remaining energy out of me so I don't argue with myself for being lazy. That "system" makes it easier to keep studying long-term.
Anyways, where am I? I am at leçon 62 with Assimil I believe. But I concentrated mainly on Arabic in the past days. I continuid with Arabic Simplified (which I can really recommend! It is much easier to use than the FSI course) and finished lesson 12 or 13 or something like that. Also I worked with my German textbook because I like to attend a Arabic course at university which starts next week and although I completed the previous courses I did not study enough for this course because my old teacher didn't teach as much as the new one does. Whatever... Btw, kanewai, I have exactly the same reading problem like you. But when I work with a text very intensively (like copy it, translate it to German, than back to Arabic etc.) I can really "read" it after a while because I got so used to the words. I think it is basically the same in German, English and French etc. If you are not used to a word it is not easy to catch it by one sight (like if you want to read egrgldsufgjsldztll). And as the Arabic script is so unconvenient for us it takes more time. Regarding French I also bought a magazine that is published in Germany but that contains all articles in French with some of the difficult vocabulary translated to German at the bottom. Do you have magazines like that in your countries as well? I think it is really nice and useful and I was happy to see how much I understood. I am also planning to buy the new Sony ebook-reader (Sony PRS T1 to be precise). It is not available in Germany yet but it has some nice functions for language learning. For example you can click (via touch screen) on a word that you don't know and the reader gives a translation using a pop up dictionary. There seem to be many dictionaries available so it is possible to choose what ever is interesting for you. I also plan to extend my English vocabulary like that, though I didn't actively studied English for a long time. Do you also use e-readers or similar devices for your language study? and napoleon, what is that book that oyu ordered? I never heared of it before! 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| Emiliana Diglot Groupie Germany Joined 5111 days ago 81 posts - 98 votes Speaks: German*, English Studies: French, Arabic (classical) | Message 46 of 78 19 October 2011 at 6:23pm | IP Logged | ||
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Ah, and I just took a glimpse at iftah ya simsim - I really like this oriental style ;). But I only understand 0-50%. Did anyone of you find videos with subs (at least Arabic subs)? That could help greatly.
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| kanewai Triglot Senior Member United States justpaste.it/kanewai Joined 4886 days ago 1386 posts - 3054 votes Speaks: English*, French, Marshallese Studies: Italian, Spanish | Message 47 of 78 21 October 2011 at 10:29am | IP Logged | ||
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9 FSI down!
And you know I rushed home just to report that! The lesson got easier, like they all do, but it's so damn exhausting. After a couple pages I just can't focus. My goal right now is still reading comprehension, and FSI is brutally effective, so I probably won't switch just yet. These drills are really what I need right now; I just wish the lessons weren't so dry. And my long-term goals might be shifting yet again. I had already planned a trip to Italy, Tunisia and France with some buddies for this April. It's what is keeping me motivated to keep my studies up. Now that Libya might (might) find peace, we're thinking about shaving a bit off Paris here, a bit off Rome there, and trekking our way over at least to Tripoli, and maybe to Benghazi / Cyrenaica. If we pull this off (there are only two of us talking about continuing to Libya) I will seriously crank up my Arabic studies. Anyone up for a class trip? 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| liddytime Pentaglot Senior Member United States mainlymagyar.wordpre Joined 6226 days ago 693 posts - 1328 votes Speaks: English*, Spanish, Italian, Portuguese, Galician Studies: Hungarian, Vietnamese, Modern Hebrew, Norwegian, Persian, Arabic (Written) | Message 48 of 78 22 October 2011 at 12:30am | IP Logged | ||
Oh man! I WISH! (... There is no way in hell my wife would let me go to Libya ...) :-( ... 1 person has voted this message useful |
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