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Kerrie’s TAC ’12 Team Žá / Romantics Log | ||
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 Language Learning Forum : Language Learning Log |  | |
| Kerrie Senior Member United States justpaste.it/Kerrie2 Joined 5393 days ago 1232 posts - 1740 votes  Speaks: English* Studies: Spanish | Message 49 of 236 17 January 2012 at 1:01am | IP Logged | ||
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Hey, Jinx! I am so glad I've been discovered! I'd be happy to have you tagging along with me. =)
As for my job where I am working with Bosnians all day, it's at a factory. It's boring, mundane, long hours, and really bad pay. LOL. I do like that I can listen to my mp3 player all day, so I constantly have a mix of different languages going on. There are a lot of Bosnians and Vietnamese in the company I work for. The Bosnians are almost all in the department I work in. They all speak English well, but they speak Bosnian to each other all day, and it's fun to listen to them. I am surprised how much I can figure out when I listen to them, since I don't know any other Slavic languages. As for Croatian music, I listen to Narodni Radio a lot. Listen Live EU I heard Da Znas by Vesna Pisarovic on there, and got really weirded out, since it's the same music as Laura Pausini's Italian Non C'e and Spanish Se Fue. I also like Jelena Rozga's ili ona ili ja and Danijela's sto sam ja sto si ti. I like to listen to the radio and find songs I like, then look them up on Youtube. There's usually a lot of related music that's the same style. I just found a Catalan singer (when I was looking up some of Laura Pausini's newer songs) called Beth, singing En Ausencia de Ti. I looked her up, and it looks like she sings mostly in Catalan. Maybe I should learn that, too. If I know Spanish and French, it should be easy, right? =) I've been looking for good French and German music, but I haven't found much that's up my alley, so I mostly listen to Spanish and Italian (Laura Pausini and Eros Razzomatti), some Croatian, and Portuguese. The only French artist I've found that I like is Jenifer Bartoli. As I mentioned a few posts ago, I've been extremely busy (two jobs, no time left to breathe or eat, yadda yadda), so most of my "studying" lately has just been listening to music. Sometimes I'll print out the lyrics to a few new songs and take them with me to work. It's still my intention to visit each of my languages every day, even if it's as simple as listening to some music or whatever. I also have a tendency to talk to myself in my target languages while I'm working. Most people just figure I"m singing, but sometimes someone sneaks up behind me and catches me unaware. =) I've noticed that my comprehension in almost all my languages has gotten a lot better, though, and I have no trouble switching my brain back and forth anymore. (I have music in 9 languages on shuffle. It is a really good thing no one at work is aware of that!) Portuguese is lagging rather far behind the rest, because I haven't really studied it enough to get used to the sound shifts from Spanish. But I've been pleasantly surprised that even my "spare time" enjoying all the music seems to be paying off well. 2 persons have voted this message useful | |||
| Kerrie Senior Member United States justpaste.it/Kerrie2 Joined 5393 days ago 1232 posts - 1740 votes Speaks: English* Studies: Spanish | Message 50 of 236 17 January 2012 at 1:07am | IP Logged | ||
It's not my normal pop music, but I kind of like it. =) I've also noticed that Bosnian music (the music most of my co-workers listen to) has a lot more of an Arab/Turkish flavor to it, where Croatian seems to have more of a Western feel to it. I find it really weird that they don't listen to Croatian music, too! 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| Kerrie Senior Member United States justpaste.it/Kerrie2 Joined 5393 days ago 1232 posts - 1740 votes Speaks: English* Studies: Spanish | Message 51 of 236 01 February 2012 at 3:31am | IP Logged | ||
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I'm kind of embarrassed to admit that I've completely fallen off the bandwagon! Well, as far as legit studying goes, anyways.
My work hours have been stifling the past few weeks, so I will be glad Friday when I am finished with one of my jobs, for good. I am hoping to have at least 2-3 hours a day to study, starting next week. I haven't done any official studying the last few weeks. (Or, if I have, I have forgotten what I did!) However, I have kept my 2012 resolution to keep in daily contact with each of my languages. Portuguese not so much, but I've done really well with listening to a little Spanish, French, Italian, and Croatian every day. When I have a few minutes, I often go look around youtube for new songs (and sometimes interviews) in my TLs. I am really surprised how much my listening comprehension has improved for the Romance languages. I think listening to music all day at work has helped a lot with that. I normally have a massive playlist on shuffle, which includes songs in all my languages (plus a few others). So it's constantly switching languages on me. I've actually gotten quite comfortable with switching, and I've noticed (especially on Laura Pausini interviews, when she switches languages) that I have no trouble going from one to the other. I also have a tendency to talk to myself a lot. While I'm working, I mean. As language practice, of course. It's mostly in French and Spanish. I feel like my ability to speak in French has improved greatly. I noticed this afternoon that when my song switched that I would switch the language I was thinking or talking to myself in. I think I've been doing that often lately, even though I only really noticed it today. I've found it odd lately that I've been talking to myself in French, since I've never done that (or even attempted to!) until the last few weeks. I am really excited that I'll have more time - heck, any time - to get back to my language studies next week. Even though I feel like I haven't put in any structured studying the past few weeks, I feel like my speaking and my comprehension skills have really improved. 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| Kerrie Senior Member United States justpaste.it/Kerrie2 Joined 5393 days ago 1232 posts - 1740 votes Speaks: English* Studies: Spanish | Message 52 of 236 08 February 2012 at 2:36am | IP Logged | ||
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Well, I am finally done with my second job, so I am only working one now, albeit I'm still working about 10 hours a day. Once I get used to my new schedule, I anticipate I'll have a bit more time for languages again.
Over the past few days, I've gotten a few things done. Spanish - reread/ LR'd Harry Potter - Chapters 1 and 2 French - LR'd the first chapter of Harry Potter Croatian - I did a few Livemocha lessons, got a little feedback on my pronunciation, and had some nice native speakers answer some of my grammar questions. Italian - Nothing, other than dancing around the house to Eros - Piu Bella Cosa and some Italian love songs. Oh, mon dieu. Il est trop délicieux. Turkish (and Bosnian) - I watched the first two episodes of a Turkish drama called Menekse & Halil, which is about a Bosnian man and a Turkish woman falling into forbidden love (in Germany). I've been watching with English and Bosnian subs, and I'm picking up quite a bit from the subs. I'm not sure how much Turkish I'm learning yet, but there are still a lot of episodes left for that. =) I will be getting back into a daily schedule over the next week or two, hoping to hit most of my languages for at least 20-30 minutes a day. Spanish, French, Italian, and Croatian. Portuguese and German, when I can make the time. And all of you Catalá learners on the Romantics Team, shame on you for tempting me. Again. =) I have the Assimil book for Catalá, and may start working through that at a leisure pace once I've gotten back into a study routine. Good to give myself incentive, right? 2 persons have voted this message useful | |||
| anamsc Triglot Senior Member Andorra Joined 6201 days ago 296 posts - 382 votes Speaks: English*, Spanish, Catalan Studies: Arabic (Levantine), Arabic (Written), French | Message 53 of 236 08 February 2012 at 8:33am | IP Logged | ||
Yay! Visca el català! If you ever want any help finding resources or the like, just let me know. 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| Kerrie Senior Member United States justpaste.it/Kerrie2 Joined 5393 days ago 1232 posts - 1740 votes Speaks: English* Studies: Spanish | Message 54 of 236 08 February 2012 at 10:59am | IP Logged | ||
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Thanks, anamsc. I already have the Assimil book, and I think I have the Teach Yourself and Colloquial books somewhere, too. I"m one of those people who picks things up when I see a good deal, even if I don't need it (yet)!
If I pick it up any time soon, it will probably just be passively running through Assimil at first. I anticipate it would be pretty painless, with my Spanish and French knowledge. I can read a lot of it already. =) I've already got five or six languages I'm actively working on (plus another 2-3 that are . . . in my spare time. . . Not that I have spare time, but it's nice to have variety. Just in case you're in the mood for something different today. =) 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| Kerrie Senior Member United States justpaste.it/Kerrie2 Joined 5393 days ago 1232 posts - 1740 votes Speaks: English* Studies: Spanish | Message 55 of 236 12 February 2012 at 3:23am | IP Logged | ||
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I have a confession to make. All you Francophones and French lovers out there, please go away. Cover your ears. and your eyes. You can come back tomorrow! Okay. I really can't stand French. I don't mind reading it. I don't mind speaking it. My pronunciation is halfway decent. I even like listening to French music, at least the handful of artists I've found that I like. But I can't stand listening to spoken French. And I really can't figure out why. I /want/ to like it. And I've tried. For years. I've always had an attitude problem with it. It's a well-known stereotype that native French-speakers will look down their nose at you if you try to speak their language. I don't know if it's true, since the only native French speakers I've spoken to are online in language-learning communities. I've never experienced it, though. So I don't understand where my dislike comes from. I've decided, for the time being, to move French down a few notches on my Priority list. After Italian, Croatian, German, and maybe Portuguese. I'll probably continue doing my Assimil lessons for it, but not much else. I've regained a lot of my enthusiasm for my studies over the past week, since I will now actually have more time to study, and I really feel like French is dragging me down. I still want to continue learning French, but perhaps in another year or two I can come back to it with renewed interest. I don't want any of my language learning endeavors to be a chore I dread. 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| Serpent Octoglot Senior Member Russian Federation serpent-849.livejour Joined 6595 days ago 9753 posts - 15779 votes 4 sounds Speaks: Russian*, English, FinnishC1, Latin, German, Italian, Spanish, Portuguese Studies: Danish, Romanian, Polish, Belarusian, Ukrainian, Croatian, Slovenian, Catalan, Czech, Galician, Dutch, Swedish | Message 56 of 236 12 February 2012 at 9:32am | IP Logged | ||
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I can't stand it either, but that's why I'm not learning it :D
Even if it's very efficient, why are you continuing with what you like least? You can continue by listening to music and reading. I've recently realized the same about Indonesian. Well I don't hate the sound of it, I just often don't like it either. Depends on the voice. I've started listening to Indonesian music though and I f**king love it. I've realized I was really lucky that the beginner podcasts I started with have nice voices:) 1 person has voted this message useful |
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