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TAC 2012 Russian team - Team Sputnik | ||
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 Language Learning Forum : Language Learning Log |  | |
| fabriciocarraro Hexaglot Winner TAC 2012 Senior Member Brazil russoparabrasileirosRegistered users can see my Skype Name Joined 4713 days ago 989 posts - 1454 votes  Speaks: Portuguese*, EnglishB2, Italian, Spanish, Russian, French Studies: Dutch, German, Japanese | Message 425 of 672 30 April 2012 at 9:42pm | IP Logged | ||
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I'm always in! =) Since my university is taking me by the neck and sucking up all my time and energies, I'll most certainly not do so well as in the last 6WC, but I'll definitely try my best! =)
Russian has always been my "main" language goal, and it's still on the top of my mind. Since TAC has started, I've made a loooooot of achievements, both as far as vocabulary, grammar, listening and speaking are concerned. My Russian classes at university are helping a lot, my teacher is great and the course is well organized, just not focusing on the speaking part very much. I'll keep up with my classes, and my home studies, also trying to watch movies and other Youtube vlogs. Dutch is my 2nd goal, and it's also improving. I can already maintain a regular conversation chatting in Dutch...speaking, not so much. I've slowed it down a little due to 30738434034 exams at uni, but I'm trying to do as much Assimil lessons as I can, and also chat with Dutch/Belgium friends like @tarvos. Italian is a little on the side, but I read a whole book in Italian (Zlatan Ibrahimovic's autobiography), barely using the dictionary. I try to chat with Italian friends as much as I can, but I don't do a lot of work. English was supposed to join in my "main" list, but since my uni has started the only English I'm keeping up is with my TV Series (Game of Thrones, Supernatural, Grey's Anatomy, The Big Bang Theory, Californication, Dexter, etc), this very forum and some books for university. My next goal is to start French in August, let's hope for the best =) 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| Woodsei Bilingual Diglot Winner TAC 2012 Senior Member United States justpaste.it/Woodsei Joined 4795 days ago 614 posts - 782 votes Speaks: English*, Arabic (Egyptian)* Studies: Russian, Japanese, Hungarian | Message 426 of 672 02 May 2012 at 12:37pm | IP Logged | ||
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What, wait! Definitely in! Started off the year pretty well, especially in the February
6WC, but then March and April were completely shot due some serious family circumstances. I'm back though, so don't count me out. Status Report Japanese: RTK 1+ 3 and a few hundred sentences in, in terms of actual study, but magnanimous amounts of listening. Vocab definitely lacking, and I haven't tried to produce anything yet, but that's where the 6WC and Super Challenge come in. Starting both with a main focus on listening and reading, as well as media. Occasional kanji reviews to keep them fresh, but I guess reading will help cement that anyway. So, beginner, with a gist for syntax, but I feel it's starting to snowball now, and will soon get better. Russian: Alphabet down, and even though Russian fell through badly at the start of the year, I've been really working on it for the past ten days. I originally intended to give major focus starting July, but decided to do small increments right away. I wasn't able to locate some good resources for Russian as I have with Japanese, and it's been somewhat holding me back. But I stumbled across online radio, and decided that and Youtube have ample amounts of material, at least to jump-start things. I recently ordered a number of audiobooks and graded readers, and have been in the meantime reading lots of dialogue and listening to radio. I do that throughout the day, and I find that now it's not so hard to shift between Japanese and Russian. So far haven't been able to join Skype because of piling schoolwork and papers, but summer's here, so may be I can adjust my schedule a bit more. I didn't include Russian in the Super Challenge because I wasn't sure if I'll do it well alongside Japanese, but now I notice that the time I'm spending with Russian is either reading or listening, so I'm really hard-pressed to just register it, since I'm working with the rules anyway. I don't have a chance, probably, at the 100 or even 50 goal, but I'll play around with the idea over the next two weeks, since the Super started, and I can better gauge if I can read both Russian and Japanese well. Plans Will join Tadoku on June 1st with both Russian and Japanese. The next 6WC in August will most probably go to Russian as the focus language. It's getting easier to switch between both languages and working with them in tandem. Edited by Woodsei on 03 May 2012 at 2:25am 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| Tecktight Diglot Winner TAC 2012 Senior Member United States Joined 4974 days ago 227 posts - 327 votes Speaks: English*, Serbian Studies: German, Russian, Estonian | Message 427 of 672 04 May 2012 at 5:45pm | IP Logged | ||
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Hi, all.
Just a quick note to say I'll update my post/log + post the dialogue for this week later this evening. I've been writing a paper for the past three days and 11 hours (30 pages thus far--kill me), and so have been AWOL. Incidentally, the paper is on Russia's two wars in Chechnya, on which topic I can only think of one word to encompass my current feelings: "боже." Hope you're all doing well, though! Please excuse me now, I need wipe the blood from my eyes, finish this and rush off to my professor's office to hand it in. Edited by Tecktight on 04 May 2012 at 5:47pm 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| Tecktight Diglot Winner TAC 2012 Senior Member United States Joined 4974 days ago 227 posts - 327 votes Speaks: English*, Serbian Studies: German, Russian, Estonian | Message 428 of 672 05 May 2012 at 7:40pm | IP Logged | ||
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Focus Languages
Russian My Russian has been at an absolute stalemate, because I have not had the time (that is, the discipline to MAKE time) in order to study. Bah, whom am I kidding…it’s just been a tough year for me overall. Being at university is, or at least my mind has made it so, at the core of the problem. I think once I leave this place and certain nasty people behind, I’ll feel a million times better. I fly home on Thursday, and I expect to feel like cartons of stones are being lifted off my shoulders. When I get home, I’ll have approximately 15 days in which to prepare for going to Russia. In that time, I’m going to force myself to spend at least 2-3 hours a day with grammar exercises, and the majority of my evenings reading and watching films. Once I get there, conversation practice, killer version begins. That’s good, though— I’m the kind who reacts well when thrown into the metaphorical cold water. German German has been going pretty well for me. I try to listen to news radio every morning and have been making an effort to watch films. I love German films, and I find them pretty easy to follow along with, so it’s good news for me. I need to pick up some easy books to read, though, as my reading comprehension is vastly below that of my comprehension of the spoken word. Also, I’m in search of simple audio-books. Unfortunately, the ones I’ve picked up I can barely understand any of, and as much as I love Harry Potter, there’s only so much Potter I can stomach, no matter how many languages it’s in. Anyone have any suggestions? I was thinking Lord of the Rings, because at least I’m somewhat familiar with the storyline (I actually haven’t read Tolkien’s books—I know, I know, it’s treason—but I have seen the movies). One of my biggest challenges about watching German films online is finding them WITHOUT subtitles. Subtitles are a helpful crutch, sure, but a bit too helpful, in my case—I tend to ignore what I’m hearing and just read the text scrawled below. No subtitles forces me to listen. Upkeep Languages Spanish should be here. I’ve started getting back into it, in tiny bites. I listen to a bit of news in the morning, and I’m making my way through “Harry Potter y la Piedra Filosofal,” when I have the time. I need more simple literature, though. Again, any recommendations? Also, films. Cristina, perhaps you have some of your favorites you can suggest? Preferably without subtitles. Dabbling Languages Frankly, Estonian and/or Finnish should be up there with “focus” languages, but I need to put them on the backburner because, realistically, I won’t have time for them with my upcoming activities. Russian is my #1 priority, at this current moment. I want to take full advantage of being in Moscow. So, another dabbling language is French. All I’m doing with that right now is my Assimil lessons. I plan to be done with the passive phase by the end of this summer, and slowly, throughout the end of the summer, start integrating grammar exercises, perhaps FSI, and some more textbook-like materials into my learning. Then I want to dive headfirst into literature and film. Perhaps when I’m in Berlin I’ll take some French lessons. Upcoming Challenges 1. Super Challenge for Russian and German—50/50 split. 2. 6WC Challenge for Russian. Edited by Tecktight on 05 May 2012 at 7:43pm 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| tarvos Super Polyglot Winner TAC 2012 Senior Member China likeapolyglot.wordpr Joined 4705 days ago 5310 posts - 9399 votes Speaks: Dutch*, English, Swedish, French, Russian, German, Italian, Norwegian, Mandarin, Romanian, Afrikaans Studies: Greek, Modern Hebrew, Spanish, Portuguese, Czech, Korean, Esperanto, Finnish | Message 429 of 672 05 May 2012 at 7:48pm | IP Logged | ||
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A word to the wise - Tolkien's books have the same basic storyline and plot as the movies, but the books differ crucially at a whole host of points, and Tolkien's language use is positively ANCIENT. I cannot imagine that the translations will be any better in that regard. If you do manage it, kudos. I have not tried to read LOTR in anything but English (and even when I read it at age 13 I thought the English was pretty tough).
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| Teango Triglot Winner TAC 2010 & 2012 Senior Member United States teango.wordpress.comRegistered users can see my Skype Name Joined 5554 days ago 2210 posts - 3734 votes Speaks: English*, German, Russian Studies: Hawaiian, French, Toki Pona | Message 430 of 672 05 May 2012 at 9:14pm | IP Logged | ||
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@Tecktight
It sounds like you've been making excellent headway with German, and good luck with all your preparations for the trip to Russia soon too. How long will you be staying in Russia (apologies if I missed your post on this somewhere, things are quite chaotic in my little duck pond at the moment)? With regards to German reading material, here are a couple of tips that work for me when I feel I'm struggling... 1. Switch to a simpler contemporary novel (e.g. popular Krimis). 2. Find a German translation of a novel originally in your native language. For example, I'm currently reading a book by Stephen King that I picked up whilst shopping for groceries in a German supermarket, and I find this satisfies both criteria. The contemporary vocabulary is significantly easier to read than fantasy novels, where you'd characteristically find a generous peppering of specialist vocabulary that is unlikely to pop up in everyday conversation, and it's definitely a relief to escape the more antiquated language you'd find in less contemporary literature like Thomas Mann. At the same time, because I'm reading a translation of English, the word order and dialogue align much more closely with conventional English structures, and the combination of these two factors is a big motivational boost when you're initially at my kind of level and are trying desperately to establish some flow... Edited by Teango on 05 May 2012 at 9:42pm 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| Tecktight Diglot Winner TAC 2012 Senior Member United States Joined 4974 days ago 227 posts - 327 votes Speaks: English*, Serbian Studies: German, Russian, Estonian | Message 431 of 672 06 May 2012 at 5:54pm | IP Logged | ||
Good point. I forgot about that...I might just have to pick him up in English, then, and forget about anything else. 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| Tecktight Diglot Winner TAC 2012 Senior Member United States Joined 4974 days ago 227 posts - 327 votes Speaks: English*, Serbian Studies: German, Russian, Estonian | Message 432 of 672 06 May 2012 at 5:56pm | IP Logged | ||
I'll be there roughly 3 months, from the end of May until mid-August. Good idea about the Krimis. And Stephen King also sounds like a good approach, considering his books are translated into so many languages. I could use his books as a stepping stone in Spanish, too, perhaps. 1 person has voted this message useful |
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