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TAC 2012, Freutsch Quest-finished | ||
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 Language Learning Forum : Language Learning Log |  | |
| Cavesa Triglot Senior Member Czech Republic Joined 5007 days ago 3277 posts - 6779 votes  Speaks: Czech*, FrenchC2, EnglishC1 Studies: Spanish, German, Italian | Message 1 of 51 17 December 2011 at 7:39pm | IP Logged | ||
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The TAC 2012 is coming soon and I am looking forward to participating. Even though I
will be less active (or a lot less active) till the first half of February (exams), I will catch up later and I hope to stay with my wonderful team Freutsch till the end of year. I hope to spend at least 350 hours at languages during the year. My languages and goals are listed bellow. I won't go in too much detail about my resources, I think I'll speak more about them later and with a timeframe as Benny the Irish polyglot advises (like short term goals, with measurable progress). And, following the advice of ajatt, the one that important part of any success is showing up, that's what I'll be trying. To show up as much as possible and the rest will follow. French My most beloved language. I'm currently at approximately level C1 (or perhaps even C2) with comprehension, both oral and writen, but my active skills are at B2- or B1+. I want to get to level C1/C2 at all the skills this year. I may try an exam of level C1 during either the spring or the autumn. My resources will include native books and audiobooks, movies, grammar books, italki, perhaps an exchange partner or tutor for one on one meetings. German My newest friend. At first glance harsh but at the second a charming language. I am now at lower A1 and would like to get to B1. My resources will be mostly courses, deutsche welle and grammar books but I hope to be able to read a simple book and write some short entries on italki by the end of year. Spanish An old story of leaving and coming back to it. My passive skills are at B1+, active at A1-. I want to get my active skills to B1 and passive to B2 or higher. Resources will be something in between the previous languages. A few courses and grammar books but I'd like to add several audiobooks and native books (I already got a few and I am looking forward to reading them). Another language If everything goes well, and I have no trouble with the main three languages, there is my long list of what I would like to try. Most probable are Swedish (which I already tried and definitely want to continue one day), Esperanto, Polish and Russian. Who knows. As the name of the log says, I am member to the Freutsch team but I will definitely read logs of some other teams as well and I wish everyone a lot of fun and great progress. Edited by Cavesa on 19 December 2012 at 4:38pm 2 persons have voted this message useful | |||
| Just a Dreamer Groupie Egypt Joined 5009 days ago 59 posts - 62 votes Studies: English, French | Message 2 of 51 17 December 2011 at 8:54pm | IP Logged | ||
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I wish you the best of luck with all these amazing languages!
Especially French, German and Spanish Good luck:) 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| Cavesa Triglot Senior Member Czech Republic Joined 5007 days ago 3277 posts - 6779 votes Speaks: Czech*, FrenchC2, EnglishC1 Studies: Spanish, German, Italian | Message 3 of 51 17 December 2011 at 9:21pm | IP Logged | ||
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Oh, I wrote this wrong! I don't want to start all four of those, these are just options for ONE additional language. Because I most probably won't resist to the need to try something new.
But thanks for the support, Just a Dreamer, I appreciate it :-) 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| Cavesa Triglot Senior Member Czech Republic Joined 5007 days ago 3277 posts - 6779 votes Speaks: Czech*, FrenchC2, EnglishC1 Studies: Spanish, German, Italian | Message 4 of 51 15 January 2012 at 11:07pm | IP Logged | ||
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So, my first update this year. It will be brief (or at least try to), the more that I haven't done much so far due to exams, But I just should let you know I am not out yet. A few things are crumbling, just as at the end of every semester. Please, wish me luck so I could come back to languages and other fun as soon as possible (that means second week of February).
German: A bit of Deutsch Interaktiv course. I am quite close to the end of A1.1 part. Started first lesson of my czech and systematic textbook of German. It's likely to be more demanding than my other resources but that is not a disadvantage. French: I've started reading a part of a very interesting non fiction book about relationships. When my boyfriend asked what I was reading, and got the answer, he adviced me to read really carefully. Not sure whether I should take it more as a joke or a serious advice and complain :-D Spanish: I keep listening to Ska-P and I understand more than I understood a few months ago. It's the repetition. The bad thing is, that I like some of the songs less because of the lyrics. Probably I only understood wrong and there is hope I will enjoy the songs just as much as before when I am better at Spanish. I read a thread in Spanish on the forum (oh, not sure whether it was a bit before New Year or after) and I replied in Spanish! Not sure how well but I did. And it hurted less than I had expected. And I read a few more Spanish websites and blogs. In the library of Cervantes, I found out why I had been unable to find the authors I had been looking for. The librarian has uncovered for me the truth about Spanish surnames. In czech libraries, name lists and such, we automatically take the last word of the name as the most important for searching (even though most czechs, including me, hesitate a lot when it comes to asian names). But in Spanish, the "more important" is the first surname, so usually the last but one word. And the Spanish library sorts the books by that. So, I'll need to remember more names of my favourite authors. And they have no magazines about science :-( English: I have watched four series of Doctor Who, which is interesting. It is the British English. Most series I have watched are american so I am more used to American English. Funny thing is, that the pronunciation used in Doctor Who has some of the features some teachers I have met take as "not English enough, too Czech". Another proof that Czech, despite common belief, is a good base for learning foreign languages. I know watching a tv series doesn't seem to belong in the preexam time, but it helps a lot to relax in between etc.... alright. I'm just guilty and searching for excuses. :-D And there is a lot of books in my foreign languages waiting on the shelf since Christmas. I'm looking forward to them a lot. So, see you soon and take care, all of you. P.S. I'll need to find out how to highlight my favourite threads or something like that. The activity in the liogs subforum is amazing, just a bit difficult to search in. 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| Crush Tetraglot Senior Member ChinaRegistered users can see my Skype Name Joined 5863 days ago 1622 posts - 2299 votes Speaks: English*, Spanish, Mandarin, Esperanto Studies: Basque | Message 5 of 51 16 January 2012 at 2:50am | IP Logged | ||
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Yeah, a lot of Spanish names take the father's last name (apellido paterno) first, then the mother's (apellido materno). That confused me a lot in the beginning, too, especially for names that don't list a second (middle) name, so it looks like the three-name system i'm used to.
1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| Cavesa Triglot Senior Member Czech Republic Joined 5007 days ago 3277 posts - 6779 votes Speaks: Czech*, FrenchC2, EnglishC1 Studies: Spanish, German, Italian | Message 6 of 51 25 January 2012 at 12:28pm | IP Logged | ||
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Time for update, while I have the internet connection. Despite the busy exam time, I did a bit for my languages.
English: I am working on a translation (five pages long) for a non-profit organisation. It's going quite well, even though I need to think a bit about translation of document names. Some research for an official translation, if there is any, will be needed. But I have no deadline, so I don't need to hurry too much. French: Started listening to an audio book, it's not bad, I might like it (a book by Delafosse, I keep forgeting it's name). And I finally (but slowly) started with my huge Grammar Revision project. I hope to revise all I have known and used from the grammar and to learn the bits I am still missing. An important thing if I want to pass the C1 exam this autumn. And I found out I will not continue with watching the Vampire Diaries in French online. F..k the copyright and it's orthodox servants, it is really bad for my language learning (among other things). So many sites are freaking out with fear because rich organisations have bought american laws instead of entering 21th century and giving people the media in a more appropriate form and for appropriate prices. The laws should have cut down their information monopol to ten years from first publication, only in that case it would be alright to hunt piracy. Sorry, I know politics shouldn't be discussed here but this is something really tied to my language learning. Spanish: I read a few posts on the forum in Spanish and had no trouble with understanding. I started reading Entrevista con el Vampiro by Anne Rice. I have read ten pages so far. It is challenging but I understand more than I hoped for. German: Currently asleep. Will be waking up today. Other languages: I learnt most of cyrillics. I was curious about it, that is the first reason. And I want to understand webpages I get occassionally linked to. I am reading slowly but it is enough for my purposes now. And it took about 10 minutes but I'll need to revise some parts soon. Other than languages: My studies don't look well. It could be even worse, that is true, but I expected more from myself this semester. I need to work harder and get past my fears of failure and anger/sadness about my previous failures since they seem to be just attracting new troubles. 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| Cavesa Triglot Senior Member Czech Republic Joined 5007 days ago 3277 posts - 6779 votes Speaks: Czech*, FrenchC2, EnglishC1 Studies: Spanish, German, Italian | Message 7 of 51 30 January 2012 at 7:36pm | IP Logged | ||
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Less than a week passed since I last wrote but I found a link to memrise! I joined
yesterday and it is wonderful. A disadvantage in comparison with Anki is that I can't use it offline. But the advantage? It is much more fun! I know it sounds stupid to be that excited about planting virtual flowers but doesn't matter. The introductory courses (Spanish and French) include mostly too basic vocabulary but there is interesting business vocab in the Spanish one and food one in the French one. Thanks to that, they are interesting for me but I'm not sure a true beginner would like it. I am learning the cyrillics as well and have started German introductory course and French intermediate vocabulary. When I am done with prepared courses, I should make my own. But that is quite a long time before me. And will require some preparation. What I am curious about is, that the site is free. There must be some catch, like paid advanced courses or paying after a thirty day trial or whatever. It is mentioned nowhere and I don't dare to hope such a great site would be for free. Anyone knows more? Oh, and the site has a "disadvantage". It is addictive. 4 persons have voted this message useful | |||
| Acut Tetraglot Groupie Brazil Joined 4698 days ago 53 posts - 101 votes Speaks: Portuguese*, English, Spanish, French | Message 8 of 51 31 January 2012 at 8:13pm | IP Logged | ||
LOL. I was just reading the logs of my fellow team mates and I read this paragraph in absolute amusement. I HAD to try this! It's fantastic. It looks like a silly idea in the beginning, but I can see its usefulness. I'll definitely try it. The site's FAQ says it is absolutely free. Do you know if the pronunciation they give is accurate? Thanks for the suggestion! 1 person has voted this message useful |
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