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Tecktight TAC 2012 Team Sputnik

 Language Learning Forum : Language Learning Log Post Reply
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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 17 of 96
23 January 2012 at 12:54pm | IP Logged 
Woodsei wrote:
Tecktight wrote:
I talked to the head of my university's department,
and she said that, rather than testing me, she would just let me sit in on the first
two weeks of the more-
advanced course, whose professor will assess my performance. If both that professor and
I conclude that I
possess a skill level sufficient enough to survive the class, I can stay!

Yesterday was my first class. I managed to keep up rather well, though I must admit I
was rather intimidated. The
style of the class is completely different from the class I was in last semester.
Rather than being structured
around basic grammar constructions, it revolves around reading texts and watching films
and such.

So, basically, I've gone from exercises on Accusative endings to reading Märchen in
about a month.


I gotta say, that was awfully nice of the professor! I guess testing is the norm,
usually :) I hope you do great! You're right, learning grammar is fun if you don't take
it too literally with all the fancy words, but native content is so much more alluring.
I find it easier to pick grammar after I listen to, watch, or read native
material. It sort of crystallizes in a way, and I'm able to visualize it more clearly.
It's happening with Japanese, in my case, so I'm trying to give Russian a fair break
and approach it in the same way.

Whoops, this post just turned into an essay. Excuse my rant :)

Good luck! I started school last week, too, and it'll be a challenge juggling languages
and coursework!


Indeed, it was very nice of the professor! The German Dept. is just absolutely lovely.
I'm so happy to hear that you, too, have a penchant for native materials. I agree, somehow it all crystallizes!
Things are starting to "make sense" in my head. That said, I absolutely butchered my German during the
Team Sputnik Skype session yesterday...I could barely string together two sentences. -_- I know I can contribute
part/a lot of that fact to my nervousness, but it was still a very disappointing realization.

Best of luck to you in school, as well! The juggling is truly always a challenge. I'm taking what's probably my
hardest course-load thus far, plus two jobs, plus two languages, plus social stuff, etc. Gah. But I have faith in us.
;)
How long have you been learning Japanese?
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Solfrid Cristin
Heptaglot
Winner TAC 2011 & 2012
Senior Member
Norway
Joined 5332 days ago

4143 posts - 8864 votes 
Speaks: Norwegian*, Spanish, Swedish, French, English, German, Italian
Studies: Russian

 
 Message 18 of 96
23 January 2012 at 1:29pm | IP Logged 
Tecktight wrote:
That said, I absolutely butchered my German during the
Team Sputnik Skype session yesterday...I could barely string together two sentences. -_- I know I can contribute
part/a lot of that fact to my nervousness, but it was still a very disappointing realization.


I think we can say in all honesty that there was a lot of advanced butchery going on in several languages there, I thought you did rather well actually! In any event, yesterday Russian, German, English, Italian, Spanish, Swedish and Norwegian were spoken - not bad for our second time!
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 19 of 96
08 February 2012 at 5:49pm | IP Logged 
Boy, this log--not updated for 4 weeks-- is really an abomination.

Basically, most of my practice lately has come from reading articles and speaking with some penpals. And my life
has been so horribly disorganized lately. I'm trying to get everything all together. -sigh-
That said, I need to file all the hours I've studied, etc. and FINALLY UPDATE THIS LOG MY GOD.

This was really a pointless post. But I just wanted to affirm that this log is not, in fact, dead. Though it's close. ;)
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Solfrid Cristin
Heptaglot
Winner TAC 2011 & 2012
Senior Member
Norway
Joined 5332 days ago

4143 posts - 8864 votes 
Speaks: Norwegian*, Spanish, Swedish, French, English, German, Italian
Studies: Russian

 
 Message 20 of 96
09 February 2012 at 12:16am | IP Logged 
Hang in there! We are waiting with anticipation for your update :-)
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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 21 of 96
12 February 2012 at 7:29am | IP Logged 
Welcome back! Two jobs, school, social life, and languages is brutal, but I have faith in you. Hang in
there, and great to see you back.

In response to butchering a language, fear not, happens to us all. I'd get extremely nervous and then I'd start
butchering even English and Arabic! I guess that might also be a reason why I'm stalling the Skype sessions.
I know, I know, I admit guilt :) Oh well. But I'm really hoping to get in there, so doing the best I can with
Russian currently.

But, back to nervous stuttering, I think sometimes you can do a sort of "self-talk" exercise to get you in the
rhythm of things. And maybe even before a Skype session. You can, for instance, speak your thoughts out
loud in the language. As long as nobody's around. :). I haven't gotten to that yet in Japanese, but when I was
studying French and German back in high school, I used to do that for fun, and it did wonders for the little I
knew of the languages. Just a thought, although I think if you have lots of input and exposure daily, your mind
sort of automatically falls into thinking In the language, and your ability to produce becomes much easier. But
it'll get better in time. That's our goal this year, so let's go for it!

I've been studying Japanese actively starting February 2012, if you don't count kanji study (Japanese script)
over the last month as studying the language. Although I've been watching dramas and anime for a lot longer.
We'll see how that goes.

Keep up the good work. Judging from Christina's comment above, it look like you did pretty well in the
sessions!

Edited by Woodsei on 12 February 2012 at 7:37am

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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 22 of 96
12 February 2012 at 7:36pm | IP Logged 
Thank you both, Woodsei and Cristina, for the encouragement! Your presence/words help me more than you know.
It's been hard lately, especially recently, since one of my friends died last night, but I'm trying to get through it all. I
think it'll help me to be abroad starting in May--I really just feel like I need to get out of here and meet new, more
interesting people. But all of you on this forum are a true inspiration. It's like therapy coming on here. :)

Woodsei, I'm going to try those self-talk exercises! I recall now that I used a somewhat similar strategy for
practicing for oral exams in my Russian class, and I always got 100's on 'em.
I can write out basic conversations on notecards, or little stories, and just read them out loud. I've started a huge
microsoft word document with lists of phrases and essentials I find myself using/having to look up all the time.
These would be good phrases to incorporate into my little "self-talk" exercises.

I'm sure you'll do well with Japanese. I mean, you've already tackled Arabic, which takes some dedication and
endurance, so kudos to you!
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 23 of 96
12 February 2012 at 7:43pm | IP Logged 
Tecktight wrote:

It's been hard lately, especially recently, since one of my friends died last night, but I'm trying to get through it all.


Tecktight, I'm so sorry for your loss. =(
1 person has voted this message useful



Solfrid Cristin
Heptaglot
Winner TAC 2011 & 2012
Senior Member
Norway
Joined 5332 days ago

4143 posts - 8864 votes 
Speaks: Norwegian*, Spanish, Swedish, French, English, German, Italian
Studies: Russian

 
 Message 24 of 96
12 February 2012 at 8:57pm | IP Logged 
I am also very sorry for your loss, Kat. Take care of yourself. Losing someone can have a huge impact, particularly if it is someone young. You will be in my thoughts.


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