Evita Tetraglot Senior Member Latvia learnlatvian.info Joined 6550 days ago 734 posts - 1036 votes Speaks: Latvian*, English, German, Russian Studies: Korean, Finnish
| Message 57 of 559 26 May 2012 at 9:21pm | IP Logged |
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The radio is mostly in the "written language" (kirjakieli), except for interviews. |
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That is fine, I think. My goal will be to speak as well as people on the radio. If I get anywhere near to that level I'm sure I'll learn the differences between the various ways of speaking.
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I used it for my first 6 months Finnish :) With a program that wasn't even as good as Anki. |
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Right, I forgot that. Good to know.
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There's no Pimsleur but there's Assimil and Teach Yourself. I've used both for shadowing, though I prefer Assimil because the audio is TL-only. I think Assimil can be useful even if you don't speak French - just translate the dialogues on your own, google, ask here if something remains unclear. Fine if you're already following another textbook :) |
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Assimil in French... Thanks but I think I'll pass. Teach Yourself, I actually have it (found it on the internet) but I'm not a fan of their approach so I'm not using it. Maybe their audio is worth a look.
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Also make sure to listen to Finnish music! I can recommend a lot if you want:P |
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Thanks, maybe later. I have the live radio website so if I'm in the mood for some Finnish music I just pick a station. Finns do have some bands I like - Sunrise avenue, HIM. Or more accurately, it's not the bands I like, it's some of their songs. I really really loved Ville Valo's Summer Wine.
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Evita Tetraglot Senior Member Latvia learnlatvian.info Joined 6550 days ago 734 posts - 1036 votes Speaks: Latvian*, English, German, Russian Studies: Korean, Finnish
| Message 58 of 559 27 May 2012 at 11:54pm | IP Logged |
I had planned to finally take the Korean level 1 test on TTMIK today but another task came up and I didn't have time for it unfortunately. I'll try to do it next week.
I still work with Anki on both languages every day, and it's taking me more and more time to add words, do the reviews and then do additional reviews for the failed words. It also feels like a chore on some days. I've been entering 5 or less Korean words every day and I can barely keep up. I guess what I'm trying to say is that I've realized I can't make as quick a progress in both languages as I'd like to so I have to make a choice. And my choice is to concentrate more on Finnish because it's sticking better in my brain. This doesn't mean a major shift in my studying habits, it just means that I will be building my Korean vocabulary slower and on some days I might not study Korean at all, except doing the Anki reviews. If I stop doing those then it's all over.
One more thing - I ordered two Korean dictionaries from Amazon today. Internet dictionaries are useful and all but I felt my Korean needed something solid. Let's see how quickly they come from the US.
I don't have a Finnish dictionary yet... I don't need it as much as for Korean and wiktionary is a great help.
I forgot to mention the Korean milestone I achieved. My Anki deck has 214 cards now which means that I already know more than a hundred Korean words. Yay!
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Evita Tetraglot Senior Member Latvia learnlatvian.info Joined 6550 days ago 734 posts - 1036 votes Speaks: Latvian*, English, German, Russian Studies: Korean, Finnish
| Message 59 of 559 29 May 2012 at 7:21pm | IP Logged |
I never thought one of my first experiences with Korean music would be a cover of a Latvian song. My jaw basically hit the floor when I stumbled upon this video. I think it's a great cover, I just don't understand any of the lyrics. But it's great that they subtitle them, I can at least try to read them and sing along. Okay, realistically speaking my reading abilities are nowhere near to be able to read that on the fly so it's just wishful thinking.
You can find the original Latvian song here, it was voted the best song of 1981. The Russian cover (sung by Alla Pugachova) came out soon after and the Korean girls obviously covered the Russian version - they have the same lyrics while the Latvian lyrics are totally different.
EDIT: Turns out there's also a Finnish version of the same song. Amazing.
Edited by Evita on 29 May 2012 at 9:36pm
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Evita Tetraglot Senior Member Latvia learnlatvian.info Joined 6550 days ago 734 posts - 1036 votes Speaks: Latvian*, English, German, Russian Studies: Korean, Finnish
| Message 60 of 559 30 May 2012 at 8:32pm | IP Logged |
Wow, that TTMIK level 1 test dialog was incredibly hard, I only understood like 10 words from it. Maybe 12 words the second time around. They were speaking so fast I just couldn't process it. This is so discouraging, and even more discouraging is the fact that most commenters on the site said they understood everything. This is so... I'm very upset. I studied hard, I listened to each lesson many times and I learned the vocabulary with Anki. I was prepared to get rewarded for my effort but what I got instead was a cold shower. So stupid.
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cathrynm Senior Member United States junglevision.co Joined 6123 days ago 910 posts - 1232 votes Speaks: English* Studies: Japanese, Finnish
| Message 61 of 559 30 May 2012 at 8:55pm | IP Logged |
Hey, the Finnish version of the song is pretty catchy, and it has lyrics also.
And regarding that test, take care. I know the panicky feeling of massively failing a language listening test with the Japanese JLPT -- it's not fun. Though I've been doing these tests and sucking at listening for the last 4 years in row now, so now, even when I fail, I don't get anxious or upset anymore.
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druckfehler Triglot Senior Member Germany Joined 4866 days ago 1181 posts - 1912 votes Speaks: German*, EnglishC2, Korean Studies: Persian
| Message 62 of 559 30 May 2012 at 11:08pm | IP Logged |
Evita wrote:
This is so discouraging, and even more discouraging is the fact that most commenters on the site said they understood everything. |
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I wonder if the others were learning with only the TTMIK lessons. Maybe they're actually in Korea or consume a lot of Korean media and that makes listening much easier for them.
Watching Korean TV is great for improving listening comprehension. I think you should give Dramas or entertainment programs a try.
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Evita Tetraglot Senior Member Latvia learnlatvian.info Joined 6550 days ago 734 posts - 1036 votes Speaks: Latvian*, English, German, Russian Studies: Korean, Finnish
| Message 63 of 559 30 May 2012 at 11:58pm | IP Logged |
druckfehler, I think you might be right about those other people, especially since there were words in the dialog that hadn't been introduced in the lessons. Obviously the people making the site are overestimating a new learner's ability to get used to spoken Korean but I will try not to hold it against them since it's such a great site in general. But it clearly has its flaws.
I hadn't heard about Korean dramas before deciding to learn Korean so this was a very nice surprise for me. I was looking forward to start watching them but it hasn't worked out so far. I started with "The moon that embraces the Sun" and I couldn't keep up with the plot even with English subtitles. Then I tried something else, I don't remember what, but the plot was so ridiculous I couldn't keep watching it. So I abandoned it for the time being but I clearly need to listen to more Korean so I'll have to find something else. Maybe someone can recommend a drama that is of acceptable quality and has a rather generic vocabulary? I think I would like to begin with something simple, it doesn't even have to be very interesting, just somewhat believable.
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Ojorolla Diglot Groupie France Joined 4963 days ago 90 posts - 130 votes Speaks: French*, English
| Message 64 of 559 31 May 2012 at 1:43pm | IP Logged |
I don't watch drama series very much, so I'm not sure what to recommend, may someone else can comment on this.
And I listened to the TTMIK test dialog. And the talking is way slower than in dramas. I see that you have trouble understanding it so if you want something slow, I recommend the following:
News :
MBC뉴스
KBS뉴스
Fairy tales:
쥬니어네이버 동화여행
Well, they are still faster than the TTMIK dialog, but anyway... Hope this helps.
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