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 Language Learning Forum : Language Learning Log |  | |
| Julie Heptaglot Senior Member PolandRegistered users can see my Skype Name Joined 6904 days ago 1251 posts - 1733 votes  5 sounds Speaks: Polish*, EnglishB2, GermanC2, SpanishB2, Dutch, Swedish, French | Message 41 of 140 08 September 2012 at 10:07pm | IP Logged | ||
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27/08 - 8/09/2012 - lots of work :(
I've had a lot of work recently (not that much language-related, unfortunately). I am sorry I haven't replied to any PMs/posts (my biggest apologies go to you, montmorency: thank you so much for your great post about British productions, I've read it and I will answer! I am just really behind in my e-mails and stuff.) So what was I doing language-wise? EN & DE In English and German I mostly practiced interpreting (exams are coming soon!), listened to some news on TV and on the net, watched a couple of movies. Tomorrow I'm gonna hold a presentation in English at a conference, and I'm so not ready! Not to mention, I haven't spoken English for quite a long time. Recently, I've given two private lessons in German (I'm a qualified teacher but I don't teach a lot). If you teach a foreign language - do you sometimes feel like you have to think twice before you say something because you know your student may write every word you say and you're afraid you'll make a mistake? I hesitated about the gender of a couple words I would have never hesitated about otherwise. I checked it later and I was 100% right... but still, it was a strange feeling (and my student was just a beginner). In the meantime, I found a German video series I can recommend you: "Wissen vor 8" , a pretty interesting and enjoyable 5-minute science video magazine. You'll find it on mediathek.daserste.de or podcasts.de. NL I've just completed CD7 of Dutch Michel Thomas. I hope I'll have completed the foundation course by the end of 6WC but this may not be possible. I still enjoy the course and I didn't feel like CD7 was rushed (that's what I read on the forum a couple of times), I hope CD8 will be just as good as the previous ones. I spent a couple minutes here and there, reading in Dutch (mostly posts on HTLAL). I feel like my reading comprehension is getting better. Sometimes I understand whole sentences and passages, and usually I get at least a gist. That's simple stuff about learning languages mostly but still, it's nice :), especially considering that Michel Thomas is an audio-based course. Generally, there are considerably fewer unknown "little words" that I struggle with while reading (I can often figure out the meaning of verbs, nouns, adjectives from the context but I wouldn't have figured 'maar', 'want', 'waar' etc. that easily by myself). I think when I'm finished with MT Foundation & Advanced I'll study all important pronouns, prepositions, conjunctions. Prepositions seem to be the tricky part now, as MT hasn't covered anything but 'in', 'naar' and 'op' in 'wachten op' yet. The funny thing is whenever I see 'je' I think first of first person singular (probably because of French 'je') just to find out a couple seconds later that it is 'you' again :). Other languages While practicing interpreting, I interpreted a multilingual mock conference video (from one of interpreting faculties). This was fun! I interpreted French speakers too, and partly Spanish ones, and I just listened to some Spanish, Italian and Russian for a few minutes: I could actually understand quite a lot when I knew the context well! Other than that, I miss French so much! I really don't have time for it right now (not even for my favorite Swiss daily news :( ), but I'm going to Brussels for two days so I'll have at least some French language exposure (and I'll get some reading material :)). Most probably, I'll meet a French-speaking friend for a couple of hours so I may even get some speaking practice other than with the hotel reception and at the airport ;). And I'm flying from Berlin, so I'll hear a little bit of German on the way, too. In the meantime, I switched my mobile phone language to French. Concerning Russian: I won a Polish-based Russian grammar book with exercises in a Facebook contest so I guess I'll have to finally really get back to Russian and to learn grammar. Yay :) Edited by Julie on 08 September 2012 at 10:07pm 2 persons have voted this message useful | |||
| tarvos Super Polyglot Winner TAC 2012 Senior Member China likeapolyglot.wordpr Joined 4708 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 42 of 140 09 September 2012 at 12:47pm | IP Logged | ||
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Hoe gaat het met je Nederlands, Julie? Heb je er nog zin in? :)
1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| Julie Heptaglot Senior Member PolandRegistered users can see my Skype Name Joined 6904 days ago 1251 posts - 1733 votes 5 sounds Speaks: Polish*, EnglishB2, GermanC2, SpanishB2, Dutch, Swedish, French | Message 43 of 140 09 September 2012 at 10:10pm | IP Logged | ||
Ik denk het gaat niet slecht met het Nederlands. Ik heb een beetje Nederlands vandaag gespreekt met en meisje uit Utrecht in het Nederland. Ik kon niet veel zeggen, maar zij heeft me (ge)begrijpt. Het is goed :). All corrections are welcome :). And a little disclaimer: I haven't learned the past tense yet ;)./ 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| Hekje Diglot Senior Member United States Joined 4704 days ago 842 posts - 1330 votes Speaks: English*, Dutch Studies: French, Indonesian | Message 44 of 140 10 September 2012 at 3:26pm | IP Logged | ||
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Hee Julie, leuk dat je met het Nederlands doorgaat. Ook is het leuk voor mij om je gedachten over de taal te lezen,
het ziet eruit of je veel vooruitgang heb gemaakt. Veel succes deze week! 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| Julie Heptaglot Senior Member PolandRegistered users can see my Skype Name Joined 6904 days ago 1251 posts - 1733 votes 5 sounds Speaks: Polish*, EnglishB2, GermanC2, SpanishB2, Dutch, Swedish, French | Message 45 of 140 20 September 2012 at 6:24pm | IP Logged | ||
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I'm sorry I've been so awfully quiet recently... I've been very busy.
I've got some big language news :) (well, big for me at least ;)): Today I've passed the accreditation test for EU freelance conference interpreters! (ACC: PL - DE - EN). I still can't believe... :) Plus, I'm in Brussels now (leaving tomorrow early in the morning), talking as much French as I can and looking for all kinds of signs in Dutch (and collecting free Dutch and French newspapers ;)). It's like my language dream came true :) BTW, it looks like I'm going to spend quite a lot of time improving my French soon as I'd like to add it as another C (passive) language to my language combination. Wish me good luck :). Greetings from Brussels! Julie 4 persons have voted this message useful | |||
| tarvos Super Polyglot Winner TAC 2012 Senior Member China likeapolyglot.wordpr Joined 4708 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 46 of 140 20 September 2012 at 11:17pm | IP Logged | ||
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Bruxelles est un endroit magnifique pour pratiquer des langues. Particulièrement, quand,
comme moi, on maîtrise un des deux langues officielles de la ville, parce que il y a une traduction gratuite pour presque toutes les choses importantes. Profitez-en bien! Edited by tarvos on 20 September 2012 at 11:18pm 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| Julie Heptaglot Senior Member PolandRegistered users can see my Skype Name Joined 6904 days ago 1251 posts - 1733 votes 5 sounds Speaks: Polish*, EnglishB2, GermanC2, SpanishB2, Dutch, Swedish, French | Message 47 of 140 23 September 2012 at 9:50pm | IP Logged | ||
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I'm sorry I'm writing in English instead of Dutch & French (not quite in the spirit of
this forum) but I'm still kinda stressed out after my exams and I can't focus properly and think clearly... no, I'm not going crazy :). @Hekje I'm not sure if I've made that much of progress but definitely Dutch looks less mysterious now :) And I'm proud to say that after a couple of minutes of listening to the announcements at a railway station I could understand a lot of content, including some less standard information. I checked what I heard against the French-language announcements, and I was usually 90% right :). Generally, I have an impression that the Belgian accent sounds more clearly (and probably more similarly to German) than the accent from the Netherlands. I was actually surprised how much I could understand e.g. in a shop or in a train (and this was mostly stuff I'd never learned). Now I'm even more motivated to continue my learning :). Hopefully, I can combine it with Swedish (my course starts in less than two weeks...) and French. @tarvos I've been to Brussels three times so far, and every time I'm there I enjoy it more. Now when I learn Dutch it's so much more fun! I'm not sure if I could get some proper Dutch immersion in Brussels - but I may have an opportunity to find out. I'm actually thinking pretty seriously about moving to Belgium in a year or so (either to Brussels or to some Dutch-speaking town from which I could commute to Brussels). 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| montmorency Diglot Senior Member United Kingdom Joined 4829 days ago 2371 posts - 3676 votes Speaks: English*, German Studies: Danish, Welsh | Message 48 of 140 23 September 2012 at 11:07pm | IP Logged | ||
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You could go down to that little "triangle" ( or whatever), where Belgium, the
Netherlands, and Germany sort of converge. Linguistically, quite an interesting area, I believe. (May be a longish commute to Brussels though). I've done the train journey from Brussels to Aachen a few times now, by slow train (not the expensive one where you have to reserve seats - oh yes, Thalys), changing at one of the little stations near the German border. ('cos you can use a Eurostar ticket from London to any station in Belgium ... :-) ). I always find it a fascinating region. Interestingly, the cops always check out that train carefully at Aachen, for illegal immigrants I presume. Edited by montmorency on 24 September 2012 at 1:36am 1 person has voted this message useful |
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