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DaraghM Diglot Senior Member Ireland Joined 6149 days ago 1947 posts - 2923 votes Speaks: English*, Spanish Studies: French, Russian, Hungarian
| Message 25 of 35 10 September 2013 at 10:27am | IP Logged |
Having returned from Malaysia I've found myself thinking about language learning a lot. The trip went well, and I managed to get into the language properly during the second week there. I almost felt I had cracked it when I was on my last day there. Some language learners can probably hit the ground running as soon as they arrive, but I always need about a week with a new language before I can start using it. Once I've crossed that barrier, I can then use it at the drop of a hat. It feels like learning to ride a bike. You never really forget, but your skills and vocabulary can diminish.
The big question that's been troubling me lately is what type of language learner do I want to be ? Do I want to master a couple of languages very well or a number of languages to a functional degree ? I've come to realise I mainly use languages for travelling, and you don't need to get beyond a high B1 to cover almost all situations. I understand a high B1 to cover the ability to summarise a book or film albeit with some circumventions and vocabulary limitations. I've rarely used B2 level Spanish in conversation outside of a class, as this covers discussions about literary and cinematic devices.
Romance: 403 hours (Spanish-61,French-337,Italian-4)
Slavic: 97 hours (Russian-95, Polish-2)
Celtic: 23 hours (Irish-22, Gaelic-1.5)
Finno-Ugraic:36 hours (Hungarian-36)
Others: 118 hours (Malay-118)
Total:- 679 hours
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| DaraghM Diglot Senior Member Ireland Joined 6149 days ago 1947 posts - 2923 votes Speaks: English*, Spanish Studies: French, Russian, Hungarian
| Message 26 of 35 10 October 2013 at 3:24pm | IP Logged |
I can’t believe it’s a month since my last post. Like a lot of others recently, my forum time has been quite limited. Any available time I have managed to squeeze has been spent on language study. Since my last post, I’ve managed to complete a couple more French courses, while I continue to work through a lot of others. I’ve also been spending a bit of time reading Le Monde and Point de Vue. Le Monde uses a higher register of French and is easier to read, while Point de Vue is riddled with lots of colloquial expressions. I haven’t tracked how much of the French journaux I’ve covered, so my book challenge stats are looking pretty poor. Here’s my complete list so far.
Grammaire en Dialogues - Niveau Debutant
Vocabulaire en Dialogues - Niveau Debutant
Hachette: Grammaire Pratique du Français
Vocabulaire Expliqué du Français - Niveau Débutant
Grammaire Progressive du Français - Niveau Intermediaire
Grammaire Progressive du Français - Niveau Avancé
Communication Progressive du Français - Niveau Intermediaire
Vite et Bien 2 (B1)
Vocabulaire Progressive du Français - Niveau Intermediaire
Alter Ego 1
Alter Ego 2
Bescherelle : La Grammaire Pour Tous
Le Monde
Point de Vue
Most of these are courses, and completing the exercise took the vast majority of the time.
I’ve managed to dabble in most of my other languages, and a curiosity about Bulgarian bit me. I’m now thinking of adding it to my hit list. A Slavic language without cases. Too tempting.
Romance: 481 hours (Spanish-63,French-413,Italian-4)
Slavic: 111 hours (Russian-107, Polish-3, Bulgarian-1)
Celtic: 23 hours (Irish-22, Gaelic-1.5)
Finno-Ugraic:37 hours (Hungarian-37)
Others: 118 hours (Malay-118)
Total:- 773 hours
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jeff_lindqvist Diglot Moderator SwedenRegistered users can see my Skype Name Joined 6907 days ago 4250 posts - 5711 votes Speaks: Swedish*, English Studies: German, Spanish, Russian, Dutch, Mandarin, Esperanto, Irish, French Personal Language Map
| Message 27 of 35 10 October 2013 at 4:56pm | IP Logged |
Impressive! Seeing posts like this is always encouraging.
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| DaraghM Diglot Senior Member Ireland Joined 6149 days ago 1947 posts - 2923 votes Speaks: English*, Spanish Studies: French, Russian, Hungarian
| Message 28 of 35 11 October 2013 at 9:31am | IP Logged |
jeff_lindqvist wrote:
Impressive! Seeing posts like this is always encouraging. |
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Cheers. Thanks for the support. :-)
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| DaraghM Diglot Senior Member Ireland Joined 6149 days ago 1947 posts - 2923 votes Speaks: English*, Spanish Studies: French, Russian, Hungarian
| Message 29 of 35 06 November 2013 at 11:10am | IP Logged |
It’s been a fairly active month since my last update. I was in Madrid and Toledo which saw a good revision of my slightly rusty Spanish. I dabbled a bit before heading there, and that helped a bit. Apart from Spanish, French still dominates my study time. I’ve decided that once I reach my original 1,000 hours goal, I’ll minimise my French study. I’ve really neglected my other languages and I want 2014 to resolve this issue. However, I also plan on turning 2014 into a major wanderlust year. I recently picked up Teach Yourself Bulgarian and Assimil Japanese. It looks like 2014 will be quite insane.
Romance: 562 hours (Spanish-114,French-443,Italian-4)
Slavic: 113 hours (Russian-109, Polish-3, Bulgarian-1)
Celtic: 23 hours (Irish-22, Gaelic-1.5)
Finno-Ugraic:38 hours (Hungarian-38)
Others: 119 hours (Malay-119)
Total:- 858 hours
1 person has voted this message useful
| DaraghM Diglot Senior Member Ireland Joined 6149 days ago 1947 posts - 2923 votes Speaks: English*, Spanish Studies: French, Russian, Hungarian
| Message 30 of 35 05 December 2013 at 9:54am | IP Logged |
Now my French study is finished for the year, I’ll spend a bit of time with my other languages. I can’t believe we’re in the final month of TAC-13. Here’s my latest stats,
Romance: 638 hours (Spanish-117,French-515,Italian-5) – TAC Goal Reached
Slavic: 117 hours (Russian-109, Polish-3, Bulgarian-4)
Celtic: 24 hours (Irish-23, Gaelic-1.5)
Finno-Ugraic:38 hours (Hungarian-38)
Others: 119 hours (Malay-119)
Total:- 939 hours
1 person has voted this message useful
| 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 31 of 35 16 December 2013 at 5:23am | IP Logged |
Wow, that's close to 1,000 hours DaraghM!! I think I'll have whatever you're having for breakfast from now on. :) You've no doubt done a grand job this year, and across so many languages, and I look forward to following your posts next year.
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| DaraghM Diglot Senior Member Ireland Joined 6149 days ago 1947 posts - 2923 votes Speaks: English*, Spanish Studies: French, Russian, Hungarian
| Message 32 of 35 16 December 2013 at 10:27am | IP Logged |
Thanks for your support. I’m not sure what my TAC plans are for next year. I plan on spending 2014 wandering around a few languages, so I’m not sure if I’ll join any teams. I will admit that time tracking study can be tricky at best. I’ve a slightly simpler system in mind for 2014. The new system would track the number of days I studied for over two or three hours in a particular language . If I look at at the figures since 01/04/2012 it would look as follows,
Study > 3 hours in a day. (> 2 hours in a day)
French: 160 days (229 days)
Spanish: 56 days (68 days)
Russian: 8 days (19 days)
Polish: 2 days (3 days)
Bulgarian: 1 day (2 days)
Hungarian: 2 days (9 days)
Malay: 1 day (37 days)
I was surprised that I only studied Malay once for more than three hours, even though I clocked up 119 hours in total.
The original stats for TAC 2014 look as follows,
Romance: 640 hours (Spanish-117,French-518,Italian-5) – TAC Goal Reached
Slavic: 144 hours (Russian-109, Polish-20, Bulgarian-13)
Celtic: 26 hours (Irish-25, Gaelic-1.5)
Finno-Ugraic:39 hours (Hungarian-39)
Others: 119 hours (Malay-119)
Total:- 971 hours
Edited by DaraghM on 16 December 2013 at 12:14pm
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