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Geoffw in TAC2015: RU, HE and Friends

 Language Learning Forum : Language Learning Log Post Reply
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tastyonions
Triglot
Senior Member
United States
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1044 posts - 1823 votes 
Speaks: English*, French, Spanish
Studies: Italian

 
 Message 137 of 251
16 October 2013 at 12:56am | IP Logged 
geoffw wrote:
I'd previously seen videos of exemplary oral production of English under exam conditions, graded with commentary according to CEFR, as well as graded commentary of written exemplars. I'd not found any such exemplary materials for other languages until now:

LINK

You can see videos of people speaking at levels graded between A1 and C2 in English, Spanish, German, French and Italian.

Very interesting, thanks. I actually feel pretty good about my spoken French after watching those. Though I imagine being in a test situation would make a fair dent in my normal level of speaking. :-)

Quote:
Not having perfect passive skills in all of these languages, I got to wondering: what CEFR level of passive understanding is generally needed to understand a qualifying oral production at the different CEFR levels? For example, if you understand at B2 competency, can you understand the people speaking here graded as C2, or do you need C1-level understanding, or is B1 enough?

I have no idea. Personally, I found it easy to understand all the French levels, but I know I certainly couldn't express myself as fluently as those C2 speakers. (On the other hand, the Spanish C2 lost me within about 25 seconds :-D).

Edited by tastyonions on 16 October 2013 at 1:02am

3 persons have voted this message useful



geoffw
Triglot
Senior Member
United States
Joined 4686 days ago

1134 posts - 1865 votes 
Speaks: English*, German, Yiddish
Studies: Modern Hebrew, French, Dutch, Italian, Russian

 
 Message 138 of 251
02 December 2013 at 1:01am | IP Logged 
No posts in this log for a while, but I'm still plugging away when I can, mostly reading and some radio listening.
Among other things, I've been reading a book I got from deastore.com called "Das Cusanus Spiel" (German,
obviously). It's a future post-apocalyptic time travelers trying to undo the apocalypse book, from what I can tell at
about 175 pages into this 700+ pager. What I thought people here might find most interesting is the occasional
casual mixing of other languages into the mix. For example, most of the action thus far has taken place in Italy,
first in Rome, and recently Venice. Place names and government institutions are frequently referenced in Italian,
and basic Italian phrases are sometimes sprinkled into the mix for good measure. It would be harder to follow
without my basic Italian. And just recently, as part of a demonstration of their futuristic language learning
technology, we see how the protagonist has knowledge of Dutch implanted into her brain. While wandering in a
kind of virtual reality public market, she starts talking to a merchant, and suddenly the book is in Dutch. Nothing
super advanced, and it only lasts for about half a page before switching back (mostly) to German, but again, it
would be very disorienting if I hadn't studied Dutch already.

Neat stuff. It's not on the level of Umberto Eco's "Name of the Rose" for bewildering language mixing for plot
purposes, but enough to keep me more amused than without the linguistic diversions.
4 persons have voted this message useful



Serpent
Octoglot
Senior Member
Russian Federation
serpent-849.livejour
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Speaks: Russian*, English, FinnishC1, Latin, German, Italian, Spanish, Portuguese
Studies: Danish, Romanian, Polish, Belarusian, Ukrainian, Croatian, Slovenian, Catalan, Czech, Galician, Dutch, Swedish

 
 Message 139 of 251
02 December 2013 at 3:00am | IP Logged 
Haha sounds good! For more multilingual books, may I just recommend Sapkowski's trilogy about Reynevan? :) They're originally in Polish though, but a German translation is available at bookdepository. Even the titles reflect the multilingualism: Narrenturm, Gottesstreiter, Lux perpetua. Well, less noticeable in German, but Narrenturm is named like that in the original too.
1 person has voted this message useful



Hekje
Diglot
Senior Member
United States
Joined 4701 days ago

842 posts - 1330 votes 
Speaks: English*, Dutch
Studies: French, Indonesian

 
 Message 140 of 251
02 December 2013 at 6:03pm | IP Logged 
geoffw wrote:
And just recently, as part of a demonstration of their futuristic language learning
technology, we see how the protagonist has knowledge of Dutch implanted into her brain. While wandering in a
kind of virtual reality public market, she starts talking to a merchant, and suddenly the book is in Dutch. Nothing
super advanced, and it only lasts for about half a page before switching back (mostly) to German, but again, it
would be very disorienting if I hadn't studied Dutch already.

That's awesome. Reminds me of that German-language conversation from De Aanslag. Did you feel like a
beneficiary of futuristic language-learning technology (being able to understand the Dutch)? :-P
1 person has voted this message useful



geoffw
Triglot
Senior Member
United States
Joined 4686 days ago

1134 posts - 1865 votes 
Speaks: English*, German, Yiddish
Studies: Modern Hebrew, French, Dutch, Italian, Russian

 
 Message 141 of 251
02 December 2013 at 6:15pm | IP Logged 
Hekje wrote:

Did you feel like a
beneficiary of futuristic language-learning technology (being able to understand the
Dutch)? :-P


Not really. I was preoccupied with the fact that this was possibly the same technology
that Keanu Reeves used to learn
Kung Fu.

But I did spend a good bit of time going back over this section trying to figure out
which words might have been difficult to guess without having studied Dutch, and
whether I would have been able to figure all or most of it out based on cognates,
because I didn't have the possibly intended experience of half-following, half-being
confused.
3 persons have voted this message useful



Hekje
Diglot
Senior Member
United States
Joined 4701 days ago

842 posts - 1330 votes 
Speaks: English*, Dutch
Studies: French, Indonesian

 
 Message 142 of 251
02 December 2013 at 11:13pm | IP Logged 
geoffw wrote:
Not really. I was preoccupied with the fact that this was possibly the same technology
that Keanu Reeves used to learn
Kung Fu.

But I did spend a good bit of time going back over this section trying to figure out
which words might have been difficult to guess without having studied Dutch, and
whether I would have been able to figure all or most of it out based on cognates,
because I didn't have the possibly intended experience of half-following, half-being
confused.

Hahaha, oh Keanu.

But yeah, I would wonder the same thing. The book is German, and German and Dutch are quite close, so I'm
guessing that the author did intend it to be pretty transparent. Sounds like a good book.
1 person has voted this message useful



geoffw
Triglot
Senior Member
United States
Joined 4686 days ago

1134 posts - 1865 votes 
Speaks: English*, German, Yiddish
Studies: Modern Hebrew, French, Dutch, Italian, Russian

 
 Message 143 of 251
10 December 2013 at 3:40am | IP Logged 
SUPER CHALLENGE UPDATE - Dutch Challenge COMPLETE

Against all odds, I have finished my Half Super-Challenge in Dutch, a language I never really intended to study in
the first place. Intending to learn French, I also signed up, more or less on a whim, for the Half Super Challenge in
Dutch, and said something along the lines of "who knows?" Now I know. At this point, I can comfortably read YA
level fiction for fun and understand most news items, and I can watch TV news and documentaries without much
trouble. And I even can hold a simple conversation, though I'm still fairly shaky--not at all surprising given that I've
only had maybe 4 total conversations so far.

Just like when I signed up for the SC, I still have no great dreams of mastering this charming language, merely an
openness and enthusiasm to stick with it a while longer (TAC 2014!) and to say "who knows?"

BOOKS (Italian): 3. ...

FILMS, ETC. (Italian): 50. COMPLETE

BOOKS (French): 22. ...

FILMS, ETC. (French): 50. COMPLETE

BOOKS (Dutch):
42-44. De Reisgenoten (LoTR1)(partially complete)
45-50. Harry Potter en de Orde van de Feniks (partially complete)

FILMS, ETC. (Dutch): 50. COMPLETE

I am not entered in any Super Challenge for German, but I also am still reporting for my log:

BOOKS (German): 25. ...

FILMS, ETC. (German): 75. ...
5 persons have voted this message useful





songlines
Pro Member
Canada
flickr.com/photos/cp
Joined 5207 days ago

729 posts - 1056 votes 
Speaks: English*
Studies: French
Personal Language Map

 
 Message 144 of 251
10 December 2013 at 1:28pm | IP Logged 
geoffw wrote:
SUPER CHALLENGE UPDATE

BOOKS (French): 22. ...

FILMS, ETC. (French): 50. COMPLETE
.


Well done and congratuations, fellow-PAX member!



1 person has voted this message useful



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