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Hidden’s TAC 2013 Log Team Asian 鶴 | ||
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 Language Learning Forum : Language Learning Log |  | |
| Hidden Linguist Groupie United Kingdom Joined 4357 days ago 64 posts - 87 votes  Speaks: English* Studies: German, Spanish, Mandarin, Sign Language, French | Message 33 of 68 29 March 2013 at 3:33pm | IP Logged | |||||
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Thanks for the responses druckfehler and Bakunin.
I think I’ve pretty much decided that I’m going to give in and stop fighting it (even sitting here typing this I keep glancing over at the books on my table). Yeah, I’m doomed.
It’s great that you managed to get something good out of it. Maybe indulging in another language will do the same for me and reaffirm my love for German/Mandarin. Half of me hopes that, after a while, I’ll have satisfied my wanderlust and be able to settle back down to my 2 focus languages…the other half hopes that I’ll be able to keep the enthusiasm going and incorporate a new language into my routine.
Perhaps I should try treating it like a ‘reward system’, i.e. I can study a wanderlust language after I’ve done my main language studies for the day. This would, hopefully, allow me to satisfy my curiosity and still keep German/Mandarin as my priorities. ____________________________________________________________ ___________ First I need to decide which language I’m going to try. At the moment I’m considering… Spanish I had the chance to try Spanish before but ‘real life’ reared its ugly head and I had to drop it. It was a lot of fun and I have more than enough resources to get going with it again so this one would make a lot of sense. French I still have my mum’s Michel Thomas CD’s, so that seems as good a place to start as any. There were also a ton of resources for French at the library (one of the benefits of it being a ‘mainstream’ foreign language in the UK I guess). I studied French for a while at school, where my love of it was systematically destroyed over the course of our ‘lessons’. [sarcasm]Yay for the British method of language teaching in schools.[/sarcasm] I’ve tried to pick French back up a couple of times before, but failed miserably. Maybe it’s time to give it another try on my own terms? Czech Czech is a language that I’ve considered learning before, but I didn’t manage to get any resources for it. There was a ‘Teach Yourself Czech’ course at the library (and consequently it’s one of the ones that are sat on my table taunting me). Cantonese Unfortunately most of the Cantonese materials at my library have apparently gone ‘missing’. They’re listed on the catalogue but are not on the shelves (the person that I spoke to believed that they may have been stolen). :( I did manage to find one short course, which would be better than nothing I guess. Thai Seeing other people in my TAC team studying this language has really piqued my interest. It looks like such a wonderful language to learn. Unfortunately I’m really limited by the lack of teaching resources available to me. My financial situation isn’t great at the moment (which is a slightly more ‘respectable’ way of saying that I’m almost broke) so my options are pretty limited here, however, if anyone could suggest a good (and not too expensive) course for Thai (preferably one that teaches the writing system as well, as I like to work on reading/writing simultaneously alongside speaking/listening) I would seriously consider it as an option. Hmm…decisions, decisions… Edited by Hidden Linguist on 29 March 2013 at 3:34pm 1 person has voted this message useful | ||||||
| js6426 Diglot Senior Member Cambodia Joined 4518 days ago 277 posts - 349 votes Speaks: English*, Khmer Studies: Mandarin | Message 34 of 68 29 March 2013 at 4:33pm | IP Logged | |||||
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Seeing your issues with wanderlust and the fact that you're thinking of studying Cantonese is making me incredibly
tempted to start Cantonese also! Good luck whichever language you go with! 1 person has voted this message useful | ||||||
| Bakunin Diglot Senior Member Switzerland outerkhmer.blogspot. Joined 5128 days ago 531 posts - 1126 votes Speaks: German*, Thai Studies: Khmer | Message 35 of 68 29 March 2013 at 5:10pm | IP Logged | |||||
Have a look at this website, that's the most complete and up-to-date list of free resources for Thai. I'm sure you can also find copies of standard textbooks floating around somewhere in cyberspace. 2 persons have voted this message useful | ||||||
| Hidden Linguist Groupie United Kingdom Joined 4357 days ago 64 posts - 87 votes Speaks: English* Studies: German, Spanish, Mandarin, Sign Language, French | Message 36 of 68 29 March 2013 at 8:16pm | IP Logged | |||||
Lol. Language wanderlust must be contagious. I have to admit that Cantonese is a really tempting option. The downside to it is that there doesn't seem to be anywhere near as many teaching materials available for Cantonese as there are for Mandarin. Or maybe I'm just not looking in the right places?
Well...there goes my evening. O.O Thanks for the link Bakunin, it looks like I'll be spending a while exploring some Thai sites. I still haven't decided which language to learn, but I'm starting to lean towards either Thai or Cantonese. I think it's because I love the tones from Mandarin, so doing another tonal language really appeals to me. :) 1 person has voted this message useful | ||||||
| js6426 Diglot Senior Member Cambodia Joined 4518 days ago 277 posts - 349 votes Speaks: English*, Khmer Studies: Mandarin | Message 37 of 68 30 March 2013 at 2:40am | IP Logged | |||||
Definitely nothing like the same amount of resources for Cantonese. There is a TYS, Colloquial and one Pimsleur. Think I remember hearing there is an FSI but it isn't very good. I guess the advantage of being able to speak Mandarin first is that you can then use Chinese resources to learn Cantonese. Ari has a thread with all the resources he knows for Cantonese, and he has another thread about the chinesepod method he used. Tones are definitely what attract me to Cantonese also, I like the sound of Cantonese even more than Mandarin! This is the resource thread for Canto - http://how-to-learn-any-language.com/forum/forum_posts.asp? TID=30893&PN=1 2 persons have voted this message useful | ||||||
| Hidden Linguist Groupie United Kingdom Joined 4357 days ago 64 posts - 87 votes Speaks: English* Studies: German, Spanish, Mandarin, Sign Language, French | Message 38 of 68 30 March 2013 at 8:31pm | IP Logged | |||||
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Mandarin
I’ve started looking at some G.C.S.E resources. Given that it seems to be almost impossible to find any Chinese courses near me, actually being able to take the exam seems pretty unlikely, but I’m glad that I can at least start looking at the material without my head threatening to implode. Wanderlust I managed to narrow down my ‘wanderlust list’ to Cantonese and Thai…but then I couldn’t choose between the two…....so I’m going to do both. :) Crazy perhaps? However, I believe that it will sort itself out in the end. Either I’ll end up spending more time on one and the other will naturally fall away, or I’ll keep both of them going until I’ve naturally exhausted my wanderlust. Of course there’s also the third ‘terrifying’ possibility...I might become hopelessly addicted to both of them and end up with 4 ‘main’ languages. O.O Thanks for the link to Ari’s thread js6426 it looks like there are a lot of good links in there. :) _________________________________________ Mini Rant: I decided to see if I could find any other language forums for people learning Chinese…and ended up having to spend the last couple of hours cleaning up my computer. Stupid viruses! I really hate the internet sometimes. X( Edited by Hidden Linguist on 30 March 2013 at 8:32pm 1 person has voted this message useful | ||||||
| Hidden Linguist Groupie United Kingdom Joined 4357 days ago 64 posts - 87 votes Speaks: English* Studies: German, Spanish, Mandarin, Sign Language, French | Message 39 of 68 02 April 2013 at 1:12am | IP Logged | |||||
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Mandarin
*sighs* A major downside to learning a tonal language seems to be that none of the sources can agree on which tones apply to the words. I think I’ve mentioned this before but it’s really irritating seeing the same words in different books with inconsistent tones. When I’m learning a new word for the first time how in the heck am I supposed to know which ones are right…or in fact if any of them are? I’ve decided that tomorrow will be “Vocab day” because I need to spend some time going over some of the vocabulary that I already know. I don’t want to start forgetting things and slipping backwards through non-use. O.o Wanderlust I’ve spent about an hour each on Thai and Cantonese so far, mostly reading about the languages themselves. I want to find a decent pronunciation guide for their respective romanisations, after all there’s no point in learning the words if I don’t know how to say them properly (my ears refuse to distinguish between some sounds at the moment, so I need something). If anyone can recommend a good guide for either Cantonese (jyutping) or Thai pronunciation I’d appreciate it. :) I’m still going through the links on the website that Bakunin linked to, so maybe I’ll find something on there? *fingers crossed* 1 person has voted this message useful | ||||||
| Bakunin Diglot Senior Member Switzerland outerkhmer.blogspot. Joined 5128 days ago 531 posts - 1126 votes Speaks: German*, Thai Studies: Khmer | Message 40 of 68 02 April 2013 at 6:56am | IP Logged | |||||
I would try to figure it out by listening to those words which you see conflicting pinyin for.
Sorry, I can't be of much help here. I started learning Thai with a very long silent period where I just listened and watched. During that period, I learned to distinguish all sounds and tones and what have you automatically. When I later started learning to read, the link to pronunciation was already quite solid. I've often seen people advise against relying on romanisation, but I can't really comment. I hope you find what you're looking for on the website I linked to. Edited by Bakunin on 02 April 2013 at 6:58am 1 person has voted this message useful |
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