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Hidden Linguist Groupie United Kingdom Joined 4357 days ago 64 posts - 87 votes Speaks: English* Studies: German, Spanish, Mandarin, Sign Language, French
| Message 49 of 68 03 May 2013 at 9:56pm | IP Logged |
I thought I’d managed to stave off the worst of my wanderlust…I was wrong.
I finally got around to returning the library books that I borrowed over a month ago for languages that I eventually decided not to start and, as I was putting them into a bag to take back to the library, some of the books just jumped right back out…all on their own…honest. I know it sounds unlikely. I was as surprised as anyone. *Boing* they went and straight back onto my desk. O.O
Short story is; now I’ve started Czech (which I’d planned to have a go at soon anyway), Hindi, Urdu and British Sign Language. And, as if that wasn’t enough…I think I’m finally ready to give French another try.
So now my list of languages is…
German - Main
Mandarin - Main
Cantonese - Main
Thai - Wanderlust
Spanish - Wanderlust
French - Wanderlust
Czech - Wanderlust
Hindi - Wanderlust
Urdu - Wanderlust
BSL - Wanderlust
Obviously my main languages still get priority and, because of the 6WC, Cantonese is currently getting more attention than German/Mandarin. The others I’m just going to dabble in as and when I feel like it/have the time.
I think I may need ‘professional help’ O.O
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| druckfehler Triglot Senior Member Germany Joined 4866 days ago 1181 posts - 1912 votes Speaks: German*, EnglishC2, Korean Studies: Persian
| Message 50 of 68 03 May 2013 at 10:52pm | IP Logged |
Wow, that's quite a list!
Well, there's no harm in indulging a little wanderlust... As long as you're doing it for fun and don't expect to learn all those languages at once - and quickly - it seems perfectly fine ;)
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| Hidden Linguist Groupie United Kingdom Joined 4357 days ago 64 posts - 87 votes Speaks: English* Studies: German, Spanish, Mandarin, Sign Language, French
| Message 51 of 68 05 May 2013 at 1:42pm | IP Logged |
druckfehler wrote:
Wow, that's quite a list!
Well, there's no harm in indulging a little wanderlust... As long as you're doing it for fun and don't expect to learn all those languages at once - and quickly - it seems perfectly fine ;) |
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Oh don't worry; I have no delusions about learning these languages quickly, in fact it will probably be a long time before I can even lose the 'beginner' status for them. I just plan to have a lot of fun and maybe use them to break up the study of my main three a bit when I need a distraction. :)
A little madness to ward off the insanity I guess.
Edited by Hidden Linguist on 05 May 2013 at 1:43pm
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| Hidden Linguist Groupie United Kingdom Joined 4357 days ago 64 posts - 87 votes Speaks: English* Studies: German, Spanish, Mandarin, Sign Language, French
| Message 52 of 68 06 May 2013 at 4:36pm | IP Logged |
6WC Update
Well, as expected, I haven't managed to match the hours of my first day again (it was a bit extreme for me) but I'm still getting in some good study time, so I'm more than happy with that.
The limited resources in Cantonese are proving to be a bit of a problem, not just because it’s so much harder to find them, but also because there are so many different romanisations used. At least with Mandarin it’s usually pinyin. With Cantonese, I just start getting used to one type of romanisation then, when I use another source, I have to switch. It’s very confusing and makes it extremely difficult (at least for me) to compare sources for accuracy, particularly when tones for words contradict each other in different sources (and sometimes even in the same ones). :(
I’ve had this problem with Mandarin as well (contradicting tones being taught) and pretty much the only solution appears to be to try and find an audio example of the words and attempt to work it out for myself. It seems far from ideal considering my very limited exposure to the language, but I guess I’ll just have to keep trying and hope that I get it right (a very frustrating way to learn in my opinion).
At the moment I’m viewing romanisations as a necessary evil and I’ll be very happy when I can drop them completely.
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| Hidden Linguist Groupie United Kingdom Joined 4357 days ago 64 posts - 87 votes Speaks: English* Studies: German, Spanish, Mandarin, Sign Language, French
| Message 53 of 68 07 June 2013 at 5:40pm | IP Logged |
My slightly belated May update.
May was a very slow month for me language wise. Even though I had time to study, I just didn't feel like doing it and there were an awful lot of ‘no study at all’ days for me. It's a frustrating situation but I'll get through it.
The one language that I actually got a decent amount of time in last month was Cantonese and that’s mostly due to my signing up for the 6WC with it.
Mandarin
I haven’t managed as much as I’d like. I had a go at my team’s grammar challenge but didn’t complete it, although I did learn some nice new constructions as a result. :)
Cantonese
After the initial enthusiasm of the 6WC faded my time spent on Cantonese dropped back significantly but I still got in a fair bit of time (although most of that was in the first couple of weeks).
I could probably do better with Cantonese if I focused a bit more instead of jumping around through different resources (I’m still trying to find one that I ‘click’ with).
German
I’ve been very disappointed with my attitude towards German lately as, despite it being one of my ‘main’ languages, I have done almost no study for it. :(
I’m trying not to worry about it too much as I don’t want to spoil my love of the language by forcing myself to study. Hopefully I’ll be back on track with German again soon.
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| druckfehler Triglot Senior Member Germany Joined 4866 days ago 1181 posts - 1912 votes Speaks: German*, EnglishC2, Korean Studies: Persian
| Message 54 of 68 07 June 2013 at 5:45pm | IP Logged |
Same here, May wasn't my most productive study month. Anyway, now that it's summer sitting at home learning languages isn't quite as tempting as it is in the winter months :)
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| Hidden Linguist Groupie United Kingdom Joined 4357 days ago 64 posts - 87 votes Speaks: English* Studies: German, Spanish, Mandarin, Sign Language, French
| Message 55 of 68 08 July 2013 at 8:36pm | IP Logged |
June Update
Things have been a bit hectic in that dreaded thing called ‘real life’ lately but, fortunately, my exams are now over and I have no more deadlines to meet (at least for a couple of months) so I can get back to some serious language study (while panicking about my results). Oh well…it’s all in the hands of the examiners now I guess.
Languages
My interest in German has started to rekindle itself over the last few weeks, which I’m very happy about. My pronunciation and vocabulary have certainly suffered from my lack of attention to the language but it’s already starting to come back so, hopefully, no permanent ‘damage’ done there.
Mandarin and Cantonese are still going well, slowly but steadily, although I’ve been unable to attend my conversation group or have any italki lessons lately due to being ‘financially challenged’ at the moment (otherwise known as ‘broke’).
Wanderlust Languages
I haven’t spent a great deal of time on any of these but then I didn’t expect to either. They’re here to give me a diversion every now and again and break up my other studies. So far this is a role that they are fulfilling perfectly.
Hindi and Urdu are on hold until I can find another resource, as it seems that the Teach Yourself courses and I are not destined to get on with each other. I might give the Teach Yourself courses another try in a couple of weeks but, at the moment, they are just frustrating me.
Other
The rolled ‘r’ is my new nemesis and is proving to be a bit of a problem for me but I know that resolving this is just going to require time, practice and patience on my part (easier said than done I'm sure).
I intend to spend some time catching up on reading my team mates logs as I’m afraid I’ve been a bit lax with this lately, which is a shame as I do enjoy seeing what everyone else is up to.
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| Hidden Linguist Groupie United Kingdom Joined 4357 days ago 64 posts - 87 votes Speaks: English* Studies: German, Spanish, Mandarin, Sign Language, French
| Message 56 of 68 29 July 2013 at 6:10pm | IP Logged |
It’s time to be brutal! Over the last couple of months I’ve allowed myself to indulge in my wanderlust and start more languages than I should have, even when I knew full well that I wouldn’t be able keep them all going. It was fun ‘test-driving’ them, but now I have to be more realistic and narrow down my list (no matter how much it hurts).
The Casualties
Hindi – Dropped a few weeks ago because I didn’t get on with the resources that I had
Urdu – Same as Hindi
Thai – I never really got started with it, so it makes sense for Thai to be one of the ones that I drop
Cantonese – Difficult decision but I want to focus more on Mandarin at the moment.
Czech – Lack of resources :(
Of these the hardest one to drop was Czech. It's right near the top of my (admittedly rather long) list of ‘languages that I want to learn’, however, I just can’t seem to get on with the resources that I have for it (Teach Yourself/Colloquial). So, it’s time to say a sad (but definitely temporary) farewell to this beautiful language. :(
On the plus side I now have even more incentive to work on improving my German because, apparently, Assimil have a German based Czech course and I have a birthday coming up in a few months. ;)
I expect that learning a new language through a second language will prove to be an 'interesting' challenge, but I can't wait to give it a try. :)
The Survivors
German
Mandarin
French
Spanish
BSL
This is a shorter but, hopefully, more manageable list. Although, I know it’s still a lot to be working on at once (I just couldn’t bear to drop any more). I also know that I will eventually return to the languages that I’ve dropped (especially Czech) but, for now; Time to focus!
Edited by Hidden Linguist on 29 July 2013 at 6:13pm
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