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Henkkles’ Collective Endeavors 2014 | ||
Tags: Uralic Languages | Estonian | Colloquial (program) | Germanic Languages | Wanderlust | Icelandic | Romance Languages | Linguistics | Teach Yourself | Michel Thomas | Literature | Swedish | FSI | Learning Technique/Method | Learning Strategy | Assimil | Russian | German | French | Spanish | ||
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 Language Learning Forum : Language Learning Log |  | |
| Henkkles Triglot Senior Member Finland Joined 4255 days ago 544 posts - 1141 votes  Speaks: Finnish*, English, Swedish Studies: Russian | Message 1 of 33 30 December 2013 at 6:36pm | IP Logged |
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Project Germania has been merged into this thread as of 30.12.2013.
So I thought about this for a while and I came to the conclusion that I should keep everything in its own place instead of having separate logs for every blasted thing. So you have stumbled upon my 2014 log concerning all of the languages I will try to cram in my little head. Languages featured in this log are as follows; Indo-European: 1. Russian -Goal: to accumulate vocabulary enough to read a novel (you may suggest something easy yet meaningful) and to get the grammar to a level where I find myself satisfied with all aspects of it (I would say I'm halfway there); apply my oral skills and WORK ON THAT LISTENING COMPREHENSION! 2. German -Goal: kind of similar goals with Russian concerning the written language, I don't have to work with German to the extent I have to work with Russian on the communicative level though (luckily!) 3. Icelandic -Goal: To be the best Icelandic speaker I can be under the circumstances. I don't know when I'll be reading novels in Icelandic, I hope for it to be soon. I also hope to get to go there during 2014. I also have to find someone to speak to. 4. Swedish -Goal: I will be doing my mandatory Swedish course at uni early next year so I'll have to brush it up a bit. I'm pretty confident with it but I should just use it and it'll be fine. 5. French -Goal: I have recently embarked on the study of elementary French, because we are planning on renting a house from France for a few weeks for my dad's birthday, so we'd be leaving in the end of April and I figured I'd have good time to cram some in my head before going there. 6. Spanish -Goal: I promised a friend of mine to start learning Spanish in 2014 so that's what I'm going to do. I just want to develop a conversational vocabulary in the beginning, know the basic grammar, conjugate verbs correctly and so on and so forth. Spanish and French have 75% lexical similarity so words learned in one should be semi-applicable in the other in at least every other case. Uralic: 7. Estonian -Goal: To complete courses, read books, develop a reading knowledge and use the language. It's not difficult for a finnophone so it doesn't require all that hard labour most other languages would. 8. Northern Saami -Goal: Complete university courses, develop my skills further. Fluency of sorts is not in sight as of yet but I'll have to see where I get during 2014. Plans and diary will follow in the next post. Edited by Henkkles on 30 December 2013 at 6:39pm 1 person has voted this message useful | |
| Henkkles Triglot Senior Member Finland Joined 4255 days ago 544 posts - 1141 votes Speaks: Finnish*, English, Swedish Studies: Russian | Message 2 of 33 30 December 2013 at 6:38pm | IP Logged |
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So this is both an experiment in multiple-language juggling and an experiment in many different language learning methods.
Methodoly: 1. Russian I will be reading Russian and participating in a spoken Russian course at the university. I will also be looking to better my listening comprehension, for which I could use help. Books: Хочу всё знать! Russian Stories - a dual-language book Great Russian Short Stories of the 20th Century - a dual-language book Можно и грамматика! - Venäjän kielioppi Кафе Питер 3 - Venäjää taitotasolla B1 2. German I am trying to learn German by playing video games in German. Currently I'm playing Fallout 3 - Game of the Year edition and I'm understanding everything on a relatively high level. I can enjoy the game fully with dialogue and all. I also have books. Books: More than humanly possible to count, maybe I'll create an inventory of these at some point... 3. Icelandic I'm currently working through every self-study book I can find and I'm also enrolling on a course at university that will take five months. Books: Jón Gíslason - Allt í lagi - Islannin kielen oppikirja P.J.T. Glendening - Teach Yourself Icelandic (old version) Stefán Einarsson - Icelandic Grammar Texts Glossary 4. Swedish I will be participating in a Swedish course at uni at B1 level which should be more or less a breeze. I will try to read through Stieg Larsson's Millenium trilogy in its original language throughout 2014 though. If I have time I will try a few other books too. 5. French Michel Thomas and an assortment of textbooks. 6. Spanish Same as French. 7. Estonian Reading textbooks intended for Finns, I'm working through my second one right now. I also have a few native materials and a novel that is originally in Finnish and its Estonian translation which will let me compare the two. 8. Northern Saami I have a novel in Finnish that has been translated into Saami, also I'm going to the continuation course at university and I have a few studybooks of my own. Edited by Henkkles on 07 January 2014 at 9:26am 1 person has voted this message useful | |
| Expugnator Hexaglot Senior Member Brazil Joined 5168 days ago 3335 posts - 4349 votes Speaks: Portuguese*, Norwegian, French, English, Italian, Papiamento Studies: Mandarin, Georgian, Russian | Message 3 of 33 03 January 2014 at 5:44pm | IP Logged |
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Sounds like a nice plan, Henkkles! I'd like to know more about Estonian, evne though
you're learning it from the point of view of Finnish. I'm also studying Russian and German, and Norwegian instead of Swedish, though. 1 person has voted this message useful | |
| Henkkles Triglot Senior Member Finland Joined 4255 days ago 544 posts - 1141 votes Speaks: Finnish*, English, Swedish Studies: Russian | Message 4 of 33 07 January 2014 at 9:25am | IP Logged |
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So what have I been up to!
I spent the time 1.1.-6.1. in Lapland meeting family. Studying was not very intensive but I did get stuff done. There was a limited mobile library I could drag with me due to weight restrictions in airplanes. Icelandic: I read through the old Teach Yourself Icelandic with a lot of paradigms. Now I'm reading it through by doing all exercises in the book, which are all "translate into Icelandic" and "translate into English". I'm feeling my confidence with Icelandic going up, although it's still not extremely high, but that's understandable. Estonian and German: I've been reading Agatha Christie's Death on the Nile first in Finnish translation, then the same chapter in Estonian and then the same chapter again in German. It's letting me compare the influence German has had on Estonian as well as the differences with Finnish it has. It's interesting. Also done a chapter of German for Reading. Spanish: I've listened to 25% of the Foundation course. Edited by Henkkles on 07 January 2014 at 9:31am 1 person has voted this message useful | |
| Henkkles Triglot Senior Member Finland Joined 4255 days ago 544 posts - 1141 votes Speaks: Finnish*, English, Swedish Studies: Russian | Message 5 of 33 12 January 2014 at 10:42am | IP Logged |
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Estonian class begins tomorrow! So far I've spent my winter break revising a lot of Estonian, with Reet Kaasik's "Hakkame rääkima! Viron kielen peruskurssi" which I have now read through. It was a pretty good book, long chapters and new grammar in between each.
I've also been revising Russian with Кафе Питер 3, where I've just read each chapter and grammar explanations. I've still not mastered all grammar but I intend to start working on it more intensely. Not with this book though, I just wanted to see what it's about. I'm intending on starting "Roots of the Russian Language". Working through the Living German course, I'm in the beginning and so far it hasn't had anything new, up until chapter eight there have only been new words for me that have been few and far between (names of costumes mostly). After that I'm going to read through Deutsch Direkt! and Deutsch Express! which are parts of the BBC-made German course. Íslenskir leskaflar is the future of my Icelandic, after having worked through both the old and the new Teach Yourself. I didn't finish the Colloquial course because someone else had reserved the book from the library and thus I couldn't renew my loan, but now I think I will be able to work through it. With French, I'm reading three separate books, Assimil, Teach Yourself and Hugo in Three Months, working slowly and steadily with each. For Spanish I have a few books too, but I've yet to use them as I'm listening through the Michel Thomas course first. Expugnator, what do you want to know? I'd be happy to give you an answer if I know an answer exists. 1 person has voted this message useful | |
| Expugnator Hexaglot Senior Member Brazil Joined 5168 days ago 3335 posts - 4349 votes Speaks: Portuguese*, Norwegian, French, English, Italian, Papiamento Studies: Mandarin, Georgian, Russian | Message 6 of 33 12 January 2014 at 1:32pm | IP Logged |
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Nothing special for the moment, I just want to follow your remarks, and I actually just
posted a question at my log. 1 person has voted this message useful | |
| Henkkles Triglot Senior Member Finland Joined 4255 days ago 544 posts - 1141 votes Speaks: Finnish*, English, Swedish Studies: Russian | Message 7 of 33 14 January 2014 at 8:42pm | IP Logged |
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Oki doki.
Another "little" update: Eesti keel Estonian is going nice, a remark about the paradigms: they are a pain in the arse because Estonians just can't pick one way to form some of their cases and all in all the singular partitive is largely guesswork because I keep forgetting the damned guidelines to forming them. Deutsch I've noticed great improvement that snuck on me lately. I'm not great or anything but I can actually write German with a pretty good accuracy and confidence. I just need more confidence and more vocabulary. A friend of mine recommended the Berliner Platz series which I will work through after Living German. Íslenska Icelandic is beginning to make sense. There are some paradigms that are a bit hazy like strong adjectival plural and those but it's all going nifty. I'm going to start L-R:ing Arnaldur Indríðason's "Mýrin" (Jar City), I have all necessary materials. I have also hoarded so many Icelandic materials from my library it's almost embarrassing. Also I'm having lectures in Icelandic on Thursdays and Fridays which will be fun. Russian Haven't done much with my Russian to my embarrassment but I do partake in a speech-course on Tuesdays and Thursdays which means I'm working on Russian at least for days a week and two times a week extensively. Northern Sami This one is kind of tough so I have to read the basic books over and over again and I have more studybooks a-coming. I really have to drill the basic paradigms and vocab into my mind, but it's not easy because each verb is conjugated for nine persons and like four moods and different types of verbs get different endings and so on and so forth. It is tricky but I'm getting there. Lectures are helping a little. *Skolt Sami This is just a course I enrolled in because it's a rarity that they actually hold a course in this. I can understand very basic things on the basis of the other Sami language I study but this one is really interesting and I'd like to know more about it. I won't even try to get anywhere far but I'd like to be a solid beginner and understand how it works because I'm interested in Sami languages. Spanish Michel Thomas Foundation course - CD 7, not much to report, the basics are falling in place. Slowly but steadily as Spanish and French are my "if you have extra time, do these" projects. French Nothing new on west front. See "Spanish". Edited by Henkkles on 14 January 2014 at 8:42pm 1 person has voted this message useful | |
| Henkkles Triglot Senior Member Finland Joined 4255 days ago 544 posts - 1141 votes Speaks: Finnish*, English, Swedish Studies: Russian | Message 8 of 33 17 January 2014 at 8:17pm | IP Logged |
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A minor update:
I have reached critical mass with Icelandic as in beginner's books no longer have anything new to teach to me that would be worth reading through them, so I've decided to work through only the last quarter or so of each book and I have already initiated L-R. I'm actually doing a triangulated Swedish-Icelandic learning experiment. I have Tove Jansson's Kometen kommer in print and audiobook in Swedish and I have the paperback in Icelandic. I also have Arnaldur Indriðason's (or should I say -sonar) Mýrin in print and audiobook in Icelandic and the English translation as paperback, so that's a more "proper" L-R experience. 1 person has voted this message useful |
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