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 Language Learning Forum : Language Learning Log |  | |
| Nieng Zhonghan Bilingual Tetraglot Senior Member Antarctica Joined 3673 days ago 108 posts - 315 votes  Speaks: Portuguese*, Japanese*, Spanish, Galician Studies: Finnish, Icelandic, Armenian, Mongolian Studies: Old English, Russian, English, German, Korean, Mandarin | Message 17 of 47 21 December 2014 at 12:18am | IP Logged | |||||
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Japanese
1. I watched 114 episodes of Saint Seiya this week. I found out one word that I didn’t know. I was surprised to watch so many episodes in a week because I am not an anime fan. Next week I am planning to watch the “Hades” series since I heard that is amazing. 2. JLPT I finished the So matome series (N3, N2 and N1). I have been doing my own anki cards for JLPT based on So-matome series. I am building separated decks for 語彙、漢字、文法 and 読解. I realized that as for the N1 （読解）, JLPT usually requires: 4 short passages (150-200 characters), 1 question each; 3 medium-length passages (up to 500 characters, "roughly 3/4 of a page"), 3 questions each; 1 long passage (about 1000 characters), 4 questions; 1 integrated comprehension: 2-3 passages on a topic, 3 questions about the "contrasts and similarities" of the passages; 1 thematic comprehension (1000 characters). Typically essays or editorials about a particular boring topic, 4 questions; 1 information retrieval, 2 questions (you don't have to read all of it anyway). Of course, this is based on the full mock exams and official exams (someone took pictures of them) I found out on the internet which apparently seems to be structured in a very similar way. 3. I restarted reading Japanese fairytales, myth and folk tales. I found out that I have bilingual stories in both Japan and English here. I will start reading the English version as well. ++ I am planning to read some traveling-related books or books related to business in Japan. English 1. I found out in a book the following expression: PR Nightmare. I was wondering what was “PR” about through the context, but I couldn’t get the idea. Here is the context: “PR Nightmare. Perhaps campy doesn't understand basic biology. In order to live, humans need oxygen, water, food -- in that order. No oxygen, you suffocate. No water, you die of thirst. No food, you die of starvation”. Learned at least one word. 2. Sitcoms I watched True Detective season 1. I didn’t like it, but I watched all the season. ++Next week I am planning to watch few episodes of the Big Bang Theory’s season 5 or The Orange is the new black season 1. ++I will read Murakami’s Norwegian wood in both Japanese and English. I think it will be a good exercise for me to improve my vocabulary. Of course, I will not rely on translated books in English. I have downloaded books from many authors and I am willing to read in its original. Chinese 1. I generally would only use TY if Assimil or a better method for immigrants is not available. I really dislike TY and Colloquial recordings because they offer very little audio and they provide too much English. The explanations are okay, but they don't cover enough material. For me, TY Chinese is not enough and I actually I am taking a look at NPCR and PAVC (Taiwanese). I think TY is by far the worst of them. 2. I am still in the process of finding a good method rather than really studying. It doesn’t make sense to keep on studying all the time if the method doesn’t fit your needs. 3. Once we get past "你好吗" (how are you?) and "我不会说中文" (I don't speak Chinese) it seems the sky's the limit, but what kinds of language can we use to improve conversational skills and extract even more information out of language exchange partners, language teachers and native speakers? As the textbooks didn’t provide some handy expressions, I decided to ask my Chinese friends to help me out. 1. Excuse me, could you say that again? (T) 對不起，請再說一遍。 This extremely versatile phrase is perfect for any occasion and beats having to pretend I understood everything someone just said. 2. I'm sorry, I don't understand (T) 對不起，我聽不懂。 I just tell my friends that I haven't got a clue and give them a chance to re-phrase, simplify, or repeat what they just said for clarification. 3. You just said ____, right? (T) 你剛才說＿＿，是嗎（對嗎）？ This is to put my conversational skills on the offensive and re-clarify what someone just said using words and language I already know. This is also an awesome way to test my chops on a word or phrase I just heard. Why do I need someone to repeat something when I can repeat it by myself? Or at least I try to use this strategy to double check I have mastered the tones of the words I am trying to repeat. 4. What I mean is... (T) 我的意思是....... Are getting a blank stare from across the table? Give myself another shot at explaining something with this gem of a phrase. 5. How do I say _____ in Chinese? (T) ＿＿用漢語怎麼說？ Before I run to my dictionary to look up a word, I try using this phrase to find out how something is said in Chinese. 6. What does _____ mean? (T) ___是什麼意思？ When Iknow how to read a character but when I don't know what the heck it means, this is a handy question. Sometimes I have been hearing a phrase over and over again but still don't know it. 7. What is this/that called? (T) ___這個／那個叫什麼？ This is handy when talking through a webcam. When I don't have a clue what to call something in my room, I start pointing and say this phrase and get ready to write down whatever the heck I hear. A perfect weapon for talking about things those are near to you and the listener. 8. Can you write that down for me? (T) 請問，您可以幫我寫下來嗎？ With this phrase I'll be making connections between spoken and written language in no time. Perfect for adding new vocabulary to my notes, anki or whatever. 9. Can you speak a little slower please? (T) 你可以說得慢一點嗎? Sometimes it isn't the content that trips us up, but rather the speed of delivery. Slow things down down with this easy-to-master phrase! I think this was the most used phrase during my language exchange session with Chinese people. 10. Can I say ____? (T) 可以說___嗎？ There is no doubt in my mind that taking risks is great way to learn a language fast. But how the heck do you know if what you said is correct or not if native speakers usually don’t correct me when they can perfectly understand what I say or write? So, I always ask my Chinese friends if my sentence is correct or not. (I usually ask one sentence per day to different people). That simple phrase allows me to check sentences with others and often leads to even more information. Korean I have reviewed TTMIK season 1 and doing some drills to stick some grammar patterns. I have made a deck by myself, too. Tenetehara I wanted to help HTLAL community by providing information about one of the few indigenous languages I have been studying. Actually I should say “I studied” because I am not interested in any Brazilian indigenous languages anymore. At least, none for now. I have actually written more than 20 pages in English summarizing the main grammar topics and the pronunciation of this rare language. Unfortunately I was a victim of an assault and consequently the criminal took my rucksack, laptop with all my folders, tablet with my backyp, two external HD with backup, 10 pen drives with all recordings and backups, my recording device with original recording, handwriting notes made by me and my acquaintance; anyway, everything related to Tenetehara is already lost. I wanted to go on fighting, but I was scared to kill the person and go to the jail (if I got caught by witnesses). Since I am no longer doing anything related to these indigenous people, language and culture, that’s all I can share. It is a pity. Language profile: Tenetehara. INTRODUCTION Tenetehara is the one of the Brazilian indigenous languages spoken by more than 5000 native speakers from Guajajara and Tembé’s people. It is spoken in Northern Brazilian state of Maranhão. Linguists classify Tenetehara as a Tupian language, belonging to Tupi-Guarani subfamily. This is subdivided into eight branches, one of which Tenetehara is classified as. Linguistic relatives include the Akwáwa, Tapirapé, Ava Canoeiro and Turiwára languages. It is believed that the last one is already extinct. At the moment, Tapirapé and Assuriní (one dialect of Akwáwa) are the most similar ones to Tenetehara in terms of phonological, morphological and syntax features. USEFULNESS Unless you plan to live on a Tenetehara reservation or ask for permission to visit either Guajajara or Tembé reservations in order to do your research, learning this language is not useful at all. Even in a reservation, most Guajajara or Tembé speak Portuguese, especially the younger ones among Tembé people. If you are interested in Tenetehara culture, however, then you would do well to make an attempt at learning this language. It is intricately tied in with the culture of the Tenetehara, and so to learn it would be to gain a window into the world of this Brazilian indigenous language. CHIC FACTOR Because of the language's relatively rarity and distinctiveness from Brazilian Portuguese, it has been fashionable to research not only Tenetehara, but many Brazilian indigenous languages as an academic linguist. There are already dictionaries available in Portuguese: “Tembé-Portuguese” and “Portuguese-Tembé”, but still more researches should be done in order to collect a huge amount of data in terms of vocabulary. Tembé people, for instance, they are in contact with the non-indigenous Brazilian people. So, how are they inserting the technology-related words? There would be many words that were out of their original context, so, if the language doesn’t die, how would they name things that originally don’t exist in their culture? There is a tendency of multilingualism in the Gurupi River where Tembé people live. They apparently speak Tenetehara, Portuguese and they apparently have basic fluency in Ka'apor language. In the other hand, Tembé people who live near Guamá river apparently cannot speak Tenetehara anymore, except for the old generation people. ECONOMIC IMPORTANCE None, really. TRAVEL OPPORTUNITIES None, really. It is not a popular destination at all. Even Brazilians from many states around Brazil probably have never heard of the Tenetehara’s reservation, unless they are engaged in research related to them. Knowing Tenetehara will allow you to travel to visit Tembé reservation located in the state of Maranhão (Alto Turiaçu), Minas Gerais (Luísa do Vale), and Pará (Alto Rio Guamá and Turé-Mariquita); and Guajajara reservation in some areas of Pará as well. COUNTRIES Spoken in Brazil. SPEAKERS About 7000 native speakers (L1). *According to SIL (2006), about 13000 people were considered to be Guajajara people. Funasa (2006) states that there were about 19000 Guajajara people. In addition, in 2011 about 1500 people were documented as Tembé. The question is how many of them speak Tenetehara as L1 as in some schools they are teaching Portuguese as a native language and Tenetehara seems are taught as L2 (after they enter the middle school). As for the Tembé’s data, Funasa hasn’t stated the fact that about 10 to 20% of Tembé people can actually speak Tenetehara at a native fluency (L1). Among 6 villages, only one uses Tenetehara (Tembé dialect) in their daily life. The other four uses Portuguese except with older people who still use Tenetehara. *No, I am not that bad at mathematics. The other one remaining tribe village, I don’t have any data. VARIATIONS Tenetehara is subdivided into two dialects, Guajajaras and Tembé both of which are mutually intelligible. **They call Tenetehara themselves; however, due to some linguistics, anthropology, social science, political, historical and many other reasons, sometimes Guajajaras are referred as the language spoken by Guajajara people and sometimes Tembé; sometimes Guajajaras may refer to the ethnic group only or even the dialect. Both Guajajara and Tembé dialects share almost the same vocabulary, the auxiliary verbs inflected and VSO in main clauses as in the following example: VSO order in any main clause: oʔok he r-imiriko tɨpɨaʔk kurɨ Translation: “So, my wife took ‘tapioca’” Oʔok : Third person of singular. I think what makes morphologically the third person is the presence of the vowel “o”. he : my. If I am not wrong, its genre is semantically considered according to the context which in this case depends entirely in the next word. r-imiriko: wife. When meaning possession, I guess “r” should be inserted before the noun. tɨpɨaʔk: tapioca kurɨ: so, therefore. Some vocabulary is indeed similar among Akwáwa, Tapirapé and Tenetehara as the following example: Tembé: Okér Assuriní (one dialect of Akwáwa): óken Parakanã (one dialect of Akwáwa): oken Meaning: “he sleeps”. Tembé: dahý or zahý Assuriní: txahýa Tapirapé: txãhý Meaning: “moon”. CULTURE Learning Tenetehara is imperative to understanding both Guajajara and Tembé culture. Despite their interesting culture, unfortunately they have been suppressed by the Brazilian people (farmers, lumbermen, squatters, hunters, politics, etc) throughout the history. It is only recently that they have been able to reclaim their territory, though it has already been proven that they cannot defend themselves. DIFFICULTIES The dearth of learning materials is probably the killer for Tenetehara - most materials are prohibitively expensive and you won’t find them easily. Hopefully this will change as interest in the language grows. TRANSPARENCY Unless you know the closely related languages, there is no transparency between Tenetehara and any other major languages in the world. TIME NEEDED Unknown. I have never seen any non-indigenous Brazilian researcher mastering Tenetehara at the point he or she could speak Tenetehara above B1 level. Brazilian researchers all need to rely on Tembé or Guajajara interpreters in order to communicate with the community. Young people apparently can more or less speak Portuguese at intermediate or basic fluency (according to the HTLAL’s definition). However, they apparently mix Tenetehara and Portuguese. I would say that it would probably need some intensive studying (ie immersion) to become fluent in Tenetehara. It is geographically not an easy task since there will be no clean water, bathroom, electric energy etc to make things easier depending on which area of the tribe you decide to visit. I am not sure how negotiations might be in order to stay in the community if you are not a recognized and registered researcher in order to stay longer in any tribe. BOOKS Unfortunately I haven’t seen any Tenetehara books written by educated Guajajara or Tembé people. The few documents I have seen so far are those registered by linguists, anthropologists and other researchers. I cannot attest the quality of the information provided in the books since I guess native speakers were kind of forced to write “anything” within the time they were asked to. SCHOOLS There are no language schools that teach Tenetehara. LINKS Unfortunately, online good and reliable Tenetehara material are near non-existent. PS: This is the document I started writing a long time ago. I have no patience for correcting the English mistakes. For those who are curious, you may consider reading: http://dice.missouri.edu/docs/tupi/Tenetehara.pdf Russian I am considering gathering information about this magnificent language for 3 months slow paced challenge. I am interested in Russian for a couple of reasons. 1. I was told that Russian is the most difficult language in the world. It fascinates me that the person has mastered about 6000 languages in the world to tell me that fact; 2. In each 101 of 100 Brazilian people (interested in Russian) I talk to, they all say that it is a very difficult language; 3. I am interested in Russian football. I want to find channels that provide live Russian football league. If anyone read this confused log by accident, please, let me know; 4. I don’t need to use Latin alphabet which makes my brain get tired; 5. There are one Ukrainian (with native fluency in Russian) and one Russian willing to exchange languages with me. 6. I am interested in the vast Russian literature. As for now, I am considering reading Bulkakov next year if I find any translation in English or Japanese. 7. I am an ambitious traveler. I am interested in traveling again to Russia, Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania where I found many Russian speakers. There are also Ukraine, Belarus, Kazakhstan, Moldova, Georgia, Armenia, Kyrgyzstan, Azerbaijan, Uzbekistan, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan and perhaps Mongolia. I guess in most of the listed countries I can meet basic, advanced fluency or native speakers of Russian. I am interested in many aspects of history, culture, music, arts and so on. 8. Free access to Russian books and resources. (I have found some websites where I can download many resources in Russian for FREE!) Edited by Nieng Zhonghan on 21 December 2014 at 1:35am 2 persons have voted this message useful | ||||||
| dampingwire Bilingual Triglot Senior Member United Kingdom Joined 4667 days ago 1185 posts - 1513 votes Speaks: English*, Italian*, French Studies: Japanese | Message 18 of 47 21 December 2014 at 12:58am | IP Logged | |||||
I'm curious: your profile lists Japanese as a native language - is that a mistake?
Wow. That must be nearly 40 hours - how do you find the time. Actually, how do you find the stamina? I usually have to interleave multiple shows to avoid the feeling of "Oh no, not another episode of X".
The context didn't help me much. "PR" usually means "public relations". So a PR nightmare would be something happening that would show you or your company or your group in a very bad light. Sorry to hear about the mugging. Hope everything's OK. Please keep posting, I'm finding the Japanese interesting (well, the bits I can follow anyway :-)) 1 person has voted this message useful | ||||||
| Nieng Zhonghan Bilingual Tetraglot Senior Member Antarctica Joined 3673 days ago 108 posts - 315 votes Speaks: Portuguese*, Japanese*, Spanish, Galician Studies: Finnish, Icelandic, Armenian, Mongolian Studies: Old English, Russian, English, German, Korean, Mandarin | Message 19 of 47 29 December 2014 at 2:04am | IP Logged | |||||
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@Dampingwire
Perhaps my situation is similar to yours. I suppose you learned Italian from your parents and you do speak Italian at home or with your family members and your relatives from Italy. However, outside your home I assume English is/was the language of your school education. As for me, Japanese is the language I learned from my parents. I speak to them in Japanese. I have doubt about which level I should have chosen, though. According to HTLAL: “Basic Fluency - you understand at least 80% of a regular newspaper in your target language and can hold regular conversations about any topic, understanding what people say and getting your point across. Advanced Fluency means that you can read a popular novel and not miss more than 2 words per page on” According to the HTLAL's definition, I am currently at the Advanced fluency level for Japanese. What level is Basic Fluency according to the CEFR? B2 level? What about Advanced Fluency? Is it somewhere between C1 or C2 level? I have seen people choosing secondary native language. Perhaps that would be the best choice, but I do need to understand what are the differences first since some people choose bilingual status... Besides that, I have had a gap of 10 years without using Japanese aside from speaking once a week (for personal purposes and some incidents...). When I was 12 years old I have mastered 2800 Kanji from my dictionary, for example. I memorized all the characters just reading them and I learned a lot of vocabulary as well. I also used to read a lot of books. At that time I was certainly far beyond my current level. To make things worse, recently a friend of mine said I lost my Japanese accent, for example, but I don't care about it. :) Saint Seiya was one of the few anime I really liked in my childhood. (The others were Dragon Ball, Dragon Ball Z, Yuyu Hakusho and a few others). I wasn't fan of watching anime, but now that I am older, I started watching some just for fan and to rest my mind. I don't remember where I read PR right now. But I realized that I will need a couple of years (or a decade) to reach C1 level. Haha. No rush is needed, though. I will take my own time. Edited by Nieng Zhonghan on 29 December 2014 at 11:51am 1 person has voted this message useful | ||||||
| Via Diva Diglot Senior Member Russian Federation last.fm/user/viadivaRegistered users can see my Skype Name Joined 4236 days ago 1109 posts - 1427 votes Speaks: Russian*, English Studies: German, Italian, French, Swedish, Esperanto, Czech, Greek | Message 20 of 47 29 December 2014 at 6:49am | IP Logged | |||||
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Who has told you that Russian is the hardest language to learn? Of course I am not quite qualified to judge here, but to me Arabic and Mandarin look much, much harder.
There are, however, a lot of nasty little things which are going to disturb you even beyond C2, but aren't they present in any language? Aaaand yeah, we're quite fond of free/pirate resources :D So there won't be a lack of material to look at, that is for sure. 2 persons have voted this message useful | ||||||
| Woodsei Bilingual Diglot Winner TAC 2012 Senior Member United States justpaste.it/Woodsei Joined 4799 days ago 614 posts - 782 votes Speaks: English*, Arabic (Egyptian)* Studies: Russian, Japanese, Hungarian | Message 21 of 47 29 December 2014 at 6:04pm | IP Logged | |||||
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Hello Nieng Zhonghan. Your log is very interesting, and I'm loving the Japanese you're
posting. I'm guessing you enjoy watching sumo? I was also guessing that you may be Japanese by heritage but have lived in a foreign country, until you confirmed it :) I'm sorry about the mugging and hope all is well. I'm also doing Russian next to Japanese, but I don't consider myself more than a beginner. I have attempted to learn it in the past few years, but then I fizzle and stop. I guess I owe this to not really thinking about my learning style, the language in question, and how I should approach it in a more motivating fashion. Hopefully I plan to work on it more seriously this year. Keep posting! It'll be interesting following your log this year! 1 person has voted this message useful | ||||||
| Nieng Zhonghan Bilingual Tetraglot Senior Member Antarctica Joined 3673 days ago 108 posts - 315 votes Speaks: Portuguese*, Japanese*, Spanish, Galician Studies: Finnish, Icelandic, Armenian, Mongolian Studies: Old English, Russian, English, German, Korean, Mandarin | Message 22 of 47 31 December 2014 at 12:10am | IP Logged | |||||
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@ Via Diva,
I tried to write ironically answering my Brazilian colleagues... For example, “In each 101 of 100 Brazilian people” doesn't make any sense. I know it is wrong, but it is due to the fact that apparently some of my colleagues haven’t had a chance to learn mathematics at school. :D Although I do believe they are lazy people, I have to agree with them that Russian is probably a difficult language for its grammar features. I mean, it is not the noun case that makes a language necessarily difficult. For instance, learning Estonian was less difficult than I thought because everything (syntax and morphology) seemed so logical and it wasn't difficult from phonological point of view as well. Tabasaran is a language that has 48 noun cases (some linguists will say 52 or even 53), but that’s just numbers. In practice, I am not afraid of languages that have many noun cases. There other reasons I would mention here: Church Slavonic inheritance and perhaps a polished vernacular foundation for the literary language are certainly some of the items that influenced modern Russian syntax. Of course, it is a matter of usage and getting used to. I won’t deny that all Russians from Moscow I have talked to (it wasn't just one or two persons, but perhaps more than 50 or 60) said that Russian is the most difficult language in the world. I even heard that from language geeks who have been learning several languages aside from Indo-European family. Mandarin’s tones are indeed something I need to learn how to deal with. I am not afraid about the amount of ideograms, though. They actually make me feel better than looking at the “messed Japanese system” (two alphabets and ideograms altogether). I personally don’t like katakana because it takes me more time to decipher than looking at the original word (let’s say most loan words nowadays come from English). It is much easier to see how “birthday” written in English instead ofバースデイ. I am sorry I am giving you a Japanese example (I assume you are not learning Japanese). But that is the way how Japanese people pronounce “birthday”. When I heard that word many years ago, I couldn't even imagine from the context I heard. Nowadays I am more used to how Japanese people speak in English, so I can guess most of the words that come up, but sometimes I feel like what the he** they are trying to say?! By the way, Mandarin’s grammar doesn’t seem to be as difficult as Russian’s. Let's see. I will try to improve my skills throughout the year and write some notes here. @Woodsei, In my childhood, I learned lots of specific Japanese terminology talking to my dad about sumo, shogi and igo (I used to play shogi), Japanese history, literature and traditional culture. Nowadays I am still fond of watching sumo whenever I have time. Mongolians have been dominating sumo for over a decade and those who are in the top division speak Japanese pretty well. How about you? I guess you are Arabic (Egyptian) as heritage, but you were raised in US. :) 1 person has voted this message useful | ||||||
| Nieng Zhonghan Bilingual Tetraglot Senior Member Antarctica Joined 3673 days ago 108 posts - 315 votes Speaks: Portuguese*, Japanese*, Spanish, Galician Studies: Finnish, Icelandic, Armenian, Mongolian Studies: Old English, Russian, English, German, Korean, Mandarin | Message 23 of 47 31 December 2014 at 12:12am | IP Logged | |||||
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Setting goals for 2015: are they the only way to live the life of our dreams? I mean,
not specifically in terms of language learning or maintaining journey, but our life in general? Many people set goals, write them down somewhere, and think about them constantly. No, I am not saying that goals are useless here. I think goals answers to this simple question: “what will you do?” (in a specific period of time). Another important question is “how are you going to achieve or do it?”. An answer to that question is through a series of actions that you take in order to achieve a result. Perhaps we can call it a process to simplify things here. More specifically, when it comes to languages we should consider the methods, techniques and a variety of approaches in order to achieve those goals we established. We should also consider other items such as time management and some obstacles that might appear during the journey such as procrastination, being temporarily tired and so on. Of course, everything is a matter of a priority in our life. I could simply say “No goals for 2015” and let it go. There is famous quote written by 老子: “A good traveller has no fixed plans, and is not intent on arriving”. I don’t think anyone is going to read this, but isn’t having any goals actually a goal? Well, perhaps it is. Who cares whether it is a goal or not? I will maintain and learn few languages and I will take the whole process as a simple journey. I will just keep doing things passionately. That’s all. 1 person has voted this message useful | ||||||
| Nieng Zhonghan Bilingual Tetraglot Senior Member Antarctica Joined 3673 days ago 108 posts - 315 votes Speaks: Portuguese*, Japanese*, Spanish, Galician Studies: Finnish, Icelandic, Armenian, Mongolian Studies: Old English, Russian, English, German, Korean, Mandarin | Message 24 of 47 31 December 2014 at 3:16am | IP Logged | |||||
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1.English
I need to improve my overall skills. I don’t think most people here read other users’ logs randomly, but if anyone is interested in tandem, let me know through private message. I can help you learning, improving or even maintaining your Portuguese or Japanese; in exchange, I would like to improve my English skills. I can provide grammar explanation of everything in Portuguese (A1 to C2) and basic (A1 and A2) and intermediate (B1 and B2) topics for Japanese as well. We can discuss about C1 and C2 topics as well, though I will probably be able to say only whether the grammar structure is correct or not. 1.1 On reading +I have been thinking lately about how to improve my English skills. Cavesa gave me some good advice saying that I could read as many fiction and non-fiction books as possible. As one of the feedbacks I received, I was relying on too much in newspapers and magazines. However, I will continue reading news in English for personal and professional purposes. +I will try some audiobooks too if I find some books of my interest available for free. L-R is an interesting technique that I should use more often next year. 1.2 On listening +I will watch more sitcoms and perhaps some films in 2015. I won’t make any huge and unrealistic list since my schedule isn’t regular. Listening to the same main casts have improved my comprehension and speeded up my progress in 2014. +Unfortunately there aren’t many songs in English that catch my attention. However, I will try to ignore the meaning of lyrics and pick up some random songs. 1.3 On writing I have checked Lang-8 website and sometimes I doubt about the quality of the corrections made by native speakers, not only in English, of course, but in other languages as well. Being a native speaker doesn’t mean that your corrections will be punctually corrected. There are also many natives who don’t have a high literacy as well. In the end, if you ask questions, most people don’t even reply you. So, let’s say that my last text was corrected by 7 people. They all have pointed me out different structures which sometimes cannot be accepted. It is a matter of logics: if one correction is correct, the other one is incorrect and vice versa. Lang-8 is not a reliable source for me, though some HTLALers have been using it. I rather prefer trying some tandem with native, advanced and basic fluency speakers who are learning either Portuguese or Japanese. Another con is related to the length of the text. Most people don’t have time either patience to correct long texts. Here again, Cavesa has suggested me to write about anything and then, after a while, I could check my own text by myself. I have already been using this technique so far and it really works with me. At least, I can find many mistakes… I just need to write in a regular basis. 1.4 On speaking I will try some shadowing as I never get to speak to someone in real life. As I have repeatedly stated until here, if there is anyone interested in improving or maintaining either Portuguese or Japanese, we can establish some small tandem project. 1.5 Others Books I haven’t decided which books I will read in 2015. I am not going to count the amount of pages, books or even time I needed to read. I will probably not write much about the quantity, but randomly write a review or some comment about things I have been reading or watching. I have many books and I will just pick up one that I feel like reading at the moment. 2.Japanese I am not going write here everything I am going to read or watch throughout the year. I will just make some random notes just for personal purposes. 2.1 On reading ＋小説、昔話、神話、童話。 ＋歴史、神道、仏教、キリスト教、イスラム 教。 ＋新聞（社会、国際、政治、ビジネス、スポ ーツ、科学・医療、文化・エンタメ）。 ＋その他：旅行、言語学（特に敬語について ）。 ＋漢字 ： ＋＋常用漢字の音・訓を含めて、約6000字の 字 熟字訓、当て字 対義語、類義語、同音・同訓異字など 国字（怺える、毟る など） 地名・国名等の漢字表記（当て字の一種） 複数の漢字表記について（鹽―塩、颱風―台 風 など） ＋＋四字熟語・故事・諺 典拠のある四字熟語、故事成語・諺 ＋＋古典的文章 古典的文章の中での漢字・漢語 2.2 On writing +I have been writing quite a lot on a regular basis since August. I should continue writing more. Here again I will use what Cavesa suggested me for improving my writing in English. I will write some texts and read it again after a couple of days to find eventual mistakes or try to rewrite in a better way. +I have been discussing grammar topics with Japanese teachers. It makes me proofread everything before I send them my thoughts and ideas. 2.3 Others Handwriting I think I will restart practicing some handwriting, though it is not my priority. JLPT I will perhaps take N1 in 2015 depending on my schedule. I must take it because I was asked to. I have been organizing my Anki decks for JLPT based mostly in So matome series. I will take a look at JLPT N1 listening resources to feel the level of difficulty. 5 Wunderlust: German x Russian 5. 1. Well, considering my background, German seems to be less difficult than Russian in terms of syntax, morphology, phonology and vocabulary. 5. 2. I am interested in language (folklore, literature, philosophy, and humor), visual arts (painting, architecture), performance arts (folk dance and folk music), lifestyle (cuisine, traditions, and holidays), sports (winter sports and football) or both German and Russian speaking countries. 5. 3. I have some acquaintances who speak Russian as a native speaker. They are from Belarus, Ukraine and Russia. It would be great for me to get some insight about Russian and Russian culture from different perspectives. At the moment I don’t have any German friend to exchange language with or ask some handy questions related to fields of my interest. 5. 4. I think German neither Russian would be useful for at the moment and in the next few years in terms of work. 5.5. I will have one to two hours to dedicate either German or Russian during my first quarter of the year. I can split them into German and Russian or choose one of them. Realistically speaking, I don’t think it will be a good idea to start with 4 languages since I have to manage to study English, Chinese and Korean studies while maintaining Japanese. 5. 6. I am addicted to alcoholic drink. Unfortunately I won’t get to learn and speak some languages at basic fluency because of my alcohol-related problems. I would organize a huge party if I reach 50 years old one day… I am kidding, but any alcoholic drink from German and Russian speaking countries is always welcome. Verdict: I will start with German. Don't ask me why. I will try to burst during my first month as I will have more time only during the first two months of the year. Then, my progress will slow down significantly during the year. Anyway, even though I am not going to learn Russian, for a future reference, I will leave here some of the resources I took a look this week. Russian I took look at the following resources: Courses New Penguin Russian Course (1996) http://learnrussian.rt.com/lessons/ I rate this one very highly, especially the voice acting! Hugo Russian in 3 Months Assimil 2011 Princeton SLA101 Teach Yourself Pimsleur Glossika Russian Keep talking Russian Grammar http://masterrussian.com Dip in and out as needed http://russianlessons.net http://conjugaterussianverbs.com/list-of-all-verbs/ Essential Russian Grammar - Brian Kemple (1993) Reading Podcasts http://www.russianpod101.com Subscription-based, 90% English Other http://russiangram.com Web tool that adds stress marks to text http://morpher.ru Declines those nouns for you http://russian.lingualift.com/blog/best-russian-learning-res ources/ Bucket list Russian Football I was looking for websites to watch Russian football league.:D 1 person has voted this message useful |
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