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Rem [TAC’15] Rätsel/東亞/French/Czech | ||
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 Language Learning Forum : Language Learning Log |  | |
| Rem Groupie United Kingdom Joined 3755 days ago 66 posts - 96 votes  Speaks: English* Studies: German, Mandarin, Czech, French | Message 1 of 73 01 December 2014 at 2:58am | IP Logged | |||||
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EDIT: This thread will now be my TAC 2015 Log covering my four core languages; German,
Mandarin, French and Czech About me I’ve tried this ‘log keeping’ thing in the past, but never managed to stick at it. I’m easily distracted and it all just seems to fall away. :( I also have a tendency to succumb to ‘wanderlust’. I’ll start a language and then, after a few weeks (or even a few days), I’ll get distracted by another one that I want to learn and basically think “ohh...shiny...me want”. As a result, I know tiny bits of different languages but not enough to be considered ‘fluent’ in any (jack of all trades and all that). Part of the challenge for me here will be sticking to the languages that I’ve chosen and not getting sidetracked by others. Although I expect that some distractions along the way will be inevitable, I intend to do my best to keep them to a minimum. Speaking and listening are by far my weakest skills. I’m rather self-conscious and a bit of a perfectionist. If I can’t say something perfectly then I don’t like to try saying it at all. This is pretty limiting because, obviously, it’s impossible to say everything perfectly. People make mistakes in their native languages every day (at least I know I’m prone to). If I’m ever going to learn a language to a decent level then this is a problem that I’m definitely going to have to overcome. :( My Languages After giving it some thought I’ve finally been able to narrow down my list of languages to just four. I know it will be hard work studying multiple languages together but, at the same time, I hope it will be manageable. If I do need to drop a language it will (sadly) be Czech as it is the one that I have the least practical use for (I’m learning it just because I like it). The other 3 I have classes for etc. Hopefully it wont come to this though. German Status: ‘Main’ Language (Active) Level: Late beginner (Post A Level for any Brits here who know that means) Main Resources: University classes, Michel Thomas, Some G.C.S.E books that I ordered from Amazon. Audio tapes and DVD’s. German is currently the only language that I have at a level where I can listen to ‘proper’ materials and not get completely lost. I don’t understand all of what is said (not even close), but I can generally get the gist of it. The G.C.S.E stuff is obviously aimed more towards kids, as they are the ones who would normally use them. Topics like “my favourite classes” and what my opinions about school uniforms are, aren’t exactly useful, but there’s plenty of other good stuff to get out of these (I particularly like the little grammar boxes with hints and tips). __________________________________ Mandarin Status: ‘Main’ Language (Active) Level: Beginner (Pre-G.C.S.E) Main Resources: University classes, New Practical Chinese Reader My classes give me much needed speaking and listening practise, but I also like learning the characters and I’m finding that the NPCR has a nice balance and selection of them. _________________________________ French Status: ‘Secondary’ Language (Active) Level: Beginner (tried a few times in the past and took 1 year at school) Main Resources: Classes, Michel Thomas It would be nice to get this one up to a decent ‘tourist’ level. I’d like to visit France in the future (I haven’t been since I was a kid) and, somehow, being able to say “au revoir” and “merci” just isn’t as cute when you’re all grown up (for some reason people seem to expect more from an adult). :P _________________________________ Czech Status: ‘Secondary’ Language (Active) Level: Beginner (tried before and quit) Main Resources: Czech Class 101, Lonely Planet Phrase Book, Colloquial I have no real need to learn Czech, I just really want to (which is enough of a reason for me). :) The marketing strategies of 101 suck, but Czech resources for English speakers are limited and beggars can’t be choosers. :P Apparently there’s a Czech Assimil with a German base, so maybe that will be worth looking into for me. ____________________________________________________________ FYI: This is not my first account on this forum, but I no longer have access to the email and have forgotten my password. Even if I could log in, I know from past experience that changing the email will just lock the account and I won’t be able to post anyway. :( I didn’t post much on here though, so no real loss there. :( I hope this isn’t a problem? Edited by Rem on 16 June 2015 at 8:55pm 2 persons have voted this message useful | ||||||
| Xenops Senior Member United States thexenops.deviantart Joined 3823 days ago 112 posts - 158 votes Speaks: English* Studies: Spanish, Japanese | Message 2 of 73 01 December 2014 at 9:05am | IP Logged | |||||
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Hello again! I'm pretty sure I remember you posting about the forum. :)
I think it's a good idea to have a small list of dedicated languages, unless you are Serpent or Expug. To keep myself from wanderlust (from languages to random items I don't need) I practice the mantra "no lookie, no wantie". If you don't have money (or time) to shop, don't shop.
I wouldn't think that would be a problem? You have a legitimate reason, I think. 1 person has voted this message useful | ||||||
| Rem Groupie United Kingdom Joined 3755 days ago 66 posts - 96 votes Speaks: English* Studies: German, Mandarin, Czech, French | Message 3 of 73 03 December 2014 at 4:51pm | IP Logged | |||||
Ahh...if only it were that easy for me. I see languages everywhere and they're all so interesting. I'm easily tempted. :) I'm trying to be more disciplined this time though. I wonder how long I'll last...???... ___________________________________________________________ Mini Rant A definite downside to Uni courses is exams...lots and lots of exams. Tests, assessments, portfolios etc. and, when there aren’t 'real' tests, there are mocks. Honestly, sometimes you spend more time in class being tested or preparing for being tested than you do on learning the information that you are going to be tested on. I realise that you’re expected to put in self-study time on your own (and I do), but classes started less than 3 months ago and we’ve already had 3 assessments so far (and that's 3 for each language studied, not 3 overall). The rational side of me says that the exams/assessments should come at the END of the year (of course we have those too). It all feels a bit excessive and stressful at the moment. I know they have to do it, but it’s such a pain sometimes. :( /rant over Edited by Rem on 03 December 2014 at 4:59pm 1 person has voted this message useful | ||||||
| Cavesa Triglot Senior Member Czech Republic Joined 5007 days ago 3277 posts - 6779 votes Speaks: Czech*, FrenchC2, EnglishC1 Studies: Spanish, German, Italian | Message 4 of 73 03 December 2014 at 8:41pm | IP Logged | |||||
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I think millions of students worldwide could sign under your minirant :-D
I totally agree tests being the goal and not just a tool, that is a bad approach. Fortunately, you are free to do whatever you want in order to pass and get far beyond what is required of you ;-) What might help is finding common points of your Uni's goals and yours. Yes, there are assessments every month but it is up to you how to get the knowledge. What you learn on top of your immediate obligation may not be useful in the next test but it will surely come handy some time later. 1 person has voted this message useful | ||||||
| Rem Groupie United Kingdom Joined 3755 days ago 66 posts - 96 votes Speaks: English* Studies: German, Mandarin, Czech, French | Message 5 of 73 04 December 2014 at 4:25pm | IP Logged | |||||
True. There are some definite good points to my course. The tutors are fantastic and give great feedback. :) There’s a lot of focus on grammar (which I absolutely love), so that’s great motivation for me. I get to learn a lot vocab as well, which is a big hole in my learning at the moment. Focusing on subjects that, outside of Uni, I probably wouldn’t even consider looking at (because they’re not the sort of topics that interest me), is a bit boring sometimes, but it broadens my learning so I guess it’s not too bad. :) 1 person has voted this message useful | ||||||
| Rem Groupie United Kingdom Joined 3755 days ago 66 posts - 96 votes Speaks: English* Studies: German, Mandarin, Czech, French | Message 6 of 73 04 December 2014 at 4:32pm | IP Logged | |||||
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German
Word order This is a thorn in my side at the moment. It doesn’t seem to matter how well I know even the simple rules like “weil kicks the verb to the end”, I seem to forget it the moment I open my mouth. :( Writing is a little better because I have more time to think about it, and I can go back over what I’ve written and double-check it. I usually notice it on the second or third read-through, so I guess I can at least take some comfort in the fact that I know it’s wrong? Just practise, practise, practise I guess. Mandarin Character work I’m spending some time going back over the earlier chapters of the New Practical Reader to pick up any characters that I missed the first time round and reinforcing the ones that I already know. Some people swear by using stories to learn characters but, in my opinion, the best way to learn them is just to make the time to practise writing them out (at least it’s working for me so far). French I’m looking at reflexive verbs (and thanking German for making this a far less daunting prospect). I’m also focusing on learning vocab for my current class topic (daily routines). Czech I’m doing Chapter 1 of the Colloquial Course and taking another look at the pronunciation guide (I’ve glanced at it before, but I think I need to spend more time on it). 1 person has voted this message useful | ||||||
| Cavesa Triglot Senior Member Czech Republic Joined 5007 days ago 3277 posts - 6779 votes Speaks: Czech*, FrenchC2, EnglishC1 Studies: Spanish, German, Italian | Message 7 of 73 04 December 2014 at 6:08pm | IP Logged | |||||
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I think the pronunciation is easier learnt when you listen a lot. For exemple
forvo.com is an awesome resource on pronunciation of words in many languages. I believe all four of yours are there. So, you might like to listen to some more exemples to all the trouble points in the pronunciation guide and you can for exemple imitate the speakers. What is really easy about Czech pronunciation is the regularity. Unlike in English, every letter represents one sound. And it represents the sound every time. The stress is always on the first syllable, quite everything is pretty regular. So, once you get the basics, you are pretty much ready to read anything out loud correctly. And while some of the sounds are a bit different from what you are used to, the natives are usually very understanding and do not mind even a strong accent. So, you can progress in this area without any stress ;-) Do you already use native input for German? I believe it might help with internalizing the correct word order and such things. I am so looking forward to using it as just the courses are not enough for me sometimes :-) 2 persons have voted this message useful | ||||||
| Rem Groupie United Kingdom Joined 3755 days ago 66 posts - 96 votes Speaks: English* Studies: German, Mandarin, Czech, French | Message 8 of 73 05 December 2014 at 6:55pm | IP Logged | |||||
That’s definitely good to know. One of the things I’m finding difficult about French is the irregular pronunciation. I’m never sure whether or not I’m reading something correctly (which is one of the reasons I signed up for classes; I need the feedback).
I’m just starting to get to the point where I can use native German materials without getting completely lost. I miss a lot of the nuances, but can (usually) get the general idea of what is being said (as long as I pick something on a topic that I’m already somewhat familiar with). I like watching some of my favourite TV show with German dubs. Because I already know the storylines they’re much easier to follow and I can focus more on what’s being said. I find that DW is good for short clips as well. 1 person has voted this message useful |
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